The CCC is sad to announce that David Notkin passed away this morning. He will be greatly missed as a contributor and friend by the CRA and CCC family. David Notkin was a world leader in software engineering, and an extraordinary mentor, who served more than 7 years on the CRA Board. He recently received CRA’s 2013 A. Nico Habermann award for his deep commitment for increasing the participation of women and underrepresented groups in computing. On February 1, 2013, more than 300 people joined in recognizing the contributions of David Notkin at “Notkinfest” held at the University of Washington. There, UW CSE announced the establishment of the David Notkin Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Computer Science […]

Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County delivered an inspirational TED talk on the importance of STEM education. Click here to view the TED talk video: the four pilars of college success in science. During his 20-year run as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Freeman Hrabowski has transformed a young university into a research institution recognized as one of the most innovative in the country. His goal: continue building a campus that’s first-rate in research and instruction, and that prepares students of all backgrounds for success.    

Computing Reviews (an ACM/ThinkLoud publication) has released the 2012 Best Reviews & Notable Books and Articles in Computer Science. The Best Review of 2012 is the review of The Universal Computer by George Hacken. Read the 18 nominated reviews here: http://www.computingreviews.com/recommend/bestof/bestreviews_2012.cfm In addition to Best Reviews, they have also compiled a list of notable books and articles in computing that were published in 2012. These 91 items were nominated by their reviewers, CR category editors, the editors in chief of journals they cover, and others in the computing community. The list of notable items in computing is available here: http://www.computingreviews.com/recommend/bestof/notableitems_2012.cfm and can also be downloaded as a PDF. We hope this provides a […]

A recent article in the New York Times describes the newer generation of robots that are able to interact with and learn from humans. In the past, factories separated industrial robots from humans to in order to prevent potential injuries. But now, gentler industrial robots, designed to work and play well with others, are coming out from behind their protective fences to work shoulder-to-shoulder with people. It’s an advance made possible by sophisticated algorithms and improvements in sensing technologies like computer vision.   That is in contrast to earlier generations of robots that often required extensive programming to change the smallest details of their routine, said Henrik Christensen, director of the robotics […]

The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible, written by CCC Council and CRA board member, Lance Fortnow is now available. The inspiration for the book came in 2009 when Fortnow published an article on the P-NP problem for Communications of the ACM. With more than 200,000 downloads, the article is one of the website’s most popular, which signals that this is an issue that people are interested in exploring. The P-NP problem is the most important open problem in computer science because it attempts measure the limits of computation. The book is written to appeal to readers outside of computer science and shed light on the […]

The following was submitted by Farnam Jahanian, NSF Assistant Director for CISE. Dear Colleagues, The National Science Foundation CISE Directorate is pleased to announce the formation of a search committee for the Director of the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI, formerly the Office of Cyberinfrastructure). Dr. Alan Blatecky will be finishing his term as ACI Division Director at the end of this summer – we greatly appreciate his expertise and leadership for the coordination and support of NSF’s cyberinfrastructure during his tenure! Announcements for the search for his replacement can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/cise/news/2013-ACI-Annoucement.jsp and on USAJOBS at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/339364500?org=NSF. Please feel free to contact any of the following search committee members to nominate candidates; self-nominations are […]