The Computing Research Association (CRA) and Computing Community Consortium (CCC) are pleased to announce a new Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows) cohort for 2021. This program recognizes the continued disruption to hiring in academic institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As before, this program aims to provide a career-enhancing bridge experience for recent and soon-to-be PhD graduates in computing to support maintaining the computing research pipeline.  The Computing Innovation Fellows Program is open to researchers whose work falls under the umbrella of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computing and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate. This includes PhD graduates who are planning a career in academia either as a research scientist or […]

The Biden administration today appointed Stefanie Tompkins to run the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as its 23rd Director. DARPA is a $3.5 billion a year research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense, whose mission is to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. From the press release:  “With nearly eleven years of DARPA service under her belt, Tompkins, a former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, has an exceptional understanding of the agency’s culture. From 2007 through 2017, she held multiple positions, including program manager and deputy director of the Strategic Technology Office, a systems-oriented technical office; DARPA chief of staff; […]

Computing Research Association (CRA) Board Member Timothy M. Pinkston will be moderating a panel on “Valuing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Our Computing Community” at this year’s co-located HPCA’21, PPoPP’21, CGO’21, and CC’21 conferences from 1:30 to 3 PM (EST) on March 3rd.    Panel Abstract: There is a movement occurring broadly across many scientific and engineering fields, including widely within our computing community, toward making tangible progress through intentional actions and interventions for advancing and valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion.  There is also a movement toward dismantling structural and/or systemic factors—especially but not limited to racial and gender biases—that may be standing in the way of making much needed progress in advancing and valuing diversity, […]

In response to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate’s recently announced CSGrad4US Fellowship program, the Computing Research Association’s Education (CRA-E) and Widening Participation (CRA-WP) committees are working to develop a CSGrad4US Mentoring Program for recipients of the CSGrad4US Fellowship. The goals of the mentoring program are (1) to guide returning students through the application process towards a successful CS Ph.D. admission and school selection and (2) mentor them through the transition to Ph.D. graduate study during the first year. The CSGrad4US Mentoring Program will include both a group mentoring component addressing general aspects of the graduate application process and an individual coaching component. […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is charged with catalyzing and empowering the U.S. computing research community to articulate and advance major research directions for the field. Established in 2006 through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Computing Research Association (CRA), the CCC provides a voice for the national computing research community, facilitating the development of a bold, multi-themed vision for computing research and communicating that vision to a wide range of stakeholders. To fulfill its mission, the CCC needs visionary leaders — people with great ideas, sound judgment, and the willingness to work collaboratively to see things through to completion. The Council is composed […]

IEEE recently named its 2021 class of newly elevated Fellows. IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation. One of the newly elevated Fellows is Yolanda Gil (University of Southern California) “for contributions to geoscience and scientific discovery with intelligent workflow systems.” In 2018-2019, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) brought together over 100 members of the research community, led by Gil and Bart Selman (Cornell University and President of AAAI) to come up with a research roadmap for AI. The completed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Roadmap, A 20-Year Community Roadmap for AI Research in the US, was released in […]