ACM MemberNet - October 25, 2012

Welcome to the October 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 current and past issues of 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.

TOP STORIES

Awards Member Recognition SIG Awards Conferences and Events Member Programs Learning Center Career & Job Center Education Student News Distinguished Speakers Program Chapters News ACM-W News Publications News ACM in the News
TOP STORIES

ACM Special Interest Groups Extend Officers' Terms
Officers of permanent SIGs are elected by plurality vote of the SIG members beginning July 1. 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 Governing Board voted to approve the request to extend the terms of office for the following SIGs: SIGARCH, SIGecom, SIGMETRICS, SIGOPS, and SIGWEB.

Elections will be held for any of these SIGs if a petition is brought forward by one percent (1%) of the members of the SIG. A petition to initiate an election must be received at ACM Headquarters:
Patricia Ryan, Office of Policy and Administration, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY 10121 by November 1. Questions about the petition process should be directed to Pat Ryan, ACM Chief Operating Officer, at [email protected].

Awards

ACM, IEEE Computer Society Honor Programming Languages Researcher with Ken Kennedy Award
Mary Lou Soffa of the University of Virginia will receive the ACM-IEEE Computer Society Ken Kennedy Award for contributions to detecting and managing software security flaws. She developed software tools for debugging and testing programs to eliminate or reduce false alarms and improve operating efficiency. Her research produced automatic, practical solutions in software engineering, and systems and programming languages for improving software reliability, security and productivity. Soffa will receive the Kennedy award on November 13 in Salt Lake City at SC12, the international conference on high-performance computing. ACM and the Computer Society co-sponsor the Kennedy Award, which was established in 2009 to recognize substantial contributions to programmability and productivity in computing and significant community service or mentoring contributions. It was named for the late Ken Kennedy, founder of Rice University's computer science program and a world expert on high-performance computing. The Kennedy Award carries a US $5,000 honorarium endowed by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (SIGARCH) and the Computer Society.
Read the press release.

Call for 2013–2014 ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award Nominations
The ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award celebrates outstanding women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. Candidates 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 the nomination form and talks by previous winners. Nominations are due February 1, 2013.

Call for 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 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
  • Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics
  • Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award
  • Distinguished Service Award
  • Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award
Other Award deadlines:
  • Doctoral Dissertation Award: October 31
Please take a moment to consider those individuals in your community who may be suitable for nomination. Refer to http://www.acm.org/nominations for nomination guidelines and the complete listing of Award Subcommittee Chairs and Members.

Member Recognition

Call for ACM Senior Member Nominations
The Senior Member advanced grade of membership 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 deadline for nominations is December 3.

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:
Conferences and Events

ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2012, November 6 to 9, Redondo Beach, California
The ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS) is the 20th event in a series of symposia and workshops that began in 1993 with the aim of bringing together researchers, developers, users, and practitioners in relation to novel systems based on geo-spatial data and knowledge, and fostering interdisciplinary discussions and research in all aspects of geographic information systems. The conference provides a forum for original research contributions covering all conceptual, design, and implementation aspects of GIS ranging from applications, user interfaces, and visualization to data storage and query processing and indexing. The conference is the premier annual event of the ACM Special Interest Group on Spatial Information (ACM SIGSPATIAL).

SC12, November 10 to 16, Salt Lake City, Utah
SC12, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, gathers the best and brightest minds in supercomputing, with technical papers, tutorials, workshops, exhibits, posters and speakers. World-renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author Michio Kaku will deliver the keynote. The technical program will explore all aspects of high performance computing, from parallelism to exascale.

HILT 2012, December 2 to 6, Boston
HILT, the conference on High Integrity Language Technology sponsored by SIGAda, will provide a forum for experts from academia/research, industry, and government to present the latest findings in designing, implementing, and using language technology for high integrity software. Technical papers, experience reports (including experience in teaching), and tutorial proposals will cover a broad range of relevant topics. Scheduled keynote speakers include Barbara Liskov, the winner of the 2008 ACM A.M. Turing Award and the first woman in the US to receive a Ph.D. in computer science. Other keynote presentations from leading experts in language technology and high-integrity systems: Kathleen Fisher, an ACM Fellow and DARPA Project Manager for High-Assurance Cyber Systems; Nancy Leveson, professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and professor of engineering systems at MIT, and an ACM Allen Newell Award recipient; Greg Morrisett, the Allen B. Cutting professor of computer science at Harvard, also on the editorial board of Journal of the ACM; and Guy Steele, a software architect at Oracle and an ACM Fellow and Grace Murray Hopper Award recipient.
Read more in the press release.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2012, November 28 to December 1, Singapore
The SIGGRAPH Asia conference features a myriad of stellar and innovative contributions from artists, designers, animators, researchers, and developers from industry and academia. As with the US SIGGRAPH conference, the events are geared to the computer graphics community and those in related fields, and include exhibits, an Art Gallery, the Computer Animation Festival, courses, posters, an Emerging Technologies track, an apps symposium, and technical papers and briefs. Featured speakers will include Karlheinz Brandenburg, the "father of MP3," and Richard Chuang, co-founder of PDI/DreamWorks.

Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, February 7 to 10, Washington, D.C.
The Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing brings together diverse leading researchers to present state-of-the art topics in the field of computing. The Tapia conference has a tradition of providing a supportive networking environment for under-represented groups across the broad range of computing and information technology, from science to business to the arts to infrastructure. Confirmed speakers include Vint Cerf (Google's vice president and ACM president), Armando Fox (UC Berkeley), Anita Jones (University of Virginia), Jeanine Cook (New Mexico State University), Annie Antón (Georgia Tech), and Hakim Weatherspoon, (Cornell University), among others. The conference is inviting submissions for panel discussions, student research posters, birds-of-a-feather sessions and workshops. Additionally, applications are now being accepted for the Doctoral Consortium and student scholarships to attend the conference. Most deadlines are in November. See the Call for Participation page for more information.
 
Member Programs

Become an Ambassador for ACM—You Could Be a Grand Prize Winner!
The Ambassadors for ACM program rewards ACM members like you for encouraging new members to join. Your first-hand experience with ACM's valuable career development and continuous learning programs makes you a perfect envoy to share your ACM experiences with prospective members. Please consider becoming an Ambassador for ACM. The top ACM Ambassador for September was Hrishikesh Venkataraman. The 2012–2013 Ambassadors for ACM program is underway, with opportunities for you to earn new prizes, rewards and bonus gifts with each referral.

Submit the ACM Referral Form, and your referrals can join ACM at a special discount rate. Our members are our greatest asset. Your support of ACM is critical to our continuing efforts to advance computing as a science and a profession.

Valuable Offers and Discounts for ACM Members
Take advantage of ACM's Discounts and Special Offers Program, an exclusive benefit of membership in ACM. ACM Members receive valuable offers and discounts on select programs and services. To view a complete listing, please visit http://www.acm.org/membership/discounts/discounts-toc.

Live Chat Feature Available to Members
ACM's interactive Live Chat feature provides members with an opportunity for real-time customer service from our Member Service Representatives. To start your chat, simply log in to myACM with your ACM web account username and password and click on the Live Chat icon. Live chat is available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. Any chats attempted after hours will automatically generate an email to ACM to be answered during regular business hours.

Attention Faculty: Order Complimentary Materials for Your Students
ACM offers the opportunity for faculty members to order complimentary materials for distribution to their students who are interested in the field of computing. Available items include ACM student membership brochures and posters, as well as flyers featuring ACM's Digital Library, Code of Ethics, and student chapters, among others. Place your order using our easy online form and your request will be fulfilled promptly!
 
Learning Center

ACM Learning Webinar on Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) November 13
On Tuesday, November 13, 2012, at 2:00 PM EST/7:00 PM UTC, ACM presents the fifth installment in our popular series of free Learning Webinars: "Condos and Clouds: Patterns in SaaS Applications." Pat Helland, currently a software architect at Salesforce.com working on multi-tenanted data and other challenges in cloud computing, draws on the analogy of multiple-tenant occupancy in modern buildings to examine a very common pattern in the implementation of "software as a service" and proposes ways in which this pattern may be better supported in a multi-tenant fashion. The webinar, including live Q&A, will be moderated by Yannis Ioannidis, professor at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the University of Athens and Chair of ACM SIGMOD. Register for this webinar at http://learning.acm.org/webinar/condos.

ACM Learning Webinars are free with registration, available for streaming on all major mobile devices, and are recorded for on-demand viewing (registration required).

New ACM Tech Pack Covers Many Aspects of Security
The ACM Tech Pack on Security is now available for all ACM members. This Tech Pack consists of classical and foundational journal articles, conference proceedings, and books from the ACM Digital Library, ACM Learning Center, and beyond. It was compiled and edited by a committee of experts in computer security chaired by John Mitchell, Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, with contributions from his Stanford colleagues Dan Boneh and Neil Daswani (currently an engineering manager at Twitter), as well as Mark Zhandry, also of Stanford. The Tech Pack covers the essential topics and issues in cybersecurity, including Network, Operating System, and Web Security, as well as Malware, Cryptography, and the increasingly important Economics of Security.

Don't forget to check out other ACM Tech Packs, including Business Intelligence and Data Management, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Architecture, Mobility, and Parallel Computing.

Did you know? Access to all ACM Digital Library materials found in ACM Tech Packs is complimentary for all current members (no DL subscription required). For all-site access, don't forget to log in with your ACM member credentials in the top right corner of the Tech Pack website.

Discounted Tuition for ACM Members at NYU-Poly Online Graduate Engineering School
Tune in Friday, November 16 at 12 p.m. EST, when NYU-Poly hosts a live webinar for prospective students. All members of the ACM community are invited and qualify for a 10% tuition rebate toward any online course at NYU-Poly. NYU-Poly's online graduate program was ranked 3rd and 5th for Student Services, Engagement and accreditation by US News and World Report, and recently won the nation's "Outstanding Online Program" award from Sloan-C. NYU-Poly offers online Master's and Advance Certificates in Bioinformatics, Cybersecurity, Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as a new Project Management certificate. To learn more about NYU-Poly's online graduate program, visit www.poly.edu/nyuepoly or click here to register for this session. For more information, call toll-free at 877-50-EPOLY or email [email protected].

Career & Job Center

Import Your LinkedIn Profile in ACM's Career & Job Center
Be sure to visit ACM's Career & Job Center to update your résumé or create a new one in the Résumé Bank. ACM members' résumés include an ACM logo on their entry, highlighting their ACM membership to employers.

Now available when posting a résumé in the Résumé Bank: import your LinkedIn profile. You will be required to sign in to your LinkedIn account. Please note that LinkedIn does not have exactly the same fields as ACM, so you will have to review the imported information and update where necessary. Once you have a résumé created and saved in our system, you can publish it to the Résumé Bank so that employers find you! Or keep it private and use it when applying online for jobs. Log in to ACM's Job Board and post your résumé today. You can also upgrade to a Preferred Résumé to keep it at the top of the Résumé Bank, highlighted with a star next to it for increased visibility ($25 for 90 days).

In addition, ACM offers CareerNews, which provides summaries of articles on career-related topics of interest to students and professionals in the computing field, in a bi-weekly email alert to ACM members. ACM members can subscribe to the CareerNews email alert service.

For more information about the Career & Job Center please contact Jennifer Ruzicka.
 
Education

Ensemble Site for Computing Educators
Ensemble is a new collaborative portal for computing educators where you can share and upload files, resources, and other valuable information, join groups and communities, and participate in discussion on important education news and research. An NSF NSDL (National STEM Education Distributed Learning) Pathways project, Ensemble provides single access to a broad range of existing educational resources for computing while preserving the collections and their associated curation processes. The site strongly encourages use, reuse, review and evaluation of educational materials at multiple levels of granularity and seeks to support the full range of computing education communities, including computer science, computer engineering, software engineering, information science, information systems and information technology as well as other areas often called "computing + X" or "X informatics." Users can tag, rate, and comment on one another's contributions and participation. Notably, Ensemble offers a set of "ready-for-prime-time" technology resources as part of TECH, a project of the ACM Education Council.
 
Student News

Upcoming ACM Student Research Competitions
ACM Student Research Competitions (SRCs), sponsored by Microsoft Research, offer a unique forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their original research at well-known ACM sponsored and co-sponsored conferences before a panel of judges and attendees. The most recent SRC winners presented at GHC. The next conferences accepting submissions are:
  • SAC 2013, March 18-22, 2013, deadline October 31, 2012
  • CGO 2013, February 23-27, 2013, deadline November 23, 2012
  • ICSE 2013, May 18-26, 2013, deadline December 17, 2012
  • CHI 2013, April 27-May 2, deadline January 5, 2013
Learn about more competitions on the SRC submissions page.

CRA's URO Zone Connects Students with Opportunities for Undergraduate Research
The Computing Research Association (CRA) recently launched a website to help undergraduate students identify computing research opportunities. The site—URO Zone, for Undergraduate Research Opportunities—provides links to a range of summer undergraduate research resources. It also posts profiles of undergraduates and details their recent computing research projects. URO Zone offers guidelines to help discover research opportunities in a variety of areas, from applied to theoretical computer science. It also defines specific research fields, describes CRA and ACM undergraduate awards programs, and lists links for finding computing research opportunities.

ACM-W Student Scholarships for Attendance at Research Conferences
The ACM Women's Council (ACM-W), with funding from Wipro Technologies, provides support for women undergraduate or graduate students in computer science and related programs who wish to attend research conferences. The student does not have to present a paper at the conference she attends. High school students will also be considered for conference support. As of 2011, 20 ACM-W/Wipro scholarships are funded annually: 10 scholarships of up to $600 will be awarded for intra-continental conference travel, and 10 scholarships of up to $1,200 will be awarded for intercontinental conference travel. ACM-W encourages the student's home department to match the scholarship award and recognize the student's achievement locally within her department. In addition, if the award is for attendance at one of several ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) conferences (SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGARCH, SIGCOMM, SIGCHI, SIGCSE, SIGDA, SIGECOM, SIGEVO, SIGGRAPH, SIGIR, SIGITE, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGOPS, SIGPLAN, and SIGSOFT), the SIG will provide complementary conference registration and a mentor during the conference. Applications are evaluated in six groups each year, in order to distribute awards across a range of conferences. For application form, notification dates and more information, please visit the scholarships page.

Additional scholarship awards for women students to attend research conferences have recently been made possible by Microsoft Research. Microsoft has given ACM-W $20,000 to support scholarships for women of European citizenship. Under the agreement with Microsoft, these awards will cover conference registration fees and provide an additional $600 if the conference is intracontinental, or $1200 if it is involves intercontinental travel. The student does not have to be attending a European school in order to be eligible, and the amount of the award is based on where she attends school relative to where the conference is. We are delighted to have this additional support for the scholarships, in addition to the funds we already have from Wipro Ltd. In addition, 16 SIGs have thus far signed on to support the scholarships by providing complimentary conference registration to scholarship recipients.

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. For more information, visit the Reasons to Transition to Professional Membership page.
 
Distinguished Speakers Program

Featured ACM Distinguished Speaker: Ronald Vetter
The Distinguished Speakers Program (DSP) is one of ACM's most valued outreach programs, providing universities, corporations, event and conference planners, and local ACM chapters with direct access to top technology leaders and innovators from nearly every sector of the computing industry.

This month's featured speaker is Ronald Vetter. Ron is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His research interests include mobile and wireless networking, parallel and distributed computing, multimedia systems, and distance education. His research has been supported by the NSF, USDA, NASA, and others. Vetter received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from North Dakota State University and his PhD in computer science from the University of Minnesota. Vetter served on the editorial advisory board of Communications of the ACM from 1996 to 2008 and he has been a Distinguished Lecturer since 1998.
For more information on Ron, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Ronald Vetter's Digital Library author page.

ACM, IEEE Computer Society Join to Share Distinguished Speakers Programs
IEEE-CS and ACM have joined to share their invited speaker programs, to further the dissemination of technical knowledge of computing fields that greatly benefit both memberships. IEEE-CS chapter volunteers can host a speaker from ACM's Distinguished Speakers Program (DSP), with access to top technology leaders and innovators from nearly every sector of the computing industry, by following the instructions on the DSP site. Make sure you identify yourself as an IEEE Computer Society Chapter.

IEEE-CS provides a popular offering of first-quality speakers serving its professional and student chapters. The Distinguished Visitors Program (DVP) owes its success to the many volunteers and staff members of the Computer Society who generously contribute their time and talent. Organizers of an ACM chapter, conference, or event can host a speaker from IEEE-CS's DVP by following the instructions instructions on the DVP site. Make sure you identify yourself as an ACM chapter or event.
 
Chapters News

ACM Chapters in Afghanistan, Stanford University Make News
Mahdi Rezaei is a young IT administrator in Afghanistan's burgeoning tech scene who organized the first meeting of the ACM Kabul chapter. "The purpose of this community is to advance computing as a science and a profession," he says. "Now ACM members can be aware of technology events around the world and bring change to our academic societies and our technology market." ACM CEO John White says of the chapter, "It is clearly a statement about how these individuals in Afghanistan perceive themselves as professionals who really want to be connected to the global computing community." Read about Mahdi and other ambitious tech professionals, and the challenges they face, in the Fast Company article.

In a Chronicle of Higher Education article, Ayush Sood, a junior computer science major and officer in Stanford University's ACM chapter, described increasing interest in programming and hackathons as a "chain reaction." "The hacker culture is fairly young at Stanford, and it's very contagious," he said. ACM has added more programming competitions to encourage North American participation as teams from Russia and China dominate the international finals (ICPC).

Notice to Chapters: Please Complete Your Annual Reports
Chapter Leaders: If you have not yet submitted your annual report for the fiscal year July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012, please do so as soon as possible. To access your chapter's administrative interface, enter your username and password here: https://campus.acm.org/chapter_admin. If you have forgotten your username or password, please follow this link: https://campus.acm.org/public/account/signin.cfm?r=1. In addition, you may notice the Annual Report looks a bit different from years past. ACM has been working hard to serve our chapters in the best way possible, and this new release provides a user-friendly interface which allows full editing of your information until submission. SIGGRAPH Chapters will find additional questions at the end of their report that must be completed as well. The deadline for submitting annual reports is November 9. Any questions, please contact [email protected].

Welcome New ACM Chapters
Chapters are the "local neighborhoods" of ACM. The regional ACM Professional, Student, ACM-W, and Special Interest Group (SIG) chapters around the globe involve members locally in competitions, seminars, lectures, workshops, and networking opportunities. ACM welcomes these new chapters that were chartered September 28 to October 19, 2012:

ACM Student Chapters:
  • California State University, Fullerton ACM Student Chapter
  • Claremont Colleges ACM-W Student Chapter, Claremont, California
  • DeVry-Houston ACM Student Chapter, Houston, Texas
  • Inderprastha Engineering College Gzb ACM Student Chapter, Ghaziabad, India
  • ITNL ACM Student Chapter, Guadalupe, Mexico
  • MITS University ACM-W Student Chapter, Lakshmangarh, India
  • MKSSS's Cummins College of Engineering for Women ACM-W Student Chapter, Pune, India
  • Morehouse College ACM Student Chapter, Atlanta, Georgia
  • MUET ACM Student Chapter, Jamshoro, Pakistan
  • Sullivan University ACM Student Chapter, Louisville, Kentucky
  • Tec de Monterrey, Guadalajara ACM Student Chapter, Zapopan, Mexico
  • UCSP ACM Student Chapter, Arequipa, Peru
  • Universidad de Monterrey ACM Student Chapter, San Pedro Garza García, Mexico
  • USC ACM Student Chapter, Columbia, South Carolina
ACM Professional Chapter:
  • Dublin ACM SIGMobile Chapter, Dublin, Ireland
ACM-W News

Join ACM-W's Membership Email List
Did you know that ACM-W offers a general email distribution list for its members? This ACMW-public list is a communication channel for disseminating general information about ACM-W, bulletins and upcoming events. To join the list: http://signup.acm.org/listserv_index.cfm?ln=ACM-W-PUBLIC. And to keep more informed about the activities of ACM-W and its members, you can sign up for our quarterly CIS Newsletter notification. Be sure to read the current issue for the latest news on ACM-W activities and events on the ACM-W CIS Newsletter issues page.
 
Publications News

ACM Queue Launches Video Portrait Series
ACM Queue has launched a series of video interviews with today's leading computing innovators who are also members of ACM. The inaugural video features Robert Watson, a security researcher and open source developer at the University of Cambridge, interviewed by George Neville-Neil, also known as Queue's Kode Vicious. Watson is working on a project that studies the hardware/software interface in order to understand how to improve computer security and performance. The potential impact of his provocative research reaches into all aspects of computing: applications, mobile computing, operating systems, graphics processing, the Web and email. Watson discusses the many challenges faced by software and hardware designers today: the proliferation of malware; balancing protection with optimization; and the need to collaborate across computing sub-disciplines on large projects. Seeking to combat what he sees as "siloization" of the field, he notes that "some of the most exciting developments in computer science come out of hybridization of different fields, collaborations between people with different interests and backgrounds, and this is reflected in how we teach our students." His project focuses on hardware that can support application developers dealing with many different security domains. But he also points to the large corpus of open source software products that aid in collaboration through experimentation. "We're able to have a very productive research relationship in which we build on each other's results," he says.

More Queue Portrait videos are in the planning stages.

"Major Update to ACM's Computing Classification System," by Bernard Rous
ACM Director of Publications Bernard Rous provides some background on the new 2012 ACM Computing Classification System (CCS) in the upcoming November issue of Communications of the ACM. He summarizes the update process and explains how the CCS is used for searching the Digital Library. Further integration and updates are planned. Read more about the CCS 2012 update here.

ACM Transactions on Internet Technology Seeks New Editor-in-Chief
Nominations are sought for a new Editor-in-Chief for ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT). The deadline is November 1. Please refer to the nominations page for full instructions.

ACM Transactions on Asian Language Information Processing Seeks New Editor-in-Chief
Nominations are sought for a new Editor-in-Chief for ACM Transactions on Asian Language Information Processing (TALIP). The deadline is November 30. Please refer to the nominations page for full instructions.

Information Systems and Hot Topics Editors Needed for Computing Reviews
Computing Reviews, the post-publication review and comment journal of ACM, is seeking volunteers interested in serving as a category editor in the information systems area and an editor for Hot Topics. Please see these pages for more information.

CACM Reports: The New Generation of Bio-Inspired "Soft" Robotics
The next generation of robotics will be composed of soft materials that enable capabilities beyond current robotic technologies, a development that could lead to a new industrial revolution, say researchers from the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute. In the November cover story of Communications of the ACM, the authors contend that this transformation is based on robotic technologies that are inspired by biological systems that reflect the behavior of humans and animals. The resulting interdisciplinary focus requires novel forms of cooperation driven by scientific, social, demographic, and economic forces. Also in this issue, Communications Editor-in-Chief Moshe Y. Vardi assesses the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) phenomenon that has been described as a "tsunami" by Stanford University President John Hennessey. Vardi speculates that MOOCs may be the "battering ram" in an attack on the financial dilemma impacting higher education that employs information technology as a seductive possibility to lower costs in this sector.

Communications, the flagship publication of ACM, offers readers access to this generation's most significant leaders and innovators in computing and information technology, and is available in print, Web and digital format.
Read the ACM press release.

ACM Queue Presents: Weathering the Unexpected
Kripa Krishnan of Google explains the details of Google's annual, company-wide, multi-day Disaster Recovery Testing event, known as "DiRT" DiRT helps ensure that Google's services and internal business operations continue to run following a disaster. Accompanying the article is a sidebar by Google's Thomas Limoncelli titled, "Google DiRT: The View from Someone being Tested" which gives a from-the-frontlines perspective of how the testing event is conducted.

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM
Subscribe to Communications of the ACM, the computing industry's most trusted source for news, analysis and insights! Non-members can use our online form and receive a new ACM membership with your 12-month subscription, or request a sample issue using our online free trial issue form.

ACM in the News

"Federal Budget Limits Affect Scientific Conferences"
The New York Times, October 23, 2012
A number of science and technology organizations including USACM, the Public Policy Council of ACM, are arguing that the federal belt-tightening on conference expenditures is affecting the ability of the scientific community to share research and collaborate. "The inability of the government researchers and program managers to participate in these conferences is actually very damaging," said ACM President Vint Cerf.

"'Hackathon' Events Proliferate for Student Programmers"
Chronicle of Higher Education, October 18, 2012
ACM this year offered a course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on preparing for hackathons. ACM has added more contests to encourage competition from North American students against Chinese and Russian teams' domination of international finals.

"At Stanford, Scholars Debate the Promises, Pitfalls of Online Learning"
Stanford Report, October 15, 2012
Stanford professor and ACM-Infosys Foundation Award recipient Daphne Koller says classroom social interaction can be incorporated into online learning technology to a certain degree.

"Squeeze Your Phone, and Send a Loved One a Hug"
Technology Review , October 15, 2012
Researchers at the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology and Nokia have developed the ForcePhone, a device that can send vibrations back and forth to users who are having a conversation. The device was presented at the ACM User Interface Software Technology (UIST) conference.

"North East experts could make the remote a thing of the past"
The Journal (UK), October 9, 2012
Researchers at Newcastle University and Microsoft Research Cambridge have developed a sensor the size of a wristwatch. Mapping finger movement, it gives the user remote control anytime, anywhere; it was presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST).

"How to Get Girls Psyched About Computer Science"
CNNMoney.com, October 5, 2012
During this year's Most Powerful Women Summit, Harvey Mudd College president and former ACM president Maria Klawe offered the most promising case study on how to get more young women interested in science, technology, engineering, and math.

"Better Tools for Better Software"
Northeastern University News, October 4, 2012
Northeastern University professor Matthias Felleisen recently received the 2012 Achievement Award from ACM's SIGPLAN for his work on Racket, which enables programmers to turn familiar vocabulary into a programming language.

"Women Flock to Startups While Trailing in Computer Science: Tech"
Bloomberg, October 2, 2012
Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe and Piazza Technologies founder Pooja Sankar recently founded Women in Technology Sharing Online (Witson), a program that connects women who are pursuing computer and science degrees with mentors in the industry.

"Internet Pioneer Dr. Leonard Kleinrock Still Pushing Emerging Technologies"
Network World, October 1, 2012
University of California, Los Angeles professor and ACM Fellow Leonard Kleinrock has helped launch several technology companies over his 50 years as a computer scientist and Internet pioneer. Now, he is developing an exhibit of the nodes involved in what is considered to be the first host-to-host communication that led to the modern Internet.
 

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