Visioning is at the core of what the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) does, but it can be a nebulous concept. What does it mean to actually “do visioning”? Why does it matter for computing research? And where does CCC come into the picture?

Our new Visioning in Action series aims to answer those questions and more by providing a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of our current visioning initiatives. Learn about how our workshops, reports, Community Chats, and more come to be through the words of community members who work with us.

Getting to Know Defining the Role of Computing Research in Neural Interface Design

In April 2025, CCC hosted the Defining the Role of Computing Research in Neural Interface Design workshop in Washington, D.C.. The workshop was co-organized by Abhishek Bhattacharjee (Yale University), Raghavendra (Raghav) Pothukuchi (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and Nishal Shah (Rice University), with support from CCC Council Member Weisong Shi (University of Delaware), Jojo Platt (Platt and Associates), and CCC staff. 

In order to better understand the role of computing in neural interfacing, the workshop convened researchers across computing and neuroscience, representatives from regulatory agencies, industry representatives, and individuals living with contemporary neural interfaces to assess the long-term challenges facing these complex pieces of technology. Through their discussions, participants aimed to create a strategic roadmap for tackling those challenges and pushing innovation in neural interfacing forward — in other words, to “vision” for the domain. 

Co-organizers Abhishek, Raghav, and Nishal graciously agreed to tell us more about what the visioning initiative organizing process looked and felt like on their end.

The Initial Spark

The first step of organizing a CCC visioning initiative is to submit an interest form. This expression of interest is thorough — asking about the different perspectives that could inform the topic, what activities are being proposed, and desired outcomes, for instance — but can convey the very beginning stages of a visioning idea. While it should be well-considered, there is no expectation that it reflects the final scope of the topic. For Abhishek, Raghav, and Nishal, their initial motivation for putting together a visioning workshop was to bring together researchers across the sciences to improve brain-computer interfacing (BCI). 

“It had become clear through the process of writing papers [on this topic] that if you want to build a computer system for BCI, you can’t just focus on one silo of the computer design,” Abhishek said of their initial thought process “…You need to think about the circuit-level issues, wireless and communication issues, the system software. There are many pieces that we don’t have answers to.”

This has been a particular challenge historically because computer scientists, Abhishek and Raghav noted, have been isolated from the biological side of this research. Raghav explained that, “This is a theme which requires very tight conversations between neuroscientists and computer scientists — people who do not usually meet with each other. Even if you look at a lot of university campuses, a lot of times, the medical school is far off, and engineering and computer science are elsewhere.” To that end, a visioning workshop provided an excellent opportunity to bring everyone to one table and assess what’s needed for the future of BCIs as well as how to address those needs.

Collaboration with CCC

All three organizers agreed, however, that the scope of the workshop shifted and expanded during the next step in the process: feedback from the CCC Council. Abhishek said that, ultimately, that feedback meant the workshop they organized ended up being pretty different than the one they had originally imagined. Throughout the proposal process, the Council encouraged them to think about computing needs more broadly, to really think about the ethical implications of BCI work and include those voices in the conversation, and make sure to keep in mind the societal implications of this research.

Nishal noted that the audience scope, in particular, was widened after discussion with the Council. “[We were thinking of] releasing data on a data sharing platform between neuroscientists and computing researchers. That was great, but CCC was more ambitious than what we were thinking, and said, ‘Go, bring government folks and industry folks in, too,’ and so on.” Indeed, a central goal of CCC’s visioning initiatives is to convene the computing community broadly — incorporating the perspectives of academics, industry representatives, policymakers, and more.

Still, the proposal development process remained a two-way street. Having organized 93 visioning workshops as of Spring 2026, CCC’s mission in evaluating proposals is to maintain the proposers’ intent and goals and to play to their particular strengths while also leveraging CCC’s experience to maximize the initiative’s impact.

“I think the sense we got through the entire review process was that the Council was completely supportive of the general vision and the idea,” Abhishek reflected. “It didn’t feel like an adversarial conference review process. It felt more like, ‘We want to see this succeed, so here are the pieces that we think would help you based on other visioning workshops that we’ve successfully helped shepherd.’”

In total, this process, from initial interest form to final proposal acceptance and the green flag to begin planning, took about three months. 

In the upcoming second part of this series, learn more about the workshop-organizing and report-writing process for this visioning initiative. It’ll explore the process to actually get the Neural Interfaces workshop off the ground and then synthesize the workshop insights to shape the upcoming report.

Stay Tuned for the Full Workshop Report and Get Involved with CCC Visioning

If you’re interested in learning more about how to get involved with CCC visioning initiatives or want to propose one yourself, we encourage you to read more about visioning proposals here. For the full scope of what it’s like to organize a visioning initiative with CCC, you can read our Visioning Best Practices document.

The full workshop report for Defining the Role of Computing Interfaces in Neural Interface Design will be released in Summer 2026, laying out key findings and strategic recommendations for the future of computing in neural interfaces. Subscribe below or follow us on LinkedIn to be the first to know when it’s released.

Tune in to the CCC LinkedIn Showcase Page for updates and more Visioning in Action. Stay connected with CCC for the latest insights, publications, and opportunities to engage by subscribing here.