News

Vine Group Board Director, Stephen Ibaraki invited as special awards judge to
world’s largest international science and engineering fair and to the ACM Awards Banquet

May 9th, 2010 - New York and Vancouver

Vine Group Board Director and Fellow, Distinguished Fellow and Microsoft MVP, Stephen Ibaraki is the chief special awards judge for the ACM at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in San Jose, May 9th to 14th. The ACM, Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society and delivers resources that advance computing as a science and profession including awarding the highest prize in computing, the ACM Turing Award which carries a $250,000 prize from Intel and Google, and is considered the Nobel Prize of Computing. The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) sponsored by Intel, is the world’s largest international science pre-collegiate competition representing 1,500 finalists (from millions of science entrants worldwide) from over 50 countries, regions, and territories to showcase their independent innovative research.

As chair of the ACM ISEF committee for 2010, Stephen will also be attending the ACM Awards Banquet held in San Francisco on June 26th, where ACM awardees are recognized and includes the ACM ISEF Award and the Turing Award (where Microsoft Researcher and Technical Fellow, Chuck Thacker, is the recipient). Thacker is widely recognized for his role in the creation of the Alto, the world’s first modern personal computer with mouse and graphical display; Ethernet used for the Internet; laser printing; high speed networking; multi-processor workstations the forerunner of multi-core processing commonplace today; the Tablet PC, the forerunner of gesture-based mobile computing; parallel computing and he was instrumental in the founding of three major famed labs, Xerox PARC, DEC System Research Center, and Microsoft Research Cambridge UK. As with the Nobel Prize, the Turing Award is typically given for one significant contribution, however, Thacker has more than six innovations that would qualify.

Stephen's discussion with Chuck Thacker on his Turing Award recognition can be found in over 30 news channels worldwide including throughout China from ChinaValue (and a rare pickup by Chinese Government news agencies), the Microsoft Research site, the ACM news announcement, and Wikipedia entry for Thacker: ACM News announcement: http://www.acm.org/news/featured/turing-09, and Chuck Thacker profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Thacker.

Stephen Ibaraki, noted, “In my work with the Vine Group, I have the privilege in working with the world’s best at the height of their global contributions. And it’s a tremendous pleasure and a real honour to be invited to judge world-class innovations at the ISEF from the top emerging young scientists. Moreover, as the invited ACM ISEF awards chair to the ACM Awards Banquet, I have the opportunity to see the world’s best receiving their due recognition. This spotlight provides a model for our youth to enter the sciences and engineering. It’s these events that cement the need for continuing investment in science and technology due to its importance to global GDP and the growth of all organizations.”

Evelyn YK Lee, Founder and CEO of the Vine Group provided her insights, “The Vine Group is unique in its reach and world-level influence. Our elite team of renowned professionals are actively making a substantive difference through guidance and strategic participation. Stephen’s valued work is just one example of the impact of the Vine Group.”

On behalf of the Board of Directors,