In Brief - CRA Committee Activities

Elections (David Patterson)

Nominations for CRA’s Board of Directors closed on March 2. From the nominations received, the committee will select a slate of candidates. In mid-April, election ballots will be mailed to CRA members. The election results will be circulated in late May, and new Board members will begin their three-year terms on July 1.

Government Affairs (Peter Freeman)

The Government Affairs Committee and others on the Board provide ongoing support to CRA staff in their Washington activities aimed at making sure that appropriate computing research policies are enacted. In January, Rick Weingarten represented CRA in a government-sponsored meeting on the information worker shortage (see Information Technology Worker Shortage Conference, page 1), and CRA will continue to follow this issue closely over the next few months. In the Senate, new NGI legislation is expected to be submitted, and CRA will prepare formal comments. In late February, Peter Freeman will represented CRA in a background meeting with Congressman Vernon Ehlers, head of the Science Policy Study in the Congress. Visits by Board members and others to Capitol Hill and other government offices in conjunction with the March Board meeting are being arranged. In May, CRA expects to testify at hearings on NSF appropriations held by the House Committee on Appropriations.

CRA is involved in the planning of two upcoming meetings, both in Washington, DC. In April, CRA government affairs is co-sponsoring Net ’98 with EDUCOM and other higher education groups. The meeting will focus on Federal networking policy. William Kennard, Chairman of the FCC, will deliver the keynote address. Also, Jim Foley is helping the USACM in its preparations for the Policy ‘98 conference in May.

Industrial (William Gear)

The Industrial Committee has completed a salary survey of industrial computer science research laboratories. Nine laboratories took part in this first such survey, which covered 655 scientists. The results were analyzed by CRA staff, and a statistical summary was distributed to companies that participated (using a format similar to that of the Taulbee Survey of academic salaries.)

Snowbird Conference (James Foley and Mary Jane Irwin)

Committee plans for Snowbird ’98 on July 26-28 in Snowbird, Utah are nearly finalized (see article, below.) Registration materials, including a printed information booklet, will be circulated shortly. Additional information and Snowbird program updates are available on the at Web

Status of Women in Computer Science and Engineering Research (Leah Jamieson and Jan Cuny)

The National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) and the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance) – awardees in the NSF’s Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program – are coordinating outreach activities through the Education, Outreach, and Training Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (EOT-PACI). As part of this effort, EOT-PACI will be supporting activities of CRA’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) and Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC). Two new CRA-W projects to be initiated with PACI support focus on undergraduates and research:

·Conference Experiences for Women. This program provides support for female undergraduates and beginning graduate students to attend a research conference with a faculty conference mentor. The experience of attending a research conference can be very motivating, and the interaction with conference attendees (particularly female faculty who can act as role models) is important in the decision to pursue a research career. The students will meet other attendees and will gain information about career development and networking. The project is being organized by Nancy Leveson (leveson@mit.edu) and Ruzena Bajcsy (bajcsy@central.cis.upenn.edu).

·Undergraduate Research Teams. At least seven undergraduate research teams of three female students each will be developed to focus on research problems as a group, led by a female researcher. The teams will come together for a semester, and results of their work will be posted on the CRA-W website and distributed as appropriate. This project is being organized by Sheila Castaneda (cast@keller.clarke.edu).

Surveys (Gregory Andrews)

The annual Taulbee Survey of Ph.D. granting departments has now been completed; final results are reported on pages 4 - 8 by the survey’s coordinators, Stu Zweben and Dexter Kozen. The subcommittee on a new "departmental profiles" survey (chaired by Mirek Truszczynski) has put together a draft that covers budgets, space, teaching loads, and graduate student support. The final draft will be presented to the CRA Board at its March meeting; the committee’s goal is to conduct the survey later this spring.

Workshops (David Patterson, Chair, Academic Careers)

Workshops on effective teaching and academic career development are planned on July 23-24, 1998, in Madison, Wisconsin (see announcement, page 9). Speakers will include Jan Cuny (University of Oregon), Susan Eggers (University of Washington), Dave Patterson (University of California, Berkeley), Bobby Schnabel (University of Colorado), and Mary Jane Irwin (Pennsylvania State University).