ACM MemberNet - March 27, 2014

Welcome to the March 2014 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.

March 27, 2014

TOP STORIES

2013 ACM Turing Award Goes to Leslie Lamport for Advancing Reliability and Consistency of Computing Systems

ACM has named Leslie Lamport, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, as the recipient of the 2013 ACM A.M. Turing Award for imposing clear, well-defined coherence on the seemingly chaotic behavior of distributed computing systems, in which several autonomous computers communicate with each other by passing messages. He devised important algorithms and developed formal modeling and verification protocols that improve the quality of real distributed systems. These contributions have resulted in improved correctness, performance, and reliability of computer systems.

Lamport's practical and widely used algorithms and tools have applications in security, cloud computing, embedded systems and database systems as well as mission-critical computer systems that rely on secure information sharing and interoperability to prevent failure.

The ACM A.M. Turing Award, widely considered the "Nobel Prize in Computing," carries a $250,000 prize, with financial support provided by Intel Corporation and Google Inc. It is named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing, and who was a key contributor to the Allied cryptanalysis of the German Enigma cipher and the German "Tunny" encoding machine in World War II.

ACM will present the 2013 A.M. Turing Award at its annual Awards Banquet on June 21 in San Francisco, California.

Read more in the ACM press release and on the ACM home page.

ACM Announces Slate of Candidates for 2014 General Election

ACM has assembled its slate of candidates for President, Vice President, and Secretary/Treasurer (for the 2014 to 2016 term), and Members at Large (2014 to 2018). Statements and biographical sketches of all candidates will appear in the May 2014 issue of Communications of the ACM. Visit the ACM Elections page for more information and to view the slate.

AWARDS

Eckert-Mauchly Award Nominations Due March 30

The ACM/IEEE-CS Eckert-Mauchly Award honors recipients with a certificate and $5,000 given jointly by the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society for outstanding contributions to the field of computer and digital systems architecture, where the field of computer architecture is considered to encompass the combined hardware-software design and analysis of computing and digital systems. Nominations are due March 30.

Gordon Bell Prize Nominations Due May 1

The Gordon Bell Prize is awarded each year to recognize outstanding achievement in high-performance computing. The purpose of the award is to track the progress over time of parallel computing, with particular emphasis on rewarding innovation in applying high-performance computing to applications in science, engineering, and large-scale data analytics. Nominations are due May 1.

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 June 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.

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

First Women in Cybersecurity Conference, April 11-12, 2014, Nashville, Tennessee

The First National Women in Cybersecurity Conference (WiCyS) will offer Distinguished Speaker sessions, technical presentations, technical workshops (both for faculty and students), poster competitions, Birds-of-a-Feather discussions, panel discussions, lightning talks, and a career fair. The conference is an effort to bring together women students, faculty, researchers, and professionals in cybersecurity from academia, research and industry for sharing of knowledge and experience, networking and mentoring. Any individual or organization interested in recruitment/retention of women in this field and/or diversification of their cybersecurity workforce is especially encouraged to get involved. ACM-W is a sponsor and support is provided by NSF. Visit these pages for registration, participation, sponsorship, and career fair opportunities. Visit the WiCyS timeline for a list of important dates, and the news page for frequent updates.

CHI 2014, April 26 to May 1, Toronto, Canada

CHI 2014, the premier international conference of human-computer interaction, will feature keynotes from a number of distinguished speakers including acclaimed author Margaret Atwood; UI designer Scott Jenson; Director of HCI at eBay Research Labs Elizabeth F. Churchill; and Jana Mobile CEO Nathan Eagle. Some of the different areas of CHI that will be explored in this conference are information and communication technologies; games and entertainment; interaction science; the "maker" culture; and the arts.

ICSE 2014, May 31 to June 7, Hyderabad, India

ICSE 2014, the International Conference on Software Engineering, provides a forum for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, experiences and concerns in the field of software engineering. Scheduled keynote speakers will include James D. Herbsleb, a professor at the Institute for Software Research in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University; Charles Lee Isbell, Jr., Senior Associate Dean, College of Computing and professor, School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology; and Armando Fox, a professor at University of California, Berkeley's Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Department as well as Faculty Advisor to the UC Berkeley MOOCLab. A CTO Roundtable will pair Jeannette M. Wing, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research and ACM Fellow, and K. Ananth Krishnan, CTO, Tata Consultancy Services. Co-located events will cover a variety of topics in software engineering, including Mobile Software Engineering, Software Repositories, and workshops will cover many technical aspects of SE, including Crowdsourcing, Testing, and Data Analysis.

CFP 2014, June 8 to 10, Warrenton, Virginia

The CFP 2014 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference will feature the theme, "The Internet Wants to be Free." The conference organizers include leading minds in technology, human rights, and civil society, and they encourage multi-stakeholder participation as speakers, proposal submitters, and attendees that represent the diverse global community of organizations and professionals who work on policy, technology and law. Submissions are open until April 1 and may include solo presentations, debates, roundtables, workshops, panels, or birds-of-a-feather sessions. Visit the submission guidelines page for more information.

BAC 2014, October 8 to 9, Houston, Texas

BAC 2014, the first ACM-sponsored conference to focus on Business Analytics, will address key issues relating to organizing and managing massive volumes of data effectively, the evolution of analytics techniques and software tools to support complex analytical processes, and how business analytics impacts and changes business organizations and their competitive situations. Papers on theoretical foundations, economic impacts, Big Data, and more are invited for this inaugural event. Submissions are due May 30.

GHC 2014, October 8 to 11, Phoenix, Arizona

GHC 2014, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, is the world's largest gathering of women technologists and is a great opportunity to gain professional visibility as a subject matter expert, expand your network and inspire other women in computing. This year's conference will focus on key areas where emerging technologies are having a dramatic impact. Other ways to participate: submit a nomination for the GHC ABIE Awards for someone you know who is doing important work in the areas of technical leadership, social impact, emerging leaders, and educators. Deadline is May 15. Or apply for a scholarship: GHC Scholarship Grants enable students and faculty who would not otherwise have the opportunity, to attend GHC. Deadline is April 16.

HILT 2014, October 18 to 21, Portland, Oregon

HILT 2014 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. The conference will feature keynote and invited presentations from leading experts in language technology and high-integrity systems. Submissions are invited for technical papers, experience reports (including experience in teaching), and tutorial proposals on a broad range of relevant topics. Deadline is June 7; visit the conference website for more information.

SPLASH 2014, October 20 to 24, Portland, Oregon

SPLASH 2014, the ACM SIGPLAN conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity embraces all aspects of software construction and delivery to make it the premier conference at the intersection of programming, languages, and software engineering. Submissions for Onward! essays (abstracts) are due March 29; for Onward! full essays, April 25. See the submissions page for more information.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2014, December 3 to 6, Shenzhen, China

Submissions are invited for the 7th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia. The largest conference on computer graphics in Asia is seeking submissions for workshops, technical papers, the Computer Animation Festival, Emerging Technologies, Mobile Graphics Symposium, courses, and more. Visit the submissions page for more information and a complete list of deadlines.

PUBLIC POLICY

ACM Urges States to Expand Computer Science Education to Prepare K-12 Students

Citing the rapid growth of computing jobs in virtually every industry sector in the United States, ACM issued a report urging states to provide more opportunities for students to gain the skills and knowledge needed to compete for these high-wage positions. The report, Rebooting the Pathway to Success: Preparing Students for Computing Workforce Needs in the United States, calls on education and business leaders and public policy officials in every state to take immediate action aimed at filling the pipeline of qualified students pursuing computing and related degrees, and to prepare them for the 21st century workforce. The report provides recommendations to help these leaders join together to create a comprehensive plan that addresses K-12 computer science education and that aligns state policy, programs, and resources to implement these efforts.

Read more in the ACM news release.

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 February was John Barnett.

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.

Exclusive Offer on Auto and Home Insurance from Liberty Mutual

Get quality protection for your auto and home. Liberty Mutual is pleased to offer ACM members special savings and personalized coverage. Enjoy exceptional service your way: at a local office, by phone, online or via mobile device. We will help ensure that you, your family and your valuables are properly protected. Visit Liberty Mutual for a free quote or call 1-800-524-9400. Please identify yourself as a member of ACM, group number 8559.

Discounts and savings are available where state laws and regulations allow, and may vary by state. Certain discounts apply to specific coverages only. To the extent permitted by law, applicants are individually underwritten; not all applicants may qualify.

LEARNING CENTER

Watch March 27 Webcast with David Black: "Ruby for the Nuby"

Register to watch the next free ACM webcast, Ruby for the Nuby, to be presented on Thursday, March 27 at 1 pm ET (noon CT/11 am MT/10 am PT/5 pm GMT) by Ruby expert David Black. The talk will be followed by a live question and answer session moderated by Erik Meijer, a member of the ACM Queue Editorial Board.

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

ACM Opens Safari Online Library to Student Members

Through May 31, ACM is offering our Student Members complimentary access to our custom library of Safari online books and videos. Use your ACM Student Member account to log into Safari via the ACM Learning Center (click the Safari link in the top right corner) or through myACM (click the Safari Books link in the left sidebar navigation). This collection is normally available only to Professional Members. Enhance your skills and knowledge with Safari's premier e-reference library of professional titles from leading publishers including O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley and Prentice Hall.
Learn more about Safari Books Online.

New Morgan Kaufmann and Syngress Ebook Titles

ACM's ebook collection now contains 225 titles from publishers Morgan Kaufmann (MK) and Syngress, with greater and fresher coverage of the most bleeding- and cutting-edge topics in computing, such as Big Data, Cybersecurity, Human-Computer Interaction, Parallel Computing, and more. All books are available in PDF (and some in ePub) and are downloadable to your desktop, laptop, tablet, and any popular ebook reader on your mobile device. All ACM members (Student and Professional) can access them through the ACM Learning Center ebook catalog as well as the ACM Digital Library.

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.

CSTA JOB BOARD

Computer Science Teachers Association Launches Job Board

The Computer Science Teachers Association has launched its new CSTA Job Board, the career hub for K-12 Computer Science teachers. The new career center provides access to 100% computer science K-12 teaching-related job postings.

The CSTA Job Board will allow you to manage your career:

  • Search and apply to K-12 computer science related jobs
  • Upload your anonymous résumé and allow employers to contact you
  • Set up job alerts specifying your skills, interests, and location to receive email notifications when a job is posted that matches your criteria

or recruit for open positions:

  • put job openings in front of the most qualified group of K-12 computer science-focused professionals
  • Simply create an employer account on the CSTA Job Board and choose from three levels of online job postings options: Basic 30-Day Online Job Posting ($190); Enhanced 30-Day Online Posting ($250); or Premium 30-Day Online Posting ($310).

CSTA Members: be sure to visit the CSTA Job Board directly (or click the Job Board link from the CSTA homepage) to create and upload your résumé to the Résumé Bank so that employers find you, or keep it private and use it when applying online for jobs. Log in and post your résumé today!

EDUCATION

ACM Urges States to Expand Computer Science Education to Prepare K-12 Students

 

(see story under Public Policy)

Computer Science Teachers Association Launches Job Board

(see story under CSTA Launches Job Board)

STUDENT NEWS

Apply for George Michael HPC Fellowship

The ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship is now open for submissions from exceptional PhD students throughout the world whose research focus is on high-performance computing applications, networking, storage, or large-scale data analysis using the most powerful computers that are currently available. Recipients receive a $5,000 honorarium, travel and registration for SC14, and recognition at the SC14 Awards Ceremony. Submissions are due May 1.

Apply for N2Women Fellowship to Attend Conferences

Networking Networking Women (N2 Women) is a discipline-specific community for researchers in the communications and networking research fields, fostering connections among under-represented women in computer networking and related research fields. The group offers fellowships covering travel costs for female graduate students planning to attend premier technical conferences in networking and communications. In exchange, the students help organize the N2 Women meeting at the conferences. Funding is provided by ACM SIGMOBILE, HP Labs, and Microsoft Research, and will partially cover a student's travel cost (up to $500) to an event where an N2 Women meeting is held. Please click on the Fellowships link of the website for a complete listing of opportunities and deadlines.

XRDS Needs You!

XRDS, the ACM magazine for students, is seeking students to become an active part of our team. Please email your resume/CV and a short paragraph about yourself to [email protected].

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 SIGCSE 2014. The next conferences accepting submissions are:

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) provides support for women undergraduate or graduate students in computer science and related programs who wish to attend research conferences. This exposure to the Computer Science research world can encourage a student to continue on to the next level (Undergraduate to Graduate, Masters to Ph.D., Ph.D. to an industry or academic position). The student does not have to present a paper at the conference she attends. Students can apply an unlimited number of times; however, once a student receives an award, she is no longer eligible for future ACM-W scholarships.

The ACM-W scholarships are divided between scholarships of up to $600 for intra-continental conference travel, and scholarships of up to $1200 for intercontinental conference travel. Scholarship applications are evaluated in six groups each year, in order to distribute awards across a range of conferences.

ACM-W encourages the student's home department to match the scholarship award and recognize the student's achievement locally within their department. In addition, if the award is for attendance at one of several ACM Special Interest Group conferences (SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGARCH, SIGCOMM, SIGCHI, SIGCSE, SIGDA, SIGECOM, SIGEVO, SIGGRAPH, SIGHPC, SIGIR, SIGITE, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGOPS, SIGPLAN, and SIGSOFT), the SIG will provide complimentary conference registration and a mentor during the conference. The number of free registrations available varies from SIG to SIG. The 2013-2014 scholarships are made possible by generous support from Google.

For application form, notification dates and more information, please visit the scholarships page.

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

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 Donald Costello. Don has had a mixed career, splitting his time between business and academia. He helped start three computer science departments and three university information technology facilities (University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh and Madison and Colorado State University). He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses and has done work in research areas of Statistical Computing, Performance Modeling, Standards for Learning Objects, and Managing Intellectual Property. He is a 40-year member of ACM and is a fellow of the British Computing Society. He has lectured all over the United States as well as in England, Ireland, Austria, Germany, India and Sri Lanka. He also held a four-year Carnegie Foundation grant to investigate how IP is managed in universities around the world. Don has managed IT facilities, founded and sold two firms and consulted with over 100 firms throughout the world. His recent consulting includes five years on ERP systems and SAP, as well as being a technical consultant on .com and e-Learning projects.

Don is currently a Senior Lecturer and NCITE scholar at the University of Nebraska and is working on the importance of standards in modeling the large systems needed to support e-learning environments.

For more information on Donald, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Donald Costello'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 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 February 14 to March 12:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Colorado School of Mines ACM Student Chapter, Golden
  • COMSATS IIT ACM Student Chapter, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • Fontbonne University ACM Student Chapter, Clayton, Missouri
  • Jayamukhi ACM Student Chapter, Warangal, India
  • JUIT ACM Student Chapter, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Solan, India
  • Lynchburg College ACM Student Chapter, Lynchburg, Virginia
  • Monmouth College ACM Student Chapter, Monmouth, Illinois
  • North American University NAU ACM Student Chapter, Houston, Texas
  • Sree Vidyanikethan Engg. College ACM Student Chapter, Tirupati, India
  • Thapar University ACM-W Student Chapter, Patiala, India
  • Trinity University ACM-W Student Chapter, San Antonio, Texas
  • Troy University ACM Student Chapter, Troy, Alabama

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • Korea ACM SIGDA Chapter, Daejeon
  • San Francisco Bay Area SIGMM Chapter, Palo Alto, California
  • Sargodha ACM Chapter, Sargodha, Pakistan
  • Taiwan ACM SIGMM Chapter, Taipei

ACM-W NEWS

Industry Leaders, Researchers Inspire Tech Women at Carolinas Conference

By Madeleine Schep, CWIC 2014 Committee

The third Carolinas Women in Computing conference (CWIC 2014) was held in Charleston-Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, February 7-8. The registration total for the event (129) was 40% higher than that of CWIC 2102. The conference featured a variety of speakers and panels from both academia and industry. One of the highlights was the keynote address from CRA-W Distinguished Lectures Series speaker Lynne Parker from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Parker engaged the audience with her talk, "From Birds and Bees to Multi-Robot Teams: What Nature Can Teach Roboticists," which described her work on cooperative robots. The talk included many videos clips that illustrated her work. Cordy Rierson of Microsoft talked about seizing opportunities to start or jump-start a career. Mandy Pant discussed her path from student to lead technologist working in power management at Intel. Representatives from the Google CS First program discussed what they were doing to bring computer science into South Carolina schools. Technical women from BenefitFocus and Blackbaud presented their perspectives on local tech opportunities. Students presented their own research in lightning talks and a poster session in which Jheanelle Linton earned first place with her poster, "Emergency Management and Relief using Geographic Information Systems."

On the second day, 17 high school students joined in the conference activities as CWIC hosted the South Carolina Aspirations in Computing awards ceremony. Aspirations in Computing is a talent development initiative of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). Avis Yates Rivers, CEO of Technology Concepts Group International, LLC, delivered the address and presented awards to the winners and runners-up.

ACM-W Celebrations showcase female role models, encourage mentoring and networking, supply accurate information about computing careers, and create opportunities for women to to present their research, often for the first time in their careers. The small conferences are run with almost 100% volunteer effort and involve considerable fundraising. If you are interested in working on or supporting any of the celebrations, please contact Valerie Barr or Jodi Tims. We'd love to have you join our conference committees or become a sponsor of this important effort to encourage and increase the participation of women in computing.

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.

Also read the ACM-W Connections newsletter for updates on ACM-W programs (celebrations, scholarships and awards, and chapters); Judy Olson's Ask Judy column (Judy is the 2011 ACM-W Athena Lecturer); and contributed articles and announcements of upcoming events.

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

ACM Transactions on Algorithms Seeks New Editor-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Algorithms is seeking candidates for a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due May 16.

ACM Transactions on Parallel Computing and ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms Accepting Submissions

ACM Transactions on Parallel Computing (TOPC) is now accepting submissions. TOPC is a forum for novel and innovative work on all aspects of parallel computing, including foundational and theoretical aspects, systems, languages, architectures, tools, and applications. Visit the submissions site for more information.

ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems (TSAS) is now accepting submissions. TSAS is a new scholarly journal that publishes the highest quality papers on all aspects of spatial algorithms and systems and closely related disciplines. Visit the submissions site for more information.

CACM Reports: Hiding Data in Plain Sight in the Digital Age; and Security and Privacy in Augmented Reality

The new "black" among black hats in hidden data is the evolution of an age-old technique called steganography that camouflages information in digital media and computer networks, according to researchers at the Warsaw Institute of Technology. In the March issue of Communications of the ACM, they examine recent efforts to embed secret messages by rogue hackers, and track the distinctions between steganography and cryptography. Warning of new embedding opportunities that pose a large threat to the security of information systems, the authors urge the research community to discover better detection methods for information hiding that can be promptly and practically deployed in networking environments. (The print edition's cover art incorporated thermochromatic ink that hides a message.)

In the April issue's cover story, the commercial innovations enabled by augmented reality (AR) technologies are shadowed by unforeseen computer security and privacy risks, report researchers from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research. They distinguish between virtual reality systems involving simulation, and AR systems, which power devices beyond the mobile phone that enhance sensing, display, and data sharing. Citing both unique obstacles and promising opportunities raised by AR applications, they argue that now is the time to consider security and privacy issues, while the technologies are still young and malleable.

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 news release.

ACM Queue Presents: Multipath TCP

In Multipath TCP, Christoph Paasch and Olivier Bonaventure of Belgium's Université Catholique de Louvain explain MPTCP (Multipath Transmission Control Protocol). The Internet relies heavily on two protocols. In the network layer, IP (Internet Protocol) provides an unreliable datagram service and ensures that any host can exchange packets with any other host. Since its creation in the 1970s, IP has seen the addition of several features, including multicast, IPsec (IP security), and QoS (quality of service). The latest revision, IPv6 (IP version 6), supports 16-byte addresses. The second major protocol is TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which operates in the transport layer and provides a reliable bytestream service on top of IP. TCP has evolved continuously since the first experiments in research networks. MPTCP is a major extension to TCP. With the growing importance of wireless networks, multihoming is becoming the norm instead of the exception. Smartphones and data centers are the first use cases where MPTCP can provide benefits.

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

"Parallel Programming May Not Be So Daunting"

MIT News, March 23, 2014
In a paper to be presented at ACM's Annual Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC 2014), researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and Microsoft Research will demonstrate an analytics technique suggesting that, in a wide range of real-word scenarios, lock-free algorithms can give wait-free performance.

"Lawmakers Call for More Computer Science in California Schools"

EdSource, March 18, 2014
For students entering college with a solid framework in programming, the job opportunities upon graduation should be plentiful, says Computer Science Teachers Association executive director Chris Stephenson. Computer science industry leaders expect to add 1.4 million new jobs by 2020, according to Code.org.

"What the Internet of 2025 Might Look Like"

The Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2014
Google chief Internet evangelist and ACM president Vint Cerf says business models will need to adapt to the economics of digital communication and storage. He also says, "We may finally get to Internet voting, but only if we have really strong authentication methods available."

"Detecting Software Errors Using Genetic Algorithms"

redOrbit.com (Saarland University), March 5, 2014
Saarland University professor and ACM Fellow Andreas Zeller and his colleagues have developed XMLMATE, software that automatically tests other programs for errors.

"Women Talk Tech and Careers in Computer Science"

Yahoo! UK & Ireland , March 3, 2014
About 250 women from 32 countries attended the womENcourage conference at Manchester University on March 1 to promote and encourage women in the field of computer science. The event, the first of its kind in Europe, was organized by ACM-W Europe and sponsored by Bloomberg, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft Research, and Yahoo Labs.

"Computer Coding More in Demand than Languages, Survey Shows"

The Guardian, March 2, 2014
Software programming should take priority over modern languages in British schools, according to a Code.org survey of more than 2,000 adults across the United Kingdom. ACM partnered with Code.org to offer the Hour of Code, a series of free tutorials designed to show students the basics of programming in an hour.

"New Map of Twitterverse Finds 6 Types of Networks"

UMD Newsdesk, February 21, 2014
University of Maryland professor and ACM Fellow Ben Shneiderman, working with researchers from the Pew Research Internet Project, the Social Media Research Foundation, and the University of Georgia, has found that most of the information being discussed on Twitter falls into six distinct patterns or networks.

"Cockpit for Apps: Minority Report Meets Google Glass"

New Scientist, February 20, 2014
A "personal cockpit" would provide a good way for people to interact with their apps in the near future, according to Barrett Ens and colleagues at the University of Manitoba. The researchers' findings will be presented at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Toronto in April.

"Huge Potential of High-Performance Computing Showcased at HiPEAC Conference"

CORDIS News, February 18, 2014
The HiPEAC conference, supported by a European Union-funded project designed to facilitate research and innovation in high-performance computing, incorporated a unique model in which the main track only contained presentations based on papers published in ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization.

"Necklace Projectors Will Throw Emails onto the Floor"

New Scientist, February 17, 2014
Researchers at the University of Ulm have created a projector that is embedded in jewelry to enable consumers to use their hands or the floor as a screen for reading email and other digital information. The researchers will present their work at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

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