Andrew McGettrick

Andrew McGettrick was named recipient of the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award for his scholarship and tireless volunteer work and contributions, which have fundamentally improved rigorous computer science as a field of professional practice and as an academic pursuit.

Over five decades, McGettrick, a professor at the University of Strathclyde, has consistently made outstanding contributions to computing education. At the University of Strathclyde, he drove key curriculum improvements in Computer Science and Software Engineering. Additionally, his program evaluation initiatives for other universities and colleges improved the quality and rigor of undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral programs around the world. McGettrick’s work for the UK government, including driving the first benchmarking standard for computing degrees and chairing the five-year revision of the QAA benchmarking standard for Master’s degrees in Computing, was similarly transformative.

McGettrick has played multiple leadership roles within the British Computing Society (BCS) and has served on the ACM Education Board for two decades. With Eric Roberts, he launched ACM’s Education Council, and he served as its Chair from 2007 to 2014. Under his leadership, the council developed numerous curricular volumes including the ACM/IEEE Curriculum Task Force’s Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Overview volumes. He recently served on the ACM Education Board’s Data Science Curriculum Task Force and helped launch the Learning at Scale series of annual conferences.

McGettrick was involved in the Committee on European Computing Education and was a co-founder and member of the Steering Committee of the Informatics for All coalition, a multi-organizational advocacy body that collaborates with the European Commission.

McGettrick’s publications include more than 130 research articles, textbooks, and scholarly papers. His white papers have shaped the nature and progress of computing in Europe. He also edited or co-edited numerous influential collections, including Concurrent Programming Software Specification Techniques (1988), Software Engineering – A European Perspective (1993), and Grand Challenges in Computing (2004). McGettrick was the founding editor of Addison-Wesley’s (now Pearson’s) International Computer Science series (~100 books) and co-editor of Taylor and Francis’ Computer Science undergraduate textbook series (20 books to date).

ACM named 49 Distinguished Members for outstanding contributions to the field. The 2018 ACM Distinguished Members are exemplars for their peers, and represent ACM’s worldwide geographic reach, as well as the exciting range of subdisciplines that constitute today’s technology landscape.

"By honoring these individuals, we highlight the professional achievements behind the technologies that have transformed both our daily lives and society in general,” explains ACM President Cherri M. Pancake. “Each Distinguished Member has also demonstrated a commitment to being part of the professional community through his or her longstanding membership in ACM. These computing leaders really epitomize ACM’s mission of ‘advancing computing as a science and a profession.’"

The 2018 ACM Distinguished Members work at leading universities, corporations and research institutions around the world. They represent countries including Australia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom. These innovators have made contributions in a wide range of technical areas including algorithms, artificial intelligence, computer architecture, computer science education, cybersecurity, graphics, human-computer interaction, and networking.

Andrew McGettrick was honored with the 2018 ACM Presidential Award for his unwavering commitment to computer science education—particularly in terms of its quality, breadth, and access—for generations of students worldwide. McGettrick served as chair of ACM’s Education Board and Education Council for over 15 years, leaving an indelible imprint as a passionate advocate for equipping computer science students with the knowledge, skills, and tools to succeed in the field. During his tenure, he steered the development of key curricula in computer science and software engineering. In recent years, he has played an instrumental role in championing European educational efforts and professional societies, through his work with ACM’s Europe Council and Informatics Europe. McGettrick was one of the leading forces behind the Informatics for All initiative, an acclaimed report that explores strategies for Informatics education in Europe at all levels.