The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) recently announced a new program called Critical Resilient Infrastructure Systems and Processes (CRISP). CRISP has an upcoming full proposal deadline of March 20, 2015 according to its solicitation. The following are few comments about CRISP from Gurdip Singh, Program Director in the Division of Computer and Network Systems (CISE/CNS). Critical Infrastructures supporting our national economy, health and security are interdependent and reliant on each other.  A system may rely to performance, security and correct functioning of others, and failure/degradation of any of these properties may propagate from one system to other.  The goal of the CRISP program is to explore approaches […]

The next WATCH Talk is this Thursday, January 15, 12:00-1:00pm EDT. Salil Vadhan will discuss Differential Privacy: Theoretical and Practical Challenges. Dr. Salil Vadhan is the Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Director of the Harvard Center for Research on Computation and Society. His research area is theoretical computer science, specifically computational complexity, cryptography, and differential privacy. Abstract   Differential Privacy is framework for enabling the analysis of privacy-sensitive datasets while ensuring that individual-specific information is not revealed.  The concept was developed in a body of work in theoretical computer science starting about a decade ago.   […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently released a new multi-directorate program called Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NSF-NCS), which describes the first phase of NSF’s broader aim to foster innovation in cognitive science and neuroscience as part of the President’s BRAIN Initiative. NSF-NCS will support transformative and integrative research that will accelerate understanding of neural and cognitive systems. In December, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) held a related workshop titled Research Interfaces between Brain Science and Computer Science. Over 70 computer scientists and neuroscientists from academia, industry, and government were in attendance and between 160-300 participants viewed each panel and plenary on the live-stream. All panels and plenary talks from the […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a new solicitation for the Exploiting Parallelism and Scalability (XPS) program.  The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) 2012 White Paper “21st Century Computer Architecture” was a key driver for the development of this program. The Exploiting Parallelism and Scalability (XPS) program aims to support groundbreaking research leading to a new era of parallel computing. Achieving the needed breakthroughs will require a collaborative effort among researchers representing all areas — from services and applications down to the micro-architecture — and will be built on new concepts, theories, and foundational principles. New approaches to achieve scalable performance and usability need new abstract models and algorithms, new programming models and […]

The following is a letter to the community from National Science Foundation (NSF) Acting Assistant Director for the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), Suzi Iacono.  Dear CISE Colleagues, As we mark the end of Computer Science Education Week for 2014, it is my pleasure to inform you that the National Science Foundation (NSF) engaged in a number of important activities this past week, seeking to inspire and build a globally competitive 21st century workforce. One of our most important goals is to ensure that all students in schools across the country have access to the most advanced learning environments and can take advantage of new approaches to computational and […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) announced in October a new solicitation, entitled US Ignite, that is a big step forward in the US Ignite Administration initiative. From the solicitation: The primary goal of US Ignite is to break a fundamental deadlock: there is insufficient investment in gigabit applications that can take advantage of advanced network infrastructure because such infrastructure is rare and dispersed. And conversely, there is a lack of broad availability of advanced broadband infrastructure for open experimentation and innovation because there are few advanced applications and services to justify it. US Ignite aims to break this deadlock by providing incentives for […]