ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) , the world’s largest association for computer scientists and engineers, welcomed yet more members into its fold yesterday, as its new student chapter at the Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore Campus, was formally launched by Dr. Raghav Rao, of the State University of New York (SUNY), US.

“I am happy to be in the warm ambience of Ettimadai, away from the bone-chilling cold of New York,” jokingly remarked Dr. Rao. Associated with the Center for Information Assurance at SUNY, he gave a talk titled, “Social and Behavioral Aspects of Information Assurance” to an attentive audience.
 
Information Assurance (IA) is a relatively new term coined for security related issues such as cryptography, access control, viruses, hacking that pertain to the new information channels which have proliferated due to the internet. Amrita has a strong research focus in cybersecurity. Dr. Rao’s talk underscored that just as important as technical issues were those related to social and behavioral aspects of Information Assurance.
 
“It was an interesting talk for all of us here at Amrita,” stated Prof. K. Gangadharan, Chairman of the IT Dept. “PhD, M Tech, B Tech students who had come together for the launch had the privilege of attending the talk. The chapter plans to initiate several activities especially those related to research in the computer science and information technology fields as well as continue organizing seminars such as these for the Amrita fraternity.”
 
These students earlier also listened to the Presidential Address delivered by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Venkat Rangan. Himself a Fellow of ACM, Dr. Rangan highlighted the importance of having a student chapter at Amrita. Incidentally, to be nominated an ACM Fellow is not a small honor. Less than 9% of ACM members worldwide qualify.
 
Amrita has associated with ACM in other ways too. The ACM sponsored ICPC, the world’s largest collegiate programming contest has been hosted by Amrita for the past three years. The 2008-2009 Asia Regional Semi-Finals were conducted at the Amritapuri Campus last month. This inauguration of the ACM Student Chapter marks the beginning of yet another chapter in Amrita’s relationship with this international professional body.

January 9, 2009
School of Engineering, Coimbatore