The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is proud to be a part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2017 Annual Meeting this weekend, February 16-20, 2017 in Boston, MA. CCC Chair Beth Mynatt, CCC Executive Council Member Ben Zorn, and CCC Council Member Shwetak Patel will be presenting on February 17, 2017 from 1:00-2:30PM on What Happens When Everyday Objects Become Internet Devices: A Science Policy Agenda in Room 203 of the Hynes Convention Center. CCC Director, Ann Drobnis, will be moderating it. Talk Titles: Elizabeth Mynatt, Georgia Institute of Technology How People Think and Reason About an Internet of Things Ben Zorn, Microsoft Research Programming a Secure, Robust, and Sustainable […]

This week the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced that they had elected 84 new members and 22 new foreign members. This brings the total U.S. membership to 2,281 and the number of foreign members to 249. As noted in the CRA Bulletin earlier this week, a number of computer scientists were elected including CCC Council member Katherine (Kathy) Yelick, a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley and the Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) for Computing Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Kathy has been a vibrant and influential member of the CCC Council since she joined in July 2015. She is on the Convergence of Data and Computing Task Force, […]

The following is a guest blog post by CCC AI and Robotics Task Force Co-Chair Greg Hager from Johns Hopkins University.  Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged into the public view as an important frontier of technological innovation with potential influences in many realms. Many recent symposia and workshops including AI for Social Good, Computing Research: Addressing National Priorities and Societal Needs, and Discovery and Innovation in Smart and Pervasive Health have highlighted both the progress and opportunities for AI and its potential to contribute to new products, services, and experiences. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that fielding real-world systems that realize these innovations will also drive significant advances […]

The next WATCH talk, called Industry Leaders and Academic Privacy Researchers: Adversaries or Partners? is Thursday, February 16th, from Noon-1pm EST. The presenter is Jules Polonetsky, CEO of the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), which is a Washington, D.C. based think tank that seeks to advance responsible data practices. FPF is supported by the chief privacy officers of more than 110 leading companies, several foundations, as well as by an advisory board comprised of the country’s leading academics and advocates. FPF’s current projects focus on Big Data, Mobile, Location, Apps, the Internet of Things, Wearables, De-Identification, Connected Cars and Student Privacy. Jules previous roles have included serving as Chief Privacy Officer at AOL […]

The following is a blog post from CCC Executive Council Member Ben Zorn from Microsoft Research.  On December 1, 2016, the President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity released its comprehensive report containing 53 recommendations that address cybersecurity challenges, in Obama’s words, “… one of the greatest threats we face as a nation.” Over the course of last year, the Commission held numerous public hearings on the topic, which are available in their entirety here. While the report covers many operational challenges that can and should be addressed without the need for new cybersecurity research, there are many challenges discussed in the report that cannot be addressed with existing approaches. Continuing and expanding research in […]

The following is a guest blog post from Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Member Maja J. Matarić from the University of Southern California and past CCC Chair Greg Hager from Johns Hopkins University.  The New York Times released How to Make America’s Robots Great Again, an article that focused on overlooked realities of manufacturing and robotics. American factories hit a manufacturing record in 2016; 85 percent more goods were made than 30 years ago, but this success is due to automation, resulting in one third fewer jobs. At the same time, China is aggressively automating its manufacturing, with massive infrastructure investments in robotics and no public dialog about job loss. […]