Outgoing ACM President Yannis Ioannidis (left), Nenad Medvidović (middle), incoming ACM President Elisa Bertino (right) (Credit: ACM Photographer)
This month, USC Computer Science Department Chair Nenad “Neno” Medvidović was officially inducted as an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow at the 2026 ACM Awards Banquet.
Held in San Francisco, the banquet celebrated 71 class of 2025 fellows for their visionary contributions that have helped advance the computing field.
Awarded to the top 1% of ACM members, ACM Fellow is a prestigious distinction that recognizes foundational contributions to computing and information technology.
Medvidović’s ACM Fellow citation recognizes his contributions to “the foundations of software architectures and their application to software engineering.”
Medvidović is a professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and AI. He currently serves as chair of the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science and is the director emeritus of the Center for Systems and Software Engineering (CSSE).
After earning his PhD in computer science from the University of California, Irvine, in 1999, Medvidović joined USC as a faculty member and continued his research career in software engineering at the university.
For Medvidović, the fellowship marks a significant milestone in his career, recognizing that his research has made a tangible impact on how large-scale software systems are designed, developed and maintained.
Class of 2025 ACM Fellows at the ACM Awards Banquet in June 2026 (Credit: ACM Photographer)
From Software Architecture to AI: Solving Complex Systems Challenges
As the founder of USC’s SoftArch Research Lab, Medvidović studies the “load-bearing walls” of software. His research focuses on software architecture — the underlying structures and principles that shape large-scale software systems. He seeks to understand how these systems are organized, why they become brittle and where they are most likely to fail.
His early research addressed client-server systems that typically ran on a small number of devices.
As the internet matured, his focus shifted to web-based and subsequently mobile device-based systems capable of operating across thousands of devices worldwide.
A core philosophy of his lab is that software is a sociotechnical discipline. He studies not only the code itself but also the interplay between technology and the humans who build, own and use it.
Today, his lab tackles a range of challenges at the intersection of software architecture, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The projects aim to make complex software systems more adaptable, secure and efficient.
One of the lab’s latest projects focuses on modularizing deep neural networks. Rather than treating AI systems as a single massive unit that must be retrained from scratch, the researchers are developing ways to break neural networks into functional modules that can be individually improved, replaced or upgraded.
Another project his lab is tackling centers on vulnerability detection. The team is building AI-based tools that can identify security weaknesses in software systems they have never encountered before by learning patterns from previously discovered vulnerabilities.
Software architecture for next-generation AI systems is another key area of research for the team. By studying how large, complex software and AI systems are structured, the researchers aim to improve their scalability, maintainability and long-term reliability.
Learn more about Medvidović and his lab work here.
Building a Legacy Through Research and Mentorship
Reflecting on his career, Medvidović said one of his biggest milestones was seeing his first PhD students secure faculty positions at universities.
Several of those academic appointments occurred in “pretty quick succession” during his first decade at USC. For a young professor, seeing the impact of his mentorship materialize so early was particularly rewarding.
“Those were the moments that made me feel like I had made it,” he said.
Over the years, Medvidović has watched many of his PhD students flourish in academic roles at respected institutions across the country — from a former student who went on to serve as department chair at Seattle University to another who is now a tenured faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
He said those experiences reinforced the importance of academic lineage and mentorship. Medvidović describes academia as “a tree with many branches,” where each generation of researchers contributes to and expands a long intellectual tradition. He noted that scholars can trace their academic ancestry back hundreds of years to influential thinkers—in his case, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
Another major “pinch-me moment” came when he received multiple Test of Time awards, which recognize papers that have demonstrated a lasting impact on their field years after publication.
One of the most notable examples was his 1998 paper, “Architecture-Based Runtime Software Evolution,” presented at the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). A decade later, in 2008, the paper was recognized as the conference’s Most Influential Paper.
Medvidović describes receiving his first Test of Time award as a defining career highlight. He recalled a colleague pulling him aside during a committee meeting to share the news. At the time, he viewed such recognition as something amazing that happened to other researchers but would never happen to me.
Unlike the validation that comes with publishing a new paper, he said the award demonstrated that his research had stood the test of time and continued to influence how researchers and engineers think about software systems.
Those honors made him feel “seen and recognized” as a researcher and affirmed that his focus on tackling important problems was paying off.
The accolades also laid the foundation for his eventual election as both an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Fellow — two of the highest distinctions in the computing profession.
Medvidović was named an IEEE Fellow in 2016 for his contributions to software architecture and software engineering. He describes both fellowships as a “very special” culmination of decades of work and among the defining achievements of his career, representing recognition from the top tier of the global computing community.
When asked what being named an ACM Fellow means to him, Medvidović described the honor as a humbling experience that puts his own work into perspective alongside his peers, who are making world-changing contributions to computing.
For Medvidović, the fellowship serves as both recognition that his research has made a tangible impact on the field and an opportunity to be counted among what he describes as an “exalted bunch of researchers”, including many of his esteemed colleagues at USC Viterbi.
Attending the ACM Awards Banquet alongside this year’s ACM Fellows and award recipients further reinforced that perspective. In particular, sharing the occasion with Turing Award recipient Charles Bennett served as a reminder of the value of long-term scientific curiosity, persistence and impact.
While he views the fellowship as a significant personal achievement, Medvidović said the honor also reflects the broader community of students, collaborators and colleagues who have contributed to his research journey throughout his career.
A Research Career that Started and Built at USC
After joining USC as an assistant professor of computer science, Medvidović said he has become a “USC lifer” and lifelong Trojan, crediting the university with playing a defining role in shaping both his career and research trajectory.
Drawn by USC’s reputation as a leading destination for software engineering research in Los Angeles, Medvidović saw the university as a place where he could build a long-term research program and make a lasting impact on the field.
As a 30-year-old faculty member, he quickly established himself as an emerging researcher. In 2000, during his first year at USC, he received the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He later earned tenure and has spent more than two decades advancing software engineering research and mentoring future generations of computer scientists.
During his time at USC, Medvidović has held numerous leadership positions. He previously served as director of the Center for Systems and Software Engineering (CSSE) and associate chair, as well as vice-chair of the Department of Computer Science. Today, he serves as chair of the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science.
Medvidović credits USC’s ability to attract top-tier graduate students as one of the key factors behind the success of his research program. He said the university’s reputation consistently draws exceptional PhD and master’s students, providing the talent needed to grow his lab and pursue ambitious research challenges.
He also highlighted USC’s close connections to Southern California’s technology ecosystem. The university’s strong ties to industry created natural opportunities for collaboration and helped accelerate his growth as a young researcher, while providing pathways to translate research into real-world impact.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, Medvidović said USC has also shaped his personal development. He noted that working alongside generations of talented students has kept him intellectually curious and energized, describing the university environment as one that “keeps you young” through a constant influx of bright, motivated scholars.
Advice for the Next Generation of Engineers and Researchers: Working on Problems That Matter
For the next generation of researchers and engineers, Medvidović’s advice is simple: work on problems that matter.
He encourages young researchers to look beyond the “low-hanging fruit,” noting that projects designed primarily to generate quick publications often lack lasting impact.
Instead, he hopes to inspire the next generation to pursue challenges of both technical and societal importance — problems they are genuinely passionate about solving.
Drawing on a favorite saying from his doctoral advisor, “run silent, run deep,” Medvidović emphasizes the importance of depth, rigor and persistence over making a splash or chasing the latest trend.
By committing to important problems and tackling them with patience and determination, he believes researchers can make contributions that remain influential for decades — much like the Test of Time-awarded research that helped define his own career.
His final message to aspiring engineers and scientists is straightforward: choose a problem that matters, dedicate yourself to solving it and let the results speak for themselves.
Published on July 2nd, 2026
Last updated on July 2nd, 2026