The Schubmehl-Prein Prize for
Best Essay on Social Impact of Computing
August 1, 2010 Announcement: Winners of the
2010 competition.
The winners of the 2010 Schubmehl-Prein Competition for the Best Essay on Social
Impact of Computing are:
First Place: Tess Oetter, Hinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale, Illinois
Second Place: Ben
Lopez, Damien High School, La Verne, California
Third Place: James Thornton, Damien High School, La
Verne, California
Congratulations to this year's winners. And thanks to all of the students who entered this year's competition, and to the teachers and parents who encouraged them. Lastly, see the links below to check out the published versions of last year's winning essays.
The 2010 Competition. The Schubmehl-Prein
Prize for best analysis of the social impact of a particular aspect of
computing technology will be awarded to a student who is a high school junior
in academic year 2009-2010. The
first-place award is $1,000, the second-place award is $500, and the
third-place award is $250. Winning
entries are traditionally published in the Association for Computing
Machinery’s Computers
and Society online magazine.
Topic for the 2010
Competition. The topic for the 2010 competition is – What Should Individual Privacy Rights Be
With Respect To Services Such As “Street View”?
Services
such as Google’s Street View provide an important and useful service to many
people; what should individual privacy rights be with respect to such
services?
Eligibility.
Students who are in their junior year of high school in the 2009-2010
academic year and in the top one-fifth of their class are eligible to
enter. A letter from the school
principal or other appropriate administrator certifying the junior standing and
academic rank should be submitted with the essay.
Entry Guidelines.
An essay should be organized as a title page, main body, and list of
references. The maximum length of
length of the main body of an essay should be limited to approximately 2,500
words, or ten pages. A figure or table taking one page should be counted as 250
words. Submissions that are
substantially shorter, in the range of five pages or less, generally are not
competitive against longer submissions. Potential entrants are encouraged to
read the winning essays from recent years prior to preparing an entry. The
essay must be the original work of the entrant. All sources and quotations must be appropriately
documented. The language for the
competition is English.
Judging.
The essays will be judged for accuracy of technical concepts, quality
and clarity of expression, logic of argument, originality of ideas, and
conformance to the entry guidelines.
The decision of the judges is final.
Timeline.
Essays should be submitted by midnight, Eastern Standard Time, 31 May
2010. Submit your entry as an attachment to an email to
essay@cse.nd.edu. Your email
should contain contact information for a school administrator who can verify
eligibility. If the attachment is
not in standard word or pdf format, then the email
should identify the format. Within
a few days after the deadline, you should receive an acknowledgement that the
essay was received. The target date for announcement of the judging
results is August 1, 2010. The
competition web page is www.cse.nd.edu/EssayContest and
updated details are announced there.
The Award.
The prize for this essay competition is made possible by the endowment
for the Schubmehl-Prein Chair at the University of
Notre Dame.
Winners of the
2009 competition.
The winners of the 2009 Schubmehl-Prein Competition for the Best Essay on Social
Impact of Computing are:
First Place: Katherine Heit, Saint Thomas Aquinas High School, Overland Park, Kansas
(link to published essay in Computers and Society)
Second Place: Danielle
Harris, Mayfield Senior School, Pasadena, California
(link to published essay in Computers and Society)
Third Place: David Purington, Damien High School, La
Verne, California
(link to published essay in Computers and Society)
Honorable Mention: Bryan Dongre, Brookfield
Central High School, Brookfield, Wisconsin
Honorable Mention: Erica Smith, St. Agnes Academy, Houston,
Texas
The
2009 competition attracted a number of essays that strongly engaged with the
topic – What are
the potential social and ethical implications of the “$100 laptop”? In
addition to First, Second and Third Place winners, this year two Honorable
Mention winners were also selected.
Winning entries again come from all across the country, representing
schools in Kansas, California, Wisconsin, and Texas. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners. Thanks to all of the students who
prepared an entry to the competition.
And thanks as well to all of the teachers and school counselors who worked
with all of the students.
Winners of the
2008 competition.
The winners of the 2008 Schubmehl-Prein Competition for the Best Essay on Social
Impact of Computing are:
First place: Sean
Hernandez, Damien High School, California
Second place: Greg Rodarte, Damien High School,
California
Third place: Michael Albani, De La Salle Collegiate High School, Michigan
The topic for the 2008 competition was What should be the ethical
and legal responsibilities of the providers
and the users
of resources such as Facebook, YouTube and blogs? This year’s competition had a most unusual result in
relation to last year’s competition.
The first- and second-place winners again came from Damien High School
in California, and the third-place winner again came from a Michigan high
school, although a different one than last year. The essays this year expressed a strong theme of personal
responsibility in the use of social networking sites. Thanks to all of the students who worked to prepare an entry
to the competition, and thanks as well to all of the teachers who worked with
them.
Winners of the
2007 competition.
The winners of the 2007 Schubmehl-Prein Competition for the Best Essay on Social
Impact of Computing are:
First place: David
Martinez, Damien High School, California
(link to published essay in Computers and Society)
Second place: Tunlewa Soyinka, Damien High School,
California (link to published essay in Computers and Society)
Third place: Maria Lee,
Hillsdale Academy, Michigan (link to published essay in Computers and Society))
The topic for the 2007 competition was, What is needed to secure the software that controls our nation's
critical infrastructure? Entries to the 2007 competition again came from
throughout the United States, including schools in Indiana, California,
Michigan, New York, and Florida.
As happened in the first year, the top two prizes went to students at
the same school. This year it is
Damien High School in California, whereas in 2005 it was Greenwood High School
in Indiana. As is the case each
year, there were a number of good entries and a broad variety approaches taken
by the authors. We thank all of
the students who entered, and all of the teachers who worked with them, for
their time and effort.
Winners of the 2006 competition.
The winners of the 2006 Schubmehl-Prein Competition for the Best Essay on Social
Impact of Computing, appearing in the December 2006 issue
of ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society,
are:
First place: David Amurao, Damien High School, California
(link
to published essay in Computers and Society)
Second place: Joshua
Gaines, West Branch High School, Ohio (link
to published essay in Computers and Society)
Third place: Alexa Linton, Central Bucks High School,
Pennsylvania (link
to published essay in Computers and Society)
The topic for the 2006
competition was, Is
the Computing Technology for Electronic Voting Secure and Reliable Enough for
National Use?
Entries
to the 2006 competition came from throughout the United States, including high
schools in Arizona, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New
York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. The judging was quite difficult, due to the number of good
entries and the diverse approaches taken by the authors. We thank all of the students who
entered, and all of the teachers who worked with them, for their time and
effort.
Winners of the 2005 competition.
The winners of the 2005 Schubmehl-Prein Competition for the Best Essay on Social
Impact of Computing, appearing in the March 2005 issue
of ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society,
are:
First
Place – Jennifer Fujawa, Greenwood
High School, Indiana (link to published
essay in Computers and Society)
Second
Place – Amanda Woodcock, Greenwood High School, Indiana
(link to
published essay in Computers and Society)
Third
Place –
Patrick Kosciuk, Lakeshore High School,
Michigan (link to
published essay in Computers and Society)
The topic for the 2005 competition was The Effects on Individual Privacy and National Security
of Adopting a Biometric National Identity Card in the United States. Congratulations to
each of Jennifer, Amanda, and Patrick!
And thanks to all those who submitted entries to this
year’s competition. Revised
versions of the winning essays have appeared in ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, a publication of the ACM Special Interest
Group on Computers and Society.
Links to essays appear above.
Information about the Computers and Society magazine can be found here.