ACM - News

Despite the stormy weather, this week we were finally able to host the first ACM meeting of the semester! We discussed our vision of the future of our ACM chapter, found out that the robotics SIG by far the most popular, and I personally learned that we don't need to be ordering pepperoni pizza for future meetings. Clearly cheese is the favorite.

To go into a little more detail on the meeting, we were able to set down with members, new and old, and discuss what it was we as a group wanted from ACM this semester. I also gave a lengthy explanation on what goals for the chapter I have this semester and tried to gauge interest based on this.

From this, two things were made clear:

1. There is a good amount of interest in bringing members of local tech fields and beyond and having them visit as guest speakers. These speakers will give some insight into their experience in their fields and answer questions from our members. Based on this interest, I have already began reaching out to software developers that work with WKU, have asked Dr. Galloway to help me get into contact with managers at local companies, and am working on reaching out to graduate students and previous ACM members who now work in the tech industry.

2. A huge amount of interest exists for the robotics focused SIG. More details on this SIG will be available once I’ve got the SIG archive up on the website but to give a brief overview the robotics SIG here is the current plan. The goal is to design and build two drones. One for flying and searching and the other for ground based maneuvering and retrieval. These drones will be used for locating, marking, and then collecting garbage and trash from open areas. This project has many complexities and focuses. The Software side will require efforts on making an efficient communication system and on building a neural network for garbage recognition. The drone side will face issues with testing and constructing stable flying and maneuvering drones. The interest in this SIG was so great that it needed to be broken into two teams. Once some more formal communication is set up we will settle on meeting times for these teams and post these on the website. If you have any interest in this SIG feel free to swing by one of their meetings and learn more.

All in all, I couldn't have been more pleased with the meeting. Many members weren't able to make it due to work or weather but we still had a great turn out. I was able to get input from most of those that attended that will help me in making ACM as beneficial for everyone as possible.

I’m excited to see everyone who did make it and those that couldn’t at the next ACM or at one of the SIG meetings! Until then I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe two weeks!

-Jamie

P.S. I almost forgot. We also found out there is a good amount of interest in having a Smash tournament as a game night, so expect details on that at the next meeting.