Category Archives: Computer Science
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Computer Science job with ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON | 280745 – Times Higher Education (THE)
Department of Computer Science
Location: EghamSalary: 36,438 per annum - including London AllowancePostType: Full TimeClosingDate:23.59 hours GMT on Friday 25 March 2022Reference: 0222-067
Full-time, fixed-term, 3 years
Starting Salary is36,438 per annum inclusiveof London Allowance.This is the expected starting salary for this post however appointment at a higher point may be made for candidates who demonstrate exceptional skills and experience relevant to the role.
Applications are invited for the post of Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Computer Science Department at Royal Holloway, University of London.
This is a 3-year position funded by the EPSRC project MCPS-VeriSec: Model-based Security of Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (EP/W014785/1) and led by Dr Nicola Paoletti.
Project description.Many medical conditions require therapy via implantable and wearable devices, such as cardiac devices to treat arrhythmia treatment and artificial pancreas systems for glucose regulation in diabetes. Suchmedical cyber-physical systems (medCPSs)have experienced dramatic technological advancements, and include control algorithms for automated therapy delivery, internet connectivity for remote patient monitoring, and machine learning (ML) to aid therapy decisions. This complexity introduces broad attack surfaces that can jeopardize patient safety. While prior work mainly focused on the practical feasibility of the attacks, our project will investigate sophisticated sensor spoofing attacks that are bothstealthyandtailored to the target patient.
In MCPS-VeriSec, you will contribute to developing amodel-based frameworkto provideverified defenses against stealthy attacks on medCPSs, which you will apply to theICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) and artificial pancreascase studies. In particular, you will carry out research on synthesis of Pareto-optimal attacks (and corresponding defenses), logic-based formal verification of the defenses, personalization of attacks and defenses from physiological signals, and adversarial robustness of ML vs non-ML device controllers.
The PI has extensive experience in cyber-physical systems and healthcare applications. Our collaborators include Dr Rahmati (Stony Brook University), expert of robust physical attacks on ML and system security, Ing Milos Kozak, leader of AndroidAPS, the most popular DIY artificial pancreas system, and Diabetes Neuromathix Pty Ltd, a company developing novel insulin control methods for highly unstable diabetes.
About you.You should hold a PhD (or be close to completion) in Computer Science, Information Security, Electronic/Biomedical Engineering, Mathematics, or related discipline, and have research experience in one or more of the following: model-based analysis of cyber-physical systems, probabilistic verification and synthesis, control theory and control systems security, multi-objective optimization, and neural networks (prior experience with GANs or adversarial robustness of neural nets is a plus). Candidates with experience in healthcare and medical devices applications are particularly encouraged to apply. Experience in contributing to outreach activities would also be valuable.
The duties and responsibilities of this post include conducting individual and collaborative research on the project themes, develop and maintain the projects code repository, writing reports on the advancement of the project, producing high-quality outputs for publication in high-profile conferences and journals, helping with the organization of dissemination events.
In return we offer a highly competitive rewards and benefits package including:
The post is based in Egham, Surrey where the College is situated in a beautiful, leafy campus near to Windsor Great Park and within commuting distance from London.
This is a Full Time and Fixed Term post, available from July 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter to June 2025. For an informal discussion about the post, please contact Dr Nicola Paoletti onnicola.paoletti@rhul.ac.uk
To view further details of this post and to apply please visithttps://jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk.For queries on the application process the Human Resources Department can be contacted by email at:recruitment@rhul.ac.uk
Please quote the reference:0222-067
Closing Date: 23:59, 25 March 2022
Interview Date:TBC
Furtherdetails: JobDescription&PersonSpecification
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New Science Hub to launch at Univ. of Washington with $1.9M from Amazon – GeekWire
The University of Washingtons department of electrical and computer engineering, one of several engineering departments on campus. (UW Photo)
Amazon and the University of Washington will collaborate on a new Science Hub funded with an initial $1.9 million investment from the tech giant. The hub will first focus on robotics research and may expand in the future to other areas.
The hub is set up as a collaboration between Amazon Robotics AI and the UWs college of engineering. Researchers will tackle complex problems, identified by Amazon and addressed through the UWs robotics labs, according to a press release announcing the new initiative.
The hub will support a range of efforts, such as graduate student fellowships and sponsored research projects, said UW computer science professor Joshua Smith, the hubs inaugural director. Amazon will also support smaller projects lasting one year or so, where ideas often blossom.
Specific areas of research include improving how robots manipulate objects and how robots and humans work together, said Smith, who was recently elected to the 2021 class of Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. He added that the UW has already put out a call for hub research proposals in such areas. Its kind of up to the imagination of the faculty to propose ideas, he said.
In the future, research at the hub may explore other fields in the overlap between technology, industry and society. That might encompass fields such as natural language processing, which applies computational methods to extract meaning from texts, or areas including logistics and operations research, said Smith.
There are a lot of possibilities, added Smith, who is also a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering.
The hub will also engage neighboring academic institutions and the public through events.
The new program is the latest in Amazons expanding list of university partnerships. Last fall, Amazon launched a similar science hub at MIT to investigate artificial intelligence and robotics, and a hub at UCLA to explore social issues in artificial intelligence. Amazon also funds artificial intelligence research centers at Columbia University and the University of Southern California, and supports a quantum computing partnership in a building at Caltech.
Amazon has also supported nearby Seattle University in the past, announcing a$3 million contributionin May 2019 to help fund its new Jim and Janet Sinegal Center for Science and Innovation. It also made a significant donation to create an endowed chair to lead its computer science department, after hiring the former chair.
The UW has received a healthy share of Amazon support. In 2012,Amazon established two $1 million endowed professorships in machine learningat the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering. And in 2016,Amazon provided $10 millionin funding for a new computer science building at the UW.
At least nine UW faculty members have been designated Amazon Scholars, which means they spend between 20% and 90% of their time at Amazon.
Computer science professor Siddhartha Srinivasa similarly has dual roles, serving as director of Robotics AI at Amazon. The scale of Amazons fulfillment network provides a rich set of problems in AI and robotics, he said in the release. Amazons robotics initiatives support a variety endeavors, including the development of warehouse robots and the improvement of its new home robot, called Astro.
The new hub will host a roundtable in March to initiate dialogue between UW and Amazon to assess areas of interest. Said Smith: How do we sync those up and find mutually engaging, exciting projects?
The new initiative is a win-win, added Smith, who anticipates that the hub will have its own space. He is also looking forward to the hub bringing together researchers across the UW for collaborations.
According to a UW spokesperson, there will be no restrictions on scientific publications emerging from the hub, and the UW will own all of the intellectual property. The spokesperson said the agreement allows for the open sourcing of software. He added: We expect that most or all of the software will be open sourced. Amazon Robotics AI principal scientist Michael Wolf will be the UW research liaison.
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New Science Hub to launch at Univ. of Washington with $1.9M from Amazon - GeekWire
Students to present ideas to make computing anti-racist – UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and staff – University at Buffalo Reporter
What can be done to make computing more equitable and reduce biases?
Its a question roughly 600 first-year students majoring in computer science and engineering grappled with last fall. Now, theyre ready to talk about it.
The students will meet Feb. 9 to present their ideas to a panel of judges.
The forum will take place from 5:10-6:10 p.m. in 101 Davis Hall, North Campus.
For those who cannot attend in person, the forum is available via Zoom. Attendees must pre-register using the email associated with their Zoom account.
Its well-established that common algorithms used in computing can create unfair results that privilege one group of users over others, says co-organizer Kenny Joseph, assistant professor of computer science and engineering.
Were incredibly excited to see the computational and non-computational solutions that students have proposed to address the problems exacerbated by technology in society, adds co-organizer Dalia Antonia Caraballo Muller, associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean history, College of Arts and Sciences.
Atri Rudra, professor of computer science and engineering, is also an organizer.
The event is part of the Impossible Project, an effort led by Muller that works to promote social and planetary justice.
The event was made possible with funding from a Mozilla Responsible Computer Science Challenge award that UB received in 2019. Similar efforts at UB include working with Mozilla and other partners to further integrate ethics into computer science education and a U.S. National Science Foundation/Amazon-funded project to improve fairness in artificial intelligence programs.
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Department Chair, Computer Science job with St. Edward’s University | 445970 – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Department Chair ofComputerScience
St. Edward's University, a nationally ranked, independentCatholic university and Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) invitesapplications for afull-time, 9-month, tenured, ortenure-track position with open rank to serve as Chair of theDepartment of Computer Science, beginning August 2022. St. Edward'sis characterized by its commitment to the Holy Cross educationalmission to educate the hearts and minds of a diverse student bodythat is deeply committed to social justice.
The successful candidate will demonstrate excellence inundergraduate instruction. Experience with curriculum developmentand assessment is a plus. Candidates with prior administrativeexperience and who have earned tenure at their current universitywill be given preference. Candidate identities will be keptconfidential prior to campus visits and references will only becontacted with notice.
St. Edward's University embraces excellence through diversityand especially encourages applications from women and members ofunderrepresented racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender minoritygroups. Candidates should demonstratea commitment tosupporting a diverse student body.
For consideration, candidates need a Ph.D. in computer scienceor a closely related field.
Essential Responsibilities:Candidates should have theinterest and ability to teach a range of undergraduate courses,direct undergraduate research projects,and support a diversestudent body.Chair-specific responsibilities includescheduling and staffing courses, evaluation and development offaculty, budget management, liaising with administrators, andoversight of curriculum development and assessment. Austin is avery active and growing area for technology companies; thuscultivating relationships with the community will be part ofgrowing an already successful department. Other essentialresponsibilities include:
The University offers an excellent TOTAL REWARDSpackage!An overview of St. Edward's Universityemployee benefits is available at;https://www.stedwards.edu/human-resources/benefits-summary
Medical & Rx Coverage (HSA & FSA Available), Dental,Vision, Short Term Disability Insurance, Long Term DisabilityInsurance, Life & Accidental Death & DismembermentInsurance, Employee Assistance Program, Pet Insurance, Annual Leave& Paid Sick Leave, Retirement Plan, Tuition Benefits, PaidHolidays, and Services & Discounts
HOW TO APPLY
Applicants should apply online athttps://stedwards.applicantpro.com.Applicationpackages shouldinclude acoverletter,curriculumvitae,names and contact information forthree references, and astatement describingyour teaching philosophy and your approach to working on projectswith undergraduate students. Inaddition, allapplications must include adiversity, equity, andinclusion statementthat details the candidate's (1)knowledge, (2) track record, and (3) plans for advancing diversity,equity, and inclusion as a professional at St. Edward's University(2-page maximum). Your DEI statement should be included as aseparate document and should not contain your name or any otherpersonally identifiable information.
Applicants should submitmaterials by February 18, 2022 forfullconsideration; however, the position will remain openuntil filled.
ABOUTTHE SCHOOL OF NATURALSCIENCES
The School of Natural Sciences includes six academicdepartments, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (i4), andthe Wild Basin Creative Research Center. The School has experiencedsignificant growth in the last decade attributable to itsdistinguished faculty, new facilities including over 110,000 squarefeet of teaching and laboratory space, and our approach to engagingundergraduates in the classroom and in research. The Department ofComputer Science offers B.A. and B.S. degrees in Computer Scienceand a B.A. degree in Computer Information Science.
ABOUT ST. EDWARD'S UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1885 by the Congregation of Holy Cross, St. Edward'sUniversity is a private, Catholic, liberal arts institution of2,900 undergraduate and 700 graduate students located in Austin,Texas. It is an exciting time to be part of the St. Edward'scommunity as the university increases its global engagement toeducate students for the opportunities and challenges of a21st-century world. SEU is a diverse community that appreciatesfaculty and students from all backgrounds.Consistent with itsHoly Cross heritage, the university maintains a strong commitmentto diversity and global initiatives.More information aboutSt. Edward's University may be found atwww.stedwards.edu.
Commitment to Diversity, Equity, andInclusionSt. Edwards University is a diversecommunity devoted to proactively nurturing a campus-wide culturethat promotes and ensures equity, respect, inclusion and safety forall members regardless of race, color, national origin, age,gender, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity,socio-economic background, or physical ability. We are oneUniversity that opens our hearts and minds to conversations, tolearning and to creating a community that is welcoming of all.Regardless of position, it is expected that each employee willembrace this commitment and demonstrate an attitude of respecttoward and acceptance of all members of our community. For moreinformation on our commitment to diversity, please visit ourwebsitehttps://www.stedwards.edu/about-us/diversity-equity-inclusion
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER:St. Edward'sUniversity, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer,complies with all applicable federal and state laws regardingnondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University iscommitted to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and doesnot discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age,marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genderexpression, disability, religion, or veteran status in employment,educational programs and activities, and admissions.Werequire U.S. citizenship or permanent residency for employment, andwe are not offering visa sponsorship at this time.
Background Checks:
A criminal history background check is required for finalist(s)under consideration for this position.
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Cincinnati Edition: What will Intel’s plant mean for Ohio? – University of Cincinnati
Vemuri said new fabrication plants promise to attract related industries, creating a ripple effect across Ohio's tech sector.
From our perspective, this is truly a dream come true, Vemuri said. There is nothing like this in Ohio or anywhere else in the Midwest.
UC has deep ties to Intel and other tech companies. Many students across UC's colleges work in high-tech jobs after graduation, Vemuri said.
About 50 of his 130 graduate students over the years launched their tech careers at Intel, he said.
We have a very strong relationship with Intel through our former graduate students. And we're looking to further strengthen that relationship, Vemuri told WVXU.
This is not the Rust Belt anymore, Vemuri said. This could be the Silicon Belt.
Jha said high-profile tech companies could establish a new presence near the Intel plants to support its future needs.
This represents an awesome opportunity for Ohio and a tremendous opportunity for growth in terms of bringing other companies to the region, Jha said.
Ohio has promised tax incentives of as much as $2 billion, according to the Columbus Dispatch. But Jones said Intel's new plants are expected to draw private investment and employment that will generate new tax revenue, which is why Ohio competed so hard with other states to get Intel's business.
This is like the Joey Votto of investments they're swinging big, Jones said.
Listen to the Cincinnati Edition interview.
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Cincinnati Edition: What will Intel's plant mean for Ohio? - University of Cincinnati
Chair/Distinguished/Full Professor in Computer and Information Science job with UNIVERSITY OF MACAU | 281185 – Times Higher Education (THE)
The University of Macau (UM) is the only public comprehensive university in the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) located at the west bank of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The GBA is rapidly developing into one of the leading technology and innovation hubs of the world. With a scenic campus of approximately 1 km2 on Hengqin island, UM has achieved significant progress in the past decade as evidenced by its rising international repute, state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, and the establishment of three State Key Laboratories in microelectronics, Chinese medical sciences, and internet of things for smart city. To support economic diversification of MSAR and deepen collaboration between MSAR and Guangdong Province in Hengqin island, UM will continue to invest in cutting-edge research and develop interdisciplinary programmes in key strategic areas including precision oncology, advanced materials, regional oceanography, artificial intelligence and robotics, data science, cognitive and brain science and economics and finance. Leveraging its 4-in-1 model of education and the largest residential college system in Asia, UM provides all-round undergraduate education, nurturing talent to support social and economic development in MSAR and the GBA as a whole. With unprecedented growth and opportunities for development, UM offers promising career prospects to academics at all levels. It may be noted that English is the working language and the primary medium of instruction at UM.
The Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS) of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) invites applications for the position of Chair/Distinguished/Full Professor with specialty in Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Metaverse Related Technology. This position is intended to complement and strengthen existing departmental staff expertise. We are seeking candidate with a proven track record in scientific research, an innovative research vision, and a commitment to education.
FST is the oldest and one of the most vibrant faculties at UM, dedicated to student-centric education and cutting-edge research in engineering and science. All of its bachelors degree programmes in engineering and computer science are accredited by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) and recognized worldwide. UM is among the top 1% in Essential Sciences Indicators (ESI) rankings in both Engineering and Computer Science. In the THE World University Ranks, the Engineering and Technology programme is ranked among the 101st 125th and the Computer Science programme is among the top 175, arising from its status of a local community college in less than 10 years.
CIS was founded in 1990 and currently has 27 academic staff. The Department offers Bachelors, Masters and PhD degree programmes, which cover the main aspects of modern computer science and related technologies. CIS has equipped fifteen laboratories with advanced facilities and rich software tools for its students and academic staff to develop their course projects, final year projects and R&D projects. The programmes have extensive collaboration with other institutes around the world.
Qualifications
The selected candidate is expected to assume duty in August 2022.
Remuneration
A taxable annual remuneration starting from MOP1,210,300 (approximately USD149,420) will be commensurate with the successful applicants academic qualification and relevant professional experience. The current local maximum income tax rate is 12% but is effectively around 5% - 7% after various discretionary exemptions. Apart from competitive remuneration, UM offers a wide range of benefits, such as medical insurance, provident fund, on-campus accommodation/housing allowance and other subsidies. Further details on our package are available at: https://career.admo.um.edu.mo/learn-more/.
Application Procedure
Applicants should visit https://career.admo.um.edu.mo/ for more details, and apply ONLINE. Review of applications will commence upon receiving applications and continue until the position is filled. Applicants may consider their applications not successful if they are not invited for an interview within 3 months of application.
Human Resources Section, Office of AdministrationUniversity of Macau, Av. da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, ChinaWebsite: https://career.admo.um.edu.mo/; Email: vacancy@um.edu.moTel: +853 8822 8574; Fax: +853 8822 2412
The effective position and salary index are subject to the Personnel Statute of the University of Macau in force. The University of Macau reserves the right not to appoint a candidate. Applicants with less qualification and experience can be offered lower positions under special circumstances.
***Personal data provided by applicants will be kept confidential and used for recruitment purpose only***
** Under the equal condition of qualifications and experience, priority will be given to Macao permanent residents**
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Anastasios Kyrillidis wins NSF CAREER Award | Rice News | News and Media Relations | Rice University – Rice News
By Patrick KurpSpecial to the Rice News
HOUSTON (Feb. 8, 2022) Rice University computer scientist Anastasios Kyrillidis has won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to explore the theory and design of non-convex optimization algorithms, an increasingly important class used in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
CAREER Awards are among the most competitive given by the NSF, which awards only about 500 each year across all disciplines. The awards include five-year grants to support early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
Kyrillidis, Rices Noah Harding Assistant Professor of Computer Science, joined the university in 2018. His CAREER research will focus on devising technology for faster, more robust non-convex optimization algorithms.
Non-convex optimization is at the heart of many engineering applications, especially through the wave that machine learning and artificial intelligence have triggered: physics, health care, biology, software engineering, chemistry and materials science, among others, he said.
Given that we lack theory, more often than not, in non-convex optimization, researchers often follow trial-and-error procedures, which leads to heuristics, Kyrillidis said. Deciding when heuristics are provable algorithms is a pressing need for the scientific community and society as a whole.
His goal is to devise algorithmic foundations and theory that will accelerate problem solving. This would include the design of fast algorithms as an active research area in machine learning, information processing and optimization research.
Understanding how performance is obtained using efficient algorithms is essential to designing practical and safely applicable learning, he said. His research will focus on three priorities: Faster convergence in structure-rich problems, with emphasis on matrix-factorized machine learning problems; algorithmic acceleration in non-convex scenarios, with a focus on neural network architectures; and acceleration techniques in machine-learning systems.
Kyrillidis earned his Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in 2014 prior to working as a Goldstine Postdoctoral Fellow at IBMs T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and as a Simons Foundation pPostdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.
Patrick Kurp is a science writer in Rice's George R. Brown School of Engineering.
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Learn more about:
Kyrillidis CAREER Award: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2145629
Kyrillidis research: akyrillidis.github.io/about
Computer Science at Rice: cs.rice.edu
Rices George R. Brown School of Engineering: engineering.rice.edu
IMAGE available for download at:
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/02/0214_KYRILLIDIS-career-lg.jpg CAPTION: Anastasios Tasos Kyrillidis(Photo courtesy of Rice University)
This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nations top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,052 undergraduates and 3,484 graduate students, Rices undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplingers Personal Finance.
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Stitt: Career tech, computer science and higher teacher pay are keys to future industry – Shawnee News Star
By Mikaela Deleon, Gaylord News| The Shawnee News-Star
WASHINGTON Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt says computer science education, an increased focus on career tech and higher teacher pay are keys to the future industries of Oklahoma.
Stitt said he foresees the day in the not too distant future where Oklahoma teachers, who once were next to last in pay, will earn as much as $100,000 a year.
"One of my priorities this year is to unleash some pay for performance. We want to keep our best and brightest in the classroom," said Stitt, who is facing reelection this year. "I want teachers to be able to make $100,000 a year and stay in this profession."
Over the four-day National Governors Association Winter meeting, governors held policy discussions on infrastructure, bi-partisan leadership and the importance of K-12 computer science education. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson,chairman of the NGA, emphasized the link between increased student digital literacy and a stronger workforce.
A 2021 State of Computer Science Education report estimated that only 53% of Oklahoma high schools offered a computer science curriculum, ranking the state as number 27th in accessibility to these courses. Arkansas currently boasts 92% and is ranked as number one in the nation under the computer science initiative by Hutchison.
"We're going to lead in training the talent for the digital age," Hutchison told his fellow governors during the conference last weekend.
Last year, Stitt signed into law Senate Bill 252 , which requires that all public and charter high schools offer a computer science course by the 2024-25 school year.. In 2020, only 37% of Oklahoma high schools offered computer science courses, but that number rose significantly in 2021.
"We know that training our workforce for those jobs of tomorrow is the most important thing we can do," Stitt said As the governor and leader of Oklahoma, I'm just trying to learn and put our state in the best spot for success in the future.
Stitt said commerce focused on the electric vehicle industry is a part of Oklahoma's future as an energy producer. Canoo, an electric car company, plans to bring research and development centers to Tusla and already has a factory in Pryor. The governor met with Toyota and General Motors while in Washington and said he sees Oklahoma leaning heavily on electric vehicles in the future.
He said understanding computer science and other educational requirements for STEM-related jobs will be crucial to building Oklahoma's economic future.
Stitt said Oklahoma should be focusing more on career tech and getting more high school students into STEM, engineering and the trades after graduation to fill these employment gaps.
"We want to make sure that career paths are very well established for high school kids that maybe don't want to become an engineer, but they want to become an electrician, or a plumber or HVAC," Stitt said, "All of the different trades are so important, and we're trying to create those pathways to make sure every kid has a great opportunity coming out of Oklahoma high schools."
Oklahoma K-12 schools are currently experiencing a teacher shortage due to COVID-19 surges. Recently, Stitt signed a law allowing state employees to serve as substitute teachers to fill staffing gaps. Stitt said he thinks the teacher shortage will be a temporary issue and will not affect any future plans to expand computer science programs across the state.
"We were just trying to fill the needs and make sure that our schools stayed open. Because the number one priority is to make sure our kids are not getting behind, Stitt said.
Stitt said he intended to lead by example and solve the employment shortage.
Under SB 252, sponsored by Oklahoma State Sen. Brenda Stanley (R, Midwest City) and State Rep. Rhonda Baker (R, Yukon), schools that do not have a computer science teacher will offer an online course with a remote teacher. With additional programs added to teachers' workloads, Stitt says he plans to continue investing in education and teachers.
In 2018, Oklahoma passed a law that provides $3,000 to $5,000 extra to teachers who provide mentoring to other teachers and spend 25 percent to 50 percent of their time mentoring. And some Oklahoma districts offer teachers additional pay based on performance and mentorship of other teachers. But the program is not statewide yet.
Texas uses a pay-by-performance program called the Local Optional Teacher Designation System. The program was created in 2019 and has been met with backlash for being heavily reliant on standardized test scores, disincentivizing the teaching of struggling students and causing high turnover rates of teachers. Although teachers average salary increased by $7,000, the Texas American Federation of Teachers has called the program "ill-conceived."
However, the Texas Education Agency reported the state turnover rate fell to 9% for the academic year of 2020-2021. That attrition rate was lower than the past nine years.
Stitt says such a program would help to incentivize younger teachers to stay in classrooms rather than move toward administrative roles. The governor said he also hopes to draw more attention to education by moving school board elections to November to increase participation.
"School board elections have never been more important," Stitt said, "Right now, school board elections are held in April like nobody knows about them. Nobody votes in them. So I'm trying to get those moved to the general election timeframe."
Senate Bill 962, proposed by Sen. Greg Treat, (R, Oklahoma City) would shift school board elections to November, but the Oklahoma State School Boards Association has declared the move to be a legislative alert. The OSSBA said SB 962 would invite party politics into non-partisan races.
Stitt said education's role in Oklahoma's future is significant, with continued unprecedented challenges and additional educational programs.
"We are hyper-focused on training the workforce," Stitt said.
The NGA Winter Meeting and the Republican Governors Association Winter Meeting took place over the same weekend and Stitt emphasized the benefit of both.
It's great to be here and meet all my colleagues from around the country that we talk to on the phone all the time. Its just neat to be together, Stitt said, Its a neat time to come represent Oklahoma.
Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories from Gaylord News visit GaylordNews.net.
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Say Goodbye to the Memory Wall | UVA Today – University of Virginia
In 1994, University of Virginia computer science professor emeritus William Wulf and his then-graduate student, Sally McKee, identified what would become a defining challenge in the field of computer science for decades to come. They called it the memory wall.
The memory wall results from two issues: outdated computing architecture, with a physical separation between computer processors and memory; and the fact that a processor can run much faster than the speed at which memory chips can provide data.
As early as the 1980s, researchers were predicting that computer systems could not keep up with the future trajectory of data. Then came the internet of things devices connected through the cloud collecting vast amounts of data. The rapid growth of bioinformatics has been another source of the data explosion.
By 2018, Forbes reported that 90% of the worlds data had been generated in just the previous two years. The servers processing these data have not been able to keep up and provide timely results, such as identifying new COVID variants or responding quickly when a patient falls ill.
That was the year when researchers in the University of Virginias Department of Computer Science and Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering were selected to establish a $29.7 million research effort to remove the memory wall.
Four years into the five-year grant, the UVA-led, nine-university Center for Research in Intelligent Storage and Processing in Memory, or CRISP, has made strides that match the gargantuan problem the center is trying to solve.
The centers investigators and graduate students have published 378 papers, released 26 new software tools, and submitted 18 patent applications, of which two have been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
We are four years into developing novel architectures that will benefit society in ways not even imaginable a few years ago, said Kevin Skadron, Harry Douglas Forsyth Professor of Computer Science at the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science and center leader.
The new architectures the CRISP collaborators are developing integrate processing and memory into a single unit. By tightly coupling the processing into the data storage, the processing rate can be dramatically increased.
The fundamental redesign is overdue and equates to past evolutions in computing, like the introduction of integrated circuits and the paradigm shift from mainframes to personal computers and workstations.
One of the centers early wins came in the fight against cancer.
The key to targeted cancer treatments is analyzing DNA samples to find patterns in genetic data, which then pinpoint specific treatments based on epidemiology. Center researchers set out to see just how much they could speed up that process, which scientists call sequence alignment.
The results were stunning. Their new architectures could shorten sequence alignment time from 20 hours to less than a second. Center researchers also projected they could speed this up 100 times further in future evolutions of their processing redesigns.
This one example highlights the importance of our collaboration with other universities, across multiple disciplines, to remove the memory wall, Skadron said following the centers second-annual review in November 2019. Industry and government are working with us to realize the incredible breakthroughs that can occur with large data sets. All sectors of our economy and society will benefit.
As center researchers headed back to their labs to build on these exciting results, the first cases of a novel coronavirus were appearing in Wuhan, China.
By the spring of 2020, the world was in lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic. So the centers researchers added another real-world case study midway through the grant cycle. They joined the global scientific community in efforts to tackle SARS-CoV-2.
Effective mitigations would require accelerated pathways to understanding the virus methods of transmission and mutation. Large numbers of biological samples from humans infected by the virus were being collected from wastewater, and these could be used to sequence the virus to get at this information.
But processing just one sample would take weeks with todays computers. Faster results were needed to get ahead of the virus spread and inform tactics for halting it. This is exactly where the center researchers hard work would prove invaluable.
To get at the viral sequences, they could apply the ultra-fast processing methods they created for targeted cancer treatments. They could also draw on their research for new computing methods that eliminated other data bottlenecks in the coronavirus genomics pipeline. The dramatic results sped up the processing timeline so epidemiologists could get actionable insights from samples within a few hours.
Researchers could even backtrack the sequences fast enough to identify transmission networks in micro-detail, thanks to the new processing methods, providing a powerful example of just how critical these next-generation computing architectures are for society.
Ultra-fast computing will become a key player in the defense against new diseases that emerge with no historical context. Being able to sort through new streams of biomedical information, like the CRISP researchers did to get at methods to predict COVID-19s next moves in real time, will be the only way to track disease outbreaks and develop methods of control.
These same methods are the key to better medical treatments for a myriad of existing diseases, too, in addition to cancer. The researchers have continued their work throughout the pandemic conducting acceleration studies of new hardware and software.
The UVA-led center has funded 185 graduate students across the participating universities, 59 of whom have graduated and gone on to jobs in important sectors such as the U.S. semiconductor industry and as faculty in U.S. universities. Skadron said the centers work has also provided opportunities for undergraduate researchers at UVA and supported innovations in curriculum for computer systems design.
The center is part of the Joint University Microelectronics Program funded and managed by North Carolina-based Semiconductor Research Corporation, a consortium that includes engineers and scientists from technology companies, universities and government agencies.
UVAs team includes Skadron; Samira Khan, assistant professor of computer science and an expert in computer architecture and its implications for software systems; and Mircea Stan, Virginia Microelectronics Consortium Professor in electrical and computer engineering and an expert in the design of high-performance, low-power chips and circuits.
Center collaborators are Cornell University; Georgia Tech; Pennsylvania State University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, San Diego; the University of Washington; the University of Wisconsin; and the University of Pennsylvania.
In the final year of the grant, the centers investigative teams will continue testing their new architectures in three primary areas of application: targeted cancer treatments, analytics for large datasets and video analysis.
By the end of 2022, they plan to demonstrate methods to identify a targeted cancer therapy in 24 hours, execute big data processing that is 100 times faster than state-of-the art, and power artificial intelligence that can scan videos in real time to accurately label objects and identify specific movements.
This giant leap in computing architectures will benefit other human endeavors even beyond medicine, such as smart cities and autonomous transportation, Skadron said. We are honored for the opportunity to contribute to society in such a profound way.
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Inside the labs at the Science and Engineering Complex – Harvard Gazette
In Harvards new Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), now home to the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), a myriad of sustainable science labs create a fascinating matrix of learning, innovation, and research. Under a canopy of natural light, researchers explore robotics, bioengineering, computer science, data science, computational science, engineering programs, electrical engineering, materials science, and mechanical engineering.
Elizabeth Gallardo Hevia, a graduate student in the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory, said the complex fosters community and creates a perfect setting for groundbreaking research. The environmentthat you work in is important to productivity and overall happiness, she said. The Microrobotics Lab provides all the resources I need to get my work done; the new space at SEC gives me the space to work comfortably and efficiently.The sense of light and incredible views that the building brings into our space puts a smile on my face every day, which definitelykeeps my momentum going!
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Inside the labs at the Science and Engineering Complex - Harvard Gazette