NSF AD for CISE Margaret Martonosi Video on the Importance of Departmental BPC Plans
Listen to NSF AD for CISE Margaret Martonosi discuss the importance of Departmental BPC Plans in this new video.
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Listen to NSF AD for CISE Margaret Martonosi discuss the importance of Departmental BPC Plans in this new video.
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 2020-21.
Published online each fall, the CRA Academic Member Book highlights institutions that are member departments of CRA. Each academic member department is invited to submit a one page pdf about their department. Thanks to all the departments that took the time to prepare a submission.
The Computing Research Association invites nominations for the 2021 CRA Distinguished Service Award and A. Nico Habermann Award.
To help make up for a budgetary shortfall, USENIX is seeking donations large and small from individuals and corporations.
The Computing Research Association (CRA) and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) are calling upon the academic community to create and submit Departmental BPC Plans to BPCnet.org.
Departmental BPC Plans are important because they help departments:
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS) have named CRA Board Member Vivek Sarkar of Georgia Institute of Technology as the recipient of the 2020 ACM/IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award. Sarkar is recognized for “foundational technical contributions to the area of programmability and productivity in parallel computing, as well as leadership contributions to professional service, mentoring, and teaching.”
The Computing Research Association (CRA) is hosting the third workshop in its series of Departmental BPC Plan workshops starting on October 29, 2020. All departments with faculty submitting CISE proposals are welcome to attend this workshop.
The structure for this workshop is as follows:
On the presentation day, academic departments will learn about the NSF CISE requirements and expectations for BPC Plans. The workshop will also cover in-depth discussions on BPC Plan components and have BPC experts available for Q&A.
The two writing days are optional, but strongly encouraged. For each writing day, attendees will dedicate a few hours to writing a BPC plan with available assistance from BPC experts. Of importance, you are not required to attend the presentation day if you would like to attend the writing days. For example, previous workshop participants could use these days to further develop their drafts.
Click here to sign up for the workshop. The deadline to sign up for the presentation day is 11:59 pm (ET), October 25, 2020. Those signing up for the writing days only will be accepted on a rolling basis. All notifications and action items related to the workshop will be sent in advance.
The CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award honors faculty members in computing who have made a significant impact on students they have mentored. It recognizes those who have provided exceptional mentorship and undergraduate research experiences and, in parallel, guidance on admission and matriculation of these students to research-focused graduate programs in computing.
Applications are now open for the 2020 CRA-WP Early and Mid-Career Mentoring Workshop! The purpose of the workshop is to provide historically underserved groups in computing research and education with support to further develop your career. Apply today to join sessions on career tracks in education, research and industry/government laboratories, participate in group mentoring, and build one-on-one mentoring relationships with senior researchers. Deadline: October 12.
The CRA Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP) recently published a webinar featuring the Data Buddies Survey (DBS). This webinar details some of the background of the Data Buddies Survey, tips for good response rates, benefits for participating departments, and requirements for participating departments. This webinar is designed for a broad audience, including prospective DBS participants. You can view the webinar by clicking here.
The 2020 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.
This past spring, when hiring practices were rapidly changing due to COVID-19, the Computing Research Association (CRA) and its Computing Community Consortium (CCC) launched the CIFellows 2020 program, with strong support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program aims to provide a career-enhancing bridge experience for recent and soon-to-be PhD graduates in computing. This effort was inspired by the CRA/CCC’s NSF-funded Computing Innovation Fellows Programs with cohorts starting 2009, 2010, and 2011, which funded a total of 127 fellows after the 2008 recession.
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.
For nearly 50 years, the Computing Research Association (CRA) has brought the leadership of the computing research community together every other year at Snowbird, UT to discuss community issues. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted our plans to hold an in-person event this year, just like it has disrupted much of our way of life, both professionally and personally. After canceling the in-person event, CRA quickly pivoted to provide the conference in an online format with specialized content addressing the current environment and challenges during these unprecedented times. CRA Board members Ran Libeskind-Hadas and James Allan stepped up as chair and co-chair of the Virtual Conference.
Conference sessions provided a community forum to share best practices for continuing to navigate the unpredictable challenges imposed during the coronavirus pandemic and addressing community issues around race, equity, and equality. The conference videos are now available here and lightning talk videos are available here.
Recent trends such as increasing industry demands for technical talent from academia, as well as changes in the academic environment with increased industry interactions have prompted the need for a fresh look at the relationships between academia and industry. A CRA ad hoc committee on Industry/Academia Interactions was studied these trends and determined how CRA can have an impact.
CRA conducted two surveys about the COVID-19 disruption in summer 2020. CRA Director of Statistics and Evaluation Betsy Bizot recently presented these results at the ACM Education Advisory Committee Meeting.
Join the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT (CMD-IT) this Friday, August 7 (1:30 – 2:30 pm CT) for a panel discussion examining racial injustice from the perspective of Black professionals in computing. Panelists will provide their stories of overcoming racial injustices to get to where they are today. They will also share advice and insights about systemic changes needed for equity and inclusion. Register here.
The Computing Research Association (CRA) is hosting the second workshop in its series of Departmental BPC Plan workshops on August 6-7, 2020.
In this workshop, academic departments will learn about the NSF CISE requirements and expectations for BPC Plans. The workshop will also cover in-depth discussions on BPC Plan components, have BPC experts available for Q&A, and provide time for departments to discuss ideas and make future plans. Following the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to receive additional feedback as they continue to develop and refine their plans.
CRA is dedicated to creating an environment that is more welcoming, just, and equitable to all. Many want to take action in this area but are not sure how. Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones wrote an article, “What Can CS Departments Do?” detailing a set of recommendations for computing departments to improve inclusiveness: Some of my recommendations […]
On Monday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) disclosed its intent to remove its current, temporary exemptions on F-1 and M-1 visas. The exemptions allowed students on visas to remain in the USA during the spring and summer even if they were taking all their classes online because of the pandemic. The removal of the exemptions would mean that any students on student visas who are not taking at least some classes in person will cease to be in compliance. Thus, if they are enrolled in colleges or universities that will move their fall classes online for safety of their community, those students would be forced to either (a) transfer to another institution where they must take classes in person, despite any health risk, or (b) leave the country. It also means that foreign students accepted for fall at those institutions will not be granted visas to enter the USA.
CRA is dedicated to creating an environment that is more welcoming, just, and equitable to all. Last month, the Black in Computing group and Allies put out “An Open Letter & Call to Action to the Computing Community” with a curated list of actionable items.
July 1 marks a new fiscal year for CRA. We welcome four new members to our board of directors: Alex Aiken, Cindy Bethel, Liz Bradley and Fatma Özcan. Aiken, Bethel, and Özcan were elected earlier this year, and their terms run from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2023. Also beginning July 1, Bradley replaces Mark Hill as the CCC Chair and representative on the board. Hill continues on the CRA board in an elected position.
Retiring from the board as of June 30, are Susan Davidson, Brent Hailpern, Susanne Hambrusch, and Barbara Ryder. CRA thanks them all for contributions during their service on the board.
To support departments developing a Departmental BPC Plan, the Computing Research Association (CRA) will host a series of workshops funded by NSF. The first two workshops in this series will be held virtually on July 13-14, 2020 and August 6-7, 2020.
These two workshops will present the same content on BPC plans, and include hands-on activities and real-time feedback for writing these plans. At the end of the workshop, the participants will have their own draft Departmental BPC Plan. Following the workshops, the participants will also have the opportunity to receive additional feedback as they continue to refine their BPC plans.
With this particularly challenging academic year coming to an end, and the upcoming NSF CISE program submissions, it is a good time to update everyone on the NSF CISE Pilot Program for Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Plans. All Medium and Large CISE Core Programs, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC), and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) project proposals require an approved BPC Plan by the time of award. CRA and NCWIT have led an effort to develop the BPCnet.org portal as a resource for the community to assist in developing Departmental BPC Plans and Individual BPC Plans.
The amount of pain and suffering we are witnessing and feeling is only a snapshot of a broader social reality. We, and everyone before us, have had a role in arriving at where we are today. As such, it is of paramount importance to step up and take a stance. It is our responsibility and a moral imperative to not stand by and simply witness the events around us. We must collectively find our voice and reject racism and inequality. Silence perpetuates, doubt reinforces, and rationalization of incident after incident only compounds the pain so many in our society continue to endure.
Important notice to all applicants: the application deadline has been extended by 5 days to Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 11:59 pm EDT in recognition of the unrest and protests across the nation. If possible, please try to begin your application through Task 2, Academic Information, by the initial deadline of June 12, 2020 at 11:59 pm EDT.
Applications are now open for the Computing Research Association (CRA) and Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows) Program for 2020.
After twelve years of sustained growth in undergraduate enrollment, there may be signs of a slowdown in that there are, on average, fewer new undergraduate majors in 2019-20 than there were in 2018-19. Nevertheless, the average number of CS majors continued its rise in 2018-19, both in U.S. CS departments and overall.
The following is a letter to the community from Margaret Martonosi (Assistant Director) and Erwin Gianchandani (Deputy Assistant Director) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE). The CCC announced the CIFellows 2020 project last week and highlighted the upcoming 5/26 webinar earlier this week.