This week marks the dedication of the NSF “Blue Waters” supercomputer at NCSA. Over the past 30 years, driven in large part by the NSF Supercomputer Centers program and its successors, science has been transformed by computation. Scientific breakthroughs are no longer happening only in the field or in the lab – they are happening on computers. “Science is now investing in supercomputers, and they are where many new scientific discoveries are being made,” says Michael Wiltberger, a space weather researcher. The National Science Foundation is in the process of building up the nation’s computational power by funding the acquisition and deployment of three new leading-edge systems – “Yellowstone” at […]
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.
“Making the Most of Big Data”
March 23rd, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Ed LazowskaAs we enter the second year of the Federal “Big Data Initiative,” the Administration is encouraging multiple stakeholders to develop and participate in Big Data innovation projects across the country. Later this year, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, NSF, and other agencies plan to convene an event that highlights high-impact collaborations and identifies areas for expanded collaboration between the public and private sectors. The Administration is particularly interested in projects and initiatives that: Advance technologies that support Big Data and data analytics; Educate and expand the Big Data workforce; Develop, demonstrate and evaluate applications of Big Data that improve key outcomes in economic growth, job creation, education, health, […]
NSF Launches Search Committee for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Division Director
March 21st, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Shar SteedThe following was submitted by Farnam Jahanian, NSF Assistant Director for CISE. Dear Colleagues, The National Science Foundation CISE Directorate is pleased to announce the formation of a search committee for the Director of the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI, formerly the Office of Cyberinfrastructure). Dr. Alan Blatecky will be finishing his term as ACI Division Director at the end of this summer – we greatly appreciate his expertise and leadership for the coordination and support of NSF’s cyberinfrastructure during his tenure! Announcements for the search for his replacement can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/cise/news/2013-ACI-Annoucement.jsp and on USAJOBS at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/339364500?org=NSF. Please feel free to contact any of the following search committee members to nominate candidates; self-nominations are […]
Robotics Roadmap 2.0 on the Hill
March 20th, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Shar SteedThe Congressional Robotics Caucus held a briefing this morning on the Robotics Roadmap 2.0(PDF), a follow up report to the CCC-led Robotics Roadmap(PDF) published in 2009. Click here to view the CRA Policy Blog summary of the briefing.
Call for White Papers on Mid-Scale Infrastructure Investments for Computing Research
March 20th, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Ed LazowskaThe Computing Community Consortium is seeking community input to better understand the potential needs and payoff for additional investments in mid-scale infrastructure for computing research. NSF spends significantly less on shared research infrastructure for computing research than it does for many other fields. By “shared research infrastructure” we mean experimental hardware and/or software and associated instrumentation that serves a significant portion of the research community (versus a small set of investigators). In other fields, such shared research infrastructure includes equipment such as telescopes, ocean observatories, supercomputers, and field stations. We specifically are interested in “mid-scale” infrastructure investments, defined as investments of over $4 million but under $100 million. GENI, PlanetLab, […]
Pioneers of the Internet and World Wide Web Receive Inaugural QE Prize for Engineering
March 18th, 2013 / in awards / by Kenneth HinesVinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, Sir Tim Berners Lee, Marc Andreessen, and Louis Pouzin were awarded the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering today at the Royal Academy of Engineering. This new £1million global prize recognizes outstanding advances in engineering that have changed the world and benefited humanity – celebrating the best and also serving to illuminate the sheer excitement of modern engineering. The work of these five pioneers is recognized as revolutionary for changing the way we communicate. According to the article: Some 330 petabytes of data are estimated to be carried across its servers each year- that’s enough capacity to transfer every character ever written in every book ever published 20 […]







