ACM Europe Launched at European Computer Science Summit

By Beverly Bachmayer (Intel) (4 posts) on October 14, 2009 at 10:34 am

Ever find yourself in a room full of famous people, every time you turn around you run into another name that is very familiar and that person is speaking to you, introducing himself. That is how I found myself last Thursday night when Professor Dame Wendy Hall launched ACM Europe at a well attended cocktail hour and dinner in Paris on October 8^th 2009. Three Turing award winners as well as several European winners of other major ACM awards and many European ACM Fellows attended the event. ACM’s Goal by launching the council expressed by Professor Dame Wendy Hall ‘Our goal is to share ACM’s vast array of valued resources and services on a global scale. We want to discover the work and welcome the talent from all corners of the computing arena so that we are better positioned to appreciate the key issues and challenges within Europe’s academic, research and professional computing communities, and respond accordingly’. Professor Hall also pointed out that this is a global effort and that similar events are planned in India and China. The ACM Europe Council Chair Fabrizio Gagliardi, Director of External Research Programs, Microsoft Research Europe, said in a prerecorded video ‘By strengthening ACM’s ties in the region and raising awareness of its many benefits and resources with the public and European decision makers, we can play an active role in the critical technical, educational and social issues that surround the computing community’. The ACM European Council’s 15 members come from across Europe representing both industry and academia. As an European ACM member I am looking forward to the impact this learned council will have on computer science education and industry in the European community.