Federal Funding for Computing Research, Building Community and Words from My Sponsor Dr. Andrew Bernat Executive Director Computing Research Association Friday, September 7, 2007 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Fuller Labs 320 The Computing Research Association is the Washington-based non-profit looking out for the health of the computing research enterprise by focusing on the people and money necessary to conduct computing research. Since CRA pays my salary, I start with what CRA is doing in general to support the people doing computing research and how students and faculty can make use of these efforts. I then bring people up to date on what is going on with research funding at the federal level and what CRA is doing to improve the situation. This leads into a discussion of the new Computing Community Consortium effort. (Talk Slides) ______ Andrew Bernat is recognized internationally as a builder of innovative, quality programs in academia. As founding member and chair of the Computer Science Department at the University of Texas at El Paso, he developed an acclaimed model of student involvement in research, secured external funding, attracted and hired high quality faculty, and directed the renovation of a building to house the department. In recognition of ``his success in creating arguably the strongest computer science department at a minority-serving institution'', the Computing Research Association honored him with the A. Nico Habermann Award. In developing and leading the National Science Foundation-funded Model Institutions for Excellence project at UTEP, he forged working groups across different departments and colleges that dramatically transformed the campus and led to qualitative and quantitative improvement in student achievement. He has led national efforts to increase the articipation of underrepresented minorities and women in the computing profession. The workshop series he initiated with colleagues in Mexico dramatically increased the activity and productivity of the Mexican computer science community. His experience is truly interdisciplinary and international, ranging from scientific research, with some 62 invited presentations and publications, to educational reform and innovation, with some thirty invited presentations and publications. He is currently Executive Director of the Computing Research Association (www.cra.org). Host: Michael Gennert Refreshments will be served. Maintained by webmaster@cs.wpi.edu Last modified: Fri Aug 10 15:08:51 EDT 2007

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