== Summary ==
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) at Purdue University is an organization for connecting students, faculty and companies for the betterment of the computing community. As a local chapter of one the worlds most influential computing organizations, it provides academic resources, forums for the spreading of ideas as well as communities for technological discovery and growth.

Current Technical Talks

March 27th, 2008<br />
6PM, PHYS 114<br />
"The Value in Questioning What You Think You Know"<br />
By Dr. Gene Spafford.<br />
Synopsis:<br />
Creativity is sometimes inspired by coming up with new situations and new ideas. However, creativity can also result in looking at familiar items and questioning their underlying, basic assumptions. As a matter of research, careful re-examination can lead to new invention. In security, questioning basic assumptions often leads to discovery of new vulnerabilities.
In this talk I will survey some historical elements that have led to current system design. Then I will present a few examples of how re-examining that computing and security technology might generate some new approaches. Suitably inspired members of the audience will be encouraged to go forth and question everything they think they know.
Audience members are encouraged to bring some scrap paper and a pencil or pen -- a few "mental exercises" will be provided during the talk."<br />
For those of you who are not familiar with Dr. Spafford, he is a professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Communication, and Philosophy. He is the executive director of CERIAS. He is a Fellow of the ACM, AAAS, and the IEEE. In 2007, he received the ACM President's Award.
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Membership

The membership process is quite simplified for all Purdue Students. Usually, students have to meet atleast the following requirements:<br />
1. He/She must be registered for proper course credits at Purdue University, West Lafayette Campus only.<br />
2. He/She must have a minimum GPA of 3.0<br />

Membership Types<br />
There are two forms of membership this year for the ACM at Purdue. These are the basic membership and the extended membership. The differences are as follows:

Basic Membership:<br />
1. Access to the Tech-Talks<br />
2. Access to the SIGs<br />
3. Subscription to the Newsletter<br />
4. Will be able to participate in O’Reilly Book Sale<br />
5. Able to check out books from the ACM Library<br />
6. Able to participate in programming competitions<br />
7. Cost: Free<br />

Extended Membership:<br />
1. Includes basic membership<br />
2. Ability to make ACM Library recommendations<br />
3. You recommend a book and we add it to the library if we approve<br />
4. Contact acm-officers@cs.purdue.edu to make a recommendation<br />
5. ACM Conference Trip to UIUC<br />
6. You will be able to attend and receive a considerable discount on the cost of the trip<br />
7. National ACM Membership<br />
8. A $20 value<br />
9. Support for other future high cost activities<br />
10. Cost: $5<br />

Membership to the National ACM is also processed at this chapter at a nominal fee of $45. Although, this is a fairly simple process for being a member of the National ACM or the local chapter at Purdue, an officer's position requires the candidate to go through some scrutiny. The selection is mainly done by the existing officers and through the elections.
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Usually, students who wish to apply aren't restricted to just Computer science. However mostly Computer Science majors compose the member body of this chapter.<br />

Officers

The current officers of ACM chapter at Purdue University are chosen based on annual elections. The elections for the academic year 2008-2009 are to held at the Lawson Computer Science building at Purdue University on April 3th, 2008. Students who contest these elections have very successful academic backgrounds and are demonstrate exceptional student qualities in their field.

The current officers comprise of the following students:

President - Jonathan Micklos<br />
Jonathan Micklos has been in the computing industry since his junior-senior highschool summer in 2003. Jonathan worked as an application developer intern at Datachek LLC from 2003 to 2005. In the summer of 2006, Jonathan worked as a web devloper intern for Solutions 4 Networks as well as an application developer business analyst for JPMorgan Chase in NYC. He has been studying computers in an accademic environment since his freshman through senior years in highschool, taking classes in Java, C , Visual Basic, Cisco CCNA certification and A certification. He enjoys working in a variety of environments, including Linux, Solaris, and Windows. He also enjoys working with a number of different projects including the WLPL EPICs Team, Jonathan is a Junior of both Computer Science and Mathematics as well as participating in the Entreprenuerial Studies program at Purdue's Discovery Park .
Jonathan's current interests in computing deal with ecommerce related application development. Outside of computer science, Jonathan is an active musician. He is the bass player for the band Paradise Regained. Jonathan also enjoys staying physically active and believes highly in a balance of body and mind.<br />

Vice-President - Phil Harnish<br />
Phil Harnish is a sophomore, double majoring in Math and Computer Science with minors in Japanese and Asian Studies. Phil is also a CS mentor and an Ambassador for the College of Science and is always willing to help with homework or evangelize Computer Science to the unlearned masses.
Phil has been interested in programming since high school, with a focus on web development. He is a member of the IMS EPICS team which develops the intranet website for all teams. Outside of school, Phil has been a freelance web developer for a few years. He interned in San Jose with a dot-com start up in Summer '05.
Phil is considering graduate school and would like to get involved with research on Internet-enabled technologies. Data mining and machine learning, for example. <br />

Treasurer - Ryan Adams<br />
Ryan Adams is currently a sophomore here at Purdue University studying Computer Science and Mathematics. He became interested in computers at a very small age when his dad would bring home computers and all of their associated manuals. He continued this all the way through high school, and decided to come to Purdue because of its excellent CS program. (Or perhaps it was the academic advisors who convinced him of how great the program was…)
While not sitting in front of his computer refreshing BBC News, CNN, and /., Ryan enjoys finding new groups to get involved with on campus, like Circle K (treasurer for 2006-07) and Convocations Voice Network (usher coordinator beginning in Fall 2006). He also works for the Computer Science Department as a TA for CS 158 and an evening consultant for CS 180. Finally, in his (oh-so-rare) spare time, he simply loves sitting back to read a good book or two or just spouts random facts that really aren’t useful to anyone except to himself.

Program Manager - Ferry Unardi<br />
Ferry Unardi is a junior majoring in Computer Science and Math, with an equal interest in the study of economics. He is a proud Program Manager of ACM, Ra proud BoilerMaker, a proud Indonesian, and particularly proud of his hometown, Padang, which he thinks very highly of. He's recently been obsessed with F.von Hayek's and Paul Krugman's writings and spent a copious amount of enjoyable time perusing numerous books by those noble economists. However he claims to love Computer Science and computer more than anything else, especially algorithm and web technologies & development! He also thinks digg.com and reddit.com are way cooler than slashdot.<br />

Secretary(s) - Ankit Kuwadekar, Zeeshan Siddiqui<br />

Webmaster(s) - Ankit Kuwadekar, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Kenan Rehmani<br />

SIGS

ACM has developed the concept of Special Interest Groups, that are also called "SIGS" that any group of members in the local ACM chapter can form with even non-members. There has been tremendous success with these special groups.
The current SIGS consist of the following:<br />
1. SIGGRAPH - Deals with Computer Graphics. <br />
2. SIGOS - Mainly related to developments in Open Solaris.<br />
[1413]<br />
2. SIGGD - <br />
The cell phone game development SIG will focus on team-centered development on the Java mobile game platform. Those interested should have taken CS 180 or be familiar with Java. Whether or not you have previous game development experience, you're welcome to join the team. The SIG will use MIDP 1/2 specification and will use freely available Sony Erikkson phone emulators.<br />
3. SIGLAWSON - Mainly deals to developing the Lawson Computer Science Building.<br />

Corporate Partner

The local of the ACM at Purdue University has many Corporate partners that include many leading software development giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, Cisco, Intel, Boeing, Siemens, Lilly Endowment, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Tektronix, State Farm Insurance, Boston Scientific, Lucent Technologies, etc.