NSF/CISE Assistant Director Farnam Jahanian has issued the following letter to the community, describing the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) launched last week: Dear CISE Community,   On Friday, in a speech at Carnegie Mellon University, President Obama announced the plan for major federal investments in next-generation robotics. The National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is a bold program that supports the development and use of robots that work beside, or cooperatively with, people and that enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety. NSF is the lead agency in this multi-agency program that also includes NASA, NIH and USDA. NRI calls for cross-agency investments of up to $70 million in the first year […]

The CCC Council is scheduled to meet in Washington, DC, on Friday, July 15, and will be discussing the role of fundamental computing research in Smart Health & Wellbeing as well as Sustainability. Here’s a formal announcement for the public portion of the meeting — which is open to anyone: You are invited to the public portion of a meeting of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), a committee of 20 leading computer scientists from around the country.   The meeting will feature panel discussions on Smart Health and Wellbeing as well as the Role of Information Sciences and Engineering in Sustainability.   Friday, July 15, 2011 1:00 – 4:30pm ET Hotel Sofitel […]

A very impressive group of people came to CMU’s National Robotics Engineering Center for the announcement of the Advanced Manufacturing Program by President Barack Obama. I saw among the group: College Presidents: CMU, MIT, Georgia Tech, U Michigan, and RPI; US Senator: Bob Casey, Jr. (Pennsylvania); Government officials: Directors of DARPA and NIST, and the CTO of NASA; and Participants in the CCC Robotics Visioning effort: Henrik Christensen, Helen Greiner, Rod Brooks, and Matt Mason. President Obama was given a tour highlighting four projects: An IED detection robot developed at CMU; A sewer inspection robot developed at Redzone Robotics, a CMU spinoff; A military vehicle created for DARPA by Local […]

(This post has been updated; please scroll down for the latest.) In just a few minutes, President Obama will announce the launch of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) in a speech on U.S. innovation and competitiveness at Carnegie Mellon University, saying his administration will provide $500 million to encourage the Federal government, industry, and academia to work together to develop new technologies that spur high-tech manufacturing and boost job creation. (Watch the announcement live here.) A key pillar of this new initiative is a $70 million investment for major advances in robotics being made available today. According to advance press reports, the President will note that information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are critical enablers — providing essential tools […]

President Obama is scheduled to address the nation from the campus of Carnegie Mellon University at 11am EDT today. The President’s speech is expected to focus on American innovation and competitiveness: The president will be highlighting the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy, as well as key steps that government, industry and universities will take together to create new industries and new jobs. He will deliver remarks on the need to focus on cross-cutting technologies that will enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing and speed up ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor.   The visit will take place at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center […]

For those of you in the Washington, DC, area, the NSF is hosting a series of talks about trustworthy computing. It’s called the Washington Area Trustworthy Computing Hour (WATCH): Today we are regularly obliged to trust a cyberinfrastructure that is in fact untrustworthy. Transforming today’s infrastructure into one that can meet society’s growing demands is major national challenge and opportunity. Meeting the challenge requires not only technical advances in the fabric of computing and communication but also improved understanding of how individuals and organizations comprehend and use technology, how economic and policy incentives can affect adoption of new technology, and how to develop human-centered systems that can serve users with different […]