Technology Executives Offer Ideas for Society's Future

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 7 June, 2008 -- The IEEE Computer Society has reached out to global technology executives by establishing a formal body intended to help chart a roadmap for the Society’s future.

The Advanced Technology Executive Forum was formed by Rangachar Kasturi, 2008 Computer Society president and the Douglas W. Hood Professor and chair of computer science and engineering at the University of South Florida; Carl K. Chang, editor in chief of Computer and professor and chair of the computer science at Iowa State University; and other Society leaders. The forum is envisioned as a vehicle to guide development of new products and services and help revitalize the 61-year-old Computer Society as it moves into the future.

“Computer Society leadership has long envisioned such a forum to fully engage industry and embrace practitioners from both the graying and young generations, and we are very pleased that it finally materialized,” said Chang.

The ATEF’s inaugural meeting took place during the Computer Society’s May board meeting series in Las Vegas and was moderated by Don Shafer, CTO of Athens Group Oil & Gas, editor in chief of IEEE Computer Society Press and a member of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors.

Members’ suggestions ranged from improving member services and offerings and developing a stronger feeling of community to reaching out to new audiences. The need to interest future computer scientists and software engineers in the Computer Society was a recurring refrain.

“The IEEE Computer Society strives to be the vital global resource to the world’s computing professionals and to be universally recognized as the leading facilitator of technical expertise as well as a provider of products and services that support technology professionals,” said Kasturi. “We can fulfill this vision only with the leadership and professional services unselfishly offered by dedicated volunteers—visionary leaders drawn from diverse backgrounds including entrepreneurs, technology executives, researchers, practitioners, and educators.”

 Among the founding ATEF members are:

• David R. Bernstein, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Network Applications Infrastructure unit;
• Bill Shilit, associate editor in chief of Computer, researcher at Google;
• Nick Bowen, vice president of technical strategy and worldwide operations, IBM Research;
• Stephen Huffman, vice president and CTO, MITRE Corp.;
• Atsuhiro Goto, vice president and general manager, NTT’s Information Sharing Platform Laboratories;
• Jeffrey Wilcox, research engineering vice president, Lockheed-Martin;
• Neil Siegel, sector vice president, Technology & Advanced Systems, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems;
• Brian Stevens, CTO and vice president of engineering, Red Hat Software;
• Ike Nassi, senior vice president, Americas and China, SAP;
• Steven Hillenius, vice president of Semiconductor Research Corp. and executive director of SRC-Global Research; and
• Gargi Keeni, vice president, Quality Consulting Practice, Tata Consultancy Services.

 More members are being recruited to expand the ATEF’s perspective.

 About the Computer Society

With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology, and is known globally for its computing standards activities.

The Computer Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, and online courses. Its Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) program for mid-career professionals and Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) credential for recent college graduates confirm the skill and knowledge of those working in the field. The CS Digital Library (CSDL) is an excellent research tool, containing more than 250,000 articles from 1,600 conference proceedings and 26 CS periodicals going back to 1988.