The International Association of Computing and Machinery (ACM) has awarded the UCLA student chapter of ACM the 2023-2024 Outstanding Chapter Website Student Chapter Excellence Award. The ACM at UCLA has received a Chapter Excellence award seven times in the past eight years, and, since 2004, UCLA has won more awards than any other school’s chapter. The ACM Student Chapter Excellence Awards are held annually in the spring to recognize outstanding student chapters that have demonstrated significant initiative throughout the academic year. Only one student chapter out of almost 700 international chapters receives this specific award, which acknowledges a chapter’s technical and creative excellence in developing and promoting a website that communicates information to its members. ACM at UCLA’s website stands out for being completely open source, accessible, beautifully designed and informative. It now features a student portal for new members to track their attendance at events and earn prizes for staying engaged with the chapter. The website is the product of the hard work of the chapter’s Dev team, with the branding and input of ACM at UCLA’s Design committee.
With the introduction of ACM Cloud, the ACM at UCLA now also features nine committees as opposed to the previous eight. These committees each specialize in a unique subset of computer science, targeting audiences with different strengths and interests within the vast world of Computer Science. The AI committee provides hands-on experience in machine learning, while the Hack committee teaches web development at all levels. The TeachLA committee offers programming courses to K-12 Title 1 schools in LA, and the Cyber committee hosts workshops on making secure systems and participates in national CTF competitions. The ICPC committee teaches competitive programming, and the Design committee creates graphics with in-house font and designs. The Studio committee teaches video game development, and the ACM-W committee focuses on creating a diverse community in tech.
Several events hosted by the ACM at UCLA and featured on the website have proven the chapter’s excellence globally, such as the CodeSprint LA 2023, a beginner-friendly algorithms contest with more than 400 student participants, 80 of which were from UCLA. The Student Run Studios Showcase 2023 was a 5-month long student-led video game creation project thatculminated in an event where over 150 students showcased their completed video games. The Los Angeles Capture the Flag 2024 competition hosted by the Cyber committee saw 1700 attendees tackle 46 challenges, listen to 8 speakers, and compete for over $4000 in prizes funded by several organizations. Hack on the Hill 2024 was a beginner-friendly hackathon with the theme of intersectional environmentalism that provided over 250 attendees with resources to learn about web development and building their first application.
Winning chapters in each of the five areas receive $500 USD and a “best of” icon to display on their chapter’s website. These chapters are featured on the ACM website and in ACM MemberNet.