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.


Highlights from the New Class of TED Fellows

January 13th, 2015 / in awards, research horizons, Research News / by Shar Steed

The new class of Fellows for TED2015 has recently been released, and among the 21 “game-changing thinkers” are Laura Boykin, a biologist and Jonathan Home, a physicist. We’ve chosen to highlight them here because even though they have very different backgrounds and goals, both use advanced computing techniques to transform the world.   Laura is a biologist who uses genomics and supercomputing to tackle food security in sub-Saharan Africa. She’s especially interested in figuring out what to do about whiteflies, which are devastating local cassava crops, a staple food in many countries.       Jonathan is a physicist working to build a quantum computer, attempting to achieve high-precision control of […]

ACM Names Its 2014 Fellows

January 13th, 2015 / in awards, CCC, policy, Research News / by Helen Wright

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is out with its 2014 Fellows, 47 of its members from universities, corporations, and research labs being recognized “for their contributions to computing that are driving innovations across multiple domains and disciplines…including database mining and design; artificial intelligence and machine learning; cryptography and verification; Internet security and privacy; computer vision and medical imaging; electronic design automation; and human-computer interaction.” They join a distinguished set of colleagues honored since 1993. Check out 2014 Fellows, including our own Computing Community Consortium (CCC) council member Daniela Rus! Samson Abramsky University of Oxford For contributions to domains in logical form, game semantics, categorical quantum mechanics and contextual semantics Leslie Lamport Microsoft Research For […]

WATCH Talk-Differential Privacy: Theoretical and Practical Challenges

January 12th, 2015 / in NSF, policy, Research News, videos / by Helen Wright

The next WATCH Talk is this Thursday, January 15, 12:00-1:00pm EDT. Salil Vadhan will discuss Differential Privacy: Theoretical and Practical Challenges. Dr. Salil Vadhan is the Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Director of the Harvard Center for Research on Computation and Society. His research area is theoretical computer science, specifically computational complexity, cryptography, and differential privacy. Abstract   Differential Privacy is framework for enabling the analysis of privacy-sensitive datasets while ensuring that individual-specific information is not revealed.  The concept was developed in a body of work in theoretical computer science starting about a decade ago.   […]

New NIH Data Science Blog!

January 12th, 2015 / in big science, Research News, resources / by Helen Wright

Ever wondered what was going on in the data science community with relation to biomedical research? Ever wish to share your own knowledge about the field? No need to worry any longer! The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a new data science blog which “is the beginning of a more coordinated and push-oriented communication strategy.” The purpose is to distribute information to the data science community “to foster an ecosystem that enables biomedical research to be conducted as a digital enterprise that enhances health, lengthens life, and reduces illness and disability.” The Associate Director for Data Science (ADDS) Phil E. Bourne, contributed the blog’s first post with his 2014 review of […]

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Applications to 2015 LiSPI now accepted till January 23rd

January 8th, 2015 / in CCC, NSF, Research News / by Helen Wright

The following is a Computing Research Policy Blog post by Brian Mosley, CRA Policy Analyst.  Just wanted to put up a quick post that due to extra availability we are extending the deadline for nominations and applications to the 2015 Leadership in Science Policy Institute workshop (aka: LiSPI) to January 23rd. We have also pushed back notifying selectees to February 2nd. If you know of someone who meets the qualifications and you would like to nominate them, or if you were nominated but missed the deadline to get in your application, now is your chance. For some more background, check out the LiSPI webpage and our original post on this year’s […]

NSF Neural and Cognitive Systems Deadline Approaching

January 7th, 2015 / in CCC, NSF, videos / by Helen Wright

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently released a new multi-directorate program called Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NSF-NCS), which describes the first phase of NSF’s broader aim to foster innovation in cognitive science and neuroscience as part of the President’s BRAIN Initiative. NSF-NCS will support transformative and integrative research that will accelerate understanding of neural and cognitive systems. In December, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) held a related workshop titled Research Interfaces between Brain Science and Computer Science. Over 70 computer scientists and neuroscientists from academia, industry, and government were in attendance and between 160-300 participants viewed each panel and plenary on the live-stream. All panels and plenary talks from the […]