ACM Student Chapter Newsletter

ACM
Student
Chapter
Newsletter
Fall 2009
ACM/Local Activities
2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701
New York, NY 10121
212-626-0514
local_activities@acm.org
www.acm.org/chapters
Contents
2 Invite a Distinguished Speaker to Your University
3 ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals
4 Students of St. Petersburg State University of IT are
Crowned World Champions of 33rd ACM ICPC
5 Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Partnership with ACM
6 Services Available to ACM Student Chapters
7 A Summary of ACM Student Member Benefits
9 The ACM Student Academic Initiative (SAI) –
Free Software & Courseware for Student Members
10 ACM Welcomes its Newest Student Chapters
11 The “New” Communications of the ACM Magazine & Website
11 The new acmqueue Website
12 Are you in an e-Mentoring Relationship?
12 Who IS the ACM – From the 2009 Membership Satisfaction Survey
13 Student Chapters Needed to Help Support High School CS Teachers!
14 The New Image of Computing (NIC) Project
14 Chapter Contacts
www.acm.org
1
INVITE A DISTINGUISHED
SPEAKER TO YOUR UNIVERSITY
Welcome New Speakers:
We include one or more titles of their talks.
Have you invited a speaker from ACM’s
Distinguished Speakers Program to your Chapter?
The DSP is ACM’s primary outreach effort for professional and student Chapters, offering a group of
committed speakers to travel to Chapter meetings to
talk on a variety of computing topics. This past year
was even busier than last year with 54 speaking
engagements taking place. Some of the talks include:
◆ Making Information Safe: Past, Present & Future
◆ Successful Community-Based Design Projects
◆ Content-Based Networking: A New
Communication Service
◆ Software Development: More Than Just
Programming
◆ Tradeoffs Between Model Abstraction,
Execution Speed, and Accuracy
◆ Understanding the Business of Open Source
and How to Integrate Open Source Into you
Business
◆ 3D Computer Graphics and the World Wide
Web
◆ MANET Simulation Studies: The Incredibles
◆ Virtual Reality and Space
◆ Software Under Siege: Viruses and Worms
◆ When Good Algorithms Yield Bad Software
Maggie Dunham
Southern Methodist
University, Dallas TX
Adventures in Data Mining
Daniel Ángel Jiménez
University of Texas,
San Antonio TX
Recent Advances in Branch
Prediction
Radu Marculescu
Philippe Kruchten
Carnegie Mellon University, University of British Columbia,
Pittsburgh PA
Vancouver CA
Designing Networked Embedded
Architectural Design
Systems at Nanoscale
Decisions & Architectural
Networks-on-Chip:
Agile Situated
Why, What and How?
The DSP is offered to all ACM Chapters in good
standing. ACM funds the speakers’ travel to Chapter
events; chapters are responsible only for local
expenses, like hotel and meals. Speakers are volunteers, so no honoraria are required. If you would like
to see additional topics covered by speakers, or if you
have the names of outstanding speakers who have
addressed your Chapter (or you have seen speak at
another venue), please email us at speakers@acm.org.
Anthony Martinez
IBM Global Business Services
Innovation That Matters
We encourage your feedback!
2
Dilma Da Silva
IBM T. J. Watson Research
System Software for Cloud
Computing
Want to Request a Speaker?
Award winner. By participating in the ACM Student
Research Competition, sponsored by Microsoft
Research, the winners gained education and experience that will prepare them for growing career
opportunities in the computing field. The original
research presentations covered a range of topics
including mobile phone design; mobile social network capacity; text input for Asian syllabic languages; graphical interfaces for drawing and editing; artificial intelligence for computer-generated
characters; and innovative computer programming
techniques. The awards were presented on June 27,
at the 2008 ACM Awards Banquet in San Diego, CA
http://awards.acm.org/2009.
Nearly 200 students applied to participate in the
SRC events this year hosted by various ACM SIG
Conferences. By offering the experience of a realworld conference to prepare and present research
to the community, these competitions give students an opportunity to demonstrate success in
problem-solving projects with early practice and
preparation of their research.
Below are the winners from both the Graduate
and Undergraduate categories:
Visit www.dsp.acm.org to browse the names of our
speakers, or search by subject area to find a matching speaker. Use the online Request Form found at
the bottom of each talk abstract. Requests are
reviewed at ACM headquarters and then forwarded
to the speaker, who responds directly to the DSP
Request Form. Once a date has been agreed upon
by the speaker and the Chapter, ACM grants tentative approval, and waits for the anticipated travel
expenses (from the speaker) before granting final
approval. ACM reimburses the speaker directly.
Chapters will need to arrange lodging and meals
and on-site logistics.
Due to the high costs sometimes experienced
with airline travel, Chapters are encouraged to
organize tours of schools whenever possible.
GRADUATE CATEGORY
1st Place: XU LIU,
University of Maryland, College Park
2nd Place: STRATIS IOANNIDIS,
University of Toronto
3rd Place: YE KYAW THU,
Waseda University
ACM STUDENT RESEARCH
COMPETITION GRAND FINALS
UNDERGRADUATE CATEGORY
The winners of the SRC Grand Finals, from colleges
and universities in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and
India, traveled to San Diego for a night of celebration at the ACM Awards Banquet, where they were
honored along with other luminaries from the
computing community, e.g., this year’s Turing
1st Place: ALICE ZHU,
Harvey Mudd College
2nd Place: NEHA SINGH,
IIT Bombay
3rd Place: SARAH LOOS,
Indiana University
3
SRC Grand Final Results
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 is evaluated over the World Wide Web.
The top three undergraduate and graduate winners at each SRC receive prizes of $500, $300, and
$200, respectively (USD). The top three undergraduate and graduate winners at each SRC receive an
award plaque and a two-year complimentary ACM
membership with a subscription to ACM’s Digital
Library. The top three graduate and undergraduate
Grand Finalists receive an additional $500, $300,
and $200 respectively and Grand Finalist plaques,
and are invited to ACM's annual Awards Banquet.
In the graduate student category, the first place
winner was Xu Liu of the University of Maryland,
College Park, for his research on mobile currency
readers for people with visual impairments.
Second place went to Stratis Ioannidis of the
University of Toronto for his work on the distribution of content updates over mobile social networks. In third place was Ye Kyaw Thu of Waseda
University, Japan, for his examination of keyboard
mappings and text input methods for Asian syllabic languages on mobile devices.
In the undergraduate category, all three finalists
presented their research at the 2008 Grace Hopper
Celebration of Women in Computing. The first
place winner was Alice Zhu of Harvey Mudd
College for her research on diagram creation and
editing for pen-based interfaces. Second place
went to Neha Singh of the Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay in India for her contributions
to scaling artificial intelligence for use in computationally intensive games. The third place finisher
was Sara Loos of Indiana University for her relabeling of Strassen’s matrix multiplication for computer
programming.
Previously conducted as a single event at the
ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science
Education (SIGCSE) www.sigcse.org conference,
the SRC’s now take place throughout the year
with plans for many more SRCs at various ACM SIG
Conferences, as a result of Microsoft Research’s
gracious funding.
“Microsoft Research is delighted to sponsor the
ACM’s Student Research Program,” said Tony Hey,
Corporate Vice President for External Research at
Microsoft. “We are committed to creating exciting
opportunities for students, researchers and leaders
of tomorrow, ultimately helping to ensure the
future of scientific discovery and innovation.”
Entries are judged on the quality and significance
STUDENTS OF ST. PETERSBURG
STATE UNIVERSITY OF IT ARE
CROWNED
WORLD CHAMPIONS
OF 33RD ACM ICPC
Students from St. Petersburg State University of IT,
Mechanics and Optics are crowned the 2009 ACM
International Collegiate Programming Contest
World Champions in the Stockholm Concert Hall
where the Nobel Prizes are presented every year.
4
This year's top twelve teams that received
medals are:
Sponsored by IBM, the competition took place at
KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology. Referred to
as the “Battle of the Brains,” the ACM ICPC World
Finals challenged the world's top 100 university
teams to use open standard technology in designing software that solves real-world problems. Each
team of three students faced 11 problems of varying levels of difficulty, all modeled after real-world
issues such as creating a schedule for an airport to
safely land planes that allows for changing weather
and other surprises and optimizing rush-hour traffic
over collections of roads.
The teams were awarded medals based on the
number of problems they solved correctly in the
shortest amount of time. St. Petersburg State
University of IT, Mechanics and Optics solved nine
of the problems. The World Champions returned
home with IBM prizes and scholarships.
"The complexity of global problems requires
special skills and creativity," said Doug Heintzman,
director of IBM software strategy and ICPC sponsorship executive. "The ACM ICPC finds the leaders of
the future and exposes them to these challenges.
IBM provides a global forum here and a real world
at work for these bright minds to exert their capabilities in both engineering and management."
"Serious problems call for great minds and solutions demand a can-do spirit," said Dr. Bill Poucher,
ICPC Executive Director and Professor at Baylor
University. "They are athletes of innovation. They
don't just measure up. They push the limits and have
fun doing it. They pave the way to a smarter planet."
The regional champions were Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (North America Region);
St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and
Optics (Europe Region); German University in Cairo
(Africa and the Middle East Region); Universidad de
Buenos Aires - FCEN (Latin America Region);
Tsinghua University (Asia Region); and University
Melbourne (South Pacific Region).
◆ St.
Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics
and Optics, (GOLD, WORLD CHAMPION)
◆ Tsinghua University, (GOLD, 2nd Place)
◆ St. Petersburg State University, (GOLD, 3rd Place)
◆ Saratov State University, (GOLD, 4th Place)
◆ University of Oxford, (SILVER, 5th Place)
◆ Zhejiang University, (SILVER, 6th Place)
◆ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (SILVER,
7th Place)
◆ Altai State Technical University, (SILVER, 8th Place)
◆ University of Warsaw, (BRONZE, 9th Place)
◆ University of Waterloo, (BRONZE, 10th Place)
◆ Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, (BRONZE,
11th Place)
◆ Carnegie Mellon University, (BRONZE, 12th Place)
The 100 teams in the World Finals in Stockholm
were selected from 7,109 teams of 1,838 universities from 88 countries on six continents. Since 1997,
the IBM-sponsored ICPC has grown 800% in size.
The 2010 World Finals, sponsored by IBM, will
take place in Harbin, China. The local host will be
Harbin Engineering University.
UPSILON PI EPSILON (UPE)
PARTNERSHIP WITH ACM
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
and Upsilon Pi Epsilon - International Honor Society
for the Computing Sciences (UPE) are pleased to
continue their offer of a complimentary one-year
ACM Student membership plus Digital Library to all
newly inducted UPE members. Each new UPE
member will be eligible to receive all of the benefits of ACM student membership, including full
access to the ACM Digital Library (please note that
this offer is only available to those who are not currently ACM student members).
5
Activities at: local_activities@
acm.org for authorization for a
server account. Requests for
open source software should
be sent, along with your
server account information to:
ishelpdesk@acm.org.
The ACM Student Membership
plus Digital Library includes
the ACM Digital Library, online
access to "Crossroads," and
"Communications of the ACM" with
CACM Student Pointers email
alerts featuring highlights of each
issue.
To apply, simply submit the
information below to the ACM
Member Services Department,
acmhelp@acm.org:
◆ Name
◆ Mailing Address
◆ Telephone Number
◆ Email address
◆ Gender & Age
◆ Education Information:
◆ Name of School
◆ Year in School
◆ Expected Month and Year of Graduation
◆ What area will your degree be in?
◆ Expected Degree
Wikis and Blogs
Chapter officers may use a chapter-specific wiki to carry out
activities that require collaborative writing, document sharing,
and website management. Two
wiki engines are available –
Mediawiki and MoinMoin. ACM
also offers the Moveabletype
publishing platform for Chapter officers and members to use in setting up blogs relevant to their
Chapter’s activities and interests. To request a
Chapter wiki or blog, please use this request form:
http://campus.acm.org/public/infodir/chapter_blog_
request.cfm.
SERVICES AVAILABLE TO ACM
STUDENT CHAPTERS
Broadcast Mail
To facilitate communication between Chapter
members and officers, ACM provides Chapters
with broadcast mail capabilities using the LSoft
mailing software. The list.acm.org forwarding
aliases are protected against viruses and spam by
the ACM enterprise-wide filtering solution offered
through Postini.
ACM offers the following services to all Student
Chapters:
Chapter website hosting
Chapter officers may set up their chapter website
on ACM servers, with the URL: http://your_chapter_
name.acm.org. Officers may load files through
Secure FTP over SSH to maintain Chapter web
pages. Tools available include PHP, MySQL, Tomcat,
and Perl. ACM will consider loading open source
software that Chapters may need to develop and
maintain their web pages. To take advantage of this
service, Chapter officers should contact ACM Local
News Alerts and Online Magazine
The following ACM news-alert services are available
to Chapter members:
◆ TechNews: ACM’s tri-weekly news service, one
of our members’ most highly rated benefit.
◆ CareerNews: ACM’s bi-monthly career e-newsletter
filled with helpful tips, trends, and insights.
6
Chapter Announcement List
◆ MemberNet:
ACM’s monthly member e-newsletter that provides a window to the full
breadth of ACM’s activities and people.
Chapters are encouraged to send their announcements via the Chapters Announcement List, managed by ACM Headquarters. Messages are sent to
ACM members in a particular geographic area,
according to ZIP (for U.S.) or postal codes (outside
the U.S.). Chapters are limited to two messages
annually, usually during the Fall and Spring. We
cannot disclose the email addresses and names of
ACM members. Members who have chosen not to
receive correspondence from ACM headquarters
are excluded from these lists.
You can enroll your Chapter members in these
news services by logging into your Chapter’s
Administrative Interface (CAI) and adding the
names and email addresses of your Chapter members: https://campus.acm.org/chapter_admin.
ACM’s Local Activities Calendar
We encourage you to populate the Local Activities
Calendar with your Chapter’s upcoming events. The
calendar lists professional and student chapter events,
as well as non-ACM events relevant to local IT communities. We have begun pointing other organizations to this calendar as a way of promoting the professional development of their employees/members,
so be sure to add your events on a regular basis. You
can view the calendar at: http://campus.acm.org/
public/chapters_conf_cal/index.cfm.
Chapter Mailing Labels
ACM will produce a CSV file of professional, student
and/or SIG members in your local area. U.S. Chapters
will need to provide an appropriate zip code range;
chapters outside the U.S. will need to provide a list of
cities for the generation of mailing labels.
Chapter Administrative Interface
ACM has improved the Chapter Administrative
Interface, accessible by a Chapter web account. The
interface allows you to update your Chapter officer
and member lists, submit events to the Local
Activities Calendar, and complete your annual
report. If you have not created a Chapter login,
please contact ACM Local Activities as soon as possible: local_activities@acm.org.
A SUMMARY OF ACM STUDENT
MEMBER BENEFITS
ACM Student Members enjoy the following member benefits – share them with your non-ACM
Member Chapter Members:
◆ Digital-format subscription to Communications
of the ACM, ACM's newly redesigned monthly
magazine covering all aspects of computing.
www.acm.org/publications/cacm
7
◆A
full-year electronic subscription to the quarterly Student Quick Takes, ACM’s Student
Newsletter
◆ Full access to 500 online books from Books24x7®.
http://pd.acm.org
◆ Full access to over 2,500 online courses in multiple languages and 1,000 virtual labs from
Element K®. http://pd.acm.org
◆ Access to the Career & Job Center, powered by
JobTarget. http://campus.acm.org/careercenter/
◆ The option to subscribe to the full ACM Digital
Library, which contains full-text of all articles in
ACM's journals and magazines, conference proceedings, and SIG newsletters. www.acm.org/dl
◆ ACM Student Members are eligible to participate in the e-mentoring program offered
through ACM’s partnership with MentorNet.
Students gain invaluable career advice, encouragement and support, while professionals lend
their expertise to educate and inspire young
professionals. http://www.acm.org/membership/
student/mentornet
◆ The Guide to Computing Literature, with over
one million searchable bibliographic citations,
extending far beyond ACM's proprietary literature. http://portal.acm.org/guide.cfm
◆ The option to join 30+ Special Interest Groups
in all areas of computing. www.acm.org/sigs
◆ The option to subscribe to any of ACM's 45+
journals and magazines at special member-only
rates. www.acm.org/publications
◆ Unique volunteering opportunities to gain
hands-on experience and knowledge
of the marketplace at ACM’s many Special
Interest Group Conferences
◆ Full Member Access to the new acmqueue Web
site which maintains Queue’s popular core
content and enhances it with additional
functionality and new sources that address the
practitioner's need for high-quality, trusted,
practical material. planet queue offers an aggregation of practitioner-oriented blogs written by
the Queue author community, which now totals
nearly 400 contributors, www.acmqueue.org
◆ A full-year electronic subscription to the quarterly
Student Quick Takes, ACM's Student Newsletter
◆ TechNews, our tri-weekly email digest delivers
stories on the latest IT news. http://technews.
acm.org
◆ CareerNews, our twice monthly email digest
providing career-related topics. http://careernews.
acm.org
◆ MemberNet, our monthly e-newsletter, covering
ACM people and activities. http://membernet.
acm.org
◆ Email Forwarding Address & Filtering Service
providing members with a free acm.org email
address and Postini spam filtering
◆ Email Table-of-Contents Alerts for any ACM
journal, magazine, conference proceedings or
SIG newsletter
8
◆ Access
to free software & courseware through
ACM’s Student Academic Initiative (SAI) –
ACM has partnerships with Microsoft Developer
Academic Alliance, Sun, and Computer
Associates (CA).
◆ Discounts on ACM journals, magazines, books,
and conferences
◆ Special Discounts and access to valuable products and services through the ACM's Insurance
and Discounts and Special Offers Programs
Sun Academic Initiative eLearning Portal
The Sun Academic Initiative eLearning Portal represents part of Sun’s dedication to community development. ACM’s partnership with Sun allows ACM
Student Members to receive full complimentary
access to courseware. The course offerings are distinct
from those found in ACM’s Element K online course
program, so our Student Members can access learning opportunities that are not available elsewhere.
CA Academic Initiative
CA has joined with ACM to bring ACM Student
Members exceptional resources as a part of the CA
Academic Initiative. All ACM Student Members can
take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity,
which includes access to complimentary CA software.
For more information on this exciting and valuable development, please go to: http://www.acm.
org/membership/student
Not an ACM Member yet? Join today at
www.acm.org/studentoffer1 and receive a free gift.
(select Priority Code: DTKFS24)
THE ACM STUDENT ACADEMIC
INITIATIVE (SAI) – FREE
SOFTWARE & COURSEWARE
FOR STUDENT MEMBERS
ACM has developed special relationships with several partners to offer valuable resources specifically
for student members - at no additional cost!
Participating partners include Microsoft, Sun
Microsystems and CA. ACM Student Members now
have the unique opportunity to access complimentary software and courseware, and to become a
part of a large community in the process.
Program Highlights:
Microsoft Developer Academic Alliance
(Developer AA)
Through ACM's partnership with the Developer
Academic Alliance (Developer AA), ACM Student
Members receive free and unlimited access to 100+
software packages. ACM Student Members also
have access to the Developer AA Public Forum, a
place where users can ask questions about a range
of topics including software availability, installation,
available resources, and more.
If you are an ACM Student Member, go to
myACM and login to access all of ACM's Student
Academic Initiatives!
Not an ACM Member yet? Join today at
www.acm.org/studentoffer1 and receive a free gift.
(select Priority Code: DTKFS24)
9
ACM WELCOMES ITS NEWEST STUDENT CHAPTERS
ABV Indian Institute of Information
Technology and Management
ACM Student Chapter
ACM Bahria University
ACM MPSTME
ACM-W Student Chapter of Franklin
University
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
ACM Student Chapter
Bryant & Stratton College Milwaukee
Carnegie Mellon ACM Student
Chapter
CIIT, Lahore ACM Student Chapter
Colby College ACM Student
Chapter
COMSATS Institute of Technology
ACM Student Chapter
Dadi Institute of Engineering &
Technology (DIET) Student
Chapter
DePaul University ACM-W Chapter
Duke University ACM-W Student
Chapter
FAST-NUCES ACM Student Chapter,
Islamabad
Florida State University ACM-W
Student Chapter
FVSU ACM Student Chapter
Gettysburg College ACM Student
Chapter
Green River Community College
ACM Student Chapter
Guru Nanak Dev Engineering
College
Bidar Student Chapter of ACM
Informatica - Northern Kentucky
University Student Chapter of
the ACM
Institute of Technology-BHU ACM
Student Chapter
Instituto Technologico de
Matamoros ACM Student Chapter
International Institute of Information
Technology ACM Student Chapter
ITSLPSIC ACM Student Chapter
MenTe ACM-W Student Chapter
MUST ACM Student Chapter
Nassau Community College ACM
Student Chapter
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
ACM Student Chapter
PSG Tech ACM Students Chapter
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology
ACM Student Chapter
Ramapo College of New Jersey ACM
Student Chapter
Santa Clara University ACM
Student Chapter
Schiller International University ACM
Student Chapter
Seattle University ACM Student
Chapter
St. Olaf College ACM Student
Chapter
Tennessee Technological
University ACM-W Student
Chapter
Texas State University ACM Student
Chapter
10
The College of New Jersey ACM
Student Chapter
The UCLouvain ACM Student
Chapter
Tufts University ACM Student
Chapter
UAE University CIT ACM Student
Chapter
UET ACM Student Chapter
Universidad Católica de Columbia
ACM Student Chapter
Universidad Privada del Norte
ACM Student Chapter
University Malaysia Pahang ACM
Student Chapter
University of Baltimore ACM
Student Chapter
University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign ACM SIGGRAPH
Student Chapter
University of Maryland, Baltimore
County ACM Student Chapter
University of Massachusetts Lowell
ACM-W
University of New Orleans ACM
Student Chapter
University of Richmond ACM
Student Chapter
Vardhaman College of Engineering
ACM Student Chapter
Wayne State University ACM-W
William Mason High School ACM
Student Chapter
Yeshwantrao Chavan College of
Engineering ACM Chapter
THE “NEW” COMMUNICATIONS
OF THE ACM MAGAZINE &
WEBSITE
In addition, the site contains extensive blog content, including a group expert blog called the
BLOG@CACM, which provides a completely new
forum for a growing community of the world's
leading industry and academic experts on a range
of topics within computing, and a Blogroll of established syndicated bloggers that reflects the geographic and intellectual scope of the computing
world with entries and related discussions. To
explore the new site, go to: http://cacm.acm.org/.
Since the debut of the fully redesigned
Communications of the ACM magazine in 2008, ACM
members have been raving about the improvements.
Here are just a few of their comments:
◆ “CACM has again become a top scientific journal, with quality standards similar to Nature or
Science.”
◆ “The quality of editorial content, as well as the
new research papers & intros, is the reason I
plan to remain an ACM member.”
THE NEW ACMQUEUE WEBSITE
ACM’s popular Queue magazine has moved completely online with expanded content (print, audio,
video, RSS), increased frequency of fresh content,
and more direct engagement with the experts
behind the issues.
Content on the new acmqueue Web site is written
and guided by distinguished and widely known
◆ “Communications
is a vastly better magazine as
a result of these changes.
◆ “A better mix of practice and research”
◆ “The journal is now more rigorous and technically sound, it has now more emphasis in the
scientific principles of the discipline.”
industry experts. The expanded site offers more content and unique features such as: planet queue blogs
by acmqueue authors who “unlock” important content
from the ACM Digital Library and provide commentary; videos; downloadable audio; CTO Roundtable
discussions; plus unique acmqueue Case Studies.
acmqueue content is also included in each
month’s issue of Communications of the ACM,
where it is clearly identified to make it easy to
Communications has also launched a new Web
site featuring a wide range of high-quality and topical
News, Opinion, Research, and Practitioner-oriented
content from the magazine, as well as original and
user-generated content that is exclusive to the new
site. Among the site's numerous features is access to the
Communications archive spanning more than 50 years
of in-depth coverage of the computing profession.
11
locate. And conversely, on the acmqueue site, you’ll
notice a CACM stamp at the end of each piece that
has appeared in an issue of Communications. In
addition, an acmqueue newsletter subscription
option is available, providing subscribers with email
alerts whenever new content is published.
Visit the acmqueue site today at: http://queue.acm.org.
Then explore MentorNet! ACM partners with
MentorNet, an organization that promotes e-mentoring relationships between students (protégés)
and professionals (mentors). Students gain invaluable career advice, encouragement and support,
while professionals lend their expertise by helping to
educate and inspire young professionals. Protégés
are matched in one-on-one email relationships with
mentors—from industry, academia, and government—who have relevant experience in the appropriate technology, engineering, and scientific fields.
ARE YOU IN AN E-MENTORING
RELATIONSHIP?
If you think about any of the following questions:
◆ What's it like to work in industry?
◆ What is graduate school all about, and is it
for me?
◆ How do I manage a career and a life?
Who can be mentored?
ACM Student Members can participate in this program
as protégés if they are Undergraduates, Graduates,
Post-Doctoral students, or Untenured Faculty.
Who IS the ACM
Whether you are a new or long-standing member of ACM, you’ve probably wondered about its make-up
as an organization. We bring you some of the highlights from the 2009 Membership Satisfaction Survey.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Student Member Highlights from the 2009 ACM Membership Satisfaction Survey
Consulting & Self-Employment Status:
Do Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Self-Employed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
Student Members
Extremely/Very Satisfied with
Membership: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62%
Somewhat Satisfied/Neutral: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36%
Reasons for Joining ACM:
Digital Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36%
Practical information to help me in my
education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22%
Joined ACM as part of ICPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22%
Free online books. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19%
A faculty member recommended
membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17%
Support the computing profession . . . . . . . . . 16%
Prestigious credential on my resume . . . . . . . . 15%
Free online courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12%
Wide variety of publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12%
Communications of the ACM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12%
Members who rate the value of Membership as
Excellent/Very Good/Good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79%
Year in School
Freshman (1st year college) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
Sophomore (2nd year college) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%
Junior (3rd year college) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13%
Senior (4th year college) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17%
Graduate, Master’s Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17%
Graduate, Ph.D. Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%
12
How does the E-Mentoring Program Work?
E-Forum can provide a group mentoring experience that
complements the one-on-one e-mentoring program.
III. To participate, both mentors and protégés
must first join the MentorNet Community.
Community members register by providing
their name, a valid email address, and a username and password. To join, please go to the
MentorNet Community Registration form.
III. After signing in, you’ll be taken to the registration screen and asked if you want to Find a
Mentor or Be a Mentor. Click on the appropriate button.
III. The official e-mentoring relationship lasts
approximately 8 months.
MentorNet Resume Database:
Provides an additional job/internship search
resource for students, allowing them to post their
resume for MentorNet’s sponsors to view.
Please review our ACM/MentorNet website:
http://www.acm.org/membership/student/mentornet.
STUDENT CHAPTERS NEEDED
TO HELP SUPPORT HIGH
SCHOOL CS TEACHERS!
The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA),
created by ACM to serve the needs of K-12 computing and computer science teachers, needs
YOUR ACM Student Chapter to help teach the
country’s K-12 computer science teachers how to
teach even better, with more relevant material,
using the most up to date technology!
CSTA supports Teacher Engagement in Computer
Science (TECS) workshops for K-12 teachers. TECS
workshops may be anywhere from one or two days
to two weeks in length and are hosted by college and
university faculty in their CS departments.
Is your chapter active and looking for a worthwhile activity? Why not enlist a favorite faculty
member to work with your chapter to organize and
host a workshop for the computer science teachers
in your area! You can work with your professor or TA
to help organize and run the event; and even tutor
teachers during lab sessions!
You can find out more information about TECS
workshops at http://tecs.acm.org.
Don’t worry about the details – there is a TECS
workshop coordinator at ACM headquarters waiting
to help you with every aspect of putting a workshop together. Drop a quick email to Gail, the workshop coordinator, at coordinator@csta.acm.org.
Please note that ACM Student Members can
request an ACM Professional Member as a mentor
or may be matched with a non-ACM Professional –
you have your choice!
In addition to the e-Mentoring relationship that
Student Members can take advantage of, there are
other MentorNet Services:
MentorNet E-Forum:
A web-based discussion group designed to be a supportive and engaging place for the MentorNet community
members to discuss ideas and make connections. The
13
THE NEW IMAGE OF COMPUTING
(NIC), FIRST PHASE REPORT
The 3 messages that tested best were:
◆ Computing puts you in the driver’s seat.
Computing gives you the power to imagine
new languages, new worlds, and new ways of
improving our lives by putting better ideas into
actual practice in our communities. Rated highest with African American and Hispanic boys.
◆ Computing opens doors. From transportation
and energy to video games and space exploration, few careers enjoy so many real-world
applications and few open as many doors as
computing. Rated highest with boys and those
already interested in computing careers.
◆ Computing empowers you to do good. With
computing, you will be able to connect
technology to your community and make a
world of difference – reducing energy
consumption, improving healthcare, enhancing
security, reducing pollution, and advancing
learning and education. Rated highest with girls
and Hispanics.
The NIC, a project co-sponsored by WGBH and ACM,
is funded by the National Science Foundation. This
report covers the first phase of the NIC initiative: market research and initial message testing. In late 2008, a
national online survey of college-bound high school
students, ages 13-17, whose overall gender and ethnic representation mirrored that of all incoming U.S.
freshman. The purposes of this survey were to:
◆ Access the current attitudes toward CS as a
college major and career choice among
college-bound high school students;
◆ Assess these same attitudes among Hispanic
girls and African American boys, two of the
groups mot underrepresented in CS;
◆ Develop messages that portray CS in a variety
of ways; and
◆ Gauge initial responses to those messages
among teens.
Key Data/Findings:
Although the NIC Initiative was originally
designed to create messages that target collegebound high school students, especially African
American boys and Hispanic girls, the research
showed little racial /ethnic differentiation in young
people’s attitudes toward CS. It does, show, however, a significant gender gap. Because of this, the NIC
is shifting focus and will initially concentrate on
girls as a special target audience.
If you’d like to take a look at the entire report,
you can visit ACM’s Pressroom where you will find
our Press Release about the initial findings and a
link to the full report: http://www.acm.org/
press-room/news-releases/nic-interim-report/view.
◆ Most
college-bound males have a positive
opinion of computing and CS as a possible
college major or career.
◆ College-bound African American and Hispanic
teens are more likely than their white peers to
be interested in computing.
◆ College-bound females, regardless of race and
ethnicity, are significantly less interested than
boys are in computing. More girls tend to associate computing with “typing,” “math,” and “boredom,” while boys are more likely to associate
computing with “video games,” “design,” “electronics,” “solving problems,” and “interesting.”
CHAPTER CONTACTS
For all Chapter questions:
local_activities@acm.org
For all ACM Membership Questions:
acmhelp@acm.org
14
For ACM IS support:
ishelpdesk@acm.org