At 40, Prof David Lo has been inducted into the 2023 class of ACM Fellows, along with the inventor of the World Wide Web
Singapore Management University (SMU) is proud to announce that one of its faculty members from the School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) has been honoured as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). David Lo is OUB Chair Professor of Computer Science, and the Director of the Information Systems & Technology Cluster at SMU’s SCIS.
ACM, the largest professional organisation for computing, is also renowned for issuing the Turing Award, the ’Nobel Prize in Computing’. Founded in 1947 and boasting a global membership of nearly 110,000, ACM is recognised for advancing computing as a science and profession, and ACM Fellows represent the most prestigious member grade, with new Fellows inducted annually.
Professor Lo, 40, is among the 68 new Fellows worldwide recently named by ACM for their transformative contributions to computing science and technology, and is the fourth academic in Singapore to receive this recognition. The 2023 class of ACM Fellows includes four past winners of the Turing Award (also known as Turing laureates), namely Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web (who won the Turing Award in 2016); and Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun, pioneers of deep learning (who won the Turing Award in 2018).
Prof Lo said of this prestigious achievement, “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. 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.”
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.”
“The announcement each year that a new class of ACM Fellows has been selected is met with great excitement,” said ACM President Yannis Ioannidis in its press release. “ACM is proud to include nearly 110,000 computing professionals in our ranks and ACM Fellows represent just 1% of our entire global membership. This year’s inductees include the inventor of the World Wide Web, the ‘godfathers of AI’, and other colleagues whose contributions have all been important building blocks in forming the digital society that shapes our modern world.”
In the latest list of inductees for 2023, Prof Lo is one of four researchers from institutions and a tech giant in Asia to achieve this recognition – two of whom are from China while the third is from India.
The 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, to name a few.
Prof Lo is focused on designing and implementing effective human-centred solutions for the intelligent systems-enabled future of work. “My goal is to enable humans and intelligent agents to collaborate effectively, safely, inclusively, and responsibly,” he said, “thereby contributing to societal betterment. My research delves into specific areas related to this overarching theme.”