The following is a special contribution to this blog by Gera Jochum.  Jochum is the Communications Specialist for the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The National Science Foundation (NSF) released its first issue of the third volume of CS Bits & Bytes today. The issue focuses on the Raspberry Pi platform, which was created as a cheap, accessible and programmable computer that has been used around the world to demonstrate how computers work.  The use of Raspberry Pi units to build a cluster called Meteor by Rick Wagner of the San Diego Supercomputing Center is featured.  Wagner says, The low cost of the […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog by Ian Stevenson. Stevenson was a 2011-2013 Computing Innovation Fellow (CIFellow) at the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of California at Berkeley. He is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Psychology. In 1939 Nobel Prize winner E.D. Adrian started off one of his famous papers by saying, “Although it is easy to demonstrate the electrical activity of the brain we are still some way from understanding the full meaning of our records.” 75 years later this could still be the lede of just about any paper in neuroscience. A key challenge of “understanding the […]

Farnam Jahanian, Assistant Director for the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF), has been selected as the new Vice President for Research at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), beginning September 1. Prior to joining NSF in 2011, Jahanian took leave from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he is the Edward S. Davidson Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He served as chair for Computer Science and Engineering from 2007 to 2011 and as director of the Software Systems Laboratory from 1997 to 2000. Farnam brings to CMU a wealth of expertise and leadership skills, not only in supporting and […]

On April 2, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council kicked off its spring Council meeting with a discussion with Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, on the challenges of the “Internet of Things” (IoT), such as the connection of everyday items like lightbulbs, refrigerators, TVs, and other devices to both the internet and each other. The rapidly increasing numbers of networked devices brings up a number of  issues that the computing community will need to address in the near future. Cerf delivered an engaging presentation on his view of IoT and followed it up with a thought provoking dialogue with the CCC Council about some of the challenges that this […]

On April 3, 2014, Farnam Jahanian, Assistant Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Directorate, released the following letter to the community: Dear Colleagues,   I am delighted to announce the appointment of Ms. Irene Qualters to the position of Division Director, Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI), effective April 6, 2014. In this role, Irene will lead ACI in its mission to support and coordinate the prototyping, development, acquisition, and provisioning of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools, and services essential to the advancement and transformation of science and engineering.   Over the past several years, Irene has provided significant leadership in managing NSF’s investments […]

Today, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the launch of a new office that will merge biology, engineering, and computer science to harness the power of natural systems for national security. The Biological Technologies Office (BTO), a new division, will explore the increasingly dynamic intersection of biology and the physical sciences. BTO will expand the work undertaken by DARPA’s Defense Sciences (DSO) and Microsystems Technology (MTO) Offices. From the press release on the DARPA site: The Biological Technologies Office will advance and expand on a number of earlier DARPA programs that made preliminary inroads into the bio-technological frontier,” said Geoff Ling, named by DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar to be the first director of […]