Call for ACM Award Nominations
Each year, ACM recognizes technical and professional achievements within the computing and information technology community through its celebrated Awards Program. ACM welcomes nominations for candidates whose work exemplifies the best and most influential contributions to our community, and society at large.
ACM seeks your help in building and diversifying the nomination pool for our ACM Awards. It is often the case that people wonder why a specific person who seems highly deserving has not received an ACM award. The common answer is that the person was never nominated.
Please take a moment to consider those individuals in your community who may be suitable for nomination. Also keep in mind ACM’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion when nominating. Candidates for ACM Awards do not need to be members to be nominated. While candidates for advanced member grades (Fellow or Distinguished Member) must be ACM members, candidates for ACM Awards do not need to be members to be nominated. Nominations for the main awards are due December 15, 2023.
Refer to the award nominations page for nomination guidelines and the complete listing of Award Subcommittee Chairs and Members.
ACM ByteCast: Robert Metcalfe
In this episode of ACM ByteCast, our special guest host Scott Hanselman (of The Hanselminutes Podcast) welcomes 2022 ACM A.M. Turing Award Laureate Robert Metcalfe, Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and Research Affiliate in Computational Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Metcalfe received his Turing Award for the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet, the foundational technology of the Internet, which supports more than 5 billion users and enables much of modern life.
In a wide-ranging interview, Metcalfe reflects on his “Ethernet paper” with David Boggs from 1976, and how the interoperability and backward compatibility baked into the Ethernet allows the technology to hold up in the age of Netflix and Zoom. Bob also describes his most recent project, modeling geothermal wells as a computational engineer at MIT, with the aim of harnessing geothermal energy as an alternative to fossil fuels. Along the way, they touch on “stretch goals,” GPUs, and how far down “the stack” one needs to go to fully appreciate and understand a piece of technology.
Listen here or wherever you get podcasts.
Featured ACM Member: Bruke Kifle
Bruke Kifle is an AI Product Manager at Microsoft Turing, a team pushing the limits of natural language understanding, machine learning, and computer vision to address diverse business problems across the Microsoft ecosystem. His research interests include the interplay between artificial intelligence, business, ethics, and society. Kifle is also interested in opportunities to enhance human conditions in underserved communities through innovative technical solutions. He identifies as a socio-technologist whose goal is to leverage technology to empower individuals and uplift societies worldwide. In his interview, Kifle discusses what made him pursue a career in computers, his most exciting recent project at Microsoft, his hopeful outlook for the future of computing in Africa, and more.
Featured ACM Distinguished Speaker: Ilke Demir
Ilke Demir’s research focuses on generative models for digitizing the real world, deep fake detection and generation techniques, analysis and synthesis approaches in geospatial machine learning, and computational geometry for synthesis and fabrication. Currently, she is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Intel Corporation. Demir earned her PhD and MS in Computer Science from Purdue University advised by Prof. Daniel Aliaga, and her S. in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University with a minor in Electrical Engineering. Her Ph.D. dissertation conceives geometric and topological shape processing approaches for reconstruction, modeling, and synthesis; which pioneered the area of proceduralization. Her lectures include “Embattling for a Deep Fake Dystopia,” “The Future of Filmmaking: AI for Volumetric Capture and Reconstruction,” and more. She is available to speak through the ACM Distinguished Speaker Program.
Read more and browse Demir’s lectures.
ACM TechTalk: Reskilling to Build Diverse Tech Teams
In this episode of ACM TechTalk, taking place July 27, 2023, at 11:00 am EDT (3 pm UTC), the subject of skills shortages in the tech industry is explored. There are always jobs going with no one to fill them. At the same time, there are so many people who want to work in tech but don’t know how to make that happen. Diversity is a strength, and diverse teams are needed building our software. Re-skilling existing employees at the speed of business is paramount for companies to stay competitive, but that’s not enough, we also need to bring new tech-skilled employees into the workforce.
The panel for this session—moderator Sue Black (Durham University), Elizabeth Hawthorne (Rider University), Marlene Mhangami (Voltron Data), Tan Moorthy (Infosys, Retired), and Brad Voeller (New Apprenticeship)—have created, run, and taken part in successful programs specifically focused on retraining people into technology careers and creating pathways into tech from other areas with great success. They discuss how to reskill, build diverse teams, and solve industry skills shortages from our multiple experiences to meet the challenge of rapidly changing technologies.
Visit the TechTalks Archive for our full listing of past TechTalks.
