ACM MemberNet - November 29, 2012

Welcome to the November 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

Get Involved in CSEdWeek, December 9 to 15!
Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), December 9 – 15, 2012, offers a tremendous opportunity to raise awareness about the impact of computing and the critical need for computer science (CS) education. CSEdWeek is a way to inspire students and colleagues about CS education, to employ new and better ways to engage them, and to connect with the broader community about the need for and value of CS education. Last year, CSEdWeek was a huge success with more than 3,000 pledges of support and over 550 events and activities around the world. The response to CSEdWeek was incredible, and the involvement doubled in just one year. So get excited and get going! The best place to start is the CSEdWeek website. You can view the events and activities pledged previously and tap into the wide variety of resources available to showcase computing and CS education.

It is easy to take the pledge; here's how it works:
  • Go to csedweek.org
  • Click on "Sign the Pledge"
  • Enter the information requested and click "submit"
  • Choose to "Host an event" or "Carry out an activity" (or both)
  • Provide the event or activity details, click "submit," and you have completed your pledge
Then encourage students, colleagues, friends and family to "Sign the Pledge" to participate in CSEdWeek and use the resources available on the CSEdWeek website—including the Event Planning Toolkit —to craft an event or activity.

Awards

Stu Zweben, ACM Fellow and former ACM President, Receives Highest Honor from Accreditation Organization
Stuart H. Zweben, an ACM Fellow who served as ACM president from 1994 to 1996, has received the 2012 Linton E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award from accreditation organization ABET. The award cites Zweben, a Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University's Computer Science and Engineering department, for "outstanding leadership in computing accreditation worldwide, including more than 27 years of service to ABET and CSAB, and for being a catalyst behind the growth of computing accreditation in the United States over the last 25 years." In the early 1980s, Zweben played a key role in ACM's decision to join with the IEEE-CS to form the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board, now known as CSAB. The award was named for engineering and engineering technology education pioneer Linton E. Grinter.

ACM CEO John White, Education Council Members John Impagliazzo and Patrick Walsh Named CSAB Fellows
ACM CEO John White and Education Council Members John Impagliazzo and Patrick Walsh were among five distinguished volunteers to be named 2012 Fellows of CSAB, the lead society within ABET for accreditation of degree programs in computer science, information systems, software engineering, and information technology; CSAB also is a cooperating society for accreditation of computer engineering, biological engineering, systems engineering, and information engineering technology. White, Impagliazzo and Walsh were recognized for their sustained, quality service to the computing profession and to computing education through the activities of CSAB.

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.

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

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.

Tapia 2013, 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), Hakim Weatherspoon, (Cornell University), and Theresa Maldonado (NSF). The call for submissions for the Doctoral Consortium is still open. See the Call for Participation page for more information.

CSCW 2013, February 23 to 27, San Antonio, Texas
The ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing is the premier venue for presenting research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks. Bringing together top researchers and practitioners from academia and industry in social computing, CSCW encompasses both the technical and social challenges encountered when supporting collaboration. Co-located workshops will address Collaborative Editing; Trust in Virtual Teams; Informal Communication in Health Practices; Crowdsourcing; Collaboration in Safety-critical Environments; Social Capital and Entrepreneurship; Social Media Question Asking; Collaborative Information Seeking; Networked Social Privacy; and CSCW and Education. Ron Burt from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business will give the opening keynote address. The closing keynote speaker will be Jascha Franklin-Hodge, CTO and Founding Partner at Blue State Digital.

CFP 2013, March 5 to 6, Washington, DC
The Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference draws advocates, academics, technologists, policymakers, and others to discuss and debate the issues impacting technology, freedom, and privacy in the digital world. Proposals for potential speakers, panelists, and debate topics in these three areas are now being accepted. The theme of the conference is "Our Computers, Our Freedom: Can You Trust Anyone in the Digital Age?" The deadline for submissions is December 15.
 
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 October was Amarendra Kothalanka. 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.

MentorNet Matches ACM Students, Professionals for One-on-One Mentoring
ACM partners with MentorNet to promote e-mentoring relationships between students (protégés) and professionals (mentors). MentorNet, founded in 1997, now boasts 30,000 mentor/protégé relationships that encourage and inspire students considering careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Professionals also benefit from the program, practicing skills and gaining insights into their own careers. Above all, they gain satisfaction from knowing that they're helping to diversify the global workforce in these fields. ACM members can participate in this program as protégés if they are undergraduates, graduates, post-doctoral students, or untenured faculty. ACM Professional Members with a college degree and at least two years of professional work experience in engineering, science, technology, mathematics, medicine or related disciplines can qualify as mentors. To learn more, visit MentorNet's newly redesigned site and the introductory ACM MentorNet page. Also check out the short videos for protégés and mentors that will walk you through the steps of creating a profile and connecting with others in the MentorNet community.

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) Now Available on Demand
A recording of ACM's latest webinar, Condos and Clouds: Patterns in SaaS Applications, presented on November 13, is now available on demand. Software architect Pat Helland delivers this engaging presentation and SIGMOD Chair Yannis Ioannidis moderates. Bonus: After viewing the webinar, check out the extended Q&A with Pat Helland for more tips and pointers and to see if some of your own questions have already been answered.

ACM Tech Pack Covers Many Aspects of Security
The ACM Tech Pack on Security, available to all ACM members, 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.

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

Call for IS, IT, and CS Accreditation Program Evaluators
CSAB, the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board, is inviting qualified professionals to participate in an important initiative to help improve computing education. Volunteer evaluators from both academia and industry are sought to visit campuses around the US, tour labs, talk to faculty, meet students and alumni, and work closely with their fellow evaluators and team leader to evaluate computing programs for accreditation. Visit CSAB's website for more information, and consider attending a Computing Accreditation Workshop that will be held in conjunction with the SIGCSE 2013 conference in March; register here.
 
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 SC. The next conferences accepting submissions are:
  • ICSE 2013, May 18-26, deadline December 17, 2012
  • CHI 2013, April 27-May 2, deadline January 5, 2013
  • PLDI 2013, June 16-21, deadline March 11
  • ICS 2013, June 10-14, deadline March 15
Learn about more competitions on the SRC submissions page.

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 Announces Winners of 2011–2012 UPE ACM Student Chapter Scholarship Award
Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE), the Honor Society for Computing Sciences, and ACM are proud to announce the 2011–2012 UPE ACM Student Chapter Scholarship Award winners:
  • Ertem Esiner, Koc University
  • Darlene Hart, Austin Peay State University
  • Hannah Miller, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
  • Jared Wheeler, University of North Florida
UPE and ACM created the award to raise the importance of academic achievement and professional commitment in future computer professionals. Visit the UPE Award site for more information.

Ohio ACM-W Student Chapter Combats Stereotypes to Keep Women Interested in Computing
The Ohio State University Student Chapter of ACM-W (the ACM Women's Council) is battling the trend of young women being turned off by computing early in their studies or careers. The chapter recently collected $6,000 in grants and donations to allow students to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Read more about how the chapter's leaders, along with other women in Ohio, are showing that "tech jobs aren't just for men."

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 October 20 to November 20, 2012:

ACM Student Chapters:
  • Aarhus University ACM-W Student Chapter, Aarhus, Denmark
  • Central Michigan University ACM Student Chapter, Mount Pleasant
  • IIT Mandi ACM Student Chapter, Himachal Pradesh, India
  • Methodist University ACM Student Chapter, Fayetteville, North Carolina
ACM Professional Chapters:
  • Shanghai ACM Chapter, Shanghai, China
  • Toronto ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Notice of Chapters to Be De-chartered
ACM is de-chartering the following chapters due to inactivity. Members interested in revitalizing their chapters should contact Samantha Goldberg, Local Activities Coordinator, at [email protected].

ACM Student Chapters:
ACM NDU Student Chapter; ACM-ITST Student Chapter; ACM-W of Concordia University Texas; American University of Beirut ACM Student Chapter; American University of Sharjah ACM Student Chapter; Asociación de Sistemas Computacionales e Informática; BMCE ACM Student Chapter; BSAU-ACM Student Chapter; CA Poly State University/SLO; CA State University/Los Angeles; Cairo University ACM Student Chapter; COEP ACM Student Chapter; Columbia University ACM-W Student Chapter; FAST-NUCES, Islamabad ACM Student Chapter; Fayetteville State University; Hofstra University ACM Student Chapter; Institute of Technology-BHU ACM Student Chapter; Instituto Tecnologico de Celaya ACM Student Chapter; International Institute of Information Technology ACM Student Chapter; Lafayette College; Maine School of Science and Mathematics; PA State University/University Park; PSG Tech ACM Student Chapter; SCRIET ACM Student Chapter; SKIT-JAIPUR ACM Student Chapter; Southeastern Louisiana University; SR ACM Student Chapter; Texas A&M University/Corpus Christi; Truman State University; Tuskegee University; UIIT_AAUR ACM Student Chapter; Univ. of Bristol Student ACM SIGGRAPH; Universidad Panamericana campus Bonaterra ACM Student Chapter; Universiti Malaysia Pahang ACM Student Chapter; University of Alabama/Huntsville ACM Student Chapter; University of California/Irvine; University of Cape Town Student Computing Association; University of Central Florida ACM Student SIGGRAPH; University of Georgia ACM-W Chapter; University of Porto ACM Student Chapter; University of Puerto Rico/Aguadilla; University of South Florida; University of Technology/Jamaica ACM Student Chapter; University of Wisconsin/Eau Claire Upper Iowa University ACM Student Chapter; Villanova University ACM Chapter; WCU ACM Student Chapter; William Mason High School ACM Student Chapter; York University ACM Student Chapter

ACM Professional Chapters:
Abuja ACM Chapter; Dhahran ACM Chapter; Hindustan University ACM Chapter; New York City ACM Chapter; Orange County ACM SIGCHI Chapter; Seoul ACM SIGMOBILE Chapter; South India ACM SIGCHI; South Jersey ACM Chapter; St. Louis ACM SIGCHI Chapter; Vietnam ACM Chapter
 
ACM-W News

Ohio ACM-W Student Chapter Combats Stereotypes to Keep Women Interested in Computing (see story under Chapters News)


Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing Features Social Media
by Wendy Powley, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
The Third Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing (ONCWIC) event was organized and hosted by Chair Hanan Lutfiyya and the female students from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Western Ontario. The event took place in London, Ontario October 12 and 13, with more than 120 in attendance, composed of approximately 45% undergraduates, 50% graduate students and about 5% faculty and industry participants. The attendees, representing 14 different universities and colleges in Ontario (with one attendee from Kuwait University), were inspired by several informative talks, some technical and others on communication, résumé writing and interview skills. A panel session with many amazing role models included presenters from the banking, IT and government sectors. Many of the students participated in the poster session, networked (and were interviewed by) representatives from sponsor companies, and competed in the Morgan Stanley programming contest. Awareness of ONCWIC Twitter and Facebook accounts was boosted by running a fun social media game throughout the conference, which was met with much enthusiasm.

The Grace Hopper Regional Consortium, a project of ACM-W, provides programming that showcases female role models, encourages mentoring and networking, supplies accurate information about computing careers and creates opportunities for women to participate in the program, often for the first time in their careers. Visit the Grace Hopper Regional Consortium site to learn more about these events.

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 interactions Wins Website Design Award
ACM's interactions website has received an Interactive Media Award for outstanding achievement in the e-zine/newsletter category. The designer, Mineral Studios, focused on producing a website that allows visitors to easily explore the site, with maximum user experience and interaction, while creating a sleek design to match the sophistication of the hard-copy version of the magazine. New features sync the online magazine with the ACM Digital Library, while new functionalities help site visitors to better navigate the content. Created by the Interactive Media Council, a nonprofit organization of leading web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other web-related professionals, the competition is designed to elevate the standards of excellence on the Internet.

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: Moving Beyond the Turing Test in Artificial Intelligence
In the December cover story of Communications of the ACM, Robert French of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) points to the availability of vast quantities of data, and the increased speed and power of machines for analyzing that data as factors responsible for pushing the Turing Test aside. The future of artificial intelligence, he predicts, lies not in attempts to simulate human cognition but in designing computers capable of developing their own abilities to understand the world, and interacting with these machines in a meaningful way. Also in this issue, ACM President Vint Cerf revisits the potential for scientific approaches to computer science. Citing discussions with computing legends Alan Kay, Edward Feigenbaum, Leonard Kleinrock, and Judea Pearl, Cerf concludes that our ability to understand and predict software behavior may lie in the invention of better high-level programming languages.

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: The Web Won't Be Safe or Secure until We Break It
In his article for ACM Queue, Jeremiah Grossman of WhiteHat Security argues that current security concerns are forcing a review of the original design of the Web. "By adopting a similar application model on the desktop using custom-configured Web browsers (let's call them DesktopApps), we could address the Internet's inherent security flaws," he asserts. "These DesktopApps could be branded appropriately and designed to launch automatically to Bank of America's or Facebook's Web site, for example, and go no further. Like their mobile application cousins, these DesktopApps would not present a URL bar or anything else making them look like the Web browsers they are on the surface, and of course they would be isolated from one another. Within these DesktopApps, attacks such as XSS, CSRF, and clickjacking would become largely extinct because no cross-domain connections would be allowed—an essential precondition."

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM
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ACM in the News

"Integrity of Internet Is Crux of Global Conference"
The New York Times, November 27, 2012
At the World Conference on International Telecommunications, representatives from more than 190 governments, telecommunications companies, and internet groups will meet to update a global treaty on technical standards and discuss political and commercial control of the Internet. ACM president and Google vice president and chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf says, "This is a very important moment in the history of the Internet, because this conference may introduce practices that are inimical to its continued growth and openness."

"Joint Venture to Shape the Future of the Web"
University of Southampton, November 19, 2012
"Working in unison, the University of Southampton and Fraunhofer are perfectly poised to make the breakthroughs that will produce the enabling technologies of the future as well as our understanding of how best to exploit these technologies for the benefit of all in society," says Southampton professor and former ACM president Dame Wendy Hall.

"Computer Science Ed. Gets Boost From $6 Million NSF Grant"
Education Week, November 15, 2012
The grant announcement comes the same day Microsoft sponsored a panel discussion in Washington, dubbed STEM Education and the Race to the Future, that focused in part on computer science education. The four panelists included Chris Stephenson, the executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association, as well as representatives from Microsoft, IBM, and the National Governors Association.

"SC2012: Top500 Expects Exascale Computing by 2020"
Computerworld, November 14, 2012
According to the Top500 list, supercomputers increase tenfold in power about every 10 years. If that rate of progress continues, exascale computing should be achieved by 2020, says University of Tennessee, Knoxville professor Jack Dongarra, who spoke at the SC2012 conference.

"Department of Energy's ESnet Rolls Out World's Fastest Science Network"
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, November 13, 2012
"ESnet is becoming something more than a network infrastructure—it's now an extension of the experimental facilities it serves, and a vital component in the process of discovery," says ESnet Policy Board member Vint Cerf, president of ACM.

"Researchers Find Way to Boost Wi-Fi Performance 400-700 Percent"
NCSU News, November 13, 2012
North Carolina State University researchers have developed WiFox, software that can expedite data traffic in large audience Wi-Fi environments. The researchers will present their research at the upcoming ACM CoNEXT 2012 conference.

"Technology Will Help Humans Overcome Societal Challenges"
Gulf Times, November 13, 2012
Moza Bint Nasser University professor and 1994 ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient Raj Reddy says computing technology will transform the way humans live, learn, work, and communicate. "It is very important to provide people with access to education and healthcare and we should also begin the process to eliminate the over one million auto-related deaths that occur every year," Reddy says.

"Exploring Credits for Free Online Courses"
Washington Post, November 13, 2012
The American Council on Education (ACE), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Coursera have launched an initiative to determine if free online courses are worthy of academic credit and how they might be used to help more people pursue college degrees. If that path to credit becomes a reality, "it is going to push more people into college and make them more successful," says Stanford University professor and Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller, who was the first recipient of the ACM – Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences.

"Casting a Ballot by Smartphone"
New York Times, November 12, 2012
Security experts frown on the concept of allowing people to vote through their computers or smartphones, citing potentially catastrophic ramifications. "It's a national security issue," says former ACM president Barbara Simons, who is on the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

"Why You Can't Vote Online"
Technology Review, November 5, 2012
MIT professor and ACM Turing Award co-recipient Ron Rivest says Internet voting is seldom the best option for casting votes, given its complexity and the fact that it invites wrongdoing.
 

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