UC Riverside won two awards at the 2026 UC Tech Awards, which honors individuals and teams across the UC system for exceptional achievements in technology.
The awards were presented July 9 at the UC Tech Annual Conference, highlighting “the many ways technology advances UC’s mission of teaching, research, patient care and public service.”
UCR’s Information Technology Solutions, or ITS, won the Gold Award in the IT Security category for its implementation of the UC Office of the President 2025 Cybersecurity Mandate.
The awards announcement noted that the department combined leadership support with specialized information technology teams to make the cybersecurity requirements a reality.
“This effort engaged professors and staff to reach nearly 100% compliance without interrupting the academic mission,” the announcement stated. “Crucially, this success now serves as the foundational framework for supporting and scaling future security initiatives across the university.”
UCR also won a Silver Award in the Larry L. Sautter Award for Innovation in Information Technology. A team that includes Ahmed Eldawy, an associate professor of computer science, and Elia Scudiero, associate professor of precision agriculture and the director of UCR’s Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, won for its FutureFarmNow web tool.
The free bilingual web and iPhone platform combines satellite, soil, crop, water, weather, and advisory data into a statewide tool for practical farm decisions.