Named CS Freshman of the Year at Purdue for research output and academic performance.
I came in knowing I wanted to build things, not just study them. First semester, I started research with Professor Aniket Bera on robot navigation. Published my first paper before most of my classmates had picked a research area. Won $45K+ in pitch competitions and hackathons while iterating on the early ideas that eventually became Phyvant.
The award was nice. What mattered more was proving to myself that I could do real work from day one, not wait for permission.