AM Turing Award, sponsored by Google (via AMTURING)
Google and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) announced the prize for the annual AM Turing Award will be reaching Nobel Prize levels with a one million dollar cash prize for the 2014 winner.
The lucky winner won’t know until spring 2015 at the ACM Awards Banquet, but Google will be single-handedly shelling out the prize money.
The AM Turing Award has been going on annually since 1966, and while it is the equivalent to the Nobel Prize within the computer science and technology realm – for the most part – the public doesn't care. Particularly, the next generation of computer innovators probably have never heard of the award, or the man it’s named after. That man is Alan Turing, by the way; he was a renowned code-breaker for the Allied Forces.
Thus far, the AM Turing Award has basically had two sponsors,: Google and Intel since 2007. Now, Google is the sole sponsor of the AM Turing Award, but their involvement has more than quadrupled. Previously the cash prize has been $250,000 which is paltry in comparison to the Nobel Prize.
Google is changing all that this year, and upping the ante on Computer Science and Technology. It seems this computing giant wants to use this million dollar cash prize as a way to inspire the next generation of innovators to get involved and create some groundbreaking stuff in years to come.
According to the ACM, the larger cash prize is meant to reflect the importance and impact computing science has had on every aspect of our daily lives. Indeed, in every field, we rely on computers and computing technology in order to function-- everything from our laptops and phones to medical equipment. This larger prize money also raises the profile of the AM Turing Award quite a bit. Perhaps the Nobel Prize finally has some competition.
Some of you might be thinking, 'how do I get in on this?' Well, it's about as easy to win the AM Turing as it is to win the Nobel Prize. Actually, the Nobel Prize might be easier to win now since they gave it to a man for simply becoming president, but then I guess they redeemed themselves with the Higgs Particle.
The AM Turing Award is given to “true pioneers” and “fundamental contributors to the science and technology moment,” according to what Alexander L. Wolf, president of the ACM, told the New York Times contributor, Steve Lohr.
Previous AM Turing Award winners include Douglas Engelbert (inventor of the computer mouse), Silvio Micali (innovator of cryptography), and Leslie Lamport (Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research).
All of the AM Turing Award winners have made groundbreaking contributions to the field of computing science and technology that made a difference. In future, who knows what awesome stuff scientists and researchers will come up with?. Personally, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a teleportation device, but I would also settle for a TARDIS (the time machine from the British TV series Dr. Who).. Time to get cracking, wave of the future!
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