EECS Assistant Prof. Sophia Shao has won the inaugural Workshop on Modeling & Simulation of Systems and Applications (ModSim) 2021 Dr. Sudhakar Yalamanchili (Sudha) Award.  This award recognizes "researchers who showcase the most outstanding contribution to the field of computer modeling and simulation" during the annual ModSim Workshop, which primarily features younger talent in the scientific community.  Shao presented "Enabling Holistic Machine-Learning Hardware Evaluation via Full-System Simulation," which described the Gemmini project's "systolic-array based matrix multiplication accelerator generator" that enables users to explore and evaluate different deep neural network accelerators.  The research was presented during a multi-part Rapid Fire flash talk/digital poster session.

2003 Distinguished CS Alumnus Madhu Sudan (Ph.D. '92, advisor: Umesh Vazirani) has won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Hamming Medal.  This award recognizes "exceptional contributions to information sciences, systems, and technology."   Sudan was cited “for fundamental contributions to probabilistically checkable proofs and list decoding of Reed-Solomon codes.”  He won the Berkeley EECS Sakrison Memorial Award for his graduate thesis, worked as a researcher at both the IBM Watson Research Center and Microsoft Research, was a professor of EECS and the Associate Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, and is now a professor at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).  Sudan is known for his contributions to theoretical computer science, particularly for advancing the theory of probabilistically checkable proofs, which is a way to recast a mathematical proof in computer language for additional checks on its validity, and for developing error-correcting codes.

2008 Distinguished CS Alumna Deborah Estrin (B.S. EECS '80) has won the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) John von Neumann Medal.  The award recognizes “outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.”  Estrin, whose research interests include technologies for caregiving, immersive health, small data, participatory sensing and public interest technology, was cited for “her leadership in mobile and wireless sensing systems technologies and applications, including personal health management.”  Now a professor at Cornell, Estrin was the founding director of the National Science Foundation Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) at UCLA, where she pioneered the development of mobile and wireless systems to collect and analyze real-time data about the physical world. She also co-founded the nonprofit startup Open mHealth, which creates open data sharing standards and tools that allow developers of health applications to store, process, and visualize data.

EECS Prof. Murat Arcak and his graduate student He Yin have won the second Systems & Control Letters (SCL) Brockett-Willems Outstanding Paper Award. Their paper, "Reachability analysis using dissipation inequalities for uncertain nonlinear systems," published in SCL Volume 142, on August 2020, was deemed the best of 295 papers submitted to the journal in the two-year period between January 2019 through December 2020.  Co-authors include former ME Prof. Andrew Packard, who died in 2019, and Packard's former graduate student, Peter Seiler.  SCL hopes to present the award at the 25th International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS) which will be held in Bayereuth, Germany, in September 2022.

A postdoc working in Prof. Laura Waller's Computational Imaging Lab, Loza Tadesse, has been included in the Forbes 2022 list of 30 Under 30 in Healthcare.  Tadesse was cited for "developing diagnostics for extreme environments. To that end, she has developed a rapid system using machine learning and a light scattering approach that can identify infectious bacteria much faster which will lead both to better treatments and less reliance on the use of broad spectrum antibiotics."   She co-founded Frontiers in Science for Africa (SCIFRO) which "works with institutions in Africa to enable African high school and college students to innovate affordable technologies that solve local problems in areas of health and energy." Tadesse received her PhD in BioE from Stanford last year and has accepted a faculty position in MIT's engineering department.

The EECS Director of Undergraduate Student Instruction, Christopher Hunn, and the EECS Director of Undergraduate Affairs, Antoine Davis, have won 2020 and 2021 Advising and Student Services Awards.   These awards are presented by the UC Berkeley Council of Advising and Student Support to "recognize the positive and innovative impact our recipients have on student learning, engagement, and belonging on the Berkeley campus."   Hunn won an Equity Champion Award for coaching TAs, undergraduates (especially CS Scholars and CS Mentors), graduates, staff (including student services personnel), and faculty "with evidence-based practices that have increased student engagement, success, self-efficacy, and belonging."   Davis won an Outstanding Advising or Student Services Administrator, Director, or Manager Award for supporting  and strengthening his staff team and the EECS and CS undergraduate populations, particularly during the pandemic, with his unique blend of humor and calm positivity.  "His relaxed approach fosters an environment where we are able to engage in self-reflection and open-mindedness toward each other and our students."  The winners will be celebrated at a virtual ceremony on December 15th.

EECS Prof. and dean of Engineering Tsu-Jae King Liu has written an opinion piece for the Mercury News in which she explains why "the country urgently needs to reinvest in semiconductor design and manufacturing, including the development of a highly trained workforce."  She argues that America's lack of a skilled semiconductor manufacturing workforce, in the face of a global semiconductor chip shortage, is a matter of national security because it leaves the country vulnerable to geopolitical instability. "Systems that we rely upon for communications, commerce, defense and more are in jeopardy because the United States has lost its leadership in semiconductor manufacturing over the past three decades."  She appeals to Congress to address the issue and says "we need to double the number of students trained in microelectronics graduating today from all U.S. colleges and universities."  This will require "universities across the nation to collaborate with each other and to partner with industry" to create a geographically-distributed American Semiconductor Academy "with participating schools sharing curricula, facilitating access to industry-leading software tools and coordinating hands-on training for students."

EECS Prof. Emeritus Lotfi Zadeh (1921 - 2017) is being honored with a Google Doodle feature today.  In 1964, Zadeh conceived a new mathematical concept called fuzzy logic which offered an alternative to rigid yes-no logic in an effort to mimic how people see the world.  He proposed using imprecise data to solve problems that might have ambiguous or multiple solutions by creating sets where elements have a degree of membership. Considered controversial at the time, fuzzy logic has been hugely influential in both academia and industry, contributing to, among other things, "medicine, economic modelling and consumer products such as anti-lock braking, dishwashers and elevators."   Zadeh's seminal paper, "Fuzzy Sets -- Information and Control," was submitted for publication 57 years ago today.

CS Prof. Michael Jordan has co-written an article in Wired titled "The Turing Test Is Bad for Business" in which he argues that now that "computers are able to learn from data and...interact, infer, and intervene in real-world problems, side by side with humans," humans should not try to compete with them but "focus on how computers can use data and machine learning to create new kinds of markets, new services, and new ways of connecting humans to each other in economically rewarding ways."  Jordan wrote the article because many AI investors are focusing on technologies with the goal of exceeding human performance on specific tasks, such as natural language translation or game-playing. “From an economic point of view, the goal of exceeding human performance raises the specter of massive unemployment,” he said. “An alternative goal for AI is to discover and support new kinds of interactions among humans that increase job possibilities.”