ACM is celebrating 50 years of the Turing Award and the visionaries who have received it. We aim to highlight the significant impact of the contributions of the Turing laureates on computing and society, to look ahead to the future of technology and innovation, and to help inspire the next generation of computer professionals to invent and dream. Our celebration will culminate with a conference June 23 - 24, 2017 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.

The ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences has been renamed the ACM Prize in Computing. The award recognizes computing professionals in the early to middle stages of their careers. Infosys will continue to fund the award, whose cash prize has been increased to $250,000. Recipients will be invited to participate in the Heidelberg Laureate Forum.

The ACM Future of Computing Academy (ACM-FCA) is a new initiative to support and foster the next generation of computing professionals. The Academy will bring together next generation researchers, practitioners, educators and entrepreneurs from various disciplines of computing to address pressing challenges facing the field and society. ACM is now accepting applications for the ACM-FCA. The application deadline is March 15, 2017.

The past year saw many "firsts" for ACM, including the landmark ACM elections resulting in an all-female leadership team, ACM’s debut at the popular South by Southwest (SxSW) Interactive conference, and ACM's monthly Huffington Post blog on significant developments in technology with public implications. ACM is committed to supporting the progress and quality of computing education worldwide and continues to explore new ways to involve our growing and greatly diversified audience. Read the annual report to learn about ACM’s initiatives, services and future programs.

The Grad Cohort program, run by the Computing Research Association Committee on Women (CRA-W), is focused on graduate students with the aim of increasing the number of senior women in computing-related studies and research. As part of the ACM-CRA partnership, ACM wants to extend this program to educators outside of North America. If you want go get involved in mentoring and other activities, please visit the website and complete the form by January 20, 2017.

Recognizing the ubiquity of algorithms in our daily lives, as well as their far-reaching impact, the ACM US Public Policy Council has issued a statement and a list of seven principles designed to address potential harmful bias. The goals of the statement include: providing context for what algorithms are, how they make decisions, and the technical challenges and opportunities of preventing and mitigating potential harmful bias.

Read the ACM news release.

Anne-Marie Kermarrec is a Research Director at L'Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (Inria), and CEO of Mediego, the startup she co-founded in 2015. She is also an ACM Fellow. “I strongly believe that France has a lot of potential for innovation: great creativity, strong technologies, and a strong support from the ecosystem.”

The 2016-17 ACM NDC Study of non-Ph.D. granting departments in computing at 4-year institutions is now open. NDC is the only survey producing timely data on enrollment, degree production, student body composition, and faculty salaries/demographics that can help benchmark your institution/program(s). See 2015-16 results here. If your unit has a program in CS, CE, IS, IT, and/or SE but you haven't received an invitation to participate, email timanovsky@hq.acm.org.

Researchers and practitioners at all phases of their careers (undergrad, PhD or postdoc) are encouraged to apply for the next Heidelberg Laureate Forum, for a chance to personally interact with laureates of the most prestigious prizes in mathematics and computer science, including the ACM A.M. Turing Award and the ACM Prize in Computing. Applications are due February 14, 2017.

In celebration of Computer Science Education Week, a group of 17 women Microsoft researchers gave their predictions for developments in various areas of computer science on one-year and 10-year time scales. Among them are ACM luminaries Susan Dumais, Kathryn McKinley, Jennifer Chayes, and Karin Strauss sharing their insights and inspiration for the next generation of women computer scientists. 

In her blog post for Computer Weekly's WITsend blog, ACM President Vicki Hanson discusses ACM's all-female leadership team, how diversity is helping to redefine what a computing professional is, and how the digital world is expanding career opportunities for non-technical people. "While most will not become expert, basic skills will be required for them to be effective in their careers and to deal with the myriad of online offerings for communication, entertainment, retail, and government services," she says.

Northeastern University's Alessandro Vespignani says that in the last two decades, infectious diseases have made an alarming comeback, with hundreds of newly emergent or re-emergent pathogens rallying against humankind. While public health data collected through traditional surveillance systems are still indispensable, a new era of opportunities has been ushered in by the availability of big data streams, such as electronic health records, social media, Internet, mobile phones, and remote sensors.

Encourage your colleagues to join ACM, share the benefits of ACM and receive free gifts for participating. Your support of ACM is critical to our continuing efforts to advance computing as a science and a profession. 

The most comprehensive collection of full-text articles and bibliographic records covering computing and information technology includes the complete collection of ACM's publications. 

ACM offers lifelong learning resources including online books from Safari, online courses from Skillsoft, webinars on the hottest topics in computing and IT, and more.