The Congressional Robotics Caucus held a briefing this morning on the Robotics Roadmap 2.0(PDF), a follow up report to the CCC-led Robotics Roadmap(PDF) published in 2009. Click here to view the CRA Policy Blog summary of the briefing.  

On Wednesday, March 20, a new Robotics roadmap will be presented to the Congressional Caucus on Robotics. The presentation program will include: • Overview – Henrik Christensen • Manufacturing – Rethink Robotics – Rodney Brooks • Logistics – KIVA Systems/Amazon – Pete Wurman • Healthcare – Eksos Bionics – Nathan Harding The new Robotics roadmap, organized by the Robotics Virtual Organization, includes updates to the sections on manufacturing, healthcare/medical robotics, and services. In addition it has two new sections on defense and space applications in recognition of the important role that space and defense robotics has both to R&D but also as early adopters. The new report is a follow-up […]

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has announced Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers, Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, are recipients of the 2012 A.M. Turing Award. Their innovations became the gold standard for enabling secure internet transactions. The Turing award is widely considered the “Nobel Prize in Computing,” and carries a $250,000 prize, with financial support provided by Intel Corporation and Google Inc. According to the ACM press release, “Working together, they pioneered the field of provable security, which laid the mathematical foundations that made modern cryptography possible. By formalizing the concept that cryptographic security had to be computational rather than absolute, they created mathematical structures that turned cryptography from an art into a science. Their […]

The following was submitted by Farnam Jahanian, NSF Assistant Director for CISE. Dear Colleagues, CISE is pleased to announce the formation of a search committee for the Director of the Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF). Dr. Susanne Hambrusch will be finishing her term as CCF Division Director at the end of this summer – we greatly appreciate her leadership and service to the CISE community over the last three years! Announcements for the search for her replacement can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/cise/news/2013-CCF-Annoucement.jsp and on USAJOBS at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/338606700?org=NSF. Please feel free to contact any of the following search committee members to nominate candidates; self-nominations are also invited: ·      Sarita Adve, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, sadve@illinois.edu, Co-chair […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently announced the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) program solicitation. “The goal of the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) Program is to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that would support the much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on well-being rather than disease. … The need for a significant healthcare transformation has been recognized by numerous organizations including the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), National Research Council (NRC), Institute of Medicine (IOM), Computing Community Consortium (CCC), and the National Academy of Engineering.” The NSF solicitation also cited the […]

The Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award program recognizes undergraduate students in North American colleges and universities who show outstanding research potential in an area of computing research. Eligible nominees are enrolled as undergraduates in a North American college or university throughout the academic year September 2012 to May 2013. They must be nominated by two faculty members and recommended by the chair of their home department. No more than two male and two female candidates can be recommended by the same department chair in the same year. A cash prize of $1,000 will be awarded to each of two undergraduate students, one female and one male. A small […]