The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) National Coordination Office (NCO), on behalf of the National Science and Technology Council‘s (NSTC) Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, put out a Request for Information (RFI) from the public on the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) responded to the RFI and submitted their response, which was then endorsed by a number of societies in a corresponding statement. The CCC agreed with the NITRD NCO and Select Committee “that advances in AI will have a transformational impact on society, and that sustained support for fundamental research in a wide array of AI-related topics will […]

Last Thursday, Politico held an AI Summit: Innovation and Governance as “a global leadership gathering of policymakers, business leaders and experts for solutions-driven conversations on the impact of AI on governments, industries and society.” Some notable government participants included Representative Will Hurd (Texas), France Córdova (National Science Foundation), and Stacy Dixon (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity). In his opening remarks, Hurd said that we need to “double down on basic research.”  The problem with basic research is that “often times it is hard to understand the return on investment of basic research. People believe the government should have the same returns as venture capital, private equity, but that’s just not possible. […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) has released a white paper, Research Opportunities and Visions for Smart and Pervasive Health. This paper is an outgrowth of the December 2016 workshop Discovery and Innovation in Smart and Pervasive Health convened to inform leading researchers and policymakers on the successes of Smart and Pervasive Health research activities, the evolution of relevant computing capabilities, and the application of these technical innovations to health and wellness goals. Following that workshop, draft recommendations were presented and discussed at the AAAS annual meeting and the ACM/AMIA Workshop of Interactive Health Systems. The newly released white paper highlights these paradigms and concludes with specific recommendations for the successful […]

The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program, an interagency Federal coordinating group, recently posted a draft of the Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan for public comment. The co-chairs of the NITRD Smart Cities and Communities Task Force distributed the following email to help raise the visibility of the request to the research community: Dear Colleagues, The draft Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan was released January 12th for public comments by the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program, an interagency Federal coordinating group. Access to the plan and information about how to submit comments can be found at NITRD Blog Post or the Federal […]

Big Data has been a major theme of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) over the years. In addition to having a Convergence of Data and Computing Task Force, the CCC held two events for Big Data that coalesced the research community and the usage community in 2008. A number of CCC’s white papers have also focused on the topic, including Challenges and Opportunities with Big Data (2012), Opportunities and Challenges for Next Generation Computing (2015), Accelerating Science: A Computing Research Agenda (2016), and a series of white papers on Big Data and National Priorities (2010) that were instrumental in the creation of the Big Data Initiative.   The following is a White House Blog Post by Keith Marzullo, the Director of the Networking […]

The following is a Computing Research Policy Blog post by Peter Harsha, CRA Director of Government Affairs.  Experts from academia and government, including Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Chair Greg Hager, told a congressional panel on Wednesday that the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program remains a crucial part of the extraordinarily productive computing research ecosystem that has made the U.S. the world leader in IT and deserves further support. The experts were witnesses at a hearing called by the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Technology to review the status of the NITRD program in advance of possible reauthorization legislation from the committee. Hager, […]