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What attracts the best and brightest minds of a new generation? What are the next big computing ideas, the ones that will define the future of computing, galvanize the very best students, and catalyze research investment and public support?
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) seeks to mobilize the computing research community to answer these questions by identifying major research opportunities for the field.

Click on the tabs below to see some of these activities.

Interactive Technologies


A revolution in the foundation of interaction is required!

- Interactive computing technology is based primarily on the architectures created for the XEROX Star and the Macintosh. Computing has changed since then and the expectations of people have changed radically yet, with the exception of the Web little has changed in the underlying theory and systems that support interactivity.

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Challenge to the Community:

Is there a science for understanding the complexity of our networks such that we can engineer them to have predictable behavior?


Maybe our networks are really different from anything anyone has ever seen (in nature) or built (by human) before
Implication: A BRAND NEW THEORY is needed!

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Cyber-Physical Systems


The integration of physical systems and processes with networked computing

Computations and Communication deeply embedded in and interacting with physical processes to add new capabilities to physical systems. Applications range from miniscule (pace makers) to large-scale (the national power-grid).

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Robotics


The present CCC study will generate a roadmap of applications for robotics across users, producers and researchers. The objective is to provide a comprehensive view of the use of robotics, main obstacles to deployment and identification of key competencies to facilitate the transformation. Some of these key competencies are not available today due to fundamental problems in design of systems. The process will identify such basic problems that will have to be addressed in order to ensure continued progress. Both market drivers and technology push will be considered as mechanisms for design of new systems.

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Big-Data Computing Study Group


Under sponsorship by the CCC, the Big-Data Study Group will explore and enable opportunities for research and applications of high-performance, data-intensive computing systems, benefiting application areas ranging from astronomy to machine translation.

To begin this effort, two events were held in March, 2008.

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Visions for Theoretical Computer Science


Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) aims to understand the intrinsic capabilities and limitations of efficient computation.

This subfield of computer science has a record of producing unexpected discoveries of high impact, such as public-key cryptography and quantum computation; and of raising deep scientific questions, such as the P vs. NP question.

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Free/Open Source Software


Free/Open Source Software is radically transforming how software is being developed by different communities in diverse disciplines.

Many of the grand challenge topics for engineering research increasingly rely on the development and use of FOSS systems(e.g., the International Thermonuclear Energy Research (ITER) project for fusion research).

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Global Resources for Online Education (GROE)


GROE will influence computing research funding strategies in the advancement of education through computational models, reasoning, experimentation and implementation of mobile and ubiquitous pedagogical software.

Immediate topics of interest include: partnerships, services and tools for learning based on improved understanding of human cognition; improved human-computer interaction for individual productivity...

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Cross Layer Reliability


System-level, Cross-layer Cooperation to Achieve Predictable Systems from Unpredictable Components.

RelXLayer will draw participants from the broader computer research community to nurture a vision for a multi-level approach to reliability, generating a clear picture of the challenges and opportunities offered in multi-level reliability approaches...

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Global Development


The last decade has seen a resurgence of interest in the application of information technologies to address problems in global development.

Information is an important factor in the delivery of many basic services - including finance, health care, governance, agriculture and access to markets...

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Advancing Computer Architecture Research (ACAR)


The community of computer architecture researchers has grown substantially in the past 10 years, while the research work in the area continues to search for new ideas to address more acute trends and restrictions. Discontinuity-inducing trends such as the ubiquity of multi-cores, the reduced reliability of semiconductors, and ever-present power constraints, are transforming the field again. In this environment, one asks:

- What will computing platforms look like in 15 years?
- How will they impact the socio-human condition?
- What are the major research challenges that must be overcome to create these platforms?

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Discovery and Innovation in Health IT


Exploring and defining fundamental research challenges and opportunities in healthcare IT.

- Identify a range of "model" proof-of-concept, integrative systems that might serve as motivating and unifying forces to drive fundamental research in healthcare IT and accelerate the transition of research outcomes into products and services;

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Peter Lee at University of Washington


Peter Lee on the future of DARPA, and the Transformational Convergence Technology Office. TCTO is re-establishing basic research programs in a broad range of rapidly emerging computing-enabled technology areas such as social media, synthetic biology, high-performance computing, and networking, as well as employing a diverse range of innovation strategies including broad community programs, competitions/challenges, and crowd sourcing.

Watch at YouTube

Computing Research that Changed the World



LoC Symposium IconThis invitation only symposium, "Computing Research that Changed the World: Reflections and Perspectives," was organized by the Computing Community Consortium in collaboration with Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN), Congressman Ralph Hall (R-TX), Congressman Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), Congressman Vern Ehlers (R-MI), Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). It was held in the Library of Congress on March 25, 2009.

The overall message of the symposium is that computing research has made game-changing advances in the last two decades, from which we can extract lessons for structuring future programs to sustain that track record.

More Information | YouTube Channel

 

Discovery and Innovation in Health IT


This invitation only workshop, "Discovery and Innovation in Health IT," was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Library of Medicine, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Computing Community Consortium, and the American  Medical Informatics Association. It was held at the Parc 55 Hotel in San Francisco on October 29 and 30, 2009.

For more informaion see: http://www.cra.org/ccc/healthit

 

Buzz on the Blog


Landmark Contributions by Students in Computer Science


The inspiring list in the attached PDF was compiled by the following individuals and their colleagues: Bill Bonvillian (MIT), Susan Graham (Berkeley), Anita Jones (University of Virginia), Ed Lazowska (University of Washington), Pat Lincoln (SRI), Fred Schneider (Cornell), and Victor Zue (MIT).

Here is the list [PDF | 20 KB]

 

NetSE Research Agenda


In 2008, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) charged the Network Science and Engineering (NetSE) Council with developing a comprehensive research agenda that would support the development of a better Internet. This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the NetSE Council.

NetSE Research Agenda [PDF | 1.5 MB]
Feedback to netse-comment@cra.org is welcome.

For complete information on the NetSE initiative, please see our NetSE Section.

 

Special Feature

Computing Research Initiatives for the 21st Century

The pivotal role of information technology in the United States' continued leadership in an increasingly competitive world is well documented. Advances in information technology have led to significant improvements in product design, development and distribution for American industry, provided instant communications for people worldwide. IT to collaborate across the globe, simulate experiments, visualize large and complex datasets, and collect and manage massive massive amounts of data. What does the new government need to know about the value of computing research? What are some of the most promising and exciting research opportunities in the field? What computing capabilities are critical for the nation today and into the future?

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