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Call for Nominations: CRA/CCC Leadership in Science Policy Institute – Nov 16-17, 2023

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Originally posted on the CRA Bulletin.

As part of its mission to develop the next generation of leaders in the computing research community, the Computing Research Association’s Computing Community Consortium (CCC) announces the sixth offering of the CRA-CCC Leadership in Science Policy Institute (LiSPI), intended to educate computing researchers on how science policy in the U.S. is formulated and how our government works. We seek nominations for participants.

LiSPI will be centered around a two-day workshop to be held November 16-17th, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Full details of LiSPI are available here)

LiSPI will feature presentations and discussions with science policy experts, current and former Hill staff, and relevant agency and Administration personnel about the mechanics of the legislative process, interacting with agencies, advisory committees, and the federal case for computing. A tentative agenda is viewable from the link above. LiSPI participants are expected to:

  • Complete a reading assignment and a short, written homework prior to attending the workshop, so that time spent at the workshop can focus on more advanced content,
  • Attend the November 16-17th workshop, which includes breakfast both days, lunch, and a reception with the speakers and invited guests at the conclusion of the first day, and
  • Complete an assignment afterwards that puts to use the workshop content on a policy problem that has significant projection onto computing and information.

LiSPI is not intended for individuals who wish to undertake research on science policy, become science policy fellows, or take permanent positions in Washington, DC. Rather, we are trying to reach work-a-day academics who appreciate that our field must be engaged in helping government. LiSPI Alumni have gone on to testify before Congress, appear at Congressional briefings, take seats on Federal advisory committees, provide input on legislation, and serve on the CCC Council and CRA Board.

The CCC will provide funds for hotel accommodations for two nights of local expenses (hotel, meals) for the November 16-17th workshop. Nominees are expected to pay their own travel expenses, though there will be a limited fund available for participants who cannot attend unless their travel is provided.

Eligibility and Nomination Process

LiSPI participants are expected to have the experience and flexibility in their current positions to engage with government. University faculty members should be from computing departments; industrial researchers should have comparable seniority. Participants should be adept at communicating. They must be nominated by their chair or department head (or similar for industry participants) and must have demonstrated an interest in science policy, especially as it relates to computing (and closely allied fields).

Specifically, the nomination process is as follows:

  • A chair or department head proposes a LiSPI candidate by visiting the nomination page and providing the name and institution of the nominee, along with a letter of recommendation.
  • The candidate will then be contacted by the workshop organizers and asked to submit a CV, a short essay detailing their interests in science policy, and an indication of whether they would require financial aid to attend.

All nominations and materials must be received by June 16th, 2023.

Selection Process

The LiSPI selection committee will evaluate each nomination based on record of accomplishment, proven ability to communicate, and promise. Selections will be announced by August 4th, 2023. We plan to open the workshop to 35 participants.

Please discuss this opportunity with your colleagues, identify those you believe would be interested in participating, and submit nominations!

CRA-I Announces New Council Members!

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Names of CRA-I Industry members

Ron Brachman (Cornell Tech), Elizabeth Bruce (Microsoft), Hank Korth (Lehigh University), Eve Schooler (formerly Intel), and Tammy Toscos (Parkview Health)

The Computing Research Association-Industry Committee (CRA-I) is happy to announce the start of a new group of CRA-I visionary leaders charged with propelling the committee forward. This new Council of individuals will work closely with the Steering Committee to identify future committee directions, connect with the community, and achieve the goals of CRA-I. 

CRA-I welcomes the following five new Council members, nominated by colleagues in the computing research community:

Ron Brachman, Cornell Tech

Ron Brachman is the Director of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech in New York City and a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. Ron received his B.S.E.E. from Princeton University, and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. Before coming to Cornell Tech, Ron had an outstanding career in research and research leadership at world-leading institutions like Bell Labs; AT&T Labs; DARPA, where he served as Director of the Information Processing Technology Office; and Yahoo Labs, where he served as Yahoo’s Chief Scientist and head of Yahoo Labs. At these institutions he was responsible for recruiting world-class research teams and creating and leading innovative research and academic relationship programs, including the program at DARPA that led to Siri. Ron has served as President of AAAI and Secretary-Treasurer of IJCAI, Inc., and served on the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association. He has published extensively in AI over the years, including a textbook on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning and a recent book on Common Sense in AI (both co-written with Hector Levesque). He is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, AAAI, and AAAS.

Elizabeth Bruce, Microsoft

Ms. Elizabeth Bruce is University Relations Director at Microsoft focusing on Microsoft’s strategic relationships with key universities and facilitating collaboration across business units. Elizabeth provides direction on partnerships and investments in new collaborations. Prior to Microsoft, Elizabeth spent over a decade at MIT leading research initiatives and developing strategic partnerships with industry in data science, big data, privacy, cloud computing, biomedical, and telecommunications. Elizabeth served as Executive Director at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) and co-founded the MIT Big Data Initiative at the Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL). She holds a Joint Program Master’s degree from MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Ocean Engineering and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. Elizabeth currently serves on the Board of AnswerALS and is a member of the U.S. National Committee for CODATA (Committee on Data of the International Science Council).

Hank Korth, Lehigh University 

Henry F. (Hank) Korth is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering with a courtesy appointment in the Data and Technology Analytics Department at Lehigh University.  He is a member of the Scalable Software Systems Research Group and directs the Blockchain Lab in the Center for Financial Services. Prior to joining Lehigh, he was director of Database Principles Research at Bell Labs, a vice president of Panasonic Technologies, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and a research staff member at IBM Research. Korth is a fellow of the ACM and of the IEEE and a winner of the 10-Year Award at the VLDB Conference.  He received the Bell Labs President’s Silver Award for the QTM™ aggregation engine and for the DataBlitz™ main-memory storage manager.  His numerous research publications span a wide range of aspects of database systems, including transaction management in parallel and distributed systems, real-time systems, query processing, and the influence on these areas by modern computing architectures.  Most recently, his research has addressed a variety of issues in blockchain systems and applications, including acceleration of zero-knowledge proofs on parallel architectures, benchmarking, central-bank digital currencies, and private yet provable accounting systems.  Details of his current work are online at blockchain.cse.lehigh.edu.

Eve Schooler, formerly Intel

Eve M. Schooler is a recognized expert in Networking and Distributed Systems. Her current work focuses on evolving the Internet toward a Sustainable edge-cloud infrastructure and Carbon-aware networking. After 18 years, she recently left Intel to embark on new adventures and to pursue an academic sabbatical in Sustainable Computing. At Intel, she was a Principal Engineer and Director, responsible for setting technical direction for Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) networks, standards and innovation. Prior to Intel, she held positions at AT&T Labs-Research, USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI), Apollo Computers, and Pollere. Throughout her career, Dr. Schooler has served in leadership positions in various international standards bodies, including the IETF and NIST. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association in the US, the EU’s SPATIAL H2020 Project, and on the Advisory council of the University of Delaware’s Computing and Information Sciences department. She holds a BS from Yale, MS from UCLA, and PhD from Caltech, all in Computer Science. She has published extensively and is an inventor on over 35 patents. She is an IEEE Fellow and the co-recipient of the IEEE Internet Award for her work on control protocols for Internet telephony and multimedia teleconferencing.

Tammy Toscos, Parkview Health

Tammy Toscos is the founder (2014) and Director of the Health Services and Informatics Research lab at Parkview Health, a large not-for-profit health system serving Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio. At the Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation, she leads an embedded interdisciplinary scientific team focused on supporting the health system with translational research at the intersection of human computer interaction, computing, and health services research. Dr. Toscos holds a BS in Nutrition & Dietetics from Indiana University, an MS in Applied Computer Science from Purdue University, a PhD in Informatics from Indiana University, and completed a Postdoctoral Health Services Research Fellowship at the Regenstrief Institute. Dr. Toscos has held academic appointments in computer science, nursing and health informatics. Her research has been acknowledged with several awards and funded by AHRQ, PCORI, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and several industry partners.

Please help the industry research community by continuing nominating outstanding colleagues for the CRA-I Council. Read more here and send nominations to industryinfo@cra.org. 

CRA Senior Communications Specialist Shar Steed is Moving On!

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The following blog was posted on the CRA Bulletin. Shar was instrumental in helping CRA-Industry launch from an idea to a full CRA Committee. We thank her for all her guidance and wish her the best of luck in her new position. 

Today marks the last of Shar Steed’s tenure at Computing Research Association (CRA), as she’s leaving us to pursue other opportunities.

Shar has handled the bulk of CRA’s communications responsibilities since 2012, when she joined us as a Communications Specialist from AAAS. In the intervening 10+ years, she rose to Senior Communications Specialist and helped facilitate a complete rebranding of CRA, presided over the revamping of the CRA website, socials, and our newsletters, helped launch several new publications – including the CRA Member Book and the initial version of the CV Database, and just in general made CRA communications work. We will miss all her contributions, and her role as an amazing member of the CRA staff.

She’s leaving CRA to put her talents to use tackling communications issues for another association. We wish her the best of luck and much success in her new position!