Farinaz Koushanfar, a professor and Henry Booker Faculty Scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California San Diego, has been named one of the 57 Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for 2022. Koushanfar was recognized for him. contribution to machine security and privacy protection.
The ACM Fellows Program recognizes the top 1% of ACM Fellows for their outstanding achievements in computing and information technology and outstanding service to ACM and the greater computing community.
Koushanfar directs the Adaptive Computing and Embedded Systems (ACES) Lab at UC San Diego. Work from his lab has revolutionized key areas of hardware-based security, secure AI, and privacy-preserving computing. Koushanfar is also the founding director of the Machine-Intelligence, Computing and Security Center (MICS), an engineering research center at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering focused on technology innovation and development of various services through the integration of hardware, software. , AI algorithms, and data for scalable machine learning and security.
“I am honored to be accepted into the ACM’s esteemed membership,” said Koushanfar. “I am excited about the long-term prospects and potential societal impact of my work in security, privacy and AI. I am grateful for the privilege of the academic institution where I work and study, as well as the greater scientific community, that have provided me during my research career. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my mentors, collaborators, post-docs and students for their unwavering support and commitment to our joint project.”
Koushanfar’s early contributions to the field of computing are numerous. His research has quickly led to dozens of patents being filed in the United States and around the world. Popular inventions enhance the security of digital integrated circuits (ICs) and their software/data, the robustness of AI models and privacy-preserving computing.
He invented the first method for silent and unique, monitoring and control of any IC manufacturing. Two recent patent-pending projects by Koushanfar describe the state of the art for the complex problem of cryptographically stored deep learning and encrypted data.
Koushanfar is also the developer of the first hardware for powerful deep learning and adversary analysis, as well as the first powerful AI software for data mining. He was the inventor of the first deep-water diving method that was simultaneously robust to several classes of known vulnerabilities. Koushanfar is also a prominent advocate of women and minorities and has been the leader of several DEI initiatives. Under his leadership (and in collaboration with the MICS department head), both the UCSD ACES Lab and the MICS facility are now one of the most relevant engineering research groups in the world in terms of both students and faculty.
“The most important advances in computing often come from the summation of many individual contributions, which build and support each other,” ACM President Yannis Ioannidis said in a statement. “But each individual’s contribution is an important link in the chain. The ACM Fellows program is a way to recognize the women and men whose hard work and creativity they are doing without realizing it but moving our field forward. N “Electing a new class of ACM Fellows each year, we hope that learning about these leaders can inspire our members with insight into their own work.”
Prior to being recognized by the ACM, Koushanfar’s influential books had received several Best Book Awards at the top conferences in his field. He has received many other honors and awards including being listed in the 2008 MIT Technology Review (TR-35) among the top 35 inventors in the world under the age of 35, the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the President Obama, 2019 up to the level of the page of the Institute of Electrical and Computer Engineers, in the Decade Retrospective Most Influential Paper Award at the 2017 International Conference on Computer Aid Design.
Koushanfar currently joins the diverse 2022 class of ACM Fellows representing research institutes, universities and private companies based in ten different countries around the world. Members are elected by their peers, with nominations reviewed by a prestigious selection committee.
