ACM Recognizes Two UC San Diego Computer Scientists

Article Content

Mihir Bellare

Two computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego are among the 50 members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) elected Fellows of the organization in 2013. Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) professors Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou and Mihir Bellare in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering were among the elite group of researchers hailing from leading universities, corporations and research labs.

CSE Prof. Mihir Bellare was cited for “contributions to provable security methods supporting high-quality, cost-effective cryptography.” Bellare works in cryptography and security, particularly practical, proven-secure schemes. He co-designed the HMAC message encryption scheme that is used in many methods for ecrypting data over networks, including SSL, TLS, SSH, and IPSEC. Bellare previously received the ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award, as well as the RSA Conference Award in Mathematics.

YY Zhou

CSE Prof. YY Zhou was recognized for her “contributions to software reliability and quality.” Zhou’s research interests include operating systems, networking, reliability and large-data analysis. She has focused on techniques for analyzing system data to improve software quality, manageability and reliability.

“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments of professors Bellare and Zhou,” said Rajesh Gupta, Chair of the CSE Department. “They have had an outstanding impact on their respective fields, and the ACM Fellowship is a fitting recognition of the high regard in which they are held among their peers in the computer science and engineering community.”

The 2013 inductees continue a trend averaging two UCSD CSE faculty members recognized as ACM Fellows every year since 2010. In that period, Andrew Kahng was recognized in 2012 for his contributions to physical design automation and to design for manufacturability of microelectronic systems. Keith Marzullo, Dean Tullsen and Amin Vahdat became ACM Fellows in 2011, with Pavel Pevzner and Stefan Savage elected in 2010.

The University of California had the largest number of Fellows in the Class of 2013. In addition to UC San Diego, UC Berkeley and UC Irvine each had two Fellows, and UCLA one. The other UC faculty members were cited for their contributions to information retrieval and computational linguistics, and algorithms for graph partitioning and commodity flows; foundations of automated reasoning and approaches to data mining and machine learning; and research on human interactions with information systems and data practices.

ACM President Vinton G. Cerf celebrated the impact of innovations achieved by this year’s ACM Fellows. “We recognize these scientists and engineers, creators and builders, theorists and practitioners who are making a difference in our lives,” said Cerf, the Google Chief Internet Evangelist who also sits on the external Advisory Board of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). “They’re enabling us to listen, learn, calculate, and communicate in ways that underscore the benefits of the digital age. Their advances have led to opportunities for improved healthcare, enhanced security, expanded interactions, and enriched lifestyles. Some recipients have also led efforts to extend computing across continents and countries including Brazil, China, and Germany.”

Among universities outside of North America, the 2013 ACM Fellows hailed from University College London; Politecnico di Milano; Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro; Peking University; RWTH Aachen University, Germany; ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), RMIT University, Australia; Seoul National University (Korea); and National University of Singapore.

ACM also recognized industry researchers, including two from IBM Research, who were cited for contributions to knowledge discovery and data mining, and for leadership in probabilistic methods for data and system simulation management and analysis. Other corporate employees elected to ACM’s highest status hailed (one each) from Raytheon BBN Technologies, Liquid Robotics, Boeing, Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft.

The Association for Computing Machinery is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges. Since 1993, the ACM Fellows Program has celebrated the exceptional contributions of the leading members in the computing field. These individuals have helped to enlighten researchers, developers, practitioners and end users of information technology throughout the world. The new ACM Fellows join a distinguished list of colleagues to whom ACM and its members look for guidance and leadership in computing and information technology.