About 60 leading researchers, program managers, and others gathered in Washington, DC, last Thursday and Friday to discuss new fundamental CSE research opportunities that will meet important enabling needs as the nation and world seek long-term sustainable technologies and behaviors. This two-day meeting, co-sponsored by NSF’s CISE Directorate and the Computing Community Consortium, sought to go beyond routine uses of information technology to identify high-risk, high-reward research directions in sustainability that may not yet have received adequate attention or funding. The workshop comprised three sessions with plenary talks followed by breakout discussions and report-backs, as well as a fourth session that served as an integration/wrap-up period.  The NSF’s Tim Killeen […]

The Computing Research Association — the umbrella organization of the CCC — today launched an effort to engage the computing research community in a conversation about PostDocs, at a time when a growing number of recent PhDs in computer science and allied fields are pursuing postdoctoral fellowships. According to data from CRA’s annual Taulbee Survey, the numbers of new PostDocs soared from 60 in 1998 to 159 in 2009 (three-year rolling averages), while the numbers of new tenure-track faculty positions declined sharply, from 224 in 2004 to 151 in 2009 (again, three-year rolling averages).  Moreover, the numbers of recent PhDs who are hired into industry immediately out of graduate school […]

Researchers frequently lament the predictable framework of published papers.  The constraints of a rigorous review process discriminate against unconventional work and ideas that are innovative but not yet fully worked out.  As part of its mission to identify major new research opportunities, the CCC is sponsoring a series of “wacky ideas” sessions at several conferences. The goal of these sessions is to break free of the shackles of the normal reviewing process while still requiring a paper.  In this way, the “wacky idea” sessions differ from a “midnight session” of informal talks, in that the paper allows the ideas presented to be more broadly accessible. The first of these sessions […]

“What is Jericho?” Those were the first words from “Watson,” the IBM supercomputer system that’s taking on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter — the two winningest players in “Jeopardy!” history — this week. Minutes later, with three categories of questions completed as part of this morning’s dry run, Watson was winning:  the supercomputer had $4,400; Jennings trailed with $3,400; and Rutter was third with $1,200. If those first few minutes are any indication of what the actual game shows (which will be taped beginning tomorrow) are going to be like, we could be in for a truly fascinating man v. man v. machine matchup when the shows hit the airwaves […]

While many of us were enjoying time off last week, our colleagues at IBM were busy unveiling their fifth annual “Five in Five” — a list of five technology innovations that have the potential to change the way we live, work, and play over the next five years.  On this year’s list: – You’ll beam up on your friends in 3-D. Three-dimensional interfaces will let us interact with 3-D holograms of our friends. – Batteries will breathe air to power our devices. Advances in transistors and battery technology will yield devices capable of lasting ~10 times longer than they do today before requiring re-charging. – You won’t need to be […]

As we blogged in this space a few weeks back, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a report on the nation’s $4.3 billion Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program in mid-December.  The report calls for new multi-agency NIT R&D initiatives that support high-risk/high-reward research in areas of particular importance to the nation, including health information technology, energy and transportation, and security and robustness of cyber-infrastructure. As part of the report roll-out, the importance of information technology research and development was highlighted by several leading Federal officials — including Aneesh Chopra, the nation’s Chief Technology Officer; Vivek Kundra, the Chief Information Officer; and Tom Kalil, Deputy […]