The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is pleased to announce a distinguished lecture on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 2:00 pm EST by Dr. Erik Winfee titled Molecular Programming: Chemistry as a New Information Technology. Erik Winfree is Professor of Computer Science, Computation & Neural Systems and Bioengineering at Caltech. He is the founder of two NSF “Expeditions in Computing”, the Molecular Programming Project (2008-2013) and Molecular Programming Architectures, Abstractions, Algorithms, and Applications (2013-2018).  Winfree, inducted as a Fellow of the AAAS in 2015, is the recipient of the Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology (2006), the NSF PECASE/CAREER Award (2001), the ONR Young Investigators Award (2001), a MacArthur Fellowship (2000), the Tulip […]

This post was contributed by Shashi Shekhar, Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council member and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Minnesota.  National Science Foundation (NSF) in partnership with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently issued the awaited INFEWS solicitation 16-524 with a budget of $50M. Proposals are due in late March, 2016. It’s estimated number of awards is between 22 and 40 across four tracks, namely, FEW system modeling, Visualization and Decision Support, Innovative Systems Solutions and Education/Workforce Development. Computing topics show up in all tracks and quite frequently in the second track. Synopsis: Humanity is reliant upon the physical resources and natural systems of the Earth […]

Contributions to this post were made by Gregory Hager, Chair of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University and Martin Weiner, AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering Directorate at NSF.  Recently, the organizers of the CCC workshop on Research Interfaces between Brain Science and Computer Science were invited to present their workshop report at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Jack Gallant (UC Berkeley), Polina Golland (MIT) and Greg Hager (CCC Chair, JHU) gave the presentation and led surrounding discussions. The Research Interfaces between Brain Science and Computer Science workshop was held December 2014 in […]

The AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellows at the National Science Foundation (NSF) have organized another talk in their Data Science Seminar Series from danah boyd on Making Sense of Found Data. The talk will be on Thursday, December 10th from 1:30-2:30PM at NSF Stafford I, Room 110.  danah boyd is the founder and president of Data & Society, a research institute focused on understanding the role of data-driven technologies in society. She is also a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, and a Visiting Professor at New York University. Her research is focused on addressing inequities in society. Currently, she’s focused on research questions related to “big data”, privacy and publicity, and the […]

The next WATCH talk, called Computer Security and the Internet of Things is Thursday, November 12, 2015 from Noon-1pm ET. The presenter is Tadayoshi Kohno from the University of Washington and the UW Information School. His research focuses on helping protect the security, privacy, and safety of users of current and future generation technologies. Kohno is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and a Technology Review TR-35 Young Innovator Award. Kohno is also a member of the National Academies Forum on Cyber Resilience, the IEEE Center for Secure Design, and the USENIX Security Steering Committee. Kohno received his Ph.D. from the University […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog from the organizing committee of the National Science Foundation (NSF) workshop to Identify Interdisciplinary Data Science Approaches and Challenges to Enhance Understanding of Interactions of Food Systems with Energy and Water Systems — held during October 5-6, 2015 at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Waterfront Centre in Washington, DC. This article summarizes some of the highlights of the workshop. In the coming decades, the world population is projected to grow significantly resulting in increased strains on the world’s limited food, energy, water and other natural resources. Furthermore, these strains may be amplified due to the effects of global climate change and increasing […]