ACM MemberNet - August 27, 2015

Welcome to the August 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.

August 27, 2015

TOP STORIES

Heidelberg Laureate Forum, August 23 to 28, Features Live Streaming of Lectures

The 3rd Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), taking place this week in Heidelberg, Germany, offers 200 accepted young researchers in math and computer science from 50 nations the unique opportunity to personally meet the recipients of the most prestigious prizes in their fields. Recipients of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the Abel Prize, the Fields Medal, and the Nevanlinna Prize are engaging the selected participants with talks, panels, debates, and informal networking events. Turing Award recipients at the event are:

  • Leonard Max Adleman (2002)
  • Manuel Blum (1995)
  • Frederick Brooks (1999)
  • Vinton Gray Cerf (2004)
  • Edmund Melson Clarke (2007)
  • Stephen A. Cook (1982)
  • Sir C. Antony R. Hoare
  • John E. Hopcroft (1986)
  • Richard Manning Karp (1985)
  • Leslie Lamport (2013)
  • Butler W. Lampson (1992)
  • Peter Naur (2005)
  • Richard Edwin Stearns (1993)
  • Ivan Sutherland (1988)
  • Andrew C. Yao (2000)

Many are delivering talks which are being live streamed on HLF's website. Tune in and be a virtual participant in this inspiring program, or watch videos of the talks after the event.

Please Vote for ACM Session Proposals for SXSW 2016

ACM has invited several of our members to submit session proposals to the 2016 South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SXSW Interactive) to represent us at this dynamic interdisciplinary event. Session proposals are selected for the conference based on advisory board evaluation (40%), staff analysis (30%), and public voting (30%).

We encourage you to vote for the following ACM submissions to the Interactive track:

Voting is open to anyone with access to the Internet, and all you need to do to vote is to set up an SXSW PanelPicker account, which is quick, easy and free. Voting is open from August 10 to September 4.

Please vote, and help ACM in our bid to participate in this unique convergence of original music, independent film, and emerging technologies.

AWARDS

2015 George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship Recipients Announced

Maciej Besta of ETH Zurich and Dhairya Malhotra of the University of Texas at Austin have been named recipients of 2015 ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowships. Besta, a PhD student in the Scalable Parallel Computing Lab, won recognition for his project, "Accelerating Large-Scale Distributed Graph Computations." Malhotra, a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin working in high performance computing, won recognition for his project, "Scalable Algorithms for Evaluating Volume Potentials." The ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship is endowed in memory of George Michael, one of the founding fathers of the SC Conference series. The fellowship honors exceptional PhD students throughout the world whose research focus areas are in high-performance computing, networking, storage, and large-scale data analysis. The fellowship includes a $5,000 honorarium, plus travel and registration to receive the award at the annual SC15 conference.

Call for ACM Award Nominations

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

  • A.M. Turing Award
  • ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences
  • ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award
  • Software System Award
  • Grace Murray Hopper Award
  • Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award
  • Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award
  • ACM Policy Award
  • Distinguished Service Award
  • Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award

Other Award deadlines:

  • Doctoral Dissertation Award: October 31

Please take a moment to consider those individuals in your community who may be suitable for nomination. Refer to http://awards.acm.org/award_nominations.cfm for nomination guidelines and the complete listing of Award Subcommittee Chairs and Members.

MEMBER RECOGNITION

Call for ACM Senior Member and Fellows Nominations

The Senior Member advanced grade of membership recognizes ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who have demonstrated performance and accomplishment that set them apart from their peers. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The deadline for nominations is September 3. Please read Advice to Those Seeking ACM Senior Members by former Senior Member Committee Chair Susan Rodger on how to submit a strong nomination package.

Fellow is ACM's most prestigious member grade recognizing the top 1% of ACM members for their outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology and/or outstanding service to ACM and the larger computing community. The deadline for nominations is September 10. Please read the late James Horning's article, Making the case for an ACM Fellow. (Jim served for over 10 years as Co-Chair of the Awards Committee.)

SIG AWARDS

ACM SIG Awards Recognize Achievements in Diverse Fields

ACM's Special Interest Groups (SIGs) regularly cite outstanding individuals for their contributions in more than 35 distinct technological fields. Some awards presented (or to be presented) at recent conferences:

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

ICTIR 2015, September 27 to 30, Northampton, Massachusetts

The ACM SIGIR International Conference on the Theory of Information Retrieval provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of research related to the foundational aspects of Information Retrieval. The program includes a keynote speech "Embedded Representations of Lexical and Knowledge-Base Semantics," by Andrew McCallum, Director of the new Center for Data Science at UMass Amherst, and tutorials on "Statistical Significance Testing in Theory and in Practice" (Ben Carterette, University of Delaware) and "Theory of Retrieval: The Retrievability of Information" (Leif Azzopardi, University of Glasgow). Papers and posters, lively discussion, and social events will round out the program. Register now; the room block rate ends on August 31.

ACM to Celebrate Bicentennials of Ada Lovelace and George Boole

ACM is joining with the University of Oxford and the Computer History Museum to celebrate the 200th birthdays of Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) and George Boole (1815–1864). The bicentennial events will feature exhibits, lectures and a symposium on their lives and fundamental contributions to computing and computer programming. The exhibit Ada Lovelace 1815–1852: Computer Visionary will be on view at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK from October 29 to December 18. The Ada Lovelace 200 Symposium: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Ada Lovelace will take place December 9 to 10, with ACM President Alexander Wolf, ACM Vice President Vicki Hanson, Communications of the ACM Editor-in-Chief Moshe Vardi and ACM-W Chair Valerie Barr participating. Please register for the symposium before November 23.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California will host "George Boole: Father of Digital Logic" on November 16 from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. PST, which includes a screening of a biographical film at 2:00 p.m. followed by a panel discussion at 3:00 p.m. The day culminates with a lecture on Boole by John Naughton, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge University, UK. The video screening and lecture are free to the public. Registration information will be available October 1. The public opening of the Computer History Museum's Ada Lovelace Exhibit is December 10. On December 13, the Museum will host "Adapalooza," a community day focused on Ada Lovelace that is open to the public and emphasizes family activities.

ACM members will receive a 10% discount on admission and membership to the Computer History Museum. Live streaming of some of these events will be available on ACM's website; more details are forthcoming.

SOSP 2015, October 4 to 7, Monterey, California

The biennial ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles is a forum for researchers, developers, programmers, and teachers of computer systems technology. Academic and industrial participants will present research and experience papers that cover the full range of theory and practice of computer systems software. A series of co-located workshops will cover aspects of operating systems including timely results, programming languages, diversity, distributed systems and middleware, NVM/Flash technologies, and energy-efficient systems. A special History Day workshop will celebrate 50 years of operating systems principles since the inaugural SOSP event, with first-hand accounts by speakers who were active during many of those years.

SPLASH 2015, October 25 to 30, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The ACM SIGPLAN conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity (incorporating OOPSLA) explores all aspects of software construction and delivery. Embracing all aspects of software construction and delivery, this year SPLASH includes OOPSLA, Onward!, and co-located events DLS, GPCE, SLE, PLoP, and DBPL. Scheduled keynote speakers are Princeton University CS professor Nick Feamster, "Tomorrow's Network Operators Will Be Programmers"; Rob DeLine, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, "Modern software is all about data. Development environments should be, too."; and Google Chrome browser developer Lars Bak, "How Dart Learned From Past Object-Oriented Systems."

ASSETS 2015, October 26 to 28, Lisbon, Portugal

The 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility explores the design, evaluation, and use of computing and information technologies to benefit people with disabilities and older adults. ASSETS is the premier forum for presenting innovative research on mainstream and specialized assistive technologies, accessible computing, and assistive applications of computer, network, and information technologies. The keynote speaker will be Jon Schull, president of the Enable Community Foundation, on "Enabling the future: Crowdsourced 3D-printed prosthetics as model for open source assistive technology innovation and mutual aid."

SC15, November 15 to 20, Austin, Texas

SC15 is dedicated to showcasing work in high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis by the international HPC community. The core of the conference is the technical program with peer-reviewed content for every track; a series of student programs to engage and foster the next generation of HPC professionals; community awards to honor researchers in the field; and the fastest research network, SCinet, built to support high performing applications and demonstrations during the conference. Early registration is available through October 15.

L@S 2016, April 25 to 26, 2016, Edinburgh, UK

The third annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale is at the intersection of computer science and the learning sciences, seeking to improve practice and theories of learning at scale. Strong submissions typically build on relevant research and frameworks beyond a single home discipline. Co-located with the 6th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK 2016), this year's conference is seeking paper submissions reporting on rigorous research on methodologies, studies, analyses, tools, or technologies for learning at scale. Learning at Scale includes MOOCs, games (including massively multiplayer online games), citizen science communities, and other types of learning environments which provide learning experiences to large number of learners, and/or produce detailed, high-volume data about the learning process. Full paper submissions are due October 18; see the Calls page for more deadlines and submission details.

PUBLIC POLICY

USACM Celebrates 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

In July the ACM US Public Policy Council (USACM) celebrated the the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark law that has increasingly enabled people with disabilities to participate in all aspects of society. "Accessibility and usability are crucial to an inclusive digital world," said Harry Hochheiser, the Chair of the USACM Accessibility Committee, and assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh. "When the ADA was enacted in 1990, the Internet revolution was still a few years away. Although technological advances have allowed people with vision, hearing, mobility, and cognitive disabilities to participate in the richness of the web, mobile technologies, social media, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, the ADA has been a vital tool for ensuring fair and equal access to these technologies and the opportunities they present."

"In keeping with the vision of the ADA, we owe it to future generations to continue to innovate and to widen future possibilities for an inclusive digital world," said USACM Chair Eugene H. Spafford. "Advances in computing will continue to expand the possibilities for everyone to interact, no matter their circumstances or physical world limitations."
Read USACM's statement in full.

MEMBER PROGRAMS

ACM Congratulates Our Grand Prize Winner and Top Ambassadors

Sanyam Grover, a student at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, India qualified for the 2014–2015 Ambassadors for ACM Grand Prize, an Android tablet. Sanyam is founder and chair of the UPES ACM Student Chapter and is an ACM student member. ACM also recognizes our top Ambassadors for the months of April, May, and June:

  • April: Kalavathi Alla
  • May: Nilesh K. Modi
  • June: Eng Mostafa Korashy

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 access to Communications of the ACM, eBooks and videos, online courses, and the Digital Library, ACM offers more tools than ever to empower our members to succeed in the computing field. Share this news with friends and colleagues and become an Ambassador for ACM. The 2015–2016 Ambassador program has begun, with opportunities 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.

ACM Members can enjoy exclusive discounts on books and journals from leading publishers including Applied Computer Research, CLSI Publications, Morgan Kaufmann, and Springer; courses from NYU-Poly and Stevens Institute of Technology; and certification exams from CompTIA. Find more member discounts here.

LEARNING CENTER

Watch August 20 Webcast with Lawler Award Recipient Robin R. Murphy: "Disasters: Robots, Computing, and Informatics"

Watch the ACM August 20 webcast by Robin R. Murphy, Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and recipient of 2014 ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award. In Disasters: Robots, Computing, and Informatics, Murphy covers the phases of disaster response and summarizes the missions where unmanned systems have been used. She also discusses computing challenges for increased intelligent control of the platforms, describing the missions for which autonomous capabilities appear the most useful. The last part of the webinar addresses the emergency informatics challenges of extracting, delivering, displaying, and supporting analytics of relevant information. By the end of the webinar, participants should have a high level understanding of what really goes on at a disaster, how robots and computing are being used, and the open research questions for unmanned systems and computer science in general.

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

Skillsoft Library Content Changes

Our Skillsoft content library is undergoing significant changes in September. While our overall collections will increase significantly, as a result of this transition, many of the current Books 24x7 book titles and Skillsoft courses will no longer be available. Please complete your reading/training with these book titles and courses by August 31.

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: Adobe Illustrator CC 2014, Advanced AngularJS, Agile Project Management, Apache Cassandra, Apache Kafka, Cloud Computing Technology Fundamentals, CSSLP, Data Visualization, Defensive Programming in iOS, Getting Started with Ubuntu, Information Security, iOS 8 Application Development, Internet Explorer 11, Jenkins, Juniper Networks Junos Essentials, Microsoft Windows Server 2016, Office 2016, Oracle Database 12c, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Skype for Business, Software Defined Networking Essentials, Software Testing Foundations, Vagrant, Virtualizing Enterprise Desktops and Apps, and Web Design Essentials.

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 eBooks from Morgan Kaufmann and Syngress

A total of 100 new titles have been added to the Learning Center catalog of Morgan Kaufmann and Syngress eBooks in 2015, which now numbers more than 400 titles. New titles include: Commonsense Reasoning; The Complete Business Process Handbook; Distributed Algorithms; HCISPP Study Guide; How to Build a Digital Library, Second Edition; The Internet and Its Protocols; Knowledge Representation and Reasoning; Multicore and GPU Programming; Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks; Safeguarding Intangible Assets; Success Strategies from Women in STEM; Targeted Cyber Attacks; Usability Engineering; Usability Testing Essentials; and Wireless Communications & Networking. See all the newly added titles here.

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!

STUDENT NEWS

Enter Appreneur Scholar Contest—Deadline November 15

ACM has partnered with the Kay Family Foundation to support the 2016 Appreneur Scholarship Award. The competition recognizes outstanding high school and college student-created apps and culminates in a reception for the awardees at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2016) in Las Vegas. A panel of experts from technology, education, and financial communities, will select the two winning Appreneur Scholars, who will receive a $5,000 scholarship and be recognized at the Mobile Apps Showdown and TransformingEDU Summit of CES. Mobile app entries are due November 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 ESEC/FSE 2015. The next conferences accepting submissions are:

  • SAC 2016, April 4-8, 2016, deadline September 11
  • SIGCSE 2016, March 2-5, 2016, deadline September 28
  • ICSE 2016, May 14-22, 2016, deadline November 20

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 2015-2016 scholarships are made possible by generous support from Google, Microsoft Research, and Oracle.

For application form, notification dates and more information, please visit the scholarships 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 Tsung-Yi Ho. Tsung-Yi is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 2005. From 2007 to 2014 and 2015, he was with National Cheng Kung University and National Chiao Tung University, respectively. His research interests include design automation and test for microfluidic biochips and nanometer integrated circuits. He has presented tutorials and contributed special sessions in ACM/IEEE conferences, all in design automation for microfluidic biochips. Among his many awards are the ACM Taipei Chapter Young Researcher Award, the IEEE Tainan Chapter Gold Member Award, the Invitational Fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Humboldt Research Fellowship, and the Hans Fischer Fellow by the Institute of Advanced Study of the Technical University of Munich. He was a recipient of Best Paper Awards at the VLSI Test Symposium (VTS) in 2013 and IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems in 2015. He currently serves as a Distinguished Visitor of the IEEE Computer Society, the Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Tainan Chapter, the Chair of the ACM SIGDA Taiwan Chapter, and Associate Editor of the ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems and several IEEE publications. Tsung-Yi also serves or has served on the Technical Program Committees of major conferences, including DAC, ICCAD, DATE, ASP-DAC, ISPD, and ICCD.

For more information on Tsung-Yi, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Tsung-Yi Ho'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 June 10 to August 12, 2015:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Anuradha Engineering College ACM Student Chapter, Chikhli, India
  • Assuit ACM Student Chapter, Assuit, Egypt
  • Bellevue College ACM-W Student Chapter, Bellevue, Washington
  • BMCC-Programming ACM Student Chapter, Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York, New York
  • BSAU ACM Student Chapter, B. S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, India
  • Fitchburg State University ACM Student Chapter, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
  • Georgia Regents University ACM Student Chapter, Augusta
  • Instituto Tecnológico de Puebla ACM Student Chapter, Puebla, Mexico
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology ACM Student Chapter, Cambridge
  • MESCOE ACM Student Chapter, Modern Education Society's College of Engineering, Pune, India
  • St. Peters Engineering College ACM Student Chapter, Hyderabad, India
  • SZABIST Hyderabad ACM Student Chapter, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, India
  • TCE IT ACM Student Chapter, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, India
  • UADY ACM Student Chapter, Autonomous University of Yucatán, Merida, Mexico
  • Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas ACM Student Chapter, Bogotá, Colombia
  • University of Gujrat ACM Student Chapter, Gujrat, Pakistan

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • Ahmedabad ACM Chapter, Ahmedabad, India
  • Cairo ACM Chapter, Giza, Egypt
  • Gandhinagar ACM Chapter, Gandhinagar, India
  • SIGHPC BigData ACM Chapter, New York, New York
  • SIGHPC Resource Constrained Environments ACM Chapter, Benin City, Nigeria

ACM-W NEWS

Jodi Tims Named Vice Chair of ACM-W

Jodi Tims has been named Vice Chair of the ACM Women's Council (ACM-W), a new position. Jodi is a Computer Science professor at Baldwin Wallace University, where she also serves as chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. She previously served as the ACM-W Celebrations Chair. That role is now being filled by Wendy Powley, a research associate at the School of Computing at Queen's University. Wendy has been a lead organizer of the Ontario Celebrations of Women in Computing (ONCWiC) for several years. Read more about Jodi and Wendy in the August issue of the ACM-W Connections newsletter.

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.

Celebrations Inspire CS Women in New York, Northwest

NYCWiC 2015
By Jennifer Goodall (SUNY Albany)

On April 17 and 18, nearly 200 computing students, faculty and professionals came together to celebrate the third New York Celebration of Women in Computing (NYCWiC 2015). The conference started with a lot of excitement as students and faculty presented 18 posters to the community on everything from how they have initiated open source festivals at their university to social robotics research. We also heard from presenters who took part in a new session called "First-Timer Talks" where students shared their work with a small audience group that provided feedback. The audience groups then rotated through all the talks and by the end the presenters were able to refine their talk several times. Strategies for developing a successful career were shared by industry leaders including Florence Huban Suraci from Cisco, Krista Claude from go forward LLC, and Mariana Monteiro and Bouchra Bouqata from GE. Fifteen organizations recruited our students during the Career Fair, while the room was abuzz with more networking among all the participants.

NWrWIC 2015
By Ivo Lukas (24Notion)

The Northwest Regional Women in Computing Celebration hosted 175 attendees at the Hawthorn Farms Campus in Hillsboro, Oregon on April 18 for an inspirational, hands-on, one-day event aimed at encouraging students and industry leaders to support gender diversity in the fields of computing and technology. Activities engaging students from universities and high schools, along with industry leaders from the private and public sectors, focused on empowering and encouraging women to enter the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields, particularly computer science. Keynote speakers were Ramune Nagisetty, Principal Engineer and Director, Wearable Technologies at Intel Labs; Dana Zottola, Registered Patent Agent, Patent Prosecutor and Technical Resource at law firm Freitas, Angell & Weinberg; Ivo Lukas, CEO/Founder of 24Notion and Co-chair of NWrWIC; Mark Francis, Entrepreneur and Mentor/Advisor at Intel Corp.; Jill Steinhour, Director, High Tech Industry Strategy at Adobe; Adele Evans, Senior Program Manager at Oracle; and Charlie Isaacs, Vice President and CTO for Customer Connection at Salesforce.

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. Please contact Wendy Powley 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 Journal of Emerging Technologies Seeks New EIC

ACM Journal of Emerging Technologies (JETC) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due September 18.

ACM Publications Welcome New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) welcomes Christopher Hundhausen as its new Editor-in-Chief, effective September 1. Christopher is an associate professor of computer science at Washington State University, where he directs the Human-centered Environments for Learning and Programming (HELP) Lab.

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) welcomes Ken Hinckley as its new Editor-in-Chief, effective September 1. Ken is Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and has served as a TOCHI associate editor since 2003.

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems and ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical 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.

The new ACM journal ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems (TCPS) 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.

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ACM IN THE NEWS

"Vint Cerf: 'Sometimes I'm Terrified' by the IoT"

Network World, August 25, 2015
Google chief Internet evangelist and ACM past president Vint Cerf says he finds certain aspects of the Internet of Things (IoT) worrisome, particularly its integration of appliances and bug-prone software.

"At Microsoft, Software-Defined Networking Takes Cloudy Turn"

eWeek, August 20, 2015
Microsoft has thrown its support behind software-defined networking and made it a major part of its presentation at ACM's SIGCOMM 2015 conference in London.

"IBM's 'Rodent Brain' Chip Could Make Our Phones Hyper-Smart"

Wired, August 17, 2015
IBM researchers say they have built the digital equivalent of a rodent brain encompassing 48 TrueNorth chips, an experimental processor designed to emulate neurons. TrueNorth is currently suitable for only one aspect of deep learning—enabling the neural network to execute models it has been trained for—but IBM's Dharmendra Modha, 2009 ACM Gordon Bell Prize recipient, notes this is appropriate.

"For 40 Years, Computer Scientists Looked for a Solution That Doesn't Exist"

Boston Globe, August 10, 2015
Creating a faster method for performing the "edit distance" calculation—a challenge computer scientists have worked on for four decades—was demonstrated as futile by MIT researchers at the ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC 2015).

"Children Beating Up Robot Inspires New Escape Maneuver System"

IEEE Spectrum, August 6, 2015
Research by Japanese researchers to see how mall patrons would react to a social robot was presented at the 10th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2015).

"Intelligent Robots Don't Need to Be Conscious to Turn Against Us"

Business Insider, August 5, 2015
University of California, Berkeley professor Stuart Russell, founder of the university's Center for Intelligent Systems and 2005 ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award recipient, says artificial intelligence (AI) does not have to achieve consciousness to be threatening.

"Turing Award-Winner Stonebraker on the Future of Taming Big Data"

Forbes, July 29, 2015
In a lecture at MIT's 9th Annual Chief Data Officer & Information Quality Symposium, 2014 ACM A. M. Turing Award recipient Michael Stonebraker discussed how the future of big data usage hinges on several factors, one of which is the need to exploit falling computer memory costs to store data longer and retrieve it at faster speeds.

"Artificial Intelligence Expert Likens AI Dangers to Nuclear Weapons"

Naked Security, July 24, 2015
University of California professor Stuart Russell, 2005 recipient of the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, says the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) research are as grave as those of nuclear technology.

"What Is a 'Computer' Anymore?"

The Atlantic, July 20, 2015
IBM Cognitive Computing Group founder Dharmendra Modha, recipient of the ACM Gordon Bell Prize in 2009, foresees computers becoming increasingly adaptable to humans, instead of vice-versa, with the emergence of brain-inspired computing and its integration into modern computing infrastructures.

"Research Reveals How Advertisers Play the Online Bidding Game"

Cornell Chronicle, July 14, 2015
Researchers led by Cornell University professor Eva Tardos have proposed a method for estimating what advertisers feel an ad is worth based on what computer scientists call "no-regret learning." The research was selected for the Best Paper Award at the 16th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC15).

"Firing Squad Synchronization, Computer Science's Most Macabre-Sounding Problem"

Motherboard, July 14, 2015
The solution to the problem of getting a firing squad to fire in sync was worked out by computer science pioneers John McCarthy (1971 ACM A. M. Turing Award recipient) and Marvin Minsky (1969 Turing Award recipient) in the early 1960s.

"Cutting Cost and Power Consumption for Big Data"

MIT News, July 10, 2015
MIT researchers are developing a new system that could enable flash-based servers to perform as well as RAM-based servers, but at less cost and using less energy. They presented their system at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA).

PLDI 2015:

"Computer Program Fixes Old Code Faster Than Expert Engineers"

MIT News, July 9, 2015
MIT researchers presented Helium, a program designed to automatically fix existing code without requiring the original source, at ACM's SIGPLAN conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation.

"Researchers Look to Bots, Big Data to Fix Software Flaws"

eWeek, July 22, 2015
MIT researchers presented Code Phage, which is able to take pieces of one code that can counter a vulnerability and graft it into another piece of software.

SIGGRAPH 2015:

"Erase Obstructions From Photos With a Click"

Technology Review, August 4, 2015
IT researchers presented algorithm to separate an image's foreground from its background in order to remove unwanted obstructions.

"MIT Camera Culture Group Develops the 'eyeSelfie' to Help Monitor Eye Health"

Boston Globe, August 5, 2015
MIT Media Lab researchers developed eyeSelfie, a low-cost, handheld device for taking images of the retina, optic nerve, and vasculature.

"3D Cursors Sculpt at SIGGRAPH"

EE Times, August 9, 2015
University of Montreal researchers demonstrated a system that uses a tablet to control a 3D cursor that can be used to draw and manipulate objects in 3D simulations.

"Information in Bright Sunlight and Darkness"

Carnegie Mellon News, August 10, 2015
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Toronto have created a mathematical model to help address a major problem of depth-sensing cameras: their inability to work in bright light, especially sunlight.

"UMass Amherst Computer Scientists Introduce New Graphics Software"

UMass Amherst, August 11, 2015
Computer scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Evangelos Kalogerakis have developed a software modeling program that can compare the style similarity of 3D objects.

"Animation Research Moves Forward, One Wardrobe at a Time"

Georgia Tech News Center, August 11, 2015
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers developed algorithm that enables virtual characters to intelligently manipulate simulated cloth in order to put on clothes and get dressed.

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