Margaret Martonosi facts for kids

Margaret Rose Martonosi is an American computer scientist. She is a professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. Professor Martonosi is well-known for her work in computer architecture and mobile computing. She especially focuses on making devices use less power.

She is also recognized for helping more people get involved in computing. From 2016 to 2017, she co-chaired the CRA-W Board. This group works to increase the participation of women in computer science. She was also a special professor at Cornell University from 2016 to 2022.

From February 2020 to December 2023, Professor Martonosi led the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation. This role meant she helped guide important computer science research for the entire country.

Early Life and Education

Margaret Rose Martonosi was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science (B.S.), in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1986.

She continued her studies at Stanford University. There, she received a Master of Science (M.S.) in Electrical Engineering in 1987. She then completed her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in 1993.

After a short research period at Stanford, she joined Princeton University. She became an assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering Department in 1994. She became a full professor in 2004. In 2010, she moved to the Computer Science Department at Princeton.

Contributions to Computer Science

Professor Martonosi has made big contributions to how computers are designed. Her work helps make them more efficient.

Power-Saving Computer Design

One of her key achievements is developing the Wattch power modeling tool. This tool helps computer designers figure out how much power a computer chip will use. They can do this early in the design process. This means they can make choices that help save energy. Her team also studied how to measure power use in real systems. They also worked on ways to manage power and heat in computers.

Innovations in Mobile Systems

Professor Martonosi has also done important work with mobile devices. Early in her career, she helped design mobile sensors to track zebras in Kenya. This project, called ZebraNet, showed how low-power GPS devices could track wildlife. It also showed how devices could share data even when connections were not always available. More recently, she has studied how people move around. She has also created new mobile apps. These apps use information from many people to help with traffic updates.

Awards and Recognition

Professor Martonosi has received many awards for her important work.

• In 2009, she became an ACM Fellow. This award recognized her work in making computers use less power.
• In 2010, she was named an IEEE Fellow. This was for her contributions to designing power-efficient computer systems.
• In 2015, she was a Jefferson Science Fellow. She worked at the United States Department of State.
• She won the 2015 ISCA Influential Paper Award. This was for a paper she co-wrote about analyzing and improving power use in computer designs.
• In 2017, she received the SIGMOBILE Test-of-Time Award. This award was for her 2002 paper about using energy-efficient computing to track wildlife, like the ZebraNet project.
• In 2020, she became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• In 2021, Professor Martonosi was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. This honor recognized her work on power-efficient computer designs and mobile systems.
• In June 2021, she won the ACM-IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award. This award was for her contributions to power-aware computing.
• In May 2024, Professor Martonosi received the 2023 ACM Frances E. Allen Award for Outstanding Mentoring. This award recognized her excellent work in guiding and supporting students and other computer scientists.

Her other notable awards include:

• Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Aristotle Award for graduate research advising (2019)
• ACM SIGARCH Alan D. Berenbaum Distinguished Service Award (2019)
• IEEE International Conference on High-Performance Computer Architecture Test of Time Paper Award (2018)
• IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award (2018)
• ACM Sensys Test of Time Award (2017)
• Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award (2015)
• Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Technical Leadership ABIE Award Winner (2013)
• NCWIT Undergraduate Mentor Award (2013)
• Best Paper award at the Ninth International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services (MobiSys) (2011)
• Best paper award at MICRO-38 (2005)