ACM-Infosys award for innovations

Bangalore, Aug 21 (UNI) The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has signed an agreement with Infosys Technologies Limited to create a new annual award worth US dollars 150,000 to recognise young scientists and system developers whose contemporary innovations are having a dramatic impact on the computing field.

The award, to be known as the ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences, would seek candidates globally. The first recipient will be announced as part of the ACM Awards programme in early 2008, Infosys said in a release here today.

ACM welcomes this new category of recognition to its awards programme, said Stuart I Feldman, president of ACM. ''By adding to our portfolio of prestigious awards, we are helping to advance the science and the profession of computing'' he added.

Instituted by Infosys through the company's philanthropic arm the Infosys Foundation, the ACM-Infosys Foundation Award joins the roster of ACM awards that honour outstanding contributors to a range of computing applications, including computer architecture, theory and practice, education, humanitarian initiatives, software, and major technical advances of an enduring nature.

Infosys Technologies Chief Executive Officer S Gopalakrishnan said Infosys wanted to work with ACM to recognise major research contributions in a timely manner. ''We want to honour contemporary innovation to ensure that the award goes to younger individuals whose scientific contributions in the computing sciences are significantly impacting the field. Our goal is to identify breakthroughs that have broad implications well beyond the scope of the innovation itself, and that reflect an underlying scientific or engineering methodology that is remarkable for its rigour or for its sheer audacity,'' he said.

UNI