Scientists at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence are working on Nepomuk, a project to give computers a human-like capacity to remember. Nepomuk has developed a process that uses semantic technology to support personal information management. Data contained in the traditional computer folder structure are automatically transferred to a personal information model. For example, emails are linked with contact data and images on the hard disk. The resulting connections created between information and concepts are used for storage and search features. For storage, content analysis algorithms create proposals on how new documents should be added to the existing system. The system is similar to a human’s ability to remember the subject of a speech, as well as the face of the person who gave the speech, but not necessarily the person’s name. The brain connects individual elements that it perceives at the same time, and makes associations, such as between conference proceedings and speakers or dates, for example. The new system could help a user find documents related to a subject if they only have a picture of a contact person related to that subject. The semantic network could find the correct documents using the connections from the picture.
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ACM and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) have named Francine Berman the winner of the inaugural Ken Kennedy Award. Established this year, the award, named for the high-performance computing expert who founded Rice University’s computer science program, honors individuals who have made significant contributions in programmability and productivity in computing, as well as in community service or mentoring. ACM and IEEE-CS sought to recognize Berman’s “influential leadership in the design, development, and deployment of national-scale cyberinfrastructure.” Berman, currently vice president for research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, headed the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure when it developed a national-scale grid and created an integrated package of software to support large-scale domain applications. Berman is co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, and has served on key advisory boards for the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Academies, the National Institutes of Health, and other groups. Berman was a founding member and a co-chair of the Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research, and currently serves on the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology Board of Trustees. ACM and IEEE-CS will present the 2009 Kennedy Award to Berman at the SC09 Conference, which takes place Nov. 14-20, in Portland, Oregon.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) president Susan Hockfield notes that the majority of the 2009 Nobel Prize winners for physics, chemistry, and medicine are immigrants who came to the United States as scientists or as graduate or post-doctoral students. She writes that they were drawn by the openness and prestige of the U.S. system of higher education and advanced research, but “that openness stands in sharp contrast to arcane U.S. immigration policies that discourage young scholars from settling in the U.S.” Student immigrants play a vital role in job creation, and Hockfield notes that foreign MIT graduates have started 2,340 active U.S. businesses in which more than 100,000 people are employed. She points out that U.S. immigration statutes require that students go back to their homelands after graduation and then apply for a visa if they wish to return and seek employment in the United States. “It would be hard to invent a policy more counterproductive to our national interest,” Hockfield says. She advocates the creation of a wider-ranging immigration policy that would allow foreign students who earn advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math to easily obtain legal permanent residence. Also critical is the aggressive cultivation of more domestic talent, especially Ph.D.s in the sciences, as other countries’ graduation rates are outpacing those of the United States. “To be part of [the] global creative network we must inspire more young Americans to pursue scientific careers, and we must rapidly reform U.S. immigration policies that drive away talented young scholars who would otherwise decide to live, work, and innovate here,” Hockfield concludes.

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