Computing Community Consortium Blog

The goal of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is to catalyze the computing research community to debate longer range, more audacious research challenges; to build consensus around research visions; to evolve the most promising visions toward clearly defined initiatives; and to work with the funding organizations to move challenges and visions toward funding initiatives. The purpose of this blog is to provide a more immediate, online mechanism for dissemination of visioning concepts and community discussion/debate about them.


Archive for February, 2010

 

Want a Job? Major in CS.

February 25th, 2010 / in Uncategorized / by Ran Libeskind-Hadas

Carolyn Duffy Marsan writes in Network World that undergraduate enrollments in computer science are rising significantly at some of the nation’s large CS departments.   For example, in comparison to last year,  UIUC,  CMU, and Georgia Tech  report increases in applications of 26%, 14%, and 5%, respectively.  Stanford reports that 20% more students are taking an introductory computer science course this year.

ARPA-E’s Arun Majumdar on Energy Research

February 23rd, 2010 / in Uncategorized / by Ed Lazowska

Arun Majumdar, the Director of ARPA-E, spoke at the University of Washington on February 18th regarding the energy challenges facing our nation. While his talk was not specifically oriented towards computer scientists, it is inspirational, and it is obvious that a broad range of advances in computer science are essential to creating a sustainable future for our nation and our world. ARPA-E is a new office of the Department of Energy focused on extramural breakthrough research, in the DARPA tradition. Watch Majumdar’s talk here. See white papers on the essential role of computing research here, here, and here.

Computer Science and America’s Priorities

February 23rd, 2010 / in Uncategorized / by Ed Lazowska

Jeannette Wing, Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation, addressed the CRA Computing Leadership Summit in Washington DC on February 22. Wing noted that NSF’s CISE and ENG Directorates fared particularly well in the President’s FY2011 budget request.  She attributed this to two factors: These fields drive innovation that creates jobs and increases America’s competitiveness. These fields are closely aligned with the Administration’s four science and technology budget priorities: Applying science and technology strategies to drive economic recovery, job creation, and economic growth; Promoting innovative energy technologies to reduce dependence on energy imports and mitigate the impact of climate change, while creating green […]

New Members of the National Academy of Engineering

February 17th, 2010 / in Uncategorized / by Ed Lazowska

The National Academy of Engineering has announced the Members of the Class of 2010.  In Section 5 (Computer Science & Engineering), the newly-elected Members are: Andrei Broder, Yahoo! Irene Greif, IBM Bill Gropp, UIUC Laura Haas, IBM Mike Jordan, UC Berkeley Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive Tom Mitchell, CMU Larry Peterson, Princeton Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland Mark Wegman, IBM N.R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys (Foreign Associate) Congratulations to these outstanding colleagues!  The NAE announcement may be viewed here.

Computer Engineer Barbie!

February 13th, 2010 / in Uncategorized / by Ed Lazowska

As noted in a previous post, Mattel has been running a web-based contest to choose Barbie’s next career. The results are in!  “You voted!  We listened!!”  (Even if  “you” is a bot …)  The winner of the popular vote is … Computer Engineer Barbie! The New York Times reports:  “Barbie has come a long way since 1992, when the blond bombshell of a doll was programmed to say, ‘Math class is tough.’  Barbie, whose various careers have taken her from aerobics instructor to supermodel to business executive, will next be a computer engineer, a career chosen by half a million Barbie fans.”  Read the full article here.

FOSS Workshop Day 3 Wrap-up

February 12th, 2010 / in research horizons, resources, workshop reports / by Ran Libeskind-Hadas

The Free/Open Source Software workshop wrapped up today.  Discussion focused on a number of topics, including: – Translation into other domains of software – Software engineering practice – Collaboration issues in FOSS – Learning and education challenges/opportunities – Evolution of products, projects, practices and processes – Research infrastructures A report from the workshop will be developed in the coming weeks and posted on the CCC Web site. John L. King, CCC Council Liaison