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 […]

An excellent article by MIT’s Bill Bonvillian, just out in the MIT Press journal Innovations.  Bill’s prescription: The U.S. must develop an integrated strategy if it is to reinvent its production capability. It should include the nine steps listed below: Developing advanced technologies that could lead to new manufacturing paradigms Selecting manufacturing paradigms that apply across a range of sectors Integrating technology development with efforts to develop new processes and business models In doing this, encompassing the new combined services/production model Tracking where world production competitors are moving Building at all levels a new advanced manufacturing workforce Applying an organizational model that works across the seams between the R&D agencies […]

Earlier this week, NBC aired a video segment highlighting how Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are transforming education. Professors at universities like Stanford, Princeton and Columbia are now offering online courses in a wide range of topics for free. View the segment here. On February 11-12, 2013, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) will hold a visioning workshop titled, “Multidisciplinary Research for Online Education.” Participants will look beyond the current high-profile interest in MOOCs, and to ideate on important research questions over the next 10 years in all areas of computing in support of massively open online education.

ACM has joined forces with the newly created Heidelberg Laureate Forum to bring students together with recipients of the Abel Prize, the ACM A.M. Turing Award, and the Fields Medal.  The first Heidelberg Laureate Forum will take place September 22-27 2013 in Heidelberg, Germany.  Applications and nominations will be accepted through February 15. Additional information here (pdf).  This is a tremendous opportunity!