Ming Lin Elected Treasurer of the CRA Board of Directors

Ming Lin, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science, has been elected the Treasurer of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and a member of the Executive Committee of CRA Board of Directors. She will assume the position on July 1, 2025. Lin, who has served on the CRA Board since 2023, has also been actively involved in the CRA’s Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP), contributing as a board member and program co-chair for the National Science Foundation’s Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU) program.

Lin recognized the importance of her election, highlighting the opportunity to break new ground in the field.

"It's a real honor to take on this role and contribute to the organization in a meaningful way," Lin said. "I have the privilege and opportunity to be the first Asian American woman elected as Treasurer and to serve on the Executive Committee of CRA in its history."

The CRA Board of Directors plays a central role in shaping the future of computing research, guiding strategic initiatives and overseeing financial decision-making. 

“Given the likelihood of financial uncertainties in many federally-funded programs, the CRA Executive Committee will be expected to make some very important decisions, regarding how to ‘pivot’, ‘redirect’ and reinvent its program focuses, with the entire CRA Board of Directors and staff leaders as a team, while maximizing the program benefits for all CRA member universities and organizations,” Lin said. “I would consider the challenges CRA will face as an opportunity to explore alternative ways to new growth and creative expansion in serving its members, while continuing to advance computing research across all fronts.”

Lin’s research spans virtual reality, computer graphics, AI/ML and robotics, with a focus on multimodal interaction, physically based simulations, and algorithmic robotics. Her work has applications in medical simulations, urban computing, intelligent transportation and human-centric computing. She holds six patents related to physics-based sound synthesis, garment reconstruction and medical imaging for cancer detection. Since becoming an Amazon Scholar in 2020, Lin has collaborated on patents related to 3D garment draping prediction, which contributed to the launch of Amazon’s first real-time learning-based 3D virtual try-on technology.

Lin’s research has also explored the use of virtual and augmented reality in transportation and healthcare. Her work on vehicle collision prediction and traffic control has considerable implications for the rise of autonomous vehicles. Additionally, her research on medical imaging has contributed to more accurate cancer diagnoses and virtual surgery training.

She has received numerous accolades, including a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award, the  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) VGTC Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award, the the Washington Academy of Sciences’ Distinguished Career Award,  the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGGRAPH Academy member, and IEEE Virtual Reality Academy member.  She is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the ACM, the IEEE  and the Eurographics Association.

After two decades at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lin joined the University of Maryland in 2018. She served as the Elizabeth Iribe Chair of Computer Science from 2018 to 2020 and now holds the Dr. Barry L. Mersky and Capital One E-Nnovate Endowed Professorships.

—Story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications