The next WATCH talk, called The Science of Deep Specification is Thursday, September 21st, from 12 PM-1 PM EST. The presenter is Benjamin Pierce, a Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a Fellow of the ACM. His research interests include programming languages, type systems, language-based security, computer-assisted formal verification, differential privacy, and synchronization technologies. He is the author of the widely used graduate textbooks Types and Programming Languages and Software Foundations. He has served as co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Functional Programming, as Managing Editor for Logical Methods in Computer Science, and as editorial board member of Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, Formal Aspects of Computing, and […]

The following is a guest blog post from CCC Council Member and Cybersecurity Task Force Chair Kevin Fu from the University of Michigan. “From pacemakers to autonomous vehicles, national computing research and education initiatives for embedded security will lay a crucial foundation for the Internet of Everything era,” says Fu. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the first major recall of a medical device because of a cybersecurity risk. Nearly half a million pacemakers were recalled for a software update that clinicians will apply during a patient’s in-clinic visit. Our team has spent a decade analyzing security problems and solutions in pacemakers and other medical devices. While […]

The following is a letter to the community from James Kurose, Assistant Director, and Erwin Gianchandani, Deputy Assistant Director, of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE).  Dear CISE Community, Our thoughts are with all those affected by Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath.  We want to take this opportunity to share important information posted by NSF, which includes a notice announcing NSF’s intent to extend proposal submission and other administrative deadlines for those affected (also included below), as well as a Dear Colleague Letter calling for research to address the challenges related to this storm. For those affected by Harvey, we in CISE want to assure you that we are […]

The organizers from the MForesight and Computing Community Consortium (CCC) workshop on Cyber Security for Manufacturers will be releasing their workshop report at a Launch Event hosted by the House Manufacturing Caucus on September 22 from 2:00-3:30PM ET in the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, DC. The scale and variety of cyber-threats to manufacturers have grown considerably in recent years, and they now range from rare and sophisticated Stuxnet-style attacks to the relatively frequent ransomware risks. In addition to malware attacks on industrial firms, cyber-attacks on manufacturers can include efforts to corrupt data, steal intellectual property (IP), sabotage equipment, and disable networks. The purposes and effects of attacks vary widely — but all such incidents […]

The US Public Policy Council of the Association for Computing Machinery (USACM) will host a panel discussion, “Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability.” The event will provide a forum for a discussion between stakeholders and leading computer scientists about the growing impact of algorithmic decision making on our society and the technical underpinnings of algorithmic models. Panelists will discuss the principles advanced in USACM’s recent Statement on Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability, issued jointly with the ACM Europe Council Policy Committee (EUACM).  They will also explore opportunities for cooperation between academia, government and industry around these principles. WHEN: Thursday, September 14, 2017 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. WHERE: National Press Club, Fourth Estate Room, Washington, DC […]

Every year the MIT Technology Review publishes a list of 35 innovators under the age of 35. They recently published the list for 2017. Of the 35 innovators, 14 are working on problems related to computer science. This list includes Suchi Saria from Johns Hopkins University, who was one of the presenters at the Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) Artificial Intelligence For Social Good workshop in June 2016. Her talk Making ‘Meaningful Use’ more meaningful was about her research of putting existing medical data to work to predict sepsis risk. Some of the other computer scientists include Ian Goodfellow, Google Brain, who invented a way for neural networks to get better by working together; Lorenz Meier, Swiss […]