ACM Recognizes Major Technical Contributions that Have Advanced the Computing Field

April 27, 2016

ACM has announced the recipients of four prestigious technical awards. These innovators were selected by their peers for making significant contributions that enable the computing field to solve real-world challenges. The awards reflect achievements in cryptography, network coding systems, computer-human interaction, and software systems. The 2015 recipients will be formally honored at the ACM Awards Banquet on June 11 in San Francisco.

Richard Stallman, founder and President of the Free Software Foundation, has been named the recipient of the 2015 ACM Software System Award for development and leadership of GCC (GNU Compiler Collection), which has enabled extensive software and hardware innovation, and has been a lynchpin of the free software movement.

Brent Waters of the University of Texas at Austin has been named the recipient of the 2015 Grace Murray Hopper Award for the introduction and development of the concepts of attribute-based and functional encryption. His innovations enhance security efforts at a time when greater volumes of highly confidential data are moving to the cloud.

Michael Luby of Qualcomm Technologies will receive ACM's 2015 Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award for groundbreaking contributions to erasure correcting codes, which are essential for improving the quality of video transmission over a variety of networks, including mobile, broadcast and satellite channels.

Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research will receive the 2015 ACM – AAAI Allen Newell Award for groundbreaking contributions in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, encompassing both theoretical innovations and important practical applications. He is best known for his pioneering research in developing principles and models of computational intelligence and action.

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