It is a long-standing issue the computing community struggles with that is attracting national attention. A recent study showed just how alarming the diversity statistics are for girls in computer science. Barbara Ericson, director of computer outreach at Georgia Tech, was recently on HLN Weekend Express to break down the numbers and explain reasons for the gap and what can be done to start improving gender diversity in computing. Here are few statistics on high school AP Computer Science classes: Boys out number girls four to one In three states no high school girls took the AP Computer Science test (Mississippi, Montana, Wyoming) The highest percentage of girls taking the […]

The NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is looking to fill a vacancy for Division Director, Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI, formerly the Office of Cyberinfrastructure). DUTIES: Serve as a member of the CISE leadership team and as the Foundation’s principal spokesperson in the area of cyberinfrastructure. The Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastucture coordinates and supports the acquisition, development and provision of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools and services essential to the conduct of 21st century science and engineering research and education.  ACI supports cyberinfrastructure resources, tools and related services such as supercomputers, high-capacity mass-storage systems, system software suites and programming environments, scalable interactive visualization tools, productivity software libraries […]

On January 14, 2014, Roger Dingledine will present at the next Washington Area Trustworthy Computing Hour (WATCH). His talk is will be on “The Tor Project in 2013.” Abstract Tor is a free-software anonymizing network that helps people around the world use the Internet in safety. Tor’s 5500 volunteer relays carry traffic for around a million daily users, including ordinary citizens who want protection from identity theft and prying corporations, corporations who want to look at a competitor’s website in private, people around the world whose Internet connections are censored, and even governments and law enforcement. The last year has included major cryptographic upgrades in the Tor software, dozens of research […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog by Shay Cohen. Cohen was a 2011-2013 Computing Innovation Fellow (CIFellow) at Columbia University. He is now a Chancellor’s Fellow in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. When I finished my graduate studies and defended my thesis at Carnegie Mellon in September 2011, I had already started my position at Columbia as a CIFellow with Michael Collins. It was actually not too long before my defense that I heard about being awarded a CIFellowship. It was a great relief to learn this — I had already heard from a few other previous-year CIFellows that the program is great and […]

“Bold ideas are the currency of our knowledge economy and the lifeblood of our advancement as a culture.” – CNN 10: Ideas List Recently CNN put together a list of 10 emerging ideas that have the potential to change our world. What do most of these possibly revolutionary ideas have in common? A computing research component. These concepts have the potential to make us healthier, to keep us safer on the highways, and to help our computers think for themselves. Here is a quick look at a few ideas on the list that involve computer science: Touchscreens that fold like maps: In 2013, we saw the emergence of flexible display […]

Preparations for the second Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) are in full swing, and applications from young researchers to attend the second Forum are being accepted now. The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) is looking for outstanding young mathematicians and computer scientists from all over the world who would like to get the chance to personally meet distinguished experts from both disciplines and find out how to become a leading scientist in their field. Applications will be accepted until February 28, 2014. Submit applications online at: http://application.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org. Successful candidates will be selected by an international committee of experts that will ensure only the most qualified candidates are invited. The second Forum […]