Hambrusch Named ACM Fellow

01-14-2021

Susanne Hambrusch

The Department of Computer Science faculty member, Professor Susanne Hambrusch, is among the 95 distinguished computer scientists named 2020 fellows by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The ACM Fellows program recognizes the top 1% of the association's membership for outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology and/or outstanding service to ACM and the larger computing community. It is ACM’s most prestigious member grade. Fellows are nominated by their peers, with nominations reviewed by a distinguished selection committee.

Hambrusch, Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science, was recognized "for research and leadership contributions to computer science education." Hambrusch has made numerous contributions to computer science education in the areas of computational thinking, introductory course development, computational needs of non-majors, pathways for education majors to become computationally educated secondary teachers, and professional development for secondary teachers.  

"This year our task in selecting the 2020 Fellows was a little more challenging, as we had a record number of nominations from around the world,” explained ACM President Gabriele Kotsis. “The 2020 ACM Fellows have demonstrated excellence across many disciplines of computing. These men and women have made pivotal contributions to technologies that are transforming whole industries, as well as our personal lives. We fully expect that these new ACM Fellows will continue in the vanguard in their respective fields."

Hambrusch played a leading role in two recent CS undergraduate enrollment efforts. She served as co-chair on the 2018 National Academies report on “Assessing and Responding to the Growth of Computer Science Undergraduate Enrollments.” The report examines trends of growth in computer science undergraduate enrollments, including enrollment patterns and drivers, strategies for responding to the growth, and the impact of enrollment growth on diversity. She was a member of the Computing Research Association’s (CRA) ad-hoc Enrollment Committee which produced the report, “Generation CS: CS Enrollments Surge Since 2006.” The report is recognized as providing guidance to departments and administrators on enrollment management decisions related to majors and non-majors, diversity, impact on academic units, and possible responses to the enrollment surge.

Hambrusch has had various leadership roles in the CRA, an association of more than 200 North American academic departments of CS, CE, I-schools, and laboratories in industry and government, engaged in computing research. She served on the CRA’s Board of Directors 2008-10 and 2014-20 and as vice chair 2015-19. She is one of the co-founders of CRA’s Education Committee (CRA-E) and has served as its Co-Chair since 2013. CRA-E’s mission is to support society’s need for a continuous supply of talented and well-educated computing researchers. CRA-E provides resources for students and faculty, professional development, honors undergraduate student research and faculty mentoring achievements, and leads activities that promote research and research-focused careers. Her involvement helped define CRA-E’s mission and its role within CRA and the computing community. It established CRA-E’s Faculty Mentoring program, the Research Highlight series recognizing students completing successful undergraduate research, and a professional development workshop for teaching faculty in PhD departments. She served two terms on CRA’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W).  

Additionally, Hambrusch has served as a co-editor of CACM’s Viewpoint columns since 2008. She contributed to a redesign of the Viewpoints columns which developed new columns representing trends and emerging interests. She jointly manages Viewpoint columns with John King and continues to guide the publications of relevant and interesting articles strengthening CACM and ACM. 

Another fellow named this year is an alumnus of the department. Ihab Ilyas, Professor of Computer Science in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, was recognized "for contributions to data cleaning and data integration.” Ilyas earned his PhD in 2005 under the supervision of Professors Walid Aref and Ahmed Elmagarmid.

Underscoring ACM’s global reach, the 2020 Fellows represent universities, corporations and research centers in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The contributions of the 2020 Fellows run the gamut of the computing field and include past Turing award winners―research areas include: algorithms, networks, computer architecture, robotics, distributed systems, software development, theory, wireless systems, and web science―to name a few.

Additional information about the 2020 ACM Fellows, as well as previously named ACM Fellows, is available through the ACM Fellows site.