Association for Computing Machinery

The first educational and scientific computing society, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was founded in 1947. Today, the ACM has more than 75,000 members worldwide, including students and computing professionals throughout the realms of academia, industry, research, and government. The ACM serves both professional and public interests by providing technical information and promoting high standards in the field of computing.

ACM provides specialized technical information and services through its 33 special-interest groups (SIGs). These SIGs focus on a variety of specialties within the computing discipline, such as computer architecture (SIGARCH), computer-science education (SIGCSE), computer-human interface (SIGCHI), and computer graphics and interactive techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH). Many of these SIGs are highly interdisciplinary, and serve members outside the computing profession. For example, many ACM SIGGRAPH members are artists, and many SIGCHI members are psychologists. The SIGs are sources of significant knowledge in these particular focus areas.

ACM provides service to local and regional communities by supporting more than 700 professional and student chapters worldwide, 20 percent of which are outside the United States. These chapters provide a means for professionals to gather for lectures, seminars, and other events. Some of the SIGs do not allow national chapters (e.g., a U.K. chapter, as opposed to a London chapter) for political reasons, but ACM does charter national chapters. The ACM Lectureship Program, which provides speakers for chapter events, and the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest are both valuable programs, especially for students.

The primary ACM member publication is the monthly Communications of the ACM. It provides articles of general interest and some in-depth discussions, with a different focus each month. The ACM also publishes many journals recognizing research accomplishments in specialized areas such as graphics, programming languages, and Internet technology, and books from the ACM Press cover a wide spectrum of the computing field. In addition, the SIGs produce newsletters and conference proceedings in their specialty areas. The ACM Digital Library contains the full text of all articles published by the association over the past 50 years in journals, transactions, and conference proceedings.

The ACM sponsors eight major awards to recognize technical and professional accomplishments in the field of computing, and most SIGs also have awards for accomplishments in their specialty areas. The [Page 17]highest ACM award, the Turing Award, is often described as “the Nobel Prize of Computing.” It was given in 2001 to Andrew Chi-Chih Yao in recognition of his work in computation theory, which included cryptography, the study of techniques for secret writing used in creating codes.

Although the ACM maintains its central goal of providing information and service to computing students and professionals, it has expanded its focus over the years to adapt to changing times. With today's increased focus on theory and people, rather than on machinery per se, the original name, Association for Computing Machinery, is seldom used. Although ACM used to sponsor a large general computing conference each year, major successful conferences are now sponsored by the SIGs. For example, ACM SIGGRAPH sponsors a large general conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques that draws 35,000–45,000 attendees, as well as a dozen smaller, more focused conferences and workshops on topics such as games technology and virtual reality; and SIGARCH co-sponsors the Supercomputing Conference with IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc.) Computer Society.

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