Annual Report to IFIP
ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY (ACM)

Submitted by Dr. Robert M. Aiken, ACM Delegate to IFIP
Prepared: August 15, 1999

- Summary of IFIP-Related Activities
- Appendix 1: ACM Contact Information
- Appendix 2: ACM Annual Report

For ACM Fiscal Year 1999, July 1, 1998 – June 30, 1999

FOCUS ACTIVITIES

The Federation on Computing in the U.S. (FOCUS), run jointly by ACM and IEEE-CS, operated through December 31, 1998

• FOCUS, through an NSF grant, supported the travel of thirty U.S. participants to WCC '98 in Vienna/Budapest. In addition, a link to the WCC’98 Web page was added to the FOCUS Web site to help publicize the Congress.
• FOCUS selected and supported the travel of two students from the U.S. to participate in the IFIP Youth Summit at WCC’98.
• Both ACM and IEEE-CS were pleased to receive IFIP approval to become direct members of IFIP beginning January 1, 1999.
• Both ACM and IEEE-CS were pleased that IFIP accepted their proposal to host the 2000 IFIP Council meeting in Washington, D.C.
• The FOCUS Board held its Annual Meeting in New York on October 31, 1998. FOCUS was honored to have IFIP President, Peter Bollerslev, participate in the meeting.
• FOCUS provided Recognition of Service Certificates to FOCUS Committee members and U.S. Representatives to IFIP TCs for their fine service to FOCUS, IFIP and the Information Technology community. The certificates were issued jointly by ACM and IEEE-CS on behalf of FOCUS.

ACM ACTIVITIES

• Joe DeBlasi (ACM Executive Director) and Fred Aronson, (ACM Associate Director for International Relations) met with Plamen Nedkov in Laxenburg in September 1998 to begin to discuss ways to strengthen the relationship between IFIP and ACM.
• ACM became a direct member of IFIP as of January 1, 1999.
• ACM appointed Bob Aiken as ACM delegate to the IFIP General Assembly
• ACM appointed the following representatives to IFIP Technical Committees:

TC 1 - FOUNDATIONS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

David S. Johnson
AT&T Labs Research
Room C239
180 Park Avenue
Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971
Tel: 1-973-360-8440
Fax: 1-973-360-8178
Email: dsj@research.att.com
http://www.research.att.com/~dsj/
Term ends 12/31/99

TC2 - SOFTWARE: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Len Bass
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
Tel: 1-412-268-6763
Fax: 1-412-268-5758
Email: ljb@sei.cmu.edu
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/staff/ljb
Term ends 12/31/01

TC 3 - EDUCATION

A. Joe Turner
Dept. of Computer Science
Clemson University
Edwards Hall, Box 341906
Clemson, SC 29634-1906
Tel: 1-864-656-2413
Fax: 1-864-656-0145
Email: turner@cs.clemson.edu
Term ends 12/31/01

TC 6 - COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

A. Lyman Chapin
BBN Corporation
10 Fawcett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 1-617-873-3133
Fax: 1-617-873-3243
Email: lyman@bbn.com
Term ends 12/31/01

TC 8 - INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Gordon Davis
Dept. of Inf. & Decision Sci.
Univ. of Minn., Carlson School of Mgt.
395 Hubert H. Humphrey Center
271 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tel: 1-612-624-2523
Fax: 1-612-626-1316
Email: gdavis@csom.umn.edu
Term ends 12/31/00

TC 9 - RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMPUTERS & SOCIETY

Ronald E. Anderson
University of Minnesota
909 Social Sciences Building
Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
Tel: 1-612-624-9554
Fax: 1-612-624-4586
Email: rea@iea.soc.umn.edu
Term ends 12/31/01

TC 11 - SECURITY & PROTECTION IN INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS

W.H. Ware
The Rand Corporation
1700 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90406
Tel: 1-310-393-6432
Fax: 1-213-393-4818
Email: willis@rand.org
Term ends 12/31/01

TC12 - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Stuart C. Shapiro
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
State University of New York at Buffalo
226 Bell Hall, Box 602000
Buffalo, NY 14260-2000 USA
Tel: 1-716-645-3180 x125
Fax: 1-716-645-3464
Email: shapiro@cse.buffalo.edu
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~shapiro/
Term ends 12/31/01

TC 13 - HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION

John Karat
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
30 Saw Mill River Road
Hawthorn, NY 10532
Tel: 1-914-784-7832
Fax: 1-914-784-6211
Email: jkarat@watson.ibm.com
Term ends 12/31/00

APPENDIX 1: ACM CONTACT INFORMATION

ACM Delegate to the IFIP General Assembly

Dr. Robert M. Aiken
Temple University
CIS Dept., Rm. 308, Wachman Hall
(Computer Activity Building) 038-24
Broad St. and Montgomery Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Tel: 215-204-8882; Fax: 215-204-5082
Email: aiken@cis.temple.edu

Mr. Fred Aronson
ACM, 1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Tel: 212-626-0515; Fax: 212-302-5826
Email: aronson@acm.org

Dr. Barbara Simons
770 Homer Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Tel: 650-328-8730 (office/home); Fax: 650-617-3709
Email: simons@acm.org

Dr. John R. White
ACM, 1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Tel: 212-626-0550; Fax: 212-944-1318
Email: white@acm.org

Ms. Patricia Ryan
ACM, 1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Tel: 212-626-0560; Fax: 212-944-1318
Email: ryan_p@acm.org

APPENDIX 2: ACM ANNUAL REPORT

Fiscal Year 1998: July 1, 1997 – June 30 1998
(Please note: ACM’s Fiscal Year 1999 Annual Report will be available in the fall, 1999.)

ACM is preparing for the new millennium with the informational tools and technologies of a new generation. The launching of the ACM Digital Library catapulted the Association to a position front and center as disseminators of invaluable computer science information. As we celebrate the DL’s first anniversary, we are thrilled by the enthusiastic support of members and subscribers worldwide, and well as challenged by the ambitious plans and value-added services that lay ahead. ACM’s pledge to make its Digital Library the premier source for online IT information should draw a global audience.

Another major highlight of FY98 was the Association’s first forum with political leaders to help steer the future of public policy. ACM’s Policy’98 conference was a huge success for building avenues of communication that allowed computing professionals to better influence policy decisions and allowed government officials the opportunity to glean the computing expertise needed to create effective legislation.

Such experiences have further inspired the Association to extend its outreach programs to attract new members and better serve current members. Among the activities we are now spiriting is the expansion our public policy activities to an international level. We have also recently established a K–12 Committee to help tackle some of the major educational problems faced by today’s school systems.

Of course, all of ACM’s accomplishments—both present and future—would not be possible without the support and dedication of the Association’s strong base of active volunteers and members. We salute those efforts and look forward to the new goals we set together.

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is an international scientific and educational organization dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of information technology.

ACM’s U.S. Public Policy Office continues to cast its shadow on Capitol Hill. In May, USACM proposed its "Principles for United States Science Policy" which identified seven critical areas for science policy. The intent of the policy is to assist in advancing sound legislation for governing the technologies that today’s scientists research and develop.

USACM, along with other leading U.S. scientific, mathematics, and engineering societies, sent a united message to Congress last fall protesting the proposed U.S. cryptography policies. It was the first time such an influential group of societies joined forces to inform Congress how cryptography will affect the future of U.S. scientific R&D.

In January, ACM’s Committee on Women in Computing urged the government to devote significant resources to attracting more students to computer science, especially underrepresented groups such as women. ACM-W works to increase the number of women in CS by providing mentoring programs, role models, and studying trends and issues relating to women in the field.

ACM’s curricula recommendations have profoundly influenced academic science education over the years. A similar impact is expected from the recently published—and much anticipated—IS’97 Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems. The extensive model offers detailed recommendations and guidelines for CS education.

Educational programs and projects were especially active areas for ACM SIGs. SIGCHI made student kits available to teachers to distribute to their students; and SIGUCCS offered an information exchange program by compiling a set of IT job descriptions from 22 learning institutions. SIGDA initiated a "Ph.D. Forum" to provide a structured way to enhance interaction between academia and industry by providing graduate students with feedback on their thesis work and giving CAD and system companies a change to preview academic work-in-progress.

Out of the 1,250 teams competing in 23 regional contests on six continents, 54 teams advanced to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. The team from Charles University, in Prague, was crowned the 1998 World champs.

The ACM Student Chapter Excellence Program was established in FY98 to recognize outstanding ACM student chapters. The first award (and $500) went to the University of Washington/Bothell ACM Student Chapter.

The first ACM Student SIGGRAPH Chapter was chartered at Purdue University last April. To inaugurate the new chapter, 15 students received $800 in prizes for graphics work.

There were 44 new ACM chapters chartered in FY98. Of those, 22 were student chapters in the U.S., 12 were student chapters outside the U.S., 4 were professional chapters in the U.S., and 6 were professional/SIG chapters outside the U.S.

To strengthen the creation and operation of international chapters, student and professional/SIG chapter bylaws and petition information is now available in Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish.

ACM’s Executive Committee hosted a meeting in Hong Kong last March with ACM members and chapter leaders from 10 Asia Pacific countries. The meeting succeeded in spotlighting key IT issues in the region and identifying ACM programs that can help address those issues, working with the national computer societies to the extent possible. The top priorities were access to ACM’s Digital Library; joint ACM–national society activities; establishing new local chapters; and translating English technical articles into local languages.

The ACM Technology Outreach program continued its support of the scientific and professional computing communities in Mexico and Latin America. A working group has been established in Mexico and one of its primary goals is to have at least 30 ACM student chapters charted within a year.

The State of the Art Summer Schools program for Eastern Europe continued this year with close to 50 Ph.D. students and young faculty members from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Yugoslavia participating.

The ACM Digital Library exceeded all expectations in its first year of operation, boasting over 15,000 student and professional subscribers and over 100 library subscriptions. Moreover, a number of library consortia worldwide have expressed a strong interest in purchasing site licenses. Today, the DL packs over 28,000 full text articles from ACM’s journals, magazines, and proceedings. ACM is committed to steering the evolution of the DL, adding more material and value-added services on an on-going basis.

The Association’s electronic publishing system began online production this year with many of our noted journals now being produced internally. Indeed, the SGML archive continues to grow as more and more journals are produced in this manner.

The premier issue of the new SIGART Bulletin was introduced in November, reflecting the first collaboration between ACM’s Magazine Group and SIGART. The goal of this merger is to restructure the content to reflect more timely, accessible editorial and enhance the look-and-feel of this quarterly publication.

ACM Press Books had another banner year with a dozen new titles, including Internet Besieged:Countering Cyberspace Scofflaws, by Dorothy and Peter Denning; The Year 2000 Software Problems, Caper Jones; and The OPEN Process Specification, Graham, Henderson-Sellers, Younessi.

The Membership Activities Board initiated plans for expanded its Electronic Community Program by providing an online membership directory, extending its Personalized ACM (PACM) Web facilities, formulating plans to produce a monthly membership emailing that would highlight ACM news and current activities.

The growing threat to privacy posed by our burgeoning online world prompted ACM to create a comprehensive Privacy Policy for Association members and SIGs. The first draft of the policy—posted for member comment—addresses email, postal mail, Web sites, Web accounts, and the membership directory.

The SIGs continue to set their own electronic standards. SIGACT initiated procedures and software for electronic program committee meetings. SIGMOD initiated a new CD-ROM-based Digital Symposium Collection. And SIGPLAN put the first 10 years of POPL proceedings on a CD-ROM.

The ACM Fellows Program, honoring members for outstanding technical and professional achievements, added 39 new inductees to the roster, bringing the total number of Fellows to 320.

Several of the SIGs acknowledged the magic of creativity in their annual awards, including SIGCHI’s Innovations in the Field of HCI award and SIGMOD’s Innovation Award which honors technical inventiveness in the field.

The LA-based SIGGRAPH ’97 was both a technical and financial success, setting records for overall attendance (nearly 50,000), technical program attendance (7,538), and exhibition space (179,100 sq. ft).

SIGCSE’s annual conference also posted a record-breaking year in attendees. In addition, SIGACT sponsored the first two International Conferences on Computational Molecular Biology; and attendees of SIGCPR’s last conference represented an international mix from the U.S., Finland, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and the U.K.

President
Barbara Simons

Vice President
A. Joseph Turner

Secretary/Treasurer
Claus Unger

Publications Board Chair
William Arms

SIG Board Chair
Doris K. Lidtke

Past President
Charles H. House

Members-at-Large
David S. Johnson
Robert Ritchie
David Brown
Maria Klawe

Regional Representations
David S. Wise
Frances E. Allen
Bryan Preas
David B. Arnold

Executive Director
Joseph S. DeBlasi

Deputy Executive Director
Patricia M. Ryan

A.M. Turing Award
Douglas Engelbart

Software System Award
John Ousterhout

Distinguished Service Award
David H. Brandin

Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award
Stuart H. Zweben

Grace Murray Hopper Award
No award given

Karl V. Karlstrom

Outstanding Educator Award
Jeffrey Ullman

Doctoral Dissertation Award
Steven McCanne

Allen Newell Award
Carver Mead

Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award
Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv

1998 Eckert-Mauchly Award
Tadashi Watanabe