The ACM India Outstanding Contribution to Computing Education (OCCE) Award recognizes individuals who have made fundamental, innovative, impactful contributions to the computing education field primarily working in India. In addition to acknowledging such contributions, the ACM India Council also believes that the award will provide international visibility to contributions in education technology and best practices in education from India, and nurture the candidates for future international recognition.
The award carries a prize of Rs. 7 lakhs (approximately USD $10,000).
Eligibility
- The candidate must be currently residing in India and the contributions being considered for the award must have been carried out primarily while working in India.
- The candidate can be from any walk of life in the broad field of computing, as understood in its general sense.
- The candidate need not be an Indian national.
- The candidate need not be a member of ACM.
- There is an age limit of 55 years for the candidate as of 1 January of the year of nomination.
- The candidate must be an active current contributor to the field of computing education.
Nomination
- No self-nomination is allowed.
- The nominator should be a recognized member of the computing community who has personal knowledge of the candidate’s contributions and can address the candidate’s impact in the field of computing education.
- The committee may choose to keep a nomination in consideration for a period of up to 3 years from first submission, provided other eligibility criteria are met; details of the nomination may be updated if a nomination from a previous year is considered in a subsequent year.
Evaluation criteria
- Contribution to computing education such as new/updated curriculum development, use of new education technology, creation of online courses (MOOCs) or textbook material.
- Contributions that would have a lasting positive impact on the field of computing through education.
Submissions
Nominations for the award should be submitted using the online ACM India Award nomination form. You may have to create a login on CMT if you are using it for the first time. Once logged in to CMT, please make sure you select the nomination form for the correct award from the drop-down.
Submitted materials should explain the contribution in terms understandable to a non-specialist. Each nomination involves several components:
- Name, address, phone number, and email address of the nominator (person making the nomination).
- Name, address, and email address of the candidate (person being nominated). As a matter of policy, ACM India will neither reveal to the candidates who have nominated/endorsed them nor respond to any queries regarding a nomination once submitted.
- Suggested citation if the candidate is selected. This should be a concise statement (maximum of 25 words) describing the key technical or professional accomplishment for which the candidate merits this award. Note that the final wording for awardees will be at the discretion of the Selection Committee.
- 2-page nomination statement/executive summary addressing why the candidate should receive this award. This may describe the candidate’s work in general, but should draw particular attention to the contributions that merit the award. The main theme of work done by the nominated person, and reported in the nomination, is required to be intrinsically related to Computing Education. Here are some representative (not prescriptive) aspects on which the jury will mainly assess the nomination:
- Design and deployment of education technology, new curriculum, courses (including online) and labs
- Books written at all levels
- Research on computing education
- Impact of work within one’s institute, and beyond, across the country
- Postgraduate students (Master’s and PhD) guided and their own impact, if any
- Educating and training teachers—scale and quality
- Copy of the candidate’s CV, listing publications, patents, honours, service contributions, etc.
- Supporting letters from 3 endorsers. A nominator cannot also be an endorser. Each letter must include the name, address, and telephone number of the endorser, and should focus on the accomplishments that the endorser can personally attest to and place in context. The three references required should preferably come from (a) a person of nominee’s Institute where major work has been carried out; (b) a person outside the Institute familiar with the work done and its impact; and (c) an ex graduate student who himself or herself has continued to work in the same field, and is familiar with the on-going work of the nominee and its impact. The nominator should collect these letters and bundle them for submission.
