ACM and CSTA Announce New Award to Recognize US High School Students in Computing

Gordon Bell and David Cutler Establish $1 Million Endowment to Fund Award

NEW YORK, June 17, 2015 – ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, and CSTA, the Computer Science Teachers Association, today announced a new award, the ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing, to recognize talented high school students in computer science. The program seeks to promote and encourage the field of computer science, as well as to empower young and aspiring learners to pursue computing challenges outside of the traditional classroom environment.

"This new award touches on several areas central to ACM's mission," said ACM President Alexander L Wolf. "Chief among these are to foster technological innovation and excellence, in this case, by bringing the excitement of invention to students at a time in their lives when they begin to make decisions about higher education and career possibilities."

Four winners will be selected annually and each will be awarded a $10,000 prize and cost of travel to the annual ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing Reception where students will demonstrate their programs and discuss their work. The prizes will be funded by a $1 million endowment established by David Cutler and Gordon Bell. Cutler is a software engineer, designer and developer of several operating systems including Windows NT at Microsoft and RSX-11M, VMS and VAXELN at Digital Equipment Corporation. He is Senior Technical Fellow at Microsoft. Bell is an electrical engineer and an early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation where he led the development of VAX. He is now a researcher emeritus at Microsoft Research.

"David and I are delighted to endow this new award to recognize, encourage and reward high school students in computing," said Gordon Bell. "We hope that it proves to help students discover computer science and how empowering computing can be."

Eligible applicants for the award will include graduating high school seniors residing and attending school in the US. Challenges for the award will focus on developing an artifact that engages modern computing technology and computer science. Judges will look for submissions that demonstrate ingenuity, complexity, relevancy, originality, and a desire to further computer science as a discipline.

The application period for the inaugural award is scheduled to open August 1, 2015 and close January 1, 2016. The inaugural awards will be announced in February 2016.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.

About CSTA

CSTA's mission is to empower, engage and advocate for K-12 computer science teachers worldwide. CSTA is a membership organization which supports and promotes the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines. The Association for Computing Machinery founded CSTA as part of its commitment to K-12 computer science education.

Contact:
ACM
Bruce Shriver
212-626-0521
[email protected]