Published: February 2016, Issue: Vol. 28/No.2, Download as PDF

Archive of articles published in the February 2016, Vol. 28/No.2 issue.

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2016 CRA Conference at Snowbird Preliminary Program

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The program for the 2016 CRA Conference at Snowbird has recently been updated. Below is the current program. Continue to visit the event page at https://cra.org/events/snowbird-2016/ for the latest information and updates. Online registration will open on the CRA website in a few weeks. New this year, we are excited to have organized discussions on interesting books in the field and want to hear your ideas! Email your book suggestions to Ellen Zegura at ewz@cc.gatech.edu.

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Expanding the Pipeline: On-Ramping to Academia: Returning to Academic From Industry or Research Laboratories

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Pursuing scientific or engineering careers in industry, government, or private research after getting a Ph.D. once was considered a one-way ticket out of academia. However, in 2008, the University of Washington’s ADVANCE program received a National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE called “On-Ramps into Academia” to counter this belief. The goal of On-Ramps was to increase the pool of female faculty in STEM available to all universities by providing professional development to Ph.D.-level women in industry or research laboratories who wanted to transition into faculty positions. A popular strategy for increasing women faculty in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) departments is to hire from other universities, but this strategy fails to increase the number of women faculty nationally.

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CRA-WPExpanding the Pipeline
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CS in DC: Margaret Martonosi, Jefferson Science Fellow, U.S. Department of State

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CRA board member Margaret Martonosi is currently serving as a Jefferson Science Fellow (JSF) within the U.S. State Department while on sabbatical from Princeton University for the 2015-2016 academic year. Within the State Department, she works in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs’ Office of International Communications and Information Policy (CIP). CIP is responsible for the formulation, coordination, and oversight of U.S. foreign policy related to information and communications technology (ICT).

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Twice as Many CREU/DREU Students Attend Graduate School, Compared to Other REU Students

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During their final year in college, a sample of undergraduate computing majors completed CERP’s annual survey for graduating students. The sample contained past participants of the CRA-W/CDC Alliance’s Collaborative Research Experiences for Undergraduates (CREU) and Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU), students who had completed other REUs, and students who had never completed an REU. CREU/DREU participants were significantly more likely to report plans to attend a graduate program in computing in the upcoming fall, compared to students who had completed a different REU or no REU during college, p < .05. CREU/DREU students were also more likely to report that they were entering a Ph.D. program, compared to students with other REU experiences, or no REU experience, p < .05.

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CERP

Thank You Data Buddies!

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CRA wishes to thank the computing departments who distributed the Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP)’s Data Buddies survey during the fall of 2015! The collective effort of these departments provides data for CERP’s research on students’ experiences and successes in computing degree programs.

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CERP
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Brain Science and Computer Science: Where Discovery Meets Invention

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Contributions to this article were made by Gregory Hager, chair of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University and Martin Weiner, AAAS Science & Technology policy fellow in the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering Directorate at NSF.

Recently, the organizers of the CCC workshop on Research Interfaces between Brain Science and Computer Science were invited to present their workshop report at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Jack Gallant (University of California, Berkeley), Polina Golland (MIT), and Gregory Hager (CCC chair, Johns Hopkins University) gave the presentation and led surrounding discussions.

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CCC White Paper: The Importance of Computing Education Research

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The time is now for computer science education!

With the shifting economy, educators are increasingly recognizing computer science as a new basic requirement. In his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said that “helping students learn to write computer code” is among his goals for the year ahead.

Jim Kurose, the assistant director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) released a letter to the community acknowledging the excitement in the community, but also noting to “please stay tuned as the Administration announces new steps in the coming weeks to support efforts to expand access to computer science education across the Nation.”

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CCC White Paper: Smart Communities Internet of Things

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The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Computing in the Physical World Task Force has just released another community white paper on Smart Communities Internet of Things.

The task force, led by CCC Council Member Ben Zorn from Microsoft Research and Shwetak Patel from University of Washington, is looking at core research challenges that the Internet of Things (IoT) presents. This white paper, led by Klara Nahnahrstedt from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, highlights the benefits and challenges of cybertechnologies within “Smart Cities,” especially the IoT for smart communities, which means considering the benefits and challenges of IoT cybertechnologies on joint smart cities’ physical infrastructures and their human stakeholders.

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CCC
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Computer Science for All

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It is a very exciting time for Computer Science (CS) education! I know our community was proud and excited to hear President Obama explicitly call out CS education in his final State of the Union address. Even more recently, on Saturday, January 30th, the President unveiled the Computer Science for All initiative in his weekly […]

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Announcements

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– CRA and CRA-W Welcome Ayla Mangold.
– Take the time to nominate an individual for the CRA-W Borg Early Career Award (BECA).
– Scholarships for Women Studying Information Security is a program that provides an average of 15 female Bachelor’s and Master’s cybersecurity students $5,000 to $10,000 scholarships each year.
– NSF CAREER Workshop
– David Johnson Elected to National Academy of Engineering

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CRA