The following is a Computing Research Policy Blog post by Peter Harsha, CRA Director of Government Affairs.  As part of its mission to develop a next generation of leaders in the computing research community, the Computing Research Association’s Computing Community Consortium (CCC) announces the third offering of the CCC Leadership in Science Policy Institute (LiSPI), intended to educate computing researchers on how science policy in the U.S. is formulated and how our government works. We seek nominations for participants. LiSPI will be centered around a two day workshop to be held April 27-28, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Full details of LiSPI are available at: http://cra.org/ccc/spi.) LiSPI will feature presentations and discussions […]

On November 6, 2014, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office (BTO) announced a new program with a simplified process for engaging with DARPA that will make it easier for businesses to attract up to $700k in seedling funding to pursue capabilities at the intersection of biology and technology. From Dr. Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPA’s BTO: DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office looks at biology as a technology, with a focus on harnessing living systems or integrating those systems with nonliving systems.  If you look at where we’re already invested, it’s in areas such as human-machine interfaces, synthetic biology, combatting infectious disease and optimizing human health. The ideas we’re seeking would continue that […]

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has announced an initial investment of nearly $32 million for NIH’s Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative which is projected to have a total investment of nearly $656 million through 2020. The BD2K initiative, launched in 2013, is a trans-NIH program that will develop new strategies to analyze and leverage the explosion of increasingly complex biomedical data sets, referred to as Big Data. Currently, biomedical data generation is exceeding researchers’ ability to capitalize on all the available data. The BD2K awards will support the development of new approaches, software, tools, and training programs to improve access to these data and the ability to make new […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is releasing its fourth segment in the Computing Research in Action Series.   Researchers at Mississippi State University are studying human-robot interaction − how people respond to robotic technology.  Professor Cindy Bethel started and oversees the Social Therapeutic and Robotic Systems (STARS) Lab.  She leads a team of 22 researchers including undergraduates, masters, and PhD students. “This research has been an investment of heart and soul for our students and for me.  We started out where we didn’t have any funding for this, but it was something that we were passionate about. And so we have devoted our time to this and to building this program.” – Cindy Bethel […]

In 2009, President Obama issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government.  That memorandum has been followed by additional memorandums and Executive Orders resulting in the Open Government Initiative.  As a result of this initiative, governments (both federal and local) are releasing data feeds, which have enabled the creation and use of new applications, from real-time accurate traffic information to localized crime reporting. While the Initiative is presented as “an unqualified good” there are some questions about the impact on citizens.  As such, the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and Microsoft have issued an RFP to further explore the technical, legal, and regulatory implications of Open Data.  From the solicitation: The […]

As reported in this blog earlier in the month, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Intel Labs recently announced a new partnership to support novel, transformative, multidisciplinary approaches that address the problem of securing current and emerging cyber-physical systems, the infrastructures they form, and those integrated with them. A key part of this solicitation is the use of an Ideas Lab to identify and develop novel ideas.  A unique feature of an Ideas Lab is the multidisciplinary nature of the selected participants.  The Computing Research Association (CRA), CCC’s parent organization, is working with Knowinnovation to run the Ideas Lab.  The two organizations previously worked together on a successful Ideas […]