André Seznec Receives ACM – IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award
André Seznec is the recipient of the ACM-IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award. Seznec, a Fellow Research Director at INRIA/IRISA and a Fellow at SiFive, is recognised for his extensive impact on computing, most notably pioneering contributions to branch prediction and cache memories. His inventions can be found in billions of CPUs worldwide including the TAGE branch predictor and skewed-associative cache. Seznec’s work has served as a gold standard of branch prediction for the last 15 years, with most current structures in industrial designs rooted in his trailblazing contributions.
The Eckert-Mauchly Award is known as the computer architecture community’s most prestigious award. It is co-sponsored by ACM and the IEEE Computer Society and comes with a $5,000 prize.
Dan Garcia and Brian Harvey Receive Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award
Dan Garcia, Teaching Professor, UC Berkeley, and Brian Harvey, Teaching Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley, receive the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award for their advocacy of and advances in education to bring the beauty and joy of computing to all students, especially those from historically underrepresented communities.
Together Garcia and Harvey have been instrumental in expanding computer science education, most notably through the development of the Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) curriculum, which began as a national pilot for the CSforALL movement. A key part of this effort was Snap!, a blocks-based programming language on which Harvey collaborates with principal developer Jens Mönig. Subsequently Garcia and Harvey and BJC co-PI Tiffany Barnes went on to expand BJC’s reach by training over 1,000 teachers, offering the curriculum in Spanish, and developing a middle school version, BJC Sparks. Importantly, the BJC Course at Berkeley is the only EECS course to exceed 50% female enrollment and once exceeded 70%.
The Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award is presented annually to an outstanding educator who is appointed to a recognised educational baccalaureate institution. The recipient is recognised for advancing new teaching methodologies; effecting new curriculum development or expansion in Computer Science and Engineering; or making a significant contribution to the educational mission of ACM. Those with 10 years or less teaching experience are given special consideration. A prize of $10,000 is supplied by Pearson Education.
Manish Parashar Receives ACM Distinguished Service Award
Manish Parashar, Professor, University of Utah, receives the ACM Distinguished Service Award for service and leadership in furthering the transformative impact of computer and computational science on science and engineering.
Parashar’s record of service includes leadership at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where he developed NSF’s strategic vision for a national cyberinfrastructure, as well as at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where he developed the Future Advancement Computing Ecosystem Strategic Plan (FACE). For ACM, Parashar served two terms as editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems (ACM TAAS), and has led steering, organising and programming committees for numerous ACM conferences.
The ACM Distinguished Service Award is presented on the basis of value and degree of services to the computing community. The contribution should not be limited to service to the Association but should include activities in other computer organisations and should emphasise contributions to the computing community at large.
Judith Gal-Ezer Receives Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award
Judith Gal-Ezer, Professor Emerita, Open University of Israel, receives the Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award in recognition of her sustained contributions to computer science education policy and research and, more broadly, to the ACM Europe Council.
Gal-Ezer has been an internationally recognised leader in computing education. For her accomplishments, she has received the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award as well as the ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education. Gal-Ezer has been very active in the ACM Europe Council and its sub-committees. She represents ACM Europe in the Informatics for All (I4All) coalition – a collaboration between ACM Europe, Informatics Europe, CEPIS and IFIP. This ambitious initiative was created to promote informatics education in primary and secondary schools across Europe. The sustained advocacy of I4All has been instrumental in the European Commission’s decision to prioritize informatics education at all stages of the curriculum.
The Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award recognizes outstanding service contributions to the Association. Candidates are selected based on the value and degree of service overall and may be given to up to three individuals each year.
Maja Matarić Receives ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award
Maja Matarić, Professor, University of Southern California, receives the ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics for pioneering socially assistive robotics (SAR) for improving wellness and quality of life for users with special needs.
Over the past two decades, Matarić has been the leading figure in the field of socially assistive robotics. These robots are designed to gain insights into the drivers of human behavior related to overcoming challenges. The goal of this field is to provide people with personalised assistance to enhance their abilities in areas such as convalescence, rehabilitation, training and education. Socially assistive robotics is an interdisciplinary field which emphasises co-design and user participation throughout the development process. Her research is aimed at major challenges, including post-stroke rehabilitation, cognitive and social skills training for children with autism spectrum disorders, cognitive and physical exercises for Alzheimer’s patients, study support for students with ADHD, and personalised therapy interventions for students with anxiety and/or depression.
The ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics recognizes an individual or group who has made a significant contribution through the use of computing technology. It is given once every two years, assuming that there are worthy recipients. The award is accompanied by a prize of $5,000.
University of Washington Grad Earns ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award
Ashish Sharma is the recipient of the 2024 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for his dissertation “Human-AI Collaboration to Support Mental Health and Well Being,” toward a PhD earned at the University of Washington. Sharma is a Senior Applied Scientist at the Microsoft Office of Applied Research. Sharma developed fundamental advances in natural language processing to positively impact the mental health of many people. His approach involves constructing new machine learning models and algorithms that demonstrate psychological and societal understanding. Sharma is a Senior Applied Scientist at the Microsoft Office of Applied Research.
Honorable Mentions for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award go to: Alexander (Zander) Kelley of the Institute for Advanced Study for his dissertation “Explicit Pseudorandom Distributions for Restricted Models of Computation” toward a PhD earned at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Sewon Min of the University of California, Berkeley for her dissertation “Rethinking Data Use in Large Language Models” toward a PhD earned at the University of Washington.
Featured ACM Member: Peter Stone
Peter Stone is a Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, where he is the founder and director of the Learning Agents Research Group (LARG). He is also the Chief Scientist of Sony AI. His research interests include machine learning, multiagent systems and robotics. Applications of Stone’s work include robot soccer, autonomous vehicles, general-purpose service robots and human-interactive agents.
Among his honours, he is an ACM Fellow and has received the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, which is presented every two years by the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Stone recently received the ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award for significant contributions to the theory and practice of artificial intelligence (AI), especially in reinforcement learning, multiagent systems, transfer learning and intelligent robotics.
In his interview, he discusses utilising intelligent agents at intersections, participating in the international RoboCup competitions, novel applications of AI in the future and more.
ACM TechTalk: Aditya Challapally
View the recent ACM Techtalk “Dynamic Neural Network Compression for Scalable AI Deployment” with Aditya Challapally, Applied Science Lead at Microsoft and Connected AI Group Lead at MIT Media Lab.
Deploying cutting-edge AI systems requires large models that can dynamically adapt to changing hardware, bandwidth, and task demands. Here, Challapally will introduce Dynamic Neural Network Compression, a framework for real-time compression and decompression of deep learning models. Attendees will gain insights into new techniques for scalable AI deployment across cloud and edge environments.
ACM ByteCast: Kate Kallot
In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Scott Hanselman welcomes Kate Kallot, founder and CEO of Amini, an impact-driven AI company based in Nairobi which focuses on the critical issue of data scarcity in Africa and its implications for AI development.
Kallot is a recognised expert and influencer in the AI field, advising international organisations and governments on the potential and challenges of AI for good. Her work has been recognised by TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, the World Economic Forum as a Tech Pioneer, and One Young World as Entrepreneur of the Year 2024. A trusted voice in global AI policy and digital equity, she serves as Vice Chair of the ICC Global Environmental and Energy Commission and is a member of EY’s Global AI Advisory Council.
Here, Kallot explains the barriers to AI adoption in Africa, stemming from challenges with digital and environmental data infrastructure. She shares her work collecting and validating data in key areas such as climate and agriculture through state-of-the-art technologies and partnerships with private companies using a bottom-up approach, the global applications of Amini’s work in Africa, and more.