The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has issued new solicitations for its core programs: Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) — Algorithmic Foundations, Communications and Information Foundations, and Software and Hardware Foundations. Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) — Human-Centered Computing, Information Integration and Informatics, Robust Intelligence, and Computer Graphics and Visualization. Computer and Network Systems (CNS) — Computer Systems Research (to include the highlighted areas of cloud computing, embedded and hybrid systems, pervasive computing, and sustainable computing) and Networking Technology and Systems (networks leveraging or advancing new technologies, networks that address emerging national needs and trends, and meta-networking research). New this year, CISE is encouraging the submission of “breakthrough proposals” […]

We’ve previously covered Internet pioneer and California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2) founding director Larry Smarr’s decade-long quest to pursue personal health instrumentation — and there’s another great article in this month’s Atlantic shedding light on Smarr’s work, as well as his thinking about the future of healthcare (emphasis added): He is not a doctor or a biochemist, he’s a computer scientist — one of the early architects of the Internet, in fact. Today he directs a world-class research center on two University of California campuses, San Diego and Irvine, called the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, or “Calit2” (the 2 represents the repeated I and T initials). The future is arriving faster at Calit2 than it […]

As our colleagues on CRA’s Policy Blog have just noted, it appears Arati Prabhakar has been named the next director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Quoting a memo to DARPA staff: Dr. Prabhakar has spent her career advancing technology in support of both national security and the private sector, from early research and development through production. Dr. Prabhakar served from 1986 to 1993 at DARPA, first as program manager and then as founding director of the Microelectronics Technology Office. In 1993, President Clinton appointed Dr. Prabhakar as the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she led the 3,000-person organization in its work with companies […]

The National Coordination Office (NCO) for the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program — the Federal program that provides a framework and mechanisms for coordination among 15 Federal agencies collectively investing over $4 billion annually in networking and information technology research and development — has announced plans to hold the third in a series of workshops to bring together experts from academia and industry to help “create and implement a plan to facilitate research, development, experimentation, and testing by researchers to explore innovative spectrum-sharing technologies, including those that are secure and resilient.” The workshop will take place on July 24, 2012, in Boulder, Colorado. According to the announcement (following the […]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a new solicitation for its 2013 Director’s Transformative Research Awards, which will support “exceptionally innovative, original, and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish largely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies.” Unlike many other NIH R01 competitions, “little or no preliminary data [are] expected.” The Transformative Research Awards are funded through NIH’s Common Fund, which includes among its broad themes “computational and informatics challenges.” According to the solicitation (following the link; emphasis added):

(This post has been updated; please scroll down for the latest.) Last December, we blogged about changes in the number of new Ph.D.s in computer science — a slight increase between 2009 and 2010, but the “fastest growth” of all science and engineering disciplines during the 10-year period ending in 2010, according to data from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) annual Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). Well, NSF is now out with more data, this time describing trends among graduate students and postdoctoral fellows — and the numbers are quite striking for computing (details after the jump).