International Computing Organization Honors UCLA Student Chapter with 2023 Award

The world’s leading educational and scientific computing society, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), has selected the UCLA chapter ACM at UCLA as the recipient of its 2023 Student Chapter Excellence Award for Outstanding Chapter Activities.

Last won by UCLA in 2017, the annual award with a $500 prize recognizes student chapters that “sponsor a series of exceptional activities throughout the year or have focused their efforts on a single major activity.” In addition to the chapter activities award, ACM at UCLA has won the outstanding website (2022), recruitment (2021) and school service (2018 and 2020) awards in recent years.

“It is a great honor to receive this recognition, which not only validates our hard work but also positions us as the most decorated ACM chapter worldwide,” said Sujay Jain, the chapter’s president and a rising third-year computer engineering student. “Winning six awards in the past seven years is a testament to our commitment to excellence and our continuous pursuit of innovation.” 

The largest computer science student organization in Southern California, ACM at UCLA welcomed to its club more than 700 general members in the 2022-2023 academic year. Nearly 100 of these students served as interns who are a critical component of the club, assisting in planning major industry events such as the annual Los Angeles Capture The Flag cybersecurity competition and a 12-hour beginner-friendly hackathon called Hack on the Hill.

“It is a great honor to receive this recognition, which not only validates our hard work but also positions us as the most decorated ACM chapter worldwide,” said Sujay Jain.

In addition to its marquee events, the club is also involved in organizing member welcome days, career fairs, undergraduate research forums and student town halls in collaboration with the Computer Science Department and the UCLA chapter of Upsilon Pi Epsilon — an international honor society for the computing and information disciplines.

“Thanks to this incredible growth, we’ve been able to organize an impressive roster of around 200 events every quarter,” Jain said. “Above all, I’m proud of our commitment to inclusivity and our accomplishments in making computer science education more accessible to all students.” 

ACM at UCLA is made up of eight committees with each focused on a specific mission, ranging from mastering algorithms and competitive programming to facilitating conversations about diversity in tech. Students of all majors and levels of expertise are welcomed by the organization, which makes its workshop resources available to the public via GitHub. 

“We look forward to continuing our mission of welcoming students of all backgrounds, interests and skill levels to join our community and share our love for technology,” Jain said. 

Riley de Jong contributed to this story.