The CRA Bulletin frequently shares news, timely information about CRA initiatives, and items of interest to the general community.
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The National Science Board (NSB) has named computer scientist and disability advocate Richard Ladner as the 2020 recipient of its Public Service Award. This award is granted to individuals and groups that have contributed substantially to increasing public understanding of science and engineering.
CRA is sad to report that former CRA and CRA-W Board Member Frances “Fran” Allen passed away yesterday. Fran spent her career advancing the field of computing and inspired generations of technologists. She was a computing pioneer – the first woman to receive the A.M. Turing Award (2006) and the first woman to be named an IBM Fellow in 1989. Fran served as a speaker for CRA-W’s Discipline-Specific Mentoring program in 2008 and Career Mentoring Workshop in 2005.
CRA has recently hired Colin Karnes as a research assistant for CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP). In this role, Colin supports CERP activities, as they relate to CERP’s research and administrative tasks.
Prior to joining CRA, Colin worked as a graduate research assistant at the Department of Public and Nonprofit Studies at Georgia Southern University. Colin holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Georgia Southern University (2019) and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from the University at Buffalo (2014). He has experience in public education, nonprofit administration, and corporate governance. In his free time, Colin enjoys reading, volunteering, and exploring Washington, DC.
Today, the Georgia Tech College of Computing announced CRA Board Member Vivek Sarkar is the new chair of its School of Computer Science (SCS).
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.
CRA-WP is honored to present the recipients of the inaugural Skip Ellis Early Career Award and the 2020 Anita Borg Early Career Award. Tawanna Dillahunt of the University of Michigan and Michel A. Kinsy of Boston University have been selected as the Skip Ellis Early Career Award recipients. Olga Russakovsky of Princeton University has been selected as the Anita Borg Early Career Award recipient.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recently announced the election of new officers and members at large. CRA Board Member and Vice Chair Nancy M. Amato has been elected for a four-year Member-at-Large term. She will serve from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2024. Additionally, CCC Council Member Elisa Bertino has been elected Secretary/Treasurer of ACM for a two-year term from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020. Bertino is the Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University.
Congratulations to CRA Board Chair Ellen Zegura (Georgia Tech) for being appointed a Regents’ Professor by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. Regents’ Professorships are granted to outstanding tenured, full professors, based on excellence in research and contributions to their profession and to Georgia Tech.
Vijay Kumar from the University of Pennsylvania has been selected as the recipient of the prestigious 2020 IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award. He was honored for “Contributions to cooperative robotics; networked mobile manipulation systems, particularly unmanned aerial vehicles; and leadership in robotics research, policy, and education.” CRA provided funding support to Kumar when he spent a year at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration.
The Computing Research Association extends a heartfelt congratulations to former board member and CRA-W Co-Chair Leah H. Jamieson for receiving the IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal to honor her “contributions to the promotion, innovation, and inclusivity of engineering education.”
Recently, the National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 120 members and 26 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. One of the newly elected members is Jennifer Rexford, who is a Computing Community Consortium Council member and former CRA board member.
The American Academy of Arts& Sciences recently announced that more than 250 outstanding individuals have been elected to the Academy in 2020. Three former CRA board members and a council member were among those honored.
Daniela Rus, a former Computing Community Consortium Council member, has been appointed to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
CRA has recently hired Maddy Hunter as a program associate for the Computing Community Consortium (CCC). In this role, she supports CCC staff and council members by handling administrative and logistical matters surrounding meetings, conferences and workshops.
The Computing Research Association today announced it has selected the CARES movement – the Committee to Aid Reporting on Discrimination and Harassment Policy Violations – as the recipient of the 2020 CRA Distinguished Service Award for positively transforming the computing research community rapidly and fundamentally. CARES provides a resource for helping people experiencing issues related to discrimination, harassment, or bullying.
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.
CRA’s Education Committee (CRA-E) has recently selected two 2020 CRA-E Graduate Fellows – Ian Ludden from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Jean Salac from the University of Chicago.
Recently, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced it has elected 87 new members and 18 international members. Among those elected were two former CRA board members: Joel Emer from NVIDIA and former NSF CISE AD Jim Kurose. Congratulations to all members of the computing community who were recognized.
The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) is proud to announce two recipients of the 2020 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award: Lenore Cowen from Tufts University and Samir Khuller from Northwestern 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 Director of Programs Erik Russell was recently announced the winner of the AccessComputing 2019 Capacity Building Award. The award recognizes individuals whose work and accomplishments have changed the way the world views people with disabilities and their potential to succeed in challenging computing careers and activities.
Alexander Wolf has been appointed to serve as one of the two ACM representatives on the CRA board of directors. Wolf joins Mary Hall and replaces Andrew Sears on the board. CRA would like to thank Sears for his contributions during his term of service on the board.
CCC Council Member Ian Foster and CRA Board Members Mary Hall and Vivek Sarkar have recently been named IEEE Fellows.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently announced its 2019 elected Fellows. The Fellows are recognized with this lifetime honor for their extraordinary achievements in advancing science. Fellows are elected annually by the AAAS Council from the list of approved nominations from the Section Steering Groups. Several individuals involved with CRA have been elected Fellows to the Section on Information, Computing & Communication.
CRA has recently hired Nicole Beck as a part-time reimbursement specialist, working closely with CRA’s Grant Specialist Jill Hallden to ensure the organization’s bills get paid on time and reimbursements for participants in CRA-sponsored events are processed expeditiously. Prior to joining CRA, Nicole was a stay at home mom while also attending college at George Mason University and Arizona State University. She graduated from Arizona State with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in geography with a specialization in geographic information systems. In her free time, Nicole enjoys all things geography and cartography, spending as much time as possible with her two daughters, as well as discovering new music to listen to.
Recently, ACM named 62 Distinguished Members for outstanding contributions to the field. Several from the CRA community were recognized for outstanding educational contributions to computing, including CRA Board Member and CRA-WP Co-Chair Andrea Danyluk. Congratulations to all!
On September 11, 21 computing researchers from across the country visited Washington, D.C. to make the case for federally funded computing research. The volunteers, traveling from as near as Virginia and Maryland, and as far away as Wyoming and Montana, participated in over 50 House and Senate meetings. Their message to Congress was very simple: Federally supported computing research is vital to the nation’s future. Using their own research and individual stories as support, and reinforced with additional information from CRA, they made the “Federal case” for computing to Members of Congress and their staff. Those Members of Congress now know more about the expertise and interesting (and important) computing work that occurs in their districts and states, and our participants have a sense of just who represents them in Congress. And they’ve hopefully started a lasting dialogue on both sides.
Recently, CRA Board Member and CRA-WP Co-Chair Margaret Martonosi was selected to receive the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Aristotle Award.
Last Friday, September 6 was the last day for former CRA Board Member Jim Kurose in his role as Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). CRA was thrilled was when Kurose was appointed to the position, and we appreciate his dedication and service to the community over the years.
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.
