The following blog was originally posted on the CRA Bulletin.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate just announced a new newsletter that will share “periodic updates about CISE and NSF broadly, including up-to-date information about [their] newest programs and activities.” The first newsletter released today highlights three recent major activities that the Computing Research Association (CRA) and its committees were heavily involved in.
- CRA’s Computing Community Consortium (CCC) led a year-long community effort to generate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Roadmap. The resulting report, A 20-Year Community Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Research in the US, led to the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes. This program is a joint government effort between the NSF, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). “By uniting AI talent and experts from a wide range of sectors, the AI Research Institutes are poised not only to revolutionize the field of AI, but also to contribute to advances in nearly every sector of our economy and to nurture the next generation of talent critical to our Nation’s economic competitiveness, defense and security.” NSF recently launched the solicitation for the next round of AI Research Institutes, spanning eight thematic areas and also including the participation of Accenture, Amazon, Google, and Intel. The deadline for proposals is December 4.
- In September, the CRA and CCC announced the 2020 class of Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows). Recognizing the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on research hiring, CISE funded CRA and CCC to provide these two-year post-doctoral fellowships to serve as a critical career-enhancing bridge experience for recent and soon-to-be PhD graduates in our field.
- The newsletter also highlighted BPCnet.org, which supports the CISE Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) pilot. BPCNet.org, a CISE-funded online resource developed with input from the CISE community and hosted by CRA. It provides detailed guidance on how to develop Project BPC plans and Departmental BPC Plans, as well as resources and statistics that may help PIs and others pursuing BPC activities. BPCnet.org offers a BPC Plan Consultancy service for PIs and departments to get feedback on their BPC Plan drafts from experts on BPC. Submit your Departmental BPC Plan to BPCnet.org to have it reviewed, verified, and published.
Subscribe to the CISE newsletter to learn about new funding opportunities, upcoming program deadlines, NSF events, and much more.
