ACM MemberNet - September 25, 2008
Welcome to the September edition of ACM MemberNet, bringing you the world of ACM and beyond. Explore the many facets of ACM with our newsletter of member activities and events. Read MemberNet online at http://membernet.acm.org/. Is there a person, event, or issue you'd like to see covered? Please email mn-editor at acm.org.
Read TechNews, ACM's digest of news and information for IT professionals published three times a week.
Washington Update, a monthly newsletter from USACM reporting on activities in Washington.
Published biweekly, ACM CareerNews provides summaries of articles on career-related topics in the computing field.
ACM-W newsletter (pdf) from ACM's Committee on Women in Computing
TOP STORIES
- Several SIGs Extend Officers' Terms
- Barbara G. Ryder Named J. Byron Maupin Professor at Virginia Tech
Awards - Call for 2008 ACM Award Nominations
Member Recognition - Call for ACM Advanced Member Level Nominations
SIG Awards - ACM SIG Awards Recognize Achievements in Diverse Fields
Conferences and Events - Grace Hopper Celebration to Draw Researchers, Industry Leaders
- OOPSLA 2008 to Feature Cutting-Edge Object-Oriented Technologies
- SC08 Technical Program Registration Now Open
- SIGGRAPH Asia Conference to Debut in December
Public Policy - ACM, CRA, NCWIT Confront Shortfall in US IT Workforce
- USACM Member Illuminates Electronic Voting Technologies, Regulations
Member Programs - New Member-Get-A-Member 2008–2009 Campaign Launched
- ACM Adds Four New Offerings to Insurance Program
- Take Advantage of ACM's Lifetime Membership Plan
Online Books & Courses - Books in Safari, Books24x7 Collections to Be Replaced by New/Requested Titles
- ACM Books Program Featured in TechRepublic Blog: "10 ways to learn new skills on the cheap"
Education - CSTA Leadership Cohort to Build Educational Advocacy Groups at State Level
Student News - ACM Partners with Microsoft to Offer Students Free Software
- Upcoming ACM Student Research Competitions Call for Submissions
- ACM-W Student Scholarships for Attendance at Research Conferences
- Student Volunteers Needed to Help Train High School CS Teachers
- Graduating Students Eligible for Special Transition Rate
ACM-W News - Athena Lecturer Shafi Goldwasser to Speak at STOC 2009
- ACM-W Ambassador's Report: Empowering Women in South Africa
Publications News - Communications of the ACM News: CACM's New Design Cited in Blog, and a Last Interview with Randy Pausch
- eLearn Blog Debuts
ACM in the News - "The World's Leading Computer Scientists Descend on Imperial for Inaugural Conference"
- "Online Business Training, From Big Blue"
TOP STORIES
Several SIGs Extend Officers' Terms
Officers of permanent Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are elected by plurality vote of the SIG members beginning July 1st. At the end of the term, the SIG Governing Board may exercise an option at the request of the SIG Officers to extend their term for a set number of years as set forth in the SIG's bylaws. In accordance with this policy, the SIG Board voted on September 4 to approve the request to extend the terms of office for the following SIGs: ARCH, COMM, ecom, IR, METRICS, OPS, and WEB.
Elections will be held for any of these SIGs if a petition is brought forward by one percent of the members of the SIG. A petition to initiate an election must be received at ACM Headquarters, Office of Policy and Administration, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, NY, NY 10121 by November 28. Questions about the petition process should be directed to Pat Ryan, ACM Chief Operating Officer.
Barbara G. Ryder Named J. Byron Maupin Professor at Virginia Tech
Barbara G. Ryder, ACM's current Secretary/Treasurer and professor and head of the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, was named the J. Byron Maupin Professor by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. The J. Byron Maupin Professorship was established by his widow Majorie S. Maupin and her brother, LeRoy M. Sizemore, in 1993. J. Byron Maupin, a native of Bedford, Va., was a 1934 industrial engineering graduate who spent his career with DuPont and Sprague Meter Company. Ryder is the first woman to serve as a department head in the College of Engineering. Ryder is an ACM Fellow and 2008 ACM Presidential Award recipient, and has been an active leader in many of its activities (ACM Council Member 2000–2008; Chair, Federated Computing Research Conference 2003; Chair, ACM SIGPLAN 1995–1997). Ryder has also served on many program and conference committees, especially those sponsored by ACM SIGPLAN and the association's Special Interest Group on Software Engineering.
Awards
Call for 2008 ACM Award Nominations
Each year, ACM recognizes technical and professional achievements within the computing and information technology community through its celebrated Awards Program. And annually, ACM's award committees evaluate the contributions of candidates for various awards that span a spectrum of professional and technological accomplishments. You and your colleagues are invited to nominate candidates for ACM awards, including:
Awards with November 30, 2008 nomination deadlines:- A.M. Turing Award
- ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences
- ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award
- Software System Award
- Grace Murray Hopper Award
- Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award
- Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award
- Distinguished Service Award
- ACM-IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award
- Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award
- SIAM/ACM Prize in Computational Science and Engineering
- Doctoral Dissertation Award
Learn more about nomination procedures and read a letter from Award Committee Co-Chairs Kelly Gotlieb and Jim Horning on the ACM Awards Call for Nominations page. Refer to http://www.acm.org/nominations for the complete listing of 2008 Award Subcommittee Chairs and Members.
Member Recognition
Call for ACM Advanced Member Level Nominations
ACM recognizes annually a class of ACM Fellows, our eminent colleagues that ACM and its members look to for guidance and leadership. ACM also has advanced grade memberships of Distinguished Engineer/Scientist/Member and Senior Member.
Senior Member recognizes ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who have demonstrated performance and accomplishment that set them apart from their peers. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The next deadline for nominations is November 30, 2008.
The Distinguished Engineer/Scientist/Member designation recognizes ACM members with at least 15 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who have demonstrated significant accomplishments or made a significant impact on the computing field. The deadline for nominations is July 31, 2009.
Fellows are outstanding ACM members with at least 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who are recognized for their technical, professional and leadership contributions that advance the objectives of ACM and the field as a whole. The deadline for nominations is September 15, 2009.
SIG Awards
ACM SIG Awards Recognize Achievements in Diverse Fields
ACM's Special Interest Groups (SIGs) regularly cite outstanding individuals for their contributions in more than 30 distinct technological fields. Some awards presented (or to be presented) at recent conferences:- SIGCOMM Test of Time Paper Award
- SIGCOMM Best Paper Award
- SIGMM Award for Outstanding Technical Contributions
- SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award
Conferences and Events
Grace Hopper Celebration to Draw Researchers, Industry Leaders
The 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, hosted by ACM and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI), is planned for the Keystone Resort in Colorado October 1 to 4. GHC attracts an international array of speakers, more than 88 sessions across seven tracks, as well as panels, workshops, new investigator technical papers, Ph.D. forums, and achievement awards. With the theme "We Build a Better World," this year's GHC, now an annual event, will recognize the significant role women play in creating and utilizing technology to improve world conditions. This year GHC is expecting more than 1400 participants. Sessions will include strategies for aligning research with the business goals of a commercial organization; and political initiatives to encourage diversity in the ICT workforce. Scheduled keynote speakers are IBM Fellow Emerita and 2006 ACM Turing Award winner Fran Allen, and Mary Lou Jepsen, founder and CTO of One Laptop per Child.
Read the press release.
OOPSLA 2008 to Feature Cutting-Edge Object-Oriented Technologies
OOPSLA 2008, the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, takes place in Nashville, Tennessee October 19 to 23. Participants are invited to nourish "Mind, Body and Soul" through the various workshops, tutorials, papers, panels, and networking opportunities offered. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Virtual Machines, Agile Software Development, the Deep Web, and domain-specific languages, are just a few of the topics covered. In addition, a DesignFest (team problem-solving and discussion), and a special panel on attracting more women to computing will be held. Invited speakers from fields ranging from Ancient Egyptian studies to Anthropology to higher-order programming will address cutting-edge topics. There will also be a Student Research Competition.
SC08 Technical Program Registration Now Open
Registration is now open for the SC08 International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis. The conference will offer a technical program that includes tutorials, technical paper presentations, panel discussions, workshops, birds-of-a-feather sessions, and poster presentations. SC08 will feature papers on GPU applications, petaflop architectures, e-science grids, OS kernels, and 10-gigabit wide-area networks. Selected workshops include Node Level Parallelism for Large Scale Supercomputers, Grid Computing Environments 2008, Power Efficiency and the Path to Exascale Computing, Bridging Multicore's Programmability Gap, Advanced Modeling and Simulation for Fission Nuclear Energy, and High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing Technology and Applications. Keynote speaker Michael Dell of Dell Inc. will speak on "Higher Performance: Supercomputing in the Connected Era." SC08 takes place November 15 to 21 in Austin, Texas.
SIGGRAPH Asia Conference to Debut in December
The first ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia (SIGGRAPH Asia 2008) will take place at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Singapore from December 10 to 13. In addition to the trade exhibition, the conference will include an Art Gallery, a Computer Animation Festival, technical courses, an educators program, an Emerging Technologies program, sketches and posters, a Job Fair, and technical papers. Featured speakers will include Computer Graphics Pioneer Don Greenberg of Cornell University. Early registration is now available.
Public Policy
ACM, CRA, NCWIT Confront Shortfall in US IT Workforce
ACM joined with the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) in June to host a roundtable discussion on the serious challenges confronting the Information Technology (IT) workforce in the US. Attendees included government affairs officials from IT companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, HP, and Google, and non-profit associations. Speaking from the perspective of their community, leaders of the professional computing organizations reported that the education pipeline feeding the IT workforce shows signs of stress. With a focus on diversity, research, and education as recognized drivers of innovation, participants advanced ideas for developing a sustainable IT workforce in the US to keep pace with the nation's rapidly growing IT infrastructure. The full report (pdf) from this workshop is now available.
USACM Member Illuminates Electronic Voting Technologies, Regulations
As the 2008 US presidential elections near, voting technologies continue to be a topic of considerable debate among policymakers and computer professionals. Harry Hochheiser, assistant professor in Towson University's Department of Computer and Information Sciences and a member of the USACM Executive Committee, described recent developments in voting technologies and regulations in an appearance before ACM's Washington, DC Chapter. Hochheiser has participated in drafting USACM comments on proposed voting guidelines issued by the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC). In his September 11 presentation (pdf), he discussed his perspective on both policy and research affecting accuracy, reliability, accessibility, usability, security, and auditability of voting systems. Of particular interest to the audience were the concept of software-independence and the idea of an independent voter-verifiable record. Hochheiser's remarks, part of a speakers series sponsored by the Washington, DC Chapter that is free and open to the public, sparked a lively discussion that lasted past the official conclusion of the program.
Member Programs
New Member-Get-A-Member 2008–2009 Campaign Launched
ACM recently launched its new 2008–2009 Member-Get-A-Member Recruitment Drive, with new prizes added to our already great selection, and an Apple iPhone grand prize! Current members are the ideal ambassadors to communicate the advantages of joining ACM to prospective members, and those who participate by telling friends and colleagues about ACM may be eligible for valuable gifts and special recognition. ACM's Online Member-Get-A-Member program is interactive, easy to use, and rewards members for helping to recruit new members. The drive ends June 30, 2009. For referral forms, recruitment tips and tools, prizes and rewards, and bonus gifts, visit the Member-Get-a-Member drive page.
ACM Adds Four New Offerings to Insurance Program
ACM is pleased to announce the addition of four new plans to the ACM Insurance Program. The new offerings are Group 10 or 20 Year Level Term Life Insurance, Long Term Care, and Group Dental Insurance. ACM members living in the US are eligible. Visit the insurance page to learn more about these programs, and all of ACM's Insurance Program plans.
Take Advantage of ACM's Lifetime Membership Plan
ACM Professional Members can enjoy the convenience of making a single payment for their entire tenure as an ACM Member, and also be protected from future price increases by taking advantage of ACM's Lifetime Membership option. Pricing for ACM Lifetime Membership is based on age and current dues rates, and the option to include the ACM Digital Library is also available. ACM Lifetime Membership dues may be tax deductible under certain circumstances (please consult with your tax advisor). Lifetime Members will receive a certificate of recognition suitable for framing, and enjoy all of the benefits of ACM Professional Membership.
Online Books & Courses
Books in Safari, Books24x7 Collections to Be Replaced by New/Requested Titles
On October 6, ACM will be swapping one quarter of the titles in both our Safari® Books Online and Books24x7® collections. In total, 150 titles from Safari and 125 titles from Books24x7will be replaced by new or requested titles. The list of titles to be removed can be found at http://pd.acm.org/books/saf_swap_books.cfm for Safari and at http://pd.acm.org/books/b24x7_swap_books.cfm for Books24x7. To see the books being added, scroll or jump to the lower part of these pages to view the books being added. If you are in the process of using any of the books scheduled to be removed, we encourage you to complete your readings before October 3.
ACM Books Program Featured in TechRepublic Blog: "10 ways to learn new skills on the cheap"
A recent TechRepublic blog post included the ACM Online Books program in their recent list of the 10 most affordable ways to stay current with constantly changing technology, and acquiring the skills needed to support it. "National organizations typically have a number of resources that you, as a member, can participate in. ...There may be a cost associated with some of this training, and access to some of the resources may require a paid, or premium (read: more expensive), membership. But when you consider that a membership to the Association [for] Computing Machinery, for example, can give you access to more than 1,100 books online, in addition to their journals and proceedings, it might well be worth the annual membership fee."
Education
CSTA Leadership Cohort to Build Educational Advocacy Groups at State Level
In January, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) was awarded a two-year grant with the overall objective of developing a cohort of K–12 teachers who will serve as educational leaders at the state level. In July, CSTA held a leadership-building workshop focusing on leadership qualities needed for effective advocacy, identifying and building partnerships with appropriate stakeholders, and developing a toolkit of advocacy materials to be used in each state. Thirty-two attendees representing 17 states participated in the workshop, and individuals from the remaining states will be invited early next year to participate in a workshop during summer 2009 and continue their work through 2010. Since the workshop, participants have begun implementing outreach plans in their respective states focused on establishing K–12 Computer Science as an essential academic discipline and participating in a cohort online community to share experiences, strategies, and successes. They have also been encouraged to work toward organizing local and state chapters of CSTA. These organizations will receive input and support from members of the CSTA Board of Directors and/or from local university faculty as part of a K–12 outreach program. They will meet on a regular basis, and address key issues such as curriculum reform and improving teacher practice through professional development. University or college faculty members interested in supporting a local CSTA chapter should contact Gail Chapman at [email protected].
Student News
ACM Partners with Microsoft to Offer Students Free Software
Through ACM's partnership with the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance (MSDN AA) Program, ACM Student Members can now receive free and unlimited access to about 100+ software packages. If you are an ACM Student Member, sign up for an MSDN AA account by logging in at myACM, checking the appropriate box, and clicking on "Submit." For more information, visit the MSDN AA FAQ page.
Upcoming ACM Student Research Competitions Call for Submissions
ACM Student Research Competitions take place at ACM-sponsored conferences throughout the year. Students present their papers in poster sessions to compete for the Grand Finals prizes, and network with luminaries from academia and industry. SIGCSE 2009 is the next conference accepting submissions. The deadline is September 28, 2008. Learn about more competitions on the SRC submissions page.
ACM-W Student Scholarships for Attendance at Research Conferences
A program launched by ACM's Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W) provides support for undergraduate or graduate women students in Computer Science programs who are interested in attending research conferences. It is not required that the student present a paper at the conference she attends. High school students will also be considered for conference support. Initially, up to 12 scholarships of up to $500 each will be awarded annually. ACM-W also encourages the student's home department to match the scholarship award and recognize the student's achievement locally within her department. Applications will be evaluated in four groups each year, in order to distribute awards across a range of conferences, with two to three awards given each quarter. For application form, notification dates and more information, please visit the scholarships page.
Student Volunteers Needed to Help Teach High School CS Teachers
The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) is seeking Computer Science college students proficient in Java and other new programming languages and environments to train high school CS teachers in these technologies. Java Engagement for Teacher Training (JETT) and Teacher Enrichment in Computer Science (TECS) are one- and two-day workshops for high school teachers, hosted by college and university CS students and faculty. Hosting a JETT or TECS workshop is a great volunteer experience for individual student ACM members, as well as student chapters. For more information please contact Gail Chapman, the JETT and TECS workshop coordinator.
Graduating Students Eligible for Special Transition Rate
ACM offers a special ACM Professional Membership for $49 USD (regularly $99) to help graduating students make the transition to professional careers, and take advantage of continuous learning opportunities, including free online books and courses and access to ACM's Career & Job Center. This one-year-only transition rate includes all the benefits of Professional Membership plus the option of purchasing a Digital Library subscription for $50. Recent graduates can access this special transition offer through ACM's convenient online renewal form, or by following the instructions on the paper renewal form.
ACM-W News
Athena Lecturer Shafi Goldwasser to Speak at STOC 2009
The 2008–2009 Athena Lecturer, Shafi Goldwasser of MIT and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel will speak at the STOC 2009 conference taking place May 31 to June 2 in Bethesda, Maryland. Goldwasser works at the intersection of cryptography and complexity theory. The ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award celebrates outstanding women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. Each year ACM honors a preeminent woman computer scientist as the Athena Lecturer. With her wisdom and sense of purpose, and her willingness to enter the fray, the Greek goddess Athena epitomizes the strength, determination, and intelligence of the "Athena Lecturers." Previous winners were the late Karen Sparck Jones, Cambridge University, who worked in information retrieval and natural language processing, and who taped her lecture for the ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, and Deborah Estrin of UCLA, who gave her talk at MobiCom 2006 and who heads the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing.
Athena Lecturers are nominated by Special Interest Group (SIG) officers; the Athena Lecturer gives a keynote at a SIG meeting of her and the SIG's choice, and receives a $10,000 honorarium, funded by Google. More information can be found on the Athena announcement page, which includes links to talks by the previous winners. Nominations for next year are due February 1 2009; see the nomination form for more information.
ACM-W Ambassador's Report: Empowering Women in South Africa
Vashti Galpin, ACM-W's Ambassador for South Africa, looks back on her eight years of service, including developing her ambassador web site, compiling statistics and literature about women in computing in South Africa, and programs for women in computing, science and technology in this developing country. Read about this and meet the new ambassador, Cecille Marsh, in her post on ACM-W's news blog.
Publications News
Communications of the ACM News: CACM's New Design Cited in Blog, and a Last Interview with Randy Pausch
The newly redesigned Communications of the ACM (CACM) received a glowing review in a recent blog praising both its new look and its shift in content focus.
The September issue of CACM features articles on the Open Educational Resources movement; distributed video coding for mobile devices; smart power management; and an interview with Randy Pausch, the late author of the best selling and widely viewed "Last Lecture." Read the press release.
eLearn Blog Debuts
eLearn magazine has launched a new blog. Here, Editor-in-Chief Lisa Neal Gualtieri will regularly share her thoughts on online learning. Read her posts on "Is e-learning 'Bad' Education?", Sarah Palin, and what ant farms in London's Tate Modern Museum have to do with e-learning. This is a great opportunity for readers to contribute to the blog by posting your own comments, so visit the eLearn Blog and chime in!
ACM in the News
"The World's Leading Computer Scientists Descend on Imperial for Inaugural Conference"
Imperial College London, September 19, 2008
Seven ACM Turing Award winners to address British Computer Society's inaugural "Visions of Computer Science" conference uniting academics from around the world to discuss latest research advances and challenges in Computer Science.
"Online Business Training, From Big Blue"
The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 4, 2008
IBM has unveiled a tool, available on their Academic Initiative Web site, that helps professors match IBM's technology and resources to courses recommended by ACM.
Read more ACM in the News.
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