Welcome from the ACM-W Chair

- Valerie Barr, ACM-W Chair

Welcome to the June issue of ACM-W Connections. This month we feature research highlights from three researchers:Sarah Loos, one of our tireless ACM-W volunteers; Jasma Balaangameshwara; and Madhavi Vaidya. I think you’ll find their work very interesting. You can also read a summary of the 2013-2014 Celebrations of Women in Computing and catch a preview of 2014-2015, plus read about the next ACM-W Europe womENcourage event.I hope you enjoy this issue!

News From Our Contributors

The Heidelberg Laureate Forum - Promoting Careers

Alev Kaynak discusses the opportunities available to young researchers at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum. The Heidelberg Laureate Forum brings together students and award winning researchers in a relaxed environment with opportunities for network building, mentorship, and scientific exchange. Read the full ariticle here.

Research Spotlights

Learn about three interesting areas of ongoing research:

  • Verification of Safe Aircraft Separation , by Sarah Loos of Carnegie Mellon
  • A Survey of Fault Tolerant Scheduling and Load Balancing for Cloud Computing , by Dr. Jasma Balaangameshwara of Atria Institute of Technology
  • Leveraging Thermal Power in Data Processing Frameworks by Madhavi Vaidya

Reach the full article here..

ACM-W Celebrations News: A Year in Review and A Look Ahead

-- Jodi Tims, Celebrations Project Chair

The Celebrations project has many reasons to celebrate as we close out the 2013-2014 year:

  • There were a total of 14 events held in 2013-2014, including first-time conferences in Puerto Rico, Europe, and the Vancouver/Washington state region. Over 2000 students, faculty members, and sponsors attended these events.
  • ACM-W sponsored eight student poster winners and several conference coordinators to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration in Minneapolis, MN in October, 2013. In most cases this was the first opportunity that these women had to experience GHC and all were positively impacted by the experience.
  • With the help of two of my Baldwin Wallace University students, Jayme Frantz and Deanna Biesan, a web application has been developed to support the administrative side of the Celebrations project. We are rolling this out very soon and each conference will be able to provide relevant data for its events. We will also be able to use the site to broadcast communications to coordinators and provide access to resources.
  • Over the summer a survey will be developed that can be used by all Celebrations to evaluate their events. Details on this project will be forthcoming as we approach the fall semester.

As we look forward to 2014-2015, we anticipate 13-15 Celebrations will be held including new international ones in Abu Dhabi and Cuba! A list of Celebrations can be found at http://women.acm.org/celebrations and will be updated as details become available.

I want to extend a heart-felt "Thank you!" to all of the women (and men) who have worked so hard to make the Celebrations project such a huge success. The tireless effort of the volunteers involved makes it possible for us to impact the lives of many women in computing.

News From ACM-W Europe

WomENcourage 2015 - Uppsala, Sweden. September 24th-26th, 2015.

Save the Date! September 24th to 26th, 2015, is the time to be in Uppsala, Sweden: the second edition of ACM-W Europe’s celebration of women in computing, womENcourage 2015 is planned. The first edition was celebrated March 1, 2014 at Manchester University in Manchester, UK. Over 250 attendees engagingly listened to high profile women speakers, interacted with positive female role models in panels, discussed with like-minded peers in unconference sessions and mingled with others interested in empowering women to pursue their goals in Computer Science and Information Technology.

September 2015, Uppsala University will host the next event: with more attendees, more activities, more variety of topics, and much more! In order to accomplish this, volunteers are an essential asset. Would you like to collaborate with us? Please email [email protected] indicating your interests (e.g. reviewing poster/paper submissions, on-site assistance).

Announcements

  • Would you like to contribute an article to the ACM-W Newsletter? With a distribution list reaching thousands of ACM-W members, contributing to the newsletter is a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and information across a wide audience. Submit a proposal for an article http://women.acm.org/submit.