A careful distinction between quality and quantity is key to promoting the future growth of the computing and information field. Toward that end, Batya Friedman, Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, and Fred B. Schneider, Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University, put together a Best Practices Memo that advocates adjustments to hiring, promotion, and tenure practices as well as to the publication culture. Contributions in a small number of high quality publications or artifacts are what should be emphasized; success as a researcher is then not primarily a matter of numbers. These Best Practices recommendations were developed over an 18-month period by the Computing […]

The Global City Teams Challenge Tech Jam was a success! The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and US Ignite initiative designed to advance the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies within a smart city / smart community environment was attended by more than 250 people. Representatives of 34 existing teams presented and several new Action Clusters were created during the well-received working sessions. You can find Tech Jam resources here: Presentations Webcast One-Slide Action Cluster Highlights What is next for the Global City Teams Challenge? GCTC Action Cluster teams are working hard to finalize their projects in anticipation of the GCTC Festival in June. Many of the Action Clusters have developed […]

There has been a tremendous amount of press on the astonishing advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and the negative impacts that it could have on our society. Former Computing Community Consortium (CCC) council member, Eric Horvitz recently published a piece about the Benefits and Risks of Artificial Intelligence. Others have commented that AI could take our jobs and even potentially kill us. Elon Musk, Tesla chief executive, called artificial intelligence our biggest existential threat at the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Centennial Symposium in October. I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very […]

The Global City Teams Challenge, an initiative by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and US Ignite, is designed to advance the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies within a smart city / smart community environment around the world. More than 30 teams are pursuing projects related to sectors including public safety, energy and transportation. Participants in the Global City Teams Challenge are working to deploy an emerging technology within a cyber physical system (CPS) by June 2015. On February 12-13, 2015, NIST and US Ignite will host a Tech Jam that will provide existing teams with an opportunity to present their project plans and identify additional project […]

The following is a guest blog post by Thyagarajan Nandagopal, National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Director for Computer and Network Systems (CNS).  The NSF Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) will host a one-day workshop on CAREER Proposal Writing on March 16, 2015. This workshop will be held at the Arlington Hilton. The goal of this workshop is to introduce junior CAREER-eligible faculty to the NSF CAREER program and help them to prepare their CAREER proposals to target CISE programs. Attendees will have the opportunity to improve their skills in proposal writing, as well as to interact with NSF program directors from different CISE divisions (ACI, CCF, CNS, and […]

A few weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal posted the article, “The Tech That Will Change Your Life in 2015: Gadgets and Ideas With the Best Chance of Making an Impact … and What You Can Do to Prepare for Them.” It offered predictions on cutting edge tech trends for the new year. Here are some of the highlights: Windows 10: Scheduled for release in the fall “The beloved Start menu is resurrected and modernized, and multiple virtual desktops will improve multitasking.…you may want to wait for the great assortment of new Windows 10 PCs that will appear in late 2015.” Apple Watch: Debuting in the coming months “It will undoubtedly […]