ACM MemberNet - October 30, 2014

Welcome to the October 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.

October 30, 2014

Notice of SIG Elections to Extend Officers' Terms

Officers of permanent ACM Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are elected by plurality vote of the SIG members beginning July 1. At the end of the term, the SIG Governing Board may exercise an option at the request of the SIG officers to extend their term for a set number of years as set forth in the SIG's bylaws. In accordance with this policy, the SIG Governing Board voted to approve the request to extend the terms of office for the following SIGs: SIGAda, SIGCOMM, SIGDOC, SIGKDD, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGSAC, and SIGSAM.

Elections will be held for any of these SIGs if a petition is brought forward by one percent (1%) of the members of the SIG. A petition to initiate an election must be received at ACM Headquarters: Pat Ryan, Chief Operating Officer, Office of Policy and Administration, ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY 10121 by November 3, 2014.

Questions about the petition process should be directed to ACM's Chief Operating Officer Pat Ryan at (ryan_p at acm dot org).

Bill Riddle, Past ACM SIGSOFT Chair, Dies

William E. Riddle, an early leader of the software engineering community and an active member for over 40 years, died on September 26, 2014 in Santa Fe, New Mexico due to complications from a recent fall. He was 72 years old. Bill earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Cornell University and his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1972. Early in his career, he served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of Colorado and was a visiting research fellow at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Late in his career, he held visiting scientist and senior scientist appointments at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering. The majority of his professional life, however, was devoted to providing software engineering leadership in a variety of roles at a variety of organizations: Software Design and Engineering Manager at Cray Laboratories, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President at the Software Productivity Consortium, Senior Member of Technical Staff at the Software Engineering Institute, Solution Architect at Borland Software (TeraQuest Metrics), President of Software Design & Analysis Inc., Director of the Rocky Mountain Institute of Software Engineering, and Senior Solution Architect at Solution Deployment Affiliates.

Bill was instrumental in the early development of the SIGSOFT community, serving as Vice Chair of the SIGSOFT Executive Committee (1979–1981); as the third Chair of ACM SIGSOFT (1981–85), as General Chair of the first SIGSOFT Software Engineering Symposium (1981); and as General Chair of the 1987 International Conference on Software Engineering. His many contributions were recognized by his election to IEEE Fellow (1991), by a 1996 ICSE Most Influential Paper Award (with Sam Redwine Jr., for Software Technology Maturation, ICSE-8, 1985) and by an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Service Award (1999). An obituary appeared in the Boulder Daily Camera.

AWARDS

ACM, IEEE Computer Society Announce George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship Recipients

ACM and the IEEE Computer Society have named Harshitha Menon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Alexander Breuer of Technical University of Munich as recipients of 2014 ACM/IEEE Computer Society George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowships. Menon and Breuer will each receive a $5,000 honorarium, plus travel and registration to receive the award at the SC14 supercomputing conference during the awards ceremony in November. Menon won recognition for her paper "Scalable Load Balancing and Adaptive Run Time Techniques." Breuer won recognition for his project, "Petascale High Order Earthquake Simulations."

Endowed in memory of George Michael, a founding father of the SC conference series, the ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial Fellowships honor 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.

Read more in the ACM news release and on the ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial Fellowship page.

National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Be Awarded to Turing, SIGCOMM Award Recipients

ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient Charles W. Bachman and ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award recipient Mary Shaw join a new class of recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation —the US's highest honor for achievement and leadership in advancing technology. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America's competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the its technological workforce. The new awardees will receive their medals at a White House ceremony later this year.

Call for ACM Award Nominations

Each year, ACM recognizes technical and professional achievements within the computing and information technology community through its celebrated Awards Program. And annually, ACM's award committees evaluate the contributions of candidates for various awards that span a spectrum of professional and technological accomplishments. You and your colleagues are invited to nominate candidates for ACM awards, including:
Awards with November 30 nomination deadlines:

A.M. Turing Award
ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences
ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award
Software System Award
Grace Murray Hopper Award
Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award
Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics
Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award
Distinguished Service Award
Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award

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 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. Please read Advice to Those Seeking ACM Senior Members by former 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:

SIGACCESS: Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility Award
SIGAda: Outstanding Ada Community Contributions and Distinguished Service Awards
SIGOPS: Dennis M. Ritchie Award, Mark Weiser Award
SIGPLAN: John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award, John Vlissides Award
SIGSOFT: Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

MIG 2014, November 6 to 8, Los Angeles, California

MIG 2014, the 7th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference on Motion in Games, brings together researchers from a variety of fields to present their most recent results, to initiate collaborations, and to contribute to the establishment of the research area. The conference will consist of regular paper sessions, poster presentations, and presentations by a selection of internationally renowned speakers in all areas related to games and simulation, including Hao Li, assistant professor of computer science at University of Southern California; Evan Hirsch, Managing Partner of Engine Co. 4, a strategic consulting firm; Google roboticist Erwin Coumans; and Paul Debevec, a research professor at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering and Chief Visual Officer at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies. Debevec received a Scientific and Engineering Award in 2010 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The conference includes entertaining cultural and social events that foster casual and friendly interactions among the participants. Papers will cover a range of topics from animation to predicting player behaviors.

SC 2014, November 16 to 21, New Orleans, Louisiana

SC14, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, will bring together the high performance computing community of scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, students, programmers, system administrators, and developers to engage in important conversations of how HPC technologies can be used to better the world. SC14 will also be launching new initiatives focused on Big Data and analytics as well as innovative new technologies in HPC. The program includes the Student Research Competition, and the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize recognizing outstanding achievement in HPC, as well as the ACM/IEEE Computer Society George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowships, will be presented. Physicist and best-selling author Brian Greene will keynote. Twelve Invited Talks will feature leaders in the areas of high-performance computing, networking and storage. The talks will typically concern innovative technical contributions and their applications to address the critical challenges of the day.

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

At SIGGRAPH Asia 2014, the 7th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia, attendees will learn from and be inspired by the finest talents from industry and academia. Both a conference and trade exhibition, SIGGRAPH Asia presents the latest, most ground-breaking advances in the field. A Business Symposium track will address issues affecting the computer graphics business in Asia. Speakers will share insights on Experiences in Asian Expansion; Success in Asia by Asia; US Intellectual Property Law for Asia; Asian Games Market Strategy; and Future of Cloud and Production. Other scheduled speakers at the conference are Scott Ross, Founder, Digital Domain; Steven Feiner, professor of computer science at Columbia University; Robb Denovan, Senior Animator, Pixar Animation Studios; and Peter J. Bentley, Honorary Reader and Senior College Fellow and head of the Digital Biology Interest Group at University College London. Preview technical papers here.

PUBLIC POLICY

USACM Re-emphasizes Role of Technology in Elections

Excerpt from a statement from Juan Gilbert, Chair of the USACM Voting Committee, on how computing expertise can contribute critical elements to securing modern voting systems:

"The integrity, security, and usability of voting technologies for public elections are fundamental to stable democracies throughout the world in this digital age. USACM recommends acceptance of seven principles of modern voting systems that are designed to safeguard the mechanisms and devices on which public elections rely.

"USACM experts from the computing community have identified a variety of risks and vulnerabilities in many computer-based electronic voting (e-voting systems) stemming from poor design, inferior software engineering processes, mediocre protective measures, and insufficient comprehensive testing. In addition, technology has unique capabilities that can improve voting access for traditionally disenfranchised constituencies such as disabled and military voters…."
Read the full statement here and background information on USACM's Tech Policy blog.

USACM Issues Follow-up Comments on NIST's Cybersecurity Roadmap

USACM submitted comments on the Cybersecurity Framework in April 2013, prior to the development of Framework version 1.0 and the accompanying Roadmap. USACM stands by its comments from that time and encourages the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to make sure that any changes to the Framework and Roadmap help minimize the risk of inappropriate disclosure of information. In particular, USACM re-emphasizes its concerns from the 2013 comments on the need to resist disclosing too much information.
Read the full comments here.

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. The 2014–2015 Ambassadors for ACM program offers opportunities for you to earn new prizes, rewards and bonus gifts with each referral. The top ACM Ambassadors for September were Jacob R. Porter and P.V. Nageswara Rao.

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. Please consider becoming an Ambassador for ACM.

Featured Member Benefit: Liberty Mutual Insurance

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 October 30 Webcast, "Develop Hybrid Mobile Applications with Apache Cordova and PhoneGap Enterprise"

Register to watch the latest free ACM webcast, Develop Hybrid Mobile Applications with Apache Cordova and PhoneGap Enterprise, presented on October 30 by by Andrew Savory, Mobile Services and Solutions Evangelist, Adobe.

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

Recent Additions to Skillsoft IT and Desktop Video Library

Did you know that ACM members have access to thousands of IT and productivity videos from Skillsoft in the ACM Learning Center? Covering a variety of today's hottest topics, these videos offer "on-the-job" support and solutions for busy practitioners.

Recently, Skillsoft added significant video content in the following knowledge areas: Bootstrap, Cisco SWITCH 2.0 and TSHOOT 2.0, CompTIA CASP CAS-002, Debugging, Microsoft Lync Server 2013, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2, Microsoft Visual Studio 2013, Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 with C#, Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 and XAML, Microsoft WPF, and Software Testing with Visual Studio. To access these and other videos, visit the Learning Center, log into Skillsoft and Books 24x7 with your ACM member credentials, then browse by IT and Technical Video Topics.

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 Job Board Matches Job Seekers, Employers

The Computer Science Teachers Association's CSTA Job Board is the career hub for K-12 Computer Science teachers. The 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!

STUDENT NEWS

Eleven Turing Award Recipients Participate in 2nd Annual Heidelberg Laureate Forum

The second Heidelberg Laureate Forum, taking place September 21–26 in Heidelberg, Germany, provided a unique opportunity for luminaries in the fields of computer science and mathematics to meet with and inspire the best and brightest of young researchers from around the world. The laureates included recipients of the ACM A.M. Turing Award (computer science), the Abel Prize, the Nevanlinna Prize and the Fields Medal (mathematics). The week-long event focused on scientific inspiration and exchange through a series of presentations, workshops, panel discussions, and social events. Among the 24 laureates participating in this year's event were 2013 Turing Award recipient Leslie Lamport and 2004 Turing Award recipient and past ACM President Vint Cerf.

ACM, in cooperation with the Klaus Tschira Foundation in Heidelberg, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the International Mathematical Union, created the HLF in 2012 as an annual event, in part to raise the visibility of the Turing Award and ACM, but also to advance computer science and mathematics for the next generation. Student nominations for HLF 2015 will open in November.
Watch videos of the talks, and read Vint Cerf's impressions in CACM.

Apply Now for CRA's Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award

The Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award program recognizes undergraduate students in North American colleges and universities who show outstanding research potential in an area of computing research. Eligible nominees must be enrolled as undergraduates in a North American college or university throughout the academic year September 2014 to May 2015. They must be nominated by two faculty members and recommended by the chair of their home department. The deadline for nominations is November 3.

Upcoming ACM Student Research Competitions: Submission Deadlines

ACM Student Research Competitions (SRCs), sponsored by Microsoft Research, offer a unique forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their original research at well-known ACM sponsored and co-sponsored conferences before a panel of judges and attendees. The most recent SRC winners presented at GHC 2014. The next conferences accepting submissions are:

ASPLOS 2015, March 14-18, 2015, deadline November 14
ICSE 2015, May 16-24, 2015, deadline November 21
CHI 2015, April 18-23, 2015, deadline January 5, 2015
MOBILESoft 2015, May 16-17, 2015, deadline January 16, 2015

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

Featured ACM Distinguished Speaker: Roberto Ierusalimschy

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 Roberto Ierusalimschy. Roberto is an Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), where he works with programming language design and implementation. He is the leading architect of the Lua programminglanguage and the author of the book Programming in Lua. He holds an Engineering degree (1982), an MS in Computer Science (1985), and a PhD in Computer Science (1989), all from PUC-Rio. He was a visiting researcher at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), affiliated with University of California, Berkeley, 1994; at GMD Research Center for Information Technology, Berlin, Germany, 1997; and at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001-2002. He was also a Tinker Professor at Stanford University, 2012.

For more information on Roberto, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Roberto Ierusalimschy'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 on the DVP site. Make sure you identify yourself as an ACM chapter or event.

CHAPTERS NEWS

ACM Announces Winners of 2013–2014 UPE ACM Student Chapter Scholarship Award

Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE), the Honor Society for Computing Sciences, and ACM are proud to announce the 2013–2014 UPE ACM Student Chapter Scholarship Award winners:

Maruan Al-Shedivat, KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Saudi Arabia and University of California, San Diego
Tyler Allen, Western Carolina University
Nicholas Botzer, Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania
Victoria Wu, University of Missouri-Kansas City

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.

Notice of ACM Chapters to Be De-Chartered

ACM is considering the de-charter of certain chapters due to inactivity. Please be sure to check the following link to see if your chapter is listed: http://www.acm.org/chapters/chapter-decharter/. ACM will terminate the chapters listed on November 17, 2014. Members interested in revitalizing their chapters should contact [email protected]. Those interested in remaining active should complete their 2014 Annual Report.

Welcome New ACM Chapters

Chapters are the "local neighborhoods" of ACM. The regional ACM Professional, Student, ACM-W, and Special Interest Group (SIG) chapters around the globe involve members locally in competitions, seminars, lectures, workshops, and networking opportunities. ACM welcomes these new chapters that were chartered September 23 to October 20:

ACM Student Chapters:

Bharath University ACM Student Chapter, Chennai, India
BUEST ACM Student Chapter, Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technologies, Solan, India
Champlain College ACM Student Chapter, Burlington, Vermont
DeSales University ACM Student Chapter, Center Valley, Pennsylvania
DHA Suffa University ACM Student Chapter, Karachi, Pakistan
Goa University ACM Student Chapter, Goa, India
Kansas State University ACM-W Student Chapter, Manhattan
Lake Superior State University ACM Student Chapter, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
MIT India ACM Student Chapter, Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune, India
Penn State Behrend ACM Student Chapter, Erie, Pennsylvania
Prairie View University ACM Student Chapter, Prairie View, Texas
Reynolds Community College ACM Student Chapter, Richmond, Virginia
St. Cloud State University ACM Student Chapter, St. Cloud, Minnesota
St. Martin's Engineering College ACM-W Student Chapter, Secunderabad, India
Sukkur IBA (Institute of Business Administration) ACM Student Chapter, Sukkur, Pakistan
SXCCE ACM Student Chapter, St. Xavier's Catholic College of Engineering, Tamil Nadu, India
USIL ACM Student Chapter, St. Ignatius of Loyola University, Lima, Peru
WiCS ACM-W Student Chapter, University of Oregon, Eugene
University of Alaska Fairbanks ACM Student Chapter, Fairbanks

ACM Professional Chapters:

Cyprus ACM-W Chapter, Limassol, Cyprus
IRAN SIGCHI ACM Chapter, Tehran, Iran
Sacramento ACM Chapter, El Dorado Hills, California
Deep Information Sciences ACM Chapter, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

ACM-W NEWS

Goa University Hosts First All India Celebrations of Women in Computing

By Maria Choudhary (Oracle Systems), AICWIC Chair

The All India Celebrations of Women in Computing 2014 (AICWIC 2014) conference was a first for the ACM-W Goa chapter. The one-day celebration, held on September 26, provided several intellectually enriching opportunities for women students and professionals, with collective learning, interacting with world-class researchers and peers, and discussing work in progress. ACM-W India Chair Sheila Anand, ACM India President Srinivas Padmanabhuni, ACM Disinguished Speaker Silvia Giordano (University of Applied Science, Switzerland), and Chandrashekhar Sahasrabudhe of Persistent Systems helped open the event.

Talks and activities included:

Keynote talk by Silvia Giordano on "Mobile Hoc Networking: Cutting-Edge Directions"
Tutorial on Visualization by Jaya Sreevalsan Nair (IIT Bangalore)
Arati Dixit (Savitribai Phule Pune University) spoke on "Life and Work of Shafi Goldwasser" (2012 ACM A.M. Turing Award co-recipient), followed by work-in-progress presentations by an eminent group of researchers.
Nutan Limaye (IIT Bombay) enthralled the audience with her lively talk on "Theoretically Speaking: the Why and How of Efficient Computation."
Panel discussion on how women cope with challenges in their careers, including Giordano, Anand, Geetha Kannan (Managing Director, Anita Borg Institute India), Suji Gopalan (Oracle Academy), and Pallavi Desai (Persistent HR)
Awards presentation at closing ceremony by Vijayendra P. Kamat, Registrar, Goa University, to winners of the first Lady Ada National Programming Contest for girls

Please visit the October issue of the ACM-W Connections newsletter for the full report.

ACM-W Celebrations, sponsored by Microsoft Research, 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 conferences are run with almost 100% volunteer effort and involve considerable fundraising. Information on starting new Celebrations and conference planning resources are on the ACM-W Celebrations site. Please contact Celebrations Project Chair Jodi Tims for any additional assistance.

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: local celebrations, scholarships and awards, chapters, and more.

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

ACM Transactions on Parallel Computing Debuts

ACM Transactions on Parallel Computing (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. It will address all classes of parallel-processing platforms including concurrent, multithreaded, multicore, accelerated, multiprocessor, clusters, and supercomputers.
Read the inaugural issue in the Digital Library.

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems Accepting Submissions

The new ACM journal ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems (TOMPECS) is now accepting submissions. Visit the submissions site for more information.

ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, ACM Transactions on Information and System Security, ACM Transactions on Graphics Seeking New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due November 3.

ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due November 10.

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due November 30.

Information Systems Category Editor Needed for Computing Reviews

Computing Reviews, the post-publication review and comment journal of ACM, is seeking a volunteer interested in serving as a category editor for a segment of the information systems area. Please see the Information Systems Category Editor search page for more information.

CACM Reports: Getting Computers to Describe What They See

In the November issue of Communications of the ACM cover story, researchers from the Australian National University explore an approach known as pixel-labeling to understand images and enable computers to describe what they see. Check out the video for this cover story. Also in the November issue, product management as a key piece of software development; redefining the strong-versus-weak ties among relationships developed through online social networks; building and sustaining diversity in CS; and keeping online reviews honest.
Read the ACM news release.

ACM Queue Presents: JavaScript and the Netflix User Interface

Alex Liu, senior UI engineer at Netflix, is part of the core team leading the migration of Netflix.com to Node.js. In his article, JavaScript and the Netflix User Interface, Liu describes how JavaScript is used at Netflix. "With increasingly more application logic being shifted to the browser, developers have begun to push the boundaries of what JavaScript was originally intended for. Entire desktop applications are now being rebuilt entirely in JavaScript—the Google Docs office suite is one example. Such large applications require creative solutions to manage the complexity of loading the required JavaScript files and their dependencies. The problem can be compounded when introducing multivariate A/B testing, a concept that is at the core of the Netflix DNA. Multivariate testing introduces a number of problems that JavaScript cannot handle using native constructs, one of which is the focus of this article: managing conditional dependencies."

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

"Princeton Computer Scientist Robert E. Tarjan Appointed Chief Scientist at Intertrust Technologies"

Business Wire, October 29, 2014
Intertrust Technologies has named Princeton University professor and 1986 ACM A.M. Turing Award laureate Robert E. Tarjan as chief scientist.

"Could a Robot Do Your Job?"

USA Today, October 29, 2014
"We don't just have machines that are faster than us, but we also are starting to have machines that might be smarter than us," says Rice University professor (and CACM editor-in-chief) Moshe Y. Vardi.

"W3C, Now Age 20, Gives Official Recommendations for HTML5"

eWeek, October 28, 2014
"Today we think nothing of watching video and audio natively in the browser, and nothing of running a browser on a phone," said W3C director and 1995 ACM Software System Award recipient Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

"Maria Klawe: Esteemed Computer Scientist. Proud Mathematician. Watercolor Painter."

Tech Republic, October 24, 2014
Klawe, a former ACM president, was the first female president of Harvey Mudd, and during her eight years there, the college has seen its female enrollment rate jump from 31 percent to 47 percent.

"UC Trains Young Women in New Technologies"

UC Magazine, October 23, 2014
The University of Cincinnati hosted Microsoft's DigiGirlz event in conjunction with UC's new student chapter of the ACM Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W).

"Tim Berners-Lee, Web Creator, Defends Net Neutrality"

The New York Times, October 8, 2014
1995 ACM Software System Award recipient Sir Tim Berners-Lee, speaking at a technology conference in London, says harnessing the full potential of the Internet and Web technology in the future will require the codification of network neutrality into law.

"Tech Companies Hope to Introduce Coding to 100 Million Students"

The Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2014
The CEOs of two dozen major tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, are supporting a project by nonprofit that seeks to introduce computer science to 100 million students worldwide. The companies will promote Code.org's Hour of Code campaign, which encourages students to explore computer coding through hour-long online tutorials. ACM and CSTA are major partners in Code.org.

"LAUSD Announces Sweeping Expansion of Computer Science Course Work"

The Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2014
The Los Angeles Unified School District and Code.org are collaborating to launch a sweeping expansion of computer science coursework, according to officials.

"Carnegie Mellon's Mary Shaw Will Receive National Medal of Technology and Innovation"

Carnegie Mellon News, October 3, 2014
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) computer science professor and ACM Fellow Mary Shaw is one of eight winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation announced by President Obama on October 3.

"Computer Science Times Are A-Changing"

Cornell Chronicle, October 2, 2014
Cornell University is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Department of Computer Science, which recently held a two-day symposium that featured Juris Hartmanis, Edmund M. Clarke, and John Hopcroft, three computer science pioneers who are ACM A.M. Turing Award laureates.

"Kentucky Uses IdeaFestival to Push Students Toward Hour of Code Movement"

TechRepublic, September 30, 2014
Kentucky Coders hopes to register 1 million Hour of Code coding events before December, starting at the 2014 IdeaFestival, an international event held in Louisville. The Hour of Code movement was launched by Code.org (in which ACM is a partner), which wants to have millions of people try Hour of Code activities during Computer Science Education Week, which takes place December 8-14.

"Tim Berners-Lee Wants Internet Magna Carta to Guarantee Netizens' Privacy"

Network World, September 28, 2014
1995 ACM Software System Award recipient Sir Tim Berners-Lee is using the 25th anniversary of his invention of the World Wide Web to push for an Internet bill of rights, which he characterizes as a "Magna Carta for the Web."