ACM MemberNet - August 29, 2013

Welcome to the August 2013 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.

August 29, 2013

ACM Europe Becomes Legal Entity

In July, ACM Europe became officially incorporated as a legal entity in Europe. "This will allow ACM Europe to engage in EU-wide policy discussions in areas such as technology policy, computing research policy and priorities, and education policy and priorities," said ACM Europe Council Chair Fabrizio Gagliardi. As part of the incorporation process, new leadership was installed. The new ACM Executive Committee is as follows:

Fabrizio Gagliardi, Chair
Wendy Hall, Vice Chair
Gabriele Kotsis, Secretary
Mashhuda Glencross, Treasurer

These individuals will serve as officers of ACM Europe for two-year terms. Visit the ACM Europe home page and MemberNet Europe for more news.

ACM Groups Post Annual Reports

Annual reports for the past fiscal year from several of ACM's boards and committees, as well as ACM-sponsored organizations, are now available. Read about the accomplishments, mission and people of these vital volunteer communities: US Public Policy Council (USACM); Committee on Computers and Public Policy (CCPP); Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE); ACM-W Scholarships Committee; Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA); Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC); ACM Europe Council; and more.

AWARDS

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
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://awards.acm.org/award_nominations.cfm for nomination guidelines and the complete listing of Award Subcommittee Chairs and Members.

MEMBER RECOGNITION

Call for ACM Senior Member and Fellows 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 September 3. Please read Advice to Those Seeking ACM Senior Members by Senior Member Committee Chair Susan Rodger on how to submit a strong nomination package. Fellow is ACM's most prestigious member grade recognizing the top 1% of ACM members for their outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology and/or outstanding service to ACM and the larger computing community. The deadline for nominations is September 5. Please read the late James Horning's article, Making the case for an ACM Fellow. (Jim served for over 10 years as Co-Chair of the Awards Committee.)

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 35 distinct technological fields. Some awards presented (or to be presented) at recent conferences:

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

GHC 2013, October 2 to 5, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Be a part of the largest gathering of women in computing, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This year's featured speakers include: Sheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook), Ana Pinczuk (VP, Cisco), Arati Prabhakar (Director, DARPA), Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College and a former ACM President), Sheila Nirenberg (Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College), and Thad Starner (Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology and Technical Lead on Google's Project Glass). Last year's conference sold out, and tickets are going fast.

SPLASH 2013, October 26 to 31, Indianapolis, Indiana

The 4th Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity conference is the premier forum for software innovation, at the intersection of programming languages, programming, and software engineering. Since 2010, SPLASH has been the umbrella for both OOPSLA and Onward! events. This year SPLASH will also host the Dynamic Languages Symposium, the International Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering, and the Conference on Software Language Engineering. Scheduled keynote speakers are Kathryn S. McKinley of Microsoft Research; Greg Wilson of Mozilla Foundation, Canada; Molham Aref of LogicBlox; and Gilad Bracha of Google.

SC 2013, November 17 to 22, Denver, Colorado

For 25 years, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis has served as the crossroads for the entire HPC community, from users and program managers to colleagues and vendors, and from government to private industry to academia. The technical program and exhibits will feature the latest developments in high-performance computing technology. Katherine Yelick, the 2013-2014 Athena Lecturer, will deliver her Athena Lecture; other keynote speakers will be announced.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2013, November 19 to 22, Hong Kong

The 6th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia will present the most cutting edge graphical achievements across a range of fields, including hardware and software, film and game production, and research and education. The largest graphics event in Asia, SIGGRAPH 2013 expects to attract 7,000 attendees from various industry sectors and more than 130 exhibitors from 50 countries around the world. The conference will include an Art Gallery with exceptional digital and technologically mediated art; a Computer Animation Festival; comprehensive instructional courses on contemporary topics in graphics and interactive techniques; and a showcase of Emerging Technologies such as interfaces, input devices, systems of engagement, and robotics with hands-on demonstrations. Other programs include the Symposium on Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications.

PUBLIC POLICY

USACM Outlines Limitations of Computing for Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

In a workshop held last month by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to address issues surrounding collection and search of telephone metadata and collection of electronic communication information, USACM submitted comments that highlighted the challenges involved in successfully implementing policies that would help limit access to and use of the collected information. USACM recommended a systems engineering analysis for the collection and analysis structures utilized through the surveillance programs, including technical requirements, operational assumptions and relevant data collection and use practices. This would help the agency better understand the tradeoffs involved in balancing national security concerns, privacy and civil liberties principles, and the technical capabilities of the NSA.
Read the August 2 post in USACM's Tech Policy Blog.

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 2013–2014 Ambassadors for ACM program offers opportunities for you to earn new prizes, rewards and bonus gifts with each referral. The top ACM Ambassador for July was Santhosh Kumar Gopalan.

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 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.

ACM Member Long Term Care Plan

Recognizing the significant need for long-term care planning among our members, ACM is pleased to announce a comprehensive Long Term Care Insurance Program. This program offers a portfolio of comprehensive plans from multiple highly rated insurance carriers, and through a partnership with Long-Term Care Resources, ACM members now have a national network of long-term care specialists available to explain the costs and benefits of this vital program. More importantly, we have used the buying power of our association to obtain special discounted rates.

Information is your best weapon in the fight against the dramatically rising costs of long-term care. Visit the Long Term Care Resources page or call 1-800-358-3795 to receive your free Long-Term Care Planning Kit.
AR Ins. Lic. #245544
CA Ins. Lic. #0633005
d/b/a in CA Seabury & Smith Insurance Program Management
62682 ©Seabury & Smith, Inc. 2013

LEARNING CENTER

ACM Members Get 20% off Registration for NYU-Poly Cyber Security Event in November

ACM Members are eligible for a 20% discount on registration to the THREADS Conference and Competition Finals, part of NYU-Poly's Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) 2013 Competition. At the THREADS conference, you will hear from researchers who participated in DARPA's Cyber Fast Track program about some of the best tools and products to come out of the program. CSAW includes talks by industry experts, a career fair for corporate partners, and the student competition. PhD students will present their research papers, Master's students will compete in an Embedded Systems event, more than 10,000 undergraduates will participate in Capture the Flag, and high school teams will compete in a Forensics Challenge.

The conference and Competition Finals will take place November 14 to 16 in Brooklyn, New York. Admission is $125. ACM Members, use the code in your emailed MemberNet at registration for a special discount. For registration to THREADS, visit the CSAW website and click on "THREADS" in the top nav menu.

Download Safari Books Online's new mobile app, Safari to Go (available in the Apple iTunes App Store and Google Play) for faster and easier mobile access to ACM's custom collection of 700 books and videos. Visit the Safari FAQ page in the Learning Center for instructions on logging in with your ACM Professional Member credentials. (You are no longer required to connect through the ACM Learning Center or myACM website before launching the app). Safari to Go also offers full functionality on WiFi and 3G/4G connections, is mobile-optimized for faster content loading and video playback, and allows you to download up to 3 books into the Offline Bookbag for those times when you can't connect to the web.

Watch ACM Webcast on Computers' Ability to Learn from the Web

Register to watch the latest free ACM Webcast, Never-Ending Learning to Read the Web, presented on August 27, part of the ACM Learning Webinar series. Tom M. Mitchell, Founder and Chair of the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University, will talk about CMU's Never-Ending Language Learner (NELL), a computer that runs 24 hours per day, forever, learning to read the web. Each day NELL extracts (reads) more facts from the web, and integrates these into its growing knowledge base of beliefs. The webcast is moderated by Yolanda Gil, Director of Knowledge Technologies and Associate Division Director at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California, and Research Professor in the Computer Science Department.

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

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

ACM Partners with Code.org to Expand K-12 Computer Science Education

ACM is partnering with Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to growing K-12 computer science education in America, to bring computing skills to elementary and high school students across the US. The partnership is aimed at ensuring that every K-12 student in the nation has the opportunity to study computer science as a rigorous discipline that includes some serious exposure to programming, systems, languages, and computer architecture. As part of this alliance, Cameron Wilson, ACM Director of Public Policy, was named Chief Operating Officer of Code.org on an interim basis. "Reforming K-12 education to incorporate serious computer science seems vital to producing an informed public that has a deeper appreciation for the power of computing than video games and social networking," said ACM President Vint Cerf. He noted that computer science education will enable students to be better prepared for the projected 1.5 million job openings in computing-related fields over the next ten years.
Read the ACM press release.

Call for Submissions: First Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale (with SIGCSE 2014), March 4 to 5, 2014, Atlanta, Georgia

The First Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale conference will be held immediately prior to and collocated with SIGCSE 2014. The conference is intended to promote scientific exchange of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the learning sciences and computer science. Inspired by the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and the accompanying huge shift in thinking about education, this conference was created by ACM as a new scholarly venue and key focal point for the review and presentation of the highest quality research on how learning and teaching can change and improve when done at scale.

"Learning at Scale" refers to new approaches for students to learn and for teachers to teach, when engaging large numbers of students, either in a face-to-face setting or remotely, whether synchronous or asynchronous, with the requirement that the techniques involve large numbers of students (where "large" is preferably thousands of students, but can also apply to hundreds in in-person settings). Topics include, but are not limited to: Usability Studies, Tools for Automated Feedback and Grading, Learning Analytics, Analysis of Log Data, Studies of Application of Existing Learning Theory, Investigation of Student Behavior and Correlation with Learning Outcomes, New Learning and Teaching Techniques at Scale. Submissions are welcome, with the first deadline on November 8. Please visit the website for details.

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 SIGCOMM 2013. The next conferences accepting submissions are:

SAC 2014, March 24-28, 2014, deadline September 13
SIGCSE 2014, March 5-8, 2014, deadline September 29
PLDI 2014, June 9-11, 2014, deadline November 15
ICSE 2014, May 31-June 7, 2014, deadline November 22

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. Twenty 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 complimentary 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 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.

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS PROGRAM

Featured ACM Distinguished Speaker: Philippe Kruchten

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 Philippe Kruchten. He is professor of software engineering in the department of electrical and computer engineering of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He joined UBC in 2004 after a career of more than 30 years in industry, where he worked mostly with large software-intensive systems design in telecommunication, defense, aerospace and transportation. Some of his experience is embodied in the Rational Unified Process (RUP) whose development he directed from 1995 till 2003, when Rational Software was bought by IBM. RUP includes an architectural design method, known as "RUP 4+1 views." His current research interests still reside mostly with software architecture, especially architectural decisions and the decision process, as well as software engineering processes, in particular the application of agile processes in large and globally distributed teams. Kruchten is a senior member of IEEE Computer Society, member of ACM and INCOSE, the founder of Agile Vancouver, and a professional engineer in British Columbia. He has a diploma in mechanical engineering from Ecole Centrale de Lyon (France), and a doctorate degree in informatics from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris.
For more information on Philippe, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Philippe Kruchten's Digital Library author page.

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

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 July 3 to August 16, 2013:

ACM Student Chapters:

ACM-W at Union College Student Chapter, Schenectady, New York
BIT Patna ACM Student Chapter, Birla Institute of Technology, Patna, India
COEP ACM Student Chapter, College of Engineering, Pune, India
GHRIETW ACM-W Student Chapter, G. H. Raisoni Institute of Engineering and Technology for Women, Nagpur, India
GVAIET ACM Student Chapter, G.V. Acharya Institute Of Engineering & Technology, Shelu, India
IIITM-K ACM Student Chapter, Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala, Trivandrum, India
UNC CIS Technology ACM Student Chapter, Greeley, Colorado
UPV ACM Chapter, Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia Valencia, Spain

ACM Professional Chapters:

ACM Chong-Qing Chapter, Chongqing, China
ACM Cochin Chapter, Cochin, India
ACM Lanzhou Chapter, Lanzhou, China
Buenos Aires ACM Chapter, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Munich ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter, Munich, Germany

ACM-W NEWS

ACM-W Chair Valerie Barr Appointed to Education Post at NSF

ACM-W Chair Valerie Barr will be on hiatus from her professor position in the Department of Computer Science at Union College while she serves as Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) at the National Science Foundation. Her responsibilities there will include long-range planning and budget development for areas represented within DUE; management of the merit review, award and declination process; post-award management; coordinating with other programs within NSF; and contributing to the development of long-range plans for the Educational and Human Resources Directorate, which is the parent organization of DUE. Her term begins this month and is a temporary position.

Second New York Celebration of Women in Computing Hosts Career Fair, Speakers, Gaming

By Valerie Barr, ACM-W Chair and NYCWiC Sponsorship Chair
The second New York Celebration of Women in Computing (NYCWiC 2013), held April 19 and 20 at the Desmond Hotel in Albany, New York, was an action-packed event. We had 124 attendees, including 83 students, 28 faculty, and 10 industry attendees.

As a continuation of its support of the ACM-W Regional Celebrations, CRA-W supported two keynote speakers. On Friday evening we heard from Wendi Heinzelman, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Rochester, who spoke about "Realizing the Potential of Wireless Sensor Networks for Connecting the Physical and Virtual Worlds." Our Saturday breakfast speaker was Lorraine Herger, Director of Integrated Solutions and CIO, IBM Research, who spoke about "Working in a Global Environment: The Global Technology Outlook and Experiences in the Corporate Service Corps."

Attendees had the opportunity for career and résumé advising as soon as they arrived, followed by a poster session that featured presentations by both undergraduate and graduate students. Many conference attendees participated in a well-received session on the "Imposter Syndrome." The rest of the conference included a mix of refereed research presentations, research panels, career sessions, and lighting talks. A definite highlight for most attendees was "Friday Night Fun," sponsored by 1st Playable, whose employees set up numerous gaming stations.

The conference concluded with a career fair. As usual, the room was abuzz with conversations as students visited the many tables and spoke with potential employers.

The ACM-W Regional Celebrations project 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.

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

Joint IEEE/ACM Transactions to Launch in 2014

Starting in January 2014, IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing and ACM Transactions on Speech and Language Processing will be published jointly as IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing. Papers from the new Transactions will appear in both IEEE Xplore and the ACM Digital Library. Publication will be managed by IEEE as a hybrid journal, allowing either traditional or open access manuscript submission. The new journal welcomes novel contributions in all areas covered by the two journals, which include audio, speech, and language processing and the sciences that support them. For more information on the new journal, see IEEE TASLP and the submissions page.

ACM Journal on Experimental Algorithmics and ACM Transactions on Information Systems Seek New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Journal on Experimental Algorithmics is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due October 1.

ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due November 1.

CACM Reports: Building Biologically Inspired Robots, and Turning User Discomfort into Memorable Reactions

Evolutionary robotics is a small but productive niche field, writes Josh C. Bongard in "Evolutionary Robotics," the August cover story in Communications of the ACM. Since the early 1990s, evolutionary methods have produced millions of different kinds of robots that can walk, swim, or grasp objects. Exploring how these robots have achieved these competencies might provide unique insight on how to scale robots up to perform more complex tasks, like working safely alongside humans.
Read the press release.

Traditional goals of usability have shifted with the increasing use of computers in games, amusement park rides, performances, and entertainment. In the September cover story in Communications of the ACM, a team of university research professors from the UK explain how the deliberate use of discomfort—managed carefully and ethically—could become an important tool for designers as a means of producing more enlightening, socially bonding user experiences. These human-computer interaction experts introduce ways to create and resolve discomfort for a thrilling and memorable experience.
Read the press release.

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.

Queue Video Portrait: Nicholas Zakas

In a video interview conducted by previous Queue Portrait subject Kate Matsudaira, Nicholas Zakas discusses the current state of front-end engineering and Web development. He takes us through his journey working on the client side, and answers questions like "when should you use jQuery?" Zakas is a web software engineer who specializes in user interface design and implementation for web applications using JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. He is currently a staff software engineer at Box, helping the company with its front-end architecture and making the code easier to maintain going forward. Previously, Zakas was the front-end tech lead for the Yahoo! homepage and a contributor to the Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) library. He is also a keynote speaker, giving talks about web development, JavaScript, and best practices, and provides recommendations on standards such as HTML5 and ECMAScript. He has written four books: Maintainable JavaScript, Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, High Performance JavaScript, and Professional Ajax.

ACM Queue Presents: NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access): An Overview

Christoph Lameter describes NUMA (non-uniform memory access) as the phenomenon of memory at various points in the address space of a processor having different performance characteristics. NUMA becomes more common as memory controllers get close to execution units on microprocessors. As the trend toward improving system performance by bringing memory nearer to processor cores continues, NUMA will play an increasingly important role in system performance.

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.

Hot Topics Editor 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 for Hot Topics.

ACM IN THE NEWS

"Computer Science Teacher Certification 'Deeply Flawed,' Report Says"

Education Week, August 21, 2013
State systems for certifying computer science teachers are fundamentally flawed, creating a major obstacle to ensuring that high-quality educators can prepare students for employment in the technology field, according to a report released by the Computer Science Teachers Association.

"Kean Computer Science Students in Union Travel 'Beyond the Grave'"

NJ.com, August 19, 2013
Kean University computer science students have developed a smartphone app to provide access to information on grave markers in the First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Kean professor and ACM student chapter faculty advisor Patricia Morreale split the students into two groups to develop an iPhone app and an Android app, with each group replicating the other's search functionality and features.

"Wireless Devices Go Battery-Free With New Communication Technique"

UW News, August 13, 2013
"We can repurpose wireless signals that are already around us into both a source of power and a communication medium," says lead researcher Shyam Gollakota, winner of ACM's 2012 Doctoral Dissertation Award.

The New York Times, August 12, 2013
A recent paper published in the journal Science by Google chief Internet evangelist and ACM president Vint Cerf and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute computer scientist, ACM Fellow and 2009 ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award recipient Francine Berman recommended sharing the costs of making digital scientific data widely available.

"Apple's Tim Cook, Tech Executives Meet With Barack Obama to Talk Surveillance"

Politico, August 8, 2013
President Barack Obama recently hosted a group of tech executives and civil liberties leaders, including Google chief Internet evangelist and ACM president Vint Cerf and Apple CEO Tim Cook, for a closed-door meeting about government surveillance.

"Ethernet Inventor Bob Metcalfe Discusses Gigabit Future"

Government Technology, August 7, 2013
Speaking at the recent Gigtank Demo Day, Ethernet inventor and 1980 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award winner Bob Metcalfe discussed the future of gigabit communities.

"Shadows and Light: Dartmouth Researchers Develop New Software to Detect Forged Photos"

Science Codex (Dartmouth College), August 5, 2013
Significant research in the field of digital forensics by researchers at Dartmouth College and University of California, Berkeley was presented at the recent ACM SIGGRAPH 2013 conference.

"Reliable Communication, Unreliable Networks"

MIT News, August 5, 2013
"There's been a discrepancy between the theory, with its idealized models, and the reality of wireless networks," says MIT professor and 2012–2013 ACM-W Athena Lecturer Nancy Lynch.

"Hadi Partovi's Code.org Ramps Up With 3.5M Students"

Vator News, July 31, 2013
Approximately 13,000 schools have already approached Code.org for assistance in adding computer science to their curriculum. Code.org has partnered with nonprofit Technically Learning and nonpartisan advocacy coalition Computing in the Core, which ACM founded in 2010 with the backing of Microsoft, Google, the Computer Science Teachers Association, and the National Center for Women and Information Technology.

"Emerging Technologies at SIGGRAPH 2013 Could Yield New Markets Tomorrow"

iMedia Connection, July 28, 2013
SIGGRAPH 2013 Studio, which provided an opportunity for attendees to explore a wide array of new techniques and media, including three-dimensional printing, modeling, and animation software, was a standout program at the conference.