ACM MemberNet - October 31, 2019

Welcome to the October 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.

October 31, 2019

TOP STORIES

AWARDS

MEMBER RECOGNITION

SIG AWARDS

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 Names 2019 Distinguished Members

ACM has named 62 Distinguished Members for outstanding contributions to the field. All 2019 inductees are longstanding ACM members and were selected by their peers for a range of accomplishments that have contributed to technologies that underpin how we live, work and play.

"Each year it is our honor to select a new class of Distinguished Members," explains ACM President Cherri M. Pancake. "In everything we do, our overarching goal is to build a community wherein computing professionals can grow professionally and, in turn, contribute to the field and the broader society. We are delighted to recognize these individuals for their contributions to computing, and we hope that the careers of 2019 ACM Distinguished Members will continue to prosper through their participation with ACM."

The ACM Distinguished Member program recognizes up to 10 percent of ACM worldwide membership based on professional experience as well as significant achievements in the computing field.
Read the ACM news release.

New ACM Europe Council Officers Named

The ACM Europe Council has named Panagiota Fatourou as its new Chair. Fatourou, who will serve a two-year term through June 30, 2021, is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Crete and at the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH ICS), Greece. She is an elected member of the ACM Europe Council and has been an ACM Distinguished Speaker.

Also elected to two-year terms were Vice Chair Tom Crick, Professor in Digital Learning and Technology at Swansea University, UK; and Secretary/Treasurer Valerie Issarny, Senior Research Scientist at Inria, France.
Read the ACM bulletin.

Debut Lecture by ACM Prize Laureate Shwetak Patel at 7th Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Shwetak Patel, who received the 2018 ACM Prize in Computing for contributions to creative and practical sensing systems for sustainability and health, delivered a debut lecture at HLF 2019. In the lecture, Patel describes a collection of research projects conducted with his clinical collaborators that leverage the sensors on mobile devices (such as microphones, cameras, and accelerometers) in new ways to enable the screening, self-management and longitudinal study of diseases. Watch a video of the lecture.

AWARDS

Geoffrey C. Fox Named 2019 ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award Recipient

ACM and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) have named Geoffrey C. Fox of Indiana University Bloomington as the recipient of the 2019 ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award. Fox was cited for foundational contributions to parallel computing methodology, algorithms and software, and data analysis, and their interfaces with broad classes of applications. The award was presented at SC19: The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis.
Read the ACM 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. For awards presented at the annual June banquet, the deadline for nominations is January 15, 2020. The remaining award nomination deadline for 2019 is: 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.

Communications of the ACM Article on Award Nominations by ACM President Cherri Pancake

In her article for the August issue of CACM, Dispelling Common Myths about ACM Awards and Honors, ACM President Cherri Pancake shares her insights on what elements make nominations effective. Pancake is a former ACM Awards Committee Chair.

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 December 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

SIGSPATIAL 2019, November 5 to 8, Chicago, Illinois

The ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems brings together researchers, developers, users, and practitioners in novel systems based on geospatial data and knowledge, fostering interdisciplinary discussions and research. Sessions on Indoor Environments and Localization; Query Processing and Indexing; Computational Geometry; Privacy; Machine Learning and more will be included.

CSCW 2019, November 9 to 13, Austin, Texas

The 22nd ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing is the premier venue for research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks. Delivering keynotes will be Katharine Trendacosta (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg (Google AI).

CCS 2019, November 11 to 15, London, UK

The ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security brings together information security researchers, practitioners, developers, and users to explore cutting-edge ideas and results. The program will cover cryptography, cloud security, forensics, privacy and more, along with several co-located workshops. Keynotes will be delivered by Ingrid Verbauwhede (KULeuven) and N. Asokan (Aalto University).

VRST 2019, November 12 to 15, Sydney, Australia

The ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology is an international forum for the exchange of experience and knowledge among researchers and developers concerned with virtual and augmented reality software and technology. A Developer Showcase will feature student developers presenting their projects, competing for prizes, and receiving feedback from experts. Keynote speakers are Aleissia Laidacker (Magic Leap) and Mark Billingurst (UNISA)..

SIGGRAPH Asia 2019, November 17 to 20, Brisbane, Australia

The 12th ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques will showcase some of the world’s top professionals, academics and creative minds at the forefront of digital imaging, research, science, art, animation, gaming, interactivity, education and emerging technologies. Keynote speakers are Donna J. Cox (National Center for Supercomputing Applications), Jeffrey Shaw (City University of Hong Kong) and Inigo Quilez (Shadertoy).

SC19, November 17 to 22, Denver, Colorado

At the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, panels will address exascale; democratization of HPC; quantum computing; Big Data and AI; sustainability of research; and more. The program also includes a series of activities geared toward students, and a Visualization & Data Analytics video showcase. Steven Squyres, Principal Scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, will deliver the keynote.

PUBLIC POLICY

ACM's New Global Tech Policy Council Identifies Priority Issues on Regional and International Levels

By Adam Eisgrau, ACM Director of Global Policy and Public Affairs
ACM's new global Technology Policy Council and its regional committees in the US and Europe have identified key priority issues for the coming year to promote our mission to provide policymakers with nonpartisan expertise and information about technology.

Globally, we are paying attention to issues that have international relevance, including the use of facial recognition technology, encryption security, biometric databases, autonomous weapons, AI ethics, and technologies' role in climate change.

In the US, ACM's US Technology Policy Committee is assessing how to contribute to pressing domestic issues such as election security, algorithmic bias, "deepfakes," and the development of comprehensive privacy legislation. USTPC recently joined with other organizations to publicly call on Facebook to resist pressure from law enforcement authorities to weaken its encryption protocols, and submitted comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology on its Preliminary Draft Privacy Framework.

In Europe, ACM's Europe Technology Policy Committee met to develop its agenda for engagement with the next European Commission and is developing briefs and resources around three important issues for Europe: artificial intelligence, smart cities, and computing and climate change.

If you have expertise in any of these issues and would like to be part of ACM's voice in evidence-based policy, join one of our committees or contact Adam Eisgrau, ACM's Director of Global Policy and Public Affairs, for more information.

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.

No matter what stage of life you're in, or how well you have planned, events can happen that are simply beyond your control. The ACM Group Insurance Program includes a full spectrum of products, with group rates, that can help provide financial protection against the unexpected. Learn more about this program by visiting www.acminsure.com or calling 1-800-503-9230.

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 November 1 TechTalk with Author and Rust Core Member Carol Nichols

Register to watch the ACM TechTalk, Rust: In It for the Long Haul, presented on November 1 by Carol Nichols, author of The Rust Programming Language and a member of the Rust Core team. Learn more about this topic by visiting ACM's Discourse page.

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

Apply Now for 2019-2020 ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize: Deadline January 12, 2020

The ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing recognizes talented high school students in 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 12, 2020. Apply here.

Young Researchers: Apply for 8th Heidelberg Laureate Forum, September 20-25, 2020: Deadline February 14, 2020

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. Applications will open November 14.

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 SPLASH 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 Community of Support for Women in Computing (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.

Alain Chesnais' research has focused mostly on computer graphics. He led the team at Alias/wavefront that received an Academy Award in 2003 for the development of the Maya 3D system. He is chief scientist at TrendSpottr, where he works on real-time predictive analytics for social media. He served as ACM President from 2010 to 2012 and ACM SIGGRAPH President from 2002 to 2005, among other SIGGRAPH and SIG Board posts.

For more information on Alain, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
Alain Chesnais'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 September 9 to October 18, 2019:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Amity University Rajasthan ACM Student Chapter, Jaipur, India
  • Esperanza High School ACM Student Chapter, Anaheim, California
  • FAMT ACM Student Chapter, Finolex Academy of Management and Technology, Ratnagiri, India
  • Gazi University ACM Student Chapter, Ankara, Turkey
  • IET ACM Student Chapter, Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow, India
  • Instituto Tecnológico de San Luis Potosí ACM Student Chapter, Mexico
  • K L University ACM Student Chapter, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Guntur, India
  • Midwestern State University ACM Student Chapter, Wichita Falls, Texas
  • MIET Meerut ACM Student Chapter, Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology, Meerut, India
  • MWSU ACM Student Chapter, Missouri Western State University, Saint Joseph
  • Nirma University ACM Student Chapter, Ahmedabad, India
  • Oakland University ACM SIGCHI Student Chapter, Rochester, Michigan
  • Oregon State University-Cascades ACM-W Student Chapter, Bend, Oregon
  • Saddleback College ACM Student Chapter, Mission Viejo, California
  • SVCE ACM-W Student Chapter, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur, India
  • Tiffin University ACM Student Chapter, Tiffin, Ohio
  • UAH ACM-W Student Chapter, University of Alabama Huntsville
  • UGA ACM-W Student Chapter, University of Georgia Athens
  • UMass Lowell ACM-W Student Chapter, University of Massachusetts
  • University of North Texas ACM Student Chapter, Denton
  • Wayne State College ACM Student Chapter, Wayne, Nebraska

ACM Professional Chapters:

  • Casablanca ACM Chapter, Mohammadia, Morocco
  • Mumbai ACM SIGCHI Chapter, Mumbai, India
  • Portland ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter, Portland, Oregon

ACM-W NEWS

Call for ACM-W Rising Star Award Nominations

The ACM-W Rising Star Award is a new award that will recognize a woman whose early-career research has had a significant impact on the computing discipline, as measured by factors such as frequent citation of their work, creation of a new research area, a high degree of technology transfer and/or other positive influences and societal impact. The award will be given annually, and the recipient will receive a framed certificate and $1,000 stipend. Nominations close on November 15. This award was established based on a donation from Andrea Goldsmith, who was named the 2018-2019 ACM Athena Lecturer.

Join ACM-W's Membership Email List

Did you know that ACM-W offers a general email distribution list for its members? This ACMW-public list is a communication channel for disseminating general information about ACM-W, bulletins and upcoming events. To join the list: http://signup.acm.org/listserv_index.cfm?ln=ACM-W-PUBLIC. Also read the ACM-W Connections newsletter for updates on ACM-W programs: local celebrations, scholarships and awards, chapters, and more.

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

ACM Publications Welcome New Editors-in-Chief

ACM Interactions welcomes Daniela Rosner, Alex Taylor, and Mikael Wiberg as new Co-Editors-in-Chief, for the term October 1, 2019 to October 1, 2022. Daniela is an Associate Professor of Human-centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Alex is a Reader in the Centre for HCI Design at City University of London. Mikael is a Professor in the Department of Informatics at Umeå University.

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT) welcomes Silvia Santini as its Editor-in-Chief. The appointment is from November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2022. Silvia is a Faculty Member in the Faculty of Informatics at Università della Svizzera Italiana.

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems Seeking New Editor-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems (TOMPECS) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due November 30.

New ACM Books: Concurrency: the Works of Leslie Lamport and Providing Sound Foundations for Cryptography

Concurrency: the Works of Leslie Lamport is a celebration of Lamport's work on concurrency, interwoven in four-and-a-half decades of an evolving industry: from the introduction of the first personal computer to an era when parallel and distributed multiprocessors are abundant. The technical chapters of this collection edited by Dahlia Malkhi present a retrospective on Lamport's original ideas from experts in the field. A selection of Lamport's most influential papers is also included.

Works that earned Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali the 2012 ACM A.M. Turing Award are presented in Providing Sound Foundations for Cryptography: On the Work of Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, edited by Oded Goldreich. The foundations for cryptographic system design, developed mostly in the 1980s and co-authored by Goldwasser and/or Micali, transformed cryptography from an engineering discipline lacking sound theoretical foundations into a scientific field possessing a well-founded theory, which influences practice and contributes to other areas of theoretical computer science.

Developments in India Region Highlighted in Special Section of November Communications of the ACM

The India region plays an important role in the global computing landscape with its highly trained manpower, software companies, and top universities that produce students who not only serve local needs, but move around the world and have global impact. CACM developed this special section to mirror all these facets, for its November issue. This section is free to read in the ACM Digital Library; click on the link labeled "PDF Special Section on India Region" to access the full text of articles that range from educational outreach to digital platforms that are transforming Indian government to how technology is benefiting women in developing countries. Also watch a video in which co-organizers Anand Deshpande, Pankaj Jalote, and PJ Narayanan introduce this section.

New ACM Journals 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 Transactions on Quantum Computing (TQC) will publish original research papers and surveys on topics in quantum computing and quantum information science. Topics can include models of quantum computing, quantum algorithms and complexity, quantum computing architecture, principles and methods of fault-tolerant quantum computation, design automation for quantum computing, quantum programming languages and systems, and more.

ACM Transactions on Evolutionary Learning and Optimization (TELO) publishes high quality original papers in all areas of evolutionary computation and related areas such as population-based methods, Bayesian optimization, or swarm intelligence.

ACM Queue Presents: "Hack for Hire"

In this article for ACM Queue, UC San Diego PhD student Ariana Mirian investigates the emerging black market of retail email account hacking services. Since email accounts can provide a wealth of information, many types of attacks target them: password guessing, access token theft, password reset fraud, and phishing, to name a few. Email providers have added mechanisms such as security questions, spam filtering, and two-factor authentication to limit the success rate of these attacks. These defenses prevent many compromises, thus increasing the sophistication and time needed to access accounts. Targeted attackers, however, are willing to put in the extra effort needed to access an account in the face of these defenses.

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