“Innovation” and “Internet” are on the rise.  More broadly, the President echoes recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology regarding research investments in Networking and Information Technology, Energy, and K-12 STEM education.

Leroy Hood, President of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology and an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, will receive the National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize.  The Russ Prize – a $500,000 biennial award “recognizing a bioengineering achievement that significantly improves the human condition” – was conferred on Hood “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science.” Hood has been a visionary in exploiting the synergies between science and technology, and in viewing biology as an information science.  He co-authored the Computing Community Consortium’s research white paper “P4 Medicine:  Personalized, Predictive, Preventive, Participatory – A Change of […]

Deborah Crawford, who recently left her position as NSF’s Deputy Assistant Director for CISE (Jeannette Wing’s right-hand person) to become Vice Provost for Research at Drexel University, will receive a 2010 Presidential Rank Award. The Presidential Rank Awards have been given annually by the President of the United States since the establishment of the government’s Senior Executive Service in 1978.  The Award honors high-performing senior career employees for “sustained extraordinary accomplishment.” This certainly characterizes Debbie, whose huge contributions to NSF, the computing research community, and the Computing Community Consortium will be sorely missed. Congratulations Debbie!

In a recent blog post “Reflections on the NNI – Coordination & Partnerships” the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy again cites the CCC: “A partnership model to effectively engage the research community in agenda-setting is the Computing Community Consortium (CCC). With support from the National Science Foundation, the CCC allows the computer science community to establish a vision for the field and quickly mobilize the community to pursue “big ideas.” Could this type of consortium work for the nanotechnology research community?”

I’m trying to compile a list of major technological and societal trends that influence computing research.  Here’s my list.  Please post your own suggestions! Recent technological and societal trends Ubiquitous connectivity, and thus true mobility Massive computational capability available to everyone, through the cloud Exponentially increasing data volumes – from ubiquitous sensors, from higher-volume sensors (digital imagers everywhere!), and from the creation of all information in digital form – has led to a torrent of data which must be transferred, stored, and mined:  “data to knowledge to action” Social computing – the way people interact has been transformed; the data we have from and about people is transforming All transactions […]

Congress mandates periodic assessments of the federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program — the program under which 14 federal agencies coordinate their investments in order to maintain America’s leadership in information technology. The history of these assessments goes back to the Brooks/Sutherland National Academies study in 1995, and includes several reviews by the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (in particular the landmark 1999 PITAC report), and most recently a 2007 assessment by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).  The impact of these assessments on the direction of the NITRD program has been significant. The  White House Office of Science and Technology Policy […]