With support from the National Science Foundation, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) today named 20 talented recent Ph.D.s in computer science and allied fields 2011 Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows). These exceptionally talented researchers — from 18 different Ph.D.-granting colleges and universities — are beginning one- to two-year postdoctoral positions at 17 academic and industrial research institutions nationwide. They join a total of 107 others who have been supported through the CIFellows Project since 2009, as part of a short-term effort to forestall a permanent loss of research talent due to the financial crisis and subsequent economic downturn.

The 2011 CIFellows were competitively selected from 177 applicants spanning 76 Ph.D.-granting colleges and universities. As in past years, the application and review process encouraged broad participation and diversity. About 30 percent of the 2011 CIFellows are women.

It is intended that this year’s CIFellows will be afforded the kinds of independent research experiences that have enabled many of the 2009 and 2010 CIFellows to hone their skills, enhance their credentials, and land permanent positions in research and teaching. For example, as of today, 39 of the 60 CIFellows initially supported in 2009 — and five of the 47 supported in 2010 — have landed tenure-track faculty or industrial research positions.

See the list of 2011 CIFellows and their mentors after the jump…

» Read more: Announcing the 2011 Computing Innovation Fellows

A few weeks ago, we began highlighting a few of the 107 Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows) we’ve had the pleasure of funding. (With support from the NSF, the CIFellows Project was established two years ago to provide recent Ph.D.s in computer science and allied fields exciting one- to two-year opportunities at universities and industrial research labs. A key goal was to retain these bright young graduates in research and teaching during the economic downturn. A total of 60 CIFellows were funded in 2009, followed by 47 others in 2010.)

The CIFellows listed below — again, they’re in no particular order — are pursuing groundbreaking computing research in areas like learning, biology, sustainability, and journalism, etc. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read about them.

Tamara Clegg (2010)

Ph.D.-granting college/university: Georgia Institute of Technology
Mentor, host organization: Allison Druin, University of Maryland

Biography: Tamara Clegg is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland’s iSchool. Her research interests are in science identity and how technology can promote science identity development. She received her B.S. from North Carolina State University in 2002 and her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Interactive Computing in 2010. As part of her dissertation work, she was a co-creator of a life-relevant learning program, Kitchen Science Investigators, and supporting technology.

 

Research interests: Tamara’s research is focused on developing technology to support life-relevant learning environments where children engage in science in the context of achieving goals relevant to their lives. She is using participatory design with children to develop these new technologies. Her work includes creating new life-relevant learning environments to understand how identity development happens across these environments. From this analysis, she aims to draw design guidelines for life-relevant learning activities and technology in various contexts (e.g., sports).

» Read more: A Who’s Who Among the CIFellows, Continued