The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced three funding opportunities focused on training under the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Initiative.  The BD2K Initiative was formed to enable biomedical scientists to capitalize more fully on the Big Data being generated by the research communities.  The new funding opportunities are: Mentored Career Development Award in Biomedical Big Data Science for Clinicians and Doctorally Prepared Scientists (RFA-HG-14-007) This BD2K FOA solicits applications for a mentored career development award in the area of Big Data Science. The aim of the initiative is to support additional mentored training of scientists who will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to be independent researchers as […]

Today, in conjunction with the Robotics VO, National Science Foundation (NSF), and The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Community Community Consortium (CCC) is releasing a report on the Opportunities in Robotics, Automation, and Computer Science. The report is a result of an October 2013 workshop at the White House Conference Center in Washington, D.C. The workshop brought together 28 participants from industry, academia, and government to discuss opportunities in advanced manufacturing for robotics, automation, and computer science. The goal of the workshop was to frame a set of concrete problems that could be used to guide academic basic and applied research that would support advances in manufacturing, […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is releasing its third segment in the Computing Research in Action Series.   This segment features the Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) research lab, led by Professor Shwetak Patel, at the University of Washington. The UbiComp lab, which consists of an interdisciplinary team of students (CS, EE, CE, ME), focuses on solving interesting and socially meaningful problems using a mix of hardware and software applications. The UbiComp lab focuses on four areas of ubiquitous computing: Novel interaction techniques: With the growing number of computers around us embedded into the environment, there is a need to interact with these computers beyond the traditional keyboard and mouse. Sustainability  sensing: Using computer science, machine learning and signal processing […]

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the showcase for breakthrough consumer technologies each year.  It is happening this week, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  In conjunction with CES, Tom Kalil and Cristin Dorgelo from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) hosted a We the Geeks Hangout on the Future of Computing on January 8, 2014. On the Hangout, Tom and Cristin spoke with Mark Papermaster, Chief Technology Officer at Advanced Micro Devices, Alex Kipman of Microsoft Kinect, Alicia Gibb of the Open Source Hardware Association, and Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus Rift to discuss: What new computing advancements might we see in the next few years? What about 10-15 years from now? What are the technological breakthroughs that need […]

The NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is looking to fill a vacancy for Division Director, Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI, formerly the Office of Cyberinfrastructure). DUTIES: Serve as a member of the CISE leadership team and as the Foundation’s principal spokesperson in the area of cyberinfrastructure. The Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastucture coordinates and supports the acquisition, development and provision of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools and services essential to the conduct of 21st century science and engineering research and education.  ACI supports cyberinfrastructure resources, tools and related services such as supercomputers, high-capacity mass-storage systems, system software suites and programming environments, scalable interactive visualization tools, productivity software libraries […]

On January 14, 2014, Roger Dingledine will present at the next Washington Area Trustworthy Computing Hour (WATCH). His talk is will be on “The Tor Project in 2013.” Abstract Tor is a free-software anonymizing network that helps people around the world use the Internet in safety. Tor’s 5500 volunteer relays carry traffic for around a million daily users, including ordinary citizens who want protection from identity theft and prying corporations, corporations who want to look at a competitor’s website in private, people around the world whose Internet connections are censored, and even governments and law enforcement. The last year has included major cryptographic upgrades in the Tor software, dozens of research […]