CCC is pleased to announce we are sponsoring another Blue Sky Ideas track at the ACM SIGKDD 2025 Health Day conference on August 5 in Toronto, Canada, and submissions are open until Friday, June 27. If you are interested in submitting a paper, please see the submission details below or check out the conference website for more information.   Call for Papers: ACM SIGKDD 2025 Health Day Blue Sky Ideas Track Event: KDD 2025 Health Day Track: Blue Sky Ideas Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2025 Location: Toronto, Canada Website: https://kdd2025.kdd.org/special-days/ Aims and Scope The Blue Sky Ideas Track at KDD 2025 Health Day seeks bold, visionary contributions at the frontier […]

  In our previous post, “From Science Fiction to Science Fact: Beth Mynatt Traces the Multi-Trillion Dollar Impact of Computing Innovation in the U.S.”, we explored how Beth Mynatt, Dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, highlighted the profound impact of federally funded computing research in her May keynote speech at the CCC Computing Futures Symposium, held in Washington, D.C.  While her keynote expertly mapped out the “tire tracks” of innovation — tracing ideas back and forth between university labs and companies, eventually contributing to trillion-dollar industries — a critical question lingers: In an era dominated by tech giants, why does government funding for academic research […]

  Beth Mynatt, Dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, recently delivered a compelling keynote at the CCC Computing Futures Symposium that underscored the often-overlooked yet profound impact of federally funded computer science research. She began with thought-provoking “what if” scenarios, inviting us to imagine a world without key computational advancements rooted in decades of federal investments. What if the internet hadn’t emerged from US-backed research? If computational innovations hadn’t driven a significant reduction in cancer mortality, saving millions of lives and trillions in economic impact? Or if IT-driven innovations hadn’t revolutionized agriculture and today’s crop yields were 50 percent lower across the world? These hypotheticals […]

CCC’s recent Computing Futures Symposium brought together leading minds in computer science for a dynamic panel discussion, expertly moderated by Mark Hill (University of Wisconsin – Madison). This expert panel, featuring Margaret Martonosi (Princeton University), Brent Hecht (Microsoft Research), Charles Leiserson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Rajmohan Rajaraman (Northeastern University), delved into critical issues facing the field, from the future of quantum computing to the societal impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and the enduring quest for performance optimization. Key Perspectives and Insights  Martonosi kicked off the discussion with a passionate plea for computer science expertise in the burgeoning field of quantum computing. Acknowledging that quantum is still in its “Wild […]

  A recent CCC Computing Futures Symposium panel, featuring luminaries in the field — Robin Murphy (Texas A&M University), Melanie Moses (University of New Mexico), Chad Jenkins (University of Michigan), and Holly Yanco (University of Massachusetts – Lowell) — offered a captivating glimpse into the evolving landscape of robotics and autonomy. Moderated by Weisong Shi (University of Delaware), the discussion highlighted pivotal advancements in sensing, computation, and intelligence, exploring their profound implications for society, research, and education. Charting the Present and Future of Robotics  The panelists began by painting a vivid picture of the current state and future potential of robotics. Murphy, a pioneer in rescue robots, challenged conventional notions […]

The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have ignited a global race for leadership, and the United States is keen to stay at the forefront. As the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) develops its 2025 National AI Research and Development (R&D) Strategic Plan, Computing Research Association (CRA), with the assistance of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), is providing crucial input. Our recent response to the OSTP’s Request for Information (RFI) emphasizes a vital, yet often overlooked, aspect of AI success: its symbiotic relationship with other scientific and engineering disciplines.   This RFI will also take into account responses submitted to the previous RFI on the Development of an […]