The Computing Research Association has named Lester Mackey, a senior majoring in computer science, one of two winners of the association’s 2007 Outstanding Undergraduate Award, sponsored this year by Microsoft Research.

Mackey will receive a cash prize of $1,000 for his “demonstrated excellence of computing research ability.” The Computing Research Association, which each year selects one male and one female student for its undergraduate award, chose Mackey and co-winner Stephanie Rosenthal of Carnegie Mellon University from a pool of faculty-nominated undergraduates currently enrolled in the association’s 200 member institutions.

Working with Assistant Professor David Walker, Mackey is developing formal techniques for proving that software produces correct results even in the face of intermittent hardware faults. Mackey also has been a tutor and a member of the computer science undergraduate council. He is a member of the Chapel Choir and Princeton Music Outreach and is a senior staff member of The Prism, a literary magazine.

Last year, Mackey was one of 323 students nationwide, and one of four at Princeton, to receive the Goldwater Scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. In 2004, he was named a Microsoft Scholar, received the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and received Princeton’s Freshman First Honor Prize.

David Weiss, also a senior majoring in computer science, was recognized by the association with an honorable mention for the 2007 undergraduate award.