Ok, so that’s about the most played-out cliche in politics, but it’s hard to come up with another phrase that encapsulates how pervasive the competitiveness meme has become in science policy circles — and more encouragingly, in the words of administration and congressional policymakers — over the last year. Also, apologies for going sort of […]
The first meeting of the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) since the committee absorbed the functions of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) last October 1st will be held tomorrow in Washington, DC. The committee will hear for the first time in detail about the Networking and Information Technology R&D […]
As mentioned previously, today Sens. John Ensign (R-NV) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) plan to introduce the National Innovation Act of 2005, a bill that would enact many of the recommendations of the National Innovation Initiative report put out by the Council on Competitiveness last December. The bill would do a lot of important stuff: Establish […]
I’m just back from CRA’s Grand Research Challenges in Revitalizing Computer Architecture conference — held in lovely Aptos, California, just up the road from Monterey (and far sunnier than the snowy DC I’ve returned to) — where 50 of the brightest minds in computer architecture research spent 3 days thinking deep thoughts about the field […]
Business Week has a piece that ran yesterday on TechNet’s annual innovation summit held earlier this week. The summit brings together TechNet’s CEOs and include a few sessions taped with PBS commentator Charlie Rose. I went to the summit last year and was impressed by the event but a little disappointed that the number one […]
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) put the President’s nominee for Director of Defense Research and Engineering, John Young, on notice at his Senate confirmation hearing last week that she expects the new Director to address her concerns with DARPA (which DDR&E technically oversees), particularly DARPA support for university-led computer science research. Those concerns turns out to […]
The governors of 27 states have sent a letter to President Bush urging him to “ensure that federal funding for university-based research remains a top national priority” in FY 2006 and beyond. In their letter, the 16 Democratic and 11 Republican governors make the case that basic research has been the fuel for innovation in […]
This by now has been covered all over the place, but I’d be remiss not to add it here, too. The National Academies convened a 20-member panel last summer at the request of Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Reps. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Bart Gordon (D-TN) to determine the “top 10 […]
The Department of Defense has proposed a change to its regulations that would strengthen requirements for the control of export-controlled technologies for DOD research contractors, including universities. The proposed rule would require contractors to have an export control program that includes regular audits and training, segregated workplaces for export-controlled technologies, and “unique badging requirements for […]
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich joined yesterday’s meeting of the National Academies’ Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, ostensibly to talk about health care and IT — though he probably only spent a couple of minutes total on the topic. Instead, the board and those of us in the audience got Gingrich’s take on what’s wrong […]
