Dr. Scott Beamer's dissertation titled "Undertanding and Improving Graph Algorithm Performance" has been selected to receive the 2016 Standard Performance Evaluation Corp (SPEC) Kaivalya Dixit Distinguished Dissertation Award.  The award recognizes outstanding doctoral dissertations in the field of computer benchmarking, performance evaluation, and experimental system analysis in general.  Papers are evaluated on scientific originality, scientific significance, practical relevance, impact, and quality of the presentation.

Among other comments, the members of the committee were impressed with Beamer's deep understanding of open-source graphs, with the quality of the implementations, with the creation of a graph benchmark suite that is already been used, that is relevant for High Performance Computing, and that is likely to have further impact in the future. The committee also remarked on the clarity and simplicity of the ideas presented in the document.

The award will be presented at the International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE) in April.

Professors Jose Carmena and Borivoje Nikolic have been elected as IEEE Fellows Class 2017. An IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation. Prof. Carmena is recognized for contributions to the neural basis of motor skill learning and neuroprosthetic systems. Prof. Nikolic is recognized for contributions to energy-efficient design of digital and mixed-signal circuits.

Professor Emeritus David Hodges has been selected to receive the prestigious IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award. This award is given for exemplified loyal and dedicated service to IEEE, especially its Technical Activities. Prof. Hodges is receiving this award for effective leadership in advancing IEEE's goals for excellence in publications, conferences, and awards.

Jean Paul Jacob (M.S. '65 and Ph.D. '66) has been awarded a medal of the Rio Blanco Order, one of the highest honors of the Brazilian Government, in part for his work with the College of Engineering as faculty-in-residence in EECS and as special advisor to the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). 

A companion to Tech Review’s annual 35 Innovators Under 35 list features a list of seven innovators over 70. The new list includes EECS Professor Ruzena Bajcsy and professor emeritus Michael Stonebraker.  The 7 Over 70 list acknowledges innovators who are continuing to have sustained impacts in their field well after most of their colleagues have decided to retire.

On Saturday, November 5, Berkeley hosted the 2016 Pacific Northwest Regional Programming Contest, part of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.  In Division I, the Berkeley Blue team, comprising Keyhan Vakil, Evan Limanto, and Ruichao Chen, took second place, behind a team from the University of British Columbia (and ahead of the top Stanford team). In Division II, the Berkeley Ursi team, comprising Michael Luo, Larry Yang, and Eric Sheng, took first place.

The Berkeley Blue team now advances to the World Finals to be held in Rapid City, South Dakota in May 2017.

Prof. David Wagner has won the ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC) 2016 Outstanding Innovation Award. This award is given for outstanding and innovative technical contributions to the field of computer and communication security that have had lasting impact in furthering or understanding the theory or development of secure systems. Prof. Wagner is recognized "For innovative research in systems security, software security, and cryptography that has inspired research in sandboxing, static analysis for security, and cryptanalysis."

Prof. Chenming Hu has been elected to be inducted into the 2017 Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame by the Silicon Valley Engineering Council (SVEC). Hall of Fame members are selected based on demonstration of significant engineering or technical achievements, provided significant guidance in new and developing fields of engineering-based technology, and/or has managed or directed an organization making noteworthy contributions in design, manufacturing, production or service through the uses of engineering principles and applications. Hall of fame members represent the cream of the crop of the Valley and, and counts among its membership people like Gordon Moore, William Hewlett and David Packard in addition to our esteemed colleagues Paul Gray, Dave Hodges, Lotfi Zadeh, David Paterson, and Ernie Kuh.

Alumna Prof. Colleen Lewis (EECS B.S. '05/CS M.S. '09), now teaching at Harvey Mudd College, is profiled in an article about the award-winning women attending the 2016 Grace Hopper Conference.  Colleen won the 2016 Denise Denton Emerging Leader ABIE Award for young tenure-track faculty doing research involving engineering or physical sciences, who positively influence and promote diversity.  Colleen created CSTeachingTips.org, a National Science Foundation funded website that offers tips for teaching computer science.

Prof. Edward Lee has been selected to receive the IEEE Technical Committee on Real-Time Systems Outstanding Technical Achievement and Leadership Award. This award is given to recognize individuals for their outstanding technical achievement and leadership. Prof. Lee’s current research interests center on design, modeling, and analysis of embedded, real-time computational systems. He is the Director of the nine-university TerraSwarm Research Center, a director of the Berkeley Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems (CHESS), and the Director of the Berkeley Ptolemy Project.