Two computer scientists (CS) at Rice, Ang Chen and Xia “Ben” Hu, have received research and teaching awards from the George R. Brown School of Engineering.
Chen, assistant professor of CS, is the recipient of the Outstanding Young Faculty Researcher Award. It recognizes research achievements “as evidenced by publications, program development results, software, and other research contributions.”
Hu, associate professor of CS, received the Teaching + Research Excellence by Tenured Faculty Award, given annually to tenured and tenure-track faculty members who fulfill “the Rice academic ideal by exhibiting exemplary achievement in all aspects of faculty responsibilities — research, teaching and service.”
“Ang’s intellectual ideas are gaining attention from the wider industry community, which is eager to pick them up and put them into practice. He believes that good research should go beyond producing deep insights and useful systems but is ultimately defined by the community of researchers,” said Chris Jermaine, chair and professor of CS and J.S. Abercrombie Professor of Engineering.
Chen earned a bachelor’s degree in information security from Wuhan University, China, in 2009, and a Ph.D. in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, the year he joined the Rice faculty.
Jermaine said of Hu: “Ben doesn’t simply write a lot of papers in top venues. His papers have a substantial impact. His citation numbers are incredible. He received more than 4,500 citations to his papers in the calendar year 2022. Students regularly comment on Ben’s kindness and dedication.”
Hu earned his Ph.D. in CS from Arizona State University in 2015. His research focuses on large language models, interpretable machine learning and network analytics. Before joining the Rice faculty in 2021, Hu was an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M where he directed the DATA (Data Analytics at Texas A&M) Lab.
--Patrick Kurp, Engineering Communications