The following is a guest blog by Greg Hager, Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Chair and Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University.  Computing has become a powerful tool for productivity and connectivity — it powers companies, it fuels scientific research, and it delivers entertainment and social engagement for billions. Could research-based innovations in computing also become a catalyst for addressing compelling societal problems? To explore this question, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) organized a two-day Symposium on Computing Research: Addressing National Priorities and Societal Needs. This meeting brought together over 130 in-person participants and over 1000 online viewers to raise the visibility of work that connects […]

Today we are happy to announce the new CCC leadership. Elizabeth Mynatt and Mark Hill will assume their roles as Chair and Vice Chair respectively for two-year terms beginning July 1, while Greg Hager is stepping down after two years as Chair. Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Professor of Interactive Computing and the Executive Director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology, will assume the role of Chair of the CCC. Mynatt has served on the CCC since its formation and has spearheaded activities forging research collaborations in healthcare and health information technologies. Recently, Mynatt was one of the lead organizers for the CCC and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute […]

Over the past 10 years, the Computing Community Consortium has hosted dozens of research visioning workshops to imagine, discuss, and debate the future of computing and its role in addressing societal needs. The Computing Research: Addressing National Priorities and Societal Needs Symposium will draw these topics into a program designed to illuminate current and future trends in computing and the potential for computing to address national challenges. The two days are organized around four main themes: The Impact of Computing in Our Physical World: New advances in robotics and the internet-of-things promise to reshape how people move and act in the world. This session will explore the implications of computing-powered advances for […]

Contributions to this post were made by Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Member Kevin Fu, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. Kevin also co-founded Virta Labs, a healthcare cybersecurity company. A growing number of medical devices are designed to be networked to facilitate patient care. However, as we have seen, networked medical devices and hospital records incorporate software that make them vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. Proactively addressing cybersecurity risks in hospitals reduces the patient safety impact and the overall risk to public health. On January 22, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a draft document to inform industry and FDA staff on recommendations for managing postmarket cybersecurity vulnerabilities for marketed medical devices. This document clarifies […]

The Computing Research Association (CRA), in consultation with the National Science Foundation (NSF), has appointed four new members to the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council: Sampath Kannan, University of Pennsylvania Maja Mataric, University of Southern California Nina Mishra, Amazon Research Holly Rushmeier, Yale University Beginning July 1, the new members will each serve three-year terms. The CCC Council is comprised of 20 members who have expertise in diverse areas of computing. They are instrumental in leading CCC’s visioning programs, which help create and enable visions for future computing research. Members serve staggered three-year terms that rotate every July. The CCC and CRA thank those Council members whose terms end on June 30 for their exceptional dedication and […]

Contributions to this post were made by Elizabeth Mynatt, CCC Vice Chair and Executive Director of the Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Tech. Dr. Mynatt was a member of the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) working group on aging and technology and led the Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) Aging in Place workshop. Recently, the New York Times published an article on A Push for Less Expensive Hearing Aids. The article highlighted the findings in a recent PCAST report on aging and technology. The report stated that almost two-thirds of Americans over the age of 70 have some kind of hearing loss, however many of them […]