CRA Bulletin

The CRA Bulletin frequently shares news, timely information about CRA initiatives, and items of interest to the general community.
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Posts categorized under: Research
ACM TuringACM Turing

ACM Names 2019 Turing Award Recipients


Today ACM named Patrick M. (Pat) Hanrahan and Edwin E. (Ed) Catmull recipients of the 2019 ACM A.M. Turing Award. They are recognized for fundamental contributions to 3-D computer graphics, and the revolutionary impact of these techniques on computer-generated imagery (CGI) in filmmaking and other applications.

Microsoft Research logoMicrosoft Research logo

2020 Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant Accepting Proposals


By Meredith Ringel Morris, Sr. Principal Researcher & MSR Dissertation Grant Chair We are currently accepting proposals for the Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant through March 30, 2020. You can read more about the grant and find instructions to submit a proposal at http://aka.ms/Dissertation-Grant. We encourage you to share this announcement within your communities either directly with your […]

CUECUE

CUE.NEXT: Envisioning the Future of Computing in Undergraduate Education


The goal of the upcoming CUE.NEXT workshops — organized by Larry Birnbaum (Northwestern), Susanne Hambrusch (Purdue), and Clayton Lewis (UC Boulder) — is to initiate a national dialog on the role of computing in undergraduate education. Computing educators and CS departments, as well as colleagues and academic units representing other stakeholder disciplines, will work together to define and address the challenges. Three NSF funded workshops are scheduled to take place in Chicago (November 18 and 19), DC (December 5 and 6) and Denver (January 2020).

NSFNSF

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program


As we noted an year ago at this time, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is an important but, from our experience, often overlooked funding opportunity for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) community.  The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported areas who are pursing full-time, research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions.  As the deadline of October 22, 2019, approaches for applicants who fall within CISE fields of study, we want to be sure you all – as members of our community – are aware of this opportunity for your undergraduate seniors and first-year graduate students.

Apply for the 2019 National Science Foundation Computer Systems Research (NSF/CISE/CSR) Aspiring PIs Workshop


The 2019 CISE/Computer Systems  Research (CSR) Aspiring Investigators Workshop, will be held at the National Science Foundation on June 20-21, 2019. The goal of the workshop is to familiarize aspiring investigators with the scope of activities supported by CSR, various funding opportunities within the program, and crosscutting programs in which CSR plays a significant role. Aspiring investigators will hear from NSF personnel, as well as other senior investigators on best practices in putting proposals together, developing strong education and outreach programs, maximizing broader impact, and intellectual property and commercialization opportunities. The workshop is open to investigators from institutions eligible to receive NSF funding, who have not received prior regular research grants (excluding CRII and SGER grants) from CSR.

Ran Libeskind-HadasRan Libeskind-Hadas

Board Member Highlight: CRA Board Member Ran Libeskind-Hadas


My research explores algorithmic methods for determining whether a pair of species are likely to have coevolved and, if so, finding the “best” scenarios that explain their evolutionary histories. This work explores the computational complexity of these reconciliation problems, seeks to develop efficient reconciliation algorithms where possible, and, ultimately, to implement these algorithms in practical tools for biologists and educators.

VMware Systems Research Award


The VMware academic team is pleased to announce the third annual award in support of the computer science research community. The objective of this award is to call attention to a valuable and promising body of emerging computer science systems research and provide support for continued advances by an emerging research leader.

Should NSF CISE Implement a No-Deadlines Approach?


Our friends at the National Science Foundation (NSF) have asked for research community input on a proposed policy change to eliminate/reduce deadlines for core programs in the CISE Directorate. Given the increased pressures on securing federal funding and, in some cases, reduced capacity for grant management at computing research institutions, do you think the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Directorate should follow the lead of the BIO and GEO directorates and consider eliminating or reducing deadlines for proposal submissions? What positive or negative impact could such a shift have on our community?

Expanding the Pipeline: CAHSI Broadens Hispanics’ Participation in Computing


The Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) is a consortium of Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) committed to consolidating the strengths, resources, and efforts of public, private, federal, state, and local organizations that share the core value of increasing the number of Hispanics who pursue and complete baccalaureate and advanced degrees in computing areas. CAHSI plays a critical role in evaluating, documenting, and disseminating effective practices that support students in computing disciplines at the critical junctures in the academic pipeline.

JahanianJahanian

CRA Board Member Farnam Jahanian Named President of Carnegie Mellon University


CRA Board Member Farnam Jahanian has been named President of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). From 2011 to 2014, Jahanian served as Assistant Director (AD) for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 2015, he was elected to the CRA Board of Directors and also received the CRA Distinguished Service Award. Jahanian is currently […]

Nominations Open for the George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship


The ACM/IEEE Computer Society George Michael Memorial HPC (GMM) Fellowship is endowed in memory of George Michael, one of the founding fathers of the SC Conference series. The fellowship honors exceptional PhD students throughout the world whose research focus is on high performance computing applications, networking, storage or large-scale data analytics using the most powerful computers that are currently available. The Fellowship includes a $5,000 honorarium and travel expenses to attend SC18 in Dallas on November 15, where the GMM Fellowships will be formally presented. 

Congratulations to the 2017 ACM Fellows


The ACM recently named 54 of its members as ACM Fellows for transformative contributions and advancing technology in the digital age. They were honored for seminal work in areas including artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, computer graphics, cloud computing, and software engineering.

he latest US News and World Report (USN&WR) ranking of Computer Science (CS) at global universities does a grave disservice to USN&WR readers and to CS departments all over the world. Last week, we respectfully asked the ranking be withdrawn.he latest US News and World Report (USN&WR) ranking of Computer Science (CS) at global universities does a grave disservice to USN&WR readers and to CS departments all over the world. Last week, we respectfully asked the ranking be withdrawn.

CRA Statement on US News and World Report Rankings of Computer Science Universities


The latest US News and World Report (USN&WR) ranking of Computer Science (CS) at global universities does a grave disservice to USN&WR readers and to CS departments all over the world. Last week, we respectfully asked for the ranking to be withdrawn. Unfortunately USN&WR declined.

The methodology used — rankings based on journal publications collected by Web of Science — ignores conference publications and as a consequence does not accurately reflect how research is disseminated in the CS community or how faculty receive recognition or have impact. Furthermore, the list of venues is not public. So while some may debate the soundness of any bibliometric-based rankings, there will be no debate about the flaws in the rankings USN&WR has published; the methodology makes inferences from the wrong data without transparency and, consequently, it arrives at an absurd ranking.

It’s Not About the Money: Optimizing Academic-Industrial Partnerships


Today, more than ever, industry leaders are looking to partner with academic computer science programs. With available computer science expertise at a premium, they’re looking for ideas, for new hires, for help on crucial projects. Universities are the mother lode for the personnel and expertise they crave. On July 18, I presented at the CRA Conference at Snowbird session, “Local Corporate Labs, Centers and Development Offices: Optimizing Department/Industry,” which explored the growth of corporate lab culture, and I’d like to share some of insights from that talk.

Robotics Researchers Wow Congress with All Day Exhibition


On June 9th, the Congressional Robotics Caucus, with support from the National Science Foundation, held an all day event on Capitol Hill marking five years of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI). The event was broken up into a lunch briefing, where members of Congress and their staff would be able to hear from a panel of experts on the past accomplishment of the NRI and future challenges and benefits of continued funding of robotics research; and an afternoon exhibition of roboticists and their work, where guests were able to interact one-on-one with the researchers. CRA is a member of the steering committee for the Congressional Robotics Caucus.

NSF Funded Vision Assistance Technology Amazes at the 2016 CNSF Exhibition


Originally posted by Brian Mosley on the CRA Policy Blog On April 26th, the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), an alliance of over 140 professional organizations, universities, and businesses, held their 22nd Annual Capitol Hill Exhibition. CNSF supports the goal of increasing the federal investment in the National Science Foundation’s research and education programs, […]