The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and National Science Foundation (NSF) are sponsoring a workshop on the Research Interfaces between Brain Science and Computer Science.  Top researchers in computer science, cognitive science and neuroscience are stepping out of their comfort zones to engage in conversations on topics ranging from the varying levels of brain mapping to the need for studying graph algorithms for weighted large brain graphs. Plenary talks and panel discussions are being livestreamed. Tonight (December 4) at 7:30 pm EST, you can see Turing Award Winner Leslie Valiant talk on Can Models of Computation in Neuroscience be Experimentally Validated?   Tomorrow (December 5) there will be a Panel Discussion at […]

Recently, some Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Members visited the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to talk about possible synergies between the computing research community and DoT. Established in 1966, the USDOT’s top priorities are to keep the traveling public safe and secure, increase their mobility, and have our transportation system contribute to the nation’s economic growth. A number of topics were touched on that we will share at a later time. One important piece of information is a recent Request For Information (RFI) on the vehicle-to-vehicle security credential management system. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communications, and concurrently released an extensive research […]

The following blog post was written by Dr. Stephanie Forrest, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Forrest recently completed a one year Jefferson Science Fellowship at the U.S. Department of State. Over the past decade it has become evident that computer science and the Internet are on a collision course with larger society. What was once an esoteric technical field, pursued by most of us for its intellectual beauty and engineering adventure, is now at the forefront of the U.S. economy, our social interactions, and foreign policy. When a U.S. President steps to the podium to discuss a software bug called Heartbleed and the U.S. policy on “zero day exploits,” something is up. Catalyzed by […]

The following blog post was written by Dr. Martin Wiener, AAAS Fellow Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering Division of Information and Intelligent Systems at the National Science Foundation (NSF).   Comparisons of the brain to a computer have been around since Alan Turing first described the Automatic Computing Engine in 1936. However, decades of research have now shown that the brain is nothing like a computer; at least, nothing like one that currently exists. Plasticity, flexibility and redundancy in neural circuits have led us to understand that the human brain operates with greater efficiency than the most powerful supercomputers today. However, as the field of neuroscience advances, the field of […]