The University Record, October 1, 2001

Kang Geun Shin—Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award

Shin (Photo by Bill Wood, U-M Photo Services)
Computer scientist Kang Geun Shin, a founder of the real-time control and computing field, is an international expert on this important branch of information technology. He was the first to demonstrate that real-time computing is not equivalent to fast computing and that real-time systems must be designed differently from traditional systems. His research has led to advances in such diverse areas as automotive manufacturing, embedded computing systems, and Internet services.

Professor Shin, a member of the College of Engineering faculty since 1982, formulated and solved the problem of scheduling tasks in the presence of random processor failures and of allocating tasks in distributed computing systems. He also developed a very small real-time operating system called EMERALDS for devices like cell phones.

Professor Shin has authored or co-authored more than 500 papers and book chapters, and his textbook Real-Time Systems (McGraw Hill 1997) has been adopted worldwide. An exemplary teacher and mentor, Professor Shin developed a new, popular real-time systems course. He also has supervised more than 40 students who earned their Ph.D.s and are leaders in the academy and industry.

Founder and director of the Real-Time Computing Lab, Professor Shin has served on numerous departmental committees and has had a profound impact on faculty recruiting in computer science and engineering.

He is active in the computer networking and distributed systems communities, serving on the executive boards of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Real-Time Systems Technical Committee and the Annual Real-Time Computing Applications Conference. He has served on several editorial boards of journals, including IEEE Transactions on Computers, Real-Time Systems Journal, and Computer Networks, and has chaired many conferences and given hundreds of invited and keynote speeches.

The esteem in which Professor Shin is held internationally is reflected in his election as a Fellow of the IEEE and Association for Computing Machinery, a Golden Core Member of the IEEE Computer Society, and an overseas member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. He also has received the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science’s Outstanding Achievement Award and Engineering’s Service Excellence Award and Research Excellence Award.

In recognition of his foundational contributions to real-time computing and his distinguished leadership in his department and as director of the Real-Time Computing Lab, the University of Michigan presents to Kang Geun Shin its Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award.