Your faithful correspondent recently participated in the European Computer Science Summit 2009, the annual meeting of Informatics Europe (Paris, 8-9 October; http://www.informatics-europe.org/). Informatics Europe was created five years ago as a European version of CRA (which is a North American association by charter). A recurring theme at this meeting was the concern that the European scientific research community still does not fully appreciate computing as an intellectually vibrant research discipline in its own right; instead the field is often viewed as an enabler of research in other disciplines. A number of discussions centered on ways in which the computing community can do a better job in explaining the field to […]

The ninth Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing took place in Tucson, Arizona from September 30-October 3.   For those who attended the 1600-person, sold-out conference, it is difficult to believe gender equity in computer science is not right around the corner.  Every year The Grace Hopper Celebration packs an astounding amount of talent and enthusiasm into a single conference.    Keynote speakers Megan Smith, Vice President of New Business Development and General Manager of Google.Org, and Fran Berman, Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, illustrated what it means to lead in this information-centric world.    Invited talks showcased research from top computer scientists.   The […]