WE'RE NOT DONE YET !!!

Yes folks , we're not done yet !!! Our activities continue in a faster pace than ever . A series of coding competitions , workshops, guest lectures , seminars tutorial series and projects are coming your way . So stay tuned to this space for more info !!!

And in case a member of that group of BITS ians who are still wondering if this is a good investment of your time and breath here is what BITS ACM has to offer you -

BENEFITS OF BEING A BITS-ACM MEMBER
WE ARE NOW THE WORLDS LARGEST ACM CHAPTER !!!!
COME AND BE A PART OF THIS EXPONENTIALLY GROWING ASSOCIATION !!!!
EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS
• Free licensed DVD of Microsoft Windows Vista Business NTM worth Rs. 12,000/-
• Invited Lectures from distinguished people in industry and academia.
• Workshops & Hands-On-Labs (HOLs) for Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Maya, Dreamweaver,
VB.Net, ASP.Net, C#.Net, Joomla, PHP, Ruby, Python, Solid-Works, Pro-E, Web & Game
Design, and Windows Hacking.
• Acm TutorZTM Series – Sessions on CP-1, CP-2, OS, DSA, NetProg, and other Courses.
• Free Entry in all BITS-ACM events, held throughout the year and especially during Apogee.
• Exclusive Discounts on ACM Merchandise such as T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Caps & Bags.
• Exclusive BITS-ACM Identity Cards - Tremendous boost to your resume.

AND MORE
• Training Sessions for ACM-ICPC, the International Collegiate Programming Contest.
• Opportunity to be a part of the ACM Apogee Team & work on a variety of Projects.
• Industrial Trips & Research Scholarships
• Proceedings of the SIG-OOPs and the SIG-Arch.
• Exclusive privileges on BITS-ACM Forum, Wiki and Internship Database.

ACM ELECTRONIC SERVICES:
• TechNews: ACM’s tri-weekly email digest delivering stories on the latest IT news.
• CareerNews: ACM’s bi-monthly email digest providing career-related topics.
• Student Quick Takes: ACM’s quarterly student member newsletter.
• Ubiquity: ACM’s opinion magazine and forum.

# AND LOTS MORE #
Note: For membership enquires, contact Gaurav Ahuja (f2007533@bits, 9950675272).

And here's a little sample of what we have been doin the last semester and will continue to be doing in the the current one -

……. BACK TO THE PRESENT SEMSTER FOLKS !!!!!

And as we talk of the present semester , we can just say that ACM has been involved in a flurry of activities . We have been rounding up the very many coding , writing and marketing enthusiasts in order to expand our family here at BITS ACM .
And our current BITS ACM Core Team Members and advisors are -

BITS-ACM Core Team (2008-09)
PROF-IN-CHARGE - Praveen R Srivastava
FACULTY ADVISORS
1) Prof J P Misra
2) Sunder B
3) TSB Sudarshan
OFFICERS
1) Chair : Prakhar Agrawal
2) Vice-Chair : Shashank Sharma
3) Secretary : Mansi Goel
4) Treasurer : Saurabh Thakur
SENIOR EX-COMS
1) Chief Editor: Abhinav N
2) Lecture Series: Ankita Lohumi
EX-COMS
1) Anubha Nagawat
2) Abhineet Garg
3) Gaurav Ahuja
4) Manisha Sharma
5) Mayank Anand
6) Mohit Asudani
7) Mrinal Manuj
8) Parvesh Jain
9) Prabhjot Singh Lamba
10) Rachit Kwatra
11) Ravi Teja
12) Sachin Kumar Jain
13) Sameera Gupta
14) Saurabh Chatterjee
MEMBERS
1) Archana
2) Arnab Hazra
3) Abhishek Anurag
4) Bhargav Teja
5) Gaurav Ahuja
6) Mayank Abhishek
7) Nikhil Murthi
8) Nitin Gangahar
9) Rohan Maheshwari
10) Saurabh Khanna
11) Shashank Maheshwari
12) Yash Sharma

Add to this our huge General body of more than 450 members and we become the world's Biggest ACM student's chapter !!!

THE SHOW STOPPER

The show stopper of APOGEE 2008 was an initiative of the BITS ACM Students Chapter . It was none other than the Head of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center , Dr. Mateo Valero , the man behind MareNostrum , Europe's fastest supercomputer . He delivered a series of three lectures which were widely attended by students of all streams and years .

AND APOGEE WENT ON ………..

As APOGEE went on , so did the success story of ACM . Our second event , a workshop on the 12th , went off well , and it witnessed large crowds , larger perhaps than some of the so-called more established and famed departments .

APOGEE - 2008

We decided to conduct an event on the first day of APOGEE – 11th March . It would be a trial by fire , as it would be a hardcore coding contest fashioned on the ICPC model . It was to start from 8 p.m. and end at 11 p.m. Starting as it was on the first day , it did not really have very high hopes on the number of participants . But stunning everybody , there was an unexpected turn-out of more than 70 teams , a turn-out so large that we actually had to turn back teams who wanted to participate. That one contest showed us that we had wings .

Now , we could fly .

ESTABLISHING THE CHAPTER AMONG STUDENTS IN BITS

After the inauguration , the onus was on the team to establish ACM in BITS to make the students aware of the society , the work it does , the membership benefits , etc . With the upcoming techfest APOGEE , the platform to announce the chapter to the world seemed all but ready . We decided to enter with a bang . We planned to conduct 4 contests and 2 workshops . With just 2 weeks remaining for APOGEE and a meager workforce of just 10 people , the task looked daunting to say the least . With a flood of remonstrations pouring in , we decided to go on anyways .

THE NEXT SEMESTER

Activities here at the chapter formally kicked off in the next semester as the first core team of 12 members was formed . The opening of the chapter was greatly encouraged by L.K.Maheshwari Sir , who said that ACM had been a great wealth of information to him and he had referred to it before he did his Ph.D. He also felt that the opening of such chapters in BITS would increase interest of students in research & technology . Due to a packed schedule the inauguration could not take place before 25th February , 2008 , and it was largely attended by faculty and students alike .

…….. AND WE'RE ON !!!!!!!!

The chapter got officially chartered on 22nd November , 2007 . The Welcome Kit comprising of membership forms , posters , etc. arrived on the first week of December , 2007 . But , as we at the Student's chapter were not exactly immune to the grueling comprehensive exams which were on at that time , the official start in the campus was put off till the next semester .

AND THE LIGHT GREW BRIGHTER AS WE REACHED THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Professor Sundar Shan Balasubramanium ( popularly known as Shan-B among students ) agreed to be the sponsor ( mentor ) for the BITS – Pilani ( Student's Chapter ) . Under his guidance the rest of the formalities , including the first year activity plan ,were completed . The proposal was finally sent to the ACM International on September , 2007 .

THE FIRST SMALL STEPS

The students now set about the mammoth task of setting up of a Student's Chapter of ACM . They met J.P. Mishra Sir who promised his whole-hearted support to the idea . His help proved invaluable in the coming months as the group dived into the world of formalities that had to be completed in order to set up the chapter . He helped the team to finalize the Constitution of the Chapter which had to be sent to the Head Quarters of ACM in New York .

FINDING OUT ABOUT IT

The plan for a ACM BITS Pilani student's chapter began nearly 2 years back when a group of students saw the posters of ACM ICPC Kanpur regionals on our SWD noticeboards . The concept of an International Coding contest really intrigued them and put them all on a long road at the mid of which we stand today to tell everyone this story .
These group of students then decided to enquire more into the conducting bodies of ICPC . This search led them to the ACM IIT Kanpur Student's chapter which conducted those regionals . This path soon led to ACM itself and the world's largest scientific community was soon revealed to the awestruck students .
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the world's oldest and largest educational and scientific computing society. It is a major force in advancing the skills of computing professionals and students in more than 100 countries in all areas of industry, academia, and government worldwide.
It was founded in 1947 for the purpose of advancing the sciences and arts of Information Processing (IP), promoting the free inter-change of IP among specialists and the public, and developing and maintaining the integrity & competence of IP practitioners.