Interdisciplinary research in computing is vital for addressing complex societal challenges. However, despite its importance, fostering successful interdisciplinary collaborations remains a significant challenge. The Computing Research Association (CRA) and its Computing Community Consortium (CCC) gathered insights from 40 experts across academia, industry, and government through a series of roundtable discussions to identify challenges in interdisciplinary research. The results of these discussions are being published in a series of best practices documents. The first, published in July 2024, recommended best practices for researchers collaborating on interdisciplinary teams. This second paper of the series focuses on how these collaborations can be better supported by funders, including government agencies, industry, philanthropic donors, […]

Quantum computing has captured the public’s attention due to its incredible theoretical applications, but the intensely complicated underlying physics make it difficult for even computing experts in other fields to understand. Computing researchers in other disciplines, however, have valuable knowledge to aid in the development of quantum computers. “To increase momentum in quantum system progress, we must lower the barrier to entry”, says Kaitlin N. Smith, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University. “Scientists shouldn’t be required to have an expert-level understanding of quantum mechanics to contribute their skill set to quantum computing”. Though quantum computers operate very differently from classical computers, some of the approaches used in classical […]