The Computing Research Association (CRA) and Computing Community Consortium (CCC) are pleased to announce a new Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows) cohort for 2021. This program recognizes the continued disruption to hiring in academic institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As before, this program aims to provide a career-enhancing bridge experience for recent and soon-to-be PhD graduates in computing to support maintaining the computing research pipeline.  The Computing Innovation Fellows Program is open to researchers whose work falls under the umbrella of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computing and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate. This includes PhD graduates who are planning a career in academia either as a research scientist or […]

In October 2020, the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) released more than a dozen white papers exploring areas and issues around computing research with the potential to address national priorities over the next four years. Called “Quadrennial Papers,” the white papers attempt to portray a broad picture of computing research detailing potential research directions, challenges, and recommendations for policymakers and the computing research community. As a continuation of our 2020 series, we are delighted to release two more papers titled: “Taking Stock of the Present and Future of Smart Technologies for Older Adults and Caregivers” and “Imagine All the People: Citizen Science, Artificial Intelligence, and […]

The NSF Convergence Accelerator issued a new funding opportunity (NSF-21-572) focused on two research track topics; the Networked Blue Economy and Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems.  Launched in 2019, the NSF Convergence Accelerator brings together multiple disciplines, expertise, and cross-cutting partnerships to develop solutions through a convergence research approach and innovation processes. The Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems (Track F) might be particularly interesting for our research community.  “Modern life is dependent on access to communications systems that offer trustworthy and accurate information. Economic growth and opportunity depend on dynamic innovation and transaction networks to connect American families, communities, and businesses to a range of goods and services […]

Contributions to this post were provided by Elizabeth Bradley (University of Colorado Boulder), Madhav Marathe (University of Virginia), Melanie Moses (The University of New Mexico), William D Gropp (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Daniel Lopresti (Lehigh University).  In Fall 2020, the Computing Research Association (CRA) released a series of planned white papers produced through its subcommittees (including the Computing Community Consortium (CCC)), exploring areas and issues around computing research with the potential to address national priorities over the next four years. Called Quadrennial Papers, the white papers attempt to portray a broad picture of computing research detailing potential research directions, challenges, and recommendations for policymakers and the computing research community.  […]

The Biden administration today appointed Stefanie Tompkins to run the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as its 23rd Director. DARPA is a $3.5 billion a year research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense, whose mission is to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. From the press release:  “With nearly eleven years of DARPA service under her belt, Tompkins, a former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, has an exceptional understanding of the agency’s culture. From 2007 through 2017, she held multiple positions, including program manager and deputy director of the Strategic Technology Office, a systems-oriented technical office; DARPA chief of staff; […]

The 23rd ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI 2021) will be held in Montreal, Canada October 18-22, 2021. ICMI is the premier international forum for multidisciplinary research on multimodal human-human and human-computer interaction, interfaces, and system development. The main conference themes in 2021 will be behavioral health and virtual connectivity, but other major topics of central interest include human communication and multimodal language/dialogue processing, human-robot/agent interaction, affective computing and social interaction, cognitive modeling, multimodal representations and fusion-based architectures, machine learning for multimodal interaction and system applications, speech, gesture, haptics, olfaction, gaze and vision, multimodal datasets and platforms, mobile and ubiquitous interfaces, interfaces for virtual/augmented reality, smart environments, and assistive technologies. ACM’s ICMI Conference 2021 is pleased to partner […]