Message from ACM India Council Vice-President Hemangee Kapoor

May 19, 2022

Message from ACM India Council Vice-President Hemangee Kapoor

Dear ACM India members,

Greetings!

ACM India council elections have started and through this email I wish to urge eligible professional members to exercise their voting powers and help in the selection of the representative council.

As a voter, I would want to know why am I voting and electing a council, and how the council has been serving our community over these years. Through this series of emails from our executive committee, we wish to highlight the major activities taken up over the past few years. Knowing about them would definitely bolster your faith in the functioning of our representative council.

Below, I describe some initiatives that we are executing under the broad umbrella of research facilitation and diversity. The sub-committee in charge of the research facilitation, called the RFC, has successfully launched and moved ahead with the following initiatives:

 

  • The ACM India Committee of Fellows (CoF) was set up last year. Thanks to the mentoring of most of the nominations by the CoF—and of course the quality of contributions by the nominees—we had unprecedented success in ACM Fellow and DM recognitions in 2021. Congratulations to M. Balakrishnan and Sunita Sarawagi for Fellow honours, and B. Ravindran, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru (PK), R. Govindarajan, Ranjita Bhagwan, Supratik Chakraborty, Ujjwal Maulik, and Yogesh Simmhan for Distinguished Member recognition. We hope to see a continued positive trajectory of recognition and visibility in the coming years.
  • Mentorship for research scholars: In order to enhance the quality of research among PhD students, the PhD clinic is a program by which PhD students are paired with experts in the country for one-on-one consultations. Several students have already benefited from this program. In addition to online consultation, some students might want to spend time at the mentor's institute directly participating in research activities. The Anveshan Setu fellowship program enables the mentor assignment and funding for such visits.
  • Research internships (coming soon): The mentor-mentee relationship at the PhD level is very focused, and the choice of mentors depends on the specialised research areas. The scope gets wider at the masters level where the demand for mentorship is high and the focus is broader. A few weeks of interning with groups of subject experts will instill in master students the culture of research. As the beneficiaries for this initiative are more numerous, presently the committee is building an application portal which will be launched soon.
  • Travel grants: Attending conferences to present papers is a good opportunity for research scholars to showcase their talent and network with peers and established researchers. As most of the CS conferences take place outside India, it can be difficult for students to afford the travel. ACM India, in collaboration with IARCS, runs a travel grant program to assist student travel to well-recognized conferences.

Now let me describe the initiatives by the ACM India council focused on empowerment of women in computing.

  • ACM-W: Our women's wing of committee members is also very active. Under the ACM-W initiatives, we organize celebration workshops, hackathons for women, and the grad cohort. These have become good avenues for the exchange of ideas and support among the community which may share similar cultural hurdles. ACM India also organises women-only summer and winter schools. These various initiatives have helped in building a strong community among women researchers and scholars, elevating their confidence and enabling them to reach greater heights.

Serving students in non-Tier-I institutes through research mentorship, research internships, travel support, and women-focused events is a step towards bringing diversity, equity, and inclusivity within the Indian computing community.

I hope this motivates you to come forward and vote for the new members of the council so they can continue their good work. Please look for an email from [email protected] in your registered mail account for information on how to cast your vote.

Best wishes,

Hemangee Kapoor
Vice-President, ACM India Council 2020-22