Estrin, health tech pioneer, wins von Neumann medal

Deborah Estrin, associate dean and the Robert V. Tishman ’37 Professor at Cornell Tech, has been named the 2022 recipient of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) John von Neumann Medal

The award honors recipients “for outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.”

Deborah Estrin

Estrin was specifically cited for “her leadership in mobile and wireless sensing systems technologies and applications, including personal health management.” Her current research activities include technologies for caregiving, immersive health, small data, participatory sensing and public interest technology.

Before coming to Cornell Tech, Estrin was the founding director of the University of California, Los Angeles, National Science Foundation Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), where she pioneered the development of mobile and wireless systems to collect and analyze real-time data about the physical world. Additionally, she co-founded the nonprofit startup, Open mHealth, and has served on several scientific advisory boards for early stage mobile health startups.

She will receive the award at a special IEEE awards presentation in May 2022.

The award was named for John von Neumann, the Hungarian-American mathematician who made major contributions to physics, economics and computing, including linear programming and game theory. Éva Tardos, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, was a von Neumann award recipient in 2019.

Adam Conner-Simons is director of communications and Jess Campitiello is digital communications assistant at Cornell Tech.

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Jeff Tyson