The New York Times picks up on a point made in the recent report of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology assessing the Federal Networking and Information Technology R&D program:  “performance gains in doing computing tasks that result from improvements in software algorithms often far outpace the gains attributable to faster processors.” “The rate of change in hardware captured by Moore’s Law, experts agree, is an extraordinary achievement. ‘But the ingenuity that computer scientists have put into algorithms has yielded performance improvements that make even the exponential gains of Moore’s Law look trivial,’ said Edward Lazowska, a professor at the University of Washington. “The rapid pace of […]

Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey – the only physicist in Congress, one of the staunchest Congressional supporters of science, recipient of this year’s Philip Hauge Abelson Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a five-time Jeopardy! champion – has defeated IBM’s Watson AI system at Jeopardy! As much as we value the extraordinary accomplishments of Watson and of the AI field, score one for the people!  We need more of them like Rush Holt in Congress! Read about the match here.

Some interesting news items in the past week: “The Art of Video Games” The Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum will debut on March 16 an exhibition titled The Art of Video Games — exploring “the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects, the creative use of new technologies, and the most influential artists and designers.”  But before then, the Smithsonian needs the public’s help to determine which 80 video games should be represented.  Click here to see the options and vote for your favorites.  And as the Smithsonian notes, “Remember, this is an art exhibition, so be sure to vote for games that you […]

“Innovation” and “Internet” are on the rise.  More broadly, the President echoes recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology regarding research investments in Networking and Information Technology, Energy, and K-12 STEM education.

Leroy Hood, President of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology and an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, will receive the National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize.  The Russ Prize – a $500,000 biennial award “recognizing a bioengineering achievement that significantly improves the human condition” – was conferred on Hood “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science.” Hood has been a visionary in exploiting the synergies between science and technology, and in viewing biology as an information science.  He co-authored the Computing Community Consortium’s research white paper “P4 Medicine:  Personalized, Predictive, Preventive, Participatory – A Change of […]

The Computing Community Consortium today issued a call for nominations for individuals to serve on the CCC Council for the next three years.  The deadline for nominations is December 15.  See complete details — including nominating instructions — below. What questions shape our intellectual future? What attracts the best and brightest minds of a new generation? What are the next big computing ideas – the ones that will define the future of computing, galvanize the very best students, and catalyze research investment and public support? The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is charged with mobilizing the computing research community to answer these questions by identifying major research opportunities for the field, […]