Twenty years ago today (April 30, 2013), physicists at CERN opened the World Wide Web to everyone with a simple web page.  The actual page is long gone, but CERN has recreated it here in honor of the 20th anniversary.  The Washington Post Tech Section highlighted the Anniversary by saying: The Web site itself isn’t much to look at — just a rundown of the product that includes a look at its development history, instructions of how to create your own pages and technical information about the World Wide Web — but it laid the groundwork for an estimated 630 million Web sites to come in the next 20 years, […]

An interesting article in The Atlantic by computer scientist Ben Schneiderman on “an ecological model of research and development.” Donald Stokes (Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation, 1997) stresses work that is motivated by both considerations for use and fundamental understanding …   Stokes and many other analysts provide a rigorous foundation for those who see value in the combined pursuit of basic and applied research, who believe that practical and theoretical work fit together well, and that mission-driven and curiosity-driven research invigorate each other. While Stokes advocates “use-inspired basic research”, this author adds “theory-inspired applied research.” In short, I am raising the expectations for researchers or all kinds; […]

On April 24, 2013, Farnam Jahanian, Assistant Director for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the National Science Foundation testified on Next Generation Computing and Big Data Analytics at a joint hearing of the Technology and Research Subcommittees of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. According to his written testimony, “Today we live in an ‘Era of Data and Information.’ This era is enabled by modern experimental methods and observational studies; large-scale simulations; scientific instruments, such as telescopes and particle accelerators; Internet transactions, email, videos, images, and click streams; and the widespread deployment of sensors everywhere – in the environment, in our critical infrastructure, […]

Seven computer scientists were recently named members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious 233-year-old national honorary society of leaders from academia, business, public affairs and the humanities. The new members from computer science include: Anant Agarwal (MIT), David Dill (Stanford), Susan Eggers (Washington), Jitendra Malik (Berkeley), Peter Norvig (Google), Jen Rexford (Princeton), and Richard Tapia (Rice). According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences website, “The Academy’s greatest strength lies in the leadership of its active members and wide range of expertise they bring to its studies and publications. The Academy membership encompasses over 4,000 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members and reflects the full range of […]

The CCC is sad to announce that David Notkin passed away this morning. He will be greatly missed as a contributor and friend by the CRA and CCC family. David Notkin was a world leader in software engineering, and an extraordinary mentor, who served more than 7 years on the CRA Board. He recently received CRA’s 2013 A. Nico Habermann award for his deep commitment for increasing the participation of women and underrepresented groups in computing. On February 1, 2013, more than 300 people joined in recognizing the contributions of David Notkin at “Notkinfest” held at the University of Washington. There, UW CSE announced the establishment of the David Notkin Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Computer Science […]

The White House will be hosting a Big Data Workshop on May 3, 2013.  The workshop is sponsored by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the NITRD Big Data Senior Steering Group. As we enter the second year of the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative (launched on March 29, 2012), the Obama Administration is encouraging multiple stakeholders—including Federal agencies, private industry, academia, state and local government, non-profits, and foundations—to  develop and participate in Big Data innovation projects across the country. The Administration is particularly interested in projects and initiatives that: Advance technologies that support Big Data and data analytics; Educate and expand the Big Data workforce; Develop, demonstrate, and […]