BLOG@CACM

Again: The One Sure Way to Advance Software Engineering

Jan 14 2011

Big Data, Big Problems

U.S. government agencies are spending boatloads of money on pushing the envelope of massive compute servers, but appear to be ignoring the fact that many research groups have serious data-management problems.

Michael Stonebraker

Data and Information

Jan 13 2011

There is one proven way to improve the state of software, following the the airline industry's spectacular improvements of safety. The IT industry ignores it. Why?

Bertrand Meyer

The Best Job in the World

Jan 8 2011

Where does software engineer come in a ranked list of jobs?

Judy Robertson

Teaching Kids to Feel the Math With Computers

Jan 6 2011

Why are students still calculating when they could be understanding? Now that computers are everywhere, how should math education change?

Greg Linden

Jan 5 2011

Works in Progress: MIA

It is time we extracted a sample of cultural DNA from computing's history and engineered a new generation of contemplative, informal workshops. After gestation, ideas conceived at those workshops might even find their way into technical reports. Imagine that.

Daniel Reed

Smart Career Advice; Laptops as a Classroom Distraction

Jan 1 2011

Jack Rosenberger shares Patty Azzarello's life lessons about advancing in the workplace. Judy Robertson discusses students' in-class usage of laptops.

Jack Rosenberger and Judy Robertson

Dec 21 2010

Santa’s Outbox

Busy as he may be, Santa is still finding time to reply to his email on computer science matters.

Judy Robertson

Computer Science Education Week Extends Its Reach

Dec 16 2010

Covering the highlights from CSEdWeek 2010 and how the computing community can stay involved.

Debra Richardson and Cameron Wilson

We’re Too Late For ‘First’ in CS1

Dec 7 2010

By the time students get to undergraduate CS1, they already have lots of ideas about computation. Objects, hardware, breadth, functions first--none of that really matters. There is no more "first" in CS1.

Mark Guzdial

2010 Seymour Cray and Sidney Fernbach Awards

Dec 1 2010

This year, I again had the honor and privilege to chair the selection committee for the IEEE Seymour Cray and Sidney Fernbach awards, both of which were presented at SC10 in New Orleans. These eponymously named awards recognize truly outstanding contributions to high-performance computing, in honor of two early leaders of our field.

Daniel Reed

Architecture and Hardware

Dec 1 2010

Security Advice; Malvertisements; and CS Education in Qatar

Greg Linden discusses security advice and the cost of user effort, Jason Hong considers the increase in malvertisements, and Mark Guzdial writes about gender and CS education in Qatar.

Greg Linden, Jason Hong, and Mark Guzdial

SC10: Green500 and Booth ‘Awards’

Nov 19 2010

SC10 has included several lists that rank supercomputers according to different criteria. The November 2010 Green500, focusing on energy efficiency, is out and has some interesting surprises.

Steve Keckler

Systems and Networking

Nov 19 2010

Game Design Through Mentoring and Collaboration

About the successful game design program for students at McKinley Tech and George Mason University which encourages young people to study STEM.

Judy Robertson

SC10: Dally Keynote, Heterogeneous Computing Systems

Nov 18 2010

This post provides some impressions from Wednesday, November 17, at SC10, including Bill Dally's keynote address and panel discussions on heterogeneous computing.

Steve Keckler

Welcome to SC10: Opening Keynote, Top500 List

Nov 17 2010

SC10—the premier conference for supercomputing—has begun. This post touches on a few highlights from the first day of the full technical program, including the keynote by Clayton Christensen, the official release of the Top500 list, and some observations on the exhibit floor.

Steve Keckler

Architecture and Hardware

Nov 15 2010

Watts Humphrey: In Honor of a Pioneer

Watts Humphrey left us a few weeks ago. His contributions to professional software engineering have been essential.

Bertrand Meyer

Computer Science as Value Added to a Liberal Education

Nov 15 2010

Computer science education is valuable, even to those who do not major in computer science. Those non-CS major informants who talk about that value are doing us a great service.

Mark Guzdial

Massive Scale Data Mining For Education

Nov 10 2010

With the increased use of computers in education, there will be a big new opportunity for computers to learn to help students learn.

Greg Linden

Rethinking the Systems Review Process

Nov 1 2010

Tessa Lau launches a discussion about the acceptance criteria for HCI systems papers at CHI, UIST, and other conferences.

Tessa Lau

Oct 29 2010

To Videolecture or Not

Should conferences cover the cost of a videolecture or not? I say "yes."

John Langford

Computers Are a Tool, Even in Education

Oct 26 2010

Computers in schools should be making teachers' jobs easier, making it easier for students to learn, and increasing student achievement in measurable ways. Little else matters.

Greg Linden

HPC and the Excluded Middle

Oct 24 2010

Betwixt and between ubiquitous consumer software and the ethereal realm of ultra-high-performance computing, lies the excluded middle, the world of day-to-day computational science problems.

Daniel Reed

Fixing the Process of Computer Science Refereeing

Oct 20 2010

There is a simple way to make refereeing better, almost overnight. It takes a bit of courage, but it would restore honesty and quality to the process.

Bertrand Meyer