“What is Jericho?” Those were the first words from “Watson,” the IBM supercomputer system that’s taking on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter — the two winningest players in “Jeopardy!” history — this week. Minutes later, with three categories of questions completed as part of this morning’s dry run, Watson was winning: the supercomputer had $4,400; Jennings trailed with $3,400; and Rutter was third with $1,200. If those first few minutes are any indication of what the actual game shows (which will be taped beginning tomorrow) are going to be like, we could be in for a truly fascinating man v. man v. machine matchup when the shows hit the airwaves […]
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.
Watson Outpaces Jeopardy Wizards in Sneak Preview
January 13th, 2011 / in research horizons / by Erwin GianchandaniLeroy Hood wins NAE Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize
January 12th, 2011 / in Uncategorized / by Ed LazowskaLeroy Hood, President of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology and an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, will receive the National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize. The Russ Prize – a $500,000 biennial award “recognizing a bioengineering achievement that significantly improves the human condition” – was conferred on Hood “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science.” Hood has been a visionary in exploiting the synergies between science and technology, and in viewing biology as an information science. He co-authored the Computing Community Consortium’s research white paper “P4 Medicine: Personalized, Predictive, Preventive, Participatory – A Change of […]
IBM’s “Five in Five”
January 4th, 2011 / in research horizons / by Erwin GianchandaniWhile many of us were enjoying time off last week, our colleagues at IBM were busy unveiling their fifth annual “Five in Five” — a list of five technology innovations that have the potential to change the way we live, work, and play over the next five years. On this year’s list: – You’ll beam up on your friends in 3-D. Three-dimensional interfaces will let us interact with 3-D holograms of our friends. – Batteries will breathe air to power our devices. Advances in transistors and battery technology will yield devices capable of lasting ~10 times longer than they do today before requiring re-charging. – You won’t need to be […]
More About PCAST’s NITRD Report
January 3rd, 2011 / in policy, research horizons / by Erwin GianchandaniAs we blogged in this space a few weeks back, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a report on the nation’s $4.3 billion Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program in mid-December. The report calls for new multi-agency NIT R&D initiatives that support high-risk/high-reward research in areas of particular importance to the nation, including health information technology, energy and transportation, and security and robustness of cyber-infrastructure. As part of the report roll-out, the importance of information technology research and development was highlighted by several leading Federal officials — including Aneesh Chopra, the nation’s Chief Technology Officer; Vivek Kundra, the Chief Information Officer; and Tom Kalil, Deputy […]
CSTB Committee Emphasizes Parallel Computing Innovations
December 22nd, 2010 / in research horizons / by Erwin GianchandaniTwo very interesting reports on the future of computing were issued last week. A December 16th entry in this blog discussed “Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology,” issued by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). (More about the PCAST report in a New York Times story here.) But another report from the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board’s (CSTB) Committee on Sustaining Growth in Computing Performance — “The Future of Computing Performance: Game Over or Next Level?” — details the technical challenges that we will face in providing the computing horsepower to support the digital future described by PCAST.
Computational Photography… PhD Students… “Watson” v. Jennings
December 20th, 2010 / in policy, research horizons / by Erwin GianchandaniA few interesting news stories in the past week: What is “Watson”? Word came on Tuesday that “Watson,” an IBM supercomputer system, will take on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter — the two most successful players in “Jeopardy” history — on three episodes of the show slated for broadcast Feb. 14-16, 2011. As we’ve previously highlighted in this space, the New York Times Magazine profiled “Watson” this past summer. In that article, the Times Magazine provided a step-by-step account of the AI/machine learning challenges and advances underlying the development of the advanced “question answering” machine. Now, in the man v. man v. machine challenge scheduled to air early next year, […]
