Association for Computing Machinery

Association for Computing Machinery
Name	Association for Computing Machinery
Founded	15 September 1947
Headquarters	New York City, New York, U.S.
Key people	Yannis Ioannidis (President)
Website	https://www.acm.org/

Association for Computing Machinery. Founded in 1947, it is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, serving as a pivotal force in advancing the field as both a profession and a science. Its mission encompasses the dissemination of research, the setting of professional standards, and the recognition of technical excellence across all domains of computing. With members in over 190 countries, it provides resources that strengthen the global computing community's collective voice.

History

The organization was established at a meeting at Columbia University in 1947, with key early figures including Edmund Berkeley and representatives from institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bell Labs. Its creation was driven by the need for a professional society dedicated to the nascent field of computing, distinct from existing electrical engineering bodies. Early activities focused on publishing the Communications of the ACM journal and sponsoring seminal conferences that helped define the discipline. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, it grew in parallel with the industry, establishing pivotal special interest groups and awards that chronicled the evolution from mainframes to personal computing and the internet.

Organization and governance

Governance is led by an elected President and a Council that includes representatives from its various geographic regions and special interest groups. Key operational bodies include the Publications Board, which oversees its vast array of journals, and the Education Board, which shapes curricular guidelines. The organization is structured into over 35 Special Interest Groups, each focused on a specific technical area, and numerous local chapters worldwide, including student chapters at universities like Stanford University and the University of Cambridge. Headquarters are located in the Financial District, Manhattan, with additional offices supporting global initiatives.

Publications and digital library

It publishes numerous prestigious peer-reviewed journals, including the flagship Communications of the ACM, the Journal of the ACM, and numerous transactions series such as those on Computer Systems and Software Engineering. The ACM Digital Library is a cornerstone resource, containing a comprehensive archive of its publications alongside proceedings from flagship events like the SIGGRAPH conference. This repository is an essential research tool for academics and professionals at institutions like the Carnegie Mellon University and Google. The library also hosts the Guide to Computing Literature, a major bibliographic database in the field.

Special interest groups and conferences

Its special interest groups are central to its technical community, with SIGGRAPH being renowned for its annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. Other major groups include SIGCOMM, focused on data communication, SIGPLAN for programming languages, and SIGMOD for data management. These groups organize leading global conferences such as SIGCSE (Computer Science Education), the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, and the Symposium on Theory of Computing. Events like the International Conference on Software Engineering and Neural Information Processing Systems (co-sponsored) are pivotal forums for presenting groundbreaking research.

Awards and recognition

It bestows the highest honors in computing, most notably the ACM Turing Award, often described as the "Nobel Prize of Computing," with recipients including Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, and Frances Allen. Other major awards include the Grace Murray Hopper Award for young researchers, the ACM Software System Award, and the ACM Fellow program, which recognizes members for transformative contributions. Specific groups also confer awards, such as the SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award and the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award, celebrating excellence in specialized subfields.

Educational activities

The organization plays a leading role in computing education through its ACM Committee on Computing Education and the joint IEEE Computer Society/ACM task forces that create curricular recommendations for programs worldwide. It sponsors the International Collegiate Programming Contest, operated by Baylor University, which involves thousands of student teams from institutions like St. Petersburg State University. Additional resources include the ACM Inroads magazine for educators and online learning platforms that provide professional development, supporting the growth of the field from primary education through advanced research at universities like the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Category:Computer-related organizations in the United States Category:International professional associations Category:Scientific organizations established in 1947