The following is an announcement from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF Convergence Accelerator issued a Dear Colleague Letter (NSF-21-012): Request for Information (RFI) on Future Topics for the NSF Convergence Accelerator program to capture national-scale societal impact ideas from the global community for fiscal year 2022. The RFI is the kickoff of the Convergence Accelerator’s ideation process. Selected ideas will be asked to submit a conference proposal to further develop the proposed idea and to gather insights into a final report to assist NSF in determining convergence research topics for 2022.   RFI DETAILS Participants from academia, industry, government, non-profit, and other sectors are encouraged to submit their ideas here. Responses […]

The following is a guest blog from BPCnet.org Resource Portal.  The Computing Research Association (CRA) is hosting the third workshop in its series of Departmental BPC Plan workshops starting on October 29, 2020. All departments with faculty submitting CISE proposals are welcome to attend this workshop. The structure for this workshop is as follows: Presentation Day – October 29, 2020 Writing Day #1 – November 12, 2020 (optional) Writing Day #2 – December 3, 2020 (optional) On the presentation day, academic departments will learn about the NSF CISE requirements and expectations for BPC Plans. The workshop will also cover in-depth discussions on BPC Plan components and have BPC experts available for […]

This year Smart Cities Week is taking on a big challenge with a month of online virtual collaborative global engagement from October 19-November 10th, 2020. Called “A New Horizon: From Crisis, Opportunity,” it will explore a new horizon with thousands of fellow smart city policy-makers and practitioners. “Though our name specifies smart cities, innovative technologies are in demand at all levels of government—from innovation districts and port authorities to states, provinces and federal agencies.The smart cities ecosystem is extensive, involving numerous external stakeholders and collaborators – nonprofits, academics, financiers and private sector smart city specialists among them. Expect to connect with people from a wide range of sectors and disciplines, […]

In an effort to prepare for the next pandemic and perhaps aid in the current one, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), along with the National Academy of Engineering, hosted a virtual workshop entitled Role of Robotics in Infectious Disease Crises on July 9-10, 2020. Organized by Gregory Hager (The Johns Hopkins University), Vijay Kumar (The University of Pennsylvania), Robin Murphy (Texas A&M University), Daniela Rus (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Russell Taylor (The Johns Hopkins University), the workshop consisted of over forty participants including representatives from the engineering/robotics community, clinicians, critical care workers, public health and safety experts, and emergency responders. Today we are pleased to release the resulting report […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is pleased to announce the sponsorship of a Blue Sky Ideas Conference Track at the 20th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS-2021) on May 3-7, 2021.  The emphasis of this special track is on visionary ideas, long-term challenges, new research opportunities, and controversial debate. It serves as an incubator for innovative, risky, and provocative ideas, and aims to provide a forum for publishing and presenting these without being constrained by the result-oriented standards followed in the review process of the main track of the conference. Research visions and ideas could cross disciplines, envisioning new ideas, and directions relevant for Agents and Multi-Agent […]

Check out this recent podcast from the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute (with a somewhat unorthodox title based on this book) that attempts to illuminate important aspects of communication and misinformation.  Host Michael Garfield talks with Former SFI External Professor Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, both at the University of Washington, who recently translated their undergraduate course on Calling [BS] into a book from Penguin Random House.  From the episode description:  “In this episode, we discuss their backgrounds and ongoing work in the evolutionary dynamics and information theory of communication, how to stage a strong defense against disinformation, and the role of scientists and laypeople alike to help […]