The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced recently the selection of four grand prize and three meritorious prize winners for its first-ever NSF 2026 Idea Machine prize competition. One of the winners, Vincent Conitzer (Duke University), was at the second AI Roadmap workshop on Interaction in January 2019. Conitzer’s challenge is to discover models of conscious experience. See the press release below to learn more.  The NSF 2026 Idea Machine encouraged individuals from all walks of life, age 14 or older, to submit pressing “grand challenges” requiring fundamental research in science, engineering, or STEM education in order to inform NSF’s long-term planning. Approximately 800 entries were received from nearly every state […]

On May 10, 1950, President Truman signed the National Science Foundation Act, creating the only federal agency charged with funding fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. To begin a yearlong commemoration of NSF’s 70th anniversary as well as the 75 years since the seminal publication of Vannevar Bush’s “Science – the Endless Frontier,” NSF is holding a public two-day symposium at NSF headquarters on Feb. 6-7, 2020. These significant anniversaries present an opportunity to spotlight the importance of basic research and the longstanding federal contribution to science, technology and innovation. The symposium will feature many engaging speakers who will address NSF’s past, present and future. The symposium […]

Juliana Freire, New York University, will present “Towards Usability, Transparency, and Trust for Data-Intensive Computations,” part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Distinguished Lecture Series on January 28th, 2020, from 11:00AM to 12:00PM ET. Juliana Freire is a Professor of Computer Science and Data Science at New York University. Previously, she was a faculty member at the University of Utah and Oregon Health & Sciences University, and a Research Staff Member at the Database Systems Research group at Bell Labs Research (Lucent Technologies). She is the elected chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD) and a council member of the Computing Research Association’s […]

The following is a letter to the community from Erwin Gianchandani (Acting Assistant Director) and JD Kundu (Acting Deputy Assistant Director) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE).   Dear Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community, As we embark upon a new year (and decade!) of discovery and innovation, we want to take a moment to highlight the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) 10 Big Ideas – and specifically the opportunity for engagement by the CISE community in many of these. You may recall that NSF Director Dr. France A. Córdova first unveiled the Big Ideas in 2017 as a means to enable transformative, convergent research that […]

On January 14, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and moderated by Axios, the British Embassy is hosting a distinguished panel discussion on the future of transportation, with a focus on driverless vehicles. The panel will be: Jane Lappin, Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy, Toyota Research Institute, and Chair of the Committee on Vehicle-Highway Automation, Transportation Research Board Dr. Missy Cummings, Director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University & Former U.S. Navy Fighter Pilot Dr. Siobhan Campbell, Head of Central Research Team, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, UK Department for Transport Moderator:  Alison Snyder, Managing Editor, Axios On Tuesday (January 14th, 2020), the webcast will […]

The following is an announcement from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Software and Hardware Foundations Program Directors Nina Amla, Anindya Banerjee, and Sol Greenspan announcing an up to $87M (over several years) new funding opportunity called Principles and Practice of Scalable Systems (PPoSS).  The solicitation cites many articles, including the Computing Community Consortium‘s 2012″21st Century Computer Architecture,”  as examples that “have outlined the need for computational systems that enable emerging, large-scale applications without the benefit of Dennard scaling (the “post-Moore’s Law” era).” Dear Colleagues, We would like to wish you a very happy new year! New Program Announcement: The Principles and Practice of Scalable Systems (PPoSS) program is to support a […]