ACM XRDS

04/23/2019

ACM XRDS

04/23/2019

It is hard to escape the current buzz on artificial intelligence (AI) - defined in this issue as a “technological, data-driven system designed to embody human-like cognitive capabilities.” As these AI systems proliferate into everyday life, we (the builders of such technologies) are responsible for making sure we have policies and infrastructures in place to mitigate their unintended consequences. What do we do when an AI system makes a questionable, inappropriate, or unethical choice? How can we explain what led to its decision? Who is accountable? We explore these issues in the current issue.

➡️Online at this URL: https://xrds.acm.org/current-issue.cfm

XRDS is the ACM magazine for and by students, as well as a portal for information relevant to student members studying computer science and engineering.

03/19/2019

Call for Code

Software developers have the power to save lives. Check out this link to learn more about how to enter & get visibility for your work in the 2019 #CallforCode Global Challenge.

Save the date! Submissions for the 2019 #CallforCode Global Challenge open on March 25th! Follow this link for more information on submission requirements and this year’s scope! https://callforcode.org/challenge/

02/26/2019

Want to help us tell the stories of our field? Contribute to our new series: Humans of Computer Science. xrds.acm.org/getfeatured.cfm

02/06/2019

XRDS Seeking Student Editors

🚨Attention students! XRDS will soon close our search for 1 Digital Content Editor and for 2 Department Editors. 🚨

Want to join us? Check out the details here:
https://xrds.acm.org/volunteer.cfm

Seeking volunteer editors for XRDS, ACM’s student publication. XRDS is a quarterly, print magazine for students by students interested in computer science and technology.

01/28/2019

Check your mailboxes for our Winter 2019 issue, "Hype v. Innovation"! 🦄

How can we sort through the many claims made about machine learning, augmented reality, and other hype-heavy tech? Read our thoughts and let us know yours.

➡️Online at this URL: https://xrds.acm.org/current-issue.cfm

01/28/2019

Check your mailboxes for our Winter 2019 issue, "Hype v. Innovation"! 🦄

How can we sort through the many claims made about machine learning, augmented reality, and other hype-heavy tech? Read our thoughts and let us know yours.

➡️Online at this URL: https://xrds.acm.org/current-issue.cfm

11/21/2018

Thank you to all our hard-working student editors for helping make our magazine a success!

Want to join us? Volunteer => https://xrds.acm.org/volunteer.cfm

Have you read the Fall '18 issue of ACM XRDS? "The Computer Scientist" issue is a great one, thanks in part to the volunteer work of 4 of our HCI PhD students!

Learn more about how Gierad, Judeth, Judith and Cori contributed to this issue of XRDS, a by-students-for-students magazine for the computer science community: https://hcii.cmu.edu/news/2018/phd-students-contribute-fall-acm-xrds-issue-computer-scientist

11/09/2018

Please share! We are now taking applications for a Digital Content Editor and for two Department Editors.

Details at the link:
https://xrds.acm.org/volunteer.cfm

11/09/2018

Comparing classical music interpretations - XRDS

I built an audio player to easily compare multiple interpretations of the same piece. Here's an interactive demo, and a video to give you a sense of how it works: What does it mean to interpret classical music? At first glance, sheet music is prescriptive: the composer has provided all of the notes, the dynamics (forte, piano), tempo (lento, presto) and changes in tempo (de/accelerando). [ 755 more words ]
https://blog.xrds.acm.org/2018/11/comparing-classical-music-interpretations/

A self-build audio player to easily compare multiple interpretations of the same classical music piece.

11/01/2018

Information superwhichway revisited: XRDS, 24 years ago - XRDS

Back in September 1994, the ACM took a bold step into the mostly-unknown, and started its first digital-only publication — Crossroads: The ACM Student Magazine. It has changed through the years, including the transition to a dual-format, digital+printed magazine it is today (and which today seems to be the norm). I found it very interesting (and fun!) to take a look at… [ 1,172 more word ]
https://blog.xrds.acm.org/2018/11/information-superwhichway-revisited-xrds-24-years-ago/

Reading an article from the inaugural Crossroads issue about the future of the Internet reveals how the editors then were perfectly right in their predictions

10/16/2018

ACM XRDS

10/16/2018

We are excited to debut our Fall 2018 issue, "The Computer Scientist"!

Check out this Letter from the Editors on the expanding landscape for computer science: https://xrds.acm.org/article.cfm?aid=3265866

See articles on the making of a computer scientist, human values in a digital society and more in the current issue - online at https://xrds.acm.org/current-issue.cfm.

10/01/2018

ACM SIGAI Launches its 2018 Student Essay Contest...Apply Now! - XRDS

It's fall in the States and that means it's time for the 2018 ACM SIGAI Student Essay Contest on Artificial Intelligence Technologies! Win one of several $500 monetary prizes or a Skype conversation with a leading AI researcher including Joanna Bryson, Murray Campbell, Eric Horvitz, Peter Norvig, Iyad Rahwan, Francesca Rossi, or Toby Walsh. (The following text is from the ACMSIGAI blog " [ 1,284 more word ]
https://blog.xrds.acm.org/2018/10/acm-sigai-launches-its-2018-student-essay-contest-apply-now/

ACM Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence (ACM SIGAI) invites all students to enter an essay in the 2018 ACM SIGAI Student Essay Contest, to be published in the ACM SIGAI newsletter “AI Matters.”

08/07/2018

The World’s Most Active ACM Student Chapters Video Series - XRDS

Episode 2: Cornell University ACM-W Student Chapter, USA The representation of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine) fields has been a much debated topic throughout the tech industry and academia in recent times. With so much attention and effort made to improve representation within industry, student-led bodies are doing their part, if not more. One of these student organizations is WICC (Women In Computing At Cornell), whose core mission is to empower women to carve their own paths in the field of computer science. [ 102 more words ]
https://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/08/worlds-active-acm-chapters-series-video-episode-2-women-computing-cornell-cornell-university-usa/

Women In Computing At Cornell has its mission to empower women to carve their own paths in the field of computer science. Here's episode 2 of our series!

08/03/2018

Attention: This scholarship deadline is coming up Aug 12th for women attending universities in the Asia Pacific region.

https://services.google.cn/fb/forms/apacwtmscholarsprogram2018/
https://cseduapplication.withgoogle.com/applications/wtmapac2018/create-application/edit

07/31/2018

Foolproof formulas for boosting your academic brand on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - XRDS

Use principles such as consistency, reciprocity and the 2:1 rule to build up your content and followers on your professional social media accounts. So you’ve set up your social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. (Didn’t do that yet? See my first post: “An academic's guide to using social media professionally.") Now what? Below, I provide my “tricks of the trade” -- lessons I’ve learned in my time managing my own online brand and those of my employers and clients on social media. [ 374 more words ]
https://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/07/foolproof-formulas-boosting-academic-brand-twitter-facebook-linkedin/

Use principles such as consistency, reciprocity and the 2:1 rule to build up your content and followers on your professional social media accounts. So you’ve set up your social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. (Didn’t do that yet? … Continue reading →

07/26/2018

It's here! Check out our Summer 2018 issue, "Pseudonymity and Anonymity," in your mailbox (for ACM student members); at our website (https://xrds.acm.org/current-issue.cfm), or in the ACM Digital Library (https://dl.acm.org).

07/25/2018

A Professional Academic’s Guide to Using Social Media - XRDS

Learn how to promote yourself and your research to a global audience with these best practices for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Odds are that, if you are reading this, you use some form of social networking app. According to Statista, Facebook’s flagship app alone had 2.2 billion monthly active users as of April 2018. YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat round out the top 5 in their global ranking - with a very long tail of other social media platforms following below, such as Instagram, Sina Weibo and Reddit. [ 1,743 more word ]
https://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/07/academics-guide-using-social-media-professionally-twitter-facebook-linkedin/

Learn how to promote yourself and your research to a global audience with these best practices for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Odds are that, if you are reading this, you use some form of social networking app. According to Statista, Facebook’s flagship app … Continue reading →

06/17/2018

Evolution of NLP Techniques based on the Google Books Corpus - XRDS

Great Ideas in current Computer Science Research Computer Science (CS) Research is an emergent and exciting area. Classical parts of CS are being reshaped to fit a more modern concept of computing. One domain that is experiencing a renaissance is Natural Language Processing (NLP). Classical NLP tasks are being expanded to include time-series information allowing us to capture evolutionary dynamics, and not just static information. [ 1,077 more word ]
https://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/06/evolution-of-nlp-techniques-based-on-the-google-books-corpus/

Classical parts of CS are being reshaped to fit a more modern concept of computing. One domain that is experiencing a renaissance is Natural Language Processing (NLP). Classical NLP tasks are being expanded to include time-series information allowing us to capture evolutionary dynamics, and not just...

05/31/2018

Automated Spelling Correction - The Basics of How it Works - XRDS

In this post, I am going to talk about automated spelling correction. Let’s say you are writing a document on your computer, and instead of typing “morning”, you accidentally type “mornig”. If you have automated spelling correction enabled, you will probably see that “mornig” has been transformed to “morning” on its own. How does this work? How does your computer know that when you typed “mornig”, you actually meant “morning”? [ 1,124 more word ]
https://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/05/automated-spelling-correction-basics-works-2/

In this post, I am going to talk about automated spelling correction. Let’s say you are writing a document on your computer, and instead of typing “morning”, you accidentally type “mornig”. If you have automated spelling correction enabled, you will … Continue reading →

05/24/2018

Don't forget - the deadline is fast approaching for The Time is Write 3.0: "Computer Science as a Society"!

- Articles of 800-1000 words should be emailed to [email protected] by Thursday, May 31.
- The top 10 submissions will be graded by a jury of ACM XRDS editors.
- The top 3 will be awarded prizes worth $50, and the articles will be published on the ACM XRDS Blog.
-The winner will also have his or her article published in print in the ACM XRDS Fall 2018 Issue.

Please read and comply with the full rules at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lyh-B3YHN6KwPhtw5BSX_sEGYsEZ0P-Z/view

05/09/2018

The walled gardens we use for our project communication - XRDS

Over the past decade, we have seen a shift that caught many long-time computer users and developers off-guard: The advent of apps. Up to ten years ago, there was a clear trend of distributed applications becoming webapps, and the browser was seen as the new universal program delivery interface. And, as I will explain, we now see yet another quite popular… [ 1,198 more word ]
https://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/05/walled-gardens-use-project-communication/

Over the past decade, we have seen a shift that caught many long-time computer users and developers off-guard: The advent of apps. Up to ten years ago, there was a clear trend of distributed applications becoming webapps, and the browser … Continue reading →

05/02/2018

"The Time is Write 3.0," on the topic of "Computer Science as a Society,” has a lot in store for the winner!

The top finisher will see his/her article of 800-1000 words featured in the Fall 2018 issue of ACM XRDS. The articles of the top 3 winners will be featured in the ACM XRDS online blog. The top 3 winners will also receive prizes worth $50.

The top 10 participants will receive participation certificates from UPES ACM-W Student Chapter.

All entries must be emailed to upesacmw (at) gmail (dot) com by May 31, 2018. For the complete rules, please visit this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lyh-B3YHN6KwPhtw5BSX_sEGYsEZ0P-Z/view?usp=drivesdk

More questions? Contact:

Mitali Diwan
Event Head
ACM-W
+91-9041289668

05/01/2018

An exciting opportunity for all!

It has been said that"Good things come to those who wait."
And now, the wait is finally over!

Announcing the topic of The Time is Write 3.0: "Computer Science as a Society."

Computer science has changed the world in ways that people couldn’t have imagined. Computers have not only changed the way we conduct our personal lives but also, they have created new opportunities for so many of us. One of the most important aspects of Computer Science is problem-solving, a necessity in our lives

The participants have to write an article in about 800-1000 words each and mail it to [email protected] by 31st May 2018.

Rules and other guidelines of the competition are given below, kindly follow them strictly.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lyh-B3YHN6KwPhtw5BSX_sEGYsEZ0P-Z/view?usp=drivesdk

For any queries, contact:
Mitali Diwan
Event Head
ACM-W
+91-9041289668

https://www.facebook.com/acmXRDS/

http://xrds.acm.org

04/29/2018

From UPES ACM-W Student Chapter:
If you have an idea that can change the world, if your dream can revolutionize the IT industry, then stay tuned for "Time is Write 3.0".

With this new edition, we are again bringing you the opportunity to showcase your revolutionary idea through your writing and drafting skills.

Complete rules at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lyh-B3YHN6KwPhtw5BSX_sEGYsEZ0P-Z/view

04/22/2018

Bonjour! Several of our writers and editors are attending #chi2018 this week in Montreal, Canada 🇨🇦.

Want to get involved in our magazine? Find one of us and say hi!

Or contact us via Messenger or our website: http://xrds.acm.org/contact.cfm

Our beautiful #chi2018 venue.

04/09/2018

XRDS: Current Issue

Not into snail mail? Check out the full text of our Spring 2018 issue on "Computers and Art" at our website, or find us in the ACM Digital Library.

https://xrds.acm.org/current-issue.cfm

Current issue of XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students of computing

04/07/2018

Student ACM members - check your mailboxes and inboxes for our Spring 2018 issue, “Computers and Art”! 💻 🎨 🎶 💃 💯

03/14/2018

Web-based voice command recognition - XRDS

Last time we converted audio buffers into images. This time we'll take these images and train a neural network using deeplearn.js. The result is a browser-based demo that lets you speak a command ("yes" or "no"), and see the output of the classifier in real-time, like this: Curious to play with it, see whether or not it recognizes yay… [ 1,303 more word ]

https://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/03/web-based-voice-command-recognition/

This time we'll train a neural network resulting in a browser-based demo that lets you speak a command and see the output of the classifier in real-time.

03/06/2018

Audio features for web-based ML - XRDS

One of the first problems presented to students of deep learning is to classify handwritten digits in the MNIST dataset. This was recently ported to the web thanks to deeplearn.js. The web version has distinct educational advantages over the relatively dry TensorFlow tutorial. You can immediately get a feeling for the model, and start building intuition for what works and what doesn't. [ 1,582 more word ]

http://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/03/audio-features-web-based-ml/

This post sets the scene for the auditory equivalent of MNIST. Rather than recognize handwritten digits, we will focus on recognizing spoken commands.

02/19/2018

How to publish about your research results for academic and non-academic audiences - XRDS

As a graduate student, one of our goals is to produce research that will be useful to the world, that will be known and used by other people. This usefulness can come in many forms; for example, our work can serve to inspire future research, which will take the topic one step further, or it can be used by people in the industry as part of their work. [ 2,508 more words ]

http://xrds.acm.org/blog/2018/02/how-to-publish-about-your-research-results-for-academic-and-non-academic-audiences/

This article reviews the most common academic and non-academic publications that graduate students can use to publish their original research.