The following guest blog post is from Tho Nguyen, AAAS Fellow in Computer Systems Research in the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Today marks the end of the 2015 Cyber-Physical Systems Week.  As part of the week of celebrations, NSF sponsored a meeting of early-career investigators in cyber-physical systems to focus on exploring research challenges and opportunities in Smart Cities. The Cyber-Physical Systems community is an exciting group of researchers and developers working to advance the emerging system science that deeply integrates computing (cyber) and engineered (physical) components. CPS enables truly “smart” technologies, systems, and infrastructures of the future. Examples of CPS today include the self-driving […]

  The National Academies Forum on Cyber Resilience held its inaugural meeting this week in Washington, DC. The Forum is focused on advancing the national dialogue about our cyber systems and their resilience and plans to address issues including cybersecurity and trustworthiness; stakeholder values; and preparation, response, and recovery in the face of malicious attacks, technological disruptions and natural disasters. It is chaired by Fred B. Schneider, directed by Lynette I. Millett, and made up of a multidisciplinary group of experts, with perspectives spanning research, practice, technology, and policy. The Forum will convene three times annually to plan and execute workshops and supplementary activities. At the public session this week, forum […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites the public to comment on a draft report from the Feb. 12, 2015, Executive Technical Workshop on Improving Cybersecurity and Consumer Privacy. The workshop, a collaboration with Stanford University, brought together chief technology officers, information officers and security executives to discuss the challenges their organizations and industrial sectors face in implementing advanced cybersecurity and privacy technologies. The following statement is from Donna Dodson, chief cybersecurity advisor for NIST. We’d like to hear from workshop participants and those who couldn’t be there to help us develop and prioritize future NIST cybersecurity projects. Feedback such as this helps us ensure that we focus […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) congratulates Michael Stonebraker from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on receiving the 2014 ACM Turing Award for fundamental contributions to the concepts and practices underlying modern database systems. From the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) Website: An adjunct professor of computer science and engineering at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, Stonebraker sometimes jokes that he didn’t know what he was researching for more than 30 years. “But then, out of nowhere, some marketing guys started talking about ‘big data,’” he says. “That’s when I realized that I’d been studying this thing for the better part of my academic life.” From the Turing […]

A careful distinction between quality and quantity is key to promoting the future growth of the computing and information field. Toward that end, Batya Friedman, Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, and Fred B. Schneider, Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University, put together a Best Practices Memo that advocates adjustments to hiring, promotion, and tenure practices as well as to the publication culture. Contributions in a small number of high quality publications or artifacts are what should be emphasized; success as a researcher is then not primarily a matter of numbers. These Best Practices recommendations were developed over an 18-month period by the Computing […]

Be sure to tune into the White House Science Fair on Monday to see future computer science researchers like Sreya Atluri, Maureen “Reeny” Botros, and Sophia Sánchez-Maes. They are honored guests at the fifth White House Science Fair and recipients of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. Included at the Science Fair will be a TV personality, Cierra Ramirez who plays Mariana Foster in the ABC Family series, The Fosters. On the show, Cierra’s character is learning how to code and will attend a hackathon this season. She is working hard to change stereotypes and be a role model for young girls. For more information, see the White House […]