ACM India Professional and Student Chapters

There are an increasing number of ACM chapters across India. Each of these chapters has a series of technical events that will provide you with both interesting technical content and career networking opportunities.

Find ACM Professional and Student Chapters in India

ACM India is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 ACM India Student Chapter Awards.

We invited nominations from ACM Student Chapters from India, for the best and runner-up ACM India student chapter award to be given at the ACM India Annual Event in February.

The participating chapters sent a report with details of their activities:

• Community Activities
• Community Service
• Website
• Recruitment Program
• Participation in ACM India Activities
• Membership Numbers

PICT ACM Student Chapter at Pune Institute of Computer Technology has won the Best Chapter award.

PCCOE ACM Student Chapter at Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering has won the runner-up award.

Chitkara ACM student Chapter at Chitkara University has received Honourable Mention.

Congratulations!

Conferences

The ACM community in India is actively involved with a large number of conferences. Please see the Approved ACM Events in India listing page and the ACM India Annual Events and Conferences page.

Travel Grants for Conferences

ACM India and the Indian Association for Research in Computing Science (IARCS) jointly offer partial travel grants to faculty, students and postdocs from India to present papers co-authored by them at premier international conferences. For more information, please visit the ACM India-IARCS Travel Grants page.

For Conference Organizers

ACM and SIGs (Special Interest Groups) lend the name of the organization to conferences which are fully sponsored by other nonprofit incorporated organizations. Such cooperation is to be primarily for publicity and to encourage Association members to participate by contributing papers and attending technical sessions. Cooperation specifically excludes financial participation, responsibility, or liability on the part of ACM. Please see http://www.acm.org/sigs/volunteer_resources/conference_manual/1-3incop for more information on how to apply for such cooperation.
For detailed guidelines, please use this guidelines document.

Current news and updates about the ACM Community in India are available on the LinkedIn group ACM India.

ACM India Eminent Speaker Program

The ACM India Eminent Speaker Program (ESP) provides local ACM professional and student chapters in India with direct access to top technology leaders and innovators who will give talks on issues that are important to the computing community.

Below is a list of available speakers. Please visit the Guidelines for Speakers and Guidelines for Chapters pages for information on the procedure.

Speaker / Affiliation / Title of Talks
1. Aditya Abhyankar, Dean, University of Pune
   Talk 1: Research—Why, How and When?
   Talk 2: Towards Kernel Development in Machine Learning
   Talk 3: Wavelets—Trends and Tides
2. Ponnurangam Kumaraguru ("PK"), Assistant Professor, IIIT Delhi
   Talk 1: Privacy and Security in Online Social Media (PSOSM)
   Talk 2: Designing Human-Centered Systems
3. Y. Raghu Babu Reddy, Associate Professor, IIIT Hyderabad
   Talk 1: Are You a Software Engineer? Or Is It Just Your Designation?
   Talk 2: Model Driven Development with UML 2.x: Challenges and Opportunities
   Talk 3: Success Factors for Websites: Usability and Credibility
4. Sachin Lodha, Principal Scientist, TCS
   Talk 1: Fun with Algorithms
   Talk 2: Privacy—Challenges and Opportunities
5. Neeran M. Karnik, Independent Consultant
   Talk 1: Hints for Computer System Design
   Talk 2: CricInfo—A Tech History
6. Abhijat Vichare, Consultant
   Talk 1: An Introduction to GCC Internals
   Talk 2: Alternate Models of Computation
   Talk 3: A Novel Way to Teach Operating Systems
   Talk 4: Mathematical Modeling in Computer Science
7. Madhavan Mukund, Professor and Dean of Studies, Chennai Mathematical Institute
   Talk 1: Automata and Program Verification
   Talk 2: Concurrent Programming: Old Problems, New Challenges
8. Santonu Sarkar, Professor, Computer Science and Information Systems, BITS Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa Campus
   Talk 1: Software Dependability for Next Gen Systems
   Talk 2: Software Engineering Challenges in Building HPC Applications
   Talk 3: Cloud Based Next Generation Service and Key Challenges
   Talk 4: Virtualized Environments—Benefits and Overheads
9. Arun Bahulkar, Chief Scientist, TCS Innovations Lab TRDDC, TCS Pune
   Talk 1: Perspectives on Modeling Software and Systems
10. Vivek Kulkarni, Chief Architect, Persistent Systems Ltd.
    Talk 1: Theory of Computation
    Talk 2: Compiler Construction
11. Navin Kabra, CTO, ReliScore.com
    Talk 1: Which Programming Language Should You Learn and Why
    Talk 2: MS, MBA, or Job: Planning Your Career
    Talk 3: The Difference between Student Programmers and Professional Programmers
12. Prasad M. Deshpande, Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM Research - India
    Talk 1: Unlocking the Power of Unstructured Data for Master Data Management
    Talk 2: Preventing Information Leakage from Unstructured Documents
13. Sameep Mehta, Senior Researcher and Manager, Information and Analytics Department, IBM Research - India
    Talk 1: Introduction to Knowledge Graph Stores with Applications
    Talk 2: Data Fusion Enabled Contextual and Personalized Insight Mining
14. Rajeev Gupta, Researcher, IBM Research - India
    Talk 1: Big Data, Metadata, and Beyond
    Talk 2: Continuous Query Processing: Concepts, Algorithms, and New Problems
15. Ramasuri Narayanam, Research Scientist, IBM Research - India
    Talk 1: Social Network Analysis: From Classics to Recent Advances
    Talk 2: Games on Networks: Modeling, Algorithms, Computational Analysis, Applications
    Talk 3: Computational Analysis of Connectivity Games with Applications to Social Network Analysis
16. Suparna Bhattacharya, Distinguished Technologist, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise
    Talk 1: Bridging Lilliput and Brobdingnag—How the Linux kernel has sustained diversity without giving up on efficiency
    Talk 2: Software Bloat, Lost Throughput and Wasted Joules
    Talk 3: Shaping software for the persistent memory era and other research problems at the NVM frontline
    Talk 4: Big data analytics: When will system software catch up?
17. Sunil K. Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Chandigarh College of Engineering & Technology (Degree Wing)
    Talk 1: Trends and Scope of High Performance Computing in Recent Technology Expansion
    Talk 2: Role of Reconfigurable Computing in Embedded System
    Talk 3: Opening Prospect of Using LINUX in Technology Enlargement
18. Ranjan Dasgupta, Senior Scientist, TCS
    Talk 1: Robotics Sensing and Sensor Fusion of Vision, Audition, Quantitative Thermography and Olfaction
    Talk 2: UAV Swarming, Distributed Sensing, Inspection and Surveillance
    Talk 3: Emergency Response System and Robotics Reconnaissance
19. Ajay Deshpande, CTO, Rakya Technologies
    Talk 1: SMAC Technologies and the Future
    Talk 2: The Evolution of Modern Web Applications
20. Rashmi Mohan, Independent Consultant/Technologist. Member, ACM India Council; Program Chair, Grace Hopper Celebration India
    Talk 1: Do You See What I See? Industry uses and applications of computer vision
21. Dinesh Garg, Senior Researcher, IBM India Research Lab, Bangalore
    Talk 1: Quadratic Optimization in High Dimensions: A Tale of Two Methods
    Talk 2: Mobile Payments—A Growing Threat and How Machine Learning Can Help
    Talk 3: Auction Design for Online Advertising
22. Animesh Nandi, Senior Researcher, IBM Research India, Bangalore
    Talk 1: Enabling Efficient Time-Travel Primitives in Big Data Platforms
    Talk 2: Detecting Anomalous System Behaviour Using Historical Log Data
    Talk 3: Towards Automating Root-Cause Diagnosis in a Datacenter via Analysis of Historical Fine-grained Machine-state Data
23. Praveen Jayachandran, Researcher, IBM Research India, Bangalore
    Talk 1: Research Challenges and Trends in Cloud Computing
    Talk 2: Linux Containers: The Next Generation Cloud Technology
    Talk 3: Monitoring and Problem Determination in Cloud Environments
24. R. Venkateswaran, Senior Vice President, Persistent Systems Ltd., Pune
    Talk 1: Evolution of Internet: The Past, Present and Future
25. Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, Program Director, Special Initiatives, IBM Research India, Bangalore
    Talk 1: Energy-Transportation Nexus: Future of Renewables, Energy Storage, Electric Vehicles for Emerging Markets Like India
    Talk 2: IT/Wireless Convergence: Future of Mobile and Telecom in India

ACM India Survey on PhD Production in India for Computer Science and IT

• 2016-2017 Report (pdf)

• 2015-2016 Report (pdf)

• 2014-2015 Report (pdf)

• 2013-2014 Report (pdf)

• 2012-2013 Report (pdf)

ACM Survey on PhD Production in Computer Science in India

• Main Page
• 2012 Report (pdf)

Report on the Faculty Summit on Research and Innovation, 2013

• HTML Version
• PDF Version

Travel Grants for Conferences

ACM India and the Indian Association for Research in Computing Science (IARCS) jointly offer partial travel grants to faculty, students and postdocs from India to present papers co-authored by them at premier international conferences. For more information, please visit the ACM India-IARCS Travel Grants page.

ACM India Research Board (AIRB)

What is AIRB?
ACM India Research Board (AIRB) is a community of academics, researchers, and others who care deeply about enhancing the quality and the quantity of computing research done in India, particularly in the academic institutions. The Indian computing academic community is strong and has grown significantly in the recent years. While it is gratifying to see its growth, there is a lot more we can achieve, given the keen interest in CS among the students. Concerted action by all concerned is necessary in the future for research in India to reach the quality and recognition it deserves.

The Research Board is set up as a group within ACM India, which is a volunteer organization committed to advancing computing as a science and a profession in India. It is presently a collection of volunteers who are passionate about its goals and are enthusiastic in working towards achieving them.

What are AIRB's objectives?
The first goal of AIRB is to build a sense of community among the computing researchers in the academia and the industry in India. It aims to slowly become the voice of the Indian computing research community. This should facilitate interfacing with all sections of the society relevant to computing research: Government, Industry, Academic Institutions, and Students.

The CS research community should come together and work towards a planned and accelerated course in the future. A lot can be achieved by strategizing among ourselves towards a common plan. AIRB is keen to facilitate the coming together through specific activities and actions.

What are AIRB's activities?
The following activities have already been initiated by ACM India in the domain of research promotion:

• ACM India Doctoral Dissertation Award
• PhD Production Survey
• Conference Travel Grant Scheme
• Faculty Summit
• MSR-ACM India Academic Research Summit

How can you help?
AIRB seeks ideas and active participation of all in furthering AIRB's mission. As a first step, AIRB has started to reach out to the Head of the Department and/or other relevant individuals of the departments with productive research programmes in computing areas. Subsequently, all academic institutions with strong teaching or research in relevant areas will be approached with the request to participate seriously in AIRB's efforts.

Who are involved now?
AIRB is eagerly looking for more hands to help its activities. The following individuals are presently involved in different capacities, with strong support from ACM India as well as their respective institutions.

AIRB Chair: P J Narayanan, Director, IIIT Hyderabad

ACM India President: Abhiram Ranade, IIT Bombay

DDA Coordinator: Supratik Chakraborty, IIT, Mumbai

PhD Survey Coordinator: Dr. Gautam Shroff, Vice President and Chief Scientist, TCS Research

Travel Award Coordinator: Madhavan Mukund, Chennai Mathematical Institute

Whom can I Contact?
Please use the email airb@india.acm.org or ResearchBoard@india.acm.org to communicate to the ACM India Research Board.

About the ACM India Doctoral Dissertation Award
The ACM India Doctoral Dissertation Award was established in 2011 by ACM India with approval from the ACM Awards Committee. This award recognizes the best doctoral dissertation(s) in Computer Science and Engineering from a degree-awarding institution based in India for each academic year. There will be one award in 2014. The award will consist of a plaque and a cash component of Rs 2,00,000. In case of a joint award, the award amount will be shared equally among the recipients. The ACM India Doctoral Dissertation Award page lists the current and past winners of this award. Details on the process and the jury are available here.

About the ACM Survey on PhD Production in India for Computer Science and Information Technology
The purpose of this study is to collect reasonably reliable data on PhD production in CS in India, and then use it to identify useful trends. This exercise was motivated by the Taulbee report in the US. The study aims to include all institutions which have a PhD program in CS/IT.

About the IARCS-ACM India Student Conference Travel Awards
Since 2014, ACM India has collaborated with the Indian Association for Research in Computing Science (IARCS) to provide travel grants to students from Indian universities and institutions for presenting papers at international conferences. For more information, please visit the ACM India-IARCS Travel Grants page.

Faculty Summit
On 15 February 2018, iSIGCSE and CSPathshala events were conducted. The iSIGCSE Faculty Summit highlighted how ACM-IEEE CS2013 syllabus can be adopted by institutes to bring in uniformity in preparing courses taught such as in defining learning objectives of courses and assessment methodology. CSPathshala session included experiences shared by some of the local schools which started to adopt their curriculum as part of the pilots.

MSR-ACM India Academic Research Summit
Microsoft Research (MSR) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) India co-organised the third (2018) edition of the Academic Research Summit, in partnership with International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad. The agenda included keynotes and talks from distinguished researchers from India and across the world. The summit also had sessions focused on specific topics related to the theme of Artificial Intelligence: A Future with AI. The audience at the summit comprised faculty and research scholars from top engineering institutes across the country and representatives from industry and the government.

Current ACM India Council Members

Two-year term (1 July 2018 - 30 June 2020):

• President - Abhiram Ranade (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay)
• Vice President - Venkatesh Raman (Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai)
• Secretary/Treasurer - Maria Choudhary (Oracle India)

Members-at-Large
Four-year term (1 July 2018 - 30 June 2022):

• Supratik Chakraborty (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay)
• Meenakshi D'Souza (International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore)
• Manish Gupta (VideoKen and International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore)
• Jayant Haritsa (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
• Pankaj Jalote (Indraprastha Institute for Information Technology, Delhi)
• Venkatesh Kamat (Goa University)
• Hemangee Kapoor (Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati)
• Sudeshna Sarkar (Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur)
• Vasudeva Varma (International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad)

ACM-W India Chair - Arati M. Dixit (Independent Consultant, Pune)

ACM India Past President - Madhavan Mukund (Chennai Mathematical Institute)

ACM India Executive Director - Hemant Pande

ACM India COO - Shekhar Sahasrabudhe (Persistent Systems Ltd.)
shekhar_sahasrabudhe@india.acm.org

Past Council Members

ACM India Best Doctoral Dissertation Award

Founding Sponsor:

ACM India is proud to announce the winner of the 2018 Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Palash Dey of Department of CSA, IISc Bangalore has received the ACM India Council's 2018 Doctoral Dissertation Award for "Resolving Complexity of Some Fundamental Problems in Computational Social Choice". Honorable Mentions went to Swagato Sanyal of School of Technology and Computer Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai, for "Complexity Measures of Boolean Functions: Fourier Sparsity, Fourier Dimension and Query Complexity"; and Manoj Agarwal of IIT Bombay Department of CSE, for "Data as Graph: Discovery, Search, Retrieval".

Palash Dey Advisors: Y. Narahari and A. Bhattacharyya

Swagato Sanyal Advisor: Prahladh Harsha

Manoj Agarwal Advisor: Krithi Ramamritham

The Award

The ACM India Best Doctoral Dissertation Award was established in 2011 by ACM India with approval from the ACM Awards Committee. This award recognizes the best doctoral dissertation(s) in Computer Science and Engineering from a degree-awarding institution based in India for each academic year. The award will consist of a plaque and a cash component of INR 2,00,000. In case of a joint award, the award amount will be shared among the recipients. Please see the ACM India Doctoral Dissertation Award page for additional information on current and past winners.

Eligibility

Each PhD granting institution based in India can normally nominate 1 student for the award. Institutions that produce more than 10 dissertations in relevant areas per year can nominate 2 students. Each dissertation nominated for the 2018-2019 award must have been defended successfully between August 1, 2018 and July 31, 2019.

Deadline

Nominations must be received by August 31, 2019 to qualify for consideration of the 2018-2019 award.

Publication and Copyrights

Winning dissertations will be published in the ACM Digital Library. Each nomination must be accompanied by an assignment to ACM by the author of exclusive publication rights, as per ACM's copyright policies. Copyright will automatically revert to an author if her/his dissertation is not selected.

Nomination Procedure

Candidates with PhD degree completed from CS/CSE or allied disciplines are eligible. Note that the nominations have to come only through the Head of computer Science/Engineering department. Also, please refer to the clause of maximum nominations coming from any institute.

Each nomination must include:

1. Nomination letter by thesis advisor. This letter must include:

   • The name, address, and phone number of the advisor,

   • The name, mailing address and email address of the candidate, and

   • A one-page summary of the significance of the dissertation.

2. An endorsement letter by the department head or a suitable substitute (in case of conflict of interest).

3. One copy of the thesis in electronic format

4. A record of publications in conferences and journals of the work reported in the dissertation, along with their citations, if any.

5. A copyright transfer form filled out and signed by the candidate. Please use the Journals form downloadable from http://www.acm.org/publications/copyright_form for this purpose.

Optional

Supporting letters are helpful and a nomination can be supported by a maximum of five supporting letters from individuals who are familiar with the work. Each supporting letter must include the name, contact information, and telephone number of the supporter.

Mode of submission

Nomination material must be submitted electronically by the thesis advisor. Supporting letters should not come directly from the supporters—all necessary material, including supporting letters, may be collected and submitted by the thesis advisor, bundled as a zip file. The zip file must be uploaded to Easychair. Watch this space for the submission web page for ACM IDDA 2018-2019.

Selection Procedure

Dissertations will be reviewed for technical depth and significance of the research contribution, potential impact on theory and practice, and quality of presentation. A committee of approximately 10 eminent Computer Science researchers from across the world will perform an initial screening to generate a short list, followed by an in-depth evaluation to determine the winning dissertation.

For further queries on the ACM India Best Doctoral Dissertation Award, contact acmindiaaward@acm.org

CSpathshala

   

Although teaching computers has already been introduced in India, it focuses primarily on digital literacy and students are taught use of word processors and presentation applications. Many countries are moving away from a digital literacy to a Computational Thinking (CT) based curriculum. Introducing a computing curriculum for schools in India has several challenges over and above those faced by the developed nations. Apart from the cultural and regional diversity, India has over 1.6 million schools offering K-12 education to 300 million students. Compare that with about 130,000 schools in the USA with 54 million students. To compound the problem, India has 44 education boards!

ACM India started a education initiative, CSpathshala in 2016, to teach computing as a science in all schools. The key objectives are to popularise CT and influence education policy to enable its introduction into the curricula. A two-pronged approach has been undertaken, developing a CT curriculum along with teaching aids and working at grassroot levels with schools, training teachers, executing pilot projects and collecting data to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of teaching CT.

Over 100,000 students in government and private schools in both rural and urban areas in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are piloting the CT curriculum in English, Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi. 1,350 trustees, heads and teachers from 600+ institutions, B.Ed students, local government and SCERT officials participated in 12 CT awareness workshops. 900+ teachers from 290+ schools have been trained on CT through 30 training programs. Teaching aids for 200 lessons have been created by CSpathshala's 250+ volunteers. A subset of these have been translated into Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi.

For more details visit CSpathshala.

ACM India Summer Schools

ACM India Summer School Objectives: Inculcating problem solving as a skill, which is not emphasised much in the undergraduate curriculum Providing exposure to leading experts, advanced topics and taste of research to motivated students Exposing students to research opportunities in the career, whether in academia or industry Salient Features of Summer Schools: Organized at multiple geographical regions in the country Conducted by faculty comprising leading experts from academia and industry on advanced topics in computing Target audience: --students in pre-final year of Bachelors and Masters programs --around 40 students per school: from nationwide applicants, selected based on academic performance, Statement of Purpose etc. criteria 2 to 3 weeks full-time course in June-July Hosted at an academic institution About ACM India Summer Schools 2019 Testimonials from earlier Summer Schools: "The three-week ACM Summer School on Graph Theory and Graph Algorithms explored various topics, providing me a holistic view of the subject and its applicability. Starting from basic concepts like Depth First Search, the school went on to cover deep concepts such as Parameterized Complexity. The classes were scheduled in such a way that enough time was provided for us to understand the concepts and solve the tutorial problems posed to us at the end of each day. Personally, the school proved to be highly beneficial for me since it introduced me to an algorithmic technique that I could exploit to derive a significant result in my research work that formed the crux of my paper that got published at the Frontiers of Algorithmics Workshop 2018. "Looking from the non-academic point of view, the school was well organized in all aspects. The hospitality extended by the organizers was warm and welcoming. The campus infrastructure provided us with various amenities such as gym, library, etc. that we could explore during our free time. There were also some fun activities such as bird watching which boosted networking amongst the diverse participants of the school. "Overall the school has provided me an experience with numerous takeaways both academically and otherwise." -- S. Vaishali, from PSG College of Technology Coimbatore, attended Summer School 2017 on Graph Theory and Graph Algorithms at IIT Gandhinagar "I liked this summer school very much. It built a good base about graph theory and then slowly moved towards the advanced topics. It helped me in clearing the interview of TIFR and also in GATE exam. Thank you very much for the school." -- Raj Rajvir, attended Summer School 2017 on Graph Theory and Graph Algorithms at IIT Gandhinagar

Previous Summer Schools: 2018 Summer Schools 2017 Summer Schools

ACM-W India

ACM-W India seeks to take forward the task of the ACM community, but with a particular focus on the empowerment of women in computing in India.

ACM-W supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women. ACM-W Student Chapters are created to help recruit and retain students in computing programs. Professional Chapter-sponsored activities educate women about careers in computing and provide networking opportunities.

ACM-W India aims to provide social and professional support for women in computing, and its proposed activities include:

• Facilitate technical growth of women by organizing invited lectures, seminars, workshops and informal meetings
• Provide a platform for the sharing of information, resources, ideas and experiences
• Support women in their professional career growth and help them to face the challenges in their work environment
• Encourage them to participate in computer-related studies and research

ACM-W India's goal would be to also promote computer literacy, particularly in rural India, with the objective of empowering underprivileged women and children, to enable them to be independent and self-reliant.

ACM-W India Executive Council
Chair: Arati M. Dixit, Independent Consultant, Pune
Vice Chair: Nutan Limaye, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Secretary/Treasurer: Heena Timani, Ahmedabad University

Members-at-Large, 1 July 2017 - 30 June 2021
Kalika Bali, Microsoft Research India, Bengaluru
Maushumi Barooah, Assam College of Engineering, Guwahati
Rituparna Chaki, University of Calcutta
Gunjan Lal, Adobe Systems, Noida

Past Chair: Sheila Anand, Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai

ACM-W India news and activities

Contact: acmw_india@acm.org

News and Updates

Please visit the Member Bulletin Archive for current news on upcoming activities and events:

5 November 2018: Announcing New ACM India Industry Webinar Series

• IRISS 2019, Inter-Research-Institute Student Seminar in Computer Science, 6-7 February, Kochi, Kerala: call for papers and proposals
• ACM India Annual Event 2019, 8 Februrary, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala
• ISEC 2019, Innovations in Software Engineering Conference, 14-16 February, Pune
• ACM/SPEC ICPE 2019, International Conference on Performance Engineering, 7-11 April, IIT Bombay
• Minutes of 2018 Annual General Meeting, 16 June 2018
• Annual Report for FY 2017-2018
• Balance Sheet for FY 2017-2018
• Notice of 7th Annual General Meeting of the members of Association for Computing Machinery, 16 June 2018
• Congratulations to the 2018 ACM India Doctoral Dissertation Award Winner!
• Congratulations to the 2018 ACM India Best Student Chapter Award Winner! (click on Chapters tab, above)
• Archives of past years reports & minutes

CACM Special Regional Section on India

Communications of the ACM (CACM), the flagship magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery, has launched Regional Special Sections to cover computing research and innovations from around the world, with roughly one such section being published every quarter. The first regional section on China was published in November 2018. In about a year, around October 2019, CACM plans to bring out a similar section on computing innovations in India.

This is a wonderful opportunity to tell the world about the unique and influential activities happening in India that may not be easily known outside or inside the country. CACM is a magazine with articles that present an overview and impact of a broader topic, leading interested readers to more detailed articles and sources present elsewhere.

1. CS research highlights: important CS research undertaken by the Indian groups in the past 5 years or so. Research with high academic or societal impact—either actual or potential— will be natural candidates. Articles with a theme that has special relevance are likely to be more suitable than those presenting narrow research results.
2. Computing as a tool for scientific research: innovations and research results about the use of computing as a tool in the natural or social sciences.
3. Indian service industry: Indian service industry has transformed the world and is now moving up the value chain. What innovative practices or ideas or processes facilitated this?
4. Startups and unicorns: startups and unicorns targeting the Indian market and their innovative work, with an emphasis on the innovative ideas or factors that made them successful.
5. Societal impact using technology: India is home to a large number of societal challenges in all areas: health, education, housing, etc. Examples of making a significant impact on the society through the use of computing should be of interest to the global audience.
6. Government and digital technology: India has seen a number of large-scale experiments in the use of computing technologies in the way the population is empowered and enabled. Aadhar, UPI, India Stack, etc., are examples of such. Experiences and learning from these efforts will be ideal to be featured in the India-specific section.
7. Other topics: Anything else about Indian computing that could be relevant to the CACM audience, and not covered above.

We invite ideas for articles along the above themes from individuals or groups involved with them or sho know them closely. If you think you can contribute to this effort, please prepare a short 1-page abstract on your topic along with pointers to sources that can provide more details. The abstract should explicitly highlight the impact and importance of the work in the broad Indian industrial, academic, or societal context. The abstract should clearly mention the name, affiliation and contact information of all the authors. The abstract should also mention the theme (see seven themes listed above) about which you are submitting the article.

Please submit your abstract as a single PDF file through the Regional Special Issue Portal on or before December 10, 2018. Your abstract will be reviewed by a team of experts. Selected authors will be invited to a workshop to be held in Bangalore on February 23, 2019. The workshop will collectively examine all ideas and will take the final decision on the articles to feature in the India Section of CACM.

Regards,

Chandrashekhar Sahasrabudhe
ACM India COO

Institutional Sponsors

New members from India can join ACM by paying their dues in Indian rupees.

Joining ACM Online

There are two types of membership: Student or Professional. Depending upon the type of membership you can click on the relevant links as below:
Student Registration Link | Professional Registration Link

Advanced Member Grades

The ACM India Council is encouraging all eligible ACM members in India to consider applying for advanced member status within ACM. ACM advanced member grades require varying degrees of experience and accomplishment.

For more information on how to nominate someone for these grades, click on these links:

Fellow nominations

Distinguished Member nominations

Senior Member nominations