September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 Archives

Published: September 2016, Issue: Vol. 28/No.8, Download as PDF

Archive of articles published in the September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 issue.

New Videos Encourage Undergraduates to Pursue Advanced Education in Computing

By: Susanne Hambrusch (Purdue University), and Ran Libeskind-Hadas (Harvey Mudd College), CRA education committee co-chairsIn: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

The Computing Research Association (CRA) and its education committee (CRA-E) are excited to announce the creation of five short videos entitled “Choosing a PhD in Computer Science.” These videos were designed in conjunction with award-winning producer Patrick Sammon (co-producer of “Codebreaker”) to explain the benefits of pursuing a PhD in CS. The videos showcase young researchers with PhDs who are now working in industry as they talk about what compelled them to pursue a doctorate and how they are using their advanced training in their work. While many undergraduates understand that a PhD is needed for a position in academia, these videos demonstrate how a PhD can be useful in industry as well.

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CRA Women Early and Mid Career Mentoring Workshops

In: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

CRA’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) will host early and mid career mentoring workshops on November 19-20 in Washington, D.C. The goal of these workshops is to provide an environment for mentoring, practical information, advice, and support among researchers and educators in computing. The application is free, there is a $250 registration fee for the workshop (for those accepted), and CRA-W will reimburse participants for expenses (hotel and airfare) after the workshop. In order to receive reimbursement applicants must be affiliated with a U.S. institution or be employed in the U.S. These workshops are open to individuals in their early career in education, research and labs, and mid career in education, research, and labs. Learn more about the CRA-W Career Mentoring Workshops here.

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2016 CRA Taulbee Survey Schedule

By: Betsy Bizot, CRA director of statistics and evaluationIn: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

The 2016 CRA Taulbee Survey will be starting soon. As we did last year, 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.

The schedule will be as follows:

By September 9: All doctoral departments will be contacted to update Taulbee user information. The academic unit head will receive an email and so will the Taulbee primary contact, if separate.

September 13: PDF will be available for data gathering.

September 27: Both sections of the Taulbee will open for input.

November 18: Due date for salary section.

December 19: Preliminary salary report available.

January 18, 2017: Due date for the main Taulbee section.

April 2017: Full Taulbee report to CRA members and participating departments.

May 2017: Published in CRN.

CRA

Save the Dates: Next Two CRA Conferences at Snowbird

In: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

The next two CRA Conferences at Snowbird have been scheduled.
2018: Monday, July 16 – Wednesday, July 18.
2020: Tuesday, July 21 – Thursday, July 23.

The upcoming conference dates are revised somewhat from past schedules with the intent of making the Conference more family friendly by avoiding weekends. Because of the long lead time for reserving space at Cliff Lodge, this is being implemented gradually.

We do not record the conference presentations in order to encourage free-flowing discussions, but we do post the presentations by every speaker who provides them to us. For 2016 click: here. Names and sessions highlighted in blue have an associated presentation.

And a special thank you to everyone who submitted evaluations of the 2016 conference. We read this carefully and do our best to improve the conference based upon feedback.

CRA

Nominations Open for 2017 CRA Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers

In: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

The Computing Research Association 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 terrific way to recognize your best student researchers and your department.

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Graduate Students Without Versus With a Mentor Report Lower Self-Efficacy

By: Burçin Tamer, CERP research scientistIn: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

While almost all computing graduate students have advisors, recent CERP data indicate many of those students do not have a mentor. Specifically, 17% of a sample of graduate students enrolled in computing programs (sample N = 2,617) indicated they did not “have a mentor with whom [they] have an ongoing relationship, and who provides [them] advice and assistance in advancing in [their] career.” The graphic above presents evidence toward a potential implication of not having a trusted mentor as a graduate student: relatively low self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to beliefs about one’s ability to plan for and execute steps necessary for future success. Indeed, the current analysis indicates students without a mentor report lower self-efficacy in their computing career track than students with a mentor, p ≤ .001.

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Computing, Cognition, and the Future of Knowing: How Humans and Machines are Forging a New Age of Understanding

By: John E. Kelly III, Ph.D., senior vice president, IBM Research and Solutions PortfolioIn: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

IBM Research is a Lab and Center member of CRA. This article is the first in a series of our industry member profiles.

It’s not surprising that the public’s imagination has been ignited by artificial intelligence since the term was first coined in 1955. In the ensuing 60 years, we have been alternately captivated by its promise, wary of its potential for abuse, and frustrated by its sometimes slow development.

But like so many advanced technologies that were conceived before their time, artificial intelligence has come to be widely misunderstood—co-opted by Hollywood, mischaracterized by the media, and portrayed as everything from savior to scourge of humanity. Those of us engaged in serious information science and in its application in the real world of business and society understand the enormous potential of intelligent systems.

The future of this technology—which we believe will be cognitive, not “artificial”—has very different characteristics from those generally attributed to AI, spawning different types of technological, scientific, and societal challenges and opportunities, with different requirements for governance, policy, and management.

GUEST

Expanding the Pipeline: The National GEM Consortium Shines a Bright Light on Graduate Education and Retention

By: Patty Lopez and Shameeka Emanuel, Intel CorporationIn: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

GEM is a network of leading corporations, government laboratories, universities, and research institutions that enables qualified students from underrepresented communities to pursue graduate education in applied science and engineering. Its mission is to enhance the value of the nation’s human capital by increasing the participation of underrepresented groups—namely, African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans—at the master’s and doctoral levels in engineering and science. GEM recruits high-quality underrepresented students seeking to pursue advanced degrees in applied science and engineering, and matches their specific skills to the specific technical needs of GEM employer members.

CRA-WPExpanding the Pipeline

Whistling Past the Graveyard: What the End of Moore’s Law Means to All of Computing

By: Tom Conte, Georgia TechIn: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

Is “Moore’s Law” ending? If so, what does this mean to all of us in he field of computing? These questions were discussed at a July 2016 panel at the Computing Research Association’s Conference at Snowbird organized by Conte and Margaret Martonosi of Princeton. The panel included a technologist (Paolo Gargini, Intel fellow-emeritus), three computer architects (David Brooks of Harvard, Mark D. Hill of Wisconsin-Madison, and Tom Conte of Georgia Tech), and a quantum computer scientist (Krysta Svore of Microsoft Research).

CCC

Finding a Role for Your Department in the Computer Science for All Initiative

By: Jan Cuny and Gera Jochum, Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, National Science FoundationIn: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

This year, a national initiative called Computer Science for All (CS for All) was announced in the President’s weekly address, drawing national attention to CS education. The initiative, led by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education in partnership with other federal agencies and private partners, aims to ensure CS education is available to all K-12 students across the U.S.

CS for All has gained tremendous momentum, and it was the subject of many conversations at the 2016 CRA Conference at Snowbird. A session on Tuesday evening provided the opportunity to talk with faculty from leading computing departments about ways their departments are supporting CS for All.

GUEST

Announcements

In: September 2016, Vol. 28/No.8 /

CRA Welcomes Visa Research as its Newest Industry Member
Visa Research has recently joined CRA as one of its Lab and Center Members.

Martonosi Named Cornell’s Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large
CRA board member Margaret Martonosi has been appointed one of Cornell University’s Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large.

ACM Athena Lecturer Award
The ACM Athena Lecturer Award celebrates women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. Two CCC Council members have received the award in recent years: Jennifer Rexford of Princeton University (2015) and Katherine Yelick of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2013).
Deadline: November 30, 2016

National Science Foundation Awards
The National Science Foundation is currently accepting nominations for two prestigious awards. The Alan Waterman Award recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by NSF. The Vannevar Bush Award honors truly exceptional lifelong leaders in science and technology who have made substantial contributions to the welfare of the Nation through public service activities in science, technology, and public policy. Nomination forms are available at: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/honawards/.

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Computing Research News