ACM MemberNet - May 30, 2019

Welcome to the May 2019 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.

May 30, 2019

TOP STORIES

AWARDS

MEMBER RECOGNITION

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

PUBLIC POLICY

MEMBER PROGRAMS

LEARNING CENTER

ACM CAREER & JOB CENTER

STUDENT NEWS

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS PROGRAM

CHAPTERS NEWS

ACM-W NEWS

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

TOP STORIES

ACM Honors Computing Innovators Who Are Changing the World

ACM has announced the recipients of four prestigious technical awards. These leaders were selected by their peers for making contributions that extend the boundaries of research, advance industry, and lay the foundation for technologies that transform society. The 2018 recipients will be formally honored at the ACM Awards Banquet on June 15, 2019 in San Francisco.

Gerald C. Combs is the recipient of the ACM Software System Award for creating the Wireshark network protocol analyzer, an essential tool for nearly anyone who designs, deploys, analyzes and troubleshoots the wide range of network protocols that tie the internet together, and for continued leadership of the international Wireshark developer community.

Constantinos Daskalakis and Michael J. Freedman are recipients of the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award. Daskalakis is recognized for his seminal contributions to the theory of computation and economics, particularly the complexity of Nash Equilibrium. Freedman is cited for the design and deployment of self-organizing geo-distributed systems.

Pavel Pevzner is the recipient of the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award for pioneering contributions to the theory, design and implementation of algorithms for string reconstruction and to their applications in the assembly of genomes.

Henry Kautz is the recipient of the ACM - AAAI Allen Newell Award for contributions to artificial intelligence and computational social science, including fundamental results on the complexity of inference, planning and media analytics for public health.

Read the ACM news release.

UC Berkeley Graduate Receives ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award

Chelsea Finn of the University of California, Berkeley is the recipient of the 2018 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for her dissertation “Learning to Learn with Gradients.” In her thesis, Finn introduced algorithms for meta-learning that enable deep networks to solve new tasks from small datasets, and demonstrated how her algorithms can be applied in areas including computer vision, reinforcement learning and robotics.

Honorable Mentions for the 2018 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award went to Ryan Beckett and Tengyu Ma, who both received PhD degrees in Computer Science from Princeton University. Beckett developed new, general and efficient algorithms for creating and validating network control plane configurations in his dissertation, “Network Control Plane Synthesis and Verification.” Tengyu Ma’s dissertation, “Non-convex Optimization for Machine Learning: Design, Analysis, and Understanding,” develops novel theory to support new trends in machine learning.

The recipients will be formally recognized at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on June 15 in San Francisco. The Doctoral Dissertation Award is accompanied by a prize of $20,000, and the Honorable Mention Award is accompanied by a prize totaling $10,000.

Read the ACM news release.

AWARDS

Francine Berman Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute computer scientist Francine Berman has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences along with luminaries including former First Lady Michele Obama, author Jonathan Franzen, and gender theorist Judith Butler. New elected members for 2019 include more than 200 individuals with compelling achievements in academia, business, government, and public affairs. Berman in 2009 was the inaugural recipient of the ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award and is an ACM Fellow. Read the RPI news release.

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. The nominations deadline for general ACM awards has passed. The remaining award nominations deadlines are: ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award (June 1), SIAM/ACM Prize in Computational Science and Engineering (July 31), and Doctoral Dissertation Award (October 31).

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 and Distinguished 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 June 3.

The Distinguished Member designation recognizes ACM members with at least 15 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who have demonstrated significant accomplishments or made a significant impact on the computing field. The deadline for nominations is August 1.

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

DAC 2019, June 2 to 6, Las Vegas, Nevada

The Design Automation Conference offers tracks in Design, EDA, Embedded Systems and Software and Autonomous Systems, IP, Machine Learning/AI, and Security. Keynoters include musician, producer and innovator Thomas Dolby, SPIKE founder Bas Verkaik, and MIT's James DiCarlo. SKY talks will be delivered by Hava T. Siegelmann of DARPA and Gurtej S. Sandhu of Micron Technology.

ACM-IMS Data Science Summit, June 15, 2019, San Francisco, California

ACM and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics are hosting the ACM-IMS Interdisciplinary Summit on the Foundations of Data Science. This full-day event will bring together distinguished speakers and panelists addressing topics such as deep learning, reinforcement learning, fairness, and ethics, in addition to discussions about the future of data science and the role of ACM and IMS. Keynote speakers are ACM award recipients Jeff Dean and Daphne Koller, and Emmanuel Candès from Stanford University. There will be limited seating, so register early.

MobiSys 2019, June 17 to 21, Seoul, Korea

The 17th ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services presents innovative and significant research on the design, implementation, usage, and evaluation of mobile computing and wireless systems, applications, and services. ACM Open IoT Day is open to the public and requires registration.

MMSys 2019, June 18 to 21, Amherst, Massachusetts

The ACM Multimedia Systems Conference provides a forum for researchers to present and share their latest research findings in multimedia systems, including networking, operating systems, real-time systems, databases, mobile computing, distributed systems, and middleware domains. Keynotes will be delivered by Jordi Cenzano, Director of Engineering for Advanced Technologies at Brightcove; Weidong Mao Senior Fellow at Comcast Cable; and Nimesha Ranasinghe, Assistant Professor and Director of the Multisensory Interactive Media Lab at University of Maine.

FCRC 2019, June 22 to 28, Phoenix, Arizona

ACM's Federated Computing Research Conference assembles a spectrum of affiliated research conferences and workshops into a week-long co-located meeting. These events cover topics including learning theory; energy; quality of service, programming language design and implementation; high performance parallel and distributed computing; computing theory; measurement and modeling of computer systems; and more. Each morning will feature a joint plenary talk, and two 2018 ACM A.M. Turing Award recipients will deliver the Turing Lecture.

L@S 2019, June 24 to 25, Chicago, Illinois

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.

WebSci 2019, June 30 to July 3, Boston, Massachusetts

The ACM Conference on Web Science brings together researchers from multiple disciplines , including computer science, sociology, economics, information science, anthropology, and psychology. Keynote speakers are Fabien Gandon (Inria) and Sandra González-Bailón (University of Pennsylvania). Workshops include Brave Conversations, a non-academic session to explore profound issues that are arising as human life becomes progressively entwined with the internet and the Web.

SIGMOD/PODS 2019, June 30 to July 5, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The International Conference on Management of Data is a leading international forum for database researchers, practitioners, developers, and users to explore cutting-edge ideas and results, and to exchange techniques, tools, and experiences. Keynote speakers are Cynthia Dwork (Harvard University), Lise Getoor (University of California, Santa Cruz), and Chandrasekaran Mohan (IBM).

SIGGRAPH Asia 2019, November 17 to 20, Brisbane, Australia (CFP)

The 12th ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques invites submissions of technical papers, posters, doctoral symposium papers, courses, animation and more. Visit the submissions page for more information and deadlines.

GROUP 2020, January 6 to 8, Sanibel Island, Florida (CFP)

The ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work is a premier venue for research on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning and Socio-Technical Studies. GROUP 2020 invites submissions to the new Design Fiction track, which is dedicated to sharing academic work that extends beyond the traditional research paper. Submissions are due June 7, 2019.

PUBLIC POLICY

ACM Tech Policy Committees Meet to Develop Strategic Plans; US Committee Comments on Voting System Guidelines, AI Roadmap

By Adam Eisgrau, ACM Director of Global Policy and Public Affairs
ACM's Europe Technology Policy Committee has been active since my last report in January, meeting several times by phone and in person in Rome in late March to strategically identify key issues for the Committee's intensive future focus, "smart cities" and "the future of aging" among them. ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) also has done much of its strategic and substantive work since the beginning of the year behind the scenes, including at the Committee Secretariat's annual meeting in early May. Those efforts, in part, bore visible fruit late this month with the production of two detailed and very different documents.

US Voluntary Voting System Guidelines
Since 2015, the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has been developing Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), which it describes as "a set of specifications and requirements against which voting systems can be tested to determine if the systems meet required standards. Some factors examined under these tests include basic functionality, accessibility, and security capabilities. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) mandates that EAC develop and maintain these requirements." Most recently, the EAC published Version 2.0 of its VVSG, on which the public was invited to comment late last February.

On May 29, ACM USTPC submitted a detailed analysis of the latest VVSG draft recommending that the final VVSG:

  1. Endorse a blanket ban on the internet connection capability of any and every voting technology addressed by the VVSG, including connection to any private network that ultimately may connect to the internet;
  2. Foster and justify public confidence that our election results are wholly evidence-based by requiring that elections be fully and robustly auditable; and
  3. Require the full interoperability of all internal voting system components, peripherals and data formats, together with component and system integration testing and certification.

The Committee also submitted an Appendix making a number of additional original recommendations, as well as associating USTPC with select points made in their respective Comments by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), National Election Defense Coalition (NEDC), State Audit Working Group, and Verified Voting. USTPC also formally co-signed EPIC's and the NEDC's submissions having reviewed them in advance.

USTPC also is pleased to note that its Comments received prominent coverage from influential "Beltway" publication Politico which led its widely-read "Morning Cybersecurity" online bulletin on May 29 with Computing professionals: Leave internet connectivity out of voting machine guidelines. May 29 also saw both online and print publication in The Hill (another high-visibility "Beltway" news outlet) of USTPC Vice Chair Jeremy Epstein's OpEd: Russia hacked us: We made it far too easy—and still do. In line with USTPC's EAC filing, the piece calls for an immediate end to all state "e" and "I" voting programs.

CCC Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Research in the US
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC), of which ACM is a member, was established with NSF funding in late 2006 to "catalyze the computing research community and enable the pursuit of innovative, high-impact research." On May 21, CCC released and broadly invited comments on a draft 20-Year Community Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Research in the U.S. CCC noted that the goal of the initiative, begun in Fall 2018, "is to identify challenges, opportunities, and pitfalls, and create a compelling report that will effectively inform future federal priorities—including future AI R&D investments, as was prioritized recently by the White House in President Trump's executive order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence and the National Science Foundation's Statement on the executive order to maintain American leadership in artificial intelligence."

Despite an extremely short deadline to provide CCC with feedback, an ad hoc group of ACM USTPC members produced a set of nine principal recommendations supported by a detailed Appendix elaborating on them. The complete document was submitted to CCC by USTPC on May 30. Notably, key substantive suggestions pertained to ethical dimensions of AI work and diversity, specifically:

  • Expressly acknowledge that agency and accountability for the development and effects of AI systems reside in the humans behind AI, not the systems themselves, and articulate the need for many forms of robust research oversight, including both academic Institutional Review Boards and their industry equivalents;
  • Highlight broadly that research regarding the ethical challenges raised in and by the development and deployment of AI is particularly important, while also specifically noting that select issues merit intensive attention, such as the use of AI in weapons systems and healthcare, algorithmic bias, and the disparate impact of AI's application on various classes of individuals;
  • Strongly articulate the importance of integrating social and ethical agendas into computer science research and development from the outset of all such efforts (particularly those AI-related), rather than addressing such agendas only after product failure; and
  • Focus overtly on matters of diversity and inclusion, specifically by deepening discussions of the impact of AI on disadvantaged and marginalized populations, and by expanding authorship and review of the Roadmap to include representatives of both the academic and non-academic research communities.

More policy statements by ACM's Europe and US Technology Policy Committees are available here.

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 you could potentially save thousands by refinancing your 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. To learn more visit Credible.com.

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.

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 June 4 TechTalk on Agile Data Science with Sarah Aerni

Register now for the next free ACM TechTalk, Agile Data Science: Achieving Salesforce-Scale Machine Learning in Production, to be presented on Tuesday, June 4 at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT by Sarah Aerni, Director of Data Science at Salesforce Einstein. Michael Zeller, SVP of AI Strategy and Innovation at Software AG, will moderate the Q&A session. Leave your comments and questions with our speaker now and anytime before the live event on the ACM Discourse page. And check out the page after the webcast for extended discussion with your peers in the computing community, as well as further resources on Agile Data Science.

Visit the TechTalks Archive for our full archive of past TechTalks.

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.

STUDENT NEWS

ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals Winners

The ACM Student Research Competition (SRC), sponsored by Microsoft, has announced its Grand Finals winners. There are two rounds of competition at each conference hosting an SRC, which culminates in a Grand Finals competition. All undergraduate and graduate student winners from the SRCs held during the year advance to the SRC Grand Finals, where they are evaluated by a different panel of judges via the Web. This year's SRC Grand Finals winners are:

Graduate Category:
First Place: Gengjie Chen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong: "VLSI Routing: Seeing Nano Tree in Giga Forest" (ICCAD 2018)
Second Place: Christie Louis Alappat, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg: "RACE-Recursive Algebraic Coloring Engine" (SC18)
Third Place: Scott Parker Kolodziej, Texas A&M University: "Empirical Assessment of Software Documentation Strategies: A Randomized Controlled Trial" (SIGCSE 2019)
Undergraduate Category:
First Place: Zhuangzhuang Zhou, Shanghai Jiao Tong University: "DALS: Delay-driven Approximate Logic Synthesis" (ICCAD 2018)
Second Place: Fandel Lin, National Cheng Kung University: "An Intelligent and Interactive Route Planning Maker for Deploying New Transportation Services" (SIGSPATIAL 2018)
Third Place: Elizaveta A. Tremsina, University of California, Berkeley: "Your Story Recorded in a Magnet: Micromagnetic Simulations of Spin-Orbit Torque in Multi-layer Structures" (Tapia 2018)

The winners are invited, along with their advisors, to attend the annual ACM Awards Banquet in San Francisco, California on June 15, where they will receive formal recognition.
Read the ACM news release.

ACM Presents Special Awards to 2019 Intel Science Fair Finalists

ACM presented Special Awards to finalists in the 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world's largest high school science research competition, held May 12-17 in Phoenix, Arizona. More than 1,800 high school students from more than 75 countries, regions, and territories competed to reach the finals.

All winners receive complimentary ACM student memberships for the duration of their undergraduate education. Here are ACM's ISEF Special Award winners and their breakthrough research topics:

First Award of $4,000:
"Design and Analysis of Fast Algorithms for Interactive Machine Learning"
Jagdeep Bhatia, Watchung Hills Regional High School, Green Brook, New Jersey
Second Award of $3,000:
"Detecting Privacy Violations in Children's Apps Using HPCs"
Suha Sabi Hussain, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, Ozone Park, New York
Third Award of $1,500:
"A Game of Jamming: A Multi-Agent Game Theoretic Learning Based Cognitive Anti-Jamming Communication System to Combat an AI Jammer"
Milidu Jayaweera, La Cueva High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Fourth Award of $500:
"Looking through Walls with Artificial Intelligence: An Innovative Solution for Real-Time Retrieval of the Human Figure behind Visual Obstruction"
Kevin Meng, Plano West Senior High School, Plano, Texas
"Exploring a Novel Method of Foveated Rendering in Virtual Reality with an Object Based Approach"
Varun Neil Aggarwal, Lake Highland Preparatory School, Orlando, Forida
"Periphery Sweep Algorithm: Conquering A* Algorithm at Graph Traversal Solutions"
Richik Vivek Sen, Delhi Public School—Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, Delhi, India

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 CHI 2019. 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 Shipeng Li. Shipeng is Principal Researcher and Research Area Manager coordinating multimedia research activities at Microsoft Research Asia. He has authored and co-authored over 280 journal and conference papers and holds 167 granted US patents in image/video processing, compression and communications, digital television, multimedia and wireless communication. Li has helped organize several conferences and was an invited panelist at ACM Multimedia 2010 on mobile computing.

For more information on Shipeng, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Shipeng Li'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 Congratulates Student Chapter Excellence Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018-2019 Student Chapter Excellence Awards! This program recognizes ACM student chapters worldwide that display considerable initiative during the academic year. Chapters submit applications in five areas: Outstanding Chapter Activity, Outstanding Website, Outstanding Recruitment Program, Outstanding Community Service, and Outstanding School Service. Winning chapters in each of these five areas receive $500 and a "best of" icon to proudly display on their chapter's web page. The winners for 2018-2019 are:

  • Outstanding Chapter Activities: Florida International University ACM Student Chapter and University of Pennsylvania SIGGRAPH Student Chapter
  • Outstanding Website: Manipal University Jaipur ACM Student Chapter
  • Outstanding Recruitment Program: NUCES KHI ACM Student Chapter
  • Outstanding Community Service: College of William & Mary ACM-W Student Chapter
  • Outstanding School Service: New Jersey Institute of Technology ACM Student Chapter

Learn more about what's happening at these schools by reading their winning submissions, and how you can enter your school's chapter in next year's competition, on the Student Chapter Excellence Awards website.

Notice to Chapters: Submit Your Annual Reports

ACM's fiscal year is coming to a close, which means it is time to submit your ACM Annual Report. The report is for the fiscal year 2019 (July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019) and is due by August 31, 2019.

To complete the report online, you must log in with your unique chapter web account at http://www.acm.org/chapters/chapters/interface. Please note, your chapter web account is entirely separate from your personal web account and should be accessible to all officers. If you are unsure of your chapter web account or need to reset the password, please follow this link: https://www.acm.org/chapters/web-account-links.

Please also take this time to update your chapter's contact information, including your membership list (under the Chapter Members tab) and officers (under the Chapter Officers tab.) You can utilize our edit features to extend memberships, update email addresses, or cancel past members who are no longer part of your chapter. Keeping your membership list current and up to date is important. It ensures that all members receive the maximum benefits they are entitled to and are kept aware of all the latest ACM happenings and resources.

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 April 11 to May 13, 2019:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • DIT University ACM-W Student Chapter, Dehradun Institute of Technology, Dehradun, India
  • FUTA ACM-W Student Chapter, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria
  • Rutgers ACM SIGHPC Student Chapter, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey
  • Sabanci University ACM Student Chapter, Istanbul, Turkey
  • UC San Diego ACM Student Chapter, University of California, San Diego
  • University of Toledo UPRC ACM Student Chapter, North Ridge, Ohio

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • Cafeteros ACM SIGCHI Chapter, Cali, Colombia
  • Islamabad ACM Chapter, Pakistan
  • Lahore ACM Chapter, Pakistan
  • Manila ACM SIGCHI Chapter, Philippines
  • Yola ACM Chapter, Nigeria

ACM-W NEWS

Fourth KYCC Women in Computing Celebration Held at Owensboro Community and Technical College

Students, faculty, and industry partners from across Kentucky, Indiana, and North Carolina celebrated women in computing at the fourth biennial Kentucky Community Colleges Women in Computing event (KYCC-WiC) at Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC) on March 22 and 23. This conference was the first WiC celebration event designed explicitly for community colleges.

The theme for the celebration was "Busting Barriers in the Bluegrass." Presentations and panel discussions covered a wide range of computing topics, but many were focused on improving the number of women in the computing field. Several speakers presented many great ideas/proven methods on getting more young women interested in a computer science/information technology career. Student-focused presentations provided advice on beginning a career.

More than 100 participants from the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Northern Kentucky University, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky Wesleyan College, Forsyth Tech Community College, Ivy Tech Community College, University of Southern Indiana, and several industry partners attended. Scott Williams, president of OCTC, opened the conference with a warm welcome.

Award-winning novelist of African-based science fiction and fantasy Nnedi Okorafor delivered the first keynote. Born in the United States to Nigerian immigrant parents, Okorafor is known for weaving African culture and folklore into creative, evocative settings with memorable characters. The co-author of the Black Panther Marvel comics series, Okorafor inspired the participants by encouraging women to pursue their career goals, and to be strong and never give up.

Delivering the second keynote was Smita Bakshi, CEO of Zyante. Bakshi is a high-tech professional with over 15 years of experience spanning product management, business development, engineering and education across several software industries. Her specialties include education technology and enterprise software. One of her passions is encouraging young women to seek careers in STEM fields. Her presentation, "Women in Technology: You Can and You Must," was inspiring to young women just starting their careers.

There were many opportunities to learn and to network at the conference. Some of the topics covered were digital forensic tools, use of unmanned aerial vehicles, curricular guidelines for cybersecurity, manufacturing and IT, and the impact of technology in politics. Conference attendees enjoyed the Kentucky hospitality, nationally acclaimed barbeque, and a trip to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

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

CACM Regional Special Section on East Asia and Oceania Call for Papers

In 2018, Communications of the ACM debuted the first in a series of special sections designed to spotlight a region of the world with the goal of introducing readers to new voices, innovations, and technological research on a global scale. The most recent section, in the April 2019 issue, covered the Europe region.

CACM is now issuing a call for articles for the inaugural Special Section on East Asia and Oceania. This region includes Japan, Korea, Taiwan, South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia), and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia).

Interested authors are requested to send a one-page, free-format PDF file with title, full list of author names, and description of the planned article to [email protected] by July 15, 2019. Articles can be in any aspect or field of computing, and cover research, education, or innovation. Submissions are actively sought from academia, industry, and government agencies.

Some potential areas of interest could include: technical and governance challenges that can benefit from data science and AI; key advances in cybersecurity and privacy; key technological advances to aid healthcare and the aging population; technology to advance sustainable social and environmental development; key technological advances to aid and enhance education; regional advances in supercomputing; regional advances in consumer electronics, embedded systems, and robotics; research advances showing translation in any field of computing; and technology initiatives featuring engagement of academia, industry, and government.

Based on the submissions, a workshop will be held at the National University of Singapore. Selected authors will be invited to the workshop to be held in Singapore on August 30, 2019. The workshop will involve discussions and brainstorming to shape the narrative for the Special Section on East Asia and Oceania.

The types of articles chosen will be designated as either short Hot Topics articles (800-1,200 words), or longer Big Trends articles (1,500-1,800 words).

ACM Interactions Seeking New Editor(s)-in-Chief

ACM Interactions is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief or Co-Editors-in-Chief. Nominations are due June 1.

New ACM Book: Conversational UX Design

ACM Books recently published Conversational UX Design: A Practitioner's Guide to the Natural Conversation Framework, by Robert J. Moore and Raphael Arar. This title adapts formal knowledge from the field of conversation analysis to the design of natural language interfaces. It outlines the natural conversation framework developed at IBM Research—a systematic framework for designing interfaces that work like natural conversation.

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: "Industry-scale Knowledge Graphs: Lessons and Challenges"

A group of researchers and engineers representing five of the largest technology companies explain how they use knowledge graphs and how the companies differ in approach. Knowledge graphs provide shared knowledge within an organization, allowing different products and applications to reuse definitions and descriptions. And they provide a compact formal representation that developers can use to infer new facts and build up the knowledge. Their article compares the knowledge graphs of five diverse tech companies: eBay, Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.

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