ACM MemberNet - January 26, 2017

Welcome to the January 2017 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 past issues of MemberNet online at http://membernet.acm.org.

Read coverage of ACM in the news media.

Is there a person, event, or issue you'd like to see covered? Please email [email protected].

January 26, 2017

TOP STORIES

AWARDS

MEMBER RECOGNITION

SIG AWARDS

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

PUBLIC POLICY

MEMBER PROGRAMS

LEARNING CENTER

ACM CAREER & JOB CENTER AND CSTA JOB BOARD

EDUCATION

STUDENT NEWS

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS PROGRAM

CHAPTERS NEWS

ACM-W NEWS

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

ACM FYI

ACM IN THE NEWS

TOP STORIES

ACM FY 2016 Annual Report

The past year saw many "firsts" for ACM, including the landmark ACM elections resulting in an all-female leadership team, ACM’s debut at the popular South by Southwest (SxSW) Interactive conference, and ACM's monthly Huffington Post blog on significant developments in technology with public implications. ACM is committed to supporting the progress and quality of computing education worldwide and continues to explore new ways to involve our growing and greatly diversified audience. Read the annual report to learn about ACM’s initiatives, services and future programs.

ACM to Celebrate 50 Years of the Turing Award

During the next several months, ACM will celebrate 50 years of the ACM A.M. Turing Award and the visionaries who have received it. Our aim is to highlight the significant impact of the contributions of the Turing Laureates on computing and society, to look ahead to the future of technology and innovation, and to help inspire the next generation of computer scientists to invent and dream. Our celebration will culminate with a conference on June 23 to 24, 2017 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco with lively moderated discussions exploring how computing has evolved and where the field is headed. We hope you can join us there, or via the web—we will be streaming the sessions in real time. More information and registration for this event is available on the Turing Award 50 website.

ACM SIG Elections 2017 Candidate Slate

In accordance with ACM Bylaw 6, the following SIGs will hold elections in 2017: SIGAda, SIGCAS, SIGCOMM, SIGEVO, ACM SIGGRAPH, SIGKDD, SIGMICRO, SIGMIS, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGMOD, SIGSAC, SIGSAM, SIGSPATIAL, and SIGUCCS. ACM Policy and Procedures require that those SIGs holding elections notify their membership of candidates for elected offices. To see the slate of candidates, please visit the 2017 ACM SIG Election site.

In accordance with the SIG Bylaws, additional candidates may be placed on the ballot by petition. All candidates must be ACM Professional Members, as well as members of the SIG. Anyone interested in petitioning must inform ACM Headquarters, Pat Ryan ([email protected]; ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, NY, NY 10121) and the Secretary of the SIG of their intent to petition by 15 March 2017. Petitions must be submitted to ACM Headquarters for verification by 31 March 2017.

ACM Future of Computing Academy Seeking Candidates

The ACM Future of Computing Academy (FCA) is a new initiative created by ACM to support and foster the next generation of computing professionals. The Academy is a platform that enables the next generation of researchers, practitioners, educators and entrepreneurs to develop a coherent and influential voice that addresses challenging issues facing the field and society in general. To launch the inaugural FCA class, ACM is looking for recommendations of outstanding early-career individuals in the field of computing with the potential to further the goals and mission of the Academy. ACM is accepting applications for the FCA through March 15, 2017. Applicants will be asked to supply information on their education, current employment, and professional achievements. They will also be asked to provide a biographical sketch, personal statement, and contact information of three people willing to provide letters of endorsement. Please use this form to apply to be considered as a candidate.

AWARDS

Award Nomination Deadlines: Eckert-Mauchly, Gordon Bell, and George Michael

The ACM/IEEE-CS Eckert-Mauchly Award honors recipients with a certificate and $5,000 given jointly by the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. for outstanding contributions to the field of computer and digital systems architecture, where the field of computer architecture is considered to encompass the combined hardware-software design and analysis of computing and digital systems. Nominations are due March 30.

The ACM Gordon Bell Prize is awarded each year to recognize outstanding achievement in high performance computing. Finalists present their work each November at the annual SC Conference, and the award is presented at the SC Awards Ceremony accompanied by a prize of $10,000. Nominations are due April 15.

The ACM-IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship honors exceptional PhD students throughout the world whose research focus is on high-performance computing applications, networking, storage, or large-scale data analysis using the most powerful computers that are currently available. The awards are presented each November at the annual SC Conference. Each fellowship is accompanied by an honorarium of $5,000 plus travel expenses to attend SC. Nominations are due May 1.

MEMBER RECOGNITION

Call for ACM Senior Member Nominations

The Senior Member advanced grade of membership recognizes ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who have demonstrated performance and accomplishment that set them apart from their peers. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The deadline for nominations is March 3, 2017.

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

Videos from Humans, Machines, and the Future of Work Conference Now Available

This conference focused on issues created by the impact of information technology on labor markets over the next 25 years. The event, held at Rice University in Houston, Texas December 5 to 6, 2016, featured renowned speakers from academia, industry and leading think tanks. Watch videos of some of the presentations Humans, Machines, and the Future of Work.

CSCW 2017, February 25 to March 1, Portland, Oregon

The ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing is the premier venue for presenting research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks. Bringing together top researchers and practitioners from academia and industry, CSCW explores the technical, social, material, and theoretical challenges of designing technology to support collaborative work and life activities. Workshops cover Citizen Science, Collaborative Editing Systems, Social Theory, Robots, CSCW in China and more. Keynote speakers are Lili Cheng (Microsoft Research) and Jorge Cham (PHD Comics).

SIGCSE 2017, March 8 to 11, Seattle, Washington

The SIGCSE Technical Symposium addresses problems common among educators working to develop, implement and/or evaluate computing programs, curricula, and courses. The symposium provides a forum for sharing new ideas for syllabi, laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy, at all levels of instruction. Gail Chapman of the University of California, Los Angeles will receive the 2017 SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education and will deliver a keynote. Mats Daniels of Uppsala University will receive the 2017 SIGCSE Award for Lifetime Service to the Computer Science Education Community and will deliver a talk at the first-timers' lunch.

SXSW 2017, March 10 to 19, Austin, Texas

South by Southwest, the 10-day event that gathers diverse topics and people to explore what's next in entertainment, culture, and technology, will again feature sessions by ACM presenters. Jeff Heer is is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, where he directs the Interactive Data Lab and conducts research on data visualization, human-computer interaction and social computing. His group's research papers have received awards at the premier venues in human-computer interaction and information visualization, including ACM CHI and UIST. Eric Horvitz is Technical Fellow and Managing Director at Microsoft Research and an ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award recipient.

DATE 2017, March 27 to 31, Lausanne, Switzerland

The Design, Automation and Test in Europe conference includes an international exhibition showcasing system-level hardware and software implementation down to integrated circuit design. DATE will highlight electronics for the Internet of Things era and wearable and smart medical devices. Speakers will deliver keynotes on AI, Hardware Microservices in the Cloud, Medical Applications, and Internet of Everything.

L@S 2017, April 20 to 21, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Fourth Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale promotes scientific exchange of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the learning sciences and computer science. Bror Saxberg, Chief Learning Officer at Kaplan, Inc., will keynote.

DocEng 2017, September 4 to 7, Malta (Call for Papers)

The ACM Symposium on Document Engineering is seeking original research papers that focus on the design, implementation, development, management, use and evaluation of advanced systems where document and document collections play a key role. DocEng emphasizes innovative approaches to document engineering technology, use of documents and document collections in real world applications, novel principles, tools and processes that improve our ability to create, manage, maintain, share, and productively use these. This year's conference in particular seeks works pertaining to historical documents related, but not limited to, archives, restoration, digitization and processing of large volumes of documents. Visit the website for deadlines and the submissions page for more information.

PUBLIC POLICY

USACM Issues Statement on Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability

Recognizing the ubiquity of algorithms in our daily lives, as well as their far-reaching impact, the ACM US Public Policy Council has issued a statement and a list of seven principles designed to address potential harmful bias. The goals of the statement include: providing context for what algorithms are, how they make decisions, and the technical challenges and opportunities of preventing and mitigating potential harmful bias. Read the ACM news release.

ACM Participates in Privacy and Security Research Networking Event

ACM participated in a privacy and security research networking event on January 11 that featured government agencies and nonprofit organizations that fund or support privacy and security research. The event took place the day before the Federal Trade Commission’s second annual PrivacyCon research symposium, where leading researchers, academics, industry representatives, consumer advocates, and government officials addressed the implications of emerging technologies.

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.

ACM's Discounts and Special Offers Program (formerly known as the ACM Member Value Plus (MVP) Program) is our way of saying "Thanks!" to our members by providing you with discounts on the goods and services you need, want and use. Save on insurance, software/hardware, careers and conferences, magazines, books and journals, travel, financial products, and general consumer products.

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 partnership with SocialCoder, and how you can get involved.

LEARNING CENTER

Watch February 7 Webcast on HPC with ACM Fellow Jack Dongarra

Register to watch the free ACM webinar, Current Trends in High Performance Computing and Challenges for the Future, to be presented by ACM Fellow Jack Dongarra on February 7 at 12 p.m. ET. SIGHPC Chair Jeffrey K. Hollingsworth will moderate the Q & A session. ACM Learning Webinars are free with registration, available for streaming on all major mobile devices, and are recorded for on-demand viewing.

Watch January 25 Webcast on Demand: Panel on Ethics in AI

Watch Panel and Town Hall: Big Thoughts and Big Questions about Ethics in Artificial Intelligence, presented on January 25 by panelists Joanna Bryson (University of Bath), Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco), and Michael Wooldridge (University of Oxford), with moderators Nicholas Mattei (IBM T.J. Watson Research Laboratory) and Rosemary Paradis (Leidos Health and Life Sciences).

New Skillsoft Books and Videos

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 security, big data, cybersecurity for hospitals and healthcare facilities, managing electronically stored information, SQL Server, Python, Azure, R, and much more.

ACM members have access to thousands of IT and productivity videos from Skillsoft. Covering a variety of today's hottest topics, these videos offer "on-the-job" support and "just-in-time" solutions for busy practitioners. Recently, Skillsoft added significant video content in the following knowledge areas: A+ Practical, AngularJS 2.0, Apache Solr Essentials, Application Performance Engineering, CompTIA Project+ PK0-004, Data Modeling for Hadoop, Eclipse, Essentials of Blockchain, IBM WebSphere Commerce, Introduction to Scala, Java EE 7 Back-end Server Development, jQuery Essentials, and much more.

Visit the Skillsoft Learning Collections page for more information on books and videos. Visit the Skillsoft videos page for a more comprehensive list of recently added book and video titles (see sidebar).

ACM CAREER & JOB CENTER AND CSTA JOB BOARD

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

Computer Engineering Curricula 2016 Now Available

CE2016: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Computer Engineering was endorsed by ACM and IEEE-CS in December. The recommendations in this report support the design of computer engineering curricula that will prepare graduates to function at entry-level positions in industry for continued career growth or to enter graduate programs for advanced study.

2016-2017 ACM NDC Study Now Open

The 2016-2017 ACM NDC Survey of Non-doctoral-granting Academic Departments in Computing is now open. NDC is the only survey producing timely data on enrollment, degree production, student body composition, and faculty salaries/demographics that can help benchmark your institution/program(s). See 2015-2016 results here. If your unit has a program in CS, CE, IS, IT, and/or SE but you haven't received an invitation to participate, email [email protected].

STUDENT NEWS

Researchers and Practitioners: Apply Now for Next Heidelberg Laureate Forum—Deadline February 14, 2017

There's still time for researchers and practitioners in computer science to apply for one of the 200 coveted spots to participate in the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), an annual event. The HLF offers all accepted researchers and practitioners at all phases of their careers (undergrad, PhD or postdoc) the great opportunity to personally meet the winners of the most prestigious prizes in their fields.

The fifth HLF will take place September 24 to 29, 2017. Applications must be submitted online at application.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org by February 14, 2017. Read more about how to apply in the FAQ. You can also nominate a candidate (on the registration form, you will need to enter ACM's organization number; please email [email protected] to request this number). Successful candidates will be selected by an international committee of experts to ensure that only the most qualified candidates are invited. Those who are accepted will be notified in April.

ACM SIGAI Announces New Student Essay Contest

The ACM Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence announces the Student Essay Contest on the Responsible Use of AI Technologies, open to all ACM SIGAI student members. Students will be asked to write an essay on the most pressing ethical, social or regulatory issues with respect to AI technologies, and how governments, industries or organizations (including ACM SIGAI) can address them. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2017.

Upcoming ACM Student Research Competitions: Submission Deadlines

ACM Student Research Competitions (SRCs), sponsored by Microsoft Research, offer a unique forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their original research at well-known ACM sponsored and co-sponsored conferences before a panel of judges and attendees. The most recent SRC winners presented at FSE 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). For application form, notification dates and more information, please visit the scholarships page.

Graduating Students Eligible for Special Transition Rate

ACM offers a special ACM Professional Membership for $49 USD (regularly $99) to help graduating students make the transition to professional careers, and take advantage of continuous learning opportunities, including free online books and courses and access to ACM's Career & Job Center. This one-year-only transition rate includes all the benefits of Professional Membership plus the option of purchasing a Digital Library subscription for $50. Recent graduates can access this special transition offer through ACM's convenient online renewal form, or by following the instructions on the paper renewal form. For more information, visit the Reasons to Transition to Professional Membership page.

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS PROGRAM

About the ACM Distinguished Speakers Program

Book the speaker for your next event through the ACM Distinguished Speakers Program (DSP) and deliver compelling and insightful content to your audience. ACM will cover the cost of transportation for the speaker to travel to your event. Our program features renowned thought leaders in academia, industry and government speaking about the most important topics in the computing and IT world today. Our booking process is simple and convenient.

This month's featured speaker is Oge Marques. Oge is Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University. Oge is Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University. He has more than 25 years of international teaching and research experience in the fields of image processing and computer vision. His research interests are in the area of intelligent processing of visual information, which combines the fields of image processing, computer vision, image retrieval, machine learning, serious games, and human visual perception. He is particularly interested in the combination of human computation and machine learning techniques to solve computer vision problems, and was one of the co-chairs of the Doctoral Symposium of the ACM International Conference on Multimedia 2014 (ACMMM); the organizer and co-chair of the Image and Video Databases track for ACM SAC 2003; and reviewer and program committee member for several ACM conferences and workshops. He is a Senior Member of both ACM and IEEE.

For more information on Oge, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Oge Marques'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 new chapters that were chartered December 15, 2016 to January 5, 2017:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • DIHE ACM Student Chapter, Dadabhoy Institute of Higher Education, Karachi, Pakistan
  • MITAOE ACM Student Chapter, Pune, India
  • PCAD ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
  • PICT ACM Student Chapter, Pune Institute of Computer Technology, Pune, India
  • Southern Utah University ACM-W Student Chapter, Cedar City
  • UIPR-Bayamón ACM Student Chapter, University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón, Puerto Rico

ACM Professional Chapter:

  • Kottayam ACM Chapter, Koovappally, India

ACM-W NEWS

ACM-W Celebrations for the New Year

By Wendy Powley (Queen's University), ACM-W Celebrations Chair
Happy New Year! New Year is a time to celebrate, and ACM Celebrations do just that! ACM Celebration of Women in Computing events celebrate the accomplishments of female computer scientists. They bring together women within a specific geographical area for networking, collaboration and celebration. Celebration events typically consist of workshops, keynote speakers, panels, poster sessions, research talks and career fairs. Each Celebration is organized by one or more of our ACM-W tireless volunteers and thus each event is unique. If you have never attended an ACM Celebration of Women in Computing event, it is time to do so! You can find the list of upcoming Celebrations on the ACM-W Celebrations web page.

Upcoming 2017 Celebrations:

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

New Journal, ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems, Publishes First Issue

The new ACM journal ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems (TCPS) publishes papers on the interactions of information processing, networking and physical processes. Cyber-Physical Systems has emerged as a unifying name for systems where the cyber parts—the computing and communication parts, and the physical parts—are tightly integrated, both at the design time and during operation.

ACM Transactions on Computation Theory Welcomes New Editor-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Computation Theory (TOCT) welcomes Venkatesan Guruswami as its Editor-in-Chief. The appointment is from February 1, 2017 to January 31, 2020. Venkatesan is a Professor in the Computer Science Departmant at Carnegie Mellon University.

ACM Transactions on Social Computing Accepting Submissions

The new ACM journal ACM Transactions on Social Computing (TSC) is accepting submissions on work that covers the full spectrum of social computing including theoretical, empirical, systems, and design research contributions.

acmqueue Presents: "Heterogeneous Computing: Here to Stay"

Mohamed Zahran of New York University explains how "mentions of 'heterogeneous computing' have been on the rise in the past few years and will continue to be heard for years to come, because heterogeneous computing is here to stay." What is heterogeneous computing, and why is it becoming the norm? How do we deal with it, from both the software side and the hardware side? This article provides answers to some of these questions and presents different points of view on others.

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ACM FYI

What Is ACM's Privacy Policy?

ACM is committed to protecting the privacy of its members and customers. ACM recognizes the interest of its members and customers in the confidentiality of their personal information. ACM only maintains personal information that is relevant to ACM activities and seeks to maintain accurate, complete, and timely information. Read more about ACM's privacy policy.

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