The organizers of BuildSys 2012 — ACM’s workshop on systems’ issues in the area of building controls, energy management, embedded, and networked sensors — have issued a call for papers. The workshop, which “provides an ideal convergence venue for the Sensor, Building, and Energy research communities to address the research challenges facing the design, deployment, use, and fundamental limits of these systems,” will take place in Toronto on Nov. 6th. Notable about this particular call: to encourage researchers to present truly visionary concepts at the interface between computing and sustainability, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is sponsoring awards to three Best Paper submissions to the workshop — as it has been doing at a number of research conferences in […]

(This post has been updated; please scroll down for the latest.) Scott Aaronson and Robert Wood, the joint recipients of the 2012 Alan T. Waterman Award, visited the National Science Foundation (NSF) last week. In addition to presenting to the National Science Board (NSB) and chatting with NSF staff, they spent some time describing their research projects and experiences to local high school students, as part of an effort to engage and inspire students’ interest in computer science. Wood visited with about 100 students at Yorktown High School in Arlington, VA, while Aaronson spoke to about 150 students at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”) in Alexandria, VA. At Yorktown, Wood […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has issued a call for proposals through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, seeking a mobile application that couples game design, architecture, and fundamental research in HCI and education to develop a mobile application that teaches medical first-responder skills. According to the solicitation (following the link; emphasis added):

As part of a continuing series of interviews with thought leaders in computing, our friends at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) have published a podcast this week featuring 2011 ACM A.M. Turing Award winner Judea Pearl: The interview reveals the fascinating role of philosophy and empirical science in Pearl’s work, which encompasses probability, causality, and counterfactual thinking. Pearl discusses the influence of education on his success and the challenges of educating future generations. He also illuminates his interests in cognitive science, computation, and physics as well as his work at RCA Research Laboratories, and the transition into academia.   [The interview also explores] how Judea’s attempt to filter out uncertainty and noisy […]

Earlier this afternoon, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a joint webinar addressing the Core Techniques and Technologies for Advancing Big Data Science and Engineering (BIGDATA) solicitation announced in late March — the cornerstone of the Federal government’s $200 million Big Data R&D Initiative (more after the jump).

Scott Aaronson and Robert Wood, the two computer scientists who in March were named joint recipients of the 2012 Alan T. Waterman Award, will deliver half-hour presentations about their research to the National Science Board (NSB) later this morning. The presentations are scheduled to begin at 11am EDT, and they will be streamed live via the web as part of an open session during the Board’s meeting (more after the jump).