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Describes a resource management program for avoiding deadlock, a computer system state in which resources have been allocated to tasks in such a way that none of the tasks can continue unless one or more resources are preempted. Costs of resource preemption; Reduction of the possible extreme space and processing overhead.

The article discusses the evolution of the information technology (IT) profession in the U.S. The authors analyze the profession by setting forth definitions for various terms including profession, professional, and discipline. They argue that the term IT is not perceived as widely encompassing and is limited to business applications of computing such as programming despite the growth of specialty fields such as cyber security, cloud computing, and networking. The authors discuss accreditation, certification and licensing in IT, which are, according to the authors, elements of a mature profession. The article gives examples of organizations requiring various certifications such as the U.S. Department of Defense and the American Society for Quality.

Focuses on the adequacy of the academic coupling of computer science and engineering. Consideration of educational philosophies; Involvement of organizations and companies in computer science; Activities of mutual interest to computer science and engineering.

The article presents information about the progress made by the American Chemical Society (ACS). Founded in 1876, ACS did not receive a charter from the U.S. Congress until 1937-some 61 years later. Its objectives are to encourage the advancement of chemistry, to foster improvements in the qualifications of chemists and to be concerned with worldwide applications of chemistry to meet the needs of humanity. With 137,125 members worldwide, ACS is the largest scientific society in the world. ACS members are mostly chemists, with only about 10 percent being chemical engineers. ACS views chemists as a professional group and its activities emphasize the interchange of scientific information and long term R&D issues. It supports chemistry as a science, but its members largely oppose getting involved with technology aspects. The society maintains a computerized roster of experts in various areas of chemistry, obtained by surveying members. It acts as a referral service, citing approximately one referral per week from this roster.

The debate on software engineering licensing and its merits are discussed in this article. The author states that licensing is a political issue and not a technical one, so finding an answer is difficult, and it will never be possible to prove that any course of action is the right one. However, licensing can be influenced, for the two potentially good results from licensing of software engineers are because licensing forces to define, codify and organize the field and has the potential to improve the overall quality of the software engineering discipline; and because licensing may be legally required for certain purposes. It has the potential to reduce the chances that unqualified, incompetent practitioners will build inappropriate software in systems that affect the public's health and safety. Every field needs to mature, and licensing has a good track record of helping disciplines do so. If the skills associated with a powerful new technology cannot reasonably be understood by the layman, regulation is one of society's less intrusive ways of keeping things under control. The author observes that licensing and regulation are too important to leave to others.

Focuses on several issues related to the long-range planning of the Association for Computing Machinery. Information on the key elements of the "Long-Range Planning Report," which includes the results of a membership survey; Recommendations by the Long-Range Planning Committee, chaired by Dorothy Deringer, for the establishment of a Program Planning and Opportunity Review Committee; Examination of the long-range plan and its recommendations by the Strategic Planning Committee.

Several letters to the editor in response to articles in previous issues including an article related to the Draft Proposed American National Standard for Programming Language in the August 1975 issue, an another article related to the process of refereeing in computer science in the July 1975 issue, an article concerning computer programming techniques in a previous issue, an article on the structure of computer programming in a previous issue and an article related to computer network control and operation is a previous issue are presented.

The article offers information on two projects that could lead to the improvement of worldwide software engineering workforce. First is the Integrated Software and Systems Engineering Curriculum Project (ISSEC) that has published the "Graduate Software Engineering 2009 (GSwE2009): Curriculum Guidelines for Graduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering." The BKCASE project started in September, 2009 has two products including the "Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge" (SEBoK) and the Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering" (GRCSE).

Presents several letters to the editor on topics related to distance education, published in the February 1, 2000 issue of the journal Communications of the ACM. Features of the email-based course on planning and staging a medieval period-inspired feast; Factors contributing towards the successful implementation of GNA-VSNS BioComputing course, a distance learning course, at the postgraduate level; Comparison of the effectiveness of teaching via distance education with that of conventional classroom teaching.