In May, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) commissioned members of the research community to generate white papers to help guide strategic thinking in autonomous systems in a number of different domain specific areas, including Aerial Earth Science, Construction, Defense, Disaster Management, Healthcare, Paths Towards Autonomy, Service Robots, and Transportation Systems. The CCC has released eight white papers. The Toward a Science of Autonomy for Physical Systems white paper frames both the opportunities and challenges posed by autonomous physical systems in general. We contend that, in most cases, the potential human and economic toll of not exploring and understanding automation science in a timely and thoughtful manner far outweighs the costs or risks. The associated […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has a new public access plan called Today’s Data, Tomorrow’s Discoveries that was released in March to increase access to the results of research funded by NSF. Public access is intended to accelerate the dissemination of fundamental research results that will advance the frontiers of knowledge and help ensure the nation’s future prosperity. NSF’s plan is grounded in the realization that clear and open communication of research results is central to fulfilling NSF’s primary mission of promoting the progress of science. NSF will implement its public access requirements in stages. In the first implementation, the following products of NSF-funded research are in scope: Articles in peer-reviewed journals […]

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), has named Robert (“Bobby”) Schnabel executive director and CEO effective November 1, 2015. Schnabel joins ACM after eight years as professor and dean of the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College in Mathematics, Schnabel earned his Master’s degree and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University. He is also a former Computing Research Association (CRA) Board Member and co-chaired the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Computing Innovation Fellowships (CI Fellows) 2014 workshop. From ACM’s Press Release: As ACM’s most senior staff member, Schnabel will work with ACM’s volunteer community to provide strategic vision and to develop sustainable business […]

On June 2, our new CCC Council member starting July 1st, Kevin Fu (Associate Professor, Sloan Research Fellow Computer Science and Engineering Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan) was one of the five witnesses to testify to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs at a hearing on “The IRS Data Break: Steps to Protect Americans’ Personal Information.” Fu recommend the following to the committee: Encourage research collaboration between cybersecurity experts and social and behavioral science to carry out human subjects experiments that measure the risks and benefits of knowledge-based authentication. A transcript of Fu’s oral testimony is here.  Visuals are here. A list of all the witnesses and their […]

The White House has kicked off the National Week of Making, which lasts from June 12 to June 18. The event includes announcements and progress updates on the President’s call to action to create a “Nation of Makers.”

A few month ago we blogged about the on-going robotic debate, Are robots our friends?  This seems to be the question of the year, if not the decade, as digital technology continues to advance. What does this mean for humanity and our workforce? Recently, the New York Times posted an interesting article with a surprising conclusion which claims that “New Research Says Robots Are Unlikely to Eat Our Jobs.” In the article they discuss a new study out by the McKinsey Global Institute, called “A Labor Market That Works: Connecting Talent With Opportunity in the Digital Age,” which states: By 2025, McKinsey estimates, these digital talent platforms could add $2.7 trillion a year to […]