University of Southern California computer scientist and neuroscientist Maja Matarić is the subject of an interview appearing in today’s Nature. On the eve of the release of a new film, Robot and Frank, winner of the annual Sundance Film Festival, Matarić talks about the film and its coverage of assistive robotics — including recent advances for people with disabilities, children with autism, and the elderly. From the Nature piece (following the link):

From The New York Times‘ Bits Blog yesterday: Millions of people watched a robot descend last week on Mars, about 154 million miles away, while it shared video, photos and status updates from its own Twitter account.   I had my own encounter with a robot last week. I had dinner with one … in Silicon Valley.   The dinner was at Willow Garage, a robotics company in Menlo Park, and was intended to introduce some reporters to the robots the company is building.   The main attraction was the PR2, which can pick things up, fold laundry, open doors and bring cups, plates and other small objects to people. The PR2 […]

In an article published on The New York Times’ website this afternoon, the newspaper’s technology writer Steve Lohr describes the history and evolution of “Big Data” — noting it’s “been a crossover year for Big Data — as a concept, as a term and yes, as a marketing tool. Big Data has sprung from the confines of technology circles into the mainstream.” In the writeup, Lohr notes the role of white papers produced by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC):

There’s been a lot written about NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory this week, in light of its successful landing on the surface of Mars early Monday morning — including the observation that today’s smartphones are about as smart as Curiosity’s computers. Turns out there was an extraordinary amount of computer science and engineering that went into the rover’s development and testing. According to Computerworld:

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) — a non-partisan, Washington, DC-based think tank that aims to formulate and promote public policies to advance technological innovation and productivity globally — has released a short report calling for a R&D roadmap for privacy, together with a companion website enabling researchers to openly collaborate on creating a privacy research agenda. Noting that “effectively addressing privacy concerns … will require a mix of new technologies and policies to ensure data is properly safeguarded and consumers are protected,” the report emphasizes that a roadmap would “help address consumer privacy concerns, better align R&D investments with strategic objectives, and enable more innovation.” According to the report (following the link):

In cooperation with the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is pleased to invite submissions to a Challenges and Visions Track at AAMAS 2013, to be held in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 6-10, 2013. The emphasis of this track is on visionary ideas, long-term challenges, and new research opportunities that are outside the current mainstream of the field. In this way, this track will serve as an incubator for innovative approaches, risky and provocative ideas, and to propose challenges and opportunities for the field in the near future.