ACM MemberNet - February 23, 2017

Welcome to the February 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://www.acm.org/membership/acm-membernet-archive and older issues at http://membernet.acm.org.

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February 23, 2017

TOP STORIES

AWARDS

MEMBER RECOGNITION

SIG AWARDS

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

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 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 via the web—we will be streaming the sessions in real time. More information is available on the Turing Award 50 program 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. 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

National Academy of Engineering Names ACM Luminaries as Members

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 106 new members. ACM Fellows, award recipients, and Turing Award laureates are among this year's members:

  • Chieko Asakawa (SIGACCESS Impact Award)
  • Whitfield Diffie (Turing Award)
  • Julia Hirschberg (ACM Fellow)
  • Dina Katabi (Grace Murray Hopper Award)
  • Joseph Sifakis (Turing Award)
  • George Varghese (ACM Fellow)
  • Katherine A. Yelick (Ken Kennedy Award and Athena Lecturer Award)

Japan Prize Honors Turing Award Laureate Adi Shamir

Adi Shamir, a co-recipient of the 2002 ACM A.M. Turing Award, has received the 2017 Japan Prize for significant contributions to the fields of cryptography and computer science. Shamir was cited for outstanding achievements in cryptography for information security (including a wide range of underlying studies on computational complexity theory and algorithms), which is essential for the realization of a safe and secure society.

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.

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

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

For the second year in a row, ACM will head to the SXSW Interactive Festival, an internationally recognized event that brings together innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world. At this year's conference, ACM will host an official SXSW party featuring successful tech entrepreneurs and investors, and sponsored sessions with Eric Horvitz and Jeff Heer. Visit the ACM SXSW site to learn more.

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.

SAC 2017, April 3 to 6, Marrakesh, Morocco

The 32nd ACM Symposium on Applied Computing gathers computing professionals engaged in the development of new computing applications. Tracks will cover AI and Agents, Distributed Systems, Information Systems, Software Development, and System Software and Security. The featured keynote speaker is Armin R. Mikler (University of North Texas) on "RE-PLAN: A Computational Framework for Response Plan Design and Analysis."

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.

MobiCom 2017, October 16 to 20, Snowbird, Utah (Call for Papers)

The 23rd Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking is inviting papers that focus on the system, practice, theory, and challenge of providing users with an enriched and ubiquitous mobile or wireless experience. MobiCom'17 strongly encourages papers on emerging mobile/wireless topics including but not limited to next generation (5G) mobile networks, Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine communications, novel access paradigms/modalities, smart devices, wearable computing, mobile data science/analysis, communications for embedded and energy harvesting systems, and the mobile web. Short papers in Experience, Challenge and Verification categories, as well as workshop proposals are also encouraged.

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 that the average ACM member could save $18,668 by refinancing their student loans? ACM has partnered with Credible to help you find out if you are overpaying and could save thousands by refinancing. As a multi-lender marketplace that allows borrowers to receive competitive loan offers from its vetted lenders, Credible empowers consumers to take control of their student loans. Borrowers can fill out one form, then receive and compare personalized offers from numerous lenders and choose the best offer. Reduce your rate, lower your payments, repay faster. You choose. To learn more visit 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 partnership with SocialCoder, and how you can get involved.

LEARNING CENTER

Watch March 17 Webcast on Programming with Clojure with Paul deGrandis

Register to watch the next free ACM webinar, Speaking Data: Simple, Functional Programming with Clojure, to be presented by Paul deGrandis, Lead Developer, Architect, and Director of the Research and Innovation Group at Cognitect, on March 17 at 12 p.m. ET. ACM Learning Webinars are free with registration, available for streaming on all major mobile devices, and are recorded for on-demand viewing.

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 Cloud IaaS, jQuery, C Cloud Application Development on IBM Bluemix, Protecting Mobile Networks and Devices, Windows 10, 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

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

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 CGO 2017. 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 Haitham S. Hamza. Haitham is an Associate Professor of Information Technology at Cairo University, and the R&D Department Manager at the Software Engineering Competence Center of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency. In 2015, he established the first ACM professional chapter in Cairo and currently serves as its treasurer. He also served as the Program Chair of the 2nd Africa and Middle East Conference on Software Engineering (AMECSE 2016) organized in cooperation with ACM SIGSOFT. Haitham established and currently manages the Open Data Institute (ODI) Cairo Node in Egypt as part of the ODI HQ in London, and serves as the National Contact Point (NCP) for ICT for the H2020 EU funding progam in Egypt. He is a Senior Member of ACM.
For more information on Haitham, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Haitham Hamza'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 January 6 to February 7, 2017:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Bryn Mawr College ACM-W Student Chapter, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
  • Coastal Carolina University ACM Student Chapter, Conway, South Carolina
  • NSU ACM Student Chapter, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • NWMSU ACM SIGCSE Student Chapter, Northwest Missouri State University, Marysville
  • SIRT ACM Student Chapter, Sagar Institute of Research Technology, Bhopal, India
  • SIRT ACM-W Student Chapter, Sagar Institute of Research Technology, Bhopal, India
  • UCSC ACM Student Chapter, University of Colombo School of Computing, Colombo, Sri Lanka

ACM-W NEWS

Six ACM-W Celebrations in March!

By Wendy Powley (Queen's University), ACM-W Celebrations Chair
ACM Celebrations coordinators are volunteers from around the globe who understand the importance of diversity in tech. They work tirelessly all year to put together inspirational local events to bring together like-minded individuals to network, inspire and collaborate. ACM-W would like to thank all of our volunteers for the time and effort that they have graciously given. Thank you!

There are more than a dozen Celebrations taking place through June 2017. Check out the ACM-W Celebrations web page for a Celebration near you!

March Celebrations:

If you are considering organizing an event or you would like to know more about ACM Celebrations, please feel free to contact Wendy Powley, Chair of the Celebrations Committee.

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 on Data and Information Quality and ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems Seeking New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Journal on Data and Information Quality (JDIQ) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due March 15. For more information please visit the JDIQ nominations page.

ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems (TAAS) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due April 7. For more information please visit the TAAS nominations page.

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: "Pervasive, Dynamic Authentication of Physical Items"

Mandel Yu and Srinivas Devadas describe the the use of silicon PUF circuits for authentication: "Authentication of physical items is an age-old problem. Common approaches include the use of bar codes, QR codes, holograms, and RFID tags. Traditional RFID tags and bar codes use a public identifier as a means of authenticating. A public identifier, however, is static: it is the same each time when queried and can be easily copied by an adversary. Holograms can also be viewed as public identifiers: a knowledgeable verifier knows all the attributes to inspect visually. It is difficult to make hologram-based authentication pervasive; a casual verifier does not know all the attributes to look for. Further, to achieve pervasive authentication, it is useful for the authentication modality to be easy to integrate with modern electronic devices and to be easy for non-experts to use."

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM

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ACM FYI

What Is the ACM RISKS Forum?

The ACM RISKS Forum, moderated by ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Chair Peter Neumann, is an online dialogue on risks to the public in computers and related systems, and is heavily involved in issues such as human safety, privacy, ethics, and legal responsibility.

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