Martin Vechev Explained

Martin Vechev
Native Name:	Мартин Вечев
Birth Date:	24 July 1977
Birth Place:	Sofia, Bulgaria
Nationality:	Bulgarian
Field:	Programming Languages, Machine Learning, Security
Work Institution:	ETH Zurich
Alma Mater:	University of Cambridge Simon Fraser University
Known For:	Machine learning for code (BigCode), Robust and Trustworthy AI, Quantum Programming, Silq Programming Language
Prizes:	ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award 2019 John Atanasoff Award ERC Starting Grant IBM Extraordinary Accomplishment Award IBM Research Outstanding Project Award Distinguished Paper Awards (RV 2010, OOPSLA 2016) Google Faculty Award Facebook Faculty Award
Website:	https://www.sri.inf.ethz.ch

Martin Vechev is a professor at the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich working in the fields of programming languages, machine learning, and security. He leads the Secure, Reliable, and Intelligent Systems Lab (SRI), part of the Department of Computer Science.

Prof. Vechev is the Founder and Architect of INSAIT, the first world-class research center in computer science and artificial intelligence in Eastern Europe, created in partnership with ETH Zurich and EPFL.

He is known for his pioneering works in machine learning for code (BigCode), where he introduced statistical programming engines trained on large codebases,^[1] reliable and trustworthy artificial intelligence,^[2] 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.^[3]

Vechev has received the ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award in 2019^{[4] [5] [6]} and a highly-visible ERC Starting Grant,^{[7] [8] [9]} which helped shape the area of machine learning for code. In 2016, his Ph.D. student Veselin Raychev received an Honorable Mention for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award and in 2021 his Ph.D. student Gagandeep Singh received the ACM SIGPLAN Doctoral Dissertation Award.^{[10] [11]}

Vechev has also co-founded the deep tech start-ups LatticeFlow,^{[12] [13]} DeepCode,^{[14] [15] [16]} and ChainSecurity.^[17]

Early life and education

Martin Vechev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he attended the Sofia High School of Mathematics (SMG) from 1991 to 1994. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University in 2001 and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cambridge in 2008. 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, USA in the period 2007-2011.

Career

He has been in a group at ETH Zurich that has resulted in the creation of popular systems:

• JSNice, DeGuard, and DeBIN, statistical deobfuscators for javascript, Android apps, and binary executables.
• ETH Robustness Analyzer for Neural Networks (ERAN), a sound, precise, and scalable robustness verifier for deep neural networks based on abstract interpretation.
• Silq, the first high-level programming language for quantum computing with a strong static type system ^[18]
• PSI Solver, an exact inference engineer for probabilistic programs
• ELINA, a state-of-the-art library for numerical abstract domains for static analysis
• Securify and VerX, static analyzer and automated verifier for Ethereum smart contracts
• SyNET, NetComplete, NetDice: systems for deterministic and probabilistic verification and synthesis for computer networks

He has also co-founded the deep tech start-ups:

• LatticeFlow, building the world’s first platform for delivering robust and trustworthy AI systems.^{[19] [20]}
• DeepCode, the first AI-based code review system, acquired by the security unicorn Snyk in 2020.
• and ChainSecurity, smart contract security audits based on formal mathematical guarantees, acquired by PwC Switzerland in 2020.

Awards

• ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award in 2019 for major contributions to the area of programming languages;
• ACM SIGPLAN Research Highlight;^[21]
• CACM Research Highlight 2016;^{[22] [23] [24]}
• ERC Starting Grant^[7] 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;
• Outstanding Artifact Award (OOPSLA 2013);^{[25] [26]}
• John Atanasoff Award 2009, awarded by the President of Bulgaria;^{[27] [28]}

Notes and References

1. Web site: Building the next generation AI systems.
2. Web site: Safe and reliable artificial intelligence.
3. Web site: Silq is a new high-level programming language for quantum computers. 2021-12-19. TechCrunch. en-US.
4. News: 2019. ACM Young Researcher Award for Prof. Martin Vechev. ETH Zurich.
5. Web site: Robin Milner Young Researcher Award.
6. Web site: Prof. Martin Vechev honoured with ACM Young Researcher Award. 2021-12-27. inf.ethz.ch. en.
7. Web site: 2015. Building the next generation AI systems. ERC: European Research Council.
8. Web site: CHF 10 million for young talents. 2021-12-16. ethz.ch. December 14, 2015 . en.
9. Vesper. Inga. 2018-06-04. Europe's top science funder shows high-risk research pays off. Nature. en. 558. 7708. 16–17. 10.1038/d41586-018-05325-4. 29872198 . 2018Natur.558...16V . 46949722 . free.
10. Web site: 2021 ACM SIGPLAN Dissertation Award for Gagandeep Singh. 2021-12-16. inf.ethz.ch. September 14, 2021 . en.
11. Web site: John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award. 2021-12-16. www.sigplan.org.
12. Web site: ETH spin-off LatticeFlow raises $2.8M to help build trustworthy AI systems. 2021-12-13. TechCrunch. en-US.
13. Web site: Joint services announce winners of global AI competition. 2021-12-13. www.army.mil. en.
14. Web site: Snyk acquires DeepCode to boost its code review smarts. 2021-12-13. TechCrunch. en-US.
15. Web site: ETH AI spin-off DeepCode acquired by a unicorn in cybersecurity. 2021-12-16. ethz.ch. September 23, 2020 . en.
16. Web site: 2020-09-23. AI Code Analysis Startup Founded by a Bulgarian Team Gets Acquired by a Cybersecurity Unicorn. 2021-12-16. Trending Topics. en-US.
17. Web site: ETH spin-off ChainSecurity is taken over by PwC Switzerland. 2021-12-13. inf.ethz.ch. en.
18. Web site: Zurich. E. T. H.. The First Intuitive Programming Language for Quantum Computers. 2021-12-27. cacm.acm.org. en.
19. Web site: ETH spin-off LatticeFlow raises $2.8M to help build trustworthy AI systems. 2021-12-18. TechCrunch. en-US.
20. Web site: Yovchev. Etien. 2021-12-03. Seeing strong product adoption LatticeFlow expands to Sofia to accelerate the development of its platform for robust AI models. 2021-12-18. TheRecursive.com. en-GB.
21. Web site: SIGPLAN Research Highlights Papers. 2021-12-27. www.sigplan.org. en.
22. Book: Raychev. Veselin. Vechev. Martin. Krause. Andreas. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages . Predicting Program Properties from "Big Code" . 2015-01-14. https://doi.org/10.1145/2676726.2677009. POPL '15. New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery. 111–124. 10.1145/2676726.2677009. 978-1-4503-3300-9. 14571254 .
23. Web site: Krause. Veselin Raychev, Martin Vechev, Andreas. Predicting Program Properties from 'Big Code'. 2021-12-27. cacm.acm.org. en.
24. Web site: Rinard. Martin C.. Technical Perspective: Borrowing Big Code to Automate Programming Activities. 2021-12-27. cacm.acm.org. en.
25. Book: Raychev. Veselin. Vechev. Martin. Sridharan. Manu. Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Object oriented programming systems languages & applications . Effective race detection for event-driven programs . 2013-10-29. https://doi.org/10.1145/2509136.2509538. OOPSLA '13. New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery. 151–166. 10.1145/2509136.2509538. 978-1-4503-2374-1. 9750610 .
26. Web site: Twitter post by Manu Sridharan: Outstanding Artifact Award for EventRacer. Twitter.
27. Web site: John Atanassov Awards.
28. Web site: Мартин Вечев е носителят на тазгодишния приз. 2021-12-13. econ.bg. bg.