The following is a blog post by Ran Libeskind-Hadas, R. Michael Shanahan Professor and Computer Science Department Chair at Harvey Mudd College, Co-Chair of CRA’s Education subcommittee (CRA-E), and former Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Member and Debra Richardson, founding Dean of the UC Irvine Bren School of Information and Computer Science and CCC Council Member. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week that every public school in New York City- elementary through high school – must offer computer science courses to all students within ten years. It is estimated that fewer than 10% of schools in New York City currently offer a CS course and only 1% of students take such a course. CS will not be required of […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently announced a partnership with Intel Corporation  on two new grants for $6 million to research security and privacy solutions of cyber-physical systems (CPS). Cyber-physical systems, such as smart-homes and autonomous vehicles, are part of the rise of the new Internet of Things (IoT). “Advances in the integration of information and communications technologies are transforming the way people interact with engineered systems,” said Jim Kurose, head of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at NSF. “Rigorous interdisciplinary research, such as the projects announced today in partnership with Intel, can help to better understand and mitigate threats to our critical cyber-physical systems and secure the nation’s […]

In December 2010 and then again in December 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) conducted an extensive review of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program – the $4B coordinated multi-agency IT R&D program. PCAST has just released a 2015 follow-up report on the progress of the NITRD program, which was conducted by co-chairs of the PCAST NITRD Working Group Susan Graham (PCAST Member and UC Berkeley) and Greg Hager (Johns Hopkins University and the Computing Community Consortium Chair). Other PCAST NITRD Working Group Members included, William J. Dally (Stanford University), Eric Horvitz (Microsoft Research), Sara Kiesler (Carnegie-Mellon University), Michael McQuade (United Technologies […]

The last President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) meeting was held on Tuesday, July 14th at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The presentations as well as the webcast videos have all been posted. You can see the full agenda here. Charles Bolden and William Gerstenmaier, Administrator and Associate Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Garrett Reisman, Director of Crew Operations, SpaceX John Elbon, Vice President and General Manager, Space Exploration, The Boeing Company Gregory Hager, Professor and Former Chair of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University Seth Sternberg, CEO and Co-Founder, Honor Kai Stinchombe, Founder and CEO, True Link Financial For more information, please see the past […]

In April, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) commissioned members of the privacy research community to generate a short report to help guide strategic thinking in this space. The effort aimed to complement and synthesize other recent documents, including the White House BIG DATA: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values Report and the Report to the President on Big Data and Privacy: A Technological Perspective. Today, the CCC is releasing the resultant community report, Towards a Privacy Research Roadmap for the Computing Community: Great advances in computing and communication technology are bringing many benefits to society, with transformative changes and financial opportunities being created in health care, transportation, education, law enforcement, national security, […]

The following is a blog post by Ran Libeskind-Hadas, R. Michael Shanahan Professor and Computer Science Department Chair at Harvey Mudd College and Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Member, that was recently posted in the Huffington Post.  Here are three good reasons why every college student should take an introductory computer science course. First, computing has become an inextricable part of our lives. Understanding how computers and software work, what they can and can’t do, and their impact on society is, therefore, an important part of a modern liberal arts education. Second, computing is a creative endeavor at the crossroads of engineering, mathematics, psychology, and the arts. A well-conceived computer science course can integrate problem solving, […]