The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was founded on September 15, 1947, as an organization for computer and information professionals. During World War II, computing technology was used as a powerful military weapon by scientists in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Primary uses of this research included cryptography, ballistics, and weapons targeting. During the transition to the Cold War, computing technology helped governments and organizations in the industrialized world process more information at higher degrees of accuracy and at lower cost. After the war ended, there was a growing level of interest in the commercial applications of mechanical and digital computers; thus, the development of an association that facilitated the coordination of computing research across multiple institutions was deemed important, especially at ...