ACM MemberNet - January 29, 2015

Welcome to the January 2015 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.

January 29, 2015

TOP STORIES

ACM Names 2014 Fellows

ACM has recognized 49 of its members for their contributions to computing that are driving innovations across multiple domains and disciplines. The 2014 ACM Fellows, who hail from some of the world's leading universities, corporations, and research labs, have achieved advances in computing research and development that are driving innovation and sustaining economic development around the world.
Read the ACM news release.

2015 SIG Election Candidate Slate

In accordance with ACM Bylaw 6, the following SIGs will hold elections in 2015: SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGAPP, SIGARCH, SIGBED, SIGBio, SIGCHI, SIGDA, SIGecom, SIGEVO, ACM SIGGRAPH, SIGITE, SIGMETRICS, SIGMIS, SIGOPS, SIGPLAN, SIGSOFT, and SIGWEB.

ACM Policy and Procedures require that those SIGs holding elections notify their membership of candidates for elected offices. To see the slate of candidates, please visit the 2015 ACM SIG Election site.

In accordance with the SIG Bylaws, additional candidates may be placed on the ballot by petition. All candidates must be Professional Members of ACM, as well as members of the SIG. Anyone interested in petitioning must inform ACM Headquarters (Pat Ryan, ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, NY, NY 10121) and the SIG Viability Advisor (Will Tracz) of their intent to petition by 16 March 2015.

Additional information will appear in the February issue of ACM MemberNet and on the 2015 ACM SIG Election site.

ACM Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Report

In the past fiscal year (July 2013–June 2014), ACM has raised the monetary level for the A.M. Turing Award to $1 million, with all funding provided by Google Inc. It also launched the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, which brought together 200 students with 40 international recipients of the most prestigious awards in computer science and mathematics. This past fiscal year also marked the publication of the ACM-IEEE-CS collaboration, Computer Science Curricula 2013 and Rebooting the Pathway to Success: Preparing Students for Computer Workforce Needs in the United States, an exhaustive report from ACM's Education Policy Committee. The Publications Board continues to examine ways to offer authors and readers greater open access to our published material, and launched the ACM Press Books Series, with three titles in the Digital Library. Internationalization efforts continue, with a focus on increasing the number of chapters and conferences, improving CS education, and advancing the research environment and global competiveness in the European, Indian, and Chinese regions where ACM hubs are located.

Read more about ACM's activities and future plans in the annual report.

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.

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 March 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:

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

ACM's Local Meetup at Carnegie Mellon Features Talk on Soft Robotics, Futuristic Disney Movie

ACM's first local meetup at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on January 20 featured a talk by Chris Atkeson, a professor in the Robotics Institute and Human-Computer Interaction Institute at CMU. An enthusiastic crowd of more than 60 attendees listened as Atkeson described the state of the art in humanoid robotics, focusing on the DARPA Robotics Challenge and on the robots' potential to provide health care to older adults and people with disabilities. He also discussed Disney's movie "Big Hero 6" and Baymax, its superhero robot with human qualities.

ACM Pittsburgh, a part of the ACM Local program, is a non-profit professional group that meets regularly to discuss diverse topics in computer science.

Competition Invites Data Scientists to Take "Deep Dive" into Study of Ocean Life

ACM, along with other organizations including IEEE-CS, is supporting the first National Data Science Bowl, A 90-day competition that offers data scientists the chance to solve a critical problem facing our world's oceans using the power of data. Participants are challenged to examine nearly 100,000 underwater images to develop a classification algorithm that will enable researchers to monitor certain sea life at a speed and scale never before possible. $175,000 in prize money will be awarded to top three individual contestants and the top academic team. The competition, which launched on December 15 and runs through March 16, is open to participants 18 years or older. Get competiton details here. The National Data Science Bowl is co-sponsored by management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen and online data science competition community Kaggle in partnership with Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center.

Tapia 2015, February 18 to 21, Boston, Massachusetts

Tapia 2015, the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, bring together students, faculty, researchers, and professionals in computing from all backgrounds and ethnicities to celebrate diversity in computing; connect with others with common backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, and gender; network with computing leaders in academia and industry; and be inspired by great presentations and conversations with leaders in the field. Schedule speakers are Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Jack Dongarra, University Distinguished Professor, EECS, University of Tennessee and recipient of the 2013 ACM/IEEE Ken Kennedy Award; Dilma Da Silva, Professor and Department Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University and an ACM Distinguished Speaker; Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, Associate Professor, Brown University; Shaun Kane, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder; and Jacky Wright, Vice President, Microsoft IT Strategic Enterprise Services.

The conference is named after Richard Tapia, a mathematician and professor in the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University, who was born to Mexican immigrant parents in Los Angeles. While at Rice, Tapia has directed or co-directed more underrepresented minority and women doctoral recipients in science and engineering than anyone in the country, and has led several programs that have brought recognition to the university's commitment to diversity.

Applicative 2015, February 26 to 27, New York, New York

Applicative 2015 is a new ACM conference designed specifically for software developers interested in the latest in emerging technologies and techniques. The conference consists of two tracks, one looking at system-level programming and the other at application development. The systems track will explore topics that enable systems-level practitioners to build better software for the modern world. The application development track has speakers from leading technology companies talking about how they are applying new technologies to the products they deliver. The diverse roster includes game developers, user experience architects, file systems experts, data wranglers, and more. An evening reception on the 25th will give attendees an opportunity to mingle informally with fellow practitioners and researchers. Early bird and ACM member discounts are available; register here.

SIGCSE 2015, March 4 to 7, Kansas City, Missouri

The SIGCSE 2015 Technical Symposium addresses problems common among educators working to develop, implement and/or evaluate computing programs, curricula, and courses. The symposium provides a forum for sharing new ideas for syllabi, laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy, at all levels of instruction. The theme for 2015 is "Keep Connected, Keep Committed, Keep Computing," and the conference will add demos and lightning talks to its ususal program of papers, panels, posters, special sessions, workshops, and birds-of-a-feather sessions. Teaching Computing Foundations to Non-Majors, Teaching Computing as Science in a Research Experience, Simulating IBM Watson in the Classroom, and Improving Undergraduate Student Performance in Computer Science at Historically Black Colleges and Universities through Industry Partnerships are just a few of the topics that will be covered. Scheduled keynote speakers are Jessica Hodgins, Vice President, Disney Research and Professor, Carnegie Melon University; Frank Young, Emeritus Professor, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Mark Allen Weiss, Professor, Florida International University; and Keith Hampton, Associate Professor, Rutgers University.

L@S 2015, March 14 to 15, Vancouver, Canada

L@S 2015, the second ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, is intended to promote scientific exchange of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the learning sciences and computer science. The conference was inspired by the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and the accompanying shift in thinking about education. It 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. Scheduled keynote speakers are Zoran Popovic, Professor and Director at the Center for Game Science, University of Washington/Founder and Chief Scientist, Enlearn; and Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google Inc.

CSCW 2015, March 14 to 18, Vancouver, Canada

CSCW 2015, the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, is the premier venue for presenting research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks. Bringing together top researchers and practitioners from academia and industry who are interested in the area of social computing, CSCW encompasses both the technical and social challenges encountered when supporting collaboration. Events include workshops on Feminism and Feminist Approaches to Social Computing; the Future of Networked Privacy; and Ethics for Studying Online Sociotechnical Systems in a Big Data World. Jeff Hancock, a professor at Cornell University's Departments of Communication and Information Science, will deliver the opening keynote on "The Facebook Study: A Personal Account of Data Science, Ethics and Change." Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Information (SILS) with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Sociology (and a faculty associate at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society), will deliver the closing keynote on "Algorithms in our Midst: Information, Power and Choice when Software Is Everywhere."

The ACM Conference on Learning at Scale (L@S 2015) will be held March 14 to 15 and is co-located with CSCW.

PUBLIC POLICY

USACM Issues Statement on President Obama's Comments on Privacy and Computing Security

USACM Issued a statement in response to the President's State of the Union Address on January 20, specifically his comments on privacy on the Internet: "While current events have led some to frame the discussion as a tradeoff of privacy in the name of security, USACM's extensive experience shows that in the majority of cases, effective security for business and enterprise systems can be accomplished without sacrificing individual privacy. Read the entire statement 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.

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.

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. Click here or call 1-800-358-3795 to receive your free Long-Term Care Planning Kit.
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LEARNING CENTER

Watch January 28 Webcast, "Stranger than Fiction: Case Studies in Software Engineering Judgment"

Register to watch the latest free ACM webcast, Stranger than Fiction: Case Studies in Software Engineering Judgment, presented on January 28 by Steve McConnell, CEO and Chief Software Engineer at Construx Software. The talk is followed by a live question and answer session moderated by Will Tracz, Lockheed Martin Fellow Emeritus and Chair of ACM SIGSOFT.

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

Skillsoft IT and Desktop Library Adds Videos on Advanced Scrum, C, NoSQL, OpenStack, vSphere 6.0, More

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: Advanced Scrum, ANSI C, Apache CXF Web Services, ASP.NET MVC 4, Cisco ROUTE 2.0, Cisco Secure Access Solutions (SISAS) v1.0, CompTIA Linux+ 2014, CompTIA Server+ 2014, CQRS, Data Science Fundamentals in R, Enabling Office 365 Services, First Encounters with Windows 10, Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices Part 2 (ICND2) 200-101, Mac OS X Yosemite, Managing Citrix XenDesktop 7, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft OneNote 2013, Microsoft SharePoint 70-332 (MCSE certification), MySQL, Node.js, NHibernate, NoSQL, OpenStack Fundamentals, vSphere 6.0 ICM1, Unix OS Fundamentals, and Web Development Fundamentals. 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. See the videos page for more video listings.

New Member Discount on EMC Courseware

ACM has partnered with EMC to bring members a 15% discount on practical training in some of today's most vital IT knowledge areas, such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, Information Storage and Management, Virtualization, and more. These EMC courses focus on technology, not products, to teach technology topics applicable to any vendor environment. Training is available in various modalities, including eLearning, instructor-led (ILT), online ILT, video ILT, and video ILT-stream. For the list of eligible courses and the discount code, visit the EMC courses page.

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!

EDUCATION

New Report on Learning Outcomes for Associate-Degree Curriculum in Information Technology

A task force of the ACM CCECC (Committee for Computing Education in Community Colleges) has produced a report that defines the core IT learning outcomes and the accompanying assessment rubrics which should be common to all associate-degree IT programs. The document, An ACM Competency Model of Core Learning Outcomes and Assessment for Associate-Degree Curriculum in Information Technology, embeds these core IT competencies into an expanded volume of IT curricular guidance which includes the opportunity for faculty at individual institutions to identify course examples and for industry representatives to identify themselves as champions of such competencies. This new ACM IT competency model is now available in the ACM Digital Library and on the CCECC website.

STUDENT NEWS

Reminder to Apply by February 28 for Next Heidelberg Laureate Forum, August 23 to 28

ACM encourages young computer scientists and mathematicians from all over the world apply for one of the 200 coveted spots to participate in the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), an annual event. The HLF offers all accepted young researchers the great opportunity to personally meet the winners of the most prestigious prizes in their fields. The deadline for applications is February 28.

For one week, the recipients of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the Abel Prize, the Fields Medal, and the Nevanlinna Prize engage in a cross-generational scientific dialogue with young researchers in Heidelberg, Germany.

The third HLF will take place from August 23 to 28. This high-profile event combines scientific, social and outreach activities in an informal atmosphere, and is fueled by comprehensive exchange and scientific inspiration. Applications must be submitted online by February 28. Read more about how to apply in the FAQ.

You can also nominate a candidate (on the registration form, you will need to enter ACM's organization number; please email [email protected] to request this number). Successful candidates will be selected by an international committee of experts to ensure that only the most qualified candidates are invited. Those who are accepted will be notified by April 15.

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 FSE 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 Jeff Johnson. Jeff is President and Principal Consultant at UI Wizards, Inc., a product usability consulting firm that offers UI design, usability reviews, usability testing, and training. He also is a principal at Wiser Usability, a consultancy focused on elder usability and universal accessibility. He has worked in Human-Computer Interaction since 1978. After earning BA and PhD degrees from Yale and Stanford Universities, he worked as a user-interface designer and implementer, engineer manager, usability tester, and researcher at Cromemco, Xerox, US West, Hewlett-Packard Labs, and Sun Microsystems. He has taught at Stanford University and Mills College, and in 2006 and 2013 was a Visiting Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics in Human-Computer Interaction and the impact of technology on society. He frequently gives talks and tutorials at conferences and companies on usability and user interface design. In 1990, he co-chaired the first Participatory Design conference, which in subsequent years became an ACM conference. He is the author of several books on User Interface Design.

A member ACM and of SIGCHI since the early 1980s, Jeff was inducted as a member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy in 2014. Since 2004, he has served on the ACM SIGCHI US Public Policy Committee.

For more information on Jeff, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Jeff Johnson'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 December 16, 2014 to January 21, 2015:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Azerbaijan Technical University ACM-W Student Chapter, Baku
  • Brown University ACM-W Student Chapter, Providence, Rhode Island
  • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ACM Student Chapter, Hong Kong
  • HKUST ACM-W Student Chapter, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  • Integral University ACM Student Chapter, Lucknow, India
  • IoBM ACM Student Chapter, Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan
  • Jayamukhi ACM-W Student Chapter, Jayamukhi Institute of Technological Sciences, Warangal, India
  • PVPIT Pune ACM Student Chapter, Padmabhooshan Vasantdada Patil Institute of Technology, Maharashtra, India
  • UCLA ACM-W Student Chapter, University of Calfornia, Los Angeles
  • University of Washington ACM SIGCHI Student Chapter, Seattle

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • Azerbaijan ACM-W Chapter, Baku
  • Saudi Arabia ACM Chapter, Riyadh

ACM-W NEWS

A New Year of ACM-W Celebrations

By Jodi Tims, Celebrations Project Chair

As we start of the second half of the 2014–2015 academic year, there is much to be excited about for the Celebrations project. There are eight events in the planning stages that will occur between now and May including MinneWiC (Upper Midwest), OCWiC (Ohio), CAPWiC (Northern Virginia), INWiC (Indiana), ArabWiC (Abu Dhabi), MICWiC (Michigan), CCWiC-Cuba, KYCC-WiC (Kentucky Community Colleges), and NYCWiC (New York). This is the inaugural event for both the Cuban and Arab Celebrations and we are pleased to see continued growth of the international reach of the Celebrations project. Collectively these events anticipate nearly 1,000 attendees!

We are continuing to work on improvements and expanded resources for the Celebrations website. Before the start of the 2015–2016 academic year, conference coordinators will be able to make post-Celebration reports online, including the uploading of photos. This feature will enhance our ability to showcase conferences on our website and build an historical archive of events.

Planning for 2015–2016 events has already begun. I encourage all coordinators who are planning Celebrations for next fall or spring to email me and I will be in touch soon to give you access to our website and begin collecting information about your events.

ACM-W Celebrations are local events that showcase female role models, encourage mentoring and networking, supply accurate information about computing careers, and create opportunities for women to present their research, often for the first time in their careers. Many of the ACM-W Celebration events include poster competitions for undergraduate and graduate students to present their research and project work. You can find information on starting new Celebrations and conference planning resources on the ACM-W Celebrations site.

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 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.

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: New Computing Technologies Speed Biological Systems Research; Achieving Faster Circuits, Searches and Software

In the Communications of the ACM January cover story, new computing technologies are aiding the study of how biological systems function. Check out the video for this cover story. Also in the January issue: the Internet's adverse effect on cognition; the rise and fall of industry research labs; how to protect systems and data; and designing smart transportation networks.
Read the ACM news release.

In the Communications of the ACM February cover story, French computer scientists have developed new and faster ways to compare theoretical machines in order to optimize searches. Citing vending machines to illustrate their methods, they build on algorithms created by former ACM Turing Award recipients John Hopcroft and Richard Karp using innovative optimization techniques that drive the technology world. Check out the video for this cover story. Also in the February issue: is information technology destroying the middle class?; new techniques that capture speech using vibrations; the state of model-based testing; the business management side of governing IT; and how the US, Europe and Japan differ in their approaches to data protection.
Read the ACM news release.

ACM Queue Presents: Securing the Network Time Protocol

In Securing the Network Time Protocol, Harlan Stenn, founder of Network Time Foundation, describes how crackers can use NTP as a weapon for abuse. NTP tends to be visible from three types of machines: embedded systems, routers (typically from Cisco or Juniper), and Windows machines running win32time and Unix boxes running NTP. These are vulnerable to attack. One of the best and easiest ways of reducing and even eliminating DDoS attacks is to make sure that computers on your networks send packets that come only from your IP space.

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

"How Can We Protect Our Information in the Era of Cloud Computing?"

University of Cambridge, January 26, 2015
"Since all the members of a peer-to-peer network are giving as well as consuming resources, it quickly overtakes a centralized network in terms of its strength," says the Jon Crowcroft, Professor of Communications Systems at University of Cambridge and an ACM Fellow.

"MOOCs Aim to Strengthen Computer Science and Physics Teaching in Middle and High Schools"

Forbes, January 13, 2015
Many agree that one of the best ways to close the gender and diversity gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is to begin educating students in those fields earlier in their K-12 careers, writes Harvey Mudd College president and former ACM president Maria Klawe.

"The Hype Is Dead, but MOOCs Are Marching On"

Knowledge@Wharton, January 5, 2015
Coursera co-founder and recipient of the 2007 ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences Daphne Koller says much of the cooling of enthusiasm for massive open online courses in the past two years has more to do with outsized expectations than unimpressive performance.

"Taking the Grunt Work out of Web Development"

MIT News, December 23, 2014
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed Ur/Web, a programming language that enables developers to write Web applications as self-contained programs. The research was presented at the ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages earlier this month.

Georgia Institute of Technology, December 15, 2014
A Georgia Tech study reveals that copyright policy is an important aspect of interactions between creators in these online communities, and therefore should be an important part of the user model in design decisions, says Georgia Tech researcher Casey Fiesler. Fiesler will present "Understanding Copyright Law in Online Creative Communities" at the 18th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2015) in March.

"Google Wants You to Help Design the Internet of Things"

Computerworld, December 12, 2014
"While the [IoT] conjures a vision of 'anytime, any place' connectivity for all things, the realization is complex given the need to work across interconnected and heterogeneous systems, and the special considerations needed for security, privacy, and safety," says Google chief Internet evangelist and ACM Past President Vint Cerf.

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