Published: November 2009,  Issue: Vol. 21/No.5, Download as PDF

Archive of articles published in the November 2009, Vol. 21/No.5 issue.

New Directions at DARPA


In July, Dr. Regina Dugan was sworn in as the 19th Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In September she visited six universities: Virginia Tech (her undergraduate alma mater), Texas A&M, UCLA, Caltech (her graduate alma mater), Stanford, and UC Berkeley. Here are some of the messages she delivered during these visits

Empowering Leadership – An Expanding NSF Alliance Impacting Minority Scholars Nationwide


The Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program within the CISE Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF), headed up by Program Director Jan Cuny, demonstrates NSF’s serious commitment to increasing the participation of those who have long been underrepresented in computing. Numerous BPC Alliances and Demonstration Projects provide a wide range of services for many underrepresented groups. One such alliance, the Empowering Leadership…

Breaking the Image


For many institutions, early fall features Family Weekend events, when parents and families return to campus to visit their children and hear about research and educational activities occurring within the department. Especially for parents of first-year students, it is also an opportunity to hear about directions and opportunities in the field, as their children make decisions on a degree major.

CCC Update Landmark Contributions by Students in Computer Science


Federal investment in university-based research produces the ideas and the people that make the United States the world leader in innovation. If our nation wants researchers tomorrow, then our nation must support the education of researchers today. Educating researchers is commonly viewed as an apprenticeship process. Every Ph.D. dissertation breaks new ground, of course, but relatively few are game-changing.