“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, […]

Farnam Jahanian, Professor and Chair of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Michigan, today was named the next Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at NSF, effective February 1, 2011. Jahanian will assume the position that Jeannette Wing successfully held for three years before returning to CMU in early July. For Jahanian’s complete bio, see http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~farnam/bio.htm. The official NSF announcement is available here.

Five years ago, the National Academies published a landmark study calling for U.S. investment in science, technology, and education, warning the nation could no longer afford inaction in these areas. Yesterday, 17 of the 20 original committee members issued an updated version of that report: Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category Five. The new report notes that, “in spite of the efforts of both those in government and the private sector, the outlook for America to compete for quality jobs has further deteriorated over the past five years” and “the ‘Gathering Storm’ increasingly appears to be a Category 5.” At the official unveiling of the report on […]

Today’s New York Times Sunday magazine is devoted to  the role of computing and technology in education.  The lead article is entitled Learning by Playing:  Video Games in the Classroom.  Other articles and essays includes Hacks into Hackers:  Can Journalism and Computer Science Mix?, The Eight-Year-Old Programmer, among others.