AnualReport_lo:AnualReport_lo 1/8/08 12:50 AM Page 27 ACM Annual Report for FY07 n recent months we have celebrated younger scientists whose innovations are ACM’s 60th Anniversary and the having a dramatic impact on the comput- 50th Anniversary of its flagship pub- ing field. The award will carry a prize of lication, Communications of the $150,000, and was endowed by the ACM. Both events signify the Infosys Foundation. Ienduring role ACM has played as the ACM’s global outreach has never been conduit for the world’s educators, stronger, as witnessed by the growth in the researchers, and professionals to share number of technical conferences, profes- their common computing interests, sional chapters, and Special Interest Group inspire new innovation, and reveal their initiatives taking root overseas this year. latest research. Indeed, ACM’s steadfast The Association’s devotion to forging pro- commitment to advancing computing as fessional relationships worldwide was a science and profession worldwide can solidified by meetings to establish an be traced from the first days of the ACM presence in the major technology ENIAC, to improving today’s quality of hubs of China and India. ACM’s China life, to encouraging and educating future Task Force held its first two meetings in generations to join a field of countless FY07. An agreement was reached with opportunities. Tsinghua University to establish an ACM In the past year, major corporations office in Beijing as a focal point for the have endorsed ACM’s global influence in Association’s presence in China. ACM’s recognizing technical excellence by spon- India Task Force met in Bangalore recently soring or increasing the cash value of a to explore how best to serve this burgeon- number of the Association’s prestigious ing audience. awards. The financial value of the A.M. In the coming year, ACM will continue Turing Award, certainly the computing to foster these critical global relationships, field’s greatest and most visible honor, will as well as build new bridges to connect the increase from $100,000 to $250,000, computing interests of its international thanks to the generosity of co-sponsors membership, and create new services and Intel and Google. IBM increased ACM’s products to meet their professional needs. Software System Award to $35,000. The We are working on expanding services for Doctoral Dissertation Award, now spon- practitoners and a radically improved sored by Google, is $20,000 for first place, Communications. and $10,000 for second place. And As always, we are indebted to ACM’s Google raised its sponsorship of the Grace dedicated volunteers, members, staff, and Murray Hopper Award to $35,000. industry partners for their ongoing sup- Moreover, ACM recently announced port in turning promises into reality. the creation of a new honor, the ACM- Stuart I. Feldman Infosys Foundation Award, recognizing ACM President COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM February 2008/Vol. 51, No. 2 27 AnualReport_lo:AnualReport_lo 1/8/08 12:50 AM Page 28 ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is an international scientific and educational organization dedicated to advancing the art, science, engineering, and application of information technology. PUBLICATIONS via the magazine’s Web site (www. acmqueue. ACM’s Digital Library and Guide to Comput- org/), feature industry experts in 15-minute ing Literature continue to flourish in content, conversations on timely topics. usage, and prestige, and remain in great demand worldwide. The number of full-text EDUCATION articles in the DL as of June 2007 was A new Education Policy Committee (EPC) 209,000 and the Guide’s bibliographic data- was formed to influence education policy on base increased to over one million entries. behalf of the computing community. The pri- Two new journals were launched in FY07: mary focus of the committee is education and Transactions on Knowledge Discovery in Data advocacy in K–12 science, technology, engi- (TKDD) and Transactions on the Web neering, and mathematics (STEM) educa- (TWeb). In addition, the ACM Publications tion. The EPC’s initial efforts will address the Board approved two new publications: ACM quality and availability of computer science Transactions on Reconfigurable Systems (TRES), education at the high school level. and ACM Transactions on Computation Theory The Computer Science Teachers Associa- (ToCT). tion (CSTA) continues to support and pro- The Publications Board also assembled a mote opportunities for K–12 teachers and group of digital library experts to examine ways students to better understand the computing to enrich the functionality and services avail- disciplines. CSTA issued a second edition of A able from ACM’s DL product. The discus- Model Curriculum for K–12 Computer Science, sions, which focused on areas such as search designed to set the context for computer sci- and retrieval technology, open-access, and ence within current K–12 education and pro- user-interface improvements, culminated in a vide a framework for preparing young students list of recommendations for ACM to consider. for personal and professional opportunities in Efforts to revitalize the editorial model of the 21st century. Communications of the ACM remained in full A new brochure to counter the many mis- swing, with focus groups and volunteers com- perceptions about computing circulating ing together throughout the year to exchange among high school students, their parents, and ideas for enhancing ACM’s premier publica- teachers was prepared jointly by ACM, IEEE tion. Details of these discussions and the sub- Computer Society, and the Association for sequent plan were published in the January Information Systems. “Computing Degrees 2008 issue of Communications, page 44. and Careers,” provides more accurate informa- ACM Queue’s “Queuecasts” had a very suc- tion about computing and the career opportu- cessful inaugural year. These podcasts, available nities it offers. 28 February 2008/Vol. 51, No. 2 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM AnualReport_lo:AnualReport_lo 1/8/08 12:50 AM Page 29 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (USACM) continued its efforts to advance The diverse offerings available from the Pro- the computing discipline by finding a balance fessional Development Centre were enhanced between innovation, intellectual property dramatically last year with the expansion of protection, and privacy issues; and for secure ACM’s Online Books and Courses programs. and reliable computing systems. Several com- Members now have access to over 1,100 mittee members testified before Congress on books from Safari and Books24X7—a valu- the need to reform e-voting policy, the use of able resource providing reference works on a large-scale IT systems for identity and broad range of subjects in technology, project employment verification, and the privacy management, and business. risks of using Social Security numbers in data- Web-based professional development bases. Committee members and Policy Office courses available for ACM members grew to staff briefed Congressional members on the over 2,200 in FY07. These courses, from lead- threat of botnets, the technical issues in a pro- ing provider Skill Soft, cover a wide selection of posed electronic employment verification sys- topics from information technology and busi- tem, and e-voting. In addition, USACM ness opportunities. submitted detailed comments on the security ACM’s Career and Job Center, powered by risks inherent in the REAL ID program for JobTarget, offers members the opportunity to new driver’s licenses introduced by the view and apply for a variety of highly targeted Department of Homeland Security. For more technology jobs, including hundreds of corpo- information about USACM’s activities, visit rate job postings often not seen on commercial www.acm.org/usacm/annualreports/index. sites. Members can post resumes, create and html. receive job alerts, and receive live career advice. The Committee on Computers and Public The Professions Board is hoping to launch Policy (CCPP) serves ACM with respect to a its Best Practices community Web site in the variety of internationally relevant issues per- near future. Steady progress was made this year taining to computing. The committee works to in creating a site to provide answers to practical create and maintain global online forums to questions about technologies, approaches, share and discuss public policy concerns. tools, and processes by creating a community where IT professionals can discuss qualified STUDENTS solutions to problems. The 31st Annual ACM International Colle- giate Programming Contest World Finals was PUBLIC POLICY sponsored by IBM and hosted by ACM’s ACM’s U.S. Public Policy Committee Japan Chapter and IBM Tokyo Research Lab. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM February 2008/Vol. 51, No. 2 29 AnualReport_lo:AnualReport_lo 1/8/08 12:50 AM Page 30 The preliminaries drew 6,099 teams from exceeded attendance expectations, registering 1,756 universities representing 82 countries. almost 20,000 artists, researcher scientists, Some 88 teams made it to the finals and the developers, filmmakers, and academics from 2006 winners were from Warsaw University. 80 countries. More than 230 companies exhib- The ACM Student Research Competition is ited, including 76 first-time exhibitors. an internationally recognized venue enabling ASSETS 2006 featured novel computer undergraduates and graduate students to share applications for attendees with disabilities. research results and exchange ideas with other Assistive technology research from the Univer- students, judges, and conference attendees and sity of Washington was available for people understand the practical applications of their with hand and hearing limitations, including research. Rounds of competition are held at a the vocal joystick and a sign language cell variety of ACM conferences throughout the phone that employs video compression. year. ACM’s Committee on Women in Comput- LOCAL ACTIVITIES ing (ACM-W) will provide financial support The Membership Services Board chartered 41 for undergraduate or graduate women students new chapters in FY07, six of which were in CS programs who are interested in attending international professional chapters.