Two very interesting reports on the future of computing were issued last week.  A December 16th entry in this blog discussed “Designing a Digital Future:  Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology,” issued by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).  (More about the PCAST report in a New York Times story here.) But another report from the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board’s (CSTB) Committee on Sustaining Growth in Computing Performance — “The Future of Computing Performance:  Game Over or Next Level?” — details the technical challenges that we will face in providing the computing horsepower to support the digital future described by PCAST.

A few interesting news stories in the past week: What is “Watson”? Word came on Tuesday that “Watson,” an IBM supercomputer system, will take on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter — the two most successful players in “Jeopardy” history — on three episodes of the show slated for broadcast Feb. 14-16, 2011. As we’ve previously highlighted in this space, the New York Times Magazine profiled “Watson” this past summer.  In that article, the Times Magazine provided a step-by-step account of the AI/machine learning challenges and advances underlying the development of the advanced “question answering” machine. Now, in the man v. man v. machine challenge scheduled to air early next year, […]

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) this afternoon released a report — “Designing a Digital Future:  Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology” — about the status and direction of the government’s 14-agency, $4.3 billion Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program.  The report emphasizes the critical role of advances in networking and information technology (NIT) to the nation’s economic competitiveness — and calls upon the nation to “continue to innovate more rapidly and creatively than other countries in important areas of NIT” in order to sustain and improve overall quality of life.

As previously noted in this space, on Thursday, December 16th at 2:15 p.m. EST, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) will release and discuss its report entitled “Designing a Digital Future:  Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology.” This Congressionally-mandated report assesses the status and direction of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program — a 14-agency, $4.3 billion enterprise that comprises the government’s unclassified networking and information technology R&D investments. An announcement of this important event for our community, along with a link to the live webcast, and, following the event, a copy of the report and a web archive of the event, can be found on […]

Despite the bad weather affecting travel across much of the nation, nearly 80 Computing Innovation Fellows have arrived in the Washington, DC, area today for the 2010 CIFellows Project Research Meeting and Career Mentoring Workshop.  Funded by the National Science Foundation and run by the Computing Research Association and Computing Community Consortium, this meeting is intended to provide CIFellows with opportunities to network with one another and to receive career advice from leading experts in the field. The agenda includes: – Talks by NSF/CISE, DARPA, and the Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences about funding opportunities and how to write compelling proposals; – A one-minute madness (during which each of the CIFellows has 60 seconds […]

There’s been lots of coverage elsewhere, but just a reminder that it’s CSEdWeek.  Congress declared Dec. 5-11, 2010, as Computer Science Education Week “to recognize the critical role of computing in today’s society and the imperative to bolster computer science education at all levels.”  Several planned events and activities are taking place throughout the nation to “illustrate how computer science education is essential for exposing students to critical thinking and problem-solving; instilling understanding of computational thinking for success in the digital area; and preparing students to attack the world’s most challenging problems from a computation perspective.” For example, on Wednesday, NSF hosted a webcast highlighting two NSF-funded research programs that are aiming to […]