President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate two new members to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy (PCAST).  The new appointees are J. Michael McQuade, Senior Vice President of Science and Technology at United Technologies Corporation and Susan L. Graham.  President Obama said, I am confident that these outstanding individuals will greatly serve the American people in their new roles and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come. Graham is the current Chair of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC).  She has been a key leader with the CCC since its inception in 2006.  Graham is the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor of […]

On November 12, 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Networking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program held an event, Data to Knowledge to Action: Building New Partnerships, to showcase high-impact collaborations created as a result of the Big Data R&D Initiative and to further identify areas for expanded collaborations. John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Farnam Jahanian, Co-chair of the Subcommittee for NITRD and Assistant Director for the CISE Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF), opened the event with welcoming remarks and shared the progress made by Federal Agencies.  Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation at […]

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE-RAS) will be publishing a special edition of Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE) that is focused on Cloud Robotics and Automation. From the Call for Papers: This Special Issue addresses the potential of the “Cloud” (Internet) to enhance automation and robotics for manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, logistics, security, agriculture, and many related industries by improving performance in at least five ways: 1) Big Data : indexing a global library of maps and object data; 2) Cloud Computing : parallel grid computing on demand for automation; 3) Open-Source/Open-Access : humans sharing code, data, algorithms and hardware designs; 4) System Learning : machines sharing parameters, control policies and outcomes; […]

Computer science has been an active component of medical devices for a long time, but has recently been brought to the spotlight by former Vice President Dick Cheney, when he spoke about turning off the wireless component of his heart defibrillator. Kevin Fu is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, where he conducts research on making embedded computer systems smarter through better safety and security, reduced energy consumption, and faster performance.  Much of his work is focused on medical devices.  Fu was recently interviewed for a New York Times article titled, “Of Fact, Fiction, and Cheney’s Defibrillator,” by Gina Kolata.  When asked about the possibility of a heart […]

In 2011, President Obama announced the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) as part of the broader effort of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Initiative in the United States.  NRI is a multi-agency program which focuses on developing robots that work with or beside people to extend or augment human capabilities, taking advantage of the different strengths of humans and robots. The program is now in its second year, and $38 million of new funding was awarded from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and NASA.  Cora Marrett, Acting Director of NSF, shares her thoughts on the program: NSF is proud to work […]

The Federal Government reopened on October 17, 2013.  Farnam Jahanian, Assistant Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE) has issued a letter to the community addressing operations. Dear Colleagues,   We are happy to resume normal operations, and look forward to working with the community in advancing our research and education mission.  NSF is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) that will fund the federal government through January 15, 2014.   In our efforts to resume our normal operations and to meet stringent deadlines on several programs, we are working to establish priorities and create guidance for all activities. It is our priority to focus […]