As the global population continues to grow, and climate change and pollution lead to environmental degradation, ensuring the future of agriculture and food production becomes increasingly imperative. What role can computing research play in alleviating these challenges going forward? The impact of computing technology on the future of agriculture and plant science was the subject of the Using Computing to Sustainably Feed a Growing Populations scientific session at the 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual meeting in Seattle, Washington one month ago. This session was moderated by Lucas Joppa, the Chief Environmental Officer at Microsoft, and co-organized by Shashi Shekhar (CRA Board Member) and James Hodson (AI for Good […]

Vint Cerf, known as one of the “fathers of the internet” and a recipient of the 2004 ACM A.M. Turing Award, was a participating laureate at this year’s Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF). Cerf currently acts as a vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. At HLF, I had an opportunity to sit down with Vint and interview him for the Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) official podcast, “Catalyzing Computing,” which features interviews with researchers and policymakers about their background and experiences in the computing community. Prior to our interview he also participated in a press conference where he discussed some of the projects he is currently involved with, as well as other […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released two new requests for comments on draft publications related to the Internet of Things (IoT). The first document addresses trust concerns within IoT, while the second is focused on privacy risks within the space. The requests for comments announcement and draft abstracts can be found below. NIST Internal Report (NISTIR) 8222, Internet of Things (IoT) Trust Concerns   Note: Draft NISTIR 8222 has been temporarily withdrawn to synchronize with other pending documents on this topic, and to ensure time for stakeholders to review and comment.  Once the draft document has been re-posted, the comment period will be extended   Announcement […]

The Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC), a collaborative platform uniting local governments, nonprofits, academia, and industry working on Internet of Things (IoT) applications within a smart city, has announced the next phase of GCTC collaboration, the GCTC SuperClusters! The GCTC, convened by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and US Ignite, consists of project teams or “Action Clusters” working towards Smart City IoT innovations. The SuperClusters will combine multiple, existing GCTC Action Clusters into singular teams to pursue common objectives. The SuperClusters will likely be based around the areas of: Emergency Preparedness, Disaster Recovery, and Resilience Energy, Utilities, Water, and Microgrids Environment and Healthcare Municipal Dashboards Transportation To […]

As part of the White House’s expansion of the Smart Cities Initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a new program solicitation on Smart and Connected Communities. The following Dear Colleague Letter from Jim Kurose, Assistant Director of NSF for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, explains the new opportunities available. Dear Colleagues,   Yesterday, the White House announced that the federal government is committing over $80 million – led by NSF with a $60M commitment over two years – toward the Smart Cities Initiative that was launched just over a year ago.   NSF has long supported the fundamental research, education, and community-building activities that are catalyzing the multidisciplinary and […]

Samsung recently announced that it will allow more of its products to interact with its competitors’. Starting with this year’s Gear S2, a smart watch, all future devices will be able to connect with any smartphone running Google Inc’s Android operating system 4.4 and higher. Prior to this, Samsung’s smart watches required a Samsung smartphone. This business decision is part of the larger trend of the growing importance of the Internet of Things (IoT). Internet of Things is a catch-all term to describe the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enable these objects to collect and exchange data. This includes devices such […]