ACM - Student Research Competition

	ACM STUDENT RESEARCH COMPETITION PRODUCES MORE WINNERS Microsoft Funding Expands Opportunities for IT Graduate, Undergrad Students
	ACM STUDENT RESEARCH COMPETITION WINNERS SPAN THE GLOBE Microsoft Funding Expands Opportunities for IT Students
	ACM STUDENT RESEARCH COMPETITION REAPS SUPPORT FROM MICROSOFT RESEARCH New Funding Raises Role, Increases Opportunities for Student Research Within IT Community
	ACM STUDENT RESEARCH COMPETITION PRODUCES MORE WINNERS Microsoft Funding Expands Opportunities for IT Graduate, Undergrad Students NEW YORK, March 3, 2003 -- Jing Li, a graduate student at the University of California - Riverside, and Michael Elder, a senior at Furman University in South Carolina, captured first place honors in the ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) hosted by the ACM SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) 2003 Symposium on Feb. 19-23. Li, one of three graduate student finalists for the newly expanded competition, presented his findings on "Efficient Rule-Based Haplotyping Algorithms for Pedigree Data." Elder, the top finisher of three finalists in the undergraduate category, focused his research on "Distributed STORMS (Strategy-Oriented Recursive Messaging Systems)." Students from universities across the US and around the world participated in the competition. The event, held in Reno, NV, marks the second ACM Student Research Competition at a SIG Conference since ACM received generous funding from Microsoft Research expanding the number of competitions. The first SRC of the academic year was held at the OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications) 2002 Conference in Seattle in November 2002. "The new competition model gives ACM the opportunity to expand the support and recognition of research for both graduate and undergraduate students in computing research, and we are grateful to Microsoft Research for their partnership in this endeavor," said Ann Sobel, ACM Student Research Competition chair. The new venues also enable students to interact with researchers in their respective fields and raise the profile of computing research within the computer science community. "The expanded contest made possible through Microsoft's support generates greater awareness for the excellent research going on at these academic levels," said Mark Lewin, manager of university research programs for Microsoft Research. "We're proud to help ACM broaden the base of contest winners who will compete for the Grand Finals, and bring them the recognition they deserve," he added. Second place in the graduate student category went to Arwa Al-Aama of George Washington University in Washington, DC for her work on "Vigilance in Safety Critical Monitoring Systems." Third place in this category was awarded to Philip R. Ventura, Jr. of the State University of New York at Buffalo for his research into "The Origins of Programmers: Identifying Predictors of Success for an Objects-First CS1." The finalists were among 24 students chosen to participate in the competition. In the undergraduate student category, second place went to Michael Piatek of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA for his work on "Analysis of Flow Identification in QoS Systems." Third place in this category was awarded to Nathan Wells of University of Nebraska - Lincoln for his presentation on "Development of the Self-Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index." SRC was previously conducted as a single event at SIGCSE conferences. ACM is seeking to conduct at least two more competitions during 2003 at selected upcoming ACM SIG conferences, each focusing on different areas of computing. Undergraduate and graduate winners of all the SRCs are automatically entered into the SRC Grand Finals, with judging conducted over the Internet. Winners of the Grand Finals and their faculty advisors will be recognized with presentations and cash prizes, along with the winner of the 2002 A.M. Turing Award (known as the "Nobel Prize of Computing"), at ACM's Annual Awards Banquet in San Diego, CA June 7, 2003.
	ACM STUDENT RESEARCH COMPETITION WINNERS SPAN THE GLOBE Microsoft Funding Expands Opportunities for IT Students NEW YORK, November 20, 2002 -- Andy King of the University of Kent at Canterbury, England has captured first place in the ACM SIGPLAN Student Research Competition at the OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications) 2002 Conference. King, one of three finalists for the newly expanded competition, which was made possible by additional funding from Microsoft Research, presented his findings on removing garbage collection synchronization. Students from universities across the US and around the world participated in the competition. The event, held in Seattle, marks the first time OOPSLA has hosted the contest. The expanded venues at selected ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) conferences offer additional opportunities for undergraduate students to demonstrate their research contributions and receive recognition for their work while encouraging graduate students to participate in computing research. They also enable students to interact with researchers in their respective fields and raise the profile of computing research within the IT community. Second place went to Alex Potanin of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand for his work on a tool for analysis of the Java object graph; third place was awarded to Adrian Mos of Dublin City University, Ireland for his research into component-based distributed applications. The finalists were among ten students chosen to participate in the competition. Previously conducted as a single event at the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGSCE) conference, the student research contributions will take place throughout the year with at least four presentations at various ACM SIG conferences, each focusing on different areas of computing. The competition will culminate with the presentation of awards and cash prizes at the Annual ACM Awards Banquet in San Diego, CA June 7, 2002.
	ACM STUDENT RESEARCH COMPETITION REAPS SUPPORT FROM MICROSOFT RESEARCH New Funding Raises Role, Increases Opportunities for Student Research Within IT Community NEW YORK, November 1, 2002 – ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery) announced that Microsoft Research is providing funding to ACM to expand its Student Research Competition (SRC) from once a year to at least four events annually. With the additional funding from Microsoft Research, the extended competition further encourages graduate and undergraduate students to participate in computing research, and raises the profile of computing research within the information technology community. The additional competitions, to be hosted at selected ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) conferences, will also bolster ACM’s mission to advance the art, science, engineering and application of information technology by fostering the open interchange of information, including research. “With the support of Microsoft Research, ACM can broaden its efforts to promote undergraduate research as well as continued graduate research,” said Ann Sobel, SRC Chair and associate professor at Miami University of Ohio. “The increased venues will offer undergraduates more opportunities to demonstrate their research contributions and be recognized for their work. They will also enable students to interact with researchers in their respective fields,” she said. Previously conducted as a single event at the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) conference, the student research competitions will take place throughout the year with at least four presentations at various ACM SIG conferences, each focusing on different areas of computing. Entries at these competitions will be judged on the quality and significance of the work, as well as the quality and clarity of the oral and visual presentations of results. SRC winners from each of the SIG competitions are then eligible to compete in the Grand Finals, where their research will be evaluated over the World Wide Web. The first event will be held at the OOPSLA 2002 (Object-oriented Programming, Systems, Languages and Applications) conference in Seattle, WA November 4-8; a second event is scheduled for the SIGCSE 2003 Symposium in Reno, NV February 19-23, 2003. Additional venues will be announced at a later date. The 2002/2003 competition will culminate with the presentation of awards and cash prizes at the Annual ACM Awards Banquet in San Diego, CA June 7, 2003. “We’ll be recognizing the accomplishments of these future technology leaders alongside the winners of such renowned prizes as the ACM Turing Award, long considered the equivalent of the 'Nobel Prize' for the computing field," said Lillian Israel, ACM Director of Membership. "Microsoft is deeply committed to supporting higher education, and the ACM Student Research Competition is a terrific program that encourages students to innovate,” said Dr. Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research at Microsoft Corp. “We share ACM's commitment to students by rewarding high-caliber student research that will benefit the entire computing community.” About ACM The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership of 75,000 by delivering cutting edge technical information and transferring ideas from theory into practice. ACM hosts the computing industry's leading Portal to Computing Literature. With its journals and magazines, special interest groups, conferences, workshops, electronic forums, Career Resource Centre and Professional Development Centre, ACM is a primary resource to the information technology field. For more information, see www.acm.org. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.