ACM MemberNet - September 29, 2016

Welcome to the September 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.

September 29, 2016

TOP STORIES

2017 SIG Elections: SIGs Extending Terms

ACM Special Interest Group elections are generally scheduled to take place in odd-numbered years, with the elected officers holding office for a set number of years as set forth in the SIG's bylaws. There is a provision for the SIG's Executive Committee to make a one-time request to extend its term of office. This provision was introduced so that SIGs did not have to hold an expensive election when officers would be rerunning for office, since incumbents were usually reelected.

In accordance with ACM's Constitution and Bylaws, the following SIGs have requested, and the SIG Governing Board has granted, an extension of terms:

  • SIGAPP - Special Interest Group on Applied Computing
  • SIGARCH - Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture
  • SIGBED - Special Interest Group on Embedded Systems
  • SIGEcom - Special Interest Group on Electronic Commerce
  • SIGMETRICS - Special Interest Group on Performance Evaluation
  • SIGOPS - Special Interest Group on Operating Systems
  • SIGWEB - Special Interest Group on Hypertext and the Web

As a voting member, you may petition the ACM to request an election. A petition with the names/signatures of at least 1% of the SIG's members must be submitted to ACM Headquarters by 4 November 2016. To initiate the petition process, please contact Pat Ryan, ACM's Chief Operating Officer. If the petition is successful, the SIG will be asked to form a nominating committee and begin the electoral process.

Help Us to Update the ACM Code of Ethics

The ACM Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE) is seeking active participation in revising the current ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to reflect the shifts in both technology and society since its adoption in 1992. The current process is intended to be a simple update of The Code, not a wholesale revision.

It is not necessary to draft the language for updates to the Code. Rather, we need the benefit of your expertise in how technology and society have changed since 1992. This will be provided to the Task Force, which will draft the updates to the Code.

Visit the Code 2018 page for more information and to link to a feedback form for submitting your comments.

Watch Videos of Lectures from Heidelberg Laureate Forum

The fourth Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), which took place from September 18 to 23 in Heidelberg, Germany, provided an informal venue for 200 selected young researchers from over 50 countries to exchange ideas with 21 renowned laureates in mathematics and computer science. Recipients of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the Abel Prize, the Fields Medal and the Nevanlinna Prize inspired the researchers in a week-long program of lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and social events. View photos and videos from HLF 2016.

The fifth HLF will take place September 24 to 29, 2017. Applications will be open this fall.

AWARDS

ACM Awards Knuth Prize to Pioneer of Algorithmic Game Theory

The 2016 Donald E. Knuth Prize will be awarded to Noam Nisan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for contributions to theoretical computer science in areas including communication complexity, pseudorandom number generators, interactive proofs, and algorithmic game theory. It will be presented at the Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2016) in October.
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 Nominations

The Senior Member advanced grade of membership recognizes ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who have demonstrated performance and accomplishment that set them apart from their peers. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The deadline for nominations is December 3.

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

MobiCom 2016, October 3 to 7, New York, New York

The International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking is dedicated to addressing the challenges in mobile computing and wireless and mobile networking, including networks, systems, algorithms, and applications that support mobile computers and wireless networks. Sidewalk Labs CTO Craig Nevill-Manning will deliver the keynote on urban innovation in the digital age.

ACMMM 2016, October 15 to 19, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The ACM Multimedia Conference is the premier conference for multimedia experts and practitioners across academia and industry. Keynotes will focus on visual analytics for multimedia, and Internet of Things. Workshops will cover tools for lifelogging and health, alternate realities, vision and language integration, human behavior, and more.

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."

SC 2016, November 13 to 18, Salt Lake City, Utah

The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis will gather the international HPC community with a program of invited talks, panels, research papers, tutorials, workshops, posters, and birds-of-a-feather sessions, as well as student programs to engage and foster the next generation of HPC professionals. Katharine Frase of IBM's Watson Education unit will deliver a keynote on Cognitive Computing.

L@S 2017, April 20 to 21, 2017, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Call for Papers)

The ACM Conference on Learning at Scale invites submissions for its fourth conference. L@S investigates large-scale, technology-mediated learning environments. Possible topics include new tools and techniques for learning at scale; analysis of student behavior; tools or techniques for personalization and adaptation; experimental interventions in large-scale learning environments; and more. Visit the Call for Papers page for a complete listing of topics. Submissions are due October 25. Proceedings of L@S will be available via OpenTOC on the conference website.

PUBLIC POLICY

ACM and CSTA Applaud "CSforAll" Milestones

ACM and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) praised the White House announcement of the launch of the CSforAll Consortium on September 14. The Consortium, with a membership of more than 180 organizations, will connect states, districts, and schools with computer science education curriculum and implementation partners, funders, and researchers. ACM and CSTA are on the steering committee, along with Code.org, The College Board, the New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education (CSNYC) and the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT).
Read the ACM news release.

MEMBER PROGRAMS

Become an Ambassador for ACM—You Could Be a Grand Prize Winner!

The Ambassadors for ACM program rewards ACM members like you for encouraging new members to join. Your first-hand experience with ACM's valuable career development and continuous learning programs makes you a perfect envoy to share your ACM experiences with prospective members. The 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.

Did you know the average ACM member could save $13,928 by refinancing their student loans? ACM has teamed up with Credible to help you find out if you are overpaying and could save thousands by refinancing. The simple and free service allows you to receive personalized offers from multiple lenders in just 90 seconds and does not affect your credit score. Learn more by visiting Credible.com.

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

Register to Watch October 19 Webcast on TensorFlow with Google's Martin Wicke

Register for the next ACM Learning Webinar, TensorFlow: A Framework for Scalable Machine Learning, to be presented on Wednesday, October 19 at 12 PM ET by Martin Wicke, Software Engineer at Google. A question-and-answer session moderated by Rajat Monga, Engineering Director at Google, will follow the talk.

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

Watch September 27 Webcast with Luciano Ramalho: "Generators: Powering Iteration in Python"

Register to watch on-demand the free ACM webinar, Generators: Powering Iteration in Python, presented on September 27 by Luciano Ramalho, Technical Principal at ThoughtWorks and author of Fluent Python.

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 email [email protected].

EDUCATION

2015–2016 ACM NDC Study Now Available

The ACM NDC Study of non-PhD granting four-year computing departments for 2015-2016 is now available. It also appears in the September issue of ACM Inroads. The survey covers more than 1,000 US academic units annually and produces timely data on enrollment, degree production, student body composition, and faculty salaries/demographics that can impact your institution/program(s) and administration.

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 SIGDOC 2016.

The next conferences accepting submissions are:

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

ACM Scholarships for Women Computing Students to Attend 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 Andy Koronios. Andy is the Head of the School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences at the University of South Australia. He holds academic qualifications in Electrical Engineering, Computing and education and a PhD from the University of Queensland. Andy has established two university research labs and a funded research center and is currently the Director of the Strategic Information Management Research Lab in the Advanced Computer Research Centre. He has worked as a consultant and as a professional speaker on IT issues in Australia and South East Asia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society, and a Founding Fellow of the International Institute of Engineering Asset Management.

For more information on Andy, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Andy Koronios'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

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 August 2 to September 18, 2016:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • CHARUSAT ACM Student Chapter, Charotar University of Science and Technology, Anand, India
  • Cheyney University ACM-W Student Chapter, Cheyney, Pennsylvania
  • GMRIT ACM Student Chapter, GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam, India
  • MRIU ACM Student Chapter, Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad, India
  • MSA University ACM Student Chapter, Modern Sciences and Arts University, Cairo, Egypt
  • National Institute of Technology, Silchar ACM Student Chapter, Silchar, India
  • North American University ACM-W Student Chapter, Houston, Texas
  • NYU Tandon School of Engineering ACM-W Student Chapter, New York University, Brooklyn
  • OPJU ACM Student Chapter, O.P. Jindal University, Raigarh, India
  • Pomona College ACM-W Student Chapter, Claremont, California
  • S R Engineering College ACM Student Chapter, Warangal, India
  • UANL ACM Student Chapter, Autonomous University of Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico
  • University of Nebraska-Omaha ACM-W Student Chapter
  • University of West Florida ACM Student Chapter, Pensacola
  • University of West Florida ACM-W Student Chapter, Pensacola

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • CCSE ACM SIGCSE Chapter, Beijing, China
  • CMOD ACM SIGMOD Chapter, Beijing, China
  • Japan ACM SIGCHI Chapter, Sendai
  • Singapore ACM Chapter, Singapore
  • Xi'an ACM Chapter, Xi'an, China

ACM-W NEWS

Watch Videos of Sessions from womENcourage 2016!

The third womENcourage conference, hosted in mid-September in Linz, Austria by ACM-W Europe, connected, inspired and encouraged European women in computing, including students at all levels, researchers and early practitioners, and senior professionals in the field. More than 100 participants were inspired by talks on "Improving topical searches of video content" (Lynda Hardman, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Netherlands and Informatics Europe); "Android development at Google" (Robin Bennett, Google); "Programming language research and technical disruption" (Susan Eisenbach, Imperial College London); "Cross-disciplinary modeling" (Gerti Kappel, Technical University of Vienna); and "Enterpreneurship: the value of teams and social capital" (Natasa Milic-Frayling, University of Nottingham). In a panel, former ACM President and current ACM Europe Council Chair Dame Wendy Hall (University of Southampton) led a discussion on "Promoters and Prohibitors for a Career in CS." View videos of these sessions, as well as the Welcome and Opening.

Mentors Share Insights on Careers, Hackathons, and More at First Celebration in Chile

By Wendy Powley (Queens University), ACM-W Celebrations Committee Chair

ChileWIC, the first Celebration in Chile, was co-organized by academics from three major Chilean universities: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María. The event, held on August 12, was divided into two sessions: a morning session, aimed at high school students and first-year engineering students, and an afternoon session with the focus on academic and professional issues. The morning session had Daniela Gattoni, from Axiom Zen, as keynote speaker. She shared her experiences participating in Hackathons. The afternoon session had Jeanna Matthews, from Clarkson University, who shared her insights on how to begin a successful academic career. There were many small talks, showcasing a diversity of projects that students are working on in Chile, and a poster session to foster discussion and networking. The anonymous judges chose the best student presentations, and Yasett Acurana from Universidad de Chile won the student research competition. In addition, two very interesting panels took place: one focused on computer science students' experiences and another on the Impostor Syndrome. It was a day packed with lots of interesting talks, discussion and audience participation, and getting to know each other.

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 these 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 Publications Seek New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Computation Theory (TOCT) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due October 27.

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: "React: Facebook's Functional Turn on Writing JavaScript"

One of the long-standing ironies of user-friendly JavaScript front ends is that building them typically involved trudging through the DOM (Document Object Model), hardly known for its friendliness to developers. But now developers have a way to avoid directly interacting with the DOM, thanks to Facebook's decision to open-source its React library for the construction of user interface components. In this discussion with Pete Hunt, Paul O'Shannessy, Dave Smith, and Terry Coatta, we learn about what led to the creation of React and what some of its most important guiding principles were.

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