Annual Stibitz-Wilson Awards to honor five innovators

BOZEMAN - The American Computer and Robotics Museum in Bozeman will honor an educational-software developer, a computer science educator and communicator, a usable privacy and security expert, and two pioneers in computer vision at the Stibitz-Wilson Awards ceremony on Sept. 26.

The free, public event will begin at 5 p.m. at The Ellen Theater, 17 W. Main St. Seating is not reserved, and the doors will open at 4 p.m. Honorees will receive their awards at the ceremony, speak about their work and answer questions from the awards moderator. The theme for this year's ceremony is "Code for Tomorrow: Innovating for Classrooms, Communities and Conservation." The 2025 honorees are:

Serge Belongie and Pietro Perona are the leaders of the effort to build Visipedia, a network of people and machines that harvests and organizes visual information from curated data sets and makes it accessible to anyone. This "visual encyclopedia" underpins the popular nature identification apps iNaturalist and Merlin Bird ID, which together have been downloaded more than 30 million times. Visipedia is a joint project between Perona's Vision Group at Caltech and Belongie's Vision Group at Cornell University.

Perona's primary research interest is visual recognition, more specifically visual categorization. In collaboration with his students, he develops algorithms to enable machines to learn to recognize faces, cars, frogs and trees with minimal human supervision, and to enable machines to learn from human experts. Perona, the Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of information science and technology at Caltech, is committed to developing responsible artificial intelligence algorithms, including methods for assessing algorithmic accuracy and bias in face recognition and other applications of computer vision.

Belongie is a professor of computer science at the University of Copenhagen, where he also serves as the head of the Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence. His research focuses on computer vision, machine learning, augmented reality and human-in-the-loop computing, with applications ranging from image-based geolocalization to assistive technology for the visually impaired. He is a co-founder of several companies, including Digital Persona and Anchovi Labs.

Lorrie Cranor is the director and Bosch Distinguished Professor of the CyLab Security and Privacy Institute and FORE Systems University Professor of Computer Science and of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. She directs the CyLab Usable

Privacy and Security Laboratory and co-directs the Privacy Engineering master's program. Cranor is a leading researcher in both online privacy and usable privacy and security, and she has co-authored more than 200 research papers in these areas. She has played a key role in building the usable privacy and security research community and has testified about privacy issues at a congressional hearing and at workshops held by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission. Cranor is frequently quoted in the press and has appeared on the "Today Show," "CBS Sunday Morning," "CNN Financial News," "NPR Morning Edition," "NPR Science Friday" and "NPR All Things Considered." Her "TED Talk" on passwords has been viewed more than 1.6 million times.

Yasmin Kafai is the Lori and Michael Milken President's Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, with a courtesy appointment in computer and information science. A leading learning designer and researcher, she develops online tools, projects and communities that foster coding, critical thinking and creativity. With colleagues at MIT, Kafai helped develop the programming language Scratch. Her current research explores algorithm auditing in machine learning applications. Additionally, through the nationwide Exploring Computer Science curriculum, she launched the use of electronic textiles to introduce computing, engineering and machine learning in high school classrooms. Kafai is the author of several books, including "Connected Code: Why Children Need to Learn Programming" and "Connected Gaming: What Making Videogames Can Teach Us About Learning and Literacy."

Mitchel Resnick is the LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, where he develops new technologies and activities to engage people - particularly children - in creative learning experiences. His Lifelong Kindergarten research group developed the Scratch programming software and online community, which is used by millions of young people around the world. The group has also collaborated with the LEGO Company on the development of new educational ideas and products, including the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits. Resnick co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of more than 100 after-school learning centers where youth from low-income communities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies.

Stibitz-Wilson Awards honorees are selected by a committee comprising top talents at Montana State University, past award recipients and the American Computer and Robotics Museum's Board of Directors. Previous honorees have included Nobel laureates Jennifer Doudna and Jack Kilby; National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipients Ralph Baer, Federico Faggin and Mary Shaw; Turing Award winner Robert Metcalfe; Montana-based researchers David Andes, Rufus Cone, Diana Six and David Quammen, among others.

In addition to a number of business and foundation supporters, MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, Office of the President, Office of Research and Economic Development, College of Letters and Science and the Honors College are longtime sponsors of the awards.

"I'm so proud of the close connection between MSU and the Stibitz-Wilson Awards," said Barbara Keremedjiev, ACRM co-founder and board president. "It was always our intention that this awards event would energize not only the wider Bozeman community, but also the amazingly talented students and faculty at MSU."

Established in 1997, ACRM's Stibitz-Wilson Awards honor past and present innovators in the computational and biological sciences. The awards are named for engineer George Stibitz, whose work in the 1930s helped set the stage for modern digital computing; and for biologist Edward O. Wilson, who made landmark contributions to our understanding of the complex web of life on Earth.

For more information, visit acrmuseum.org/awards, email Eleanor Barker at [email protected] or call the museum at 406-582-1288.