What is the PFW ACM?

"[The] ACM is a global scientific and educational organization dedicated to advancing the art, science, engineering, and application of computing, serving both professional and public interests by fostering the open exchange of information and by promoting the highest professional and ethical standards."

_{- Association for Computing Machinery}

The PFW ACM is an organization of students who are interested in computers or computing. We welcome any and all levels of computing knowledge, and while we hope that you'll learn more about computing through interactions within the community, it's not required or expected.

Everyone Welcome

Programming, Computing, and Digital Communications are core parts of our modern world, and ensuring equitable access and understanding of the ways that they function and can be applied is vital to maintaining ethics in computer science, and driving the application of the field forwards.

As a group dedicated to the exploration of these things, we seek to create and maintain expectations for free, equitable, and shared access to computing. We seek to provide a feeling of community and comradeship within Purdue Fort Wayne, and to help the PFW and Fort Wayne communities have access to computing knowledge and resources.

This means we're interested in anyone with any interest in computing, its scientific theory, or its application. This includes gamers, hobbyists, entreprenuers, modders, makers, people who are just curious, and more! Likewise we're open to all members of the PFW and Fort-Wayne community, regardless of their status as students or alumni.

SIGs - Special Interest Groups

Because the field of computing is so broad, the PFW ACM supports the existence of SIGs. SIGs are groups of students, functioning similarly to a committee, which have a shared subinterest to the exploration of computing. This means game-development, cybersecurity, web-design, journalism, etc. SIGs have psuedo-officers who present their SIGs interests and accomplishments to the ACM for support, publishing, advertizing, and oversight. Members of a SIG are still members of the PFW ACM, but demonstrate a specific interest in the activities of that SIG.

Formal Goals

All of that said, here are the goals formally outlined for our club:

To promote and increase knowledge of and greater interest in the design, development, construction, languages, management, and applications of computing
To promote greater interest in computing and its applications
To provide means of communication between people having interests in computing
To serve students at Purdue University Fort Wayne and other interested persons in the Fort Wayne community

What do we do?

We do anything involving computers! In today's world, that's a pretty long list - one we obviously can't cover completely. But typically as long as we have enough members interested in a particular topic or development we'll create an event or project related to it. We host events, create fun apps and projects, and provide training on topics in computer science.

Events

The PFW ACM hosts a number of events, as well as the training sessions leading up to them. Our most popular and recurrent events are the Global Game Jam, and the National Cyber League (NCL) Capture-The-Flag Competition.

National Cyber League CTF

The National Cyber League CTF is a Capture-The-Flag Competition hosted by the NCL. Participate in a series of challenges to collect "flags" representing your success. Participants will learn a variety of subjects related to cybersecurity!

Learn More

The Global Game Jam

Global Game Jam is an international nonprofit which organizes the Global Game Jam event. This event allows participants to experience a Gamejam - a timed rush to produce a working game. Join us for an awesome time!

Learn More

Event Calendar

Looking for something else? Checkout our events calendar.

Upcoming Events

Cybersecurity Division

Cyber and Information security is one of the PFW ACM's most appealing and successful subjects. As such, we have researched - and continue to research - ways in which we can explore the field of Cyber and Information security, its knowledge, and its events in order to disseminate them to others. Our participation in the NCL CTF is one of many ways in which the club explores cybersecurity and the art of hacking.

Wargames

Wargames are strategic games meant to simulate various aspects of real-world scenarios for the testing and development of different techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs). They offer a way to gain and demonstrate strategic skill against an opponent, as well as a sandbox for evolving new and interesting strategies. We believe that wargaming in the context of cybersecurity offers a chance to develop interdisciplinary bonds and gain real skills for application in both competitions and the industry. Because it's impossible to pay attention to everything in a single game, different wargames will focus on modelling different aspects of cybersecurity work. We hope to assist members in gaining skills they can use in and beyond the classroom. Explore Our Wargaming

Research

Research consists of academic and technical exercises for expanding our knowledge of and tooling for cybersecurity. There are a few ways that this research can manifest:

Writeups - Writeups are quick and short accounts of cybersecurity topics or exercises meant to relay the important details. These are often aimed at CTFs or malware as a way to summarize technical challenges, include example code, and document the process.
Tool Development - Tool Development is an important aspect of cybersecurity research, as it ensures we have a toolbox for beating and exploring CTFs, challenges, and real world malware. This is best facilitated by the PFW ACM's Open Source contribution options.
Real World Research - Real World Research means research directed at real events, problems, or areas. This may be research into malware samples and how they function, research into how cybersecurity affects different areas of society, or analysis of existing cybersecurity solutions in places like Fort Wayne.
Whitepapers - Whitepapers are documents which analyze, detail, criticize, or advocate for internal solutions and strategies. Whitepapers can be aimed at anything else the club does, and are helpful for establishing direction and identifying areas of change.

We are always looking for people interested in doing some sort of research! Reach out to an officer if you have any questions.

Challenges

Challenges are a chance to prepare for other wargames or CTFs. They're problems or scenarios which have been prepared by members of the PFW ACM in order to test your ability, or prepare you for the NCL CTF. Explore Our Challenges

Education

One of the most important and effective ways we can ensure equitable involvement in computing is by promoting education about it. Thus, the PFW ACM makes it our mission to provide technical education on a variety of subjects in computer science. All technical events which we promote and host have associated training events which teach relevant skills and the tools necessary to succeed. Likewise, the PFW ACM community and its officers are typically available to assist with any questions or projects.

Accomplishments

Spring 2024 NCL, 1st in Indiana

Getting Involved

We absolutely love when our community members get involved in our projects!

Contribution & Participation

Members of the campus community are encouraged to propose and contribute to Wargames, Projects, and Research which the club endorses. We are proud participants in the Open Source community and advocates for the ethical sharing of knowledge. Here are a few suggestions for contributing:

Github - The PFW ACM Github allows for us to publicly host projects for all to see and work on. If you're familiar with github, feel free to make a fork, or request access to a project from the officers. If you're not familiar, checkout Github & Contribution.
Wargame Universe - As part of our Wargames, we try to create a realistic setting. This means developing threat actors, threats, assets, fake tools and services, and scenarios to play through. All of this takes skill in worldbuilding, threat-modelling, and analysis. If you think you have something to contribute, checkout our Worldbuilder's Resource Page!
Journalism - Two of the PFW ACM's charter missions are to educate others about programming and to provide communications for those interested in computing. For us, this means providing those with an interest in internet journalism with the knowledge, tools, and platform to develop that skill. If you have an event, club, or subject which you believe should be published with the ACM - reach out!
Partnerships - We consider the opportunity to provide other PFW organizations with our support an honor, and welcome partnerships. Partnerships may include developing tasks or challenges for an event, working on a project or site for a club, or helping advertise. If you would like to partner, learn about partnering with us.

Community

If anything we've mentioned so far catches your attention, we'd love for you to checkout our community!

Jump into our discord to see what we're up to, talk with others, and see our upcoming events!

Email us to get in contact!

Media

Here's some publications which the PFW ACM is proud of!