SLOAN RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS

Nominations for candidates for Sloan Research Fellowships in Computer Science are due by September 15. Candidates must be members of the regular faculty at a college or university in the United States or Canada and must be at an early stage of their research careers. For information write to:

Sloan Research Fellowships
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
630 Fifth Avenue - Suite 2550
New York, NY 10111

E-mail: gassman@sloan.org
http://www.sloan.org

REPETITIVE STRESS

A CMU study found that 22% of students, faculty, and staff report symptoms of repetitive stress injury (RSI). Harvard, MIT, and other universities are also reporting increased incidence of RSI. Students are learning bad typing habits in elementary school and high school. [Washington Post, 17May98. EduP.]

RSI comes from repetitive stress, especially small typing motions that don't lubricate your tendon sheaths. Use large motions, with frequent pauses. Keep your fingers curved and wrists straight while typing, and avoid click-and-drag motions of your mouse. Let your forearms float while typing, but use a wrist or forearm rest at other times. Don't keep any muscle tense for more than three minutes without a break, and stop every now and then to bend your fingers backwards or to shake your hands and restore circulation. (The traditional Indian "Namaste" greeting is a good hand stretch. Perhaps your computer will work better if you occasionally acknowledge the divinity within it.) You might also pull on your fingers occasionally to realign the joints. If trouble develops, try ice packs and slowly applied stretches, with warm-down stretches after typing sessions.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS ACM KANELLAKIS THEORY AND PRACTICE AWARD

The ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award is given to an individual or group for a specific theoretical accomplishment that has had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing. The nature of the theoretical accomplishment may be either an invention itself or a major analytic study of an existing technique that led practitioners to adopt it.

The Award has been established in memory of the late Paris C. Kanellakis, whose tragic death in late 1995 cut short a distinguished research career. The monetary amount of the award will be $5,000, to be paid from an endowment established for this purpose. The frequency of the award will depend on the size of the endowment, but should be at least once every three years. The first award was given in March 1997 to Leonard Adleman, Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman, Ralph Merkle, Ronald Rivest, and Adi Shamir for the conception and first effective realization of public-key cryptography. The second award was given in May 1998 to Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv for their pioneering work in data compression.

Winners of the award will be chosen by a 5-member committee appointed by the ACM Awards Committee Chair. Membership on the committee will be on a rotating basis, with 5-year terms. The current committee consists of David Johnson, Tom Leighton, Barbara Liskov, Christos Papadimitriou, and Moshe Y. Vardi (chair). The committee will actively solicit nominations from the computing research and practitioner communities, as well as outside advice on questions of practical and theoretical significance and of priority. Nominations from previous years will typically be carried forward. The committee also reserves the right to make its own nominations. Winners will be selected based on both the importance of the practical impact and the quality of the theoretical accomplishment.

In addition to choosing award winners, the Award Committee will also prepare an extended award citation suitable for publication in all ACM announcements as well as in the ACM Awards Program brochure, based on the nomination and other relevant information obtained by the committee in evaluating the nominee.

A nomination will consist of three related parts.

(1) A discussion of the theoretical work being nominated, including copies of relevant publications or other documentation of the accomplishment.

(2) A description of the claimed practical impact, together with evidence supporting the claims, either in the form of published references or attached statements by one or more top practitioners in the relevant field.

(3) Evidence of the linkage between the theoretical work and the practical impact, either in the form of documentation that implies the linkage, or attached statements from the implementers attesting to it.

It is not required that the nominees were involved in the transfer from theory to practice, though such an involvement will strengthen the nomination. The theoretical contribution should have occurred within 25 years of the date of the award. For the 1999 award, this means that contributions that were made in 1974 or later are eligible.

Nominations should be sent by October 1, 1998 to:

Moshe Y. Vardi
Dept of Computer Science
Rice University
Mail Stop 132
6100 S. Main Street
Houston, TX 77005-1892
Tel. 713-285-5977
Fax: 713-285-5930
E-mail: vardi@cs.rice.edu

DESIGNING THE DIGITAL GOVERNMENT OF THE 21ST CENTURY:
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP

Washington, D.C.
October 5-6, 1998

CALL FOR PAPERS
THEME OF THE WORKSHOP

The National Science Foundation's program on Digital Government has as its goal the support of experimentation and research aimed at supporting the information-based services that government either provides to its citizens or uses internally to carry out its mission. These systems are developed in a multi-layered federal-state-local system of program administration and service delivery, with a complex interaction of policy, organizational, technical, cultural, and human factors shaping the implementation environment.

The objective of this workshop, hosted by the Center for Technology in Government of the University at Albany-SUNY, and funded by NSF, is to identify and develop research topics that would focus on these important factors affecting the use of information technology in government, topics that would be relevant in ensuring the success of later research undertaken in the program. Workshop participants will take a "program-centric" view of the information content and processing needs of major government functions, emphasizing the needs of program managers. A major theme will be the inter-relationships among federal, state, local, and tribal governments, and the private sector, as they play out in the development of effective systems.

WORKSHOP SUBMISSIONS

A key objective of the workshop will be to conduct a dialogue between government practitioners and researchers in a variety of disciplines, including information science, computer science, computational science, management science, organizational studies, anthropology, and other social sciences. This dialogue will be initiated by a mixture of invited and submitted papers dealing with the major themes of the workshop.

We invite you to submit a paper addressing the themes of the workshop. We especially welcome experience-based papers describing the implementation of a particular information system or information-based service in a public environment. Submissions should focus on the use of information technologies to meet specific government service, operational, or management objectives.

From the submitted papers, the program committee will select a collection to serve as a backdrop for the workshop discussion. These papers will be provided to participants through the workshop Web site, http://www.ctg.albany.edu/research/workshop/digitalgov.html (available after July 20, 1998). Some of the authors will be invited to attend the workshop; these papers will be considered along with the invited speakers for presentation at the workshop. A summary report of the workshop will be submitted to the National Science Foundation.

A suggested, but incomplete, list of themes for workshop submissions includes:

• An analysis of the impact of innovative information technologies on the citizen, and how the evaluation was conducted.
• Case studies where research findings or research activities contributed to the improved operation of government. Situations where viewing the situation through a variety of disciplinary lenses aided the effectiveness of the project are especially desired.
• A description and analysis of projects where a promising technology went beyond the prototype phase into effective production.
• A description of the barriers and enablers in developing a particular production system.
• An analysis of the critical success factors in developing a particular system.
• Experience in developing systems that span levels of government.
• A compilation of best (and/or worst) practices in developing government information systems.
• An analysis of failed government systems, including identification of the technical, organizational, inter-organizational, and cultural factors that contributed to the failure.
• An analysis of such issues as privacy, security, and trust in innovative applications of technology for citizen-oriented services.
• Effective electronic records management practices.

TO SUBMIT A PAPER

We welcome submissions of brief papers and extended abstracts of longer papers. Submissions should be no longer than five pages. Submissions must be e-mailed as attachments. Hypertext Markup Language (html), Portable Document Format (pdf) or PostScript (ps) formats are preferred; Microsoft Word (doc) and WordPerfect (wpd) format are also acceptable. (For extended abstracts, please also submit the full paper if it is available in electronic form.)

Please e-mail submissions to papers@ctg.albany.edu .

DEADLINES

Papers should be submitted by August 3. Invitations to the workshop will be sent approximately September 1.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The workshop Web site http://www.ctg.albany.edu/research/workshop/digitalgov.html contains more information about the details of the workshop. This website will be available beginning July 20, 1998. If you would like any additional information, please contact Mr. David Connelly at dconnelly@ctg.albany.edu.

We encourage you to pass this call for papers on to other interested parties. Thank you.

THE WORKSHOP ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Sharon Dawes, chair. Center for Technology in Government, Univ. at Albany-SUNY
Tora Bikson, Rand Corporation
Peter Bloniarz, Center for Technology in Government, Univ. at Albany-SUNY
Angela Coppola, Central Intelligence Agency
Patricia D. Fletcher, Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County
Robert E. Greeves, The Council for Excellence in Government
John L. King, Univ. of California at Irvine Timothy Loewenstein, Buffalo County, Nebraska
Jerry Mechling, Strategic Computing & Telecommunications, Harvard Univ.
Alvin Pesachowitz, Environmental Protection Agency
Carolyn Purcell, Texas Dept. of Information Resources
James Ruda, Local government advocate
Jerry Sheehan, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Greg Woods, National Partnership for Reinventing Government

NEW EARLY DEADLINE FOR CRA UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS

The Computing Research Association is pleased to announce the fifth annual CRA Undergraduate Award program, recognizing undergraduate students who show exceptional promise in an area of computing research.

Based upon comments we have received from a number of members of the computing research community, we have made several important changes to the program for this year:

1. In order to have the results known early enough that the winners and honorable mentions can indicate the recognition they have received in their applications to graduate school and in job applications, we have moved up the timetable. Applications are now due on October 1, 1998 and results will be announced on December 1, 1998.

2. Because of the large number of high-quality applications we have received in the past who went unrecognized, we anticipate we will present a larger number of honorable mentions this year-to all the applicants who show real research promise.

A cash prize of $1,000 will be awarded to each of two undergraduate students, one female and one male, who are majoring in computer science, computer engineering, or an equivalent program. Other outstanding candidates will be recognized with Honorable Mention. The awards will be presented at the 1999 Federated Computing Research Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The two first-prize winners will receive financial assistance toward their travel to the conference. CRA encourages home departments to provide similar assistance to other students who are recognized.

We encourage you to make this award widely known in your department. CRA hopes that your strongest undergraduates will submit applications. The award is a terrific way to recognize your best students and your department.

Nomination procedure

1. Nomination form
2. Nominee's resume (two-page maximum)
3. Nominee's transcript of academic record
4. Verification statement signed by department chair *
5. Letter of support from two other supporting nominator (two-page maximum)
6. One-page description of student's research or other achievements

*The verification statement signed by the department chair should simply state that the student is in good standing and eligible for the award.

The complete nominations have to be submitted by the candidate's department chair by October 1, 1998 A department may nominate more than one candidate. Nominees must attend a university or college located in the United States or Canada.

Four copies of the nomination package should be sent to: