As America debates how to get through these tough economic times, research funding for science and engineering may get lost in the clamor. Here are some suggestions about what you can do.
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Computers in Education Should Target Test Scores
Does it help to bring computers into the classroom? So far, there seems to be little evidence that it does.
Analog Computing: Time For a Comeback?
Use of the word "computer" conjures certain images. One of them, so deeply ingrained that we rarely question it, is that computing is digital. The alternative, analog computing, has a long and illustrious history, and hybrid (digital and analog) computing may be one way to address challenges on the frontier of device physics, computer architecture and software.
Yes, Computer Scientists Are Hypercritical
Are computer scientists hypercritical? Are we more critical than scientists and engineers in other disciplines? Some numbers from the National Science Foundation support the claim that we are hypercritical.
From Idea to Product; How Schools of Education Can Help CS
Daniel Reed discusses how researchers communicate their project ideas to companies and product groups and get them successfully adopted. Mark Guzdial considers whether schools of education could create more high school CS teachers.
The U.K. Is Taking Steps to Improve Computing Education in Schools
The United Kingdom is stepping up its efforts to improve computing education in schools.
Stanford University has very visibly started pushing mass teaching in AI, machine learning, and databases.
The Modes and Uses of Scientific Publication
Publication is about helping the advancement of humankind. Let us take this basis for granted and look at the other, possibly less glamorous aspects. Publication has four modes: Publicity; Exam; Business; and Ritual.
U.K. Students Turned Into Goldfish By Social Networking
On the social networking obsession among U.K. students: It's the very air they breathe.
Gender Discrimination in the U.K. Research Excellence Framework
The U.K. research assessment framework will discriminate against female researchers. We can't afford to lose more women from CS research!
Why do we, as researchers and practitioners, have this deep and abiding love of computing? Why do we compute? I suspect it is a deeper, more primal yearning, one that underlies all of science and engineering and that unites us in a common cause. It is the insatiable desire to know and understand.
Jeannette M. Wing @ PCAST; Barbara Liskov Keynote
Jeannette M. Wing discusses her PCAST presentation about the importance of computer science and its impact. Valerie Barr shares highlights from Barbara Liskov's keynote at Grace Hopper.
Password Policies Are Getting Out of Control
At least 9 characters long. No repeated characters. At least 1 number, 1 special character, and 1 capital letter. Cannot be same as last 10 passwords. Must change every 60 days. Oh, and don't write it down either, or use on other sites.
The Nastiness Problem in Computer Science
Are we malevolent grumps? Nothing personal, but as a community computer scientists sometimes seem to succumb to negativism.
Game-Based Ideas Management in the Workplace
A brief discussion of ideas management software used by the U.K. government.
Trip Report on the 2011 International Computing Education Research Workshop
Last week's ICER 2011 conference was a smashing success. We learned how students believe in a "Geek gene," where students work on their programs, how to make compilers more friendly, how demonstrations can lead students astray, and how confusion is an indication of understanding.
Stonebraker on NoSQL and Enterprises
Michael Stonebraker discusses several reasons why NoSQL has not caught on with enterprise users.
What We Owe Google, and What Google Owes Us
We rely on online information sources—maybe too much. What is our responsibility to make sure that they're accurate, and what responsibility do the sources have to us?
Foggy Futures: The Confused Computing Career Aspirations of 12-Year-Olds
Based on recent interviews with 12 year olds about careers in computing, I argue that if we want to evaluate programs that encourage young people to study computing, we need a shared vocabulary of computing concepts.
Jeannette M. Wing discusses peer review and its importance in terms of public trust. Ed H. Chi writes about alternatives, such as open peer commentary.
Being Bilingual: Speaking Technology and Policy
How do we cross the intellectual divide, providing technical advice to policy experts in ways that they find useful and actionable? Equally importantly, how do we translate policy constraints — political, economic and social — into contexts intelligible and actionable by technical experts? The key in both cases is to respect the differences and values each bring to the discussion.
Interspecies Interaction Design at CHI
A description of new frontiers in animal/human interaction design emerging at CHI. No cats or chickens were harmed in the writing of this article.
On the Importance of Replication in HCI and Social Computing Research
How does replication of experiments and systems move HCI research forward? Wouldn't replication simply waste valuable researcher energy that might be better spent on actually creating new novel ideas or systems? This essay argues that replication is more than just duplication of work, but instead is an essential step in scientific explorations.
Why Don’t Languages Support Multimedia All the Way Down?
It's a hallmark of CS thinking, to be able to shift levels of abstraction down to the bytes. Why do programming languages make this so hard to teach students?
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get InvolvedCommunications of the ACM (CACM) is now a fully Open Access publication.
By opening CACM to the world, we hope to increase engagement among the broader computer science community and encourage non-members to discover the rich resources ACM has to offer.
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