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A Message from CISE Leadership
I would like to start this newsletter with updates on the CISE Advisory Committee (AC). The CISE AC provides up-to-date information on the state of the field, performs specialized policy-informing functions facilitating the CISE's response to rapid changes in subdisciplines and the balance between them, and provides valuable advice and recommendations that inform our long-range plans and partnership opportunities. I am delighted to announce that Enrico Pontelli, Ph.D., Dean of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University will serve as the new co-chair of the CISE AC. I would like to thank Rob Rutenbar for his service as co-chair of the CISE AC from November 2012 to December 2022, and to our members who rotated off during this past year: Charles Isbell Jr. and Tom Kalil.
I would also like to extend a warm welcome to the new CISE Advisory Committee (AC) members who have joined over the past year: Annamalai Annamalai, Ph.D., Professor in the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering at Prairie View A&M University; Jeanna Matthews, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Clarkson University, and Weisong Shi, Ph.D., Computer and Information Science Chair of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Delaware. Over the past year, we also welcomed Amy McGovern, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma; and Raja Kushalnagar, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Science, Technology, Accessibility, Mathematics, and Public Health at Gallaudet University.
Continuing with other important updates, we recently announced our 2023 Computer and Information Science and Engineering Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI) program awards. These investments span hardware, software, and data infrastructure needed to advance many different CISE topic areas and serve as broad community resources.
Knowing how important such infrastructure, broadly viewed, is to our community, I also want to remind you that the Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure-2 (Mid-scale-RI) due date for the letters of intent (LOI) is fast approaching (May 15, 2023). Mid-Scale RI-2 funds infrastructure awards from $20-$100 million. Despite the modest name, these awards have the potential to provide the CISE community the resources needed to meet its data and computing infrastructure needs, including in areas of national priority like semiconductor and artificial intelligence research. If you have data, software, hardware, or fabrication infrastructure ideas or needs, please consider submitting an LOI!
I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter and please continue to share it with your colleagues.
Margaret Martonosi
NSF Assistant Director for CISE
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Funding Opportunities and Deadlines |
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 Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-2.
Supports the implementation of research infrastructure — including equipment, cyberinfrastructure, large-scale datasets and personnel — whose total project costs fall between $20 million and $100 million.
Letter of intent deadline:
May 15, 2023.
Preliminary proposal due date:
June 20, 2023.
Full proposal deadline (by invitation only):
December 18, 2023.
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 Safe Learning-Enabled Systems. Supports foundational research that leads to the design and implementation of learning-enabled systems in which safety is ensured with high levels of confidence.
Full Proposal Deadline:
May 26, 2023.
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News & Announcements
NSF has announced a $16.1 million investment to support shared research infrastructure that provides artificial intelligence researchers and students across the nation with access to transformative resources.
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The National Objectives for Digital Assets Research and Development outline priorities for responsible research and development of digital assets to help developers better reinforce democratic principles and protect consumers by default.
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The prize challenges inspired innovators on both nations to build solutions that enable collaborative development of artificial intelligence models, while protecting users privacy.
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With support from the NSF, researchers at North Carolina State University are exploring how and why materials like perovskites exhibit macroscopic quantum coherence at room temperatures.
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University of Maryland researchers are developing a framework for cryptographic systems that can weather increasingly powerful quantum computers.
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Giving YOU X-Ray Vision.
With support from the NSF, MIT researchers developed an augmented reality powerful tool that uses radio frequency signals to help find and retrieve hidden items quickly and accurately.
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Get more NSF News
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Events
May 16, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (ET).
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Armando Solar-Lezama, Ph.D., is a Professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science where he also serves as associate director and chief operating officer of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Solar-Lezama joined MIT after earning his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 2008.
Solar-Lezama is best known for his work on program synthesis—a research area that aims to help automate the production of code from high-level specifications. His Computer Aided Programming group has been at the forefront in this area of research for almost 15 years, and alumni of the group currently hold faculty positions at University of California Berkeley, University of California San Diego, Cornell University, Purdue University, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania. His group made several pioneering advances in the field, both in terms of basic techniques for program synthesis, and in demonstrating novel applications of program synthesis beyond writing new software. These applications range from automated tutoring to applications in linguistics, computer aided design, robotics and data management.
Solar-Lezama has received several NSF awards, including an NSF Expeditions award that supported his early work on program synthesis, and more recently, an NSF Expeditions award for his for his work on demonstrating that the combination of deep learning and symbolic reasoning can lead to new learning techniques that can better incorporate prior knowledge and produce interpretable models.
"NSF’s support has been crucial in my career because it has helped fund high impact research at an early stage, before the ideas are mature enough to attract industrial funding. For example, some of my work on program synthesis that went on to have industrial impact started out as promising ideas funded with NSF grants," said Solar-Lezama. "Programs like Expeditions in Computing, which can fund large teams of researchers working on a common goal are especially valuable. My current project on Understanding the World Through Code, for example, brings together experts in Machine Learning, Formal Methods and basic science, allowing us to attack problems that could not be attacked independently."
Solar-Lezama immigrated to the US from Mexico City as a teenager. He received his bachelor’s degrees in computer science and math from Texas A&M University, where he was recognized as a distinguished former student by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 2016.
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Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)
Supports research and education on the interrelated roles of people, computers, and information to advance knowledge of artificial intelligence, data management, assistive technologies, and human-centered computing.
Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC)
Supports the conceptualization, design, implementation, and operation of research cyberinfrastructure to advance and transform research and education in science and engineering.
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