The following National Science Foundation (NSF) Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks (D-ISN) program has an upcoming deadline of July 28, 2021, and might be of interest to those in our computer science research community. This solicitation supports fundamental research to enable transformative change in our ability to detect, disrupt and disable illicit supply networks that traffic in persons, and tangible and virtual goods. These transformations will require well-coordinated, multi-disciplinary approaches that complement long-standing law-enforcement, victim-centric, and trafficking domain-focused research efforts with fundamental, innovative, and high-risk research that draws from multiple domains of engineering, computer and information science, and the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Major goals of NSF’s D-ISN Solicitation […]

The computer and information science and engineering (CISE) fields can benefit greatly from collaborations with the social, behavioral, and economic science (SBE) fields. Systems that make our lives easier—such as autonomous vehicles, wearables, intelligent agents, electronic health records, and telepresence robots—are all socio-technical systems. As stated in a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) report on Harnessing the Computational and Social Sciences to Solve Critical Societal Problems from a May 2020 roundtable,  “Workplace relationships, media markets, health delivery systems, and criminal justice organizations are all increasingly characterized by a complex mixture of human actors and institutions on the one hand, and digital platforms and algorithms on the other hand. Efforts to […]

This month marks the 35th anniversary of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate. CISE was founded on May 1, 1986, and it continues to support “investigator-initiated research and education in all areas of computer and information science and engineering,” including the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), which CISE funds through a cooperative agreement with the Computing Research Association.  Highlighted in their May newsletter, “One of CISE’s key early investments in information technology was the Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI). This initiative provided global, multilingual repositories of data, knowledge, sound, and images. Through the DLI, NSF supported a project that would ultimately result in the creation of Google.”    The National […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is sad to announce the retirement of CRA Executive Director Andrew Bernat. Bernat was instrumental in the development of the CCC — in October 2006, CRA responded to an NSF solicitation to establish a Computing Community Consortium. Bernat, working along with Daniel A Reed, Susan L Graham, Anita K Jones, and Edward D Lazowska submitted a proposal that was backed by explicit letters of support from 132 Ph.D.-granting academic programs, 16 leading corporations, 7 major national laboratories and research centers, and five professional societies in the field.  Since then, with Bernat working as an Ex-Officio member of the CCC’s Executive Committee, the CCC has grown into […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate has some upcoming solicitation deadlines. Check them out! Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Full Proposal Deadline Date: June 14, 2021 The Broadening Participation in Computing Program (BPC) aims to significantly increase the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving post-secondary degrees in the computing disciplines and to encourage the participation of other underrepresented groups in the discipline. It seeks to engage the computing community to develop and implement innovative methods, frameworks, and strategies to improve the recruitment and retention of these students through undergraduate and graduate degrees. Projects that target stages of the academic pipeline through faculty ranks are encouraged. […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is hosting a webinar on the Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program solicitation (NSF 21-571) on May 4, 2021 starting at 2:00 pm Eastern Time.  The webinar will take place via Zoom. It will include a briefing on the 2021 BPC program and key solicitation requirements, followed by a question-and-answer session. Prior to the webinar, you can submit questions to cise-bpc@nsf.gov.  Click here to register in advance for this webinar. After registering, a confirmation email will be sent containing information about how to join the webinar. Participants will be able to join in listen-only mode and […]