60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewed Dan Kaufman, Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Information Innovation Office (I2O), for the following clip called Nobody’s safe on the Internet which aired on February 8th. The 13 minute clip highlights how hacking is now a matter of national security, something many in the computer science community have been saying for a long time. As our society continues to become more technologically advanced the situation will only become more serious. Internet connectivity will become embedded in everything from our baby monitors to refrigerators, through Internet of Things technologies, and our privacy and security to be compromised. This is an issue that is beginning […]

Recently, the world’s top leaders and thinkers gathered for the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland. In addition to the great variety of world issues discussed, there were a few discussions on how technology is impacting the economy, laws, and society. Margo Seltzer, a CRA Board Member, traveled to Switzerland for the conference and participated in a panel discussion, “New Cyber World Order,” organized by Harvard University. Since then, the discussion has attracted a lot of attention. While articles in  Digital Journal  and Daily Mail led with the dramatic headline, “Privacy is dead,” Seltzer emphasized to me that the main points conveyed during the session were more practical. Today we share an […]

The Forbes 30 Under 30, is a tally of the brightest stars in 20 different fields under the age of 30. What these young men and women have accomplished in their lifetime is astonishing. Now is the time to be young and ambitious! Here are just a few examples: Sophie Milam, 26, Chief Engineer at HI-SEAS, designs control systems for so-called tensegrity robots (held together by tension).   Elizabeth Beattie, 24, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, designed the Titan Arm, an exoskeleton that gives the wearer an extra forty pounds of bicep strength.   John Mittermeier, 29, a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford University, is applying […]

The Global City Teams Challenge, an initiative by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and US Ignite, is designed to advance the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies within a smart city / smart community environment around the world. More than 30 teams are pursuing projects related to sectors including public safety, energy and transportation. Participants in the Global City Teams Challenge are working to deploy an emerging technology within a cyber physical system (CPS) by June 2015. On February 12-13, 2015, NIST and US Ignite will host a Tech Jam that will provide existing teams with an opportunity to present their project plans and identify additional project […]

National Science Foundation (NSF) Assistant Director for the Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) James Kurose has issued the following letter to the community describing Monday’s FY16 budget rollout: Dear Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community, Earlier this week, the President delivered his Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Budget Request to Congress.  I am pleased to share with you key figures from the Request for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the CISE directorate specifically.  The Administration is requesting $7.7 billion for NSF.  This includes $954.4 million for the CISE directorate – an increase of approximately $33 million or 3.5 percent above the FY 2015 Estimate.  For […]

Yesterday, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director France A. Córdova outlined President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget request to Congress for NSF. The FY16 request calls for $7.7 billion for NSF, an increase of $379 million over FY15, which is an increase of 5.2 percent. The budget request includes support for new approaches to research on sustainability, global climate, the food-energy-water nexus, cognitive science and neurosciences, and risk and resilience. It promotes advanced manufacturing research and clean energy activities and sustains investments in cybersecurity research. It also supports a range of investments in developing the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce, including new efforts to broaden participation in STEM […]