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Undergraduate Award Winners Announced
1997-98 Annual Report
MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD CHAIRThe Computing Research Association seeks to strengthen research and advanced education in computing and allied fields. We do this by working to influence policy that impacts computing research, encouraging the development of human resources, and contributing to the cohesiveness of the professional community. Collecting and disseminating information about the importance and the state of computing research are important in achieving these objectives. I am delighted to highlight just a few of CRA's many activities during 1997-98. CRA continued to be active in the effort to increase funding for computing research. Individuals testified on behalf of CRA before the House Appropriations Committee on funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering, and CRA joined other members of the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) to endorse an additional supplement to the NSF research budget. CRA also contributed to the House science policy study directed by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Michigan). In May, CRA sponsored an exhibit at the CNSF exhibition of NSF-funded research attended by Members of Congress and congressional staff. A national shortage of information technology workers has been much in the news of late. Under the leadership of board member Peter Freeman, CRA has worked with the National Science Foundation to study the workforce shortage from the "supply side." The report of a study committee convened to address this issue will be available in spring 1999. Under the leadership of Randy Katz (University of California, Berkeley) and Tom Kalil from the White House, CRA initiated an Executive Fellowship Program, which places several computing researchers each year as advisors in major government agencies. Two Fellows were selected in the first year, and one accepted the fellowship. Victor Rosenberg, University of Michigan School of Information, will spend a year in the Office of the Under Secretary for Technology in the Department of Commerce beginning September 1, 1998. The CRA Distributed Mentor Project, which places undergraduate women in summer research programs nationwide, continues its successful track record in encouraging young women to go on to graduate school and pursue computing research as a career. Anne Condon from the University of Wisconsin has overseen the program for the past year. CRA also cosponsored the second Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in San Jose in September 1997. The conference attracted 600 attendees and received widespread media coverage. CRA was delighted to honor Bryant York from Northeastern University with the A. Nico Habermann Award, in recognition of his many years of outstanding contributions to underrepresented groups within the computing research community. CRA also honored Merrell Patrick, National Science Foundation, by awarding him the CRA Distinguished Service Award for his many contributions to our field in the academic, government, and industrial sectors.
As the importance of our field expands rapidly, so does the importance of tasks we have set for the Computing Research Association. My sincere thanks to the CRA staff and to the CRA Board of Directors for another extraordinary year of leadership.
Edward Lazowska Back to the top | Table of Contents
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORThis has been another productive year for CRA as we continue to improve and expand our activities on behalf of the computing research community. I am pleased to report that we have made substantial progress in our programs, increased our membership, and ended the year on a positive financial note. I would like to provide a few highlights. In addition to the Executive Fellowship Program mentioned in the Chairman's message, CRA introduced two major initiatives in the past year. The first is a Departmental Profiles Survey to collect data about work space, teaching loads, research assistant compensation, and other issues that help computer science and engineering chairs manage their departments better. The second is an Industrial Salary Survey to collect data about salaries and numbers of professional employees in industrial research labs. The latter survey complements the information CRA has collected for many years in the annual Taulbee Survey of academic salaries. Two programs that had been in preliminary stages of development became ongoing activities this year. In its efforts to promote diversity in computing research, the Coalition to Diversify Computing became more active and introduced a number of new initiatives. These included planning for a mentor project, compiling a database and establishing a webpage, and providing support for conference attendance. The second program, introduced by our Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research, involves conducting workshops relevant to the interests of CRA members. Subjects will include effective teaching and career development for CS&E faculty, as well as topics of interest to professionals embarking on industrial research careers. These workshops are likely to be offered every year or two. CRA's membership continued to grow this year. At year's end, we had 165 academic departments, 21 industrial labs and centers, and five professional societies as members. New academic members include departments at: Ball State University; Bucknell University; New Mexico Tech; Stevens Institute of Technology; Swarthmore College; University of Arkansas; University of California, San Diego; University of Central Arkansas; University of Maryland (Baltimore County); University of Michigan, Dearborn; University of Nevada, Reno; University of Saskatchewan; University of Texas, Dallas; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute. NASA Ames became our first government lab member. Industrial labs that signed on as members include: FX Palo Alto Laboratory, InterTrust Technologies, Panasonic Technologies, and Sony US Research. From a financial perspective, CRA exceeded its budgetary targets for fiscal year 1997-98. This has enabled us to accelerate our ten-year plan to build an operating reserve. It also provides the organizational stability to grow in a rational way and to take on new activities on behalf of our members.
We are well positioned to continue to improve our service to the computing research community in the coming years.
William Aspray
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
As of June 1998:
Board Officers
Members
The following organizations held membership in CRA for all, or in a few cases part, of the period July 1997 to June 1998. Affiliated Professional Societies
Industry and Government Labs and Centers
Academic Members
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MISSION STATEMENTThe Computing Research Association (CRA) seeks to strengthen research and advanced education in computing and allied fields. It does this by working to influence policy that impacts computing research, encouraging the development of human resources, contributing to the cohesiveness of the professional community, and collecting and disseminating information about the importance and the state of computing research. Each plays an important role in achieving the organizational objectives. CRA counts among its members more than 180 North American organizations active in computing research: academic departments of computer science and computer engineering; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia; and affiliated professional societies (AAAI, ACM, IEEE Computer Society, SIAM, USENIX). CRA works with these organizations to represent the computing research community and to effect change that benefits both computing research and society at large. CRA was formed in 1972 as the Computer Science Board (CSB), which provided a forum for the chairs of Ph.D. granting computer science departments to discuss issues and share information. In 1986 CSB, in recognition of its increasing concern for R&D in the computing fields, including computer engineering and computational science, incorporated as the Computing Research Board (CRB). In 1990, CRB was given its present name, the Computing Research Association, and a permanently staffed office was opened in Washington, DC. Though computing is an integral part of modern life, it is still in its infancy. The benefits that computing brings to our society can be traced directly to basic research and advanced development carried out in academic, government, and industrial laboratories by men and women who have an advanced education in computing and related fields. (Research, advanced development and related educational issues fall under the CRA broad definition of computing research.) CRA's focus on computing research is framing its mission and activities. Such activities will help to ensure a firm foundation for the advances in computing that will be essential to meet the challenges of the 21st century. CRA is incorporated in the District of Columbia and operates as a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization under the Tax Code of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. CRA's four mission areas are:PolicyDevelop a deeper understanding of policy issues and their impact, and work for informed policies involving computing research and computing technology in general.
InformationCollect and disseminate to the research and policy-making communities information about the importance and state of computing research and related policy.
Human resourcesEnsure that society's need for a continuous supply of talented and well-educated computing researchers and advanced practitioners is met.
CommunityPromote a cohesive and effective sense of community among individuals and groups involved in computing research.
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POLICY ACTIVITIESPolicy continues to be one of CRA's most important areas of focus. Under the direction of the Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Peter Freeman, the program continued to grow in effectiveness. This list provides a sample of some of the more important policy activities during the year.
National Science Foundation AppropriationsCRA continued its efforts to increase National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for computing research this year. The chair of CRA's Government Affairs Committee, Peter Freeman, testified before the House Appropriations Committee on funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering. Once again, in conjunction with the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), CRA participated in an exhibition of NSF-funded research attended by Members of Congress and congressional staff. CRA sponsored Carnegie Mellon's "Project Listen: A Reading Tutor That Listens," exhibited by Project Director Jack Mostow and a Ph.D. student. The exhibit showcased Dr. Mostow's research in computer education. CRA also joined in a CNSF letter endorsing an additional supplement to the NSF research budget.
Information Technology WorkersCRA played an active role in the policy debate on the shortage of information technology (IT) workers. CRA was represented at a White House-sponsored conference held in Berkeley, California, in January, and a Washington-area "town meeting" sponsored by the Commerce Department. CRA Taulbee Survey data on enrollments and degree production were used by congressional staff in both Houses and in the executive agencies, and CRA staff and volunteers played an active role in explaining and interpreting the data to these officials. As the issue evolved, CRA became concerned that the particular perspectives of academic computer science and computer engineering were in danger of being lost in the debate. Consequently, CRA initiated a project, funded by NSF, to convene a study group of experts from academia and industry on the IT worker shortage. CRA will publish the study group's findings in the first quarter of 1999.
Executive Fellowship ProgramThere continues to be a shortage of computer scientists with senior policy experience in Washington. To address this problem, a CRA committee chaired by Randy Katz (University of California, Berkeley) coordinated with the White House to develop a new program of fellowship support for computer scientists and engineers to work for a year or two at a senior level in Federal agencies. Vice President Albert Gore Jr. has endorsed the program, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has approved the affiliation of the CRA Executive Fellowship Program with the distinguished AAAS Fellows programs. NSF is funding the administrative costs of the program. Two Fellows were selected in the first round and one accepted the fellowship. He will begin his term in September 1998 in the Office of the Under Secretary for Technology in the Department of Commerce.
Congressional and Agency VisitsDuring the Computer Leadership Summit organized by CRA in October 1997, a breakfast meeting was arranged for participating officials with Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Michigan), Vice Chair, House Committee on Science. In conjunction with the March Board meeting in Washington, CRA set up several visits by Board members to key Federal science officials. Board members met with the Director of NSF and senior officials at DARPA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. They also visited key congressional staff in science policy to discuss computing research issues.
Congressional Science Policy StudyThe CRA Board Chair sent two letters to Rep. Vernon Ehlers, Vice Chair of the House Committee on Science. The letters provided input from the computing research community for Ehlers' yearlong overview study of science policy that he was undertaking for the House leadership. CRA also communicated to the Chairman of the House Committee on Science (F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., R-Wisconsin) the concern that the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act would restrict access to scientific and technical data by creating new liabilities for educational institutions and research laboratories.
PublicationsTo keep the computing research community apprised of events in Washington that affect them, about fifteen articles were written by Fred W. Weingarten and CRA's contract professional writer, Louise Arnheim. These were published in Computing Research News. In addition, Dr. Weingarten published a series of columns on science policy and computing issues in SIAM News. The second edition of the brochure "Computing Research: A National Investment for Leadership in the 21st Century" continued to have influence in the R&D policy community. As he has done for the past six years, Fred W. Weingarten wrote the chapter on computing research funding for the annual report of the AAAS on Research and Development, FY 1999. This book is a leading source of information on federal budgets for science.Back to the top | Table of Contents
INFORMATION ACTIVITIESCRA collects and disseminates to the research and policy-making communities information about the state of computing research and related policy. These efforts include: a newsletter in both print and electronic formats; a website; a list service for policy news; the annual CRA Taulbee Survey of salaries, employment, and degree-production in Ph.D. granting CS&E departments; the new CRA Survey on Profiles of Ph.D. granting departments of CS&E (to be conducted periodically); the new Salary Survey of computer science researchers in industrial laboratories; and the Forsythe List of Ph.D. granting institutions. These activities were guided by three CRA committees: Publications, chaired by Jeffrey Ullman; Surveys, chaired by Gregory Andrews; and Electronic Services, chaired by John Stankovic.
Computing Research News and CRN OnlineComputing Research News, CRN, provided news and information about the computing research profession and CRA activities. The news journal is published in tabloid format five times a year and distributed to about 5,500 subscribers interested in research issues. An online version is also published. Contents this year included results from the CRA Taulbee Survey and detailed information about federal funding agencies, programs, and officers. Every issue contains news of the computing research community, articles about government affairs, news of CRA activities, and the "Expanding the Pipeline" column, which focuses on issues and activities associated with underrepresented groups in the profession.
Electronic BulletinTo provide the computing research community timely news of government events that might affect their profession, CRA operates a free electronic list server to more than 800 subscribers. The bulletin provides brief items of news such as announcements of federal and state legislation on computing research and development.
Taulbee SurveyFor more than twenty-five years CRA and its predecessor organizations have annually surveyed the Ph.D. granting CS&E departments for statistical information about the computing research profession. The Taulbee Survey is widely acknowledged as the most complete and accurate accounting of this field, and, as such, it is widely used by academic departments, industrial employers, and federal agencies. The survey tracks academic salaries, faculty employment, Ph.D. production, and numbers of bachelor's and master's students-and it subclassifies them by gender and ethnicity. More than 130 departments participated in the 1997-98 survey, a response rate of more than 80 percent.
Industrial Salary SurveyIn December, CRA initiated a survey of salaries of computing science researchers in industrial laboratories. Nine organizations participated. To maintain the confidentiality of the data, the detailed survey results were provided only to organizations that had completed the survey. Summary data will be released eventually to the entire computing research community. CRA plans to conduct this survey either annually or biennially, based on the perceived need for the information.
Departmental Profiles SurveyThis survey, initiated in April, begins a systematic effort to collect and distribute accurate data on key areas related to CS&E department management3/4numbers of personnel, student enrollments, degree productivity, budgets, space, teaching loads, and graduate support. It will be conducted periodically by CRA, with the results published in CRN.
Forsythe ListTo keep the research departments informed of important activities in the profession, CRA maintains the Forsythe List, an up-to-date list of the chairs of all US and Canadian Ph.D. granting CS&E departments. CRA distributes notices of CRA activities and other matters of interest to department chairs on this list on a regular basis.
World Wide WebCRA maintains a website that provides information to computing researchers and others who want to learn about computing research. The website provides information about CRA, including the CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computer Science and Engineering. It also offers links to all the research departments, industrial research laboratories and centers, and affiliated professional societies in the CS&E field in the United States and Canada. The website provides statistics from the CRA Taulbee Survey, as well as surveys conducted by other organizations such as the National Research Council. The government pages include a policy archive with past reports, congressional testimony, and links to other government affairs websites of interest to the computing research community. With guidance from the Electronic Services Committee, CRA's website underwent a major makeover this year.Back to the top | Table of Contents
HUMAN RESOURCES ACTIVITIESA s part of its effort to ensure that society's needs for a continuous supply of talented and well- educated computing researchers and advanced practitioners are met, CRA conducts a wide variety of programs. It provides a list server and webpages for advertising employment opportunities. The CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) is one of the most effective groups addressing issues of women in science and engineering disciplines. CRA has recently collaborated with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society to establish a Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC), which will use some of the strategies of the women's committee (and others) to try to increase the participation in the computing research community of all kinds of underrepresented groups. CRA continues to attract strong nominees to its awards program that encourages undergraduates to pursue research and research careers, as well as to its senior award program that recognizes contributions to increased participation of underrepresented groups in the computing research community. These committees were chaired by: Jan Cuny, University of Oregon, and Leah Jamieson, Purdue University (CRA-W); Sandra Johnson Baylor, IBM (Coalition to Diversify Computing); Jan Cuny, University of Oregon (Undergraduate Awards); and Caroline Wardle, National Science Foundation (Habermann Award).
Jobs List Server and WebpagesCRA advertises professional opportunities for computing researchers in Computing Research News and in two electronic forms. CRA maintains job postings on its webpages and runs a jobs list server. About 1,200 people subscribe to this list server, and CRA has become the organization of choice to advertise computing research positions for many departments. Advertisements in CRN and on the jobs list server more than doubled in the past year, and CRA has received many comments that these locations are among the most effective for posting jobs available to computing researchers.
A. Nico Habermann AwardBryant York, Northeastern University, received the 1998 A. Nico Habermann Award in recognition of his many years of outstanding contributions to underrepresented groups within the computing research community, both locally and nationally. CRA has given this award annually since 1994. The award recognizes work in the areas of government affairs, educational programs, professional societies, public awareness, and leadership.
Outstanding Undergraduate AwardsTo recognize and encourage research in CS&E among undergraduate students, CRA awards a cash prize and a trip to a research conference for one male and one female undergraduate. Microsoft Corporation supported the 1997-98 awards. The Outstanding Female Undergraduate award went to Karla Miller, a senior from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who is majoring in computer science. She was nominated for her research in medical imaging. The Outstanding Male Undergraduate award went to Chris Olston, a junior in the EECS Department at the University of California, Berkeley, for his work with their database research group on Tioga DataSplash, a data visualization system. Honorable Mention was given to: Natasha Gelfand, Brown University; Sharon Goldwater, Brown University; Sarita James, Harvard University; Samjung Kim, Northwestern University; Robert Sumner, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jaime Teevan, Yale University; Omri Traub, Harvard University; and Kevin Vlack, University of Illinois.
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in ComputingMore than 600 people attended the second Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference held in September 1997 in San Jose, California3/4more than double the number who attended the first one held in 1994. Cosponsored by CRA, ACM, and the IEEE Computer Society, the conference featured invited addresses by prominent women in computing, as well as panels, workshops, and opportunities for networking, mentoring, and interaction. Chaired by Ruzena Bajcsy of the University of Pennsylvania, CRA board members Frances Allen (IBM) and Anita Borg (Xerox PARC) served as program chair and keynote speaker, respectively. The next Hopper conference will be held in 2000.
Women in Computer Science Careers BookletAs a newer discipline than physics, chemistry, or biology, CS&E is not as well established. As a result, there is almost no material available to give K-12 students a taste of the excitement, challenges, and opportunities in the field. To help meet this need, CRA-W published a booklet featuring women in various academic and industrial positions, targeted to appeal to junior high and high school girls. In the first printing, funded by NSF, 15,000 booklets were distributed. ACM supported the printing of 35,000 additional copies this year, allowing the booklet to be distributed to each high school in the United States.
Distributed Mentor ProjectBeginning in 1994, approximately 20 to 25 students have participated each summer in the CRA Distributed Mentor Project. With support from the National Science Foundation, CRA-W established this program to give undergraduate women an opportunity to gain research experience in CS&E. These students are awarded grants to work on a research project under the direction of a female faculty member at another institution. A two-year evaluation conducted by the LEAD (Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation and Dissemination) Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison is available through the CRA-W webpages.
Collaborative Research Environment for Women in Undergraduate Computer Science and Engineering (CREW)This new project provides collaborative research experiences for groups of two or three undergraduate women. By decreasing the isolation they may experience in doing independent research, it is hoped that women scientists and engineers will be encouraged to continue pursuing research work in graduate school. NSF (i.e., the NSF Education, Outreach and Training Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, or EOT-PACI) funded nine proposals in the first round.
Coalition to Diversify Computing Mentor ProjectBased on the highly successful CRA-W Distributed Mentor Project, the Coalition to Diversify Computing is working with ACM to acquire funding to establish a mentor project for other minority students in computing research. It is hoped that the project will be able to award its first mentor grants next year.
Women in Computing DatabaseWomen are often underrepresented in many of the important activities of the computing profession. In part, this is due to the belief (often erroneous) that there are no women available to serve on a particular panel or committee, or to the fact that the organizers do not know how to identify qualified women. CRA-W is trying to rectify these problems by building and maintaining a database of women Ph.D.s in CS&E. The database has been used by: recruiters in personnel searches; editors-in-chief seeking editorial board candidates; conference program chairs in selecting members for their program committees; and CRA to generate lists of women to be nominated for awards.
CDC Database and WebpagesBased on the successful Women in Computing Database, the Coalition to Diversify Computing has recently begun to compile a database of minorities in computing research. The database is expected to be ready for use in the coming year. There are plans to create CDC webpages as well.
CDC Conference SupportCDC sponsored ten students to attend the Association of Computer and Information Science and Engineering Departments at Minority Institutions (ADMI) Conference in June. In addition, two students and seven department heads from historically minority institutions will be supported to attend the 1998 CRA Conference at Snowbird.
Systers-AcademiaThe goal of this moderated electronic mailing list is to provide mentoring and communication between women CS&E faculty and Ph.D. students. Topics discussed have included sexual harassment, overcoming hurdles and discouragement in the Ph.D. process, selecting and approaching Ph.D. advisers, university and department maternity policies, scholarships and fellowships available for women, and dealing with pornography. More than 500 women subscribed to this service.
Academic Careers for Women in Computer Science WorkshopCRA has been sponsoring workshops since 1993 to provide guidance to senior women, Ph.D. students, and junior women faculty in CS&E. Topics addressed include: obtaining their first academic job; succeeding at promotion and tenure; developing teaching and research programs; making contacts; and balancing career and family. Transcripts of several of the workshops are online from the CRA-W homepage, and are being edited into a Web-based text. An expanded workshop is planned for the Federated Computing Research Conference in the spring of 1999. This workshop series for women has served as the model for the other CRA mentoring projects.
Academic Careers WorkshopPlans were made for the second CRA Academic Careers Workshop in July 1998 in Madison, Wisconsin, in collocation with the AAAI meeting. Its target audience was faculty in the beginning years of their careers and senior graduate students contemplating an academic career. This workshop was inspired by the very successful Workshops on Academic Careers for Women in Computer Science that have been organized in the past by CRA-W. More than forty people are scheduled to attend the workshop. It was organized by David Patterson, and topics include getting funding (Richard Hirsh), selecting and managing a research project (Stuart Russell), the tenure process (Mary Jane Irwin), and time management and family issues (Jan Cuny & Bobby Schnabel).
Effective Teaching WorkshopTo improve college teaching of CS&E, CRA will again offer its Effective Teaching Workshop in July 1998 in Madison, Wisconsin, to more than forty people. Designed for beginning teachers but open to college teachers with any level of experience, the workshop provides hands-on guidance in both the theory and practice of effective teaching. The workshop organizer was Tim Finin. Topics for discussion include: balancing teaching and research and service (Tim Finin), mentoring students and managing TAs and RAs (Charles Nicholas), active learning (Susan Horwitz), curriculum development (Tom Mitchell), and the devil is in the details (Richard Korf).Back to the top | Table of Contents
COMMUNITY - BUILDING ACTIVITIESC RA works in various ways to promote a coherent and effective sense of community among those involved in computing research. Activities include conferences enabling department chairs and research laboratory directors to come together and discuss mutual concerns, joint conferences that promote cross-fertilization across research fields, and meetings of the leaders of the professional societies interested in computing research. One of CRA's awards programs, chaired by Daniel Reed, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recognizes the contribution of individuals who help to build the computing research infrastructure. Occasional workshops bring together people from different but relevant research communities to explore new problem areas and agendas for research.
CRA Conference at SnowbirdCRA's biennial flagship conference, Snowbird '98, is scheduled for July 25-28, 1998. Co-chairs are Mary Jane Irwin (Pennsylvania State University) and Jim Foley (Mitsubishi Electric). This year's program is geared to the interests of both academic and industrial members of CRA, and themes will include human resources, public policy issues, the IT worker shortage, and higher education. More than 200 department chairs, managers of government and industrial laboratories and centers, and other leaders in the computing research community are expected to attend. Guest speakers will include the new Director of the National Science Foundation, Rita Colwell, and the President of Pennsylvania State University, Graham Spanier. The meeting will be preceded by the National Science Foundation's Information Infrastructure meeting, which CRA is helping to organize.
Federated Computing Research ConferenceCRA Board member, David Johnson, is serving as general chair of the third Federated Computing Research Conference to be held in spring 1999. CRA was the originator of this conference and continues to be one of its main sponsors. The conference provides a common time and meeting place for a number of specialized research meetings, plus plenary sessions and social events of interest to the entire community. FCRC retains the intellectual benefits and research identities of the smaller constituent meetings while providing greater visibility for the field. It provides opportunities for researchers to meet with their peers in other specialties and to attend more of these specialized conferences than they might be able to attend on a limited budget if the meetings were held at different times and places. The combined size of the meetings provides buying power in obtaining high-quality facilities at the lowest possible cost.
CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) Conference Experiences for WomenThis new endeavor is designed to encourage female undergraduates and new graduate students to attend research conferences. This activity fosters interaction with faculty and motivates students to pursue research careers. In the first round, participation for eight undergraduates and eight new graduate students was approved, with eight women and four men serving as conference mentors.
Leadership SummitThe fourth annual CRA Computer Leadership Summit was held in October 1997, with the senior leadership from AAAI, ACM, CRA, IEEE Computer Society, and SIAM participating. The agenda included a meeting with Rep. Vernon Ehlers, Vice Chair of the House Science committee, who discussed the overview study of science policy he had recently undertaken. The summit also included presentations on NSF and the future of computing; the report of the Commission on Critical Infrastructure Research; the role of professional societies in future science funding; opportunities for collaboration in emerging areas of computing; and women's issues in computer science. These summits provide a forum where the societies can meet and discuss objectives and strategies to address common problems. They also serve to identify situations in which a united position on a particular issue may create a stronger, more effective voice.
Distinguished Service AwardThe 1998 CRA Distinguished Service Award was presented to Merrell Patrick, National Science Foundation. Dr. Patrick has made many contributions in the academic, industrial, and government sectors, as researcher, teacher, and entrepreneur. The award is presented, usually annually, to a person who has made outstanding service contributions to the computing research community. It recognizes service in the areas of government affairs, professional societies, publications, or conferences, as well as leadership that has had a major impact on computing research.Back to the top | Table of Contents
FINANCIAL STATEMENTThe following Statement of Activities of the Computing Research Association for the Year Ended June 30, 1997, was provided by Callow, Machen & Cranford, P.C., an external, independent firm of certified public accountants and management consultants located in Beltsville, MD, as part of their annual audit.
CHANGES IN UNRESTRICTED NET ASSETS:REVENUES
NET ASSETS RELEASED FROM RESTRICTIONS
EXPENSES AND LOSSES
CHANGES IN TEMPORARILY RESTRICTED NET ASSESTS:
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STAFF AND CONTACT INFORMATIONThis year, CRA hired Stacy Cholewinski, a 1996 graduate of Georgia Tech, as manager of its print and electronic publications; and Jean Smith, an experienced program officer who worked as a contract program manager last year on the NGI workshop, as program associate to help with the work of CRA committees. Both joined the staff in September 1997. CRA's long-time executive assistant, Phillip Louis, resigned to relocate to Cincinnati. In March, Malika Jackson, a graduate of the University of Virginia, was hired as administrative assistant.
Staff:
Contact Information:Computing Research Association1100 Seventeenth Street, NW, Suite 507 Washington, DC 20036-4632
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