The next WATCH talk, called How can we enable privacy in an age of big data analytics? is Thursday, May 19, 2016 from Noon-1pm EDT. The presenter will be Carl Landwehr, a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the first class of inductees to the National Cybersecurity Hall of Fame. His current appointments include Lead Research Scientist at the Cyber Security policy and Research Institute at George Washington University and Visiting McDevitt Professor of Computer Science at LeMoyne College, where he teaches a course entitled “Cybersecurity for Future Presidents.” His thirty five year career in cybersecurity R&D includes service with the Naval Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation, IARPA, and several other […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is pleased to announce a distinguished lecture on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at 2:00pm EDT by Dr. Helen Nissenbaum titled Contectual Integrity at the Intersection of Ethics and Technology. Helen Nissenbaum is Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, and Computer Science, at New York University, where she is also Director of the Information Law Institute. Her work spans societal, ethical, and political dimensions of information technology and digital media. Her research has been published in journals of philosophy, politics, law, media studies, information studies, and computer science. The National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Ford […]

The next WATCH talk, called Crypto Wars: Plus ça Change, Plus c’est la Même Chose is Thursday, April 21, 2016 from Noon-1pm EDT. The presenter will be Susan Landau, professor of Cybersecurity Policy in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Landau works at the intersection of cybersecurity, national security, law, and policy. During the Crypto Wars of the 1990s, her insights on how government encryption policy skewed civil society and business needs for security helped win the argument for a relaxation of cryptographic export controls. Beginning in the early 2000s, Landau was an early voice in the argument that law-enforcement requirements for embedding surveillance within […]

National Science Foundation (NSF) Assistant Director for the Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) James Kurose has issued the following letter to the community to announce the appointment of Ken Calvert as NSF CISE Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) Division Director.  Dear Colleagues, I’m very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Kenneth (Ken) Calvert to the position of Division Director for the CISE Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS), effective May 2016. Ken has already begun his service at NSF as an Expert this month. Ken will be joining NSF from the University of Kentucky, where he is Professor of Computer Science. He has served as Chair of […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is pleased to announce a distinguished lecture on Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 2:00pm EST by Dr. Andrew Moore titled Google-tech to CMU-SCS-tech: Strategy around Data, Augmented Humans and Autonomy. Andrew W. Moore PhD, a distinguished computer scientist with expertise in machine learning and robotics, became dean of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science in August 2014. He had previously served as a professor of computer science and robotics before taking a leave of absence to become founding director of Google’s Pittsburgh engineering office in 2006. Moore’s research interests broadly encompass the field of “big data”–applying statistical methods and mathematical formulas to massive quantities […]

The next WATCH talk, called The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work is Thursday, March 24, 2016 from Noon-1pm EDT. The presenter will be Phillip Rogaway, professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Davis. Rogaway studied cryptography at MIT (1991), then worked as a security architect for IBM before joining the faculty at the University of California, Davis in 1994. Co-inventor of “practice-oriented provable security,” Rogaway’s work seeks to meld cryptographic theory and cryptographic practice in a mutually beneficial way. Abstract: Cryptography rearranges power: it configures who can do what, from what. This makes cryptography an inherently political tool, and it confers on the field an intrinsically moral dimension. […]