ACM contest showcases computing projects

Source: Technology Digital

Date :6/20/2007 8:34:20 AM

Graduate and undergraduate student finalists present quality research at the Association for Computing Machinery “Student Research Competition.”

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) honored the Grand Finals winners of its rapidly expanding Student Research Competition (SRC) on June 9, at the 2007 ACM Awards Banquet in San Diego with awards and cash prizes for achievements in computing research. The winners, from colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, presented original research on a range of topics, including computer graphics, programming tools, wireless networks, mobile phone design, non-visual web browsers, biomedical information extraction, data exchange, and grid computing.

The competition was held at seven major ACM Special Interest Group conferences within the last year. Each SRC featured research projects produced by an international array of graduate and undergraduate students in computer science. Nearly 200 students applied to participate in the SRC events this year.

ACM's Student Research Program is sponsored by Microsoft Research. Mark Lewin, who directs Microsoft Research's partnership with ACM for the SRC, notes that Microsoft Research want to encourage students to pursue careers in computer science research. "The SRC is a vibrant program that offers students a rich and rewarding first experience in preparing and presenting research in real-world conference settings as well as a warm welcome to the research community," says Lewin, program manager for Microsoft Research's External Research & Programs group.

Ann Sobel is the chair of the SRC Committee and associate professor at Miami University of Ohio. "We know from events like ACM's International Collegiate Programming Contest that early practice and preparation for these competitions is a major advantage in demonstrating success in these problem-solving projects. We're pleased to see these competitions continue to expand to additional ACM conferences in many diverse areas of computing," she says.

SRC Grand Final Results

In the graduate student category, the first place winner was Eugene Borodin of Stony Brook University for his research on computers and accessibility. Second place went to Emerson Murphy-Hill of Portland State University for his work on improving tools for restructuring computer code. In third place was Bowen Hui of the University of Toronto for his contributions to customizing automatic software.

In the undergraduate category, the first place winner was Anselm Grundhoefer of Bauhaus-University, Weimar for his research on real-time images for computer graphic applications. Second place went to Maria Kazandijevea of Mount Holyoke College for her contributions to improving resource sharing in wireless networks. The third place finisher was Yuan-Ting E. Huang of the University of British Columbia for her research on mobile phone design using Chinese text.