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A Message from CISE Leadership
Dear Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community,
Welcome to the first edition of our new CISE newsletter! Over the years, we have strived to use this listserv to send periodic updates about CISE and NSF broadly, including up-to-date information about our newest programs and activities. We are committed to continue doing so going forward – and we’re also pleased to now provide you with substantial additional content with each mailing through this newsletter. Below our update message, you’ll learn about new funding opportunities, upcoming program deadlines, NSF events, and much more, including a spotlight on the research being funded by one of our divisions or office.
Having said that, we are writing today to highlight three recent major activities.
First, in late August, we were delighted to announce the first round of National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes – a total of seven awards, totaling $140 million over five years, to support transformational advances in AI. Our goal with these Institutes is to advance the Nation’s AI discovery and innovation ecosystem by growing a set of AI research and education hubs across the country. By uniting AI talent and experts from a wide range of sectors, the AI Research Institutes are poised not only to revolutionize the field of AI, but also to contribute to advances in nearly every sector of our economy and to nurture the next generation of talent critical to our Nation’s economic competitiveness, defense and security. We are extremely pleased to be partnering with the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (which wholly funded two of the seven institutes), Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, and Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration to support this important effort. In addition, we also launched the solicitation for the next round of AI Research Institutes, spanning eight thematic areas and including the participation of Accenture, Amazon, Google, and Intel. The deadline for proposals is Dec. 4th.
In September, the Computing Research Association (CRA) and Computing Community Consortium (CCC) announced the 2020 class of Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows). Recognizing the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on research hiring, CISE funded CRA and CCC to provide these two-year post-doctoral fellowships to serve as a critical career-enhancing bridge experience for recent and soon-to-be PhD graduates in our field. The diverse 2020 class comprises 59 researchers – half of whom are women – from 46 unique institutions and who will cover a wide range of CISE research areas during their post-docs at 43 different host institutions. CISE also awarded more than $15 million in Rapid Response Research (RAPID) awards in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, through the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, co-led the formulation of the public-private COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium to advance our understanding of the virus, disease, and its spread.
Finally, we want to close with a word about CISE’s Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) pilot. For those of you who are department chairs/heads, thank you for your commitment to equity and inclusion by developing Departmental BPC Plans for your institutions. We’ve watched many colleagues take on this important task and know it can be a lot of work, so we are writing with a reminder of BPCnet.org’s suite of resources to help you craft a meaningful departmental plan. First, review the Departmental BPC Plan checklist on BPCnet.org and check out some of the resources for BPC plans to support the writing process. Next, look at verified Departmental BPC Plans available as examples. You can even download your institution’s IPEDS data from BPCnet.org to help set the context for your institution’s BPC goals. The BPC Consultancy Service offers resources and real-time one-on-one support for departments and PIs. Finally, submit your Departmental BPC Plan to BPCnet.org for verification. Once finished, your departmental plan will identify and organize your goals and activities and make it easy for faculty in your department to create meaningful Project BPC Plans for their CISE proposals. When you submit your plan to BPCNet.org, you are also contributing to the field’s shared vision regarding ideas and best practices in this important topic. Your leadership in this effort not only reaffirms your institution’s dedication to equity and inclusion but will ultimately help move the needle to make the field of computing truly representative of our diverse nation and draw fully from its talents.
We know this is a challenging time for everyone. But the few examples above serve to illustrate just how much impact our community – all of you! – and our colleagues here at CISE are having on our Nation and the world. Together, we are catalyzing the breakthroughs and supporting a diverse cadre of researchers and practitioners transforming our world for the better for decades to come.
We hope you enjoy this new newsletter format – including the content below.
Best,
 Margaret Martonosi
NSF Assistant Director for CISE
 Erwin Gianchandani
NSF Deputy Assistant Director for CISE
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