Cho-Jui Hsieh, an assistant professor of computer science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received a 2021 Okawa Foundation Research Grant for his work on machine learning for optimization. Hsieh is one of only seven recipients from the United States to be awarded one of the $10,000 grants.
Hsieh’s research has the potential to affect the field broadly by solving a problem many large networks face — how to efficiently tune optimizers. For a typical network to run smoothly when handling large volumes of data, the system has to first address optimization problems. However, current optimizers require a lot of manual tuning and are prone to human errors. Hsieh’s research is centered on developing artificial intelligence that can more efficiently adjust the optimizers for each given task, potentially in new ways that humans have yet to develop.
Established in 1996, primarily by the late information technology pioneer Isao Okawa, the Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications in Japan promotes and develops the field of information communications technology by providing awards and grants to researchers and hosting relevant symposiums and workshops.
