A recent article in the New York Times describes the newer generation of robots that are able to interact with and learn from humans. In the past, factories separated industrial robots from humans to in order to prevent potential injuries. But now, gentler industrial robots, designed to work and play well with others, are coming out from behind their protective fences to work shoulder-to-shoulder with people. It’s an advance made possible by sophisticated algorithms and improvements in sensing technologies like computer vision.   That is in contrast to earlier generations of robots that often required extensive programming to change the smallest details of their routine, said Henrik Christensen, director of the robotics […]

The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible, written by CCC Council and CRA board member, Lance Fortnow is now available. The inspiration for the book came in 2009 when Fortnow published an article on the P-NP problem for Communications of the ACM. With more than 200,000 downloads, the article is one of the website’s most popular, which signals that this is an issue that people are interested in exploring. The P-NP problem is the most important open problem in computer science because it attempts measure the limits of computation. The book is written to appeal to readers outside of computer science and shed light on the […]

This week, the National Science Foundation launched two new supercomputers.  Here’s what Farnam Jahanian, head of NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering has to say about the launch: Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that this week two NSF-supported advanced computational infrastructure facilities were formally declared open for use by the science and engineering research community at-large. Stampede at the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) was dedicated on Wednesday, March 27, 2013, and Blue Waters at the NationalCenter for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was dedicated on Thursday, March 28, 2013.  Read more about these dedications from the NSF […]

In two articles in Science – the flagship publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science – CCC Chair Ed Lazowska is interviewed on career futures in Computer Science.  An example from an extensive Q&A: Q: What’s new and emerging in computer science? If you were in training today, about to choose a thesis area, what subfields would you look at? E.L.: Computer science is a field of limitless opportunity, and limitless impact. We are terrible at predicting the future: We overestimate what can be achieved in 10 years, and we underestimate what can be achieved in 50. Look back 10 or 12 years. Did we foresee the […]

As we enter the second year of the Federal “Big Data Initiative,” the Administration is encouraging multiple stakeholders to develop and participate in Big Data innovation projects across the country. Later this year, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, NSF, and other agencies plan to convene an event that highlights high-impact collaborations and identifies areas for expanded collaboration between the public and private sectors. 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 evaluate applications of Big Data that improve key outcomes in economic growth, job creation, education, health, […]

The following was submitted by Farnam Jahanian, NSF Assistant Director for CISE. Dear Colleagues, The National Science Foundation CISE Directorate is pleased to announce the formation of a search committee for the Director of the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI, formerly the Office of Cyberinfrastructure). Dr. Alan Blatecky will be finishing his term as ACI Division Director at the end of this summer – we greatly appreciate his expertise and leadership for the coordination and support of NSF’s cyberinfrastructure during his tenure! Announcements for the search for his replacement can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/cise/news/2013-ACI-Annoucement.jsp and on USAJOBS at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/339364500?org=NSF. Please feel free to contact any of the following search committee members to nominate candidates; self-nominations are […]