Artificial intelligence (AI) has captured the public’s imagination for over 60 years, but it has proceeded in fits and starts leading to what has become known as an “AI winter” – a long period of diminished research and funding activity. Until recently, the conventional wisdom has been that new algorithms were the limiting factor in making steady progress towards artificial intelligence. However, recent advances in machine learning, have established that historical algorithms in conjunction with high-performance computers can be used to achieve nearly human-level performance on diverse tasks such as image and speech recognition, language translation, and video game play. In each of these instances rapid progress was facilitated by the […]
Computing Community Consortium Blog
The goal of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is to catalyze the computing research community to debate longer range, more audacious research challenges; to build consensus around research visions; to evolve the most promising visions toward clearly defined initiatives; and to work with the funding organizations to move challenges and visions toward funding initiatives. The purpose of this blog is to provide a more immediate, online mechanism for dissemination of visioning concepts and community discussion/debate about them.
IARPA Request For Information – Novel Training Datasets and Environments to Advance Artificial Intelligence
February 16th, 2016 / in Announcements, Research News, resources / by Helen WrightNIH Pill Image Recognition Challenge
February 15th, 2016 / in policy, research horizons, Research News / by Helen WrightThe National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently published a Federal Register Notice for a national Pill Image Recognition Challenge. NLM seeks YOUR input in developing high-quality algorithms and software that rank known images of prescription pills in the NLM RxIMAGE database by similarity to consumer-quality images of unknown prescription pills. NLM plans to use the submissions in creating a future software system and Application Programming Interface (API) that can be used in identifying an unknown prescription pill from a photo taken of that pill by a smart phone. Parties wishing to participate in the Challenge are provided with a training data set. The submission […]
NSF Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Request
February 11th, 2016 / in Announcements, NSF, policy / by Helen WrightThe National Science Foundation (NSF) Director France A. Córdova outlined President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget request to Congress for NSF. The FY17 request calls for $8 billion for NSF, an increase of 6.7 percent or about $500 million over the enacted FY16 budget. Funding priorities for FY2017 include research that addresses issues of major scientific and societal importance. For example: Clean Energy Technologies would receive $512 million, an increase of $141 million over FY2016. Understanding the Brain would receive $142 million in FY2017. Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) would receive $62 million. Risk and Resilience would receive $43 million. This is a research portfolio […]
Computing Community Consortium at AAAS 2016
February 10th, 2016 / in Announcements, Research News / by Helen WrightThe Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is proud to be a part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2016 Annual Meeting this weekend, February 11-15, 2016 in Washington, DC. The AAAS Annual Meeting is interdisciplinary and inclusive. Each year, thousands of leading scientists, engineers, educators, policymakers, and journalists gather together to discuss recent developments in science and technology. The 2016 theme will focus on how the scientific enterprise can meet global challenges in need of innovation and international collaboration. CCC Chair Gregory Hager, from Johns Hopkins University, and CCC Director Ann Drobnis are co-organizing a symposium on Friday, February 12, 2016 from 3:00-4:30 p.m. on The Confluence of Computing and […]
President Establishes a Commission on Enhancing Cybersecurity
February 9th, 2016 / in Announcements, policy / by Helen WrightPresident Obama just announced his plan to implement a Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) that will take near-term actions and put in place a long-term strategy to enhance cybersecurity awareness, protect privacy, maintain public safety, and empower Americans to take better control of their digital security. The Administration also released the 2016 Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan, which was coordinated by the National Science and Technology Council. All of this follows in the momentum of the December passage of the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, which makes it easier for private companies to share cyber threat information with each other and the Government. CNAP is the capstone of more than seven years of determined […]
NSF CISE Distinguished Lecture Series – Erik Winfee
February 9th, 2016 / in Announcements, NSF / by Helen WrightThe National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is pleased to announce a distinguished lecture on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 2:00 pm EST by Dr. Erik Winfee titled Molecular Programming: Chemistry as a New Information Technology. Erik Winfree is Professor of Computer Science, Computation & Neural Systems and Bioengineering at Caltech. He is the founder of two NSF “Expeditions in Computing”, the Molecular Programming Project (2008-2013) and Molecular Programming Architectures, Abstractions, Algorithms, and Applications (2013-2018). Winfree, inducted as a Fellow of the AAAS in 2015, is the recipient of the Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology (2006), the NSF PECASE/CAREER Award (2001), the ONR Young Investigators Award (2001), a MacArthur Fellowship (2000), the Tulip […]
