Guy Van den Broeck, assistant professor of computer science, was one of four early-career UCLA faculty members who received the 2020 Sloan Research Fellowship. Awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the fellowships include a two-year, $75,000 award to support research.
Van den Broeck’s research interests include machine learning, artificial intelligence, knowledge- representation and reasoning, as well as applications of probabilistic reasoning and learning. His current research focus includes unifying two distinct branches of AI — data-centric machine learning and symbolic reasoning, the latter being a more established area that relies on logic. He directs the UCLA Statistical and Relational Artificial Intelligence (StarAI) laboratory. Among his awards are the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the IJCAI 2019 Computers and Thought Award. His courses include fundamentals of artificial intelligence.
The foundation’s 2020 class of fellows included 126 scientists and scholars from more than 60 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. UCLA is tied for fifth in the number of faculty honored this year by the foundation, which selects early-career scientists and scholars who are rising stars of science.
“To receive a Sloan Research Fellowship is to be told by your fellow scientists that you stand out among your peers,” says Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “A Sloan Research Fellow is someone whose drive, creativity and insight make them a researcher to watch.”
The Sloan Research Fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of exceptional young scientists and scholars in chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics. Based in New York, the Sloan Foundation was established in 1934.