Nov 30, 2006 - Claremont, Calif. -

Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Harvey Mudd College computer science professor and acting chair of the Department of Computer Science, has been appointed to the interim council for the Computing Community Consortium (CCC).

Comprised of computing experts from various universities and organizations across the country, the group aims to identify major research opportunities, provide leadership and vision on computing research issues and large-scale projects, and create venues for community participation in research activities.

The consortium--recently established by the Computing Research Association (CRA) in a three-year, $6 million agreement with the National Science Foundation--will also identify new challenges for the discipline.

In a 2002 report, the CRA identified five areas in the computing field that have potential to help society at large: a ubiquitous online safety network could save lives and minimize damage from disasters through timely prediction, mitigation and response; cognitive partnerships between humans and software agents and robots could enhance productivity and effectiveness; individual, learner-centered tutoring could enable people to realize their full potential; reliable systems--from regional electric grids to heart monitors--could allow people to rely on information technology with confidence; and predictable and robust systems with billions of parts could enable broader and more powerful applications of information technology.

One of CCC's first projects will be the Global Environment for Network Innovations, which addresses the idea that a major new facility will be needed in the U.S. to develop the next (and qualitatively better) generation of the Internet.

"As the only member of the CCC interim council from an undergraduate institution, one of my objectives is to ensure that small colleges and other undergraduate institutions are meaningful engaged and represented in these initiatives," said Libeskind-Hadas, whose own research focuses on the design of algorithms--efficient computational processes--for routing data in fiber optic networks.