Saurabh Bagchi, professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science (by courtesy)

Saurabh Bagchi, professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science (by courtesy), was elected to the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors (BOG) for a three-year term that began Jan. 1, 2022. The BOG is the executive body that drives the Computer Society’s vision forward, provides policy guidance to program boards and committees, and reviews the performance of the organization to ensure compliance with its policy directions. IEEE Computer Society is the world’s largest organization for computing professionals.

“I am honored to have been elected to serve on the board,” Bagchi said. “I will work to increase the relevance of the society to its members worldwide and will re-energize our efforts to mentor and highlight the students and young professionals.”

Bagchi previously served a term on the board from 2017 to 2019. During that period, he initiated and led the IEEE CS Global Student Challenge, a worldwide competition where teams of students come together to solve challenging and real-world data analytics problems.

“Saurabh brings a passion to connect the Computer Society to its members, especially the students and young professionals so important to the future of computing,” said Professor William Gropp, the Thomas M. Siebel Chair Professor in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and 2022 IEEE Computer Society President. “I look forward to working with him as we develop new and innovative ideas to make the Computer Society better serve its members and the computing community as a whole."

Another area of focus for Bagchi is to make IEEE offerings more relevant to industry, while ensuring their continued vitality to academic colleagues. He looks to offer innovative conference formats keeping in view the changing worldwide situation.

Bagchi is the founding director of the Center for Resilient Infrastructures, Systems, and Processes (CRISP), a University-wide center that focuses on resilience of cyber, cyber-physical, and socio-technical systems. He also serves as the inaugural faculty director of ECE’s Corporate Partnerships Program.