In this month’s Communications of the ACM: The next decade will bring 10 technological changes that will transform the world, says Dave Evans, Cisco’s chief futurist. In his opinion, they are: The Internet Of Things. Evans predicts the number of Internet-connected “things” will reach 50 billion — more than six devices fore very person on Earth — by 2020. The Zettaflood Is Coming. This year the world is creating 1.2 zettabytes of unique data, mainly as a result of high-definition video. Evans expects 91% of Internet data will be video by 2015. Wisdom Of The Cloud. Evans says that, by 2020, one-third of all data will live in the cloud. “Already, the cloud […]

There’s a new study out in tomorrow’s Science magazine that’s generating lots of buzz — trending, if you will — this afternoon: researchers have mined two years’ worth of Twitter data, from over 2.4 million users, to study the daily, weekly, and seasonal variations in the mood of people from 84 countries around the world. As one journalist put it: But while the findings aren’t necessarily surprising — and this isn’t the first “Twitter study” either — the fact that the two social scientists mined such a large data set to solve a problem that’s usually reserved for surveys or individual diaries is noteworthy. As the news staff of Science magazine points out in […]

At an event in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) released results of its first Quadrennial Technology Review (QTR) — launched earlier this year at the recommendation of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to help the Department identify a set of priorities for its energy technology R&D activities. As Energy Secretary Steven Chu noted: Traditionally, the Department’s energy strategy has been organized along individual program lines and based on annual budgets. With this QTR, we bind together multiple energy technologies, as well as multiple DoE energy technology programs, in the common purpose of solving our energy challenges. In addition, this QTR provides a multi-year framework […]

This month’s Communications of the ACM features a great piece about improving — and transforming — our nation’s healthcare system through the development of an information technology ecosystem: …[Health] information technology need not be limited to doctor’s visits and lab tests. [A report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) last December] envisions a more comprehensive, lifelong record that includes not only treatment history but also a genetic profile, psychological characteristics, behavior patterns, and exposures to risks that might be relevant to health. While such a record could benefit individual patients, it could provide even greater value when stripped of personally identifying information, combined with similar records, and […]

(This post has been updated; please scroll down for the latest.) Yesterday, the White House named 94 researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), “the highest honor the U.S. government bestows on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.” Established in 1996 and coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the awards honor individuals “for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, and community outreach.” Among this year’s PECASE recipients, 18 are in computing and […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog by Karsten Steinhaeuser, a Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota involved with a National Science Foundation Expeditions in Computing on Understanding Climate Change: A Data Driven Approach and the Planetary Skin Institute. Karsten describes the Expeditions effort here. Climate change is a defining environmental challenge facing our planet as rising temperatures, increased severity and frequency of extreme events, and transformation of the global ecosystems are placing unprecedented stress on society, natural resources and man-made infrastructure. A team of researchers led by Vipin Kumar at the University of Minnesota is exploring ways in which computer scientists can help answer […]