Two Computing Bills Marked Up Today

On March 14, 2013, In Computing Education, Diversity in Computing, Policy, Research, Security, By MelissaNorr

Today the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee marked up two computing bills for floor consideration. HR 756, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2013, and HR 967, the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2013, both of which had passed in the House of Representatives in previous Congressional sessions but not taken up by the Senate. CRA has, both now and in the past, endorsed both of these bills.

The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act promotes education, training, awareness, and research in cybersecurity via authorizing of federal research funding, scholarships, and coordination of programs across NITRD agencies. The legislation requires participating agencies, in conjunction with the National Coordinating Office, to develop strategic plans for federal cybersecurity research. It would also prioritize cyberesecurity research at participating agencies such as NSF. A number of amendments were added during the markup to clarify and specify the inclusion of women, veterans, and community colleges in the education and training provisions as well as to require the evaluation of higher education courses and degrees in cybersecurity. There were also amendments to increase the NIST role in research in the security of the IT supply chain and in the science of cybersecurity.

The Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2013 updates the existing NITRD bill and enacts several of the recommendations from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Specifically, the bill requires the NITRD agencies to create a five-year strategic plan for the program, and to have the program’s progress periodically reviewed by a committee of IT experts from academia and industry. Like, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, this bill emphasizes education and attracting women and minorities to get degrees in computing fields. It would also examine the use of cloud computing for federally funded research. Fewer amendments were offered on the NITRD bill than the Cybersecurity Enhancement bill and they were mostly to reflect changes and programs that are already being done under the bill, such as the cyberphysical systems program.

Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) noted that CRA and several other groups such as ACM and IEEE-CS also supported the bills. CRA led the community with a joint endorsement letter that was sent to the Committee.

 
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Undergrad Computer Science Enrollments Rise for Fifth Straight Year — CRA Taulbee Report

On March 8, 2013, In CRA, Diversity in Computing, People, Uncategorized, By SharSteed

The number of new undergraduate computing majors among U.S. computer science departments rose an astonishing 29.2 percent this year, according to new data released today by the Computing Research Association.

The average number of CS majors per U.S. CS departmentThe data appears in Computing Degrees and Enrollment Trends, a special report from the 2011-2012 CRA Taulbee Survey of the organization’s member departments. Among schools who responded to the survey both this year and last, the increase was 22.8 percent.

Overall Ph.D. production in computing programs reported in the survey reached its highest level ever, with 1,929. This represents an 8.2 percent increase over 2010-11. Among those departments reporting both this year and last year, the number of total doctoral degrees increased by 5.2 percent. More than 55 percent of those new degree holders took jobs in industry, with the remainder finding academic or government positions, or self-employment. Only 0.4 percent reported unemployment. The survey also found that bachelor’s degree production in computing fields increased by 19.8 percent overall, and 16.6 percent among those departments that reported both years. Production of Bachelor's Degrees in the US (CS, CE and I Departments)

The CRA Taulbee Survey is conducted annually by the CRA to document trends in student enrollment, degree production, employment of graduates, and faculty salaries in academic units in the United States and Canada that grant the Ph.D. in computer science, computer engineering, or information. CRA today released its Computing Degrees and Enrollment Trends, 2011-12 report. The full Taulbee dataset will be released to the public in May and published in CRA’s Computing Research News.

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House Oversight Hearing on Conference Travel

On March 1, 2013, In Policy, Research, By MelissaNorr

In the aftermath of the GSA Las Vegas conference scandal, the White House issued restrictions on travel and conference spending (PDF) which we discussed here previously. Congress is once again wading into the issue with a House Government Oversight Committee hearing featuring three government witnesses: The Honorable Rush Holt, Representative for the 12th Congressional District of New Jersey, The Honorable Danny Werfel, Controller, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and Ms. Cynthia Metzler, Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. General Services Administration.

While the overall hearing focused on overall government spending and GSA spending on travel and conferences, Congressman Holt specifically addressed scientific conferences. He noted that restrictions on government scientists attendance of conferences can hinder scientific collaboration and innovation. He stated that spending on research and scientists is not wasteful spending but rather that spending is an important investment.

Werfel noted that the restrictions had been increased to require agency spending on travel and conferences to be 30 percent below 2010 levels by 2013 and that agencies maintain that level through 2016. He noted that mission critical activities are protected from these required cuts so scientific collaboration should not be hindered.

Ranking Member Steve Lynch (D-MA) noted that in the House bill that would codify the OMB guidance, H.R. 313, agencies are limited to sending 50 people or less to a conference and that this is problematic for large scientific conferences such as the International AIDS Conference that sometimes has a thousand government scientists in attendance. He wondered if this type of limit was harming the efficacy and value of the conferences. Werfel stated that yes, that was a concern and allowing the agency heads to make the executive decision about how many people to send to maximize the agency mission would help alleviate that. He also noted that sometimes having higher numbers of employees attend one conference rather than having smaller numbers attend different conferences can create greater efficiencies of scale and cost savings.

Ranking Member Lynch also submitted a letter from AAAS and other science organizations with the scientific communities concerns for the record. CRA joined with other members of the computing community – USACM, IEEE-USA, and SIAM – in submitting a letter (PDF) to Congressional leaders and Administration officials last fall outlining concerns with the restrictions.

The video of the hearing and the written testimony of the three witnesses can be found here.

 
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