ACM's 2010 Turing Award goes to Machine Learning innovator

Tony Austin
Friday, 11 March 2011 19:49

IT People - People

The Association for Computing Machinery has named Leslie G. Valiant of Harvard University as winner of its 2010 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his fundamental contributions to the development of computational learning theory and to the broader theory of computer science.

Valiant brought together machine learning and computational complexity, leading to advances in artificial intelligence as well as computing practices such as natural language processing, handwriting recognition, and computer vision.

He also launched several subfields of theoretical computer science, and developed models for parallel computing.

The A.M. Turing Award was named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing, and who was a key contributor to the Allied cryptanalysis of the German Enigma cipher and the German 'Tunny' encoding machine in World War II.

Since its inception in 1966, the Turing Award has honored the computer scientists and engineers who created the systems and underlying theoretical foundations that have propelled the information technology industry. Go to http://awards.acm.org/turing for more information.

The award carries a $250,000 prize, with financial support provided by Intel Corporation and Google Inc. ACM will present the 2010 A.M. Turing Award at its annual Awards Banquet on June 4, in San Jose, California.

'Leslie Valiant's accomplishments over the last 30 years have provided the theoretical basis for progress in artificial intelligence and led to extraordinary achievements in machine learning.

His work has produced modeling that offers computationally inspired answers on fundamental questions like how the brain 'computes,' said ACM President Alain Chesnais.

'His profound vision in computer science, mathematics, and cognitive theory have been combined with other techniques to build modern forms of machine learning and communication, like IBM's 'Watson' computing system, that have enabled computing systems to rival a human's ability to answer questions.'

Read more about the citation at Les Valiant Opened New Frontiers that Transformed Learning Theory, Computational Complexity, and Parallel and Distributed Computing

ACM membership provides benefit from a wide variety of resources, including more than 50 publications; nearly 150 Special Interest Group conferences; free online books and courses for professional development; a searchable Digital Library; local chapter activities; and a growing online community of electronic forums.