Computer Science Education Week is an annual program designed to show students of all ages the importance of computer science.  It is observed each year, in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906).  This year, CSEdWeek is December 9-15, 2013. As reported in a previous blog post, Code.org is taking the lead this year and promoting the Hour of Code to bring computing to ALL students!  There are many ways to participate and to bring computing to others, through the online tutorials written for students of all levels to creating your own local event, with guidance here. To kickoff the week, Code.org is hosting Classroom Video Chats […]

This blog is a special contribution from Sitaram Asur, a Computing Innovation Fellow from 2009-2010.  When I graduated with my PhD from the Ohio State University in June 2009, it was a very disappointing job market. The economy was at its lowest ebb and most companies that I was interested in had established a freeze on their hiring. I was keen on an industrial research position but there were very few suitable opportunities available. I am very thankful to the CIFellows project for providing opportunities for fresh graduates like myself to stay in the research pipeline. My dissertation research focused on data mining on dynamic interaction networks. During my PhD, […]

On April 2, 2013, President Obama launched the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative as a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders.  The Initiative is a joint program with funding through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In mid-November, DARPA announced two programs as a part of this Initiative: SUBNETS (Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies) and RAM (Restoring Active Memory). The SUBNETS program asks researchers to develop novel, wireless devices, such as deep brain stimulators, that can cure neurological disorders.  From […]

On November, 26, 2013, Michael Farrell writes in The Boston Globe about the great change which is occurring on Harvard University’s campus, with regard to Computer Science in an article titled, “Computer science course fills seats, needs at Harvard.”  From the article: In just a few short years CS50 has rocketed from being a middling course to one of the biggest on campus, with nearly 700 students and an astounding 102-member staff that includes teaching fellows, graders, and multimedia producers. Classes are so big lectures are held in Sanders Theatre and office hours so crowded it looks like a tech start-up. David Malan has created a course that makes computer science come alive […]

On November 11, 2013, The Chronicle for Higher Education published an article titled “The STEM Crisis: Reality or Myth?” which stated that many researchers do in fact consider the crisis a myth.  Computer science is most certainly a STEM field, but when you unpack the data, you find that there really is a crisis for computer science.  Ed Lazowska, Past Chair of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, and David Patterson, Professor in Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, have written a Letter to the Editor of The Chronicle explaining the data.  From their Letter: Let us introduce […]

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy (PCAST) met on November 12, 2013 and highlighted computing throughout the meeting.  The first agenda item was an overview of a soon-to-be-released letter report on Education Information Technology (EdIT).  There will eventually be three letter reports on this topic, with the first focusing on Higher Education, particularly Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs).  A variety of items were addressed during this session, with the highlights being that in this new era of Big Data, high bandwidth, and software innovation, opportunities to evolve pedagogical systems and personalize education are near.  You can view the discussion here.  Future EdIT letter reports will focus on […]