Prof gets highest computer science honor

E. Allen Emerson, professor of computer sciences, has been awarded the 2007 A.M. Turing Award, widely considered the most prestigious award in computing, for original and continuing research in a quality assurance process known as “Model Checking.” Emerson received the award, given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), with collaborator Edmund Clarke, of Carnegie Mellon University, and Joseph Sifakis. Their innovations transformed the Model Checking approach from a theoretical technique to a highly effective verification technology that enables computer hardware and software engineers to find errors efficiently in complex system designs. This transformation has resulted in increased assurance that the systems perform as intended by the designers.