Ren named IEEE fellow

UB computer scientist Kui Ren has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Ren, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was recognized “for contributions to security and privacy in cloud computing and wireless networks.”

IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. It publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed more than 900 active industry standards.

Less than 0.1 percent of IEEE voting members are selected annually as fellows, according to IEEE.

“At 37, Kui is perhaps one of the youngest IEEE fellows in years. His early success can be attributed to his widely cited, high-impact work,” says Chunming Qiao, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Ren is director of UB’s Ubiquitous Security and Privacy Research Laboratory (UbiSeC Lab). He studies the broad areas of cloud and outsourcing security, wireless and wearable system security, and human-centered computing. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Amazon Web Service and others.

A UB faculty member since 2012, Ren was named Distinguished Lecturer by IEEE’s Vehicular Technology Society in 2014. He received UB Engineering’s Senior Researcher of the Year Award in 2015, a Sigma Xi/IIT Research Excellence Award in 2012, a NSF CAREER Award in 2011 and the prestigious IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols Best Paper Award in 2011.

He earned a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Prior to that, he attended Zhejiang University, where he received a master’s degree in materials science and engineering, and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.