Computing Community Consortium (CCC) council member David Danks was recently featured on ACM News for his involvement in a CCC-sponsored scientific session at AAAS 2023 “Maintaining a Rich Breadth for Artificial Intelligence.” The session featured discussions highlighting the importance of incorporating a broad range of multi-discipline research and expertise. Panelists recognized that neural networks and deep learning have driven progress in AI over the year resulting in an imbalance and dominance of these disciplines in AI research. These silos can stunt the development of AI and lead to missed opportunities for growth in the field. Accompanied by panelists Melanie Mitchell and Bo Li, David Danks discussion topic: “Let a Thousand […]

The American Academy of Arts and Science (AAAS) recently announced 269 new members elected to the academy. Among them are nine new members under the “computer science” category, including several that have worked closely with the Computing Research Association, CRA-Widening Participation, and  Computing Community Consortium in the past.  The Academy is an honorary society that recognizes outstanding individuals across all disciplines, perspectives, and professions. Founded in 1780 the American Academy of Arts and Science brings together cutting-edge researchers to examine new ideas and work together to  “cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Please […]

This blog post is a continuation of yesterday’s summary of the Maintaining a Rich Breadth for Artificial Intelligence panel at the 2023 AAAS meeting. This panel was moderated by Maria Gini (University of Minnesota) and the panel comprised David Danks (University of California – San Diego), Bo Li (University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign), and Melanie Mitchell (Santa Fe Institute)   Following the panel, Dr. Gini opened the discussion up to the audience for Q&A. The first question came from a researcher in the audience:   To what extent do you think homogeneity is an effect of cost in terms of the available hardware? Neural networks are cheap to create and […]

The final CCC panel of AAAS 2023, “Maintaining a Rich Breadth for Artificial Intelligence”, was held on Sunday, March 5th, the last day of the conference. This panel was composed of David Danks (University of California – San Diego), Bo Li (University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign), and Melanie Mitchell (Santa Fe Institute) and was moderated by Maria Gini (University of Minnesota).    Dr. Bo Li began the panel by discussing the importance of conducting trustworthy machine learning (ML), and the ways in which we can ensure ML is safe, equitable, and inclusive. Machine learning is ubiquitous, Li said, and today is used in a significant number of everyday activities, such […]

Continuing in our AAAS panel recaps, the CCC hosted a panel titled, “Sustaining Computing Research Communities in a Hybrid World”. The panelists were Brent Hecht (Microsoft), Richard Ladner (University of Washington), and Cristina Videira Lopes (University of California, Irvine), and the panel was moderated by Sujata Banerjee (VMware).   During the hybrid 2023 AAAS conference, there were many issues with virtual capability, culminating in an announcement on the morning of the second day that the organizers made the decision to shift to an in-person only conference. This was a disappointing technological failure, but it highlighted the difficulties that arise from hybrid conferences, which these panelists discussed at length.   Dr. […]

On the second day of the 2023 AAAS Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC, the CCC supported its first of 6 panels, titled, Surveillance, Assistance or Hinderance?: Caregiving Technologies for Older Adults. The three panelists were Robin Brewer (University of Michigan), George Demiris (University of Pennsylvania), and Anne M. Turner (University of Washington), and the panel was moderated by CCC Council member Katie Siek (Indiana University).   Professor Turner kicked off the panel with a detailed description of the Decision Making in Alzheimer’s Research (DMAR) project which she leads. This project is funded by the National Institute on Aging and focuses on strategies for tracking preferences of older adults with […]