NSF CISE Research Initiation Initiative (CRII)

From NSF program director Jeremy Epstein: The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Initiation Initiative (CRII) program is for research and teaching faculty in the first two years of their appointments.  In 2014-15, the first year of the program, there were 76 awards under this program.

There will be a webinar for potential CRII applicants on Aug 5 1pm-2pm, describing the goals and requirements of the program, and changes for the 2015-16 program.  Register by Aug 4.

Proposal submissions are due on Sept 30.

The Case for Basic Research

The transcript of Eric Lander’s talk “The Miracle Machine,” given at the National Math Festival, makes a powerful case for basic research.

DARPA DSO Proposer’s Event

As posted on the CCC blog, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring a Proposers Event on July 21-22 to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of the anticipated Defense Sciences Office (DSO) Office-wide Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) releasing sometime in June 2015. Note that the event will be webcast, and advance registration is required for both the in-person meeting (by June 30) and the webcast (by July 14).

Of the technical areas supported by the DSO, theoretical computer science work seems a closest match for “Mathematics, Modeling, and Design”: Development and implementation of advanced mathematics and modeling tools for applications of interest to U.S. national security. Example topics: novel mathematical advances that accelerate discovery in physics, chemistry, and materials science; new approaches to electromagnetic modeling and simulation; major conceptual advances that lead to novel computation at scale; advanced mathematics and modeling tools needed to efficiently propagate multiple sources of uncertainty to make accurate predictions about stochastic, complex systems; representational and computational foundations for new design approaches and tools; and techniques to enhance the capability for humans to understand, construct and optimize complex engineering systems.

Highlights from STOC presentation

Since there wasn’t time to go through the full CATCS Report during the STOC business meeting last week, here are a few items of note.

• The URL http://www.theorymatters.org/ (listed in the presentation) is no longer active.  For now, our blog is just https://thmatters.wordpress.com/
• Tim Roughgarden will be taking over as chair of CATCS starting in August.
• Do make use of the cstheory-jobs site to advertise or look for jobs in theoretical computer science.

And many upcoming deadlines:

• June 30, 2015: proposals for 2017 programs at the Simons Institute 
• July 21, 2015: NSF CAREER Award (for new/young faculty).  See also our repository of past CAREER proposals and other proposal-writing tips.
• Late summer: universities sent calls for nominations for Simons Investigator Awards (long-term support for individuals)
• Late summer: Simons Fellows in Math (sabbatical funding)
• Early fall: Simons Collaborations in Math & Physical Sciences. (large grants for collaborative efforts on fundamental scientific questions of major importance)
• September 10, 2015: Nominations for ACM Fellows.
• September 16, 2015: NSF Medium proposals to Algorithmic Foundations, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, and other programs.
• TBD (September?): Guggenheim Fellowships
• September 24, 2015: NSF Large proposals to Algorithmic Foundations, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, and other programs.
• September 30, 2015: NSF CISE Research Initiation Initiative (CRII).   For new faculty, easier to get than a CAREER award (but both can be submitted at once).  See FAQ.
• October 19, 2015: NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
• TBD (late Oct): NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
• October 31, 2015: ACM Dissertation Award
• November 1, 2015: AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships
• November 18, 2015: NSF Small proposals to Algorithmic Foundations, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, and other programs.
• November 30, 2015: Many ACM Awards (e.g. Turing, Hopper, Kanellakis, Distinguished Service)
• Rolling or Dec 1: CCC Visioning Workshops (eg Theoretical Foundations of Social Computing 6/29-6/30)
• December 7, 2015: NSF CISE-MPS Interdisciplinary Faculty Program in Quantum Information (sabbatical support)
• December 7, 2015: NSF Exploiting Parallelism & Scalability (XPS)
• February 8, 2015: NSF Algorithms in the Field (AitF)
• TBD: Simons Award for Graduate Students in TCS
• March 1, 2016: Nominations for IEEE Fellows.
• March 9, 2016: NSF CISE Expeditions in Computing Preliminary Proposals
• TBD (April?): Symposia at 2017 AAAS Annual Meeting
• TBD (May?): NSF BIGDATA program
• Any time: DIMACS special focus proposal

STOC 2015 Presentation

Since time is tight at the STOC 2015 business meeting, I am attaching the slides for the CATCS presentation that would have been given: CATCS Report STOC 2015 

Change in NSF Deadlines

In a Dear Colleagues letter from Jim Kurose, the CISE Directorate at NSF announced its intention to change the deadlines for a number of its programs, including Algorithmic Foundations (AF) and Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC).  The next deadlines are as follows:

• Medium proposals: September 16, 2015
• Large proposals: September 24, 2015
• Small proposals: November 18, 2015.

[6/7/15: edited to reflect actual deadlines rather than just months]

NSF CAREER Program Webinar

NSF CAREER Program Webinar

May 26, 2015 1:00 PM  to 3:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, New York, GMT-04:00)

The NSF CAREER Coordinating Committee is hosting a webinar to provide an overview of the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) and to answer participants’ questions about development and submission of CAREER proposals.

The webinar includes an overview presentation followed by a question-and-answer period.  For more details, see http://www.nsf.gov/events/event_summ.jsp?cntn_id=134940

DIMACS seeking an Associate Director

The DIMACS Center at Rutgers University (dimacs.rutgers.edu) is seeking an Associate Director. DIMACS facilitates research, education, and outreach in discrete mathematics, computer science theory, algorithms, mathematical and statistical methods, and their applications.  The Associate Director is expected to play a leadership role in planning, developing, and running DIMACS activities and programs, including setting new directions.  A PhD in computer science, mathematics, operations research, statistics, or a related field is preferred. Applicants with a doctorate will be considered for Associate Director with a non-tenure-track calendar-year research faculty appointment at Rutgers. Highly qualified applicants without a doctorate will be considered for a staff appointment as Assistant Director. For more details, visit dimacs.rutgers.edu/AssociateDirector.

US-Israel BSF Travel Grants for Young Scientists

A CALL FOR APPLICATIONS IN THE PROF. R. RAHAMIMOFF TRAVEL GRANTS PROGRAM FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS

BSF is announcing the availability of funds for short scientific trips by young American or Israeli scientists to the other country. In 2015 the program will have two calls and each will support 10 trips. Grants will be $4,000 each.  The program is open to PhD students doing research that requires facilities or expertise that are not available in their home countries.  The deadline for the 1st call for 2015 is May 14, 2015.

Call for 2016 AAAS Symposium Proposals

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has put out a Call for Symposium Proposals for the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting, February 11-15 in Washington DC, with a proposal deadline of April 24.  

These symposia can be a way to increase awareness and even get popular press coverage of exciting research directions in theoretical computer science. Proposing and organizing a 90 or 180-minute symposium is not much work, but organizers should also work with institutional communications offices to draw attention to the symposium before the meeting (attendance at the symposia has high variance).

They are looking for proposals that either relate to the meeting theme “Global Science Engagement” (involving things such as innovation and international scientific collaboration, food and water security, sustainable development, infectious disease and health, climate change, natural disasters, and energy) or involve “groundbreaking areas of research, new and exciting developments, or cross-cutting activities in support of science, technology, and education.”

If you are thinking of submitting a proposal, we (CATCS) are happy to help and put you in touch with people who can offer advice.