The new class of Fellows for TED2015 has recently been released, and among the 21 “game-changing thinkers” are Laura Boykin, a biologist and Jonathan Home, a physicist. We’ve chosen to highlight them here because even though they have very different backgrounds and goals, both use advanced computing techniques to transform the world.   Laura is a biologist who uses genomics and supercomputing to tackle food security in sub-Saharan Africa. She’s especially interested in figuring out what to do about whiteflies, which are devastating local cassava crops, a staple food in many countries.       Jonathan is a physicist working to build a quantum computer, attempting to achieve high-precision control of […]

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is out with its 2014 Fellows, 47 of its members from universities, corporations, and research labs being recognized “for their contributions to computing that are driving innovations across multiple domains and disciplines…including database mining and design; artificial intelligence and machine learning; cryptography and verification; Internet security and privacy; computer vision and medical imaging; electronic design automation; and human-computer interaction.” They join a distinguished set of colleagues honored since 1993. Check out 2014 Fellows, including our own Computing Community Consortium (CCC) council member Daniela Rus! Samson Abramsky University of Oxford For contributions to domains in logical form, game semantics, categorical quantum mechanics and contextual semantics Leslie Lamport Microsoft Research For […]

Preparations for the third Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) are in full swing, and applications from young researchers to attend are now being accepted. HLF will once again bring together winners of the Abel Prize and Fields Medal (mathematics), as well as the Turing Award and Nevanlinna Prize (computer science) for an inspirational week. The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation is looking for outstanding young mathematicians and computer scientists from all over the world who would like the chance to meet distinguished experts from both disciplines and find out how to become a leading scientist in their field. The third Forum will take place August 23 to 28, 2015 in Heidelberg, Germany. Applications will be […]

The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) have announced the winners of the 2015 Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award. This year’s nominees were a very impressive group. A number of them were commended for making significant contributions to more than one research project, several were authors or coauthors on multiple papers, others had made presentations at major conferences, and some had produced software artifacts that were in widespread use. Many of nominees had been involved in successful summer research or internship programs, many had been teaching assistants, tutors, or mentors, and a number had significant involvement in community volunteer efforts. CRA gratefully acknowledges the support of Microsoft Research and […]

Each year MIT Technology Review publishes a list of 35 innovators under the age of 35. Recently, they published the list for 2014. All 35 of these people are doing exciting work that could shape their fields for decades. But they’re solving problems in remarkably different ways. We consider some of them to be primarily Inventors; they’re immersed in building new technologies. Others we call Visionaries, because they’re showing how technologies could be put to new or better uses. Humanitarians are using technology to expand opportunities or inform public policy. Pioneers are doing fundamental work that will spawn future innovations; such ­breakthroughs will be taken up by tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs, ­people who […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computing & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) has a number of new funding opportunities. National Robotics Initiative (NSF  15-505)  Full Proposal Due: January 14, 2015 The goal of the National Robotics Initiative is to accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside or cooperatively with people.  It will development the next generation of robotics, to advance the capability and usability of such systems and artifacts, and to encourage existing and new communities to focus on innovative application areas. Major Research Instrumentation Program (NSF  15-504) Full Proposal Due: January 22, 2015 The Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) serves to increase access […]