The National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) — which recently posted a solicitation containing opportunities for computing researchers — is now out with a call for submissions to its 21st annual Text REtrieval Conference (TREC), “the premier experimental effort in the field to encourage research in information retrieval and related applications” by providing a large test collection, uniform scoring procedures, and a forum for organizations interested in comparing their results. TREC has the following goals: to encourage research in information retrieval based on large test collections; to increase communication among industry, academia, and government by creating an open forum for the exchange of research ideas; to speed the transfer of technology […]

Moments ago, the National Science Foundation (NSF) wrapped up an informational webinar about its new multi-disciplinary Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB) program. Expanding on a solicitation first issued in spring 2011 by the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), the new program spans NSF’s CISE, Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorates — and calls for interdisciplinary proposals that address “fundamental technical and scientific issues that would support much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on wellbeing rather than disease.” In today’s webinar, NSF officials highlighted the goals and driving principles underlying the FY 2012 SHB solicitation, in the context of the two […]

Last May, the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm announced that they were joining forces to develop a competition to enhance integrated digital health. Earlier today, in his keynote at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs announced the $10 million competition — with the aim of stimulating innovation and creating a new category of consumer device that “empowers the individual to become the ‘CEO of [his or her] own health’.” According to the X PRIZE Foundation:

(This post has been updated; scroll down for the latest.) As we’ve previously reported in this space, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently issued a cross-directorate solicitation on Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB), calling for interdisciplinary proposals addressing “fundamental technical and scientific issues that would support much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on wellbeing rather than disease.” The SHB program, with support from the NSF’s directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE), expands a program first implemented by CISE in spring 2011. Today, the NSF is announcing that it will hold a webinar next Wednesday, Jan. 11 for individuals interested in the new […]

Last March, we noted that the National Science Foundation (NSF), together with 7 other international funders, was launching the second round of an international grant competition designed to spur cutting-edge research in the humanities and social sciences. Called Digging Into Data, the challenge specifically sought to promote large-scale, international and interdisciplinary analysis of large data sets in these fields. Yesterday, 14 winners representing the U.S., Canada, Netherlands, and U.K., were announced, and together they will receive nearly $5 million in grants “to investigate how data processing, analysis, and transmission techniques can be applied to ‘big data’ to change the nature of humanities and social sciences research.” According to the NSF press […]

IBM is out with its sixth annual “Five in Five” list, specifying five technology innovations that have the potential to change the way we live, work, and play over the next five years. It’s a list that has met with some success over the years — for example, a 2007 prediction that “cell phones will be wallet, ticket broker, concierge, bank, shopping buddy, and more” has largely come to fruition. So what’s on this year’s list of science fiction stories that could be reality by the year 2016? Find out after the jump…