SMU faculty member achieves ACM Fellow Recognition in 2023
Professor David Lo, from SMU’s School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) has recently been honoured as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Prof Lo is OUB Chair Professor of Computer Science, and the Director of the Information Systems & Technology Cluster at SCIS.
He is among the 68 new Fellows worldwide that ACM has recently named thanks to their transformative contributions to computing science and technology. Prof Lo is also the fourth academic in Singapore to receive this recognition.
ACM Fellows represent the most prestigious member grade in ACM, the largest professional organisation for computing, which was founded in 1947 and boasts a global membership of 110,000. ACM is also renowned for handing out the Turing Award, the “Nobel Prize” of Computing.
ACM inducts new Fellows annually, and the 2023 class of ACM Fellows includes four past winners of the Turing Award (also known as the Turing laureates): Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web; and Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun, pioneers of deep learning.
“I am deeply humbled by this recognition and sincerely grateful for the support of SMU SCIS, as well as my advisors, mentors, colleagues, students, trainees, and collaborators,” Prof Lo said, reflecting on his achievement.
Synergising artificial intelligence and software engineering
Prof Lo’s focus is on designing and implementing effective human-centred solutions for the intelligent systems-enabled future of work.
Dean of SCIS, Professor of Computer Science Pang Hwee Hwa, remarked, “The School is very proud of Prof Lo’s research leadership and his ground-breaking work in synergising artificial intelligence and software engineering.”
“With his induction as an ACM Fellow, we look forward to him continuing to inspire his peers and his students towards more exciting innovations that put SMU on the world map.”
Other 2023 ACM Fellows hail from global tech giants such as Meta, government agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States, and institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University and Princeton University. Their contributions span the computing field, including algorithm design, computer graphics, cybersecurity, energy-efficient computing, mobile computing, software analytics, and web search, among many others.
Prof Lo is one of four researchers who hail from an Asian institution or tech giant to achieve this recognition this year – two of the other inductees are from China while the third is from India.
Returning to discuss the overarching theme of his research, Prof Lo says, “My goal is to enable humans and intelligent agents to collaborate effectively, safely, inclusively, and responsibility, thereby contributing to societal betterment.”
“I am excited to continue contributing to computing research, especially in the fields of software engineering, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, as a member of a vibrant group of researchers at SCIS and SMU.”
