Four years ago the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) launched the Postdoc Best Practice Program (Postdoc BP), designed to develop, implement and institutionalize the implementation of best practices for supporting postdocs. The Postdoc BP program was initiated due to a 157% rise[1] in computing postdocs between 2005 and 2010, which demanded attention from the computing community. A Steering Committee, led by Anita Jones (University of Virginia), was assembled to choose a set of institutions or consortia to design and investigate potential best practices for these postdocs. Ultimately, the CCC awarded grants to three institutions/consortia: The University of Washington, led by Brian Curless and David Rispoli; Arizona’s Foundational Model for Postdoctoral Programs […]

The Communications of the ACM (CACM), the print and online publication for the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), has recently released a Viewpoints article titled, “Ask Not What Your Postdoc Can Do for You” from the leads of the Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) Postdoc Best Practices program (Postdocs BP). The program, with the backing of the National Science Foundation (NSF), will conclude this summer.  The Postdocs BP program was a follow-on to the Computing Innovation Fellows project, which ran from 2009 – 2014.  Three different universities/consortia received awards in 2014 to develop, implement and institutionalize the implementation of best practices for supporting postdocs in computing. The three groups are: The University […]

This week (September 21-25) is the sixth annual National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW), sponsored by the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA). NPAW, the nation’s largest celebration of postdoctoral scholars, was established with the goal of increasing awareness of postdocs. Institutions are encouraged to plan activities that honor postdocs and recognize the contributions they make to research and development in the United States. The Postdoc Best Practices (Postdoc BP) program is coming into its second year. This project is a joint effort of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), designed to create a set of best practices for postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) in computer science. The Postdocs BP […]

A careful distinction between quality and quantity is key to promoting the future growth of the computing and information field. Toward that end, Batya Friedman, Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, and Fred B. Schneider, Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University, put together a Best Practices Memo that advocates adjustments to hiring, promotion, and tenure practices as well as to the publication culture. Contributions in a small number of high quality publications or artifacts are what should be emphasized; success as a researcher is then not primarily a matter of numbers. These Best Practices recommendations were developed over an 18-month period by the Computing […]

The Principal Investigators for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Postdoc Best Practices Arizona Program, Chitta Baral, Partha DasGupta, and Pamela Garrett, cordially invite you to join them for the April 10-11 conference described below. Arizona State will host representatives from the ASCENT and UW Fellows Best Practices Programs, including the three programs evaluators.