Significant contributions were provided by CCC Senior Program Associate, Khari Douglas.  The virtual AAAS 2021 meeting took place February 8th – 11th, 2021 and included a highly topical session titled Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Societal Impacts: An Inflection Point. The February 10th event included former Computing Research Association (CRA) board member Moshe Vardi (Rice University), Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Executive Council member Suresh Venkatasubramanian (University of Utah), Seny Kamara (Brown University), and Dan Reed (University of Utah) as speakers. This session aimed to show how the computing revolution has democratized access to information and disrupted entire economic sectors, with associated human effects, both positive and negative. Likewise, this computing revolution […]

Contributions to this post were provided by CCC Council member Holly Yanco (University of Massachusetts, Lowell).  In 2009, the CCC published a report, A Roadmap for US Robotics, From Internet to Robotics (a.k.a. the Robotics Roadmap), which explored the capacity of robotics to act as a key economic enabler, specifically in the areas of manufacturing, healthcare, and the service industry, 5, 10, and 15 years into the future. An updated version of the Robotics Roadmap was released in March 2013, November 2016, and now most recently in September 2020. See the CCC blog about the 2020 version here.  The original Robotics Roadmap was the basis for the 2011 National Robotics […]

Nominations are open for the 2021 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship through February 22, 2021. Eligible faculty will then be contacted in early March to submit their proposals by March 29, 2021. The Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship recognizes emerging leaders in the field of computing who have exceptional talent for research and innovation. Qualifying faculty must have received their terminal degree in May 2016 or later, and their research must be closely related to the general research areas carried out by Microsoft Research. These full-time faculty members must also conduct research, advise graduate students, and teach in the classroom in North or South America. Provisions of the award include $100,000 USD […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is broadening its commitment to young scientists through a new Information Innovation Office (I2O) PostDoc Fellowship Program focused on postdoctoral researchers in the field of computer science with grants sized to support each fellow for up to two years.  Participation is open to individuals who are U.S. Citizens or U.S. Permanent Residents (1) who received a PhD degree no earlier than June 2019; or (2) will receive a PhD prior to the start date of this award; and (3) will be appointed to a postdoctoral position at a U.S. institution of higher education during the 2021-22 academic year. This I2O RA is specifically […]

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) subcommittee on Artificial Intelligence (AI) just released a new report that provides Recommendations for Leveraging Cloud Computing Resources for Federally Funded Artificial Intelligence Research and Development. The report provides recommendations on better enabling the use of cloud computing resources for federally funded AI Research and Development (R&D). See a summary of those recommendations below.  Recommendation 1: Launch and support pilot projects to identify and explore the advantages and challenges associated with the use of commercial clouds in conducting federally funded AI research. Recommendation 2: Improve education and training opportunities to help researchers better leverage cloud resources for AI R&D. Recommendation 3: Catalog best […]

Recently, the Computing Research Association’s Computing Community Consortium (CCC) released a white paper called Pandemic Informatics: Preparation, Robustness, and Resilience, by Elizabeth Bradley (University of Colorado Boulder), Madhav Marathe (University of Virginia), Melanie Moses (The University of New Mexico), William D Gropp (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Daniel Lopresti (Lehigh University). It is part of the series of white papers called Quadrennial Papers that explore areas and issues around computing research with potential to address national priorities.  The Pandemic Informatics paper outlines an effective strategy to reduce the national and global burden of pandemics. It includes (i) detect timing and location of occurrence, taking into account the many interdependent driving […]