View the list of ACM-W celebrations of 2019-2020

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Welcome from the ACM-W Chair

September marks the beginning of a new year of programming for ACM-W and this one promises to be an exciting one.  Our organization is growing and changing, reaching ever more widely across the globe.  In July, ACM-W China was established as the newest official regional committee.  Under the leadership of their chair, Hong Gao, we anticipate increased opportunity for women in computing across China to form student and professional chapters, attend Celebrations and experience the community of support that ACM-W provides.  Welcome, ACM-W China!

In our April newsletter, I announced an organizational restructuring plan for ACM-W.  During the past several months, we have been slowly transitioning to this new structure.  The establishment of ACM-W North America is well underway and being capably led by its chair, Monica McGill.  We also solicited applications for some new leadership positions within ACM-W.  We had several interested and qualified applicants for the positions – thanks to all that applied! 

Thanks for standing with us as we work to fulfill our mission.

Jodi Tims
ACM-W Chair

The 2019-2020 ACM-W Leadership Team

Jodi Tims, Chair

“Over the years, ACM-W has given me a network of peers, mentors and friends that have had such a positive impact on my career.  I consider it a true privilege to serve as the chair of this impactful organization.  I am committed to the goal of continuing global growth of ACM-W so that women worldwide can find their professional community of support.” -Jodi

Reyyan Ayfer, Regional Activities Chair

“During my studies and work in computer science since 80’s, I have been a first-hand witness to the drastic decline in gender diversity in the field. This prompted me to motivate young women to choose computer science as a life-long career and encourage those who are already on board to stay on board. I feel strongly that future generations will resolve this diversity issue by promoting awareness, motivation and inspiration, which can be achieved through healthy communication, sharing and caring for each other. Having experienced the joy and impact of volunteer work for ACM-W, I invite all colleagues, men and women to work together for a better world that values diversity and inclusion.”  -Reyyan

Arati Dixit and Bushra Anjum, Standing Committees Chairs

“I am truly honored, privileged and excited to be an instrument in this process of empowerment of women in Computing with ACM-W!  I am looking forward to all possible opportunities to interact with Women in Computing and contribute towards creation of effective and all-inclusive networking platforms, projects and systems for the women in computing, belonging to diverse communities’ like- student, IT industry, research, academia and many more!  Along with enthusiastic ACM and ACM-W team, I am optimistic that my experience with women from different continents will help me to connect and work with this bright, diverse and influential community of Women in Computing, to make a positive impact on the dynamic field of computing!” – Arati

“Inclusion is empowering, and empowering women and underrepresented minorities in the field of technology is my life’s passion. I am privileged to be selected as the Standing Committees Chair for ACM-W, where together we celebrate, engage, and empower women in computing. “ – Bushra

Bettina Bair and Sarah McRoberts, Communications Chairs

“I’ve had many roles in ACM-W over the years: student chapter faculty adviser, celebration general chair, professional chapter chair, and executive committee member. And that’s what is great about ACM-W. By offering global advocacy, local chapters, and regional celebrations, it is an organization that is uniquely positioned to provide support to women in computing throughout their career: from student to professional.  ACM-W is there for more than 70,000 women in computing at a personal level, worldwide. And continues to offer support all year long, not just one day a year. Now as ACM-W’s Communication co-Chair, I am excited about the opportunity to help ACM-W support their global community with an interconnected set of platforms from which members can share their successes, advertise their events, and receive advice and support.” – Bettina

“I am honored to join this team of leading women in computing. I’m looking forward to helping ACM-W grow its online presence to empower and connect local leaders! I can’t wait to see what you want to share!” – Sarah

Yuqing Melanie Wu and Amelia Cole, Treasurers

“As the treasurer, I will work closely with the chair and leadership group of ACM-W to optimize the usage of our resources in supporting all existing projects and explore new projects and new funding resources that advance our mission.” –  Melanie

“My interest in ACM-W is to strengthen the interdisciplinary computing community and proactively recognize the diversity of innovations from women in STEAM fields. As a women’s rights advocate, I am proud to be part of a community that showcases inclusive research, technologies, and global policies as well as provides networking and learning opportunities for a historically marginalized population. I’m honoured to be a small part of the organization’s long term impact.” -Amelia

Rounding out the team are two stalwart champions of ACM/ACM-W:

• Past Chair – Valerie Barr
• ACM Headquarters Liaison – Pat Ryan, COO

ACM-W Rising Star Award – Nominations Open October 1st!

The ACM-W Rising Star Award is a new award that will recognize a woman whose early-career research has had a significant impact on the computing discipline, as measured by factors such as frequent citation of their work, creation of a new research area, a high degree of technology transfer and/or other positive influences and societal impact. The award will be given annually, and the recipient will receive a framed certificate and $1,000 stipend. Nominations will open on October 1, 2019 and close on November 15, 2019. This award was established based on a donation from Andrea Goldsmith. ACM-W would like to thank Dr. Goldsmith for her generous donation and commitment to promoting the success of women in computing! More information about the award can be found at https://women.acm.org/acm-w-awards/rising-star-award/. 

News from ACM-W Scholarships

The ACM Scholarship for Attendance of Research Conferences program provides support for women students in Computer Science and related programs who wish to attend research conferences. The student does not have to present a paper at the conference to be eligible for a scholarship. Applications are evaluated at 6 occasions each year, to distribute awards across a range of conferences, with usually 3-6 awards given for each group of applications. The ACM Scholarships are made possible due to the generous support of Microsoft, Google and Oracle.

If the award is for attendance at one of the ACM special interest group conferences (SIG conferences), the SIG will most likely provide complimentary conference registration and a mentor during the conference. The number of free registrations available varies from SIG to SIG. ACM-W has helped students attend a wide range of meetings including SIGGRAPH, SIGCHI, Women in Cyber Security, ACM EC, SIGCSE, IEEE Conferences, DIS, IPDPS, ICCC, ACM CHI, AAMAS, FLAIRS, WIMS, CSCW, GECCO, ICAPS, and ICSE, amongst others.

The scholarship exposes students to prominent researchers in their field, introduces students to new research, and excites them about doing research by themselves. We ask students to share with us some of their thoughts on the conference they attend, preferably with a picture, so that we can show our readers and funders the diversity of our winners. We never cease to find truly inspiring stories!

Since we are now in the process of putting up the full collection of reports from previous winners online at https://women.acm.org/scholars/acm-w-scholars/?sch_year=2019, here we simply report the award winners for the last round of the scholarship decisions. (actually, we’re still working on the backlog, but getting there!)

This new academic year we welcome four lucky winners:  two undergraduates,  Kristina Daniels (from the US) and Anushka Bhandari (from India) and two PhD students, Shringi Kumari (from India, studying in the UK) and Sariah Lopez, from Chile and studying there.  Kristina is going across the USA to SIGITE the 20th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education, hosted by the University of Washington at Tacoma, WA, while Anushka, who’s an undergraduate from IIIT Delhi, India, is going  across the globe to the 22nd ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), in Austin, Texas, USA. Sariah Lopez, like Kristina is going to SIGITE, but from  further afield, actually from Valparaiso,  Chile. Finally, our last winner, Shringi Kumari  is going from York, in England to Barcelona, Spain, for CHI PLAY’19, the 2019 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. We are proud to see our students going places and striving to give back to others. Congratulations to our four awardees!!

The next application deadline is October 15 for conferences taking place in Dec 1 – Jan 30, 2020.   For more information and to apply visit: https://women.acm.org/scholarships/. 

If you have any questions, please contact the scholarship committee chair Prof. Viviana Bono, at bono@di.unito.it.

News from ACM-W Europe

Chiara Petrioli joins ACM-WE Executive Committee

We are pleased to inform that Professor Chiara Petrioli has joined ACM-WE Executive Committee. Those attending womENcourage will have the pleasure of meeting Chiara during the panel sessions https://womencourage.acm.org/2019/panels/.

Chiara is Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Sensor Networks and Embedded Systems laboratory (SENSES lab) in the Department of Computer Science of the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” She is a world renowned researcher, scholar, and entrepreneur.

Chiara is a founding partner of “La Sapienza” spinoff WSENSE, a fast growing high-tech company with offices in Italy, Norway, and the UK. She is a pioneer of the Internet of Underwater Things, an area on which she has led the development of breakthrough technologies listed in the NT100 Top “Social Global Techs changing our lives 2016”. She has held many prominent leadership roles and is currently serving on the ACM Europe Council. Learn more about Chiara on https://acmweurope.acm.org/executive-committee/.

We are looking forward to working with Chiara!

ACM-W Europe welcomes volunteers!

https://acmweurope.acm.org/volunteers/

ACM Women Europe (ACM-WE) carries out the ACM Women mission in Europe, engaging volunteers who organize various activities to foster a sense of community and mutual support among professional women in computing across national boundaries. 

The work of ACM-WE is managed and performed by volunteers who contribute their time and effort. The roles and participation are flexible and leadership roles are time-limited to ensure that other volunteers have a chance to make their contributions.

Apply to become an ACM-WE Working Group Volunteer!

ACM-WE harnesses the talent and the enthusiasm of volunteers who wish to take up specific roles or tasks as parts of Working Groups or supporting the Executive Committee work. The work is allocated based on individuals’ skills, affinity, and availability. The selection of tasks and time contributions are flexible and vary based on individuals desires and ACM-WE needs.

ACM-WE will be accepting applications for Working Group volunteers from 1 October until 1 November, 2019. Application forms will be provided on the womENcourage web site closer to date.