ACM MemberNet - March 26, 2015

Welcome to the March 2015 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 current and past issues of MemberNet online at http://membernet.acm.org. Is there a person, event, or issue you'd like to see covered? Please email mn-editor at acm.org.

March 26, 2015

TOP STORIES

2014 ACM Turing Award Goes to Michael Stonebraker

ACM has named Michael Stonebraker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the recipient of the 2014 ACM A.M. Turing Award for fundamental contributions to the concepts and practices underlying modern database systems. Database systems are critical applications of computing and preserve much of the world's important data. Stonebraker invented many of the concepts that are used in almost all modern database systems. He demonstrated how to engineer database systems that support these concepts and released these systems as open software, which ensured their widespread adoption. Source code from Stonebraker's systems can be found in many modern database systems. During a career spanning four decades, Stonebraker founded numerous companies successfully commercializing his pioneering database technology work.

Michael Stonebraker is adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL), where he is also co-founder and co-director of the Intel Science and Technology Center for Big Data.

The ACM Turing Award, widely considered the "Nobel Prize in Computing," carries a $1 million prize with financial support provided by Google, Inc. It is named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing.

ACM will present the 2014 A.M. Turing Award at its annual Awards Banquet on June 20 in San Francisco, California.

Michael Stonebraker's Turing Award citation page

Read more in the ACM news release.

AWARDS

Eckert-Mauchly Award Nominations Due March 30

Co-sponsored by ACM and the IEEE Computer Society, the ACM/IEEE-CS Eckert-Mauchly Award is known as the computer architecture community's most prestigious award. It recognizes recipients for their outstanding contributions to computer and digital systems architecture with a certificate and $5,000. The award, initiated in 1979, was named for John Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly, who collaborated on the design and construction of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the first large-scale electronic computing machine, which was completed in 1947.

Nominations are due March 30.

The award will be presented at the ISCA 2015 International Symposium on Computer Architecture, June 13-17, in Portland, Oregon.

Gordon Bell Prize Nominations Due April 24

The Gordon Bell Prize is awarded each year to recognize outstanding achievement in high-performance computing. The purpose of the award is to track the progress over time of parallel computing, with particular emphasis on rewarding innovation in applying high-performance computing to applications in science, engineering, and large-scale data analytics. Prizes may be awarded for peak performance or special achievements in scalability and time-to-solution on important science and engineering problems. Finalists present their work each November at the annual SC Supercomputing Conference, and the award is presented at the SC Awards Ceremony accompanied by a prize of $10,000. Financial support for the award is provided by Gordon Bell, a pioneer in high-performance and parallel computing. Nominations for the 2015 award are due April 24.

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 who have demonstrated performance and accomplishment that set them apart from their peers. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The deadline for nominations is June 3. Please read Advice to Those Seeking ACM Senior Members by former Senior Member Committee Chair Susan Rodger on how to submit a strong nomination package.

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

ACM Boston Local Meetup Features Big Data vs. Big Insight: Healthcare Customer Service Case Study

A local meetup of ACM Boston featured a tech talk on March 19 at MIT. Bernhard Suhm, Director of Professional Services at AVOKE, discussed how his organization uses large data sets in their call center optimization work, using case studies in healthcare. The metrics that are the most important in the call center environment are operational cost and caller experience. To measure the impact on caller experience AVOKE developed a benchmark of 22 automated metrics of caller effort, such as time spent in the menu system, whether the caller was transferred to a second agent, or previously attempted to resolve their issue on a website. These effort-related metrics relate to both the difficulty of obtaining and the operational cost of delivering customer service, and thus represent a great criterion for call center optimization. "Having access to the complete caller experience, the complete call from dialing to hang up, has been invaluable to empower us to drill to root cause and deliver actionable recommendations," says Suhm.

The next Boston meetup will be on Computing on Encrypted Data, April 30. ACM Boston, a part of the ACM Local program, is a non-profit professional group that meets regularly to discuss diverse topics in computer science.

CHI 2015, April 18 to 23, Seoul, Korea

The CHI 2015 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems presents a showcase of advances across the disciplines of computer science, cognitive psychology, design, social science, human factors, artificial intelligence, graphics, visualization, multimedia design, and other disciplines. The theme for CHI 2015 is "Crossings": crossing borders, crossing boundaries, crossing disciplines, etc. CHI is offering a series of special symposia for topics pertinent to HCI communities across Asia, and plans to simultaneously translate English to Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages in the main auditorium are underway. In the opening plenary, Lou Yongqi, Dean, College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University will speak on "Crossing: HCI, Design and Sustainability." Other plenary speakers are Donghoon Chang, VP, Head of Design Strategy Team and UX Center in Corporate Design Center, Samsung Electronics, on "UX Design in the IoT Era"; David Min, Senior Research Fellow, LG Electronics, on "Journey to a Better Life"; Susan T. Dumais, Distinguished Scientist, Microsoft and Deputy Managing Director, Microsoft Research Lab, delivering the ACM-W Athena Lecture, "Large-Scale Behavioral Data: Potential and Pitfalls"; and closing plenary by Korean singer-songwriter PSY, whose video "Gangnam Style" became a YouTube sensation.

ICSE 2015, May 16 to 24, Florence, Italy

ICSE 2015, the International Conference on Software Engineering, provides a forum for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, experiences and concerns in the field of software engineering. This year ICSE features keynotes by Claudio Silenzi of Ferrari on "Software Engineering in Ferrari F1"; Susan Landau, Professor of Cybersecurity Policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and ACM Fellow, on "Mining the Metadata—and Its Consequences"; and Grady Booch, Chief Scientist for Software Engineering at IBM Research, on "The Future of Software Engineering."

FCRC 2015, June 12 to 20, Portland, Oregon

FCRC 2015 assembles a spectrum of affiliated research conferences and workshops into a week-long coordinated meeting held at a common time in a common place. This model retains the advantages of the smaller conferences, while at the same time, facilitates communication among researchers in different fields in computer science and engineering. Mornings of FCRC week will begin with joint plenary talks on topics of broad appeal to the computing research community. Scheduled plenary speakers are Andrew Yao, Dean and professor at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University; Olivier Temam, engineer, Google; Don Syme, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research, Cambridge; Kathy Yelick, professor, electrical engineering and computer sciences, University of California, Berkeley, and 2013-2014 ACM-W Athena Lecturer; and Balaji Prabhakar, professor, electrical engineering and computer science, Stanford University. FCRC includes conferences, workshops and symposia on Computational Complexity, Computer Architecture, Programming Language Design and Implementation, Theory of Computing, and much more.

GHC 2015, October 14 to 16, Houston, Texas

GHC 2015, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, is a great opportunity to gain professional visibility as a subject matter expert, expand your network, learn about new and exciting technologies, and inspire other women in computing. Tracks in Emerging Technology, Productization, Open Source, Diversity, Careers and more offer unique venues to discuss challenging topics. Other ways to participate: submit a nomination for the GHC ABIE Awards for someone you know who is doing important work in the areas of technical leadership, social impact, emerging leaders, and educators. Deadline is May 1. Or apply for a scholarship: GHC Scholarship Grants enable students and faculty who would not otherwise have the opportunity, to attend GHC. Deadline is April 15.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2015, November 2 to 5, Kobe, Japan

SIGGRAPH Asia 2015 invites you to submit your works and showcase your outstanding creative ideas and innovations at the 8th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia. The eighth edition of the event, back for the second time in Japan, expects to draw conference attendees, exhibition visitors, and exhibitors from more than 50 countries worldwide. This is anticipated to be the largest SIGGRAPH Asia event organized since 2008. Programs open for submissions include Art Gallery, Computer Animation Festival, Emerging Technologies, Technical Papers, Workshops, Posters, and more. Visit the submitters page for a complete list of deadlines. Student volunteers are also encouraged to apply; the deadline is June 30.

PUBLIC POLICY

USACM Makes Recommendations to Election Assistance Commission

In February USACM sent letters to each of the three newly sworn-in Commissioners of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC): Thomas Hicks, Matthew Masterson and Christy McCormick. In the letters, USACM congratulates the new Commissioners, and makes recommendations to the EAC to: reestablish the Technical Guidelines Development Committee; update the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, the Voting System Testing and Certification Program Manual, and the Voting System Test Laboratory Program Manual (this was recommended by the former Co-Chairs of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration); and set standards for online delivery of blank ballots and blank voter registration forms.
Read more in the Tech Policy Blog.

USACM Submits Comments for Security Research DMCA Exemption

Last month, USACM submitted comments to the US Copyright Office in support of a proposed exemption to the prohibitions against circumvention outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). USACM's comments were in support of an exemption for software security research, identified in these rulemaking proceedings as Class 25. The Copyright Office is considering exemptions for 27 proposed classes of works. This is part of a triennial rulemaking process that determines exemptions to the circumvention prohibitions for the following three years.
Read more in the Tech Policy Blog.

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 2014–2015 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.

Get quality protection for your auto and home. Liberty Mutual is pleased to offer ACM members special savings and personalized coverage. Enjoy exceptional service your way: at a local office, by phone, online or via mobile device. We will help ensure you, your family and your valuables are properly protected.

Visit Liberty Mutual for a free quote or call 1-800-524-9400. Please identify yourself as a member of ACM, group #8559.

(Discounts and savings are available where state laws and regulations allow, and may vary by state. Certain discounts apply to specific coverages only. To the extent permitted by law, applicants are individually underwritten; not all applicants may qualify.)

LEARNING CENTER

Watch March 31 Webcast, "Extreme Scaling and Performance across Diverse Architectures"

Register to watch the latest free ACM webcast, Extreme Scaling and Performance across Diverse Architectures, presented on March 31 by by Salman Habib of Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago. The talk will be followed by a live question and answer session moderated by Rajeev Thakur of Argonne National Laboratory and ACM SIGHPC.

ACM Learning Webinars are free with registration, available for streaming on all major mobile devices, and are recorded for on-demand viewing.

Cloud Computing Tech Pack Update

Recently, ACM's Cloud Computing Tech Pack underwent a comprehensive "refresh." This third iteration, edited by Ajay Mohindra, Distinguished Research Staff Member and Senior Manager at IBM Research, builds on the work of Doug Terry, editor of the first two editions. Mohindra's updated reading list includes both ACM Digital Library materials and key non-ACM readings, annotated to provide perspectives and insights into innovations that are radically changing the way that computer applications and services are constructed, delivered, and managed. The annotated bibliography offers updated coverage across all sections of the Tech Pack, including basic paradigm, storage, data consistency and replication, programming models, virtualization, provisioning and monitoring, communications, privacy and trust, service-level agreements, power management, and mobile clients.

To access the annotated bibliography, log into the Cloud Computing Tech Pack with your ACM member credentials. To check out other Tech Packs available to ACM members, visit the ACM Tech Pack website.

Recent Additions to Skillsoft IT and Desktop Video Library

Did you know that ACM members have access to thousands of IT and productivity videos from Skillsoft in the ACM Learning Center? Covering a variety of today's hottest topics, these videos offer "on-the-job" support and solutions for busy practitioners.

Recently, Skillsoft added significant video content in the following knowledge areas: Advanced Scrum, ANSI C, ASP.NET MVC 4, CompTIA Linux+ 2014 CompTIA Mobility+, Data Science Fundamentals in R, Hadoop and MapReduce, Implementing Cisco Secure Mobility Solutions (SIMOS) 1.0, Java SE 8 Programming, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft Entity Framework, Microsoft Security Fundamentals, Microsoft SQL Server 2014, MongoDB, OpenStack Fundamentals, Responsive Web Design, Software Testing Fundamentals, UX Foundations, and Windows 8. To access these and other videos, visit the Learning Center, log into Skillsoft and Books 24x7 with your ACM member credentials, then browse by IT and Technical Video Topics. See the videos page for more video listings.

New eBooks from Morgan Kaufmann and Syngress

This winter, the Learning Center's collection of Morgan Kaufmann and Syngress books has expanded, with extended, updated coverage of hot topics areas such as cyber warfare, data mining and modeling, digital technology law, software defined networks, user experience design, and web hacking. Newly added titles include Applied Network Security Monitoring, Economics-Driven Software Architecture, Essential MATLAB for Engineers and Scientists, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design for Information Systems, Peter Norvig's classic textbook Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, Principles of Computer System Design, and the new edition of Visual Computing for Medicine. See all the newly added titles here.

New Member Discount on EMC Courseware

ACM has partnered with EMC to bring members a 15% discount on practical training in some of today's most vital IT knowledge areas, such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, Information Storage and Management, Virtualization, and more. These EMC courses focus on technology, not products, to teach technology topics applicable to any vendor environment. Training is available in various modalities, including eLearning, instructor-led (ILT), online ILT, video ILT, and video ILT-stream. For the list of eligible courses and the discount code, visit the EMC courses page.

CAREER & JOB CENTER

Import Your LinkedIn Profile in ACM's Career & Job Center

Be sure to visit ACM's Career & Job Center to update your résumé or create a new one in the Résumé Bank. ACM members' résumés include an ACM logo on their entry, highlighting their ACM membership to employers.

Now available when posting a résumé in the Résumé Bank: import your LinkedIn profile. You will be required to sign in to your LinkedIn account. Please note that LinkedIn does not have exactly the same fields as ACM, so you will have to review the imported information and update where necessary. Once you have a résumé created and saved in our system, you can publish it to the Résumé Bank so that employers find you! Or keep it private and use it when applying online for jobs. Log in to ACM's Job Board and post your résumé today. You can also upgrade to a Preferred Résumé to keep it at the top of the Résumé Bank, highlighted with a star next to it for increased visibility ($25 for 90 days).

In addition, ACM offers CareerNews, which provides summaries of articles on career-related topics of interest to students and professionals in the computing field, in a bi-weekly email alert to ACM members. ACM members can subscribe to the CareerNews email alert service.

For more information about the Career & Job Center please contact Jennifer Ruzicka.

CSTA JOB BOARD

Computer Science Teachers Association Job Board Matches Job Seekers, Employers

The Computer Science Teachers Association's CSTA Job Board is the career hub for K-12 Computer Science teachers. The career center provides access to 100% computer science K-12 teaching-related job postings.

The CSTA Job Board will allow you to manage your career:

  • Search and apply to K-12 computer science related jobs
  • Upload your anonymous résumé and allow employers to contact you
  • Set up job alerts specifying your skills, interests, and location to receive email notifications when a job is posted that matches your criteria

or recruit for open positions:

  • put job openings in front of the most qualified group of K-12 computer science-focused professionals
  • Simply create an employer account on the CSTA Job Board and choose from three levels of online job postings options: Basic 30-Day Online Job Posting ($190); Enhanced 30-Day Online Posting ($250); or Premium 30-Day Online Posting ($310).

CSTA Members: be sure to visit the CSTA Job Board directly (or click the Job Board link from the CSTA homepage) to create and upload your résumé to the Résumé Bank so that employers find you, or keep it private and use it when applying online for jobs. Log in and post your résumé today!

STUDENT NEWS

George Michael Fellowship Award Nominations Due May 1

The ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship is now open for submissions from exceptional PhD students throughout the world whose research focus is on high-performance computing applications, networking, storage, or large-scale data analysis using the most powerful computers that are currently available. Recipients receive a $5,000 honorarium, travel and registration for the SC Supercomputing Conference, and recognition at the SC15 Awards Ceremony. Submissions are due May 1.

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 ASPLOS 2015. The next conferences accepting submissions are:

Learn about more competitions on the SRC submissions page.

ACM-W Student Scholarships for Attendance at 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). The student does not have to present a paper at the conference she attends. Students can apply an unlimited number of times; however, once a student receives an award, she is no longer eligible for future ACM-W scholarships.

The ACM-W scholarships are divided between scholarships of up to $600 for intra-continental conference travel, and scholarships of up to $1200 for intercontinental conference travel. Scholarship applications are evaluated in six groups each year, in order to distribute awards across a range of conferences.

ACM-W encourages the student's home department to match the scholarship award and recognize the student's achievement locally within their department. In addition, if the award is for attendance at one of several ACM Special Interest Group conferences (SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGARCH, SIGCOMM, SIGCHI, SIGCSE, SIGDA, SIGECOM, SIGEVO, SIGGRAPH, SIGHPC, SIGIR, SIGITE, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGOPS, SIGPLAN, and SIGSOFT), the SIG will provide complimentary conference registration and a mentor during the conference. The number of free registrations available varies from SIG to SIG. The 2013-2014 scholarships are made possible by generous support from Google.

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

The Distinguished Speakers Program (DSP) is one of ACM's most valued outreach programs, providing universities, corporations, event and conference planners, and local ACM chapters with direct access to top technology leaders and innovators from nearly every sector of the computing industry.

This month's featured speaker is João Carlos Setubal. João is Full Professor at the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), Department of Biochemistry; Adjunct Faculty at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI, USA); and Director of the Genome Sciences Research Center at the University of Sao Paulo. Setubal has a Mechanical Engineering degree (1979) from the University of Sao Paulo and an M.Sc. degree in Computer Science (1987) from the University of Campinas, also in Brazil. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science (1992) from the University of Washington.

Setubal's research area is in bioinformatics, focusing on development of computational analysis tools for microbial genomes and metagenomes. In 1997 he co-authored a well-known pioneering textbook in computational molecular biology. He then led the bioinformatics effort of several bacterial genome projects, which resulted in publications in the journals Nature and Science. At Virginia Tech he was an investigator in numerous federally funded projects, notably the NIH-funded, five-year Bioinformatics Resource Center PATRIC. Setubal has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed journal or book chapter publications, which have received more than 3,000 citations as of 2012.

For more information on João, please visit his DSP speaker information page.
João Setubal's Digital Library author page.

ACM, IEEE Computer Society Join to Share Distinguished Speakers Programs

IEEE-CS and ACM have joined to share 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 these new chapters that were chartered February 18 to March 17, 2015:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Bethel University ACM Student Chapter, St. Paul, Minnesota
  • Connecticut College ACM-W Student Chapter, New London
  • EBONYI State University ACM Student Chapter, Abakaliki, Nigeria
  • Keene State College ACM Student Chapter, Keene, New Hampshire
  • Maribor ACM Student Chapter, Maribor, Slovenia
  • N.M.I.E.T ACM Student Chapter, NM Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, India
  • PAF-KIET ACM Student Chapter, Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan
  • RPI ACM-W Student Chapter, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York
  • UNCC ACM-W Student Chapter, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • University of Nebraska-Lincoln ACM-W Student Chapter

ACM-W NEWS

NCWIT, Google.org, and ACM-W Announce Initiative to Scale Student Computing Groups on Campuses Nationwide

At the 2015 SIGCSE Technical Symposium, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), Google.org, and ACM-W announced a $500,000 investment in support of student computing groups at US post-secondary institutions. This initiative will dramatically increase the capacity for student computing groups by growing the national infrastructure and creating tools for chapter sustainability, while investing directly in student groups including seed funds to launch 35 new ACM-W chapters; $5,000 awards to amplify the impact of existing chapters; and moonshot awards (up to $15,000 each) for established chapters to launch institution-wide projects.
Read the NCWIT news release.

Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing Addresses Tech Issues, Work/Life Balance

By Bettina Bair, Ohio State University, OCWiC Publicity Chair
The Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing (OCWiC 2015) was held February 20-21 at the spacious Lodge at Sawmill Creek Resort in Huron, Ohio. Close to 200 attendees from industry and 29 Ohio colleges and universities enjoyed the two-day event. The highlight of the conference was the keynote speech by Lynn Andrea Stein, a founding faculty member at Olin College of Engineering. Stein's research spans the fields of artificial intelligence, programming languages, and human-computer interaction. Her inspiring talk wove together themes of artificial and human intelligence to explore the biological and cultural foundations of diversity and bias.

The career panels focused on either industry or academic careers. In the industry career panel, the audience heard from professionals from companies like Microsoft, Marathon, OE Connection, GE, and Cardinal Health. Academic career panelists from Wright State University, Allegheny College, Case Western Reserve University, and University of Dayton spoke about their decision to pursue research and how they balance career demands with personal life.

Undergraduate students had the opportunity to showcase their research with a poster session that kicked off on Saturday morning. The professionally executed posters showed everything from the benefits of hackathons to a methodology for finding transcription factor binding sites. The posters were evaluated by a diverse group of industry and academic judges. Two students, Christine Antonsen of Oberlin College and Kiera Dobbs, College of Wooster, were awarded $1,000 to attend the international Grace Hopper Celebration in Houston later this year.

Technical paper presentations were made by faculty and graduate students alike. The diversity of the topics illustrated the breadth and scope of opportunities in computing, and included cracking binary analysis, performance versus quality of responses in online systems, and internships.

ACM-W Celebrations are local events that showcase female role models, encourage mentoring and networking, supply accurate information about computing careers, and create opportunities for women to present their research, often for the first time in their careers. Many of the ACM-W Celebration events include poster competitions for undergraduate and graduate students to present their research and project work. You can find information on starting new Celebrations and conference planning resources on the ACM-W Celebrations site. Please contact Jodi Tims for any additional assistance.

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 Transactions on Graphics Welcomes New Editor-in-Chief

ACM is pleased to announce the appointment of Kavita Bala as Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) for a three-year term starting March 1. Kavita has worked extensively on the journal in her previous roles of Associate Editor and Senior Associate Editor. She is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department and Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell University.

ACM Transactions on Computational Logic Seeks New Editor-in-Chief

ACM Transactions on Computational Logic (TOCL) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief. Nominations are due March 30.

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems Accepting Submissions

The new ACM journal ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems (TOMPECS) is now accepting submissions. Visit the submissions site for more information.

Information Systems Category Editor Needed for Computing Reviews

Computing Reviews, the post-publication review and comment journal of ACM, is seeking a volunteer interested in serving as a category editor for a segment of the information systems area. Please see the Information Systems Category Editor search page for more information.

CACM Reports: Sketch-Thru-Plan: A Multimodal Interface for Command and Control

In the Communications of the ACM April cover story, "Sketch-Thru-Plan: A Multimodal Interface for Command and Control," two of the co-authors, Philip Cohen and Scott Lind (both of Adapx, a natural user interface technology supplier), tell how they've combined drawing, speech, and handwriting recognition to speed up operations planning. Watch their discussion in the original video. Also in this issue: dynamic pricing's impact on industries; two proposals for improving software security; the specialization trend in computer hardware and an interview with computational complexity pioneer Juris Hartmanis.

ACM Queue Presents: There Is No Now

In There Is No Now, Justin Sheehy of VMware's Cambridge, Massachusetts R&D center, explains how while some things about computers are virtual, they still must operate in the physical world and cannot ignore the challenges of that world. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper used to illustrate this point by giving each of her students a piece of wire 11.8 inches long, the maximum distance that electricity can travel in one nanosecond. This physical representation of the relationship between information, time, and distance served as a tool for explaining why signals must always and unavoidably take time to arrive at their destinations. Given these delays, it can be difficult to reason about exactly what "now" means in computer systems.

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM

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ACM IN THE NEWS

"Better Debugger"

MIT News, March 24, 2015
MIT researchers presented a new algorithm for identifying integer-overflow bugs at ACM's International Conference on Architecture Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS 2015).

"Finger-Mounted Reading Device for the Blind"

MIT News, March 10, 2015
MIT researchers will present a paper describing the device at the ACM CHI 2015 conference.

"What Can We Do to Improve Computer Education?"

Opensource.com, March 6, 2015
The SIGCSE 2015 Technical Symposium provided an opportunity to address issues with computer programs, curricula, and courses at all levels of instruction.

"Kids and Robots Learn to Write Together"

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, March 4, 2015
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) researchers presented their teaching tool, called CoWriter, at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.

"Dozens of Tech, Education, and Nonprofit Execs Urge Passage of Washington Computer Science Bill"

GeekWire, March 4, 2015
More than 50 business and education leaders have signed a strongly worded appeal to the Washington state House of Representatives, urging them to vote for a bill that would expand computer science education in the state's schools. Among the 53 signers of the letter are Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi.

"Flexible Sensors Turn Skin into a Touch-Sensitive Interaction Space for Mobile Devices"

Saarland University, March 4, 2015
Researchers at Saarland and Carnegie Mellon universities will present their iSkin project at the ACM CHI 2015 conference. Their paper won the conference's Best Paper Award.

"SC15 Chair on HPC Transforms, Diversity Outreach, and Austin"

HPC Wire, March 3, 2015
In an interview, Jackie Kern, general chair of the SC15 conference, shares her agenda for the year and plans for the November event. To publicize the conference, SC15 has launched a blog and newsletter featuring news about the future of the SC conference series.

"Why Computers Still Struggle to Tell the Time"

PC World, March 2, 2015
Speaking at ACM's Applicative conference, George Neville-Neil, ACM Queue's Kode Vicious columnist said the problem stems largely from the hardware most computers use to tell time: often inexpensive crystal oscillators that lose precision over time.

"Could IBM's Brain-Inspired Chip Change the Way Computers Are Built?"

The Washington Post, March 2, 2015
Dharmendra Modha, head of brain-inspired computing at IBM who received the ACM Gordon Bell Prize in 2009 for his work on cortical simulations, says the company wants to create a "brain in a box" that consumes less than 1 kilowatt of power.

"Communicating Science Broadly: NSF launches new multimedia features to showcase research"

NSF.gov, February 26, 2015
A new video interview series with NSF-funded scientists and program officers features ACM Distinguished Speaker and Distinguished Member Juan Gilbert.

"Queen's Researchers in Bid to Develop World's Fastest Supercomputers"

Queen's University Belfast, February 24, 2015
"This project sheds valuable insight on how to use many core-based systems effectively, proving major benefits for a wide range of scientific endeavors that depend on large-scale simulations," says ACM Fellow and 2013 Ken Kennedy Award recipient Jack Dongarra.

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