As we’ve noted in this space before, MIT — as part of its 150th anniversary celebration — recently sponsored a series of symposia exploring key interdisciplinary research questions and directions. One that’s of particular interest was titled “Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything,” and touched on how computer science is changing the world: Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything traced the evolution of the information age and celebrate MIT’s role in it. The event brought together early and recent pioneers from a variety of fields to review the role computation has played in the past and present and to explore frontiers that lie ahead. We’ve created a webpage linking to […]

As part of its 150th anniversary celebration, MIT sponsored a series of symposia this spring exploring key interdisciplinary research questions and directions. One of these, titled “Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything,” took place April 11-12, and features over two dozen phenomenal talks about how computer science is changing the world: Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything traced the evolution of the information age and celebrate MIT’s role in it. The event brought together early and recent pioneers from a variety of fields to review the role computation has played in the past and present and to explore frontiers that lie ahead. We’ll be featuring many of these […]

Over 280 leading networking researchers from around the country gathered this week for the 10th GENI Engineering Conference (GEC).  The meeting — co-hosted by the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and the University of Puerto Rico — came at a critical time in the evolution of the GENI Project:  out of the “startup phase,” the GENI Project Office (GPO) is seeking to substantially ramp up experimentation in the coming year, all the while enhancing build-outs in campuses and backbones throughout the nation as part of the growing meso-scale GENI. (As we’ve blogged in this space before, the GENI Project was first funded by NSF in 2007 — to take a […]

The Computing Community Consortium is interested in stimulating the development of new research visions and challenges in computing research. Recently, the CCC has begun collaborating with conferences in computer science and sponsoring “crazy-idea” sessions with travel awards for the most exciting submissions. One such example is the Fun Ideas and Thoughts (FIT) session at the PLDI (Programming Languages Design and Implementation) conference, held on June 8, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. In collaboration with the PLDI organizing commitee, the CCC is happy to announce the winners of the FIT session: 1) Outfoxing the Mammoths, by Marek Olszewski and Saman Amarasinghe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 2) Resource-Based Programming in Plaid, by Jonathan […]

Today at the biennial Snowbird Conference, Jan Cuny (NSF), Owen Astrachan (Duke University), and Larry Snyder (U. Washington) gave an inspiring talk about a new advanced placement  course in computer science that is being developed by a group sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the College Board. The new “AP Computer Science: Principles” course is designed to expose students to computer science as a creative and intellectually rich endeavor that has an impact on society. The Principles course comes in response to the observation that the current offerings at most high schools are not appealing to many students.  These courses are either on computing literacy (e.g. using word processors […]

(Contributed by Dr. Christine Alvarado, Harvey Mudd College) The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) annual summit took place last Tuesday through Thursday in Portland, OR. Hundreds of people dedicated to increasing the number of women in the IT field packed Portland’s Hotel Monaco and Intel’s Jones Farm campus to experience a stimulating three days of conversation and presentations on the state of women in information technology in education (K-12 and higher ed), industry, and government. For those not familiar with NCWIT, it is a non-profit coalition of organizations whose goal is to increase women’s participation in information technology. It is concerned with all sectors, and its member […]