The National Science Foundation (NSF), together with the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), today announced the U.S.-Israel Collaboration in Computer Science (USICCS), which seeks to support collaborative research projects that “develop new knowledge” in foundational areas of computer science, including the theory of computing and the foundations of software design and systems. In particular, through this program, “U.S.-based researchers will receive funds from NSF to support travel to Israel to interact with their Israeli counterparts.” Proposals are due by Feb. 1, 2013.

According to the solicitation (following the link):

USICCS supports transformative research in the following areas of theoretical computer science and the foundations of software design and systems:

 

Theoretical Computer Science

 

The USICCS program supports potentially transformative research projects advancing the design and analysis of algorithms and characterized by algorithmic thinking accompanied by rigorous analysis. Research on algorithms for problems that are central to computer science and new techniques for the rigorous analysis of algorithms are of interest. USICCS supports theoretical research that bounds the intrinsic difficulty of problems to determine the measures of complexity in formal models of computation, classical or new. The goal is to understand the fundamental limits of resource-bounded computation and to obtain efficient solutions within those limits. Specifically, the time and space complexity of finding exact and approximate solutions in deterministic and randomized models of computation is a central concern of the program.

 

Research on resource usage other than time and space, such as communication complexity and energy cost, is also encouraged. In addition to the traditional sequential computing paradigm, USICCS supports research on the design and analysis of novel algorithms in parallel and distributed models, in particular, in heterogeneous multi-core and many core machines; the computational models and algorithms that capture essential aspects of computing over massive data sets; game theory; and alternative forms of computation and information processing, including quantum computing and biological models of computation.

 

The program supports research in algorithms needed in all areas, both within and outside computer science. Algorithmic research with applications in databases, information retrieval, machine learning, data mining, natural language processing, networks, communications, operating systems, languages, compilers, and machine abstractions is supported. New techniques for the design and analysis of algorithms in areas such as cryptography, computational geometry, computational biology, game theory and numerical, symbolic, and algebraic computing are appropriate for this program.

 

Software Foundations

 

USICCS supports research projects on the science of design, verification, operation, utilization, and evaluation of computer systems through novel approaches, robust theories, high-leverage tools, and lasting principles. Such advances may offer models, methods, languages, logics, novel software artifacts, algorithms to enable new or enhanced functionality, and formal methods and tools for the design, implementation, and verification of computer systems and their applications.

 

The USICCS program seeks transformative ideas that reformulate the relationship between requirements, design, and evolution of software and software-intensive systems. The program welcomes research projects focusing on program analysis and synthesis, compositionality, verifiability and certifiability of software, as well as research on static, dynamic, functional and non-functional analysis and testing techniques in all stages of the software life cycle. USICCS supports fundamental research on formal and semi-formal methods for the specification, development, and verification of software systems. The program seeks proposals that enhance the applicability, usability, and efficiency of techniques such as model checking, theorem proving, automated decision procedures, static analysis and constraint solving. Research topics involving the semantics, logics, verification, and analysis of concurrent systems are welcome. USICCS supports the entire range of programming language and compiler research, ranging from foundations to design to implementation and application, including new approaches to languages and compilers for parallel and concurrent programming.

To learn more, see the full solicitation here.

(Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)