CRA Bulletin

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CCC Releases Additional Quadrennial Papers on Smart Technologies for Older Adults and the Integration of Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing with AI and IoT


As a continuation of our 2020 series, we are delighted to release two more papers titled: “Taking Stock of the Present and Future of Smart Technologies for Older Adults and Caregivers” and “Imagine All the People: Citizen Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Computational Research.” 

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2021 CRA Board of Directors Election Results


CRA members have elected three new members to its Board of Directors: Diana Franklin, Katie Siek and Eve Schooler. James Allan, Stephanie Forrest, Ayanna Howard, Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Rachel Pottinger, and Chris Ramming were re-elected to the CRA board. All of their terms run from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2024. Vivek Sarkar will remain on the board as the co-chair of the CRA Industry Committee. CRA would like to thank everyone who agreed to run this year.

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CRA Conference at Snowbird Update


After careful consideration of the current and projected situation surrounding the pandemic, CRA has unfortunately decided to cancel the in-person CRA Conference at Snowbird scheduled to take place this August. At this time, there are simply too many uncertainties to move forward.

We believe interaction is a critical feature of this conference. Given we held a virtual version last year, we have decided not to organize a hybrid or entirely virtual meeting this year, as this is typically an off year for Snowbird. CRA is currently planning to hold a full in-person Conference at Snowbird on July 19-21, 2022.

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Pandemic Informatics: Vaccine Distribution, Logistics, and Prioritization


In Fall 2020, the Computing Research Association released a series of planned white papers produced through its subcommittees (including the Computing Community Consortium), exploring areas and issues around computing research with the potential to address national priorities over the next four years. Called Quadrennial Papers, the white papers attempt to portray a broad picture of computing research detailing potential research directions, challenges, and recommendations for policymakers and the computing research community. 

One of those white papers Pandemic Informatics: Preparation, Robustness, and Resilience outlined a strategy to reduce the impact of global pandemics stressing early detection, predicting the public’s reaction and developing effective policies. 

Several months later, the pandemic is still ongoing but we are facing a new and different set of challenges that are both surprising and yet also somehow predictable. The authors of the paper have produced a March 22nd, 2021 Addendum to address current issues. 

See the March 22nd, 2021 Pandemic Informatics: Preparation, Robustness, and Resilience Addendum here for more details. 

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SIGCSE 2021 Panel Recap: How Student Surveys Drive Change: Using the Data Buddies Department Report from the Computing Research Association


On Monday, March 15, CRA’s Burçin Tamer was a panelist at the SIGCSE 2021 session, “How Student Surveys Drive Change: Using the Data Buddies Department Report from the Computing Research Association.” Tamer and panelists discussed how departments can use their students’ responses to the Data Buddies survey to make meaningful changes in their department.

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SIGCSE Panel March 17- Exploring the Data on Dual Pandemics: How Racism and COVID-19 Have Impacted the Computing Community  


At SIGCSE 2021, CRA’s Betsy Bizot will be a panelist for the session, “Exploring the Data on Dual Pandemics: How Racism and COVID-19 Have Impacted the Computing Community“. Bizot will discuss the results from two CRA surveys about the COVID-19 disruption from summer 2020 and a few tidbits from this year’s CRA Taulbee Survey ahead of full publication in May. The session will be held from 1:00 PM – 2:45 PM EDT on Wednesday, March 17.

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Introducing the CERP Bulletin


The CRA Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP) is excited to launch a new blog called the CERP Bulletin to share news, research and evaluation findings, promote resources and community platforms, and provide helpful context to CERP’s mission. The CERP Bulletin will include CERP research activity, infographics, evaluation reports, and interesting CERP-related articles.

We encourage you to stay updated on CERP through the Bulletin by signing up for our mailing list, which you can do here.

This post is brought to you by the CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP). CERP provides social science research and comparative evaluation for the computing community. Volunteer for Data Buddies by signing-up here.

 

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2021 CRA Distinguished Service and A. Nico Habermann Awardees Announced


Mary Jane Irwin was selected to receive the 2021 A. Nico Habermann Award in recognition of her more than 30 years of diversity efforts, both in academia and in professional organizations. James Kurose was selected to receive the 2021 Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his exemplary service to the computing research community. Through a career spanning more that 35 years, he has distinguished himself as national leader in numerous impactful service roles in the computing research community.

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Tijana Milenkovic and Saad Biaz Receive the 2021 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award


The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) is proud to announce two recipients of the 2021 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award: Tijana Milenkovic from University of Notre Dame and Saad Biaz from Auburn University. These outstanding individuals are being recognized for providing exceptional mentorship, undergraduate research experiences, and, in parallel, guidance on admission and matriculation of their students to research-focused graduate programs in computing.

CRA Looking to Develop a Mentoring Program for NSF’s CSGrad4US Graduate Fellowship


In response to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate’s recently announced CSGrad4US Fellowship program, the Computing Research Association’s Education (CRA-E) and Widening Participation (CRA-WP) committees, with CRA support, are exploring the development of a CSGrad4US Mentoring Program to support recipients of the CSGrad4US Fellowship.

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Updated Analysis of Current and Future Computer Science Needs via Advertised Faculty Searches for 2021


This updated work follows a full study released in November 2020, on faculty hiring in Computer Science for hires starting in 2021.  That work analyzed hiring based on ads through mid-November 2020 and found significant decreases in the number of institutions searching and the number of positions being sought.  This updated work considers ads through the end of December 2020 and is intended to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on whether searches have been delayed or simply will not materialize this hiring season.

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CRA-E 2021 SIGCSE TS Virtual Pre‐Symposium Event: Application Deadline February 1


The CRA Education Committee, with support from NSF, is organizing a Virtual Pre‐Symposium Event for Teaching-Track Faculty at SIGCSE 2021. The event will be held on Friday, March 12, 2021 from 1:00 – 5:00 PM EST. We are now accepting applications to the event! Click here for more information and a tentative agenda. 2020 event information is available here.

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2021 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award Recipients


Congratulations to the recipients of the 2021 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. This year’s nominees are a very impressive group. A number of them were commended for making significant contributions to more than one research project, several are authors or coauthors on multiple papers, others have made presentations at major conferences, and some have produced software artifacts that were in widespread use.

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Analysis of Current and Future Computer Science Needs via Advertised Faculty Searches for 2021


This work uses the same methodology as previous work to study where Computer Science departments are choosing to invest faculty positions using data obtained from advertised tenure-track searches for the current hiring season.  This work also provides an opportunity to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on faculty hiring in Computer Science for hires starting in 2021.