Martin Vechev
{{Short description|Bulgarian computer scientist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Martin Vechev
| native_name = Мартин Вечев
| image = MartinVechev.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Professor Martin Vechev
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1977|7|24}}
| birth_place = Sofia, Bulgaria
| death_date =
| death_place =
| residence =
| citizenship =
| nationality = Bulgarian
| ethnicity =
| field = Programming Languages, Machine Learning, Security
| work_institution = {{UBL| ETH Zurich | INSAIT | IBM Research }}
| alma_mater = {{UBL| University of Cambridge | Simon Fraser University }}
| doctoral_advisor = Martin Richards (computer scientist)
| thesis_title =
| thesis_year =
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Machine learning for code (BigCode), Robust and Trustworthy AI, Quantum Programming, Silq Programming Language
| prizes = {{UBL
| ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award 2019
| John Atanasoff Award
| ERC Consolidator Grant
| ERC Starting Grant
| IBM Extraordinary Accomplishment Award
}}
| website = https://www.sri.inf.ethz.ch/people/martin
https://insait.ai/prof-martin-vechev/
| footnotes =
}}
Martin Vechev (born 24 July 1977) is a full professor at the department of computer science at ETH Zurich, working in the fields of programming languages, machine learning and computer security. He leads the Secure, Reliable, and Intelligent Systems Lab (SRI), part of the Department of Computer Science.
Vechev is the founder, architect and Scientific Director of INSAIT, a research center in computer science and artificial intelligence in Eastern Europe, created in partnership with ETH Zurich and EPFL.
He is known for his works in machine learning for code (BigCode), where he introduced statistical programming engines trained on large codebases,{{Cite web|url=https://erc.europa.eu/projects-statistics/science-stories/building-next-generation-ai-systems|title=Building the next generation AI systems|date=April 29, 2024|website=ERC}} reliable and trustworthy artificial intelligence,{{Cite web|url=https://safeai.ethz.ch/|title=SafeAI: Safe Artificial Intelligence|website=safeai.ethz.ch}} where he introduced abstract interpretation methods for reasoning about deep neural networks to enable the verification of large machine learning models, and quantum programming, introducing the first high-level programming language and system Silq.{{Cite web|title=Silq is a new high-level programming language for quantum computers|url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/15/silq-is-a-new-high-level-programming-language-for-quantum-computers/|access-date=2021-12-19|website=TechCrunch|language=en-US}}
Vechev has received the ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award in 2019,{{Cite news|date=2019|title=ACM Young Researcher Award for Prof. Martin Vechev|work=ETH Zurich|url=https://ethz.ch/en/the-eth-zurich/portrait/latest-honours-and-prizes/2019/07/acm-young-researcher-award-for-prof-martin-vechev.html}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sigplan.org/Awards/Milner/|title=Robin Milner Young Researcher Award|website=www.sigplan.org}}{{Cite web|title=Prof. Martin Vechev honoured with ACM Young Researcher Award|url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/2019/06/Vechev-ACM-SIGPLAN-award.html|access-date=2021-12-27|website=inf.ethz.ch|language=en}} an ERC Consolidator Grant{{Cite web |date=2024-09-05 |title=313 new ERC Consolidator Grants to tackle big scientific questions |url=https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2021-consolidator-grants-results |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=ERC |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2022-03-17 |title=ERC Consolidator Grants for Otmar Hilliges and Martin Vechev |url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2022/03/erc-grant-otmar-hilliges-martin-vechev.html |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=inf.ethz.ch |language=en}} in 2021, a mid-career award given to outstanding researchers with highly promising scientific track records focusing on safe and trustworthy AI, and a highly-visible ERC Starting Grant,{{Cite web|date=2015|title=Building the next generation AI systems|url=https://erc.europa.eu/projects-figures/stories/building-next-generation-ai-systems|website=ERC: European Research Council}}{{Citation|title=Interview at the European Parliament on ERC grants by Martin Vechev (ERC starting grant holder).|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgS1kfRko8|language=en|access-date=2021-12-16}}{{Cite web|title=CHF 10 million for young talents|url=https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2015/12/chf-ten-million-for-young-talent.html|access-date=2021-12-16|website=ethz.ch|date=December 14, 2015 |language=en}}{{Cite journal|last=Vesper|first=Inga|date=2018-06-04|title=Europe's top science funder shows high-risk research pays off|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=558|issue=7708|pages=16–17|doi=10.1038/d41586-018-05325-4|pmid=29872198 |bibcode=2018Natur.558...16V |s2cid=46949722 |doi-access=free}} which helped shape the area of AI for code. Vechev has also co-authored over 170 research publications,{{Cite web |title=dblp: Martin T. Vechev |url=https://dblp.org/pid/93/2189.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=dblp.org |language=en}} some of which have been recognized with best paper awards, distinguished paper awards, as well as spotlight and oral selections.{{Cite web |title=Publications |url=https://www.sri.inf.ethz.ch/publications/ |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=SRI Lab |language=en}}
Prior to starting at ETH Zurich in 2012, Vechev was a Research Staff Member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York, US from 2007 to 2011.
Advised doctoral students
Vechev has supervised and graduated 17 doctoral students at ETH Zurich. Several of his Ph.D. students received major recognitions for their dissertations.
Veselin Raychev received an Honorable Mention for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award{{Cite web |title=Veselin Raychev |url=https://awards.acm.org/award_winners/raychev_2031789 |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=awards.acm.org |language=en}} and the ETH medal.
Gagandeep Singh received the ACM SIGPLAN Doctoral Dissertation Award.{{Cite web|title=2021 ACM SIGPLAN Dissertation Award for Gagandeep Singh|url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2021/09/acm-sigplan-dissertation-award-2021-singh.html|access-date=2021-12-16|website=inf.ethz.ch|date=September 14, 2021 |language=en}}{{Cite web|title=John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award|url=https://www.sigplan.org/Awards/Dissertation/|access-date=2021-12-16|website=www.sigplan.org}}
Samuel Steffen was awarded the ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Award Runner-Up.{{Cite web |title=ACM SIGSAC Dissertation Awards |url=https://www.sigsac.org/award/diss-awards.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=www.sigsac.org}}
Benjamin Bichsel received both the ACM SIGPLAN John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award{{Cite web |title=John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award |url=https://www.sigplan.org/Awards/Dissertation/ |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=www.sigplan.org}}{{Cite web |date=2024-07-02 |title=ACM SIGPLAN Dissertation Award for Benjamin Bichsel |url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2024/07/sigplan-dissertation-award-for-benjamin-bichsel.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=inf.ethz.ch |language=en}} and the ETH medal{{Cite web |date=2023-11-15 |title=Five doctoral graduates receive ETH Medals |url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2023/11/five-doctoral-graduates-receive-eth-medals.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=inf.ethz.ch |language=en}} on the topic of 'High-Level Quantum Programming'.
Timon Gehr received the ETH medal.{{Cite web |date=2022-11-08 |title=Four doctoral graduates receive ETH Medals |url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2022/11/eth-medals-doctorate.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=inf.ethz.ch |language=en}}
Rüdiger Birkner was awarded the 2022 EuroSys Roger Needham Ph.D. Award.{{Cite web |title=European Chapter of ACM SIGOPS - Roger Needham PhD Award |url=https://www.eurosys.org/awards/roger-needham-phd-award |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=www.eurosys.org |language=en-US}}
Dimitar K. Dimitrov received the ETH medal.{{Cite web |title=ETH Medal for doctoral theses |url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/2020/11/eth-medal-doctoral-thesis.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=inf.ethz.ch |language=en}}
Early life and education
Martin Vechev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he attended the [https://smg.bg/ Sofia High School of Mathematics (SMG)] from 1991 to 1994. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University in 2001 and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cambridge in 2008.
Serial entrepreneurship
Vechev has also co-founded 6 deep tech start-ups:
- LatticeFlow, building a platform for delivering robust and trustworthy AI systems{{Cite web |title=ETH spin-off LatticeFlow raises $2.8M to help build trustworthy AI systems |url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/19/eth-spin-off-latticeflow-raises-2-8m-to-help-build-trustworthy-ai-systems/ |access-date=2021-12-13 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Joint services announce winners of global AI competition |url=https://www.army.mil/article/250419/joint_services_announce_winners_of_global_ai_competition |access-date=2021-12-13 |website=www.army.mil |language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Yovchev|first=Etien|date=2021-12-03|title=Seeing strong product adoption LatticeFlow expands to Sofia to accelerate the development of its platform for robust AI models|url=https://therecursive.com/seeing-strong-product-adoption-latticeflow-expands-to-sofia-to-accelerate-the-development-of-its-platform-for-robust-ai-models/|access-date=2021-12-18|website=TheRecursive.com|language=en-GB}}
- DeepCode, an AI-based code review system, acquired by the security unicorn Snyk in 2020{{Cite web |title=Snyk acquires DeepCode to boost its code review smarts |url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/24/snyk-acquires-deepcode-to-boost-its-code-review-smarts/ |access-date=2021-12-13 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=September 23, 2020 |title=ETH AI spin-off DeepCode acquired by a unicorn in cybersecurity |url=https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2020/09/deepcode.html |access-date=2021-12-16 |website=ethz.ch |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2020-09-23 |title=AI Code Analysis Startup Founded by a Bulgarian Team Gets Acquired by a Cybersecurity Unicorn |url=https://www.trendingtopics.eu/deepcode-founded-by-a-bulgarian-team-gets-acquired/ |access-date=2021-12-16 |website=Trending Topics |language=en-US}}
- ChainSecurity, smart contract security audits based on formal mathematical guarantees, acquired by PwC Switzerland in 2020{{Cite web |title=ETH spin-off ChainSecurity is taken over by PwC Switzerland |url=https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/2020/01/chainsecurity-pwc-switzerland.html |access-date=2021-12-13 |website=inf.ethz.ch |language=en}}
- NetFabric, focused on AI-based network monitoring{{Cite web |title=Why Playfair Capital invested in NetFabric.ai |url=https://www.tribume.com/posts/why-playfair-capital-invested-in-netfabric-ai |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=www.tribume.com}}{{Cite web |last=България |first=Forbes |date=2024-07-12 |title=Стартъпът с българско участие NetFabric поглежда към 1.6-милиардния пазар на мониторинг на мрежи |url=https://forbesbulgaria.com/2024/07/12/startapat-s-balgarsko-uchastie-netfabric-poglezhda-kam-1-6-miliardniya-pazar-na-monitoring-na-mrezhi/ |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=forbesbulgaria.com |language=bg-BG}}{{Cite web |last=Laoun |first=Joy |title=Zurich-based startup NetFabric.ai secures $2.2M to transform network monitoring |url=https://www.vestbee.com/blog/articles/net-fabric-ai-secures-2-2-m |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=vestbee.com |language=en}}
- Invariant Labs, dedicated to developing advanced security solutions for autonomous AI agents{{Cite web |title=Invariant Labs |url=https://invariantlabs.ai/ |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=invariantlabs.ai |language=en}}
- and LogicStar, a company developing AI agents that autonomously resolve bugs{{Cite web |title=LogicStar AI |url=https://logicstar.ai/ |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=logicstar.ai |language=en}}
Awards
Vechev's work has been recognized by many international awards, including:
- ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award in 2019 for major contributions to the area of programming languages
- ACM SIGPLAN Research Highlight{{Cite web|title=SIGPLAN Research Highlights Papers|url=https://www.sigplan.org/Highlights/Papers/|access-date=2021-12-27|website=www.sigplan.org|language=en}}
- CACM Research Highlight 2016{{Cite book|last1=Raychev|first1=Veselin|last2=Vechev|first2=Martin|last3=Krause|first3=Andreas|title=Proceedings of the 42nd Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages |chapter=Predicting Program Properties from "Big Code" |date=2015-01-14|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/2676726.2677009|series=POPL '15|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|pages=111–124|doi=10.1145/2676726.2677009|isbn=978-1-4503-3300-9|s2cid=14571254 }}{{Cite web|last=Krause|first=Veselin Raychev, Martin Vechev, Andreas|title=Predicting Program Properties from 'Big Code'|url=https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2019/3/234932-predicting-program-properties-from-big-code/fulltext|access-date=2021-12-27|website=cacm.acm.org|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Rinard|first=Martin C.|title=Technical Perspective: Borrowing Big Code to Automate Programming Activities|url=https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2019/3/234924-technical-perspective-borrowing-big-code-to-automate-programming-activities/fulltext|access-date=2021-12-27|website=cacm.acm.org|language=en}}
- ERC Consolidator Grant 2021 for the project SafeAI: Certified Safe, Fair and Robust Artificial Intelligence
- ERC Starting Grant for the project BIGCODE, the first to combine advanced programming languages and machine learning techniques, which developed new AI-based methods for creating and debugging software
- John Atanasoff Award 2009, awarded by the President of Bulgaria{{Cite web|title=John Atanassov Awards|url=https://m.president.bg/en/cat37/About-award-John-Atanasov}}{{Citation|title=John Atanasoff Award 2009 - Vechev|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp7RZPPYXZ4|language=en|access-date=2021-12-13}}{{Cite web|title=Мартин Вечев е носителят на тазгодишния приз|url=https://econ.bg/Новини/Мартин-Вечев-е-носителят-на-тазгодишния-приз-Джон-Атанасов-_l.a_i.170782_at.1.html|access-date=2021-12-13|website=econ.bg|language=bg}}
- Google and Facebook Faculty Research Awards
- IBM Research Division Award
- IBM Extraordinary Accomplishment Award (awarded by John Kelly, IBM Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research)
- IBM Research Outstanding Project Award
- IBM Invention and Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards
References
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Category:Programming language researchers