In late March, NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) sponsored a meeting, “Beyond Today’s Internet: Experiencing a Smarter Future,” which brought together researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders who are envisioning the future of the Internet through the Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI, Project and US Ignite Initiative. The joint session began with remarks by NSF Director Dr. France Córdova and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation Tom Kalil, followed by demonstrations of what this future might entail, as detailed in a blog by Steve Lohr of the New York Times. NSF published a new special report with links to a press release, discovery stories, and videos that demonstrate the efforts of these communities, and CISE published a new perspective.

The NSF Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) will host a one-day workshop on CAREER Proposal Writing on March 16, 2015.

These are exciting and important times for our field. It’s a time of great advances within the core of computing, as well as unprecedented opportunities for research at the interfaces between computing, cyberinfrastructure, and many other disciplines. Within our core, we are seeing myriad advances in the increasingly intelligent computing systems that have become so inextricably woven into our lives; in the scale, functionality, effectiveness, security and resiliency of these systems; and in their underlying theoretical foundations. At the interfaces, computing plays a central role in recent national initiatives such as the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative, the National Robotics Initiative (NRI), US Ignite, and more. Taken together, our research and education investments are central to addressing national priorities, including health and well-being, environmental sustainability, public safety, advanced manufacturing, transportation, clean energy, and education and workforce development.