The School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has started a new student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

ACM is a worldwide professional society for workers in the computing field. Students who participate in a student chapter have the opportunity to participate in industry networking through such avenues as professional lectures and conferences. The professional society also offers an international collegiate programming contest. The group also provides resources that allow students to develop speaker series, recruiting opportunities, and dissemination of technical information in the computing field.

WSU participated for the first time in the regional programming competition held in December in Spokane, sending two teams. Students participating included seniors Enrico Galli, Nathan Schubkegel, and Daniel Hanson; and first and second-year students Das Biswaranjan, Jeremy Rehkop, and Dustin Allen. The group was coached by Professor Carl Hauser.

The WSU group also initiated a speaker series on women in computing. Some of the speakers included Susan Mings, user experience researcher with the Microsoft Office Design Group and an adjunct instructor in the Technical Communication Department at University of Washington; Rebecca Ward, senior attorney with Microsoft Corporation; and Deborah K. Gracio, deputy director for the computational sciences and mathematics division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

“Initiation of a student chapter ACM here at WSU means that students in computing majors will have a local resource as well as a connection to the global computing community,’’ says Larry Holder, professor in the School of EECS and the club advisor.

Officers for WSU’s group include Robert Ward, chair, Tom Corll, vice chair, Nathan Schubkegel, treasurer, and Brett Hansen, secretary.