This past spring, when hiring practices were rapidly changing due to COVID-19, the Computing Research Association (CRA) and its Computing Community Consortium (CCC) launched the CIFellows 2020 program, with strong support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program aims to provide a career-enhancing bridge experience for recent and soon-to-be Ph.D. graduates in computing. This effort was inspired by the CRA/CCC’s NSF-funded Computing Innovation Fellows Programs with cohorts starting 2009, 2010, and 2011, which funded a total of 127 fellows after the 2008 recession.  Many people invested their time and talents to our CIFellows 2020 program, including co-principal investigators on the NSF grant that funded the program: Andrew P. Bernat […]

Former CRA Board Member, Moshe Vardi from Rice University will present “Lessons from COVID-19: Efficiency vs Resilience,” as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Distinguished Lecture series on September 17, 2020 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM ET. Moshe Y. Vardi is a University Professor, and the George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering and Director of the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology at Rice University.  He is the author and co-author of over 600 papers, as well as two books.  He is the recipient of several scientific awards, including the CRA’s Distinguished Service Award in 2010, is a fellow of several societies and a […]

The following is a press release from The White House Office of  Science and Technology Policy.  Recently, The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and over a dozen top U.S. industry and academic leaders launched the National Q-12 Education Partnership, a groundbreaking new initiative to expand access to K-12 quantum information science (QIS) education. As part of the announcement, NSF is awarding nearly $1 million to QIS education efforts, including the establishment of the Q2Work Program to support quantum education workforce development across the country. Private sector and academic leaders are committing to develop and provide educational programs, tools, training opportunities, and curricula […]

By Thyagarajan Nandagopal, NSF  You are invited to participate in the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Proposal Writing Workshop, to be held as an interactive online meeting on Friday, September 18th from 1pm – 5pm EST. This event is intended for PIs working in CISE-relevant research areas planning on submitting an NRT proposal for the fiscal year 2021 competition. The NSF CISE Directorate would like to increase the number of NRT proposals that advance CISE research training focus of graduate students and CISE disciplines and support the aim of the NRT program. Since the NRT program is unique at NSF, the requirements of the program are often not fully understood by the submitting PIs. The workshop […]

The following is a letter to the community from Margaret Martonosi (Assistant Director) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE).  Dear Colleagues: With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) seeks to provide members of the CISE research community with clarifying guidance about the directorate’s implementation of the NSF Faculty Early-Career Development (CAREER) and CISE Research Initiation Initiative (CRII) programs. The intended audiences include both prospective early-career principal investigators (PIs) and relevant academic leadership. SUBMITTING PROPOSALS TO THE NSF CAREER PROGRAM Prospective CAREER awardees should submit proposals to the program early in […]

The following is a letter to the community from Margaret Martonosi (Assistant Director) and Erwin Gianchandani (Deputy Assistant Director) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE). CRA/CCC announced the CIFellows 2020 project last week and highlighted the upcoming 5/26 webinar earlier this week.  Dear Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community: Words like “unprecedented” and “challenging” have been widely used to describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives and on our research and educational communities, and yet they seem insufficient to capture the totality of the situation. Recognizing COVID-19’s significant impact on research hiring, the National Science Foundation’s CISE directorate […]