Four College of Computing faculty members have been selected for the prestigious honor of Fellows of the ACM and IEEE societies.

ACM, the world’s leading computing society, selected Professors Elizabeth Mynatt (IC) and Santosh Vempala (CS) as new Fellows for their significant contributions to the development and application of computing. Meanwhile, IEEE announced that it elevated Calton Pu (CS) as a 2016 Fellow in addition to its posthumous award to the late Distinguished Professor Karsten Schwan.

ACM Fellows

Achievements of the 2015 ACM Fellows drive economic growth and technological progress in areas such as data management and spoken-language processing to robotics and cryptography, and more.

Mynatt, who is executive director of IPaT (the Institute for People and Technology), was selected for contributions to human-centered computing and the development of health information technologies. Mynatt is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of ubiquitous computing and assistive technologies. She also has been one of the principal researchers in the Aware Home Research Initiative—investigating the design of future home technologies, especially those that enable older adults to continue living independently. She continues to serve as principal investigator in the MyJourney Compass program—a study, funded by the National Institute of Health, in collaboration with the Harbin Cancer Clinic in Rome, Ga., to help breast cancer patients navigate their treatment using personalized tablet computers.

"It is a distinct honor to be included as part of such as distinguished cohort of computing researchers, including many ACM Fellows here in the College of Computing," she said.

Vempala, a Distinguished Professor and theoretical computer scientist, was selected for contributions to algorithms for convex sets and probability distributions. Vempala's research consists of algorithms and algorithmic tools for high-dimensional and large data sets, for problems including sampling, optimization, integration and learning.

``I want to know how the brain works, so I can stop craving that next piece of chocolate, be less lazy, more considerate and strive to find insightful and useful solutions,” he said about what motivates his work.

Vempala—in joint work with Senior Research Scientist Rosa Arriaga (IC)—recently published a new finding about human cognition and a corresponding computational algorithm in the MIT Journal, Neural Computation, which demonstrated that humans and machines can make correct deductions when shown less than 1 percent of the total data. He also has been exploring human computation, especially usable and secure password generation methods. Vempala previously spearheaded the Algorithms and Randomness Center and ThinkTank at Georgia Tech, and served as its first director from 2006 until 2011. In 2008, he co-founded the College’s “Computing for Good” program.

“Whether they work in leading universities, corporations, or research laboratories, these newly minted ACM Fellows are responsible for the breakthroughs and industrial innovations that are transforming society at every level,” said ACM President Alexander L. Wolf in a news release. “At times, the contributions of a Fellow may include enhancements to a device that immediately impacts our daily lives. At other times, new research discoveries lead to theoretical advances that, while perhaps not immediately perceptible, have substantial long-term impacts.”

ACM will formally recognize Mynatt and Vempala at its annual Awards Banquet, to be held in San Francisco in June.

IEEE Fellows

Pu—who is a computer science professor and the John P. Imlay, Jr., Chair in Software—was selected as an IEEE Fellow for contributions to system software specialization, information security, and services computing. Calton's research interests are in the areas of distributed computing, Internet data management, and operating systems. Past projects included research of deceptive and misleading information, change detection algorithms, and the survivability of large-scale systems. He is co-director of CERCS—the Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems.

The achievement of Fellow is conferred upon those with an outstanding record of accomplishment in any field of interest represented by IEEE—a 52-year-old organization best known for developing standards for the computer and electronics industry. Its mission is to promote the development and application of electrotechnology “and allied sciences for the benefit of humanity” as well as the advancement of the profession and its members. A complete list of the newly elevated 2016 Fellows can be found here.

Additional information about the ACM Fellows and the 2015 honorees is available on the ACM Awards site.