Lin named distinguished member of world’s largest computing society
Zhiqiang Lin, professor of Computer Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, has been named a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his outstanding scientific contributions to computing. Lin is one of 67 ACM members selected this year for “work that has spurred innovation, enhanced computer science education, and moved the field forward.”
To be considered for Distinguished Member status, a candidate must have at least 15 years of professional experience in the computing field, served as a mentor or role model, and made a significant impact in computer science.
With more than 100 papers published, Lin’s research focuses on cybersecurity, with an emphasis on using or innovating program analysis to solve security problems. His work covers the entire software stack from firmware to applications in web, mobile and Internet of Things environments. In addition to identifying vulnerabilities, he also specializes on hardening the software against attacks. Lin has received research funding from National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, National Security Agency and several industry leaders including Amazon, Cisco and VMware.
In 2020, Lin led a team of cybersecurity researchers that discovered a large number of cell phone applications contain hardcoded secrets allowing others to access private data or block content provided by users. He and his colleagues developed an open source tool, named InputScope, to help developers understand weaknesses in their apps and to demonstrate that the reverse engineering process can be fully automated. Most recently, Lin and his postdoctoral researcher Yue Zhang discovered a decade-old vulnerability in Bluetooth devices, including smartphones, which allows others to track a user’s movement, a significant privacy threat.
Lin is the director of Ohio State’s Computer Security Laboratory and is affiliated with the Institute for Cybersecurity and Digital Trust, the Center for Automotive Research, the Translational Data Analytics Institute, and the NSF AI Institute for Future Edge Networks and Distributed Intelligence. The founding faculty advisor of the Women in Cybersecurity chapter, he also received the College of Engineering’s 2022 Harrison Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education.
The ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, bringing together educators, researchers and other professionals. To view all ACM 2022 honorees, click here.
