On May 10, 1950, President Truman signed the National Science Foundation Act, creating the only federal agency charged with funding fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. To begin a yearlong commemoration of NSF’s 70th anniversary as well as the 75 years since the seminal publication of Vannevar Bush’s “Science – the Endless Frontier,” NSF is holding a public two-day symposium at NSF headquarters on Feb. 6-7, 2020. These significant anniversaries present an opportunity to spotlight the importance of basic research and the longstanding federal contribution to science, technology and innovation. The symposium will feature many engaging speakers who will address NSF’s past, present and future. The symposium […]

On any given day, tens of millions of people find themselves trapped in instances of modern slavery. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is organizing a visioning workshop, in collaboration with Code 8.7, on March 3-4th, 2020 in Washington, DC that will bring together members of the computing research community along with anti-slavery practitioners and survivors to lay out a research roadmap aimed at applying AI to the fight against human trafficking. Building on the kickoff Code 8.7 conference held at the UN in February 2019, the focus for this event will be to link the ambitious goals outlined in the 20-Year Community Roadmap for AI Research to challenges vital in […]

Contributions to this post were provided by CCC Council members Katie Siek (Indiana University) and Shwetak Patel (University of Washington).  Many people around the country are in week three of their resolutions to monitoring their health with their fitness trackers. These mobile health devices are becoming more common. The iphone track your steps, maybe without you even realizing it, as does this necklace and this ring. Researchers have been talking about mobile health devices for years. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) held 2016 workshop on Discovery and Innovation in Smart and Pervasive Health and then at AAAS 2017 CCC had a session on “Health in Your Pocket: Diagnosing and Treating […]

The following is a letter to the community from Erwin Gianchandani (Acting Assistant Director) and JD Kundu (Acting Deputy Assistant Director) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE).   Dear Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community, As we embark upon a new year (and decade!) of discovery and innovation, we want to take a moment to highlight the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) 10 Big Ideas – and specifically the opportunity for engagement by the CISE community in many of these. You may recall that NSF Director Dr. France A. Córdova first unveiled the Big Ideas in 2017 as a means to enable transformative, convergent research that […]

The following blog post is from Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Vice Chair Elizabeth Bradley (University of Colorado Boulder) and CCC Executive Council member Suresh Venkatasubramanian (University of Utah). Algorithmic bias can be insidious, making it all but impossible to pinpoint factors that contribute to discrimination. This is particularly concerning in the context of high-stakes decisions. The new Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines around the use of algorithms to aid in housing decisions are an example of this. This HUD proposal acknowledges the existence of algorithmic bias but would shift much of the burden of proof to demonstrate discriminatory behavior back onto the plaintiffs, using standards for algorithmic […]

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) just announced their 2019 ACM Fellows. The ACM Fellows award is ACM’s most prestigious member grade, which “comprise an elite group that represents less than 1% of the Association’s global membership.” The 2019 list honors 58 members of ACM for their contributions to computing. Among the 2019 Fellows is Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Member Maria Gini (University of Minnesota), recognized for her “for contributions to robotics and multi-agent systems and a lifelong commitment to diversity in computing.” Maria joined the CCC this year and is a member of the Health and Computing Task Force. Other 2019 Fellows include past CCC Council members Elizabeth […]