ACM Local Chapter

The Department sponsors a student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. Officers in the ACM chapter are usually a mixture of graduate and undergraduate students; currently, all three officers are undergraduates. The ACM chapter offers students an opportunity to learn more about the computing profession, provides a link to local industry and other universities, and facilitates interaction between students and faculty in a casual setting. The local chapter hosts several activities:

• assisting students in career planning by sponsoring guest lecturers who discuss career opportunities in industry and academia, job search strategies, and current research in computer science;
• improving Duke's educational and research commitments by holding forums where graduate and undergraduate students, staff, and faculty can openly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the program;
• organizing social activities to help students and faculty meet in a non-classroom environment; and
• participating in Department and ACM sponsored programming contests.

ACM sponsors an international programming contest involving our local chapter. The Duke Computer Science team placed fourth in the world in 1989 and seventh in 1990. In 1994 the team was the first U.S. team and third in the world. In Fall 1996, Duke Computer Science hosted the ACM Mid-Atlantic Regional contest in which 23 teams competed, and we will host more than 24 teams in the Fall 1997 Contest.