The following is a special contribution to this blog from Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Chair Gregory Hager (Johns Hopkins University). Imagine you have to change the IV on a writhing patient while wearing two layers of protective gear, the temperature is nearly 100 degrees, the humidity is 100 percent, and you’ve been in your suit for nearly an hour. That is the daily struggle for healthcare workers across Western Africa treating Ebola patients. Can we somehow use our technologies, either those existing today or envisioned for the near future, to change the course of this daily battle and, by doing so, have an impact that could potentially save the lives of […]

The following is a guest blog post from Gera Jochum, Communications Specialist for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF). A new video produced by the National Science Foundation showcases an innovative computer science curriculum that’s been a huge success in Los Angeles public schools and is now spreading across the nation. The video highlights the work of Jane Margolis, an educator and researcher at UCLA, who has dedicated her career to democratizing computer science education and addressing under-representation in the field. Her work inspires students from diverse backgrounds to study computer science and use their knowledge to help society. With support from […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog by CCC Executive Council Member Mark Hill and workshop organizer Wade Shen of MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Recently DARPA ISAT organized a workshop on the future of Computer Aided Design tools called “Rethinking CAD”. The purpose of this workshop was to bring together industrial and academic experts from manufacturing and mechanical design fields to understand the limitations of current tools for exploration of design trade spaces for geometry, materials and microstructure in light of recent developments in 3D printing and additive manufacturing.  Here, we summarize the state of today’s technologies and the results of the DARPA ISAT workshop (full slides are available here). […]

Last month, 24 teams from around the country convened in Washington, D.C. to showcase their work in Cyber-Physical Systems at the Smart America Expo.  The demonstrations showcased ways that the these projects and others in the realm of the Internet of Things can improve transportation, emergency services, health care, security, energy conservation, manufacturing and more. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been a strong supporter of these projects, through the Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) program, investing more than $200 million over the last five years.  For more information and videos about some of the NSF-funded projects that were a part of the Smart America showcase, see this Huffington Post article titled “Dispatches […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is releasing its third segment in the Computing Research in Action Series.   This segment features the Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) research lab, led by Professor Shwetak Patel, at the University of Washington. The UbiComp lab, which consists of an interdisciplinary team of students (CS, EE, CE, ME), focuses on solving interesting and socially meaningful problems using a mix of hardware and software applications. The UbiComp lab focuses on four areas of ubiquitous computing: Novel interaction techniques: With the growing number of computers around us embedded into the environment, there is a need to interact with these computers beyond the traditional keyboard and mouse. Sustainability  sensing: Using computer science, machine learning and signal processing […]

Each year MIT’s magazine, MIT Technology Review, publishes a list 10 of breakthrough technologies that are most likely to change the world by fixing intractable problems. These technologies are defined as “an advance that gives people powerful new ways to use technology.” View the 10 breakthrough technologies of 2013 below: Deep Learning  With massive amounts of computational power, machines can now recognize objects and translate speech in real time. Artificial intelligence is finally getting smart.   Ultra-Efficient Solar Power  Doubling the efficiency of solar devices would completely change the economics of renewable energy. Here is a design that just might make it possible.   Big Data from Cheap Phones  Collecting […]