Awards

On the 26th of January 2024, Zyda was elected as a Fellow of the Industry Academy of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance.
On the 13th of March 2022, Zyda became an Inaugural Member of the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Academy.
On the 6th of June 2021, Zyda was made a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA).
On the 13th of January 2021, he was promoted to ACM Fellow “for contributions to game design, game and virtual reality networking, and body tracking”.
On the 11th of February 2020, the National Academy of Inventors elected Zyda as a Senior Member for “success in patents, licensing, and commercialization” and for producing “technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society”. In May 2017, Zyda was appointed a member of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of advanced technological development and innovation as issued by the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
In August 2019, Zyda was appointed Distinguished Collaborator for the Stanford Human Perception Laboratory affiliated with the Institute for Human-Centered AI.
18 March 2019 - USC Named Top School for Video Game Design for Ninth Year - Princeton Review
13 March 2019 - Second place in Great Lakes Swim Competition 2019 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, swam 75.51 miles over the month of February 2019, first place in age group. #1 guy swam 85 miles and is 29 years old.
1 November 2018 - promoted to IEEE Fellow with the citation "for contributions to game design and networking".
13 March 2015 - USC Named Top School for Video Game Design for Sixth Straight Year – Princeton Review.
11 March 2014 – USC Named Top School for Video Game Design for Fifth Straight Year – Princeton Review.
12 March 2013 – USC Named Top School for Video Game Design for Fourth Straight Year – Princeton Review.
1 March 2012 - USC Named Top School for Video Game Design for Third Straight Year - GamePro Media and Princeton Review once again awarded USC the two top prizes in their "Top Schools for Video Game Design Study."
11 August 2011 – promoted to Senior Member IEEE.
6 May 2011 – Alumni Award - Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development in Computer Graphics, Virtual Environments & Games from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
1 March 2011 - USC Named Top School for Video Game Design for Second Straight Year - GamePro Media and Princeton Review once again awarded USC the two top prizes in their "Top Schools for Video Game Design Study."
29 September 2010 - USC Game Trainer Grand Prize Winner in White House Competition - a student developed game built jointly between the USC GamePipe Laboratory, the School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media program and the School of Fine Arts Game Art & Design Program was the Grand Prize winner in the White House Apps for Healthy Kids competition, as well as the GE Healthymagination Student Award winner. The Trainer game was first shown shown at the GamePipe Laboratory’s December 2009 Demo Day. It was built with funds donated from the Humana Innovation Center. I was the recipient of that donation from Humana and the PI on the game development project.
2009 – present - appointed a member of the ACM’s Distinguished Speakers Program http://dsp.acm.org
20 April 2009, promoted to Senior Member ACM.
Awarded a lifetime appointment as a National Associate of the National Academies, an appointment made by the Council of the National Academy of Sciences in November 2003, awarded in recognition of “extraordinary service” to the National Academies.
America’s Army Operations – multiple award winning online game, October 1999 – March 2004. Awards including Action Vault’s 2002 Debut Game of the Year, Surprise of the Year, and honorable-mention Multiplayer Game of the Year; Frictionless Insight’s Best Business Model (Developer) at E3 2002; IGN Editors’ Choice Award for first-person shooters 2002; IGN’s Biggest Surprise of E3 2002; Gamespy’s Best PC Action Game runner-up 2002; Penny Arcade’s Best Misappropriation of Taxpayer Dollars Ever; Wargamers Best of Show, first-person/tactical shooters 2002; Well-Rounded Entertainment’s Best of E3 2002; DoubleClick's Insight Awards, honorable mention, Best Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign 2002; Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, finalist, PC First Person Action Game of the Year February 2003; and Computer Gaming World’s Editors’ Choice January 2003. Served as the principal investigator and development director of the America’s Army PC game funded by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. Took America's Army from conception to three million plus registered players and hence, transformed Army recruiting.
25 June 2003, World Technology Network 2003 Finalist for the Information Technology Software (corporate) award for The MOVES Institute, elected member of the World Technology Network.
Received Recognition of Service Award, April 2003, from the Association for Computing Machinery for role as Symposium Chair of the 2003 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics.
29 January 2002, Received Pioneer Certificate from the Modeling & Simulation Professional Certification Commission. I am one of the 27 pioneers listed for modeling & simulation by this commission. http://simprofessional.org/events/20020129_sanantonio.html
Received a Research Recognition Award, 14 April 1998, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received Recognition of Service Award, July 1996, from the Association for Computing Machinery for role as Pro-gram Co-Chair of the 1996 Virtual Reality Software & Technology Conference, Hong Kong.
Received Recognition of Service Award, April 1995, from the Association for Computing Machinery for role as Symposium Chair of the 1995 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics.
Received an Instruction Recognition Award, 19 October 1994, from the Superintendent and Provost of the Naval Post¬graduate School.
Received Performance Award, 27 September 1993, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received “Best Paper 1991” award from the journal Computers & Graphics, 29 September 1992.
Received Performance Award, 21 September 1992, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received a Research Recognition Award, 31 March 1992, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received an Instruction Recognition Award, 15 October 1991, from the Superintendent and Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received Performance Award, 1 October 1991, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received Performance Award, 30 September 1990, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received Recognition of Service Award, April 1990, from the Association for Computing Machinery for role as Symposium Chair of the 1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics.
Promoted to Full Member, October 1990, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.
Received Performance Award, 30 September 1989, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received Letter of Commendation for Excellence in Teaching, 26 June 1989, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Received Performance Award, 30 September 1988, from the Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Member Association for Computing Machinery, April 1977 to Present.
Member IEEE Computer Society, 1980 to Present.
Member First Place Team, 1980 ACM National Computer Programming Contest, Kansas City, Missouri.
Nominated for Distinguished Teaching Award, 1977 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.