ACM MemberNet - August 25, 2016

Welcome to the August 2016 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.

More ACM member newsletters: ACM-W Connections, newsletter from ACM Women's Council; MemberNet Europe; MemberNet India.

Read coverage of ACM in the news media.

Is there a person, event, or issue you'd like to see covered? Please email mn-editor at acm.org.

August 25, 2016

TOP STORIES

Vote for ACM Session Proposals for SXSW 2017

Please vote for ACM session proposals for the South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SXSW Interactive), a 10-day event that gathers diverse topics and people to explore what's next in entertainment, culture, and technology. The conference takes place in Austin, Texas, March 10 to 19, 2017. Public voting is an important component of the proposal selection process, so we encourage you to help make sure ACM continues to be represented at this dynamic interdisciplinary event.

The four ACM submissions are:

View a summary of these sessions on ACM's SXSW page. 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. Please cast your votes by September 2.

ACM Committee on Professional Ethics Launches New Website, Initiatives

The ACM Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE) has launched a new website and initiatives. COPE is responsible for promoting ethical conduct among computing professionals by publicizing the ACM Code of Ethics and offering interpretations of the Code, as well as reviewing and recommending updates to the Code and its guidelines. In addition, COPE maintains the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. COPE is also charged with planning and reviewing activities to educate membership in ethical decision making on issues of professional conduct. Recently launched projects include:

  • Code 2018: updating the Code of Ethics and its guidelines
  • Ask an Ethicist: an advice column for computer ethics questions
  • The Integrity Project: a two-year project to promote ethics in the profession through modern media

COPE is especially seeking active participation in Code 2018: revising the current ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to reflect the shifts in both technology and society since its adoption in 1992. Visit the Code 2018 page for more information and to link to a feedback form for submitting your comments.

ACM SIGGRAPH Elects New Directors

SIGGRAPH, ACM's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics, has elected new directors for the term September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2019. View the election results here.

AWARDS

Former ACM President David Patterson Receives Tapia Award

Former ACM President David Patterson has been named the recipient of the Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science and Diversifying Computing. The award is given to an individual who demonstrates significant leadership, commitment and contributions to diversifying computing. Patterson has served as Director of the Parallel Computing Lab, Director of the Reliable And Distributed Systems Lab, Chair of UC Berkeley's CS Division, and Chair of the Computing Research Association. He was General Chair of the Tapia 2011 conference, serves on its steering committee, and supports large University of California, Berkeley contingents that attend the conferences.

2016 George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship Recipients Announced

Johann Rudi of The Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (The University of Texas at Austin) and Axel Huebl of Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Technical University of Dresden) have been named recipients of the 2016 ACM/IEEE George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship. The Fellowships will be formally presented at SC16.
Read the ACM news release.

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
  • Eugene L. Lawler Award
  • Athena Lecturer 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.

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 7.

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

UbiComp 2016, September 12 to 16, Heidelberg, Germany

The ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing will cover many aspects of this field, including mobile, Internet of Things, wearable technologies, multisensory interfaces, cognition augmentation, and even physical and mental health applications. Rosalind W. Picard, who directs several initiatives at the MIT Media Lab, is a scheduled keynote speaker.

Tapia 2016, September 14 to 17, Austin, Texas

The Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing is a premier venue to acknowledge, promote and celebrate diversity. Sessions include an industry panel of Chief Diversity Officers; career fairs and mentoring; academic support; keynote speakers including Richard Tapia; and technical presentations on cybercrime, Big Data, and more.

ICFP 2016, September 18 to 24, Nara, Japan

The ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming provides a forum for researchers and developers to learn about the latest work on the design, implementations, principles, and uses of functional programming. Google's Martin Abadi, Sukyoung Ryu of KAIST, Daniel Licata of Wesleyan University will deliver keynote talks.

UIST 2016, October 16 to 19, Tokyo, Japan

The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology is the premier forum for innovations in human-computer interfaces, gathering people working in graphical and web user interfaces, tangible and ubiquitous computing, virtual and augmented reality, multimedia, new input and output devices, and CSCW. Scheduled keynoters are Takeo Kanade of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon, and industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa.

ASSETS 2016, October 24 to 26, Reno, Nevada

The 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 presents innovative research on mainstream and specialized assistive technologies, accessible computing, and assistive applications of computer, network, and information technologies. The keynote speaker is University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering professor Richard Ladner, who will receive the 2016 SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions at the conference.

SPLASH 2016, October 30 to November 4, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The ACM SIGPLAN conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity covers technologies at the intersection of programming, languages, and software engineering. There are three scheduled keynote talks: University of Washington associate professor Andrew J. Ko, on "A Human View of Programming Languages"; University of Pennsylvania professor and ACM Fellow Benjamin Pierce, on "The Science of Deep Specification"; and Northwestern University associate professor Robby Findler, on "Redex: Lightweight Semantics Engineering."

PUBLIC POLICY

Stuart S. Shapiro Named Chair of USACM

In July ACM named Stuart S. Shapiro, a Principal Cyber Security and Privacy Engineer at The MITRE Corporation, as Chair of the ACM US Public Policy Council (USACM). USACM is the focal point for ACM's interaction with US government organizations, the computing community, and the public in all matters of US public policy related to computing and information technology. Shapiro succeeds Eugene Spafford, a Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University and recognized expert on network security, cybercrime and ethics.
Read the ACM news release.

MEMBER PROGRAMS

ACM Ambassadors Program Congratulates Our Grand Prize Winner

Thotakuru Sri Rama Raju, a student at the Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM) in Visakhapatnam, India qualified for the 2015-2016 Ambassadors for ACM Grand Prize, a GoPro Hero 4 camera. Thotakuru is Chair of the GITAM ACM Student Chapter.

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 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.

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; certification exams from CompTIA; and much more. Find member discounts here.

ACM and SocialCoder Team Up for Positive Impact through Computing

You can use your technical skills for social good and offer volunteer support on software development projects to organizations who could not otherwise afford it. SocialCoder connects volunteer programmers/software developers with registered charities and helps match them to suitable projects based on their skills, experience, and the causes they care about. Learn more about ACM's new partnership with SocialCoder, and how you can get involved.

LEARNING CENTER

Watch September 7 Webcast with Christine Doig: "Embracing Open Data Science in Your Organization"

Register to watch the next free ACM webinar, Embracing Open Data Science in Your Organization, to be presented on Wednesday, September 7 at 12 pm ET by Christine Doig, Senior Data Scientist at Continuum Analytics.

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

Watch August Webcast with Mike Hinchey, "Evolving Critical Systems," on Demand

View on-demand the ACM Learning Webinar, Evolving Critical Systems, by Mike Hinchey, Director of Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre, presented on August 2.

Safari Book Swap

The ACM Learning Center periodically changes the composition of its Safari Books Online collection to reflect current trends in computing and update existing editions, as well as meet requests we receive from our members. In this refresh, we will be adding coverage of hot and emerging frameworks, technologies, and knowledge areas such as Apache Mesos, Blockchain, Bootstrap, Chef, Deep Learning with TensorFlow, DevOps, the Rust programming language, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). There will also be deeper coverage of Amazon Web Services, Docker, the Go programming language, and Microservices. Visit the Safari swap page for the full list of titles that will be added and removed. Titles marked for removal will be removed and titles marked for addition will appear on September 13. We recommend completing the titles marked for removal by September 12.

New Skillsoft Books

New books covering the latest IT skills and technologies are always being added to the ACM Skillsoft Learning Collections. New titles recently added to our library cover Adobe Captivate 9; Articulate Storyline 2; Beginning F# 4.0; Big Data: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications; Building Embedded Systems: Programmable Hardware; DevOps on the Microsoft Stack; Mobile Application Security with Open-Source Tools; Photoshop CC; and much more.

See the Skillsoft Learning Collections page for more information on books and videos. A more comprehensive list of recently added book and video titles is available here (see sidebar).

ACM CAREER & JOB CENTER

ACM's Career & Job Center and CSTA Job Board Offer Indispensable Job Search Tools

Be sure to visit ACM's Career & Job Center to update your résumé or create a new one in the Résumé Bank, so that employers can find you. ACM members' résumés include an ACM logo on their entry, highlighting their ACM membership to employers. 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). Log in to ACM's Job Board and post your résumé today.

Computer Science Teachers Association members: Be sure to visit the CSTA Job Board to create and upload your résumé to the Résumé Bank so that employers find you. Log in and post your résumé today!

ACM and CSTA members: Set up job alerts specifying your skills, interests, and location to receive email notifications when a job is posted that matches your criteria. For more information about the ACM Career & Job Center or CSTA Job Board, please contact Jennifer Ruzicka.

EDUCATION

Call for Comments on Update of ACM-IEEE-CS IT Undergraduate Curricula

ACM and the IEEE Computer Society are updating the 2008 report "Curriculum Guidelines for the Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Technology"(IT2008) in an effort to retain currency in the computing curricula guidelines. ACM is asking IT industry professionals specifically for help in completing a survey on the project to implement the update, dubbed IT2017. Version .61 of the IT2017 report is available for review. If you have already reviewed a prior version of this document, the IT2017 task group has already considered your comments in this new version. Once reviewed, please complete the survey to provide your feedback.

STUDENT NEWS

Apply for 2016 Cutler-Bell Prize for Excellence in High School Computing

Every year, the ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing recognizes talented high school students in computer science. The intent of the program is to promote and encourage the field of computer science, as well as to empower young and aspiring learners to pursue computing challenges outside of the traditional classroom environment.

The application process involves a Challenge that focuses on having the student develop an artifact that engages modern computing technology and computer science. Judges will be looking for submissions that demonstrate ingenuity, complexity, relevancy, originality, and a desire to further computer science as a discipline. The application period closes November 1. If you need inspiration, check out last year's winners and their projects!

Four winners will be selected and each will be awarded a $10,000 prize and cost of travel to the annual ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing Reception, where students will demonstrate their programs and discuss their work. The prizes are funded by a $1 million endowment established by David Cutler and Gordon Bell.

Winners of the 2016 Cutler-Bell Prize will be notified via email in January 2017.

Upcoming ACM Student Research Competitions: Submission Deadlines

ACM Student Research Competitions (SRCs), sponsored by Microsoft, 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 SIGGRAPH 2016.

The next conferences accepting submissions are:

  • ICSE 2017, May 20-28, 2017, deadline December 28
  • CHI 2017, May 6-11, 2017, deadline January 13, 2017
  • MobileSoft 2017, May 22-23, 2017, deadline January 20, 2017

Learn more about competitions on the SRC submissions page and SRC guidelines for students.

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 Ingmar Weber. Ingmar is a senior scientist in the Social Computing group at the Qatar Computing Research Institute. His interdisciplinary research uses large amounts of online data from social media and other sources to study human behavior at scale. He serves on program committees for conferences on web data mining and social media analysis, and has given tutorials at conferences including WWW, CIKM, and WSDM.

For more information on Ingmar, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Ingmar Weber's Digital Library author page.

ACM, IEEE Computer Society Share Distinguished Speakers Programs

 

IEEE-CS and ACM are sharing 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

Reminder to Chapters: Submit Your Annual Reports

ACM's fiscal year is coming to a close, which means it is time to submit your ACM Annual Report by August 31, 2016. The report is for the fiscal year 2016 (July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016). Chapters that are currently under probationary status who do not complete this annual report will face de-chartering.

To complete the report online, you must log in with your unique chapter web account at http://www.acm.org/chapters/chapters/interface. Please note, your chapter web account is entirely separate from your personal web account and should be accessible to all officers.

If you are unsure of your chapter web account or need to reset the password, please follow this link: https://campus.acm.org/public/account/signin.cfm.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact [email protected].

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 17 to August 1, 2016:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri ACM Student Chapter, Kollam, India
  • Chandigarh Engineering College ACM Student Chapter, Mohali, India
  • CSU East Bay ACM-W Student Chapter, Hayward, California
  • Fairleigh Dickinson University ACM-W Student Chapter, Madison, New Jersey
  • IFPB ACM Student Chapter, Federal Institute of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil
  • KAIST ACM Student Chapter, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon-si, Republic of Korea
  • Oberlin College ACM-W Student Chapter, Oberlin, Ohio
  • Osaka University ACM-W Student Chapter, Osaka, Japan
  • RCCIIT ACM Student Chapter, RCC Institute of Information Technology, Kolkata, India
  • Tufts University ACM-W Student Chapter, Medford, Massachusetts
  • University of Delaware ACM-W Student Chapter, Newark
  • University of Minnesota ACM Student Chapter, Minneapolis
  • University of Nottingham ACM-W Student Chapter, Nottingham, UK
  • University of San Francisco ACM-W Student Chapter, San Francisco, California
  • UQAM ACM-W Student Chapter, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada
  • Western Washington University ACM-W Student Chapter, Bellingham

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • Belgrade ACM-W Chapter, Belgrade, Serbia

ACM-W NEWS

First Spain Celebration Promotes "Informatics for All"

By Virginia Grande (Uppsala University), Member of ACM Council of European Chapter Leaders and ACM-W Student Chapters and Celebrations Committees

Passion. That's one of the very first things that people from outside Spain may think of whenever they are asked to describe Spaniards. It was passion indeed that we saw and celebrated at the ACM-W Celebration in Spain, Informática Para Tod@s (Informatics for All). At the event, hosted on July 1 in the School of Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, professionals from industry and academia mingled with students of all levels and discussed technical aspects of different areas in computing, as well as topics related to the role that gender plays in this profession. In addition, a poster session reflecting the current state of art in various fields of computer science, and a job fair provided many opportunities for attendees to exchange ideas.

The very inspiring successful speakers not only shared their work and advice but also their drive and their enthusiasm. There were many moments when we all laughed, and many when we still laughed even when adversities were discussed. This was because the environment was so supportive and empowering, that difficulties were presented as something unpleasant but possible to overcome: we were convinced that there was no obstacle too high for a woman in computing, especially with access to a network like the one formed by the attendees.

This network will keep growing by the celebration of the next edition of the event in 2017. (Interested in helping? Drop me a line at [email protected]!). It will also be expanded by the presence of the new local ACM-W chapters that will be launched in Spain. (If your university doesn't have one, contact me!)

I strongly recommend everyone to attend a celebration in your area. If you can't find any, why not start one? Let us know how we can help. And, in any possible way, keep celebrating women in computing!

Join ACM-W's Membership Email List

Did you know that ACM-W offers a general email distribution list for its members? This ACMW-public list is a communication channel for disseminating general information about ACM-W, bulletins and upcoming events. To join the list: http://signup.acm.org/listserv_index.cfm?ln=ACM-W-PUBLIC.

Also read the ACM-W Connections newsletter for updates on ACM-W programs: local celebrations, scholarships and awards, chapters, and more.

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

ACM Publications Welcome New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) welcomes Andrew C. Myers as its new Editor-in-Chief, for the term August 1, 2016 to July 31, 2019. Andrew is a computer science professor at Cornell University and an ACM Fellow.

ACM Transactions on Storage (TOS) welcomes Sam Noh as its new Editor-in-Chief, for the term August 1, 2016 to July 31, 2019. Sam is a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Korea.

ACM Publications Seek New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due September 15.

ACM interactions is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Please visit the nominations page for more information.

Computer Systems Organization and Human-Centered Computing Category Editors Needed for ACM Computing Reviews

Computing Reviews, the post-publication review and comment journal of ACM, is seeking volunteer editors interested in serving as category editors for two areas: Computer Systems Organization and Human-Centered Computing.

acmqueue Presents: "Dynamics of Change: Why Reactivity Matters"

Andre Medeiros at Futurice explains how as software grows larger and more complex, managing change in the code base remains a common challenge. However, structuring the code into a system of modules and arrows can help make change more understandable and maintainable. "Professional programming is about dealing with software at scale. Everything is trivial when the problem is small and contained: it can be elegantly solved with imperative programming or functional programming or any other paradigm. Real-world challenges arise when programmers have to deal with large amounts of data, network requests, or intertwined entities, as in UI (user interface) programming."

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