Featured Announcements Archives

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: Featured Announcements

Items to feature on the CRA homepage.

CRA’s Career Mentoring Workshop Application is Now Open

October 14, 2019/In: Featured Announcements /

The eleventh biennial Career Mentoring Workshop will be offered by the Computing Research Association on February 27 and 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. This exciting workshop provides advice and mentoring activities for those starting an academic computing research career. Most attendees are in their first or second year as assistant professors. The workshop, consisting of a series of panels, is interspersed with opportunities to network with senior researchers and representatives from government agencies.

Candidates Sought for CRA Board of Directors

October 7, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, CRA Board of Directors /

The Computing Research Association seeks your help in recruiting candidates for its Board of Directors. We want individuals who have time, energy, initiative, and resources to work on CRA issues on behalf of the entire CRA community. We have a working Board, and all members are expected to work on community issues.

Check out the Latest Videos on the Grad Cohort Experience: Applications Open October 1

September 27, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Diversity, For Students, Mentoring, CRA-W /

At the 2019 Grad Cohort for Women Workshop, more than 400 graduate students spent two days building both professional and support networks, while also attending sessions on how to succeed in graduate school. In three new videos, students, speakers, and sponsor representatives share their thoughts on the program’s impact. Check out these three 2019 Grad […]

Workshop on Departmental Plans for Broadening Participation in Computing: Applications Open

September 25, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, For Researchers /

Since 2017, the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has been asking CISE Principal Investigators to include meaningful BPC plans in proposals submitted to a subset of CISE’s research programs. To support departments in preparing for this new effort, teams of 2-3 administrators and faculty members from computing institutions are invited to apply to participate in a workshop focused on Department Plans for Broadening Participation in Computing.

Former CRA Board Member Margaret Martonosi Selected to Run NSF CISE

September 23, 2019/In: CRA, Featured Announcements, NSF, CRA-W /

National Science Foundation Director France Córdova today named former CRA board member, current CRA-WP co-Chair, and current Princeton Computer Science professor Margaret Martonosi as the next head of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate at NSF. Martonosi will assume the role of Assistant Director, CISE on February 1, 2020.

CRA Taulbee Survey Announcement

September 17, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Taulbee Announcements /

The 2019 CRA Taulbee Survey will be starting soon. As has been our recent practice, the survey will be split into two parts, salary and main (everything else). This allows us to set an earlier deadline for the salary section in order to produce a preliminary salary report in December, while giving departments more time to collect and enter the information in the rest of the survey if needed.

Save the Date: 2020 CRA Career Mentoring Workshop

September 16, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Career Mentoring Workshop /

CRA’s biennial Career Mentoring Workshop will be offered on February 27-28, 2020 at the Conrad Hotel in Washington, DC.

A Broader Case for Diversity and Inclusion: CRA-Women Transitioning to CRA-Widening Participation

September 13, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Diversity, CRA-W /

It is with great excitement that we share with our friends, colleagues, and broader computing community that CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) is now officially CRA Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP).

CRA’s CV Database Initiative Turns One

September 4, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Resources /

As a first step to address recent recruiting challenges in the computing research community, the Computing Research Association (CRA) launched the CV Database initiative in Fall 2018. This initiative provides a database of candidates for academic and industrial/government laboratory research positions. Recruiting continues to be one of the top computing research community challenges. Thus, CRA plans to strengthen the CV Database initiative and take additional actions in 2019-20. The CRA has reviewed usage data from the first year application cycle and made adjustments to improve the user experience and process. The CV Database will re-open for the 2019-20 recruiting season in mid-September 2019. In mid-October 2019, recruiter access to the CV Database will be made available to all CRA academic members. Additionally, industrial and government laboratory CRA member institutions that sponsor Grad Cohort 2020 at the silver level and above will receive access.

Nominations Open for CRA Distinguished Service and A. Nico Habermann Awards

August 30, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Awards /

The Computing Research Association invites nominations for the 2020 CRA Distinguished Service Award and A. Nico Habermann Award.

Nominations Open for 2020 CRA Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers

August 27, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, For Students, Awards, Outstanding Undergrad Researchers, Education /

The Computing Research Association (CRA) is pleased to announce the annual CRA Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers, which recognizes undergraduate students in North American colleges and universities who show outstanding research potential in an area of computing research. The award is a wonderful way to recognize your best student researchers and your department.

Expanding the Pipeline: Gender and Ethnic Differences in PhD Specialty Areas

August 26, 2019/In: Featured Announcements /

This article examines gender and residency/ethnicity differences in PhD specialty areas as reported to the CRA Taulbee Survey from 2012-2018. The Taulbee Survey is conducted each fall and, among other questions, asks doctoral departments of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Information for data about each PhD they awarded in the previous academic year. The data on each new PhD includes gender, residency/race/ethnicity, and PhD specialty area. A total of 12,968 PhDs were awarded by Taulbee respondents during the 7 year period from 2012-2018. Of those, the specialty area was listed as Other or Unknown for 3,328. Those individuals are omitted from the analyses described here; individuals where gender was not provided or where residency/ethnicity was listed as Unknown are not included in the analysis by that category.

Generation CS, Three Years Later

August 8, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Resources /

In 2017, CRA published the Generation CS report on the surge in undergraduate computer science enrollments, based on data gathered through an Enrollments Survey of doctoral and non-doctoral academic units of computer science in fall 2015.Since then, enrollments have continued to grow. In fall 2018, as part of the Taulbee Survey of doctoral departments, CRA included some questions to assess the current impact. Are academic units still struggling, or has the increase become the new normal? What changes have occurred in department resources or policies? What is the observed impact on students and faculty, including student diversity?

Seven Tips for Advertising Your Graduate Program to Undergraduate Programs

August 7, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Resources /

Four years ago, I left a tenured faculty position at Grinnell, a selective liberal arts college, to found a brand new computer science program at Whitman, another selective liberal arts college. Since establishing this program, I’ve started to receive mailings not only from my own Ph.D. program, but from a range of graduate programs in computer science and related fields.

If you’re reading this, you probably care about attracting graduate student applicants from institutions like mine. If you don’t, you should: Baccalaureate colleges are second only to “very high research activity universities” in their institutional-yield ratios for graduates who go on to receive a doctorate in science or engineering.

Message from the Board Chair: CRA Launches Strategic Planning Process

August 6, 2019/In: Featured Announcements /

I am writing to share the timeline and process for the strategic planning effort that CRA is undertaking, as well as to highlight some of the opportunities for you to be involved. The ultimate goal of strategic planning is to determine how CRA can best serve its members and the computing research community. Given the many challenges and opportunities, it is imperative that we clearly understand the needs of our members and focus our activities to address those needs.

2019 CRA Grad Cohort URMD Videos Released on Updated CRA YouTube Channel

July 12, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, People, Diversity, For Students, Mentoring, For Researchers, CRA-W /

CRA recently published two videos on the 2019 Grad Cohort for URMD – one targeted at sponsors and the other targeted at potential attendees. In both videos, students, speakers, sponsor representatives, and CRA Director of Programs Erik Russell share their experiences, the impact it has and the benefits it delivers to sponsors.

Annual Reports Now Available

July 11, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, People /

We are pleased to announce CRA’s annual reports for the fiscal years 2016-17 and 2017-18 are now available for download as a PDF file. The CRA fiscal year runs from July 1 – June 30 of each year. These reports highlight the activities of CRA and its committees.

New CRA Board Leadership, Board Members and CCC Council Members

July 1, 2019/In: Featured Announcements /

July 1 marks a new fiscal year for CRA. In February, the CRA board of directors elected new board officers to serve two-year terms beginning July 1, 2019. Ellen Zegura is chair; Nancy Amato is vice-chair; Ran Libeskind-Hadas is secretary; and James Allan is treasurer.

We welcome three new members to our board of directors: Lorrie Cranor, Divesh Srivastava and Marvin Theimer. Their terms run from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2022. Retiring from the board as of June 30, 2019 are Ron Brachman, Chris Johnson, Josep Torrellas, and Min Wang. CRA would like to thank all retiring board members for contributions during their service on the board.

The CCC welcomed new council members, and Khari Douglas was promoted to CCC senior program associate focusing on engagement.

CRA Board Secretary Greg Morrisett Named Dean of Cornell Tech

June 7, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, People /

Today, Cornell University announced that CRA Board Secretary Greg Morrisett has been named the Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech, effective August 1. Morrisett is currently the dean of Computing and Information Sciences at Cornell University and an international expert in software security. He joined the CRA board of directors in 2012 and has served two year terms on the executive committee as board secretary. Morrisett has also been a member of the CCC Council since 2017.

CRA Board Member Mark D. Hill Receives Top Computer Architecture Award

June 5, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, People /

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE Computer Society recently announced that CRA Board Member and CCC Chair Mark D. Hill of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the recipient of the 2019 Eckert-Mauchly Award. Hill was cited for contributions to the design and evaluation of memory systems and parallel computers. The Eckert-Mauchly Award is known as the computer architecture community’s most prestigious award.

CRA-E Workshop at FCRC – Academic Careers: The Landscape is Broader than You Think

May 7, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Education /

The CRA Education Committee, with support from Google, is organizing an Academic Careers Workshop at FCRC 2019. The workshop will be held on Tuesday, June 25 from 12:30-6:30 PM. Please register for the workshop through the FCRC registration page. We are now accepting applications for financial support to attend the workshop! Click here for more information and a tentative agenda.

CRA Education Committee Selects New Graduate Fellow

May 2, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Education /

CRA’s Education Committee (CRA-E) has recently selected its 2019 CRA-E Graduate Fellow – Joslenne (Joss) Peña. Joss is a Ph.D. candidate and Sloan MPHD Scholar in Informatics at Penn State University (PSU) under the direction of Mary Beth Rosson. She earned her M.S. in Information Sciences and Technology in 2015 (also at PSU). Joss completed a 14-month internship as a research intern in the Human-Centered Systems group at Honeywell Aerospace. Broadly, her research interests are in human-computer interaction, design, computer science education, and human factors psychology. Specifically, her dissertation work is investigating non-programmers’ behaviors and attitudes in higher education through small exposures to coding and how their trajectories relate to a reexamined view of computational thinking.

Forbes Article on Inclusivity in Higher Education Highlights CERP Project

May 1, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Diversity, NSF, CERP /

A recent Forbes article written by Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College and a former CRA board member, addresses “Why We Need Inclusive Teaching In Every Classroom.” In the article, Klawe interviews Colleen Lewis, a computer science professor at Harvey Mudd, about Lewis’ work to develop, incorporate, and disseminate inclusive teaching practices. Lewis researches […]

CCC’s Catalyzing Computing Podcast Included on NSF’s Science360 Radio Stream

April 26, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, NSF /

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC)’s recently launched Catalyzing Computing podcast is now included on the NSF’s Science360 Radio stream. Science360 Radio showcases shows from radio and podcast series, and also includes webcasts, events, in-depth interviews, and documentaries from NSF and other contributors. Catalyzing Computing focuses on topics of interest within the computing research community and is hosted by CCC […]

Expanding the Pipeline: The Second Annual CRA Grad Cohort for URMD Supports a Diverse Computing Research Community

April 25, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Diversity, For Students /

On March 22-23, CRA hosted the second annual Graduate Cohort for Underrepresented Minorities and Persons with Disabilities (URMD Grad Cohort) in picturesque Waikoloa Village, Hawaii. The location provided beautiful scenery as students spent two days learning how to succeed in graduate school and networked with a diverse group of peers and senior researchers.

Creating Institutional Homes for Computing: Transforming a Department into a School or College

April 19, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Resources /

The Computing Research Association has released its latest white paper, “Creating Institutional Homes for Computing: Transforming a Department into a School or College.” This white paper addresses the growing interest and trend in transforming a department of computer science, usually housed within a college of engineering or science, into a school or college of computing. It follows up on a successful panel at the 2016 CRA Conference at Snowbird on Schools and Colleges of Computing and a second panel on transitioning to Colleges of Computing at the 2018 CRA Conference at Snowbird.

CRA Board Member Charles Isbell Named Dean of College of Computing at Georgia Tech

April 1, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, People /

CRA Board Member Charles Isbell has been named the next dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, effective July 1. Isbell serves as the AAAI representative to the CRA Board.

Expanding the Pipeline: CERP Data Buddies Survey Finishes Strong with More Insights About Students’ Experiences

March 26, 2019/In: Featured Announcements /

The CRA Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline concluded its fall 2018 Data Buddies Survey. The survey was modified to provide additional insight on student experiences in computing degree programs. These new data will be used in annual reporting and program evaluation.

CRA Launches BPCnet.org: A Resource Portal for Broadening Participation in Computing Efforts

March 12, 2019/In: Featured Announcements, Diversity /

In partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT), CRA announces an initial launch of BPCnet.org, a resource portal designed to amplify the NSF CISE Directorate’s efforts in broadening participation in computing (BPC). CRA anticipates that BPCnet.org will provide a much-needed clearinghouse for the community to learn about and engage with ongoing projects to diversify computing.