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 November, 2013

 

Introductory Computer Science is Second Most Popular Course at Harvard

November 27th, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Ann Drobnis

On November, 26, 2013, Michael Farrell writes in The Boston Globe about the great change which is occurring on Harvard University’s campus, with regard to Computer Science in an article titled, “Computer science course fills seats, needs at Harvard.”  From the article: In just a few short years CS50 has rocketed from being a middling course to one of the biggest on campus, with nearly 700 students and an astounding 102-member staff that includes teaching fellows, graders, and multimedia producers. Classes are so big lectures are held in Sanders Theatre and office hours so crowded it looks like a tech start-up. David Malan has created a course that makes computer science come alive […]

Computer Science Response to “The STEM Crisis: Reality or Myth?”

November 27th, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Ann Drobnis

On November 11, 2013, The Chronicle for Higher Education published an article titled “The STEM Crisis: Reality or Myth?” which stated that many researchers do in fact consider the crisis a myth.  Computer science is most certainly a STEM field, but when you unpack the data, you find that there really is a crisis for computer science.  Ed Lazowska, Past Chair of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, and David Patterson, Professor in Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, have written a Letter to the Editor of The Chronicle explaining the data.  From their Letter: Let us introduce […]

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy highlights computing at it’s November Meeting

November 26th, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Ann Drobnis

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy (PCAST) met on November 12, 2013 and highlighted computing throughout the meeting.  The first agenda item was an overview of a soon-to-be-released letter report on Education Information Technology (EdIT).  There will eventually be three letter reports on this topic, with the first focusing on Higher Education, particularly Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs).  A variety of items were addressed during this session, with the highlights being that in this new era of Big Data, high bandwidth, and software innovation, opportunities to evolve pedagogical systems and personalize education are near.  You can view the discussion here.  Future EdIT letter reports will focus on […]

New Program at NSF includes Computer Science Education Research

November 26th, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Ann Drobnis

The Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) in the Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a new funding program called Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE).  It is a broader funding opportunity to support projects that address immediate challenges and opportunities facing undergraduate STEM (including Computing) education, as well as those that anticipate new structures and functions of the undergraduate STEM learning and teaching enterprise. From the solicitation: Recognizing that the preparation of a globally-competitive workforce, including future teachers, and a scientifically literate populace requires excellent STEM education, DUE supports the improvement of the undergraduate STEM education enterprise through funding research on design, development, and […]

Reminder: Proposals for Visioning Activities due December 1

November 22nd, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Ann Drobnis

In September, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) put out a call for visioning proposals for workshops that will create exciting visions and agendas for research at the frontiers of computing.  Proposals are due December 1, 2013. From the solicitation: Successful workshops will articulate new research visions, galvanize community interest in those visions, and mobilize support for those visions from the computing research community, government leaders, and funding agencies…Proposals are encouraged across the full spectrum of theoretical and applied work related to the creation and application of information technologies as well as their use in addressing important scientific or societal challenges…Budgets can range in size from $10,000 to as much as $200,000, depending […]

Update: Acquisti speaking at Washington Area Trustworthy Computing Hour

November 20th, 2013 / in Uncategorized / by Shar Steed

On Monday, November 25, 2013, Alessandro Acquisti from Carnegie Mellon University will present at the next Washington Area Trustworthy Computing Hour (WATCH), a series of thought-provoking talks by innovative thinkers with ideas that illuminate the challenges and provide signposts toward solutions in trustworthy computing.  The title of his talk is An Experiment in Hiring Discrimination via Online Social Networks. The series is jointly organized by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Directorates, and sponsored by the CISE Trustworthy Computing Program. The abstract: Anecdotal evidence and self-report surveys suggest that U.S. firms are using Web 2.0 and social networking sites to seek information about prospective hires. However, […]