By Roohia Meer, CERP Program Associate Applications are now open for the 2023 Departmental Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Plan Workshop. This year’s workshop will be held in Atlanta, GA from May 30th– June 1st in collaboration with Morehouse College. In this workshop, departments will have the opportunity to learn more about BPC efforts from the National Science Foundation (NSF), how to create a Departmental BPC Plan, and how to best support faculty PIs submitting NSF proposals that require a BPC Plan. Consultants from BPCnet.org will be available to answer questions and provide real-time feedback about your department’s BPC Plan during the workshop. Please check out the workshop website for […]

The following is a joint Dear Colleague Letter from three Assistant Directors at the National Science Foundation – Simon Malcomber (Directorate for Biological Sciences), Susan S. Margulies (Directorate for Engineering) and Erwin Gianchandani (Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships). The letter calls for proposals and supplemental funding requests for bioinspired designs grounded in foundational and use-inspired research. You can read the original on the NSF website here. February 15, 2023 Dear Colleagues: As stated in the National Science Board’s Vision 2030 report, “[The U.S.] must do more to ensure that discoveries are translated into innovations.”1 Bioinspired design is a powerful means of addressing this imperative which also aligns with Strategic Goal 2 – […]

Last week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) welcomed the eight newly appointed National Science Board (NSB) Members to NSF headquarters to identify issues critical to NSF’s future. NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan and members of NSB meet to discuss their shared strategic vision five times a year. In last week’s meeting they discussed how they were going to use the historic 9.9 billion investment provided in the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations set by Congress to achieve NSF’s three major priorities: strengthening established NSF, inspiring the “Missing Millions,” and accelerating technology and innovation. There is a particular focus on strengthening the research enterprise at speed and scale — in a time of […]

On behalf of Federal agencies and the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Cyber Security and Information Assurance Interagency Working Group, the National Coordination Office (NCO) for NITRD just published a request for information on the 2023 Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan. Pursuant to the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014, Federal agencies must update the Federal cybersecurity research and development (R&D) strategic plan every four years. The NITRD NCO seeks public input for the 2023 update of the Federal cybersecurity R&D strategic plan. The updated plan will be used to guide and coordinate federally funded research in cybersecurity, including cybersecurity education and workforce development, and the […]

Late last month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a partnership with Ericsson, IBM, Intel, and Samsung to support the manufacturing and design of the next generation of semiconductors. The nearly $50 million partnership aims to invest in projects that encourage science and engineering researchers to apply a holistic, “co-design” approach to the way they develop semiconductors. Co-design approaches simultaneously consider the device/system performance, manufacturability, recyclability, and impact on the environment. Taking this design approach forces researchers to think of the whole lifecycle of a new technology, converging essential elements of the process into a single integrated process. This program will hopefully alleviate the skyrocketing costs of cars and other […]

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) just elected 106 new members and 18 international members. Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.” Among the new members are Fu Cheng (Columbia University) and Stefan Savage (University of California, San Diego), who have previously collaborated with the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and the Computing Research […]