There’s an interesting article in the March 2011 issue of the Communications of the ACM about “why computer scientists should come out from ‘behind the scenes’ more often and work with the media to draw public attention to their fundamental innovation“ — and just how we can begin to do that: Science communication or public outreach can be seen as taking a lot of time and effort compared to the payoffs it provides. In effect, there’s a tragedy of the commons—we all benefit from those who do it, so there is incentive to let other people shoulder the load. The rationale behind science communication is fairly obvious, and it is difficult to […]
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.
IOM-NAE Health Data Collegiate Challenge
March 31st, 2011 / in research horizons / by Erwin GianchandaniEarlier this year, the NAE and IOM, along with Health 2.0, announced a challenge for college students throughout the U.S., to create new apps or tools that use large quantities of newly available health data: Using social networking, mobile apps, and other new technologies, how can the power of health data be unleashed to increase awareness of health problems and inspire positive action at the community level? Are you motivated to improve our nation’s health? Using new and fun technologies you can make a difference. Interactive tools and apps, tapping into vast amounts of newly available health data, now can be used in engaging and empowering ways to lead to better health. […]
A CIFellow’s Perspective: “Becoming a Better Researcher”
March 31st, 2011 / in CIFellows / by Erwin GianchandaniThe following is a special contribution to this blog from Susan P. Wyche, a 2010 CIFellow working with Steve Harrison at Virginia Tech. Susan received her Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech in 2010; her dissertation advisor was Beki Grinter. Click here for more details about the CIFellows Project. During his presentation at the CIFellows Research Meeting & Career Mentoring Workshop in December, Microsoft’s Peter Lee shared his motivations for creating the program. Beyond giving recent PhDs an opportunity to remain in academia during a time when obtaining an academic job is more difficult than usual, he saw the program as a way to “create a cadre of highly independent computing researchers.” […]
National Science Board Talks “Big Data”
March 29th, 2011 / in policy, research horizons, workshop reports / by Erwin GianchandaniThe National Science Board (NSB) held an Expert Panel Discussion on Data Policies at the National Science Foundation yesterday & today, exploring the opportunities and challenges of a future rooted in data-intensive science and engineering. Organized by the NSB’s Task Force on Data Policies, the meeting included leading figures in the scientific enterprise across the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. A key goal was to identify guiding principles for establishing policies on data and artifacts (such as codes). The experts assembled by the NSB described the wealth of opportunities, including entirely new types of science, that stand to be enabled by data-intensive S&E — by virtue of opening up vast new sources […]
Frans Kaashoek to Receive ACM-Infosys Foundation Award
March 29th, 2011 / in awards / by Erwin GianchandaniFrans Kaashoek, a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (and a current member of the CCC Council), has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences. Frans was chosen for his landmark contributions to the structuring, robustness, scalability, and security of software systems, enabling efficient, mobile, and highly distributed applications and setting important research directions. The ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences recognizes personal contributions by young scientists and system developers to a contemporary innovation that, through its depth, fundamental impact and broad implications, exemplifies the greatest achievements in the discipline. The award […]
“March Madness Algorithm Overlords”
March 26th, 2011 / in research horizons, Research News / by Erwin GianchandaniMany of us have completed our share of March Madness brackets, competing in leagues or pools to see who can be best at predicting the outcome of the annual NCAA Tournament. For the second year in a row, University of Toronto machine learning Ph.D. student Danny Tarlow has organized and run one such pool. But what makes Tarlow’s pool unique — and noteworthy here — is that all entries are computer-generated, i.e., the entries are brackets completed by computer algorithms working off of historial data and without the use of any human judgment. Tarlow calls it the March Madness Predictive Analytics Challenge, and the rules he’s defined tell the story: Your bracket must be […]
