Just a heads up that NSF’s CISE Directorate has issued solicitations for its core programs: Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) — Algorithmic Foundations, Communications and Information Foundations, and Software and Hardware Foundations. Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) — Human-Centered Computing, Information Integration and Informatics, Robust Intelligence, and Computer Graphics and Visualization. Computer and Network Systems (CNS) — Computer Systems Research (to include cloud computing, embedded and hybrid systems, pervasive computing, sustainable computing) and Networking Technology and Systems. As in the recent past, deadlines for small, medium, and large proposals are later this fall. To learn more, click on a link above to view the division’s core programs. (Contributed by Erwin […]

NSF/CISE Assistant Director Farnam Jahanian has issued the following letter to the community, describing the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) launched last week: Dear CISE Community,   On Friday, in a speech at Carnegie Mellon University, President Obama announced the plan for major federal investments in next-generation robotics. The National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is a bold program that supports the development and use of robots that work beside, or cooperatively with, people and that enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety. NSF is the lead agency in this multi-agency program that also includes NASA, NIH and USDA. NRI calls for cross-agency investments of up to $70 million in the first year […]

In a Dear Colleague Letter issued earlier this month, the NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences and Office of Cyberinfrastructure call for “an open, adaptable, and sustainable framework (an ‘Earth-Cube’) to enable transformative research and education in Earth System Science”: In a new partnership, GEO and OCI recognize the multifaceted challenges of modern, data-intensive science and education and envision an environment where low adoption thresholds and new capabilities act together to greatly increase the productivity and capability of researchers and educators working at the frontiers of Earth system science.   With the new FY2012 NSF budget thrust, Cyberinfrastructure for the 21st century (CIF21), NSF places significant emphasis on computational and data-rich science […]

At a recent Naval STEM conference sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said,  “I have committed to doubling the Navy’s investment in STEM education over the next five years… We are going to double it in a targeted and innovative way so that we reach the maximum number of people and have the maximum impact.” The secretary used his keynote to introduce a roadmap aimed at renewing the Navy’s focus on providing educational opportunities for future naval scientists and engineers — ultimately increasing total dollars committed to STEM education initiatives to more than $100 million by 2015. As part of the roadmap, […]

Late last month, DARPA’s Information Innovation Office (I2O) issued a solicitation calling for research proposals that “investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems.” Among the focus areas (emphasis added): Understand: Change is pervasive and accelerating throughout all aspects of human, world and military affairs, bringing with it both opportunities and threats. Examples of threats include emerging regional peer rivals, rogue and failed nation-states, insurgent groups, militant/radicalized populations, transnational terrorist organizations and criminal enterprises, and new classes of cyber-human-physical threats. Military success requires understanding threat capabilities, intentions, and activities as well as local human, social, cultural, and behavioral factors. I2O seeks to enable this understanding through […]

A couple of very interesting prize-based competitions have been announced in the past week. The first — with Vint Cerf, U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, and former Congressman Tom Davis among the judges — calls for innovative ways for IT to improve government: The Merit Awards is a new innovation contest that challenges the world to come forth with ideas on how to use IT to improve the quality of government. Focused on incenting people to get involved in their government, the award offers a $50,000 prize for smart, new thinking. But the program is not only open to Americans. Innovation knows no borders — nor does it need a […]