On January 16, President Obama announced his intention to appoint Vint Cerf – Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google – to the National Science Board. The 25-member National Science Board is the governance body for the National Science Foundation, and additionally serves as an independent body of advisors to both the President and the Congress on policy matters related to science and engineering and education in science and engineering. Cerf – widely regarding along with his colleague Bob Kahn as “the father of the Internet” – received the National Medal of Technology in 1997, the ACM A.M. Turing Award in 2004, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in […]

In 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) conducted a major review of the Federal government’s $4B multi-agency research and development program in networking and information technology (NITRD) – information here. In 2012, PCAST asked a small Working Group (Susan Graham, Peter Lee, and David Shaw) to review progress since the 2010 report and also to make further recommendations in response to the activities and advances since 2010.  The results of the Working Group’s efforts were presented at a public event in November (slides here).  This week, the full PCAST report resulting from this effort was released and forwarded to the President.  The report is available […]

The CRA’s Education Committee has published a new report in the January 2013 edition of Computing Research News on the Baccalaureate Origins of Domestic Ph.D. Students in Computing Fields. If you would like receive CRN via email, you can sign up here. The article provides an initial examination of the baccalaureate origins of domestic students who have matriculated to Ph.D. programs in computer science.  The trends and patterns in the presented data can be useful both in recruiting and, ultimately, in improving the quality and quantity of the domestic Ph.D. pipeline.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) made available by organizations like Coursera, an online education company  that offers free college courses, are gaining popularity at lightning speed. An article in the New York Times details the growth and potential profitability of free online education companies. In early 2012, Coursera was founded by two computer science professors, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, and enrollment has reached more than a million users for over 200 courses. This rapid growth outpaces the launches of both Twitter and Facebook. The company is slowing starting to generate revenue. So far, Coursera has attracted $22 million in venture capital. Other companies offering online courses are also taking hold. Udemy allows individual […]

According to an article in CRN Magazine, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has decided to remove networking devices created by a Chinese manufacturer because of security concerns. Even though the parts have been removed, it may not be enough to stop attackers from stealing information. A security assessment focusing on sensitive networks prompted the U.S. government nuclear weapons laboratory to remove networking switches made by China-based H3C Technologies. “There is definitely been plenty of proof that the Chinese use the supply chain to their advantage,” said Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner. “If you have a high security environment and you are concerned about theft […]

On November 27-29, 2012, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) Principal Investigator Meeting was held. The SaTC program is NSF’s flagship for cybersecurity research. NSF program officers for SaTC, wrote an blog post on the event found here. The purpose of the NSF SaTC meeting was to build the community of PIs, encouraging them to interact and find new areas for research and collaboration, as well as to identify new areas for future NSF investment. It was not intended for PIs to give technical talks, but there were several events designed to encourage multidisciplinary collaboration and exploration of new research areas. Attendees also received copies of Control Alt Hack, a new […]