In a recent blog post “Reflections on the NNI – Coordination & Partnerships” the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy again cites the CCC: “A partnership model to effectively engage the research community in agenda-setting is the Computing Community Consortium (CCC). With support from the National Science Foundation, the CCC allows the computer science community to establish a vision for the field and quickly mobilize the community to pursue “big ideas.” Could this type of consortium work for the nanotechnology research community?”

The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Research (NCER) is seeking applications responsive to 14 long-term research programs under its Education Research Grant Programs. Some of these programs are particularly relevant for computing researchers. For example, the RFA for NCER’s Education Technology program (RFA CDFA 84.305a) states: To support research on education technology tools that are designed to provide or support instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, or science (including pre-reading, pre-writing, early mathematics, and early science) or to provide professional development for teachers related to instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, or science. The Institute intends to contribute to improvement of reading, writing, mathematics, and science learning by (1) developing […]

The Computing Community Consortium is interested in stimulating the development of new research visions and challenges in computing research. Recently, the CCC has begun collaborating with conferences in computer science and sponsoring “crazy-idea” sessions with travel awards for the most exciting submissions. One such example is the Fun Ideas and Thoughts (FIT) session at the PLDI (Programming Languages Design and Implementation) conference, held on June 8, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. In collaboration with the PLDI organizing commitee, the CCC is happy to announce the winners of the FIT session: 1) Outfoxing the Mammoths, by Marek Olszewski and Saman Amarasinghe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 2) Resource-Based Programming in Plaid, by Jonathan […]

Dr. Ken Gabriel, the deputy director of DARPA, delivered a plenary address at CRA’s biannual Snowbird Conference on Monday morning — one day short of the one-year anniversary of the arrival of DARPA’s new leadership, including new DARPA director Dr. Regina Dugan. Gabriel spoke about DARPA’s incredible transformation over the past 12 months, including its renewed commitment to academic research. Specifically, Gabriel started by highlighting five key changes that have occurred at DARPA in the past year: – “Go/no-go” is gone. – Contracting has been simplified. The process is as clear, simple, and fast as the law allows. – More realistic conflict of interest rules have been applied to people […]

Today at the biennial Snowbird Conference, Jan Cuny (NSF), Owen Astrachan (Duke University), and Larry Snyder (U. Washington) gave an inspiring talk about a new advanced placement  course in computer science that is being developed by a group sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the College Board. The new “AP Computer Science: Principles” course is designed to expose students to computer science as a creative and intellectually rich endeavor that has an impact on society. The Principles course comes in response to the observation that the current offerings at most high schools are not appealing to many students.  These courses are either on computing literacy (e.g. using word processors […]

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) held its July 2010 meeting at the National Academies in Washington, DC, on Friday. The hearing began with a session on “Science, Technology, and Diplomacy” that featured the three founding members of the Science Envoys program – Bruce Alberts, Elias Zerhouni, and Ahmed Zewail – speaking candidly about their experiences as part of this new diplomatic effort, which places U.S. scientists in foreign nations to promote international relations. The three envoys shared insights they had gleaned while trying to improve diplomatic relations with Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria, Qatar, Turkey, and the U.A.E. A prevailing sentiment was the urgent need for a […]