In 1995, the Computer Science & Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council published the first “Tire Tracks Diagram” – illustrating the complex interplay among government, academia, and industry that has made America the world leader in information technology.  The diagram was included in the “Brooks-Sutherland” report examining the nation’s high performance computing and communications program. In 2003, CSTB updated the diagram in the report “Innovation in Information Technology.” A substantial revision has just been published in the new CSTB report “Continuing Innovation in Information Technology.”  The diagram illustrates the flow from fundamental research in fields such as digital communications, computer architecture, computer graphics, and AI into new multi-billion-dollar industry […]

In December 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) conducted an extensive review of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program – the $4B coordinated multi-agency IT R&D program. PCAST has just released a 2012 follow-up to that review, conducted by Susan Graham, Peter Lee, and David Shaw.  The goals were to assess the responses to the 2010 recommendations, propose additional recommendations, and identify emerging research challenges.  Key findings: Research areas from the 2010 report where Federal agencies have made significant progress in sponsoring R&D: Big Data NIT interaction with the physical world Health IT Cybersecurity (although much remains to be done) […]

Scientists have seen significant progress in developing software that can perform human activities like seeing, listening and thinking. A New York Times article recently highlighted advances in this type of cutting edge technology, called “deep learning.” Deep learning uses artificial intelligence to create things like speech recognition technology, and machines that can drive cars and work in factories. It is available today in programs like Apple’s Siri virtual personal assistant, which uses voice recognition software and Google’s Street View, which uses machine vision to identify specific addresses. But what is new in recent months is the growing speed and accuracy of deep-learning programs, often called artificial neural networks or just […]

This week’s episode of David Pogue’s PBS NOVA Science NOW explores the future that is being created by computer scientists: “The technologies that will transform our lives decades from now are already taking shape in laboratories around the world.  David Pogue imagines what the Tech page of The New York Times might look like 10, 20, or 30 years from today, as he meets the innovative engineers and computer scientists working to create thought-controlled video games, robotic exoskeletons, and virtual reality that seamlessly integrates with the real world.” The entire 52-minute episode is “must see TV”!  Check it out here.

This year’s CCC Thanksgiving feel-good story features Joy Buolamwini, a 2012 graduate of the Georgia Tech College of Computing who was recently named a 2013 Rhodes Scholar. “Born in Canada to African parents and having lived in Ghana, Barcelona, Memphis and Atlanta, Buolamwini truly considers herself a global citizen …   “Rhodes is not the first prestigious fellowship program to recognize Buolamwini’s enterprising spirit. She’s also a 2013 Fulbright scholar and will use her grant to improve access to education in Zambia. Her past experience developing web and mobile applications for Atlanta’s Teach for America schools will inform Buolamwini’s efforts with the Zambian Institute for Sustainable Development to create a […]

Collections of photos, images, and videos are quickly coming to dominate the content available on the Web. Currently internet search engines rely on the text with which the images are labeled to return matches. But why is only text being used to search visual mediums? These labels can be unreliable, unhelpful and sometimes not available at all. To solve this problem, scientists at Stanford and Princeton have been working to “create a new generation of visual search technologies.” Dr. Fei-Fei Li, a computer scientist at Stanford, has built the world’s largest visual database, containing more than 14 million labeled objects. A system called ImageNet, applies the data gathered from the database to […]