Communications - January 2013

titioners. ACM’s Learning Webinar series opened with a program on smart devices and cloud computing, followed by a webinar on cybersecurity. The first two webinars proved a huge success attracting almost 9,000 registrants collectively. More webinars are in the works for this thriving new project.

The Board also oversees the development of Tech Packs ( http://tech-pack.acm.org/) and Learning Paths ( http://learning.acm.org/path/).

There are currently five Tech Packs (with a sixth on the way) that are designed to provide a significant learning resource for emerging areas of computing not directly covered by an ACM SIG, conference, or publication. Learning Paths offer practical, hands-on educational training tools designed to help IT professionals extend their skill sets.

ACM Queue, the online magazine for professionals spirited by the Practitioners Board, again surpassed the million-pageview threshold, with over 1. 2 million pages viewed over the last 12 months.

Public Policy

ACM’s U.S. Public Policy Council ( USACM) educates policymakers in many areas of potential legislation, including bills on Internet monitoring, patent reform, e-voting, privacy, and security. This year the committee explored new ways to contribute expertise to the development of policy connected to computing, offering comments on how the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace should be managed, on the proposed online verification system for the Social Security Administration, and on the U.S. Commerce Department’s report on cyber-security and innovation, among many other proposals.

The Committee on Computers and Public Policy assists ACM in a variety of globally relevant issues pertaining to computers and public policy. The efforts of this committee help make the association more visible worldwide. Most notably, CCP’s highly respected ACM Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems designed to share and discuss the potential and serious computer-related risks with a global audience.

aCM europe,
aCM india, and
aCM China saw
significant increases
in the number
of chapters
established in fy12.

students

The 36th Annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) took place in Warsaw, Poland with 122 teams competing in the World Finals. Earlier rounds of the competition included nearly 30,000 contestants representing 2,200 universities from 85 countries. Financial and systems support for ICPC is provided by IBM. The top four teams won gold medals as well as employment or internship offers from IBM.

The ACM Student Research Competition (SRC), sponsored by Microsoft Research, continues to 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. This year’s SRC saw graduate and undergraduate winners compete against more than 213 participants in contests held at 15 ACM conferences.

ACM-W added seven new student chapters this year, bringing the total number to 37, with six being interactional chapters.

internationalization ACM Europe and ACM India finished their second full year of operation. Both saw significant increases in the number of chapters established during the last 12 months. Progress was made on two ACM-Europe/Informat-ics-Europe joint activities. And a third successful ACM India event was held last January attended by over 600 Indian computing students, faculty, and professionals.