Is your 2-year-old smarter than your computer? Yes, simply because she is human. While she might not know how to read or do simple addition, she has the uniquely human ability to rationalize. She can take a small piece of information and abstract it. That is what makes her smarter than a computer. And that is what we need to train computers to do. This was one of the big topics of discussion on the first day of the 6th Heidelberg Laureate Forum. John E. Hopcroft, from Cornell University, presented a talked called “An Introduction to AI and Deep Learning.” Hopcroft started with a simple example. He recalls reading a […]

The 6th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) has begun! Two hundred young researchers from 60 different countries have come to Heidelberg to learn from 33 Laureates. The event kicked off last night with a welcoming ceremony and dinner. The buzz on Twitter this morning, if you missed it, was about whether Sir. Michael Francis Atiyah had solved the Riemann Hypothesis (one of the Millennium Problems). Atiyah presented the Hypothesis and then in one brief slide showed his proof, which he claims solved the Hypothesis. Whether or not he did solve it, is up to our mathematician colleagues to tell us. None-the-less it was exciting to see a famous mathematician in his element. See the full video […]

I‘ve been blogging for the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) for over four years, but I‘ve never actually written in first person. So, hello. I’m Helen Wright, a biologist by training, but I’ve been working in computer science and science policy for over six years. I’m passionate about science communication and informing the scientific community about computing and how it can impact national priorities, cool research, and upcoming events. This fall, I’ve been given the unique opportunity to be a part of the upcoming Heidelberg Laureate Forum’s (HLF) international blog team. The Heidelberg Laureate Forum is an annual event held in Heidelberg Germany. Currently, in its 6th year, the HLF is […]

Ann Drobnis, CCC Director, contributed to this post.  One cannot get through the day without some acknowledgment of Artificial Intelligence (AI), whether it’s something in the news or a direct interaction with an AI system. However, as acknowledged by the White House (see quotes below), there is still much basic research to be done in the area. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is announcing a new initiative to create a Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence, led by Yolanda Gil (University of Southern California and President-Elect of AAAI) and Bart Selman (Cornell University). This is in support of the Administrations’ efforts in this area and will bring together academic and industrial researchers and federal […]

The Computing Research Association seeks a highly motivated individual to serve as a Deputy Director for the Computing Community Consortium. The Deputy Director works with the CCC Director, Council Members, and the CRA staff to ensure that the CCC succeeds in its mission: to serve as a catalyst and enabler for the computing research community, to provide mechanisms for the community to identify compelling research visions for the future of the field and to articulate those visions to key stakeholders. The Deputy Director provides backup to the Director in order to ensure that the CCC functions smoothly and effectively, and meets all of its contractual requirements in a timely and […]

Do you want to automatically identify biomarkers reported within the scientific literature that are related to a particular disease? Do you have a large collection of text-based documents (e.g., articles, webpages, reports, catalogs) from which you want to create a database of experimentally derived parameters, like P53 concentration levels or tissue stiffness? Do you want to analyze clinical notes to extract patient-reported functional capabilities related to a given treatment? The Mobilize Center, an NIH Big Data to Knowledge Center of Excellence, invites you to participate in their upcoming workshop on rapidly creating biomedical knowledge bases from unstructured data. You will learn how to use a tool called Snorkel to automatically extract information from data sources, […]