Updates from the CCC

By Greg Hager, CCC Chair

It has been a busy fall for the CCC, hosting workshops on Uncertainty in Computation, Aging in Place, and BRAIN. Each represents a different thread of the CCC’s engagement with the research community – Uncertainty in Computation came from our open call for proposals, Aging in Place was developed in concert with NIH, and BRAIN was a collaboration with CISE. Still, the common themes in each are a unique, new set of opportunities for computing-related research, and the potential to enhance the impact of our field on areas of national interest. Look for workshop reports and/or white papers on these topics to be coming out in the near future.

The convergence of high performance computing and data-intensive computing is an area where a great deal of conversation is taking place. In particular, there is a robust discussion as to how NSF, DoE, and other federal agencies should invest in new cyber-infrastructure. The Advanced Computing Infrastructure (ACI) directorate has commissioned a study in this area; the recently released interim report from this study raises a number of important questions. We encourage the CS community to read this report and provide your inputs as to how computer science can benefit and be benefitted by new federal investments in high-performance computing and cyber-infrastructure.

Looking ahead, the CCC is actively working on a number of themes that we believe will offer new opportunities or which will otherwise enhance our field. Computing in the Physical World is a recurring topic – encompassing Cyber-Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Robotics, the Maker Movement, and Manufacturing. Much like Big Data, the impact of the growth in this area will vary by sector, but nonetheless there are common research problems at the intersection of computer science, sensing and actuation, and human-computer interaction.

Another theme that has consistently gained interest is the interaction between academia and industry. We are seeing an ever-richer ecosystem of relationships that provide academics access to unique infrastructure, data sets, and, in some cases, funding to support research, and in the reverse direction flows of people -- students, postdocs, and faculty – into industry. We see a clear opportunity to better leverage this growing trend and to thereby draw these two communities together.

We continue to be actively interested in opportunities in healthcare, education, big data, as well as themes that emerge from the community and from agencies. For example, we are hosting a series of workshops on Privacy by Design, co-sponsoring a workshop on Extensible Distributed Systems, and finishing our 2025 series with a round-table discussion of future themes for Computing. We are in the process of reviewing proposals for community-initiated visioning workshops, so be on the lookout for new activities throughout the spring and summer at http://cra.org/ccc.