Published: March 2023, Issue: Vol. 35/No.3, Download as PDF, Download Ads

Archive of articles published in the March 2023, Vol. 35/No.3 issue.

Leadership SummitLeadership Summit

CRA Update: Keeping you in the know – 2023 CRA Leadership Summit and Winter Board Meeting Recap


On February 23-24, 2023, CRA hosted its annual Leadership Summit for senior leadership of computing related professional societies as well as its winter Board meeting in Washington, DC. Below is a summary of the items discussed during the sessions. The next CRA Board of Directors meeting will be held July 13-14, 2023 in Portland, Oregon. If you have suggestions on agenda topics for our July 2023 CRA Board meeting (e.g., breakout room topics), please provide them here.

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2023 CRA Board of Directors Election Results; CRA Board Officers Also Elected


CRA members have elected five new members to its Board of Directors: Sandhya Dwarkadas (University of Virginia), Kinnis Gosha (Morehouse College), Samir Khuller (Northwestern University), Ming Lin (University of Maryland), and Lydia Tapia (University of New Mexico). In addition, Alex Aiken (Stanford University), Mary Hall (University of Utah), Kim Hazelwood (Meta AI), and Raquel Hill (Spelman College) were re-elected to serve another term on the CRA Board. All of their terms run from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026.

During the Winter 2023 Board Meeting, the CRA Board of Directors held elections for Board Officers to serve two-year terms beginning July 1, 2023. Nancy Amato (University of Illinois) was re-elected Chair; Ran Libeskind-Hadas (Claremont McKenna College) was elected Vice Chair; Katie Siek (Indiana University) was elected Secretary; and James Allan (UMass Amherst) was re-elected Treasurer.

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Charles L. Isbell Receives the 2023 CRA A. Nico Habermann Award


The Computing Research Association has selected Charles L. Isbell, Dean and John P. Imlay, Jr. Chair of the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, as the recipient of the 2023 CRA A. Nico Habermann Award, in recognition of his substantial impact on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in the computing community. 

Isbell has demonstrated substantial ability to lead, influence important people, and have tangible impact. He has changed the landscape of computing locally, nationally, and internationally, particularly for those minoritized in computing.

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Lynne Parker Receives the 2023 CRA Distinguished Service Award


The Computing Research Association (CRA) has selected Lynne Parker, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the AI Tennessee Initiative at the University of Tennessee, as the recipient of the 2023 CRA Distinguished Service Award for her unparalleled impact on the computing research community.

Parker has made numerous outstanding contributions over the course of six years in federal government positions, leading national artificial intelligence (AI) policy across the Executive Branch and fashioning key strategic policies in support of AI research, development, and deployment.

Computing Research Association Receives $5M Grant for UR2PhD: An undergraduate research to PhD national mentoring program


The UR2PhD Program aims to increase the percentage of women entering PhD programs by at least 15% per year, with even higher increases for U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

The Computing Research Association (CRA) recently announced that it has received a $5 million grant from a philanthropic partner to support the Undergraduate Research to the PhD (UR2PhD) program. UR2PhD (read as “you are 2 PhD”) focuses on engaging more women who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents in computing PhD programs through a virtual, nationally managed approach to quality undergraduate research opportunities and to bridging the gap to PhD applications.

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CRA Accessible Technology for All Workshop Summary


On February 22-23, 2023 in Washington, DC, the Computing Research Association (CRA) held the Accessible Technology for All Workshop. 

The workshop was attended by over 40 participants from academia, industry, and government and 20 remote participants. The purpose of this workshop was to frame the state of the art of accessible technology, identify forces shaping the evolution of accessible technology, and develop an understanding of implications for the next wave of computer science research in accessibility. By the end of the workshop, important areas of future research were identified and the need for tech-informed policy were highlighted by the participants. A workshop report will be forthcoming. 

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Expanding the Research Pipeline – An update on Scaling the Early Research Scholars Program


The Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP), founded by Christine Alvarado in the Computer Science Department at UC San Diego (UCSD), provides authentic research experiences to early undergraduates over one academic year. Since its inception in 2014, the program has transformed the landscape of undergraduate research at UC San Diego by significantly broadening access to research among early students, with over 350 student participants, 60% of whom identify as women or non-binary, and 22% as Black, Latinx, or Native American students. Further, ERSP has retained most participants (97% since the program matured).

CCC is Accepting Visioning Proposals from the Community


The CCC accepts proposals for visioning activities from the community to catalyze innovative research at the frontiers of computing. Successful activities will articulate new research visions, galvanize community interest in those visions, mobilize support for those visions from the computing research community, government leaders, and funding agencies, and encourage broader segments of society to participate in computing research and education.

NSF Partners with Ericsson, IBM, Intel, and Samsung to Support Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing


National Science Foundation recently announced a partnership with Ericsson, IBM, Intel, and Samsung to support the manufacturing and design of the next generation of semiconductors. The nearly $50 million partnership aims to invest in projects that encourage science and engineering researchers to apply a holistic, “co-design” approach to the way they develop semiconductors. Co-design approaches simultaneously consider the device/system performance, manufacturability, recyclability, and impact on the environment. Taking this design approach forces researchers to think of the whole lifecycle of a new technology, converging essential elements of the process into a single integrated process.

This program will hopefully alleviate the skyrocketing costs of cars and other chip-based products.