The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the government, academic, and private sector representatives who will serve on the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force as directed by Congress in the “National AI Initiative Act of 2020.” The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and its parent organization the Computing Research Association (CRA) provided significant input to policymakers drafting provisions for the National AI Initiative Act of 2020. In 2018-2019, the CCC brought together over 100 members of the research community, led by Yolanda Gil (University of Southern California) and Bart Selman (Cornell University) to come up with a research roadmap for AI. Fei Fei Li (Stanford University), […]

Minka Stoyanova began her CIFellowship in January 2021 after receiving her PhD from City University of Hong Kong in October 2019. Stoyanova is at University of Colorado Boulder working with Reece Auguiste, Associate Professor of Media, Communication and Information at UC Boulder.  Current Project My current research project is focused on how digital information technologies can be used to create embodied and affective experiences in urban environments. Specifically, the project is aimed at using mobile phone augmented reality technology and digital storytelling methods to situate historic and community narratives within urban environments. Historic material held in museums and archives often becomes detached from the communities and the locations it represents. […]

Rika Antonova began her CIFellowship in January 2021 after receiving her PhD from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in December 2020. Antonova is at Stanford University working with Jeannette Bohg, Assistant Professor of Robotics at Stanford.  Current Project Machine learning is transforming robotics: we can now solve high-dimensional problems that have been intractable before, if given large amounts of data and ample training time. However, to go beyond structured factory settings, it is important for robots to adapt to changes in the environment/task without lengthy re-training and data collection. A related problem is closing the simulation-to-reality gap: adapting to the real world after training in simulation. My goal […]

The Computing Research Association (CRA), in consultation with the National Science Foundation (NSF), has appointed five new members to the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council:  Sven Koenig, University of Southern California  Chandra Krintz, University of California, Santa Barbara  William Regli, University of Maryland Mona Singh, Princeton University  Ufuk Topcu, University of Texas at Austin Beginning July 1, the new members will each serve three-year terms. The CCC Council is comprised of 20 members who have expertise in diverse areas of computing. They are instrumental in leading CCC’s visioning programs, which help catalyze and enable ideas for future computing research. Members serve staggered three-year terms that rotate every July. The CCC […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate has some upcoming solicitation deadlines. Check them out! Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Full Proposal Deadline Date: June 14, 2021 The Broadening Participation in Computing Program (BPC) aims to significantly increase the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving post-secondary degrees in the computing disciplines and to encourage the participation of other underrepresented groups in the discipline. It seeks to engage the computing community to develop and implement innovative methods, frameworks, and strategies to improve the recruitment and retention of these students through undergraduate and graduate degrees. Projects that target stages of the academic pipeline through faculty ranks are encouraged. […]

Last year the IEEE announced the creation of the IEEE Frances E Allen medal, recognizing the contributions of Frances “Fran” E. Allen as an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Allen spent her entire career at IBM, beginning in 1957 by teaching new employees the fundamentals of Fortran and continuing until her retirement in 2002. From 1980 to 1995, Allen led IBM’s work in the developing parallel computing area, and helped to develop software for the IBM Blue Gene project. Among her many awards, Allen was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987, she became the first female IBM Fellow in 1989, and in 2006 became […]