The National Academy of Sciences announced yesterday the election of 120 members and 26 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. They will be inducted at the academy’s annual meeting next year. One of the newly elected members is Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council member Jennifer Rexford! Rexford is the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University. Membership in the academy is one of the highest honors given to a scientist in the United States. Congratulations, Jen!!

Contributions to this post were provided by Alexandra Chouldechova (Carnegie Mellon University), Sampath Kannan (University of Pennsylvania), and Aaron Roth (University of Pennsylvania).  The Computing Community Consortium held a workshop on Fair Representations and Fair Interactive Learning in 2018, which was led by Aaron Roth from University of Pennsylvania and Alexandra Chouldechova from Carnegie Mellon University. A group of 50 industry, academic, and government experts convened in Philadelphia to explore the roots of algorithmic bias. The workshop report has been highlighted on the front page of the May 2020 CACM Issue, which includes a snapshot of the report that interviewed both Roth and Chouldechova. We tend to believe that algorithmic […]

The following is a letter to the community from Margaret Martonosi Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) and Anne Kinney Assistant Director of the NSF Directorate Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS). Dear Colleagues: The field of quantum computing has seen substantial progress in recent years, with the development of next-generation quantum processors in the 50- to 100-qubit range. Realizing the promise of such processors requires significant capacity-building to prepare the next generation of quantum discoverers. In light of the quantum-computing developments in the private sector as well as the opportunity for further innovation in the academic setting, the National Science Foundation and […]

The following is a letter to the community from Margaret Martonosi Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE). April 24, 2020 Dear Colleagues, The National Science Foundation (NSF) is aware of the disruption to undergraduate employment and education opportunities caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We understand that many internships are being canceled, leaving students without expected opportunities this Summer.  The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) previously issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL; NSF 20-016) expressing interest in funding supplements to active CISE awards for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), consistent with NSF’s REU Sites and Supplements solicitation (NSF […]

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences recently announced that more than 250 outstanding individuals have been elected to the Academy in 2020, including Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council member Ronitt Rubinfeld from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Ronitt joined the Council in 2018 and is a member of […]

The following is a letter to the community from Micaela S. Parker, Executive Director of the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA). ADSA was launched in May 2019 to provide an independent national resource network for academic data science leaders, practitioners, and educators to connect and exchange ideas, and to advance the uptake of data science best practices in higher education. Dear Colleagues, The Academic Data Science Alliance is working with partners to pull together data sets and data science resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Initiated by conversations with Columbia, NYU, UC Berkeley, and the University of Washington, universities in three regions of the U.S. hit hard by the coronavirus, we invite the […]