Richard Fujimoto

Richard Fujimoto is a Regents’ Professor, Emeritus in the School of Computational Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of California-Berkeley in 1983 in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He also received an M.S. degree from the same institution as well as two B.S. degrees from the University of Illinois-Urbana.

Fujimoto is a pioneer in the parallel and distributed discrete event simulation field. Discrete event simulation is widely used in areas such as telecommunications, transportation, manufacturing, and defense, among others. His work developed fundamental understandings of synchronization algorithms that are needed to ensure the correct execution of discrete event simulation programs on high performance computing (HPC) platforms. His team developed many new algorithms and computational techniques to accelerate the execution of discrete event simulations and developed software realizations that impacted several application domains. For example, his Georgia Tech Time Warp software was deployed by MITRE Corp. to create online fast-time simulations of commercial air traffic to help reduce delays in the U.S. National Airspace. An active researcher in this field since 1985, he authored or co-authored three books and hundreds of technical papers including seven that were cited for “best paper” awards or other recognitions. His research included several projects with Georgia Tech faculty in telecommunications, transportation, sustainability, and materials leading to numerous publications co-authored with faculty across campus.  

Fujimoto led the definition of the time management services in the High Level Architecture (HLA) for Modeling and Simulation that ensure proper synchronization of distributed simulations. HLA was designated as the standard technical architecture for all modeling and simulation in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in 1996, thereby forming the basis for simulation interoperability across the entire DoD. Standardized as IEEE 1516, it continues to be used to this day. Software implementations of the services he developed have been realized by corporations such as CAE, General Dynamics, Mitsubishi, Raytheon, Pitch and Mak, among others, as well as an HPC version developed by his group at Georgia Tech. He received the ACM SIGSIM Distinguished Contributions in Simulation Award and the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education (I/ITSEC) Fellow Award in recognition of his contributions to the field. He is a fellow of the ACM, IEEE, and SCS. 

At Georgia Tech Fujimoto was the founding chair of the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) from 2005 to 2014. In that role he was the architect of interdisciplinary educational programs bridging the College of Computing with the rest of campus, especially the College of Engineering and the College of Sciences. He led the creation of the M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs in CSE that span numerous schools across campus. He led the creation of the College of Computing’s first on-line distance learning program, the M.S. program in CSE. At the undergraduate level he led the Computational-X initiative that resulted in the creation of two new undergraduate minors for students outside the College of Computing. He contributed to the development of Georgia Tech’s M.S. program in Analytics as well as its M.S. program in Urban Analytics, again with faculty in several other units across campus. A strong advocate for diversity, he played a leading role in the creation of the CRUISE (Computing Research Undergraduate Intern Summer Experience) program featuring outreach to women and minority students, personally supervised numerous African-American undergraduates, and served as the advisor for the first African-American student to receive the Ph. D. degree from Georgia Tech’s CSE program. As CSE school chair his accomplishments include growing the school to 13 tenure track faculty and building the school’s administrative staff. Under his leadership, the school was formally established as an academic unit (the School of Computational Science and Engineering) at Georgia Tech in 2010. He received many Georgia Tech awards including the institute-wide Class of 1934 Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award, the Outstanding Service Award, and the Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development Award as well as numerous College of Computing awards.