Martin Vechev (born 24 July 1977) is a full professor at the department of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

, working in the fields of

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

and

computer security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, n ...

. 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, reliable and trustworthy artificial intelligence, 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. Vechev has received the ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award in 2019, an ERC Consolidator Grant 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, which helped shape the area of AI for code. Vechev has also co-authored over 170 research publications, some of which have been recognized with best paper awards, distinguished paper awards, as well as spotlight and oral selections. 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

. Several of his Ph.D. students received major recognitions for their dissertations. Veselin Raychev received an Honorable Mention for the

ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award The ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award is awarded annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to the authors of the best doctoral dissertations in computer science and computer engineering. The award is accompanied by a prize of US$20,000 a ...

and the ETH medal. Gagandeep Singh received the

ACM SIGPLAN SIGPLAN is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on programming languages. This SIG explores programming language concepts and tools, focusing on design, implementation, practice, and theory. Its members are progra ...

Doctoral Dissertation Award. Samuel Steffen was awarded the ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Award Runner-Up. Benjamin Bichsel received both the

John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award and the ETH medal on the topic of 'High-Level Quantum Programming'. Timon Gehr received the ETH medal. Rüdiger Birkner was awarded the 2022 EuroSys Roger Needham Ph.D. Award. Dimitar K. Dimitrov received the ETH medal.

Early life and education

Martin Vechev was born in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, where he attended th
Sofia High School of Mathematics (SMG)
from 1991 to 1994. He received a B.Sc. in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

from

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

in 2001 and a Ph.D. in computer science from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

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 * DeepCode, an AI-based code review system, acquired by the security unicorn Snyk in 2020 * ChainSecurity, smart contract security audits based on formal mathematical guarantees, acquired by PwC Switzerland in 2020 * NetFabric, focused on AI-based network monitoring * Invariant Labs, dedicated to developing advanced security solutions for autonomous AI agents * and LogicStar, a company developing AI agents that autonomously resolve bugs

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 *

Research Highlight * CACM Research Highlight 2016 * 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 The president of the Republic of Bulgaria (, romanised: ''Prezident na Republika Bŭlgariya'') is the head of state of Bulgaria and the commander-in-chief of the Bulgarian Army. The official residence of the president is at Boyana Residence, S ...

* 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vechev, Martin Living people Programming language researchers Academic staff of ETH Zurich 1977 births