ACM MemberNet - December 27, 2018

Welcome to the December 2018 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 https://www.acm.org/membership/acm-membernet-archive.

Read coverage of ACM in the news media.

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December 27, 2018

TOP STORIES

AWARDS

MEMBER RECOGNITION

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

PUBLIC POLICY

MEMBER PROGRAMS

LEARNING CENTER

ACM CAREER & JOB CENTER

EDUCATION

STUDENT NEWS

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS PROGRAM

CHAPTERS NEWS

ACM-W NEWS

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

ACM FYI

TOP STORIES

ACM Names 2018 Fellows

ACM has named 56 members ACM Fellows for significant contributions in areas including computer architecture, mobile networks, robotics, and systems security. The accomplishments of the 2018 ACM Fellows underpin the technologies that define the digital age and greatly impact our professional and personal lives. ACM Fellows are composed of an elite group that represents less than 1% of the Association’s global membership. This year's Fellows were cited for numerous contributions in areas including accessibility, augmented reality, algorithmic game theory, data mining, storage, software and the World Wide Web.

"The ACM Fellows program publicly recognizes the people who made key contributions to the technologies we enjoy," said ACM President Cherri M. Pancake. "Even when their work did not directly result in a specific technology, they have made major theoretical contributions that have advanced the science of computing. We are honored to add a new class of Fellows to ACM’s ranks and we look forward to the guidance and counsel they will provide to our organization."

ACM will formally recognize its 2018 Fellows at the annual Awards Banquet, to be held in San Francisco on June 15, 2019. Additional information about the 2018 ACM Fellows, and the awards event, as well as previous ACM Fellows, is available through the ACM Fellows site.
Read the ACM news release.

Participate in a Global Survey of Scientists

The 2018 Global Survey of Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Scientists needs people in mathematical, computing and natural sciences, including students, to share their career and educational experiences. The data being collected will include focused information about women in these fields. The survey is being conducted through December 31 by The Gender Gap in Science project, funded by the International Council for Science, a collaboration of several organizations including ACM.

AWARDS

ACM Award Nomination Submission Procedures

Each year, ACM recognizes technical and professional achievements within the computing and information technology community through its celebrated Awards Program. ACM welcomes nominations for candidates whose work exemplifies the best and most influential contributions to our community, and society at large. ACM's award committees evaluate the contributions of candidates for various awards that span a spectrum of professional and technological accomplishments. For awards presented at the annual June banquet, the deadline for award nominations is January 15, 2019.

Please take a moment to consider those individuals in your community who may be suitable for nomination. Refer to the award nominations page 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. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The deadline for nominations is March 3, 2019.

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

POPL 2019, January 13 to 19, Lisbon, Portugal

The 46th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages is a forum for the discussion of all aspects of programming languages and programming systems. Co-hosted workshops will cover Certified Programs and Proofs, and Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation. Keynote speakers are Mark Harman, an Engineering Manager at Facebook London, and Brigitte Pientka, an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University.

AIES 2019, January 27 to 28, Honolulu, Hawaii

The AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society taps experts from various disciplines, such as ethics, philosophy, economics, sociology, psychology, law, history, and politics, to address AI issues in these areas. Scheduled keynote speakers are Susan Athey (Stanford University), Ryan Calo (University of Washington), David Danks (Carnegie Mellon University), and Anca Dragan (University of California, Berkeley).

ACM-FAT* 2019, January 29 to 31, Atlanta, Georgia

The ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency brings together researchers and practitioners interested in fairness, accountability, ethics, and transparency in socio-technical systems. ACM FAT* 2019 builds on several years of successful workshops on these topics, as well interpretability in machine learning, recommender systems, the web, and other technical disciplines.

SIGCSE 2019, February 27 to March 2, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The SIGCSE Technical Symposium is the largest computing education conference worldwide organized by ACM SIGCSE, attracting researchers, educators, and others interested in improving computing education in K-12 and higher education. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III (President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County) will deliver the opening keynote, and Blair Taylor (Clinical Associate Professor, Towson University) will deliver the closing keynote.

IUI 2019, March 17 to 20, Los Angeles, California

The 24th Annual Meeting of the Intelligent User Interfaces Community is where the human-computer interaction community meets the AI community, with contributions from related fields such as psychology, behavioral science, cognitive science, computer graphics, design, the arts, and more. Scheduled keynote speakers are Ashwin Ram (Google Cloud), Dave Gunning (DARPA) and Michelle Zhou (Juji).

L@S 2019, June 24 to 25, Chicago, Illinois (CFP)

Learning @ Scale is co-located with and immediately precedes the 2019 International Conference on AI in Education. L@S investigates large-scale, technology-mediated learning environments, such as massive open online courses, intelligent tutoring systems, open learning courseware, learning games, and communities of citizen scientists, collaborative programmers, tutorial systems, shared critiques, and more. Paper submissions are invited; deadline is February 1, 2019.

PUBLIC POLICY

ACM Europe Council, Tech Policy Committee Offer Expertise on "Future of Ageing" Report

By Adam Eisgrau, ACM Director of Global Policy and Public Affairs

As reported last month, the Chairs of the ACM Europe Council and the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee together wrote to the chief of staff of the European Commission's influential Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) group offering the assistance of ACM experts in addressing several key concepts not covered in the EC's April 2018 Scoping Paper on "Transforming the Future of Ageing." That offer was promptly accepted with an invitation for ACM Europe Council Chair Chris Hankin to address those issues, including security and privacy by design, with the Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA) component of SAM.

Hankin did so on December 7 as an official discussant at SAPEA's meeting in Brussels to consider a still-confidential draft of SAPEA's "Future of Ageing" Report, the technical aspects of which reportedly are in the early drafting stage. SAPEA heard from Hankin on a range of issues and materials, including particularly the ACM Europe Council's "When Computers Decide" white paper on algorithmic transparency and accountability (produced jointly with the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee) and the ACM Europe Council's Informatics4All Strategy. Both documents, also produced with Informatics Europe, were unveiled in Brussels last March.

Hankin's offer of ACM Europe Council's and the Tech Policy Committee's ongoing support also was favorably received by SAPEA, whose work on the report is expected to resume with circulation to discussants of a new confidential draft report in early January. According to its "Transforming the Future of Ageing" web page, SAPEA's final report is slated for release in April 2019.

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 Academic Membership Option

The ACM Academic Department Membership option allows universities and colleges to provide ACM Professional Membership to their faculty at a greatly reduced collective cost. ACM offers a membership for academic department faculty at the cost of $49 per person, more than half off the standard ACM professional membership fee of $99 per year. Through this program, each faculty member will receive all the benefits of individual professional ACM membership, including Communications of the ACM, member rates to ACM Special Interest Group conferences, member subscription rates to ACM journals, and much more. To learn more, visit the ACM Academic Department Membership page or contact Cindy Ryan.

The ACM Group 10-year Level Term Life Plan, administered by Mercer Health & Benefits Administration LLC, is a valuable member benefit available to ACM members and their families. Learn more about ACM Group Level Term Life Insurance Plan by visiting their website, or call 1-800-503-9230.

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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

ACM Launches TechTalk Series with "From Media to Meaning: Classic Machine Learning"

ACM TechTalks are a new series of videos from the top researchers and thought leaders in computing working at the forefront of computing theory and practice. Inspired by the popular ACM Learning Webinar series, TechTalks are thought-provoking and accessible entry points into technical trends and emerging technologies for students, practitioners, and anyone interested in the future of computing.

The first ACM TechTalk is with Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Distinguished Scientist at Google AI, where he leads a team that works on intersections of neural nets and neuromorphic AI. In "From Media to Meaning: Classic Machine Learning," Blaise examines the recent revolution in deep networks which has enabled the use of machine learning techniques to create photorealistic images, human-like audio, and model patterns of motion in video quickly and convincingly. Among the topics he covers are advances in neural nets and generative adversarial techniques, as well as the hazards and potentially harmful consequences of abusing and manipulating these techniques.

ACM CAREER & JOB CENTER

ACM Career & Job Center Connects You with Career Opportunities

Connecting with the right employers in computing can be a daunting task. Thankfully, the world's leading companies, colleges and universities come to the ACM Career & Job Center to find the best candidates. By creating an account on the ACM Career and Job Center, you'll gain access to a wide range of tools to help you find the perfect job:

  • Finding a Job - Use the job search tools to find a job that matches your search criteria.
  • Create and Manage Email Alerts - Stay on top of the latest job openings. Receive an email when new jobs match your search criteria.
  • Create/Post Resumes - Get noticed by employers. Create or upload a resume with our easy-to-use tools so employer can get in touch with you.
  • View Saved Jobs - Save jobs that interest you, add notes, share with friends, and track your applies to keep on top of your job search.

For any assistance with the ACM Career and Job Center, please contact ACM's Advertising Sales Manager, Ilia Rodriguez.

EDUCATION

ACM Education Board Retention Committee Releases Report on CS Undergraduate Student Retention

The ACM Education Board's Retention Committee has released Retention in Computer Science Undergraduate Programs in the U.S.: Data Challenges and Promising Interventions. The report calls for additional research to provide a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of attrition and retention, and encourages higher education institutions to provide proactive counseling to undergraduate students about career opportunities in CS.
Read the ACM news release.

STUDENT NEWS

Encourage US High School Students to Apply for 2018-2019 ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize

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 January 5, 2019.

Up to four winners will be selected and each will be awarded a $10,000 prize, which will be administered through the financial aid department at the university the student will attend. The prizes are funded by a $1 million endowment established by David Cutler and Gordon Bell.

Detailed information, including the link to the online application, is available on the ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing website. Winners of the 2018-2019 Cutler-Bell Prize will be notified via email in February 2019.

Young Researchers: Apply for Next Heidelberg Laureate Forum, September 22-27, 2019

ACM encourages young computer scientists and mathematicians from all over the world 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 young researchers the great opportunity to personally meet the winners of the most prestigious prizes in their fields. For one week, recipients of the ACM A.M. Turing Award and the ACM Prize in Computing (Computer Science), the Abel Prize (Mathematics), the Fields Medal (Mathematics), and the Nevanlinna Prize (Mathematical Aspects of Information Science) will engage in a cross-generational scientific dialogue with young researchers in Heidelberg, Germany.

The seventh HLF will take place September 22 to 27, 2019. This high-profile event combines scientific, social and outreach activities in an informal atmosphere, and is fueled by comprehensive exchange and scientific inspiration. Applications must be submitted online at https://application.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org by February 15, 2019. 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.

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 SC18. 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.
See ACM Distinguished Speakers in action on our flickr page.

This month's featured speaker is Valentina Salapura. Valentina is an IBM Master Inventor and System Architect at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. She is with IBM Research in the Services Innovation Lab, where she is helping IBM realize the value of cloud computing. She received the 2006 ACM Gordon Bell Prize for contributions to the architecture and implementation of the Blue Gene/L supercomputer and Quantum Chromodynamics. She has published more than 60 papers and several book chapters on processor and network architecture, and holds over 80 patents in this area. An IEEE Fellow, Valentina serves as an advocate for promoting the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in technical disciplines.

For more information on Valentina, please visit her DSP speaker information page.
Valentina Salapura'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

ACM Thanks Chapters for Participating in Hour of Code

The Hour of Code is a global movement designed to generate excitement in young people about programming and technology. Games, tutorials, and other events were organized during Computer Science Education Week around the world on December 3 to 9. ACM would like to congratulate all the ACM chapters that took part this year. View the complete list here.

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 November 20 to December 4, 2018:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Alpha Arts and Science College ACM-W Student Chapter, Chennai, India
  • Lander College for Women ACM Student Chapter, New York, New York
  • UACJ-IIT ACM Student Chapter, Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • Applied Artificial Intelligence and Analytics ACM SIGAI Chapter, Laguna Niguel, California
  • Taipei ACM SIGAPP Chapter, Taipei, Taiwan

ACM-W NEWS

Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing Features Career Guidance and Inspiration

The Sixth Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing (RMCWiC 2018) was held November 1-2, 2018 in Lakewood, Colorado. The conference drew 356 participants including high school students, teachers, academics and professionals. Workshops on the first day were "Accessible Computer Science Education"; "Creating a Resume that Speaks to the Company You Want!"; "Intro to Back End Programming"; "Pitch Perfect: Crafting an Effective Introduction"; and "Want to Ace Your Tech Interview?" The panel "Diverse Pathways to Technology: What Careers in Tech Look Like" hosted a diverse group of women from The Turing School of Software and Design, P2BInvestor, Lockheed Martin, and Amazon. A poster session, demos, networking, and reception followed. At dinner, sponsors were recognized and a slideshow featuring notable women in computing was presented. The evening keynote featured a 20-minute documentary, "The Computers: The Remarkable Story of the ENIAC Programmers," followed by a virtual Q & A session with the filmmaker, Kathy Kleinman. The evening closed with a "Getting Started with FreeBSD" programming workshop.

On the second day a mentoring breakfast covered topics that included career paths in government or military, academia, and in industry; work/life balance; choosing the right career path; gender issues in the workplace; computing research; and developing interview skills, as well as technical topics, information systems and software engineering. A plenary panel, "My Path to Entrepreneurship," featured Andrea Guendelman (Bevisible.soy, Wallbreakers) serving as moderator, with panelists Carol Carter (GlobalMindED), Amelia Coomber (BB & Co), Toi Massey (The JEKL Foundation for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics). Workshops covered "Using Design Thinking to Balance and Bridge CS with Your Other Interests," led by students and faculty from Colorado State University; and "Leading Conversations about Microaggressions, Bias, and Other Nonsense." The panel "Demystify Your Career" featured Salesforce employees who shared their personal stories and career journeys.

Birds of a Feather sessions addressed "Imposter Syndrome," "Undergraduate Research Challenges for Faculty and Students," and "Career and Education: When, Where, and Why?" The lunch keynote was a talk on "Navigating the Death Valleys to Reach the Meadows and Mountaintops" by startup entrepreneur Andrea Guendelman. Following five graduate student talk sessions, a workshop, six Birds of a Feather sessions, and a Career Fair including 15 companies and six colleges and universities, the conference closed with the presentation of awards to graduate student talk and poster competition winners.

If you would like more information on Celebrations or would like to organize an event in your area, please contact Wendy Powley, Chair of the Celebrations Committee. International Celebrations are encouraged and welcomed!

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 Books Series Seeking New Editor-in-Chief

Nominations are invited for Editor-in-Chief of ACM Books, to serve for a three-year term beginning May 1, 2019. The ACM Publications Board relies on the EIC to ensure that the content of ACM Books is of high quality and that the editorial process is both timely and fair. Nominations should include a brief statement as to why the nominee should be considered, and a short statement of the candidate's vision for the future development of ACM Books (self-nominations are welcomed). Please send all nominations by January 31, 2019 to [email protected] or [email protected]. For more information see the announcement on the ACM Books home page.

ACM TOSEM and Inroads Welcome New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) welcomes Mauro Pezzè as its new Editor-in-Chief for the term January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021. Mauro is a Professor of Software Engineering in the Faculty of Informatics at the Università della Svizzera italiana and at the Università di Milano-Bicocca.

ACM Inroads Magazine welcomes Margaret Hamilton and James Harland as its new Co-Editors-in-Chief for the term December 1, 2018 to run to December 1, 2021. They are both associate professors at RMIT University’s School of Computer Science and Information Technology in Melbourne, Austrailia.

New Journals ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice, ACM Transactions on Data Science, ACM Transactions on Internet of Things, ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare and Digital Government: Research and Practice Accepting Submissions

ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice (DTRAP) targets the prevention, identification, mitigation, and elimination of digital threats, aiming to bridge the gap between academic research and industry practice. It is accepting submissions on extant digital threats, rather than laboratory models of potential threats.

ACM Transactions on Data Science (TDS) includes cross-disciplinary innovative research ideas, algorithms, systems, theory and applications on data science, including data cleaning, transformation, representation, integration, indexing, modeling, analysis, visualization, and interpretation while retaining privacy, fairness, provenance, transparency, and provision of social benefit, within the context of big data.

ACM Transactions on Internet of Things (TIOT) publishes novel research contributions and experience reports in several research domains whose synergy and interrelations enable the IoT vision. TIOT focuses on system designs, end-to-end architectures, and enabling technologies, and on publishing results and insights corroborated by a strong experimental component.

ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare (HEALTH) is a multi-disciplinary journal publishing papers that have scientific and technological results pertaining to how computing is improving healthcare.

Digital Government: Research and Practice (DGOV) is an interdisciplinary journal on the potential and impact of technology on governance innovations and its transformation of public institutions.

ACM Queue Presents: "Understanding Database Reconstruction Attacks on Public Data"

In this article for ACM Queue, researchers at the US Census Bureau describe the risks of DRAs on statistical databases. Most data products published by statistical agencies give determined attackers more than enough information to reconstruct a target database and breach the privacy of millions of people. Other than publishing less information, statistical agencies are left with the option of using noise injection so that the reconstruction no longer results in the original data. This has implications for the 2020 Census.

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ACM FYI

Who is who in ACM governance?

ACM members fill vital positions on the councils, boards and committees that govern the organization and raise the visibility of ACM worldwide. Learn more about the areas in which these groups are active, and view listings of ACM elected officers and volunteers.

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