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NSERC COMPUTER SCIENCE LIAISON COMMITTEE COMITÉ DE LIAISON DU CRSNG EN INFORMATIQUE

Jörg-R. Sack, LC Chair

Town Hall: U. of British Columbia

Establishing a National Organization

for Canadian CS Research

January12th, 2015

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NSERC CS-Liaison Committee

Since its creation by NSERC in 2011, the NSERC Computer Science Liaison Committee (LC) has been pleased to serve the CS community in Canada  and to interact with NSERC on matters relating to the community.

Please see our website: CS-NSERC.ca | CRSNG-Inf.ca

for mandate, activities, presentations, documents, news, etc.

Welcome News Documents About us | Français cs-nserc.ca crsng-inf.ca

CS community

In addition to direct communication, NSERC interacts now with the community through the LC.

LC

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LC Membership

• Jörg-Rüdiger Sack, Carleton (Chair) [2015]

• Anne Condon, UBC, [2015]• Marc Frappier, Sherbrooke [2015]• Parvin Mousavi, Queen’s U. [2017]• Mario Nascimento, U of A. [2017]

NSERC’s Representatives• NSERC representatives overseeing CS

Sarah Overington Team Leader, Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy

Elizabeth Boston, Director – Mathematical, Environmental, Physical Sciences

Ex officio• Doina Precup, McGill [2016] CS Group Chair (current)

• Atefeh Farzindar, NLP Tech. Inc. - Private sector (small enterprises) [2017]• Steven Woods, Google Inc. - Private sector (large enterprises) [2017]

We sincerely thank Mike Bauer, Greg Dudek, Samir Boughaba, and Evangelos Milios for their significant contributions made during the first years!

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NSERC CS-Liaison Committee

Formal written responses:• consultation on CCA Consultation on the draft• DG Program evaluation Tri-Agency Open Access Policy

Consultation:• Discovery Frontiers (VP Blain)• DG evaluation

LC members:• NSERC’s panel on follow-up Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward

CCA report (M. Frappier) a Policy Framework (J.-R. Sack)• Chaired the NSERC-IBM CFI Cyber-infrastructure

Fellowship Innovation Platform (J.-R. Sack) (J.-R. Sack)Meeting:

• NSERC senior management (incl. President, 2 VPs)

LC

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Previous Consultation (2012)

Developed Questionnaire

Sent to Heads & Chairs

Received completed Questionnaire(20 Departments)

Compiled summary

Sent summary to community

Received feedback

Integrated into report

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Analysis Report (2013)

Analysis Report

Other reliable sources

ConsultationOST report

OST report: commissioned jointly with CACS/AIC(OST = Observatoire des sciences et des technologies)

Current strengths of CS research in Canada

Challenges it faces, and

Recommendations for actions

Report tabled e.g., to community, CACS/AIC, Presidents of tri-council, CFI, very well received.

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Recommendation 6

R6: With the support of its stakeholders and partners, including NSERC, the Computer Science community must become better organized.

• Following up on R6, LC now engages the community with respect to critical

endeavour of establishing a national Organization that represents the Canadian

Computer Science research community.

• LC now calls on Canadian CS researchers from both academia and industry

to step up to lead efforts to strengthen research and advanced education in

CS and to build a cohesive Canadian CS research community.

• What Canada needs now, alongside, and in strong cooperation, with CACS

and CIPS, is a national organization representing its CS researchers.

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- Inform community of the LC’s ideas for a new organization

- Hear from guest speakers on the benefits and challenges of national research organizations

- Hear from the community on: A) Level of support for the creation of a new organization in principle B) Possible mission/activities/scope/priorities of the organization

Town Hall Meeting

Objective: gather ideas from all members of the CS community on the creation of a national CS organization for research.

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Mission (early draft)

The mission of the organization is to help further strengthen the Canadian computer science (CS) research community, and to represent and effectively advocate its interests and goals to relevant agencies and parties.

LC -> communityDraft Mission Statement

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Goals (draft) Represent the broad-based interests of the CS research

community. Facilitate the recruitment and involvement of women in Computer Science at all levels of the field. Advocate and promote the interests of CS research to relevant parties including: governments, funding organizations, industry and the general public. Serve as a focal point for the government, industry, and policy makers to interact on issues, strategic needs, priorities, relevant to the CS research community. Facilitate broad consultation with the research community on critical issues.

LC -> communityDraft Goals

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Activities (draft)

Organize panels, working groups or other activities of interest to the Canadian CS research community.

Enable the organization of regular Long Range Plans for the Canadian CS research community.

Create a network for its members. Develop research/funding opportunities, and facilitate

large-scale collaborations.

LC -> communityActitivies

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Activities (draft) Provide mechanisms to share information and best

practices relating to research, e.g, for building and funding international collaborations and facilitating high-impact research collaborations.

Engage talented Canadian undergraduates in computing research and interest them in graduate research.

Support and encourage the participation of underrepresented groups in all levels of computing research.

LC -> communityActitivies

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Outcomes (anticipated) A stronger voice for Canadian computing researchers in shaping funding programs. More opportunities for funding of research and graduate education. More highly-qualified graduate students. Increased interaction and partnerships between academia and industry. Greater impact of CS research on industrial practice, public policy, and advanced education.

LC -> communityAnticipated Outcomes

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In person individuals, LC, U. VIC, SFU and UBC National web-cast to the CS community NSERC participants In person: Sarah Overington, Team Leader, Computer

Science, Physics and Astronomy Remotely:

Pierre Charest VP, Research Grants and Scholarships Elizabeth Boston, Director, Mathematical Environ- mental

and Physical Sciences Reeta Sooknah, Program Officer, Computer Science Staff, Partnership division

Town Hall Meeting

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Sarah Overington

Team Leader, Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy, NSERC

Previously:

Program Officer, Climate Change and Atmospheric Research

Researcher, McGill (Ph.D.)

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Eric Grimson

William Eric Leifur Grimson

Canadian-born, 21st CRA Board Chair

Chancellor for Academic Advancement

Bernard Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering

Professor of Computer Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Sarah (Sally) Otto

Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, CSEE

(involved in particular in the creation)

Director of the UBC Biodiversity Research CentreProfessor, Department of Zoology, UBC

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Stefan Jähnichen

2008 - President of the Gesellschaft für Informatik E.V. (Society for Informatics)

Director of the Forschungszentrum Informatik, Branch Office, Technical University of Berlin

Chairman of the supervisory board of

Leibniz Centre Computer Science, Schloss

Dagstuhl

© Jähnichen privat

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Ken Barker

President of the Canadian Association of Computer Science/ Association d’informatique canadienne,

Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Calgary

Professor, Department of Computer Science

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Steven Woods

Senior Engineering Director at Google Inc.

founded NeoEdge Networks andserved as VP of Voice Services for America Online/Time Warner.

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Hausi Müller

Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Engineering, U. of Victoria

Professor, Department of Computer Science

Principal investigator, NSERC Strategic Research Network for Smart Applications on Virtual Infrastructure (SAVI).

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Tamer Özsu

Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Mathematics

Professor, Database Research Group, David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo

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Establishing a National OrganizationRecommended Path Forward

A clear vision of what the community wants is required

LC invites CACS to be a key partner

Bring the community together

Potential to shape Canadian CS for decades to come

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Next Steps

Compile

Summary of Town hall

Send message to community

Send to Heads & Chairs of Depts.

request to hold sessions inside departments and summarize

Compile summary

Send summary to community

request comments and feedback

Produce

Final report

Another Town Hallexclusively for discussionsis an option?

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Thanks

on behalf of the entire CS-NSERC LC Speakers Participants: here and online Task Force: Ken Barker, Elizabeth Boston, Craig Boutilier, Anne

Condon (UBC), Atefeh Farzindar, Mark Giesbrecht, Mario Nascimento,, Mary Jane Kucerak, Sarah Overington, (Jörg-R. Sack)

Audio Visual: Mark van Driel Financial: CACS, NSERC