ACM Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2015 Letter from the President As I think back over the last year, I find it a fantastic time to be a member of the world’s largest profes- sional and student membership society in computing. We continue to build on the services and resources our volunteers and staff provide to the worldwide community, from the foremost collection of comput- Alexander L. Wolf, ACM President ing literature to the forefront of computing education and professional development, from expert advice on public policy and professional ethics to the advance- ment of a balanced and representative work force. Also as I think back over the last year, I note it was a year of important firsts. ACM presented its first million-dollar A.M. Turing Award, bringing the financial clout of this renowned honor in computing in line with the world’s most prestigious cultural and scientific prizes. Thanks to the generous support of Google, this new monetary level raises the Turing Award’s visibility as the premier recognition of computer scientists and engineers who have made contributions of enduring technical importance to the computing community. ACM hosted its first conference targeted spe- cifically at the computing practitioner community. Indeed, the Applicative conference was so successful we expect its successor, slated for June, to double in attendance. In addition, ACM recently introduced ACM, the Association for its first acmqueue app—an interactive, socially net- worked, electronic magazine designed to more easily Computing Machinery, is an reach where its audience now lives and works. international scientific and ACM established its first award to recognize the computing talents of high school seniors. The ACM/ educational organization CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing dedicated to advancing the arts, seeks to promote and encourage computing as a profession as well as empower aspiring learners to sciences, and applications of information technology. ACM’S ANNUAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015 | 2 ACM COUNCIL pursue computing challenges outside the classroom. President Alexander L. Wolf And, for the first time in 17 years, ACM welcomed a Vice President Vicki L. Hanson new executive director and CEO. Bobby Schnabel has Secretary/Treasurer Erik Altman a long history of service to the ACM and the comput- Past President Vinton G. Cerf ing community and I am confident he will support SIG Governing Board Chair Patrick Madden ACM with incredible passion and innovative ideas. Publications Board Co-Chairs In the following pages you will find a year filled Jack Davidson, Joseph A. Konstan with determined initiatives, new services, and “firsts” Members-at-Large designed to increase the value of your ACM mem- Eric Allman, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, bership. But accomplishments are only half the Cherri Pancake, Radia Perlman, story. There is still much work to do. Issues related Mary Lou Soffa, Eugene Spafford, Per Stenström to open access and digital library sustainability SGB Council Representatives remain high priorities for ACM’s leaders, where we Paul Beame, Barbara Boucher Owens, have introduced several new options requested David Wood by our members. We continue to explore ways to REGIONAL COUNCIL CHAIRS better integrate the DL with other services and ACM Europe Fabrizio Gagliardi value-added content that might create the founda- ACM India Srinivas Padmanabhuni tion for a new revenue model. We are exploring ACM China Yunhao Liu new ways to reach an ever-broadening and diverse ACM-W Valerie Barr audience; look for ACM’s first participation in the USACM Eugene Spafford annual South-by-Southwest (SXSW) event in March. Education Board Andrew McGettrick And ACM’s transformation into a global professional Practitioners Board George Neville-Neil society remains high on our agenda. In the coming year ACM will seize more oppor- ACM HEADQUARTERS tunities, explore more member benefit services, and face new challenges. And we are ready. As always, Executive Director/CEO John R. White we look to our devoted volunteers, members, and in- Deputy Executive Director/COO Patricia M. Ryan dustry partners for the advice and guidance to keep tive Director,appointed succeeding ACM CEO/Execu John us steadily moving forward. Bobby Schnabel was White, who served in that Alexander L. Wolf, ACM President capacity for 17 years. July 2014–June 2016 - ACM’S ANNUAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015 | 3 HIGHLIGHTS OF ACM ACTIVITIES: July 1, 2014–June 30, 2015 Publications ACM’s Publications Board seeks to maintain and ACM is the publisher of 83 periodicals, including strengthen the association’s position as the leading 43 journals and transactions, eight magazines, and 32 provider of research information and related services newsletters as of year-end FY15. During the year, ACM for the scholarly computing community and to be- added 448 volumes of conference and related work- come a leading provider of advanced-level informa- shop proceedings to its portfolio. The ACM Interna- tion and services for the broader computing industry. tional Conference Proceedings Series (ICPS) added To achieve these goals, ACM must (1) maintain and 113 new volumes, a significant increase over FY14. strengthen the quality of its current publication port- The Publications Board continues to examine folio, (2) accelerate the growth of its program into new ways to offer authors and readers greater open access areas of computing and established areas where ACM to published material. In the past year, in addition to has not historically focused in order to provide a wider continuing current policies offering authors a choice of range of affordable high-quality publication venues copyright options and a suite of author-retained rights, for both the research and practitioner communities, the Board also approved in concept the creation of an (3) establish itself as a leader in publication technology umbrella Gold OA ACM journal. and innovation with new products and services for the ACM Books, a series of research monographs and community, and lastly to (4) take a leadership role in graduate-level textbooks generated in partnership with driving publishing industry innovation for the benefit Morgan & Claypool publishers, finished its first full year of the broader scientific community. of operation. Six books are currently available in the The cornerstone of ACM publications is the ACM ACM DL; 14 additional titles are under development. Digital Library (DL) serving as the primary distribu- ACM-W Connections, now a monthly online news- tion mechanism for all the association’s publications letter, covers ACM-W programs, celebrations, scholar- as well as host to scientific periodicals and a set of ships, awards, and chapters as well as contributed conference proceedings from external organiza- articles and upcoming events. tions. With an estimated five million users worldwide, SIGAI launched a new quarterly newsletter “AI Mat- ACM’s DL is available at 2,650 institutions in 190 ters,” featuring articles of general interest to the artificial countries. An additional 31,000 individual subscrib- intelligence community. SIGMOBILE introduced GetMo- ers in 196 countries have DL access. The result of this bile, a complete redesign of its former newsletter. This widespread availability led to more than 20 million new venue serves as a vehicle for mobile researchers full-text downloads during FY15. to keep abreast of developments in their community. ACM is committed to always increasing the scope of material available via the DL. Last year, over 26,000 full-text articles were added, bringing total DL holdings to 443,000 articles. ACM’s Guide to Computing Literature is also integrated within the DL. More than 76,000 works were added to the bibliographic database in FY15, bringing the total Guide coverage to more than 2.1 million works. ACM’S ANNUAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015 | 4 Education ACM leads the computer science education commu- ers about policy issues. The forum focused on career nity through the work of the ACM Education Board, and technical education, and common standards to the ACM Education Council, ACM SIG-CSE, Computer preparing students for college and careers. Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and ACM Edu- CSTA released a landmark report this year: Sowing cation Policy Committee. the Seeds: A Landscape Study on Assessment in Secondary The final report for CS2013, a joint effort of ACM Computer Science Education. The study finds there is a and IEEE-CS, was presented to the ACM Council in dearth of valid and reliable assessments for measuring October 2014. The report was commended for its student learning in high school computer science. The comprehensive guidance for undergraduate CS pro- report highlights the challenges faced by CS teachers in grams. In fact, a Chinese translation of the report was the U.S. and concludes with recommendations for ad- recently completed. vancing the state of assessment in K–12 CS education. ACM Competency Model of Core Learning ACM’s partnering with Code.org represents a Outcomes and Assessment for Associate-Degree significant investment in seeing real computer sci- Curriculum in Information Technology, a three-year ence exist and count in U.S. high schools. At the end effort, was published this year. of FY15, 27 states had moved to enact legislation The second Heidelberg Laureate Forum brought to make computer science count as a core gradua- together 200 young researchers, 200 mathematics tion credit in science and math. Furthermore, over and computer science laureates, including recipients 100 million students, parents, and teachers in 180+ of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the Abel Prize, the countries participated in the Hour of Code during Fields Medal, and the Nevanlinna Prize. The week- Computer Science Education Week. long event offered students a unique opportunity ACM’s second annual report on computing to share ideas with legends in the fields of computer education trends confirmed a continuing growth in science and mathematics.