Matthew Dierker

2024 Distinguished Alumni Service Award

Matthew attended Illinois as a CS major, receiving his B.S. in 2015. As a first-year student, Matthew proudly convinced IEEE to buy 1500ft of Christmas lights for the Engineering Open House in 2011. The project was partially successful but kickstarted his drive for extracurricular activities.  While a student, Matthew and friends founded HackIllinois and CS Sail, two student-led events that have persisted. Matthew graduated in 2015 and joined Google as an engineer in Mountain View, CA. He spent several years working on Gmail before switching to Waymo, where he happily codes away on self-driving cars.