Meet: Jerry Mendel, IEEE Lotfi A. Zadeh Pioneer Award 2021
Jerry Mendel, a long-time member of the CIS, has received the IEEE Lotfi A. Zadeh Pioneer Award – maintained by the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society – for developing and promoting Type-2 fuzzy logic. The IEEE Lotfi A. Zadeh Pioneer Award honors a person or persons with outstanding and pioneering contributions to academic and/or industrial research in systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and/or cybernetics (established in 2014), made at least 15 years prior to the award date. Past awardees are: 2017—Lotfi Zadeh (honorary) and Michio Sugeno, and 2018—Ronald Yager.
What is your title, and place of work? (or Technical Field of Research)?
I am an Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
University of Southern California
Although retired since 2018, I continue to research fuzzy sets and systems (mainly type-2) either individually or with colleagues from around the World.
I was a member of Fuzzy Systems TC from 2001–2015, and its Chair from 2003 –2007.
AdCom Member from 2004–2009 and 2011–2013, Chairman of Task Force on Computing With Words for the Fuzzy Systems TC from 2008-2010, AE of IEEE Trans. on Fuzzy Systems from 1994–1995 and 1999–2016.
How long have you been a member of CIS and what was the reason you chose to join IEEE CIS?
I have been a member of CIS from its inception. I joined because it covered my technical interests.
What Computational Intelligence society committee do you serve?
In the past, I used to be in many committees in CIS.
Presently, I am a member of the Continuing Education Sub-Committee and the Industrial Activities Committee (before I began my academic career I worked in industry for 11 years).
What have you learned from your experience and how has it helped you professionally?
I have been active in IEEE Societies for my entire career. Prior to my joining CIS I had been President of the IEEE Control Systems Society and EIC of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. Working with the leaders and luminaries of a field has been a very rewarding experience. Being the Chair of a TC or a TF has provided me with opportunities to influence some research directions. I have also been able to make some connections with colleagues who then work with me jointly on research projects that are of mutual interest.
What has been the most fun/rewarding thing about being a volunteer for the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society? What have you enjoyed the most?
Meeting and interacting with so many interesting people.
I was asked to chair a sub-committee for creating a competition for a video that would explain what a fuzzy set is, with monetary awards to the winners. Something like this had not been done before in the CIS, and I really like doing something that no one has done before. You can let your creative juices flow. This gave me an opportunity to work with some very talented younger members of the CIS. It was an amazingly fun project, and there are now two winning You-Tube videos: “An Egg-Boiling Fuzzy Logic Robot” and “Fuzzy Logic: An Introduction.”
I have also enjoyed going to dinners with CIS colleagues after adCom meetings.
Tell us something about you that we don’t know.
I am an avid Bridge player, and have been playing for close to 60 years.