Contributions to this post were provided by Alexandra Chouldechova (Carnegie Mellon University), Sampath Kannan (University of Pennsylvania), and Aaron Roth (University of Pennsylvania).  The Computing Community Consortium held a workshop on Fair Representations and Fair Interactive Learning in 2018, which was led by Aaron Roth from University of Pennsylvania and Alexandra Chouldechova from Carnegie Mellon University. A group of 50 industry, academic, and government experts convened in Philadelphia to explore the roots of algorithmic bias. The workshop report has been highlighted on the front page of the May 2020 CACM Issue, which includes a snapshot of the report that interviewed both Roth and Chouldechova. We tend to believe that algorithmic […]

The following is a letter to the community from Margaret Martonosi Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) and Anne Kinney Assistant Director of the NSF Directorate Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS). Dear Colleagues: The field of quantum computing has seen substantial progress in recent years, with the development of next-generation quantum processors in the 50- to 100-qubit range. Realizing the promise of such processors requires significant capacity-building to prepare the next generation of quantum discoverers. In light of the quantum-computing developments in the private sector as well as the opportunity for further innovation in the academic setting, the National Science Foundation and […]

Significant contributions to this post were provided by former Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council member and current Computing Research Association (CRA) Board member Shashi Shekhar from the University of Minnesota and Computing Research Association (CRA) Board member Kate Larson from the University of Waterloo as a representative of the Info-Can/CS-CAN.  Fifty years ago on April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans, nearly 10% of the U.S. population at the time, took to the street, college campuses, and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet. This first Earth Day launched a modern environmental movement to promote community action to address environmental challenges. Past […]

With input from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently published a new solicitation on Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks (D-ISN) “to support the research needed to inform the economy, security, and resilience of the Nation and the world in responding to the global threat posed by illicit supply networks.” The proposal deadline is July 1st, 2020.  Major goals of NSF’s D-ISN include: Improve understanding of the operations of illicit supply networks and strengthen the ability to detect, disrupt, and dismantle them. Enhance research communities that effectively integrate operational, computational, social, cultural and economic expertise to […]

By Cherri Pancake, ACM President As the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic continues, we at ACM would like to do what we can to help support the computing community. Many computing researchers and practitioners are now working remotely. In addition, teaching and learning have also moved online as more and more campuses close. We believe that ACM can help support research, discovery and learning during this time of crisis by opening the ACM Digital Library to all. For the next three months, there will be no fees assessed for accessing or downloading work published by ACM. We hope this will help researchers, practitioners and students maintain access to our publications as well as increasing visibility […]

Contributions to this post were provided by CCC Council members Katie Siek (Indiana University) and Shwetak Patel (University of Washington).  Many people around the country are in week three of their resolutions to monitoring their health with their fitness trackers. These mobile health devices are becoming more common. The iphone track your steps, maybe without you even realizing it, as does this necklace and this ring. Researchers have been talking about mobile health devices for years. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) held 2016 workshop on Discovery and Innovation in Smart and Pervasive Health and then at AAAS 2017 CCC had a session on “Health in Your Pocket: Diagnosing and Treating […]