The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced it’s 2016 Sloan Research Fellows. The fellows are awarded in eight fields: chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics. The Sloan Research Fellows have been awarded annually since 1955 and given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars. Fellows will receive $55,000 to further their research, which can be hugely impactful to a young researcher. This year’s fellows come from 52 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada and include a number of computer scientists with connections to the CCC, such as Shaun Kane, one of the […]

In February, the MIT Technology Review published their list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2015. Recently they released their follow up list, detailing how those technologies have advanced since then. Some computing-related highlights include: Car-to-car Communication: Car-to-car communication technology allows cars to broadcast their position, speed, brake status and other data to vehicles nearby them, which can help drives navigate more safely. Soon this technology will be widely available with Mercedes-Benz confirming that its 2017 E-Class models will feature the technology and General Motors will reportedly have the technology in its 2017 Cadillac CTS. Project Loon: Project Loon is a project developed by Google X (now run by Alphabet, Google’s parent company), […]

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has released its 2016 list of newly elevated fellows. The IEEE Grade of Fellow is given to a IEEE member with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest by the Board of Directors. This year’s list features a number of impressive computer scientist, including CCC Council member Lorenzo Alvisi, University of Texas at Austin, for contributions to reliable distributed systems; Tracy Camp, Colorado School of Mines and who serves on the CRA-W and CRA Board of Directors, for contributions to wireless networking; and Lorrie Cranor, Carnegie Mellon University, for contributions to privacy engineering. Congratulations to all the recipients for […]

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has announced that it will fund the development of three co-robots, or robots that work cooperatively with people, as part of its fourth year of participation in the National Robotics Initiative (NRI). In addition to the NIH, the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Defense are supporting the development of co-robots. The three innovative co-robots being supported by NIH are: 1. A four-legged robotic smart-walker designed to help improve the mobility and quality of life of the elderly being developed by Dr. Xiangrong Shen at the University of Alabama. The robot has two […]

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has released their annual list of ACM Fellows. The 2015 ACM Fellows list recognizes 42 ACM members for their significant contributions to the development and application of computing in key computing fields including software research, data mining, computer graphics, computer and mobile systems, system security, multiprocessor and memory architecture design, and research in sensor networks. Whether they work in leading universities, corporations, or research laboratories, these newly minted ACM Fellows are responsible for the breakthroughs and industrial innovations that are transforming society at every level, explains ACM President Alexander L. Wolf. At times, the contributions of a Fellow may include enhancements to a device […]

The following post was co-authored by Andrew Lan, a PhD student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Rice University. Andrew recently attended the Computing Community Consortium Computer-Aided Personalized Education Workshop in Washington, DC.  The demand for education in STEM fields is exploding, and universities and colleges are straining to satisfy this demand. In the case of Computer Science, for example, the number of US students enrolled in introductory courses has grown three-fold in the past decade. Recently massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been promoted as a way to ease this strain, but scaling traditional models of teaching to MOOCs poses many of the same challenges observed in the overflowing classrooms, […]