{
  "id": 6392044,
  "title": "The computing expert creating, innovating and seeking the greater good",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/09/the-computing-expert-creating-innovating-and-seeking-the-greater-good",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-09T06:00:31.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Silicon Republic",
    "slug": "silicon-republic",
    "url": "https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/computing-expert-creating-innovating-seeking-greater-good-skills-working-life"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Alison J Derbenwick-Miller, CEO and executive director of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), discusses how computing can be a force for good in a rapidly changing world. Her interest in the intersection of law, technology, and society began during her senior year of university when she took a graduate-level course on constitutional law and society. This led her to abandon her initial plan to pursue a PhD in Soviet History and instead pursue a career in law, starting as a legal assistant at Oracle in the early 1990s.\n\nDerbenwick-Miller found that her work in the fast-paced, for-profit industry often left her feeling a need for her work to have meaning and do good in the world. She eventually found her calling in roles related to philanthropy and ACM, the world's largest educational and scientific computing society. She explained that her desire to use technology in service of the public good drew her to ACM, whose global community works to advance computing as a science and profession and ensure it benefits society.\n\nIn her current role, Derbenwick-Miller is motivated by the potential of computing to address unprecedented challenges and opportunities. She highlighted AI, quantum computing, advanced robotics, renewable energy innovation, and genomic sequencing as examples of exciting advances across disciplines and industries. To stay skilled in this rapidly transforming landscape, Derbenwick-Miller emphasized the importance of a love for learning new things, collaborating with smart teams, and approaching problem-solving at a systems level.\n\nDerbenwick-Miller believes that strong team leadership and a commitment to partnerships are crucial in maintaining a skilled and productive environment in computing. She shared that she once worked in an organization that followed the mantra 'great people do great things,' which has stayed with her throughout her career. She emphasized the importance of creating a collaborative and respectful culture, setting clear goals, and empowering team members to achieve those goals.\n\nDerbenwick-Miller also stressed the importance of establishing impactful partnerships across academia, industry, and government, as computing technologies do not recognize boundaries or borders. She explained that actions can have far-reaching and unintended outcomes, making it difficult to act with lasting success within one's own silo. However, developing deeper understandings of the needs of others and imagining and building solutions that benefit more people more efficiently can be achieved through collaborative relationships and communities across sectors.\n\nDerbenwick-Miller emphasized the significance of understanding one's own limitations and leveraging shared skills and knowledge within close communities. She acknowledged that even within these communities, people may not always understand things the same way or use the same terminology. Despite these challenges, she remains optimistic about the potential of the computing community to create, innovate, and positively impact humanity.",
  "summary": "Alison J Derbenwick-Miller of the Association for Computing Machinery explores how, in a time of transformation, computing can be a significant force for good. Read more: The computing expert creating, innovating and seeking the greater good",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}