The awarding of the $1 million Netflix Prize this week reopens an interesting bigger question: Are prizes a viable mechanism for encouraging research in the computing fields? From Netflix’s perspective, the answer is almost certainly yes. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is quoted telling the New York Times (probably tongue-in-cheek) “You’re getting Ph.D.’s for a dollar an hour.” Could prizes be useful to the broader computing community in advancing research? The Clay Mathematics Institute established the Millenium Prizes in 2000, offering $1 million for the solutions to each of seven famous open problems, including the question of whether P=NP. It’s hard to imagine that many researchers have decided to shape their […]
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.
Inducing Innovation with Prizes
September 25th, 2009 / in big science, policy / by Ran Libeskind-HadasLandmark Contributions by Students in Computer Science
August 28th, 2009 / in computer history, resources / by Ed LazowskaThere are many reasons for research funding agencies (DARPA, NSF, etc.) to invest in the education of students. Producing the next generation of innovators is the most obvious one. In addition, though, there are an impressive number of instances in our field in which undergraduate and graduate students have made truly game-changing contributions in the course of their studies. The inspiring list in the attached PDF was compiled by the following individuals and their colleagues: Bill Bonvillian (MIT), Susan Graham (Berkeley), Anita Jones (University of Virginia), Ed Lazowska (University of Washington), Pat Lincoln (SRI), Fred Schneider (Cornell), and Victor Zue (MIT). We solicit your suggestions for additional student contributions of […]
Cross-layer Reliability Visioning Progress
August 23rd, 2009 / in big science, research horizons, workshop reports / by Kapilendra PatnaikThe Cross-layer Reliability Visioning Study Group met July 8-9, 2009 in Los Alamos, NM. This was the second of three scheduled meetings focused on how to address the growing challenges imposed by changes in device technology, system sizes, and application requirements. A major goal of the Visioning process is to reach some consensus on how to achieve reliable computing using unpredictable components across different layers that dictate system reliability (i.e., device technology, design, architecture, software). While the first meeting focused on defining the multi-dimensional cross-layer reliability design space, including both theoretical and practical aspects of the problem, the second meeting focused on considering cross-layer reliability from different application domains (e.g., […]
GROE Forum in Brighton, England a Major Success
August 10th, 2009 / in workshop reports / by Ran Libeskind-HadasTwenty researchers met in Brighton, England July 4th and 5th for the Forum to Envision the Future of Learning. This forum was part of the CCC’s Global Resources for On-line Education (GROE) initiative. The meeting was held to coincide with the AI in Education meeting, also held in Brighton. A list of participants is found on the GROE page on the CCC web site http://www.cra.org/ccc/groe.php. Under the leadership of Beverly Woolf, head of the GROE initiative, the group discussed the results of the April workshop held in Tempe, Arizona, as well as the next steps for research involving the “road map” that came out of that workshop. This meeting provided […]
First CIFellows sub-award completed!
July 30th, 2009 / in CIFellows / by Ed LazowskaToday, the first sub-award in the Computing Innovation Fellows project was completed! Under the CIFellows project – conceived of and implemented by CCC and CRA, and funded by a $15 million award from NSF – 60 extraordinary new Ph.D. graduates have been paired with 60 outstanding mentors for postdoctoral opportunities that advance the computing field. The CIFellows project was conceived in February as a response to the current economic climate. The goal is to keep outstanding Ph.D. graduates “in the research and education game” until the climate improves. It is a huge tribute to NSF, CCC, CRA, the computing research community, and Peter Lee (who directs the project) that we […]
The Computing Community Consortium: An Update
July 23rd, 2009 / in policy, research horizons / by Ed LazowskaA GENI Engineering Conference presentation by CCC Chair Ed Lazowska describing major activities since the last GEC in October 2008, including: Transition Team white papers (see them here) Library of Congress symposium (transparencies and videos here) Computing Innovation Fellows project (blog post here) NetSE Research Agenda (blog post here) See the presentation here (pdf).
