The NSF Convergence Accelerator issued a new funding opportunity (NSF-21-572) focused on two research track topics; the Networked Blue Economy and Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems.  Launched in 2019, the NSF Convergence Accelerator brings together multiple disciplines, expertise, and cross-cutting partnerships to develop solutions through a convergence research approach and innovation processes. The Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems (Track F) might be particularly interesting for our research community.  “Modern life is dependent on access to communications systems that offer trustworthy and accurate information. Economic growth and opportunity depend on dynamic innovation and transaction networks to connect American families, communities, and businesses to a range of goods and services […]

Contributions to this post were provided by Elizabeth Bradley (University of Colorado Boulder), Madhav Marathe (University of Virginia), Melanie Moses (The University of New Mexico), William D Gropp (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Daniel Lopresti (Lehigh University).  In Fall 2020, the Computing Research Association (CRA) released a series of planned white papers produced through its subcommittees (including the Computing Community Consortium (CCC)), exploring areas and issues around computing research with the potential to address national priorities over the next four years. Called Quadrennial Papers, the white papers attempt to portray a broad picture of computing research detailing potential research directions, challenges, and recommendations for policymakers and the computing research community.  […]

The Biden administration today appointed Stefanie Tompkins to run the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as its 23rd Director. DARPA is a $3.5 billion a year research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense, whose mission is to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. From the press release:  “With nearly eleven years of DARPA service under her belt, Tompkins, a former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, has an exceptional understanding of the agency’s culture. From 2007 through 2017, she held multiple positions, including program manager and deputy director of the Strategic Technology Office, a systems-oriented technical office; DARPA chief of staff; […]

An increasing number of National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) solicitations, including the CISE Core Programs (for which SMALL Projects do not have a submission deadline), are eligible for cloud access via the CloudBank portal to the AWS, Azure, GCP, and IBM clouds. These clouds offer enormous capacity and rich software stacks. Another plus: access through CloudBank is not subject to indirect cost. For further information: An AWS Public Sector Blog post by Deep Medhi (NSF) and Sanjay Padhi (AWS): https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/simplifying-access-cloud-resources-researchers-cloudbank/ A webinar featuring Deep Medhi, Sanjay Padhi, and Mike Norman (UCSD; PI of NSF’s CloudBank effort): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtdhxFOrIcM&feature=youtu.be CloudBank: https://www.cloudbank.org/ July 2018 workshop report “Enabling […]

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 106 new members and 23 foreign members. Several computing researchers are among those elected this year. They include National Science Foundation Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering Margaret Martonosi for “contributions to power-aware and power-efficient computer architectures and mobile systems” and Stanford University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Kunle Olukotun for “contributions to on-chip multiprocessor architectures and advancement to commercial realization.” Martonosi was Computing Community Consortium (CCC)’s 2018 Next Steps in Quantum Computing: Computer Science’s Role visioning workshop organizer as well as a former Computing Research Association (CRA) Board Member and CRA-Widening Participation Co-Chair. Olukotun was CCC’s […]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) has appointed Former Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council member Kevin Fu (University of Michigan and the Archimedes Center) as the first ever Acting Director of Medical Device Cybersecurity. Fu’s role also includes a one-year appointment as Program Director of Cybersecurity in the Digital Health Center of Excellence (DHCoE), a division launched in September 2020 within CDRH.  “The Digital Health Center of Excellence (DHCoE) is part of the planned evolution of the Digital Health Program in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) and will align and coordinate digital health work across the FDA. It marks […]