Action Lab: Uniting the world to support sustainable societies

15 June 2021

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) 2021 is inspired by the broad agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has a commitment to research that addresses the challenges faced by under-represented and marginalised communities.

This year’s conference will be held virtually from 28 June to 2 July, hosted by Action Lab in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. As hosts, the Lab will gather impact-focused researchers from different disciplines who are applying the broad lens of ‘IT for social good’ to address needs within health, education, climate change and other key areas.

Director of Action Lab, Professor Patrick Olivier will be the Co-general Conference Chair of COMPASS 2021. Professor Olivier brings with him an extensive track record in Digital Civics, researching the role of co-design and technologies to support communities around the world.

“Action Lab is very excited to be able to host such a notable and globally recognised conference. It is a unique conference and this year I’m excited to see the work of many researchers who are responding to the threat of COVID-19 to the fabric of communities around the world, both through theory and boots-on-the-ground research,” said Professor Olivier.

As part of the 2021 conference, ACM COMPASS launched the Shadow Program Committee (PC) initiative, which allowed research students and early career researchers to gain hands-on experience and feedback in reviewing research papers.

Co-chair of the Shadow PC Program, Action Lab Research Fellow Delvin Varghese, says the program is an opportunity for participants with little to no previous reviewing experience, to shadow the review process and further their skills.

“Program Committees tend to be pretty undemocratic and opaque. You have to know someone on the inside to nominate you. What we’ve been able to do is have a process for junior researchers to gain crucial reviewing skills and be able to demonstrate their skills to prospective committees (including COMPASS) looking for reviewers,” said Delvin Varghese.

To learn more about the conference or purchase your tickets, visit: https://compass.acm.org/