IBM Fellow Grady Booch, co-creator of UML and object-oriented programming, has launched “a transmedia project” seeking to engage “audiences of all ages in the story of technology that has changed humanity.” He’s hoping to put together a multi-part television documentary, together with a book, e-book, website, app, and educational curriculum to tell the story about computing to the general public. The goal, he says, is to “teach the essential science of computing, present the stories of the people, events, and inventions of computing, examine the strong connections among computing, science, and society, [and] contemplate the future.” According to the project website:

As we celebrate the holidays and get set to close the books on 2011 — a banner year for the CCC Blog, with more than twice as many page views as in any previous year — we thought we would take a quick look back at some of the most popular topics on the Blog in the past year. After the jump, a rundown of our 10 most viewed posts since January 1 (not handicapped by date):

Google is calling for applications to its 2012 Google Policy Fellowships, which offer undergraduate, graduate, and law students interested in Internet and technology policy “the opportunity to spend the summer contributing to the public dialogue on these issues, and exploring future academic and professional interests.” According to Google: Fellows will have the opportunity to work at public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy, open government, and more. Participating organizations are based in either Washington, DC, San Francisco, CA, Ottawa or Toronto, Canada and include: American Library Association, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, Center for Democracy […]

Seeking to motivate the development of novel solutions to serious computer security threats, Microsoft Corp. has launched an inaugural BlueHat Prize contest, offering a grand prize of $200,000 to the most innovative submission. In particular, Microsoft aims “to challenge security researchers to design a novel runtime mitigation technology designed to prevent the exploitation of memory safety vulnerabilities.” According to the contest website, submissions must:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced its Young Faculty Award (YFA) program for 2012, seeking to “identify and engage rising stars in junior faculty positions [i.e., untenured Assistant or Associate Professors within five years of appointment to a tenure-track position] in academia and expose them to Department of Defense (DoD) needs.” Among the core technical topic areas — exactly one of which must be specified in any proposal — are quantum science and technology; mathematics; predictive materials science; advanced electronics; MEMS/NEMS; digital direct manufacturing; neuroscience (including brain-machine interfaces); computational and quantitative social, decision, and behavioral sciences; and robotics. From DARPA’s official Research Announcement (RA):

In celebration of CSEdWeek — this week! — the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) rolled out CS Bits & Bytes this morning, a one-page biweekly newsletter highlighting innovative computer science research. The NSF CS Bits & Bytes series will emphasize how computer science permeates and improves our lives and supports progress in many other disciplines. CS Bits & Bytes issues will also include profiles of the individuals who do this exciting work. NSF hopes educators and parents will use CS Bits & Bytes to inspire students to engage in the multi-faceted world of computer science, to become not just users but creators of technology, and to develop […]