Forrest Shull, assistant director for empirical research at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and current First Vice President of the IEEE Computer Society, was elected as the society’s 2020 President-Elect and the 2021 President.

Shull will serve as the 2021 President for a one-year term beginning January 2021. He is an IEEE Senior Member, a former editor in chief of IEEE Software magazine, and the current associate editor in chief of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE).

Shull garnered 3,147 votes, compared with 2,551 votes cast for Sumi Helal, professor and chair in digital health in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University, IEEE Fellow, chair of the Publication Board’s Magazine Operations Committee, and member of the Computer Society Board of Governors.

2021 Computer Society President Forrest Shull’s Goals

Shull campaigned on several pledges, including:

• Work to ensure that we provide content and opportunities in critical technology areas.
• Increase industry engagement.
• Expand activities and opportunities aimed at students and early-career professionals.
• Improve support for chapter activities.
• Improve inclusivity in volunteer representation.
• Improve basic volunteer processes.

“Over my decade of volunteering with the IEEE Computer Society (CS), I have found it immensely rewarding to work with all CS stakeholders to make our offerings better suited to the needs of our fast-moving field. I aim to continue this work during what is a critical, transformative time for the CS. We rely on our Society to keep ourselves competitive, regardless of whether we are researchers or practitioners. The Society’s products and services must continue to evolve to maintain their relevance in today’s world,” Shull said in his position statement.

The President oversees society programs and operations and is a nonvoting member of most society program boards and committees. The 2019 election had a 15.10% turnout with 5,949 ballots cast. The turnout percentage was slightly lower than the 2018 election, which had a 15.37% turnout (6,430 ballots cast) but higher than the 2017 election, which had a 12.87% turnout (5,684 ballots cast).

First Vice President Winner in 2019 Elections

Riccardo Mariani, Vice President of Industry Safety at NVIDIA, IEEE Senior Member, and current IEEE CS vice president for standards activities, was elected First Vice President with 3,414 votes.

The other candidate was Avi Mendelson, who is visiting professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and head of the Hardware Security Lab at The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; visiting professor in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; IEEE Fellow; and member of the Computer Society Board of Governors serving as Second Vice President. He garnered 2,224 votes.

In his campaign statement, Mariani said he favored:

• “Launching new initiatives (such as standardization projects, special technical communities) in the emerging fields of edge to cloud intelligent computing systems and new frontiers such as ‘Anything as a Service’ (XaaS).
• “Creating new products (such as training and certification programs) that could attract companies, especially industry disruptors.
• “Promoting gender, geo and age diversity, to attract the new population of scientists and professionals.
• “Energizing conferences by introducing new models of participation; increasing presence in press and social media; cooperating with other industry initiatives such as consortiums, agencies.”

Second Vice President Winner in 2019 Elections

Sy-Yen Kuo, Pegatron Chair Professor in the department of electrical engineering at National Taiwan University, IEEE Fellow, Computer Society vice treasurer and member of the Computer Society Board of Governors, was elected as Second Vice President with 2,870 votes.

The other candidate, Fabrizio Lombardi, garnered 2,732 votes. He is the International Test Conference Endowed Chair at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University and an IEEE Fellow, serving as the society’s vice president for publications, and is a member of the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board, an IEEE Fellow, garnered 2,732 votes.

As second vice president, Kuo pledged that he would:

• “Help members stay attuned to changing technology. Because a lot of our members are practitioners, it is important to develop products and services to serve their needs to keep abreast of new developments and knowledge.
• “Enhance services, enlarge membership, and promote high quality publications and conferences.
• “Develop relevant products, programs, and services targeted to underserved populations such as practitioners, young professionals, women, and members living in economically stressed areas of the world.”

Winners in the 2019 Board of Governors Elections

Computer Society members also elected six members of the Board of Governors for the term beginning 1 January 2020:

• Nils Aschenbruck, University of Osnabrueck, Germany (2,942 votes)
• Ernesto Cuadros-Vargas, Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) Lima, Peru (2,477 votes)
• David S. Ebert, Purdue University (2,768 votes)
• William Gropp, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) (2,518 votes)
• Grace Lewis, Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) (4,549 votes)
• Stefano Zanero, Politecnico di Milano (2,429 votes)

Results for other Board of Governors candidates:

• Saurabh Bagchi, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana (2,266 votes)
• Rama Chellappa, University of Maryland (UMD) (2,153 votes)
• Vladimir Getov, University of Westminster, London (1,811 votes)
• Shi-Min Hu, Tsinghua University (1,759 votes)
• Hausi A. Müller, University of Victoria, Canada (2,261 votes)

Related: Read position statements of Board of Governors candidates