The CRA Bulletin frequently shares news, timely information about CRA initiatives, and items of interest to the general community.
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CRA has recently hired Evelyn Yarzebinski as a research associate for CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP). In this role, Evelyn supports CERP activities through administrative and research efforts, such as contributing to the CERP website and blog, data management, and analysis.
On Tuesday June 25th, the CRA Government Affairs Office welcomed the 2019 class of Eben Tisdale Science Policy Fellows to the CRA office. These fellows, undergraduates at universities and colleges from across the United States, spent the summer at high-tech companies, firms, or trade associations in Washington, learning the intricacies of technology policy. At the CRA office, the fellows attended a presentation by Brian Mosley, policy analyst in CRA’s Office of Government Affairs, covering the policy concerns and issues that the association works on and attempts to influence at the federal level.
The ACM Future of Computing Academy is a new initiative enabling early-career researchers, practitioners, educators, and entrepreneurs to develop a strong and influential collective voice to help shape the future of computing. It consists of talented professionals who are committed to making a positive and lasting impact on ACM and the global computing profession. ACM is now accepting applications for membership. The application deadline is 23 August 2019.
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.
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.
Former CRA Board Member David Bader will direct the new institute for data science at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The institute will focus on cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and development in all areas pertinent to digital data. It will bring existing research centers in big data, medical informatics and cybersecurity together with new research centers in data analytics and artificial intelligence, cutting across all NJIT colleges and schools, and conduct both basic and applied research.
My name is Jesse Anderson, and I am thrilled to be CRA’s Tisdale Fellow this summer. I am a rising sophomore double-majoring in computer science and journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, with a minor in math. Within my university, I am heavily involved in the Maryland Lead Program, the Girl Up Club, and the Association for Women in Computing. I am the president of the Girls Who Code club.
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.
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.
Today, President Trump announced his intent to appoint former CRA Board Chair Daniel A. Reed to the National Science Board (NSB). Reed will serve as a member of the NSB for the remainder of a six-year term, expiring May 10, 2024. He is currently senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Utah. Reed served on the CRA board of directors from 1999-2009.
Former CRA Board Member Lance Fortnow will take over as dean of the College of Science at Illinois Institute of Technology on August 15. Fortnow is currently professor and chair of the School of Computer Science of the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a former member of the CCC Council.
Recently, former CRA Board Chair James Foley was inducted into the 2019 Georgia Tech College of Computing Hall of Fame. He was one of six luminaries from the Georgia Tech computing community inducted this year.
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.
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.
CRA members have elected three new members to its board of directors: Lorrie Cranor, Divesh Srivastava and Marvin Theimer. The CRA board of directors has elected new board officers to serve two-year terms beginning July 1, 2019. At the February board meeting, Ellen Zegura was elected chair; Nancy Amato was elected vice-chair; Ran Libeskind-Hadas was elected secretary; and James Allan was elected treasurer.
The CRA board of directors is pleased to announce its selections for the 2019 CRA Awards.
Edward Felten – Distinguished Service Award Winner
Maria Gini – A. Nico Habermann Award Winner
The National Science Foundation is initiating a national search for the Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).
Today’s New York Times features an article “The Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting Into Class.” The story explores how the increasing student demand for computer science courses is outstripping the supply of professors. The article cites CRA Taulbee data and quotes several current and former CRA board members.
Research shows that it takes 25 minutes to reach full productivity after an interruption, yet we are interrupted every 3 minutes. And even without external interruptions, our focus is fragmented. We look at any given desktop window for an average of only 40 seconds, constantly self-interrupting to check email or Facebook. We also try to complete multiple tasks at once, even though we all know that multitasking typically fails. Our tendency to be easily distracted kept our hunter-and-gatherer ancestors alive when they needed to attend to potential predators, but now, in the safety of our offices, it is amazing we manage to get anything done. Chances are you won’t even read this entire article in one go.
Former CRA Board Member Sarita Adve (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) was recently named the 2018 recipient of the ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award. She is being recognized “for research contributions and leadership in the development of memory consistency models for C++ and Java, for service to numerous computer science organizations, and for exceptional mentoring.” […]
Stuart Reges’ recent article entitled “Why Women Don’t Code” elicited strong reactions. I am a colleague of Reges’ in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington (UW). Like a number of my colleagues, I found myself surprised and troubled by his article.
CRA and CRA-W Board Member Ayanna Howard was recently named the recipient of the 2018 Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science and Diversifying Computing from the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in Information Technology (CMD-IT). “The Richard A. Tapia Award is awarded annually to an individual who demonstrates significant research leadership and strong commitment and contributions to diversifying computing.
For the past 30 years I have had two passions – machine learning (ML) that makes a difference in the real world and increasing diversity in computer science (CS). For the first 26 years, I focused on my first passion and developed new approaches to ML though applications to remote sensing, neuroscience, digital libraries, astrophysics, content-based image retrieval of medical images, computational biology, chemistry, evidence-based medicine, detecting lesions in the MRIs of epilepsy patients, and predicting disease progression for MS patients. For the last four years, my focus has been on my second passion: increasing diversity in CS.
Recently, Nancy Amato, a robotics expert and CRA board member, was selected to lead the University of Illinois Department of Computer Science. She will be the first woman to hold this position at the University.
The Computing Research Association (CRA) is pleased to honor Mary Fernández with the 2018 Service to CRA Award for her work in transforming the visual identity and communications of the organization. Mary was a member of the CRA Board from 2009 to 2015, during which time she spearheaded several key initiatives to re-brand and revitalize communications.
Recently ACM announced that former CRA and CRA-W board member Jan Cuny has been named the recipient of the 2017 ACM Distinguished Service Award. She received the award for the establishment and tireless promotion of projects that have nationally transformed computer science education by increasing and diversifying access to high-quality CS education. From the announcement: When she joined […]
As you prepare to attend the biennial CRA Conference at Snowbird, we invite you to join an important event that is being organized by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) on Monday, July 16, 2018, from 10:00am to 1:00pm, in Salt Lake City, UT (this event will take place just prior to the main conference, and just a short distance away from Snowbird). This three-hour workshop will be an opportunity for the CISE community – and as department chairs, you all are a key part of this community! – to gather regarding a new effort on Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC). This effort involves the NSF/CISE core research programs, as well as the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace and Cyber-Physical Systems programs. The effort therefore impacts nearly all faculty who submit proposals to NSF/CISE.
Former CRA Board Chair Dan Reed has been named senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Utah.
CRA-E’s new “Undergraduate Research Highlights” series showcases outstanding research done by undergraduate students at universities and colleges across North America. Each article features the story of a successful undergraduate researcher and offers personal insights into their experiences with finding an advisor, undertaking new research projects, and discovering how research can impact their personal and professional futures.
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 […]
