SIGCSE Awards

Each year, the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) selects recipients for its four awards: Outstanding Contribution, Distinguished Service, Broadening Participation, and Test of Time award.

• The ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education honors an individual or group in recognition of a significant contribution to computer science education. The contribution may take many forms, such as: curriculum design, innovative teaching methods, textbook authorship, development of new teaching tools, or any of a number of other significant contributions to computer science education. The contribution should have had long lasting impact on, and made a significant difference in, computing education. This award was initiated in 1981.

• The ACM SIGCSE Award for Distinguished Service to the Computer Science Education Community honors an individual who has a long history of volunteer service to the computer science education community. This service, which is not limited to service to SIGCSE, may take many forms, such as professional society leadership, conference organization, outreach efforts, editorial board participation, or any of a number of other types of service to the computer science education community. Awards may recognize service at any level, for example: K-12, college, graduate, or continuing post-college. This award was initiated in 1997.

• The ACM SIGCSE Award for Broadening Participation in Computing Education recognizes an early career SIGCSE Member that has made a fundamental and innovative contribution to broadening participation in computing education. The contribution may take many forms, such as: curriculum design, outreach to underserved communities, creation of programs, policies or initiatives that increase representation in computing, publishing work that helps the community understand underrepresentation issues, or any of a number of other significant contributions toward broadening participation in computing education. In addition, contributions can span any sector in computing education, including primary or secondary education (e.g., in the US this includes, K-12, community college, four year institutions), or even community-based educational organizations. Similarly, the award is open to individuals that work in education or industry, as long as their contribution has had an impact in broadening participation in computing education. This award was initiated in 2024.

• The ACM SIGCSE Test of Time Award will recognize an outstanding paper published in the SIGCSE community that has had a meaningful impact on computing education practice and research. Significant impact can be demonstrated through citations, adoptions and/or adaptations of techniques and practices described in the paper by others, techniques described in the paper that have become widely recognized as best practices, or other evidence the paper is a seminal work in the domain of computing education. The paper must have been published in a conference sponsored or co-sponsored by SIGCSE or in an ACM journal at least 10 years prior (i.e., for the 2024 award, papers must have been published before Dec 31, 2013). This award was initiated in 2019, with the first award presented in 2020.

Recipients for the awards are nominated by a SIGCSE member. Nominations are due September 1st.

The winners of the Outstanding Contribution and Distinguished Service awards are chosen by the Outstanding/Service Awards Committee appointed by the SIGCSE board. The committee will include a chair and four additional members and include members who are long-standing members with extensive experience with and knowledge of the SIGCSE community.

The winner of the Broadening Participation award is chosen by the Broadening Participation in Computing Award Committee appointed by the SIGCSE board. The committee will include a chair and four additional members and should represent a diverse set of backgrounds with prior experience in broadening participation in computing initiatives.

Members of both committees will serve three year terms, renewable once by the SIGCSE board.

The winner of the Test of Time award will be chosen by the Test of Time Awards Committee appointed by the SIGCSE Board. The committee will include representatives from the TOCE editorial board and the major SIGCSE conference committees (the SIGCSE Technical Symposium, ICER, ITiCSE, and CompEd) for the conferences held in the annual year of the award presentation.

The awards for all four awards are presented at one of the annual ACM SIGCSE-sponsored conferences (SIGCSE Technical Symposium, ITiCSE, ICER, or CompEd) respecting the preferences of the recipient(s) and practical limitations.

Nomination Process

Here is information about the nomination processes for these awards:

• Outstanding Contribution and Distinguished Service awards
• Broadening Participation award
• Test of Time award