Each year, the Honors Program (HP) recognizes a student who best exemplifies the spirit of the HP during their time at Georgia Tech with the Outstanding Student Award. The Georgia Tech Honors Program fosters curiosity, creativity, and connection amongst a select group of highly motivated students. The Outstanding Student award recognizes excellence in academic achievement, leadership, creative endeavors, curiosity, and community building, which are at the core of the HP mission. The award is presented at the annual Georgia Tech Student Honors Celebration and includes a cash prize of $1,000. The winner of this year’s award is Sarvasv Barara. In addition, two students—Conolly Burgess and Nicolas Montero—were selected for Honorable Mention and received plaques and a $500 cash prize.
In the words of Sarvasv Barara, he is a “senior by credit hours, third year by time at Tech, and first year at heart.” He is from from New Delhi, India and majoring in Computer Science with a concentration in Intelligence and Information Internetworks, with a particular passion for learning about recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI). He has been an excellent student, graduating this May with a 4.00 GPA and having never missed a single class in his time at Georgia Tech (really!), with an unmatched devotion to the Honors Program.
He has served as a member and Community Building Committee lead for the Honors Leadership Council (HLC), where he led the development of amazing community building events, including HProm (remember when we set off the fire alarm at the Exhibition Hall with the fog machines??). He has also served for multiple years as a Resident Assistant (RA) for the Honors Program residence halls in Eighth Street Apartments and taken a wide variety of HP classes where he was able to build close relationships with fellow HP students and truly dive deep into the class topics with them. Being a member of the Honors Program, serving on HLC, and being an RA supporting class after class of first year students have been some of the most valuable parts of his Georgia Tech experience.
Outside of the Honors Program, Sarvasv has been an active member of the Georgia Tech community. He has served as a teaching assistant for linear algebra and calculus and participated in co-ops and internships with Nokia, Intel, and Mobitech. He’s also been an avid researcher, publishing a research paper entitled “'The Optimized Differential Transform: ‘Goldilocks’ Order of the Polynomial Solution” in IEEE Xplore and writing a thesis on quantum computing. After graduation, Sarvasv aims to deepen his expertise in computer science, especially in the field of AI, by engaging in cutting-edge research and developing innovative solutions to real-world problems. His goal is to contribute to advancements in AI that are ethical, effective, and impactful. Luckily, we’ll still have Sarvasv around, as he is returning to Georgia Tech this coming fall to pursue his master’s degree in Computer Science with a concentration in Machine Learning. Ultimately, he aspires to build a career in artificial intelligence, leveraging his skills to drive technological advancements that help make lives better across the world.
Conolly Burgess and Nicolas Montero are both May 2025 graduates who are majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Conolly hails from Charleston, SC and was in the inaugural class of transfer students to join the HP, while Nicolas is from New Bern, NC and is of Cuban and Italian descent. Both have excelled academically and been deeply involved in the Honors Program and a wide range of other academic and social pursuits. Conolly loves engaging in a wide range of creative projects, including building things like picnic benches and developing things like Python simulations of the three-body problem and various NASA missions. Nicolas enjoys all things outdoors, including running, cycling, and playing sports, as well as varied interests such as reading, chess, fitness, philosophy, and traveling the world.
Both are avid researchers, with Conolly working three semesters in the BTZ Combustion Lab, which led to him achieving all three of his High Powered Rocketry certifications and receiving the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship and Nicolas working in the HPEPL lab, leading to the publication of three research papers, a presentation at the Georgia Collegiate Honors Council conference, and receipt of the President’s Undergraduate Research Award. Conolly has been a leader in his fraternity, Theta Chi, where he served in the position of Risk Manager, while Nicolas has been a Prototyping Instructor and Welding Master for the Flowers Invention Studio. Living in the Honors Program residence hall provided Conolly with a valuable memory. He said that “living in a room of equally driven people with widely different interests helped me expand my creative interests beyond aerospace and introduced me to the joy of creating projects with friends that blend your individual interests.” Nicolas also found that some of his most valued memories at Georgia Tech were because of the Honors Program. He stated that:
the relationships I first formed via HP in my freshman year underpin my current social setting. In other words, my day-one friends are still my best friends (and roommates!) to date. Living in proximity to like-minded individuals under the supportive umbrella of the Honors Program (and its members) allowed me to explore my interests and passions without fear. Therefore, I advocate for early involvement in the HP—the magnitude of its positive impact on my life will be felt for years to come!
Like Sarvasv, Conolly and Nicolas are both headed to graduate school after graduating in just a few days. Conolly will stay at Georgia Tech to earn a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, while Nicolas will head to Colorado State University to pursue a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, focusing on laser diagnostics for spacecraft-oriented, electric propulsion plasma research and possibly going on to earn a Ph.D.
These students represent some of the very best in the Honors Program, embodying intellectual curiosity, academic excellence, leadership, creativity, and community building. We can’t wait to see what they do in the years to come. Congratulations to them all!