A 'Wise' promotion

David S. Wise, computer science professor, is one individual whose efforts are paying off. \nIn early June, Wise was elected vice-president of the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM), one of the two esteemed professional societies in the computer science community. Wise had previously held the post of secretary-treasurer in the organization.\n"His position within ACM proves that he is respected as a leader in the community," said Dennis Gannon, chair of the IU Computer Science Department.\nThis exhibition of respect doesn't come lightly. The ACM is the world's largest and longest standing community working for educational and scientific computing progress. Conceived in 1947, ACM has served as a major forum for the communication of information, ideas and discoveries. With more than 80,000 members, spanning over 100 countries globally, ACM provides service for the industrial, governmental and academic worlds. Modest and matter-of-fact, when speaking about his new position, Wise said, "I just do the things that need doing."\nWise said that his position in the ACM isn't one tied to the act of research per se, but to its "enterprise." Wise commented that the work he does for his society serves to "save us as researchers from commercial forces." The ACM and other academic societies like it act as an alternative source for publishing the research of University professors. In opposition to commercial publishing companies who sell the published material back to the University at high prices, these societies try to alleviate the stress on the University's pocketbook. \n"It may not be a concern of my colleagues, who are bound by tenure concerns to publish. But ask any librarian who keeps the books, and they'll tell you it's a major issue," Wise said.\nBusiness aspects of his community aside, Wise breaks through as a researcher. According to ACM's membership profile, he's a leading expert on parallel programming; creating faster, more efficient computer programs. He co-discovered "lazy evaluation" -- roughly speeding up programming by avoiding the need to list individual instructions to arrive at a solution -- and invented Random Access Memory with on-board counting. His current project aspires to bring the fields of programming languages, algorithms, architecture and multi-processing under a new unified paradigm.\nAll the while, Wise never forgets his job as a professor. Graduate Craig Citro, a former student of Wise, said Wise relates well in the classroom and shows genuine care for the students' learning. \n"He was always bursting with knowledge and excitement. Every time I talked to Professor Wise I felt I came away with something -- and not just about computer science," he said.\nAnd because progress with computers can happen virtually overnight, Wise is constantly working to make sure his students never get left behind. \n"He cares very much that the computer science degree offered here at IU is as strong and up-to-the-minute as it can be," Gannon said.