At the request of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Research Council (NRC) is undertaking a project entitled “Deterring Cyberattacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy. ” The project is aimed at fostering a broad, multidisciplinary examination of strategies for deterring cyberattacks on the United States and the possible utility of these strategies for the U.S. government.  As part of this project, the responsible committee is issuing a call for papers that address questions relevant to this broad topic. To stimulate work in this area, the NRC is offering one or more monetary prizes for excellent contributed papers that address one or more of […]

A CACM “Viewpoints” column by Cameron Wilson (ACM) and Peter Harsha (CRA), inspired by the Transition Team white papers commissioned by the Computing Community Consortium. “While the history of computing-related contributions to shaping our world is a compelling topic, future opportunities in computing—where the field might go and what problems it might tackle—are perhaps even more compelling. Whether it’s creating the future of networking, revolutionizing transportation, delivering personalized education, enabling the smart grid, empowering the developing world, improving health care, or driving advances in all fields of science and engineering—all national priorities—computing has key contributions to make and key roles to play.” Read the full article here.

Arun Majumdar, the Director of ARPA-E, spoke at the University of Washington on February 18th regarding the energy challenges facing our nation. While his talk was not specifically oriented towards computer scientists, it is inspirational, and it is obvious that a broad range of advances in computer science are essential to creating a sustainable future for our nation and our world. ARPA-E is a new office of the Department of Energy focused on extramural breakthrough research, in the DARPA tradition. Watch Majumdar’s talk here. See white papers on the essential role of computing research here, here, and here.

Jeannette Wing, Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation, addressed the CRA Computing Leadership Summit in Washington DC on February 22. Wing noted that NSF’s CISE and ENG Directorates fared particularly well in the President’s FY2011 budget request.  She attributed this to two factors: These fields drive innovation that creates jobs and increases America’s competitiveness. These fields are closely aligned with the Administration’s four science and technology budget priorities: Applying science and technology strategies to drive economic recovery, job creation, and economic growth; Promoting innovative energy technologies to reduce dependence on energy imports and mitigate the impact of climate change, while creating green […]

The National Academy of Engineering has announced the Members of the Class of 2010.  In Section 5 (Computer Science & Engineering), the newly-elected Members are: Andrei Broder, Yahoo! Irene Greif, IBM Bill Gropp, UIUC Laura Haas, IBM Mike Jordan, UC Berkeley Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive Tom Mitchell, CMU Larry Peterson, Princeton Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland Mark Wegman, IBM N.R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys (Foreign Associate) Congratulations to these outstanding colleagues!  The NAE announcement may be viewed here.

As noted in a previous post, Mattel has been running a web-based contest to choose Barbie’s next career. The results are in!  “You voted!  We listened!!”  (Even if  “you” is a bot …)  The winner of the popular vote is … Computer Engineer Barbie! The New York Times reports:  “Barbie has come a long way since 1992, when the blond bombshell of a doll was programmed to say, ‘Math class is tough.’  Barbie, whose various careers have taken her from aerobics instructor to supermodel to business executive, will next be a computer engineer, a career chosen by half a million Barbie fans.”  Read the full article here.