I’ve just returned from Japan advising the “Mt. Fuji” team on UAVs for the Fukushima nuclear situation and I’ll be going back next week with a team of experts and robots to assist several prefectures with tsunami damage inspection and the grim task of underwater victim recovery. (Read more about this in The New York Times.) This will be the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue’s (CRASAR) twelfth response since the first use of rescue robots at the 9/11 World Trade Center collapse just short of a decade ago. What has changed in rescue robotics in the last 10 years? The robots, of course! Rescue robots originally meant small ground vehicles […]
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.
Robots and Disasters: The Last 10 Years, The Next 2 Years
April 11th, 2011 / in policy, research horizons / by Ran Libeskind-HadasComputing Research at the NIH: Funding Opportunities, Tips for Applying
April 11th, 2011 / in policy, resources / by Erwin GianchandaniThe following is a special contribution to this blog by Peter Lyster, Program Director for biological modeling and bioinformatics in the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Peter describes ways to find and apply for NIH funding opportunities that may well be relevant for computing researchers. The Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative (BISTI) is a consortium of representatives from each of the NIH’s institutes and centers that serves as the focus of biomedical computing issues at the NIH. Established in May 2000, BISTI’s mission is “to make optimal use of computer science and technology to address problems in biology and […]
Bioinspired Design: Method in the Beautiful Madness?
April 9th, 2011 / in research horizons, workshop reports / by Erwin GianchandaniThe following is a special contribution to this blog by Ashok Goel, Associate Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science in the School of Interactive Computing and Director of the Digital Intelligence Laboratory at Georgia Tech. He co-organized a NSF-funded Bioinspired Design Workshop earlier this month. Examples of bioinspired design are all around us. We see it in Velcro, which was inspired by cockle burrs. We see it in self-cleansing paints that mimic the hydrophobic effect on surfaces of lotus leafs. We see it in robots that can climb vertical walls much like geckos. We see it in the windmill blades that are similar to the tubercles on humpback whale flippers. […]
CCC to Hold First-Ever Leadership in Science Policy Institute
April 7th, 2011 / in pipeline, policy, resources / by Erwin GianchandaniAs part of its mission to help nurture a next generation of computing research leaders, the Computing Community Consortium today announced a call for participants in a first-ever Leadership in Science Policy Institute (LiSPI) — to be held on Monday, November 7, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The goal of the LiSPI, co-organized by CRA’s Government Affairs Committee, is to educate a small cadre of computing researchers — at the associate professor or higher level — about how science policy is formulated in the U.S. and how our government works. In particular, the LiSPI will feature presentations and discussions with science policy experts, current and former […]
Wireless Research for Intelligent Transport
April 5th, 2011 / in policy, Research News / by Erwin GianchandaniOn the heels of a speech by President Obama last week touting a public-private partnership seeking to “help large fleets reduce diesel and gasoline use by incorporating electric vehicles, alternative fuels, and fuel-saving measures” including mobile applications, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra yesterday described a variety of Federal research programs aimed at deploying new and innovative information and communications technologies throughout the transportation system. In a blog entry on The White House website, Chopra and Peter Appel, Administrator of the Transportation Department’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, wrote: The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), through the Research and Innovative Technology Administration’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Research Program, in close partnership […]
A Role for Artificial Intelligence in Sustainable Design
April 4th, 2011 / in research horizons, workshop reports / by Erwin GianchandaniThe following is a special contribution to this blog from Doug Fisher (Vanderbilt University) and Mary Lou Maher (University of Maryland, College Park), who recently co-organized the AAAI 2011 Spring Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Design. About 25-30 people attended the first-ever AAAI Spring Symposium on AI and Sustainable Design held on March 21-23, 2011 at Stanford University. They came from three primary areas: AI and Design Computational Sustainability Design for Sustainability There was also a virtual participation option, which was made available to co-authors, colleagues, and students of the authors of the papers as a way of broadening participation without requiring additional travel — and as a result […]
