For Arjun Singh, the path to academic innovation began with a mountain of unassigned paperwork. As a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, Singh realized that the hours spent manually grading assignments were hours stolen from actual teaching.
That frustration sparked the creation of Gradescope, an AI-assisted platform that has since reshaped the landscape of higher education. On May 21, the UC Berkeley Foundation and the Cal Alumni Association will honor Singh with the 2026 Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni at the annual Berkeley Charter Gala.
The award is named for Mark Bingham, a 1993 Berkeley graduate who heroically died aboard United Flight 93 during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. It is reserved for alumni who demonstrate exceptional leadership and societal impact within 10 years of their graduation.
“Arjun’s vision was always about more than just software,” said EECS Professor Pieter Abbeel, who co-founded the project with Singh in 2014. “He wanted to make the feedback loop between student and teacher faster and fairer. He turned a research project into a global standard.”
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Singh’s journey reflects a deep-seated Indian American commitment to the transformative power of education. Born into a heritage that prizes intellectual rigor, he excelled at Green Valley High School before arriving at Berkeley to earn both his bachelor’s and his PhD in computer science. His work serves as a bridge between high-level artificial intelligence and the practical needs of the classroom.
The impact of his work spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. As universities scrambled to move online, Gradescope provided the digital infrastructure for 2,600 institutions to maintain academic integrity remotely. By grouping similar student answers and using consistent rubrics, the tool reduced the “grading headache” for over 150,000 instructors worldwide.
Following the acquisition of Gradescope by Turnitin in 2018, Singh served as Chief Strategy Officer before launching his latest venture. In 2025, he became the CEO of Superconductor, a firm dedicated to building high-scale software systems.
The 2026 award recognizes Singh not just as a successful businessman, but as a graduate whose innovations have leveled the playing field for four million students. By automating the mundane, he has allowed the human element of education to remain at the forefront.