Over the past several decades, computing and information technologies have shaped our lives, our society, and our physical world in ways we never would have imagined. An increasing number of jobs depend on IT, IT shrinks time and distance in our social lives, agriculture and transportation are rapidly becoming IT-based, and IT holds the promise of revolutionizing education and healthcare. Although many of the IT-powered innovations that are reshaping our society can be traced to fundamental computing-related research, their impact has been magnified through powerful applications in areas of broad societal need and opportunity.

Over the past 11 years, the Computing Community Consortium has hosted dozens of research visioning workshops to imagine, discuss, and debate the future of computing and its role in addressing societal needs. The second CCC Computing Research symposium draws these topics into a program designed to illuminate current and future trends in computing and the potential for computing to address national challenges. In this two-day event titled "Computing Research: Addressing National Priorities and Societal Needs 2017" at Washington D.C. next month, UCSB CS Professors Elizabeth Belding and Chandra Krintz will speak at the Intelligent Infrastructure for our Cities and Communities Panel, while Prof. William Wang will present his research about new problems in AI at the poster session.

(Source: CCC.)