AnitaB.org, The National Center for Women & Technology (NCWIT) and the STARS Computing Corps (STARS) are conducting a survey to understand the impact of the global pandemics on the conditions of work and educational environments related to in computing and technical degree programs and professions. Through the Investigating Compounding Impacts of Racism & COVID-19 on Learning & Employment in Computing & Technology (CIRCLE-CT) Study we are gathering responses from individuals across the computing and technical ecosystem including K-12 teachers; post-secondary program leaders, educators and students; and individuals in the computing and technical workforce and tech startup community. We invite you to participate in the 10-minute survey by visiting https://anitaborginstitute.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6fYZUZBl53lTMWN  . For more information […]

The following is a guest blog from the BPC Plan Workshop Steering Committee.  We are pleased to announce the Workshop Series on Writing Departmental Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Plans. As part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering’s (CISE) commitment to broaden participation in computing (BPC), a number of NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) programs now require PIs to have a meaningful broadening participation in computing (BPC) plan at time of award. Computing departments are encouraged to develop departmental BPC plans that faculty can use in their proposals submitted to these NSF programs. To support departments developing […]

The following is a guest blog from the BPCnet.org Steering Committee.  To the computing community, With this particularly challenging academic year coming to an end, and the upcoming NSF CISE program submissions, it is a good time to update everyone on the NSF CISE Pilot Program for Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Plans. All Medium and Large CISE Core Programs, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC), and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) project proposals require an approved BPC Plan by the time of award. CRA and NCWIT have led an effort to develop the BPCnet.org portal as a resource for the community to assist in developing Departmental BPC Plans and Individual BPC Plans. New Resources on BPCnet.org: […]

The following is a guest post from Heather Wright, Associate Director of the Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP) at the Computing Research Association. The Computing Research Association (CRA) invites the academic computing community to complete a brief survey about the broadening participation in computing (BPC) plans required for proposals submitted to some programs of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate. Specifically, we are interested in learning whether your academic department has created, or plans to create, a Departmental BPC Plan to assist faculty PIs submitting Medium and Large CISE Core Programs, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC), and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) project proposals, […]

Past Computing Community Consortium Council member Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), has been appointed to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council provides advice to the White House on topics critical to U.S. security and the economy, including policy recommendations on the future of work, American leadership in science and technology, and the support of U.S. research and development. “I’m grateful to be able to add my perspective as a computer scientist to this group at a time when so many issues involving AI and other aspects of computing raise important scientific and policy questions for […]

Yesterday, the President released his FY2021 budget request. The request includes a significant increase in nondefense AI R&D compared to the FY 2020 Budget and a commitment to double nondefense AI R&D by 2022. If enacted, it would bring spending for AI R&D and interdisciplinary research institutes at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to more than $830 million, which represents a more than 70 percent increase over the FY 2020 budget. This increase would map well to A 20-Year Community Roadmap for AI Research in the US, which was released by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and the computing research community in late 2019. The roadmap, led by Yolanda Gil […]