The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) spoke with council member Michela Taufer who will be moderating a panel discussion at the 2024 Supercomputing Conference on the future sustainability of computing.  Here’s what she had to say. How do you see the current trends in HPC influencing the future of this topic? High-Performance Computing (HPC) and artificial Intelligence (AI) are increasingly pivotal for tackling urgent global issues, like predicting climate and health crises. However, AI’s energy demands are escalating, potentially conflicting with sustainability goals. The rapid pace of AI and HPC expansion challenges our infrastructure, especially the power grid, to keep up. These trends underscore a critical question: Can HPC and AI […]

This blog highlights key points on considerations when using data from human subjects in a recent CRA whitepaper that outlined challenges and examples that computing conferences should address.  Here’s what you should know. Using human data responsibly and ethically can greatly benefit research and technology. When researchers collect and analyze data with informed consent, they can discover insights that lead to innovation and enhance public health, for example, delivering remote healthcare services like consultations and monitoring through video conferencing, improving access to healthcare for underserved populations. This approach creates a partnership between researchers and participants, where individuals are valued as active contributors to knowledge, not just subjects of study. By […]

When you hear supporting the research community and the peer review process, what do you think? Our recent CRA whitepaper published in July outlined key points for conferences to consider. Here’s what you should know. Encouraging good documentation practices and promoting the sharing of research materials, conferences can create a culture of transparency. This makes research more reliable and helps researchers collaborate to verify each other’s work. Commitment to reproducibility protects the credibility of individual studies and strengthens entire fields of research. Accurate documentation is crucial for ensuring reproducibility and replicability, which help maintain the accuracy and objectivity of research. Reproducibility refers to obtaining consistent results using the same data […]

In this installment of CCC’s Weekly Computing News, we are sharing the exciting news of the The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Game Maker Awards to celebrate the organization’s 75th anniversary. K-12 student competition helps NSF mark 75 years of supporting science With the theme “Life in 2100,” this competition encourages students to design video games that envision life in the future, incorporating one or more of NSF’s focus areas. Themes can include exploring the universe, futuristic work and transportation, sustainable ecosystems, urban management, or advancements in medical technology. The initiative aims to foster curiosity and innovation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Participants can enter individually or as […]

In light of a voter software glitch in Indiana, CCC spoke with Human-Centered Computer Scientist Juan Gilbert. Gilbert pioneered a universal voting system that makes voting more reliable and accessible for everyone and for increasing diversity in the computer science workforce. Here’s what he had to say. What are the major findings you have found in designing voting systems for people who are voting? For election poll workers? Juan: The system should have told them it was an invalid address and that they should do a provisional ballot. So, it’s all about communication. So if it’s valid then say, please proceed to voting. If it’s invalid, then, based on what […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) would like to encourage you to consider submitting a proposal to Schmidt Sciences SAFE-AI: Safety Assurance through Fundamental Science in Emerging AI program. The SAFE-AI: Safety Assurance through Fundamental Science in Emerging AI program seeks research proposals to advance the science of AI safety.  According to the request, the goal of the program is to deepen our understanding of the safety properties of systems built with large language models (LLMs) and to develop well-founded, concrete, implementable technical methods for testing and evaluating LLMs.  “The program will improve understanding of the relationships between and implications of various testing methodologies, grow the technical AI safety academic community, […]