COMPUTING RESEARCH NEWS Computing Research Association Uniting Industry, Academia and Government to Advance Computing Research and Change the World. JUNE 2021 Vol. 33 / No. 6 CRN At-A-Glance CRA Executive Director Job Description and Advertisement CRA is looking for its next Executive Director! Apply or nominate a In This Issue colleague today. 2 CRA Executive Director Job Description see page 2 for full article and Advertisement 3 Registration Open for First CRA- Tale of Two Bills: Competing Industry Committee Virtual Visions of NSF’s Future Make Their Roundtable: Corporate Responsibility and Computing Research Way Through Congress 4 Compared to Peers, Students from Over the last two months, competing visions of the future of the National Science Low-Income Backgrounds Report Less Awareness of – but Greater Interest Foundation have been making their way through the House and Senate. And much in – Formal Research Experiences like the famous opening line of Tale of Two Cities, their paths could not be more 6 Expanding the Pipeline: CRA-WP Virtual dissimilar. On the House side, the National Science Foundation for the Future Grad Cohort Workshop for Women Act has made deliberative and bipartisan progress through the House Science, Space, 11 CRA-WP Presents the 2021 CRA-WP and Technology Committee. Meanwhile, on the Senate side, the Endless Frontier Act Early Career Awards Honoring Skip has been introduced; pulled, reworked, and reintroduced; heavily amended during a Ellis and Anita Borg marathon Senate Commerce Committee hearing; and is now before the full Senate 12 CCC Announces New Council Members undergoing another round of amendments. Very different paths. Starting July 2021 see page 16 for full article 15 CRA Education Committee Selects New Graduate Fellow 16 Tale of Two Bills: Competing Visions of Registration Open for First CRA-Industry NSF’s Future Make Their Way Through Committee Virtual Roundtable: Corporate Congress 19 2022 SIAM Major Prizes - Nominations Responsibility and Computing Research Open The CRA-Industry Committee is hosting a series of virtual roundtable meetings 20 Margaret Martonosi Receives the 2021 ACM/IEEE-CS Eckert-Mauchly Award focused on issues of interest to our computing research industry partners. The first roundtable, "Corporate Responsibility and Computing Research" will be held on July 14, 21 Board Members, Staff, Column Editor 2021 from 4:00-5:30 PM ET. In order to attend this event, please register here. 22 Professional Opportunities see page 3 for full article cra.org/crn CRA Executive Director Job Description and Advertisement The Computing Research Association (CRA)—the nation’s premier hierarchies that affect the computing research pipeline; and member organization of academic departments, laboratories, nucleating ideas, strategies, and policies that emphasize the and industry centers aimed at advancing computing research to transformative capacities of socially responsible computing to change the world—seeks an inclusive, transparent, and enterprising improve the world. leader to serve as its next Executive Director (ED). CRA counts In leading and sustaining CRA’s work, the ED will report to the among its members more than 200 North American organizations Executive Committee of CRA’s Board of Directors. The ED will play active in computing research: academic departments of computer a robust role to build on CRA’s existing renown and further grow science and computer engineering; laboratories and centers in the national visibility and leadership of the organization at this industry, government, and academia; and affiliated professional time of critical challenge for the computing field and for society. societies. The next Executive Director has a unique opportunity to CRA seeks as Executive Director a highly accomplished, energetic, lead CRA to effect change that benefits both computing research and articulate leader who brings a strong computing science and society at large. background, knowledge of the computing research community, Formed in 1972, CRA is the largest organization of its kind in and the capacity to interact diplomatically and effectively with the country. It has continued to grow and offer new programs a wide variety of individuals. They must possess a broad and and services under an ever-widening umbrella of committees inclusive view of the computing fields, solid management and strategic initiatives collectively focused on supporting capabilities and experience, outstanding communication pathbreaking, expansive, and inclusive computing research in skills, deep understanding of the funding mechanisms that North America. Its complex mission is supported by diverse affect computing research, significant leadership and change- funding streams, and its operations and strategic directions management experience, and the capacity to lead, mentor, and serve a wide range of stakeholder groups including academic guide a highly capable and accomplished staff. research programs, industry groups, and the federal government. CRA has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, As computing becomes increasingly ubiquitous across society, to assist in the recruitment of the Executive Director. All inquiries, CRA will play an ever more important role in fostering connection nominations/referrals, and CVs with cover letters should be sent with its constituent partners; engaging with societal issues electronically to the following via http://www.imsearch.com/7971. like privacy, security, and equity; challenging norms and rigid John Muckle, Partner Vijay Saraswat, Managing Associate Raul Bernal, Senior Associate Isaacson, Miller 263 Summer Street, Floor 7 Boston, MA 02210 http://www.imsearch.com/7971 2 cra.org/crn June 2021 Registration Open for First CRA-Industry Committee Virtual Roundtable: Corporate Responsibility and Computing Research The CRA-Industry Committee is hosting a series of virtual roundtable meetings focused on issues of interest to our computing research industry partners. The first roundtable, "Corporate Responsibility and Computing Research" will be held on July 14, 2021 from 4:00-5:30 PM ET. In order to attend this event, please register here. Please forward this to your appropriate colleagues and encourage them to attend! CRA-Industry Virtual Roundtable on Corporate Responsibility and Computing Research July 14, 2021 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Eastern Time Today, more companies are deliberately extending their social responsibility initiatives at the behest of investors, customers, and employees. How should industry be viewing and factoring societal equity into its research agendas? This roundtable will explore the concept, principles, and best practices of socially responsible computing research. Ideally, participants will gain a sense of considerations that might apply to their strategic research planning by developing a broad framework for the concept of research equity that goes beyond recent examples in machine learning. About the CRA-Industry Committee CRA-Industry, a standing committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA), was created in the Fall of 2020 with the goal of reaching out to industry partners involved in computing research and giving them new opportunities to convene and connect on topics of mutual interest. The committee also facilitates the interaction between industry partners and other organizations deeply involved in computing research, including academic institutions and government agencies. You can learn more about CRA-Industry by visiting our web page and/or signing up for our mailing list. 3 cra.org/crn June 2021 Compared to Peers, Students from Low-Income Backgrounds Report Less Awareness of – but Greater Interest in – Formal Research Experiences By Kristi Kelly, Research Associate Previous CERP analyses have broadly examined why non-participation in formal research experiences as their peers undergraduate students do not participate in formal research who come from middle- or high-income backgrounds. experiences. Findings have shown that the most commonly-cited Findings suggest that there are systematic differences in the reasons for non-participation include preferring a more applied reasons low- and high-income undergraduates are not engaging research experience such as an internship, lack of awareness of in research. Low-income students seem to be less informed research opportunities, and not having enough time. about research and its potential applicability to them: The current analyses begin to unpack these findings by looking • Low-income students are significantly more likely than their peers at whether reasons for not participating in research vary as a to report that participating in research never occurred to them. function of students’ backgrounds. Specifically, using 2020 Data Buddies Survey data, CERP examined whether students from • They are also more likely than higher-income peers to report being self-reported low-income backgrounds cite the same reasons for unaware of research opportunities available to them. 4 cra.org/crn June 2021 Low-Income Students (continued) At the same time, lack of interest in research seems to be time to participate in research, did not differ as a function of less of an issue for low-income students than it is for higher students’ socioeconomic background. income students: Taken together, these findings suggest promising opportunities • Low-income students are significantly less likely than their peers for engaging more low-income students in formal research. to say they are