In this installment of CCC’s Weekly Computing News, we are sharing the exciting announcement of a leader-class computing facility project from The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF announces groundbreaking Leadership-Class Computing Facility project  NSF is spearheading the construction of the Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF) at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), UT Austin.  This cutting-edge facility, scheduled to commence operations in 2026, aims to revolutionize computational research across diverse scientific disciplines. At its core is Horizon, the largest academic supercomputer in NSF’s portfolio, designed to deliver significant performance enhancements. Compared to its predecessor, Frontera, Horizon promises a tenfold increase in simulation capabilities and an astounding hundredfold improvement for AI […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) council member Pamela Wisniewski was featured in the Center for Democracy & Technology Research for an important study on online risk experiences of youth and the interventions needed to protect them from harm. The study highlights the necessity of a nuanced approach to youth online safety, emphasizing that not all young people face the same level of risk. Instead of implementing broad measures, tailored interventions should address the specific needs of different youth subgroups.  Using the survey responses from their study, Wisniewski and her colleagues identified five risk profiles with a unique set of online and offline risks, some including low risk, increased self harm […]

We are excited and proud to pass on the news that former CCC Chair and long time Council member Gregory D. Hager was selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to serve as the Assistant Director (AD) of the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) starting June 3, 2024. Dr. Hager had been a long standing member of CCC: he was a CCC Council Member from 2010-2017, CCC Vice Chair from 2013-2014, and CCC Chair from 2014-2016. His leadership in CCC had a significant impact on the  broader computing research community. Most recently, in 2022 CCC featured his research on the medical applications for AI and robotics […]

Previous CCC Council Member Shwetak Patel’s research was recently featured in a ZME Science article “Can we screen the world? How smartphones and watches are revolutionizing global health (and just getting started)”. A new frontier of personalized medicine has arrived with the help of smart technologies such as smartphones and watches. These technologies help doctors detect and as a result efficiently fix health conditions. Almost everyone has a smartphone, and these devices collect a lot of information about us: steps, sleep, heart rate, etc. Shwetak Patel, a researcher, is leading efforts to use smartphones and their sensors for health purposes. He believes smartphones can do a lot more in health […]

Computer scientists have been attempting to harness the power of quantum computing for over two decades. Traditional computers perform calculations sequentially, one at a time. In contrast, quantum computers leverage the unique properties of sub-atomic particles, such as existing in multiple places simultaneously and demonstrating instantaneous connections across vast distances to successfully transfer quantum information between computer chips at unprecedented speeds and accuracy. So far, institutions such as Google, IBM and Microsoft have only been able to achieve simple quantum machines. A new breakthrough development in quantum, led by Professor Winfried Hensinger of Sussex University and highlighted in a recent BBC article, promises to move the needle closer to harnessing […]

This week, the National Science Foundation (NSF), along with five other U.S. government agencies, launched the Building the Prototype Open Knowledge Network (Proto-OKN). This $20 million initiative, will provide funding opportunities towards building a prototype version of an integrated data and knowledge infrastructure called an open knowledge network. An open knowledge network (OKN) is a publicly accessible, interconnected set of data repositories and associated knowledge graphs that will enable data-driven, artificial intelligence-based solutions for a broad set of societal challenges. In 2018, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) partnered with the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) to  bring together the community and produce a 20-Year Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence. The report emphasized […]