The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently hosted a visioning workshop on Thermodynamic Computing in Honolulu, Hawaii in order to establish a community of like-minded visionaries; craft a statement of research needs; and summarize the current state of understanding within this new area of computing. The premise behind thermodynamic computing is that striving for thermodynamic efficiency is not only highly desirable in hardware components, but may also be used as an embedded capability in the creation of algorithms. Can dissipated heat be used to trigger adaptation/restructuring of (parts of) the functioning hardware, thus allowing hardware to evolve increasingly efficient computing strategies? Recent theoretical developments in non-equilibrium thermodynamics suggest that it drives […]

The following Great Innovative Idea is from Tamraparni Dasu, Yaron Kanza, and Divesh Srivastava of AT&T Labs-Research. They were one of the Blue Sky Award winners at ACM SIGSPATIAL ’18 for their paper Geofences in the Sky: Herding Drones with Blockchains and 5G. The Idea Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), typically also referred to as drones, are gaining popularity and becoming ubiquitous. As the number of drones in the sky rapidly grows, managing the expected high-volume air traffic is becoming a critical challenge. It is essential to prevent collisions, and to protect the public from nuisances like noise or invasion of privacy, and shield from hazards like falling debris. Currently, in many countries drones are required to be within line of sight […]

The following is by CCC Director Ann Drobnis.  The Thirty-Third Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) conference is taking place this week in Honolulu, Hawaii. The purpose of this conference is to promote research in artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific exchange among AI researchers, practitioners, scientists, and engineers in affiliated disciplines, making it an ideal place to present the AI Roadmap to the community, seeking input and feedback as the Roadmap is being written. Yolanda Gil and Bart Selman, Co-Chairs of the AI Roadmap were accompanied by workshop co-chairs Marie desJardins, Ken Forbus (Integrated Intelligence Workshop), Dan Weld (Interaction Workshop), and Tom Dietterich (Self Aware Learning Workshop) to […]

The following post was contributed by CCC Director, Ann Drobnis.  The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) National Coordination Office (NCO), on behalf of Federal agencies and the NITRD Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Integrity Working Group, put out a Request for Information (RFI) from the public on the update to the 2016 Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) responded to the RFI on behalf of the community. An overarching theme of the CCC response is that systems are now ubiquitous, and need to be considered as socio-technical systems that must be secured, not simply technical systems. One of the key recommendations for […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog by CCC Chair Mark D. Hill of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Josep Torrellas of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and co-author of the report discussed below.  All too many of us have experienced how academia’s reward structure seems to favor small projects led by one principal investigator in the jurisdiction of a sub-discipline within a larger discipline. Moreover, the current stability of universities tends to slow the formation of new departments for new disciplines. In contrast, the problems and opportunities that our society faces in education, commerce, science, and government do not respect academia’s boundaries and can require expertise and progress from many aspects […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog by CCC Chair Mark D. Hill of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Quantum Computing (QC) is attracting considerable attention, including the National Quantum Initiative Act, The National Academies report on Quantum Computing Progress and Prospects, and the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Next Steps in Quantum Computing: Computer Science’s Role workshop report. QC has great potential especially for problems that have vast complex search spaces with positive implications like designing better chemical catalysts and negative implication like breaking public-key encryption. QC, however, is hard to understand in large part because it relies on quantum mechanics whose behavior defies the common sense that we humans have developed […]