Last week the National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Agriculture and NASA announced $31.5 million in new awards to spur the development and use of robots that work cooperatively with people (known as co-robots). The awards mark the third round of funding made through the National Robotics Initiative (NRI), a multi-agency program launched in September 2012 as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Initiative, with NSF as the lead federal agency. The 52 new research awards, ranging from $300,000 to $1.8 million over one to four years, advance fundamental understanding of robotic sensing, motion, computer vision, machine learning and human-computer interaction. The awards […]

The following is a Computing Research Policy Blog post by Peter Harsha, CRA Director of Government Affairs.  As part of its mission to develop a next generation of leaders in the computing research community, the Computing Research Association’s Computing Community Consortium (CCC) announces the third offering of the CCC Leadership in Science Policy Institute (LiSPI), intended to educate computing researchers on how science policy in the U.S. is formulated and how our government works. We seek nominations for participants. LiSPI will be centered around a two day workshop to be held April 27-28, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Full details of LiSPI are available at: http://cra.org/ccc/spi.) LiSPI will feature presentations and discussions […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog by Tracy Kimbrel, National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Director for Computing and Communication Foundations.  The National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer Science and Engineering (CISE) recently announced a new program solicitation, Algorithms in the Field (AitF), which aims to promote collaboration between theory researchers and those in more applied areas. The program originated from interest and excitement among the theory community and researchers in many applied fields during a well-attended workshop held in May 2011. Bridging the gap between theory and practice in the design, analysis, implementation, and evaluation of algorithms can lead to new fields as well as broader cutting-edge applications. […]

Periodically, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) will highlight research projects that are nominated by the public. Research highlights are meant to inform the computing community about interesting research going on in the field. The most recent research highlight featured Dr. Rajeev Alur from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Alur leads the NSF Expeditions in Computer Augmented Program Engineering (ExCAPE). The goal of ExCAPE is to change the way programmers develop software by advancing the theory and practice of software synthesis.  ExCAPE develops synthesis tools that can assist expert programmers in discovering difficult code and meet challenges in multicore programming. To read more, see the full research highlight. To submit a research highlight for inclusion […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) issued a new call for proposals for workshops that will catalyze and enable innovative research at the frontiers of computing.  The CCC encourages creative ideas from all segments of the computing research community on topics ranging from the formulation of new basic research to the use of existing research ideas and technologies to address important scientific or societal challenges. From the solicitation: Workshop organizers are expected to bring together a group of scientists and practitioners in the area of interest, and to formulate a program that encourages new ideas, innovative thinking, and broad discussion. Workshops can be of varying sizes, typically ranging from 20 to 100 participants.  It is important that […]

The following is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) by the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Acting Assistant Director, Dr. Suzanne Iacono.   Dear Colleagues: Through its CISE Research Infrastructure (CRI) program (NSF 14-593 – http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf14593), the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) supports world-class research infrastructure enabling focused research agendas in computer and information science and engineering. The CRI program funds both the creation of new infrastructure as well as the enhancement of existing infrastructure. CISE recognizes the importance of stable community infrastructure for its researchers. With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), CISE notes particular interest in proposals that […]