The following is a joint Dear Colleague Letter from three Assistant Directors at the National Science Foundation –  Sylvia Butterfield (EHR), Kellina Craig-Henderson (SBE) and Margaret Martonosi (CISE). The letter calls for high-impact proposals in the information integrity and security space.  Dear Colleagues: One of the biggest challenges we face in society today is ensuring that the information that we depend on in almost every facet of our lives is accurate and trustworthy. Although information manipulated for political, ideological, or commercial gain is not new, the dissemination of inaccurate information at unprecedented speed and scale in the modern digital landscape is a new phenomenon with potential for vast harm. There […]

The National Science Foundation is currently seeking nominations for the National Medal of Science (NMS), the highest recognition the nation can bestow on scientists and engineers. In 1959, the 86th Congress established the NMS as a Presidential Award, given to individuals “deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge in the physical, biological, mathematical, or engineering sciences.” The award has since been expanded to include social and behavioral scientists.  A committee of scientists and engineers appointed by the President evaluate the nominees taking into consideration scientific and engineering achievement along with broader impacts in promoting scientific advancements and in societal benefits. So far 506 scientists and […]

Latanya Sweeney, Harvard University, will present “How Technology Will Dictate Our Civic Future,” as part the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Distinguished Lecture Series on February 10th, 2022 from 12pm – 1:15pm EDT.  Latanya Sweeney is the Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government and Technology at the Harvard Kennedy School and in the a part of the faculty for the Department of Arts and Sciences. In addition, she is the Editor-in-Chief of Technology Science, director and founder of the Public Interest Tech Lab and of the Data Privacy Lab. Before coming to Harvard she was the Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. […]

The US and United Kingdom (UK) will collaborate on a series of innovation prize challenges to catalyze research and advancements related to privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs). These technologies give the user greater control over the data being processed to protect personal information and intellectual property. The aim of the prize challenge is to bring together the top minds in both countries to encourage and facilitate the adoption of PETs. As a large problem area and growing concern among scientists, both countries heavily invested in privacy-enhancing technologies over the past decade. PETs are already used to address a number of societal problems from Covid-19 contact tracing to protecting online banking transactions. This […]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) development is driven by large amounts of data and information. This type of information is captured in knowledge graphs, entities that are expensive and time-consuming to create. As a result, only large corporations own the largest and most effective knowledge graphs, with few researchers having the ability to access or develop their own knowledge sets. This phenomenon leaves a need for Open Knowledge Networks (OKN), a highly distributed knowledge network with open contributions and open access. A public resource of this kind would enable new research and foster the next wave of knowledge-powered AI. In 2018, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) partnered with the Association for the […]

Join us on Thursday, December 2, 2021, at 12pm EST for a special virtual event marking the 30th anniversary of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program. For three decades, the NITRD program has coordinated federal investment at the frontiers of computing, networking, data, and software, leading to many of the breakthrough information technologies that define our lives today, like the modern Internet as well as 4G, LTE, and 5G wireless networks, expanding access to broadband connectivity, information, and other resources; vehicle-to-vehicle communication, enhancing driver safety and reducing traffic congestion; and machine learning and predictive modeling, advancing understanding of human diseases like COVID-19 leading to therapeutics. Advance registration for the […]