As we noted earlier today, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science did fairly well in the President’s Budget Request considering the fiscal climate we remain mired in. Overall, the Office of Science request is for an increase of 2.4 percent over the FY12 enacted appropriations to a total of $5 billion.
The Advanced Scientific Computing Research program would see a 3.3 percent increase to $455.6 million. Basic Energy Sciences would also receive an increase to $1.8 billion, a 6.6 percent increase. The biggest decrease in the Office of Science would be to the Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists program. It would lose $4 million or 21.6 percent of it’s FY12 funding.
ARPA-E would see a significant increase to it’s project funding of 27.5 percent for a total of $325 million. This is a $70 million increase over the enacted FY12 funding and does not include the requested increase for “program direction” of 25 percent to $25 million. This would bring the total ARPA-E funding to $350 million. DoE states that the program direction funding would allow them to hire more federal employees, support contractors, lease space, and increase IT purchases. It is unlikely that Congress will approve of such increases for personnel, space, and equipment given the spending climate in Washington.
Secretary Chu’s statement on the Department of Energy budget can be found here. The full budget document can be found here.
As expected, these aren’t huge increases, but in the context of the current fiscal climate, they demonstrate that the Administration continues to make investments in research and development a priority. It’s certainly a better position from which to start the annual budget process than if they’d proposed cuts.
We’ll have more on the DOE Office of Science budget and NSF CISE budget today after budget briefings at those agencies.
Yesterday was STEM education day for the Administration. In the morning at a White House Science Fair, President Obama announced he will seek $80 million in the FY13 budget of the Department of Education to help train 100,000 more STEM teachers along with policies to recruit, retain, and reward STEM teachers. The full announcement can be found here.
In the afternoon, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics”, a report focusing on ways to increase the attraction and retention of undergraduates majoring in the STEM fields. During the release, members of PCAST spoke to the difficulties of keeping interested students in the STEM fields particularly when they are not prepared for college level math and when they find the introductory level courses to be “uninspiring”. Additionally, many underrepresented groups leave STEM courses because the atmosphere is unwelcoming.
“PCAST found that economic forecasts point to a need for producing, over the next decade, approximately 1 million more college graduates in STEM fields than expected under current assumptions. Fewer than 40% of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree. Merely increasing the retention of STEM majors from 40% to 50% would generate three-quarters of the targeted 1 million additional STEM degrees over the next decade,” according to the introductory letter to the President.
The report listed five recommendations for improving the attraction and retention of undergraduates.
Catalyze widespread adoption of empirically validated teaching practices
Advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory classes with discovery based research courses
Launch a national experiment in postsecondary mathematics education to address the math preparation gap
Encourage partnerships among stakeholders to diversify pathways to STEM careers
Create a Presidential Council on STEM Education with leadership from the academic and business communities to provide strategic leadership for transformative and sustainable change in STEM undergraduate education
A fact sheet, executive summary, and the full report are all available as PDFs at the PCAST website.
The House Science, Space and Technology Committee today first marked up, then passed unanimously a reauthorization of the Federal government’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program. Called the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2012, (H.R. 3834) the bill sets policies for the 15 Federal agencies who participate in the $3.6 billion a year program, which represents the sum total of the Federal investment in unclassified computing research.
The bill is substantially similar to the NITRD Act of 2009 from the last Congress that CRA endorsed, with a few reservations. While we appreciated that bill’s focus on enacting the recommendations of a review of the NITRD program by the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, we thought the bill could have been made stronger with some additional focus on computer science education and diversity issues throughout the NITRD program. The sponsors of the bill have apparently taken that to heart and added language that addresses three of the four points we raised. (The remaining point dealt with the Department of Education and its lack of participation in the NITRD program, but that’s not something the House Science, Space and Tech Committee has jurisdiction over, so it’s not something they could add to the bill at this point.)
The core of the new bill, as in the old bill, is aimed at fostering greater coordination between the 15 participating agencies and codifying an advisory committee of experts from industry and academia charged with reviewing the program’s progress and recommending new directions to reflect changes in the field or in national priorities. Both elements are key recommendations of the most recent review of the NITRD program, undertaken by the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) and released in December 2010. In an effort to aid coordination among the agencies in setting priorities and research agendas, the bill requires that the program create a five-year strategic plan, updated every three years. The advisory committee will review the strategic plan on a three-year schedule (changed at the markup from 2 years in the original bill) and report the results to Congress.
The bill would also create a new NITRD activity called “Large-scale Research in Areas of National Importance.” Included under this activity would be:
… large-scale, long-term, interdisciplinary research and development activities in networking and information technology directed toward application areas that have the potential for significant contributions to national economic competitiveness and for other societal benefits. Such activities, ranging from basic research to the demonstration of technical solutions, shall be designed to advance the development of research discoveries.
The President’s advisory committee is required to make recommendations to NITRD for research to support under this activity. The bill also requires that if two agencies are working on research in the same area, “they must strive to collaborate through joint solicitations and selection of applications,” a dicey requirement, given how difficult can be to get a single-agency solicitation out the door. (But there is wiggle room in that “strive to collaborate” language.)
The bill also adds a new research area in Cyber-Physical Systems to the NITRD research portfolio. To help figure out how best to carry out research in this area, the bill calls for the creation of “University/Industry Task Force” to explore mechanisms for collaborative research, set an agenda focused on “national significant challenges and requiring collaboration, as well as figuring out everyone’s role in the activity, figuring out the intellectual property issues, and figuring out how to pay for it. And after answering these challenges, the committee shall disband.
New to the bill are sections on Cloud Computing Services for Research, and Improving Networking and Information Technology Education. The former requires the NITRD national coordinating office (NCO) to convene an interagency working group to examine “issues around funding mechanisms and policies for the use of cloud computing services for federally-funded science and engineering research.” In addition, the committee during the markup today added language that requires the working group to also examine the needs of research focused on cloud computing.
The latter new section adds a responsibility to NSF to “use its existing program, in collaboration with other agencies, as appropriate to improved the teaching and learning of NIT at all levels of education and to increase participation in NIT fields, including by women and underrepresented minorities.”
CRA was pleased to offer its support for H.R. 3834 before today’s markup. Here’s what we said:
February 6, 2012
Chairman Hall and Ranking Member Johnson:
As an organization representing over 240 industry and academic institutions involved in computing research and six affiliated professional societies, together representing over 150,000 computing professionals, the Computing Research Association is pleased to support your efforts to bolster federal information technology research through the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act (H.R. 3834). We supported a substantially similar bill, the NITRD Act of 2009 (H.R. 2020), in the previous Congress, and believe the changes you have made to the bill – particularly to add a greater emphasis on computer science education and diversity throughout the NITRD programs – make this a much improved bill.
We also believe H.R. 3834 will make federal IT R&D stronger by enacting several of the recommendations from the most recent review of the program by the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (in December 2010). In particular, we are pleased that 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 experts from academia and industry. Doing so will help ensure that the research priorities of the program reflect changes in the field and national priorities.
We believe that given the size and scope of the NITRD program, its importance to the Nation, and the rapidly-changing nature of the field, it is crucial that this advisory committee be comprised of the leading minds in the academic and industrial research communities, and that the committee be free-standing, independent and able to report its findings directly to the President’s Science Advisor. We are pleased that the bill language does not preclude this, but would appreciate additional emphasis of these characteristics in the bill or the report accompanying the bill.
Thank you for your work on this legislation and for your long-standing support of the federal investment in networking and information technology research. We look forward to working with you and your colleagues as you endeavor to move this legislation forward this session.
Sincerely,
Eric Grimson
Chair
The bill will likely head to the House floor very soon, where it’s expected to pass overwhelming, just like the NITRD Act of 2009 did (though stranger things have happened). The task is more challenging the Senate, which has failed to act on the House bill in each of the last three Congresses and hasn’t produced a version of its own. Whatever the result, we’ll let you know!
Secretary Bryson opened the event with a keynote address saying that the report contains three areas of focus: federal funding of basic research, STEM education, and infrastructure investment. He discussed that these are areas of investment that payoff in the future and that they need to be encouraged even during difficult economic times.
The Secretary’s brief remarks were followed by a panel discussion with Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Rebecca Blank, US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, and McKinsey Global Institute Director James Manyika.
Deputy Secretary Blank began the discussion by talking about the need for competitiveness and job growth to be part of the same conversation. She spoke to the fact that many people don’t see college education, particularly in STEM fields, to be pertinent to their lives and that we need to change the overall picture so they can make the connection.
Manyika pointed out that the concern over jobs was not just because of the recession and that wage growth matters because consumer spending is such a heavy driver of economic growth in the US. He answered a question regarding the US competitiveness standing by saying that the US economy is still the most innovative and attractive in the world, as it has been since World War II, but that change is starting to happen around the globe with other countries trying to rise to the same level of innovation. Manyika also noted that there are market failures in research and development because of the long-term nature of basic research and the private sector cannot fund that kind of research without the government.
Chopra gave examples of the payoff of federally funded R&D. He specifically called out the list of billion dollar sectors within IT that can trace their starts back to federally funded research. He also discussed the success of commercializing a great deal of research that originally started at DARPA and the need to emulate that kind of model and the need to have public-private partnerships.
There was little time for audience questions but one question that did get asked was if all the jobs of the future require computing knowledge and skills, why isn’t computer science being taught at the K – 12 level. Chopra answered by saying that the engineering and technology (the E&T in STEM) need more investment and more emphasis because the science and math portions are already well established.
The full report is available online at the Department of Commerce website. The video of the event will be posted to the Center for American Progress website in the near future.
As noted over at the CCC blog as well as in CRN, the third annual Computer Science Education Week is December 4 -10, 2011 and you can join with the more than 1800 people who have pledged to participate!
CSEdWeek 2011 is a call to action to raise awareness about computer science education and computing careers. Held annually the week of Admiral Grace Hopper’s birthday (December 9, 1906), CSEdWeek brings together parents, students, teachers and others in celebrating the endless opportunities a computer science education offers students in K-12, higher education, and in their careers.
The week will also feature activities designed to provide information and activities for students, educators, parents, and corporations to advocate for computer science education at all levels and eliminate misperceptions about computer science and computing careers
Join In! Everyone can participate!
Take the CSEdWeek pledge! Register your support and share your plans to celebrate by selecting the Red Ribbon at the CS Ed Week website.
‘Like’ CSEdWeek on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CSEdWeek and join the conversation.
Blog, tweet, and post to spread the word and raise awareness. Use the #CSEdWeek hashtag.
Celebrate CSEdWeek in your school, club, or workplace.
Visit the CS Ed Week website for other suggested activities and resources.
Why Computer Science Education?
Computer science education is essential to: expose students to critical thinking and problem solving; instill understanding of computational thinking for success in the digital age; train students for computing careers that are exciting, plentiful and financially rewarding; and prepare students to tackle the world’s most challenging problems.
Yet as the role and significance of computing has grown, the teaching of computer science in our K-12 education system has dramatically declined. There is insufficient innovative computing curricula for students at all levels; few students have the opportunity to study computer science in an engaging and rigorous way; there is a lack of ethnic and gender diversity among those who do take computer science courses; and teachers have few opportunities for professional development and certification in computer science education.
Update (11/17/11): The minibus was approved in both the House and Senate and will head to the President for his signature!
Original Post: Congressional appropriators tonight filed the final conference report for the so-called “minibus” FY12 appropriations bill, representing the final agreed-upon spending numbers for FY12 for the Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bills — and NSF fared much better than expected in the final negotiation. You’ll recall we were somewhat pleased when the House appropriators approved their version of the Commerce, Justice, Science bill and managed to hold NSF’s funding flat for FY12. In a bill where essentially every other account got cut, this was seen as a win. We were also disappointed when the Senate released its version of the CJS bill, which included a cut of 2.4 percent to the agency, a reduction of $162 million vs. FY11. Those figured to be the MAX and MIN case for NSF in the negotiations.
But, in a bit of a surprise, NSF actually received an increase in the conference agreement of $172 million in FY 12, compared to FY11. Of that $172 million increase, $155 million is slated for the agency’s Research and Related Activities directorate “to enhance basic research critical innovation and U.S. economic competitiveness.”
Also faring well is NIST, which would receive an additional $33 million over FY11 “to support core NIST scientific research programs that help advance U.S. competitiveness, innovation, and economic growth.”
NASA would see a decrease of about $648 million, which is not quite as bad as first thought. NASA will also be able to continue work on the James Webb Space Telescope, but funding for cost overruns in the program will have to come out of other existing programs at the agency, which may make a lot of non-telescope people unhappy.
So, this is a very good thing, especially when considering the alternatives we thought were on the table. It’s clear the basic research -> competitiveness argument still has legs in Congress, and that’s very important in this overall atmosphere of belt-tightening. There’s still a recognition among both parties that federal support for basic research is an investment with real payoff for the country’s future.
Both chambers still have to approve the conference report, but it’s unlikely much will change in it as that would restart the negotiation process in both the House and Senate. The bill also contains a needed extension of the stop-gap continuing resolution currently required to keep government operating, but set to expire on November 18th. Without the extension, much of government would be forced to shut down midnight Friday. The minibus includes an extension of the CR through December 16th. By then, congressional leaders will have to figure out the remaining nine funding bills and square those with spending caps put in place by the debt limit agreement last August, or pass another CR. My money is on another CR.
We’ll have more detail as we actually get in and take a look at the 400 page report. Until then, the House Appropriations Committee has posted a summary.
Yesterday the Senate managed passage of its first so-called “minibus” appropriation bill — a combination of FY12 Agriculture Appropriation; Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriation; and Transportation-HUD Appropriations bills — and retained the cuts to the FY12 budget of the National Science Foundation budget we covered back when the bill was first approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Those cuts would amount to a 2.4 percent reduction to NSF’s budget, a cut of nearly $162 million compared to the agency’s FY11 level. In addition, the Senate minibus includes cuts to both NASA (2.8 percent reduction, or $509 million less than FY11) and NIST (9.3 percent or $70.1 million less than FY11).
Though the House hasn’t passed its versions of all three appropriations bills, it will nevertheless go forward with a conference with the Senate on the minibus (technically, the minibus is based on the FY12 Agriculture Appropriation, which the House did manage to pass back in June — the other two bills have been added to the Agriculture bill). House conferees will use CJS and Transportation-HUD bills approved by the House Appropriations committee, but not approved by the full House, as the basis for their negotiations with the Senate. House appropriators approved essentially level funding for NSF in their version of the bill, along with a smaller reduction for NIST (6.6 percent, or $49.3 million less than FY11) and a much larger reduction for NASA (8.9 percent or $1.6 billion less than FY11), so there may be some challenging negotiations. One significant difference between the two versions that may impact funding available for other programs is that the Senate approved more than half a billion dollars for NASA’s James Webb Telescope, while the House zeroed the program. Should the conferees agree to move forward with the telescope, that will likely mean less funding available for other science programs within the minibus.
The House and Senate leadership are under some pressure to get the conference done quickly. Since October 1st, the start of the 2012 Fiscal Year, the government has been operating under a “continuing resolution” — a stop-gap spending measure designed to keep agencies funded at current levels until Congress can approve their FY12 appropriations. That continuing resolution is set to expire November 18th. It appears that the plan is to conference the current minibus expeditiously and attach a new continuing resolution that would keep government running through mid-December. For his part, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has named a slate of fairly moderate, but very experienced appropriators as conferees from the House majority, which suggests he isn’t necessarily interested in scoring ideological points with this bill as much as he is in just getting it done.
Senate leaders are hoping to move a second minibus by the end of the month. That bill would include the Energy-Water appropriation — which includes funding for the Office of Science at the Department of Energy — in addition to the Financial Services, and possibly the State-Foreign Operations or Homeland Security appropriations bills. However, complicating the calculus somewhat are the actions of the so-called Supercommittee charged with producing recommendations for dealing with the mounting debt crisis (the compromise solution to the debt limit crisis that garnered many headlines back in August and resulted in a downgrade of the country’s debt rating). The committee has until November 23rd to produce legislation to reduce the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Failing to enact such legislation would trigger a series of automatic cuts that would guarantee $1.2 trillion in budgetary savings. With the outcome of the debt panel’s recommendations still unknown and, perhaps, in doubt, there’s a fair bit of gamesmanship and political calculation going on in both the majority and minority leadership offices — gamesmanship that could impact final passage of one or both minibuses. Congressional Democrats could opt to let the committee fail to produce recommendations because they view the cuts that would occur automatically to be more preferable than the ones they’re likely to receive at the negotiating table in the supercommittee. At the moment, the committee has stopped meeting, citing lack of progress, so it’s quite possible that there will be no agreed-upon recommendations come November 23rd.
Whatever the outcome, we’ll have all the details here!
Today the Computing Community Consortium is issuing a call for nominations for individuals to serve on the CCC Council for three years beginning January 2012. The deadline for nominations is 11:59pm EST on Nov. 15, 2011. The complete call appears below.
The Computing Community Consortium Seeks Nominations for Council Members
What questions shape our intellectual future? What attracts the best and brightest minds of a new generation? What are the next big computing ideas — the ones that will define the future of computing, galvanize the very best students, and catalyze research investment and public support?
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is charged with catalyzing and empowering the U.S. computing research community to answer these questions by identifying major research opportunities for the field and by creating venues for community participation in the process. The CCC supports these efforts through visioning activities such as workshops, through arranging plenary talks or key topics at major venues, through discussions with Federal agencies, and through other community-building activities.
As one recent example, a CCC-funded robotics visioning activity resulted in a definitive report titled “A Roadmap for U.S. Robotics: From Internet to Robotics,” developed by more than 100 robotics experts from academia and industry. That report eventually served as the basis for a new, multi-agency, $70 million investment in robotics called the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) announced by the Federal government in June 2011.
For complete details about the CCC, including a look at all of our current and ongoing activities, see https://cra.org/ccc and http://cccblog.org/.
The CCC is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under a cooperative agreement with the Computing Research Association (CRA). The work of the CCC is carried out by an active and engaged Council, currently chaired by Ed Lazowska (University of Washington) with Susan Graham (University of California-Berkeley) as vice-chair, reporting to CRA’s Board of Directors. The members of the Council are appointed by CRA in consultation with NSF, with staggered three-year terms. In the aggregate, the Council must reflect the full breadth of the computing research community — research area, institutional character, geographic diversity, etc. The CCC is staffed by a full-time director, Erwin Gianchandani.
The CCC’s Nominating Subcommittee invites nominations (including self-nominations) for members to serve on the CCC Council for the next three years. Please send nominations, together with the information below, to ccc-nominations@cra.org by 11:59pm EDT on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. The subcommittee’s recommendations will serve as input to CRA and NSF, who will make the final selection.
1. Name, affiliation, and email address of the nominee.
2. Research interests.
3. Previous significant service to the research community and other relevant experience, with years it occurred (no more than *five* items).
4. A brief biography or curriculum vitae of the nominee.
5. A statement from the nominee of less than one page, supporting his or her nomination by describing his or her ideas for, and commitment to, advancing the work of the CCC in engaging broader communities, finding wider funding sources, and encouraging new research directions. Recall that the CCC needs truly visionary leaders — people with lots of great ideas, sound judgment, and the willingness to work hard to see things to completion.
Computing’s own Richard Tapia, University Professor and Maxfield-Oshman Professor in Engineering at Rice University, will receive the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony this fall. The National Medal of Science is the highest government honor the United States bestows on scientists and engineers. Six other scientists will also receive the award this year. They are Jacqueline K. Barton, Ralph L. Brinster, Shu Chien, Rudolf Jaenisch, Peter J. Stang, and Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan. More about the Medal and the other recipients can be found here.
Among Dr. Tapia’s previous numerous honors and awards are the inaugural A. Nico Habermann award from CRA in 1994, the Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement from AAAS in 1997, the Reginald H. Jones Distinguished Service Award by NACME in 2001, and the SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession in 2004. His work with increasing diversity in computing is celebrated every other year with the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing conference. More on his work and life can be found on his website.
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FY2013 Department of Energy Budget Request
/In: Funding, FY13 Appropriations /by MelissaNorrAs we noted earlier today, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science did fairly well in the President’s Budget Request considering the fiscal climate we remain mired in. Overall, the Office of Science request is for an increase of 2.4 percent over the FY12 enacted appropriations to a total of $5 billion.
The Advanced Scientific Computing Research program would see a 3.3 percent increase to $455.6 million. Basic Energy Sciences would also receive an increase to $1.8 billion, a 6.6 percent increase. The biggest decrease in the Office of Science would be to the Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists program. It would lose $4 million or 21.6 percent of it’s FY12 funding.
ARPA-E would see a significant increase to it’s project funding of 27.5 percent for a total of $325 million. This is a $70 million increase over the enacted FY12 funding and does not include the requested increase for “program direction” of 25 percent to $25 million. This would bring the total ARPA-E funding to $350 million. DoE states that the program direction funding would allow them to hire more federal employees, support contractors, lease space, and increase IT purchases. It is unlikely that Congress will approve of such increases for personnel, space, and equipment given the spending climate in Washington.
Secretary Chu’s statement on the Department of Energy budget can be found here. The full budget document can be found here.
Federal R&D Investments Up Overall in President’s FY13 Budget Request
/In: Funding, FY13 Appropriations /by Peter HarshaThe President’s budget request for FY 2013 is out and the White House has prepared a handy summary of the R&D portions.
Some highlights:
As expected, these aren’t huge increases, but in the context of the current fiscal climate, they demonstrate that the Administration continues to make investments in research and development a priority. It’s certainly a better position from which to start the annual budget process than if they’d proposed cuts.
We’ll have more on the DOE Office of Science budget and NSF CISE budget today after budget briefings at those agencies.
STEM Education Initiatives Announced
/In: Computing Education, Diversity in Computing, Funding, Policy /by MelissaNorrYesterday was STEM education day for the Administration. In the morning at a White House Science Fair, President Obama announced he will seek $80 million in the FY13 budget of the Department of Education to help train 100,000 more STEM teachers along with policies to recruit, retain, and reward STEM teachers. The full announcement can be found here.
In the afternoon, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics”, a report focusing on ways to increase the attraction and retention of undergraduates majoring in the STEM fields. During the release, members of PCAST spoke to the difficulties of keeping interested students in the STEM fields particularly when they are not prepared for college level math and when they find the introductory level courses to be “uninspiring”. Additionally, many underrepresented groups leave STEM courses because the atmosphere is unwelcoming.
“PCAST found that economic forecasts point to a need for producing, over the next decade, approximately 1 million more college graduates in STEM fields than expected under current assumptions. Fewer than 40% of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree. Merely increasing the retention of STEM majors from 40% to 50% would generate three-quarters of the targeted 1 million additional STEM degrees over the next decade,” according to the introductory letter to the President.
The report listed five recommendations for improving the attraction and retention of undergraduates.
A fact sheet, executive summary, and the full report are all available as PDFs at the PCAST website.
House Committee Passes IT Research Authorization
/In: General /by Peter HarshaThe House Science, Space and Technology Committee today first marked up, then passed unanimously a reauthorization of the Federal government’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program. Called the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2012, (H.R. 3834) the bill sets policies for the 15 Federal agencies who participate in the $3.6 billion a year program, which represents the sum total of the Federal investment in unclassified computing research.
The bill is substantially similar to the NITRD Act of 2009 from the last Congress that CRA endorsed, with a few reservations. While we appreciated that bill’s focus on enacting the recommendations of a review of the NITRD program by the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, we thought the bill could have been made stronger with some additional focus on computer science education and diversity issues throughout the NITRD program. The sponsors of the bill have apparently taken that to heart and added language that addresses three of the four points we raised. (The remaining point dealt with the Department of Education and its lack of participation in the NITRD program, but that’s not something the House Science, Space and Tech Committee has jurisdiction over, so it’s not something they could add to the bill at this point.)
The core of the new bill, as in the old bill, is aimed at fostering greater coordination between the 15 participating agencies and codifying an advisory committee of experts from industry and academia charged with reviewing the program’s progress and recommending new directions to reflect changes in the field or in national priorities. Both elements are key recommendations of the most recent review of the NITRD program, undertaken by the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) and released in December 2010. In an effort to aid coordination among the agencies in setting priorities and research agendas, the bill requires that the program create a five-year strategic plan, updated every three years. The advisory committee will review the strategic plan on a three-year schedule (changed at the markup from 2 years in the original bill) and report the results to Congress.
The bill would also create a new NITRD activity called “Large-scale Research in Areas of National Importance.” Included under this activity would be:
The President’s advisory committee is required to make recommendations to NITRD for research to support under this activity. The bill also requires that if two agencies are working on research in the same area, “they must strive to collaborate through joint solicitations and selection of applications,” a dicey requirement, given how difficult can be to get a single-agency solicitation out the door. (But there is wiggle room in that “strive to collaborate” language.)
The bill also adds a new research area in Cyber-Physical Systems to the NITRD research portfolio. To help figure out how best to carry out research in this area, the bill calls for the creation of “University/Industry Task Force” to explore mechanisms for collaborative research, set an agenda focused on “national significant challenges and requiring collaboration, as well as figuring out everyone’s role in the activity, figuring out the intellectual property issues, and figuring out how to pay for it. And after answering these challenges, the committee shall disband.
New to the bill are sections on Cloud Computing Services for Research, and Improving Networking and Information Technology Education. The former requires the NITRD national coordinating office (NCO) to convene an interagency working group to examine “issues around funding mechanisms and policies for the use of cloud computing services for federally-funded science and engineering research.” In addition, the committee during the markup today added language that requires the working group to also examine the needs of research focused on cloud computing.
The latter new section adds a responsibility to NSF to “use its existing program, in collaboration with other agencies, as appropriate to improved the teaching and learning of NIT at all levels of education and to increase participation in NIT fields, including by women and underrepresented minorities.”
You can find a link to the bill text here. We’ve also uploaded a “Section by Section Analysis,” of the bill, which may be easier to parse.
CRA was pleased to offer its support for H.R. 3834 before today’s markup. Here’s what we said:
The bill will likely head to the House floor very soon, where it’s expected to pass overwhelming, just like the NITRD Act of 2009 did (though stranger things have happened). The task is more challenging the Senate, which has failed to act on the House bill in each of the last three Congresses and hasn’t produced a version of its own. Whatever the result, we’ll let you know!
Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the United States Report Released
/In: American Competitiveness Initiative, Computing Education, Events, General, People, Policy /by MelissaNorrThe Department of Commerce and National Economic Council today released a new report on “The Competitiveness and Innovation Capacity of the United States” at an event featuring Secretary of Commerce John Bryson followed by a panel of speakers and small group breakout sessions. The report was a Congressional mandate in the COMPETES reauthorization last year.
Secretary Bryson opened the event with a keynote address saying that the report contains three areas of focus: federal funding of basic research, STEM education, and infrastructure investment. He discussed that these are areas of investment that payoff in the future and that they need to be encouraged even during difficult economic times.
The Secretary’s brief remarks were followed by a panel discussion with Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Rebecca Blank, US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, and McKinsey Global Institute Director James Manyika.
Deputy Secretary Blank began the discussion by talking about the need for competitiveness and job growth to be part of the same conversation. She spoke to the fact that many people don’t see college education, particularly in STEM fields, to be pertinent to their lives and that we need to change the overall picture so they can make the connection.
Manyika pointed out that the concern over jobs was not just because of the recession and that wage growth matters because consumer spending is such a heavy driver of economic growth in the US. He answered a question regarding the US competitiveness standing by saying that the US economy is still the most innovative and attractive in the world, as it has been since World War II, but that change is starting to happen around the globe with other countries trying to rise to the same level of innovation. Manyika also noted that there are market failures in research and development because of the long-term nature of basic research and the private sector cannot fund that kind of research without the government.
Chopra gave examples of the payoff of federally funded R&D. He specifically called out the list of billion dollar sectors within IT that can trace their starts back to federally funded research. He also discussed the success of commercializing a great deal of research that originally started at DARPA and the need to emulate that kind of model and the need to have public-private partnerships.
There was little time for audience questions but one question that did get asked was if all the jobs of the future require computing knowledge and skills, why isn’t computer science being taught at the K – 12 level. Chopra answered by saying that the engineering and technology (the E&T in STEM) need more investment and more emphasis because the science and math portions are already well established.
The full report is available online at the Department of Commerce website. The video of the event will be posted to the Center for American Progress website in the near future.
Join Computer Science Education Week!
/In: Computing Education, Events /by MelissaNorrAs noted over at the CCC blog as well as in CRN, the third annual Computer Science Education Week is December 4 -10, 2011 and you can join with the more than 1800 people who have pledged to participate!
CSEdWeek 2011 is a call to action to raise awareness about computer science education and computing careers. Held annually the week of Admiral Grace Hopper’s birthday (December 9, 1906), CSEdWeek brings together parents, students, teachers and others in celebrating the endless opportunities a computer science education offers students in K-12, higher education, and in their careers.
The week will also feature activities designed to provide information and activities for students, educators, parents, and corporations to advocate for computer science education at all levels and eliminate misperceptions about computer science and computing careers
Join In! Everyone can participate!
Take the CSEdWeek pledge! Register your support and share your plans to celebrate by selecting the Red Ribbon at the CS Ed Week website.
‘Like’ CSEdWeek on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CSEdWeek and join the conversation.
Blog, tweet, and post to spread the word and raise awareness. Use the #CSEdWeek hashtag.
Celebrate CSEdWeek in your school, club, or workplace.
Visit the CS Ed Week website for other suggested activities and resources.
Why Computer Science Education?
Computer science education is essential to: expose students to critical thinking and problem solving; instill understanding of computational thinking for success in the digital age; train students for computing careers that are exciting, plentiful and financially rewarding; and prepare students to tackle the world’s most challenging problems.
Yet as the role and significance of computing has grown, the teaching of computer science in our K-12 education system has dramatically declined. There is insufficient innovative computing curricula for students at all levels; few students have the opportunity to study computer science in an engaging and rigorous way; there is a lack of ethnic and gender diversity among those who do take computer science courses; and teachers have few opportunities for professional development and certification in computer science education.
Somewhat Surprisingly, NSF Fares Well in FY12 Final Approps Agreement
/In: Funding, FY12 Appropriations /by Peter HarshaUpdate (11/17/11): The minibus was approved in both the House and Senate and will head to the President for his signature!
Original Post: Congressional appropriators tonight filed the final conference report for the so-called “minibus” FY12 appropriations bill, representing the final agreed-upon spending numbers for FY12 for the Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bills — and NSF fared much better than expected in the final negotiation. You’ll recall we were somewhat pleased when the House appropriators approved their version of the Commerce, Justice, Science bill and managed to hold NSF’s funding flat for FY12. In a bill where essentially every other account got cut, this was seen as a win. We were also disappointed when the Senate released its version of the CJS bill, which included a cut of 2.4 percent to the agency, a reduction of $162 million vs. FY11. Those figured to be the MAX and MIN case for NSF in the negotiations.
But, in a bit of a surprise, NSF actually received an increase in the conference agreement of $172 million in FY 12, compared to FY11. Of that $172 million increase, $155 million is slated for the agency’s Research and Related Activities directorate “to enhance basic research critical innovation and U.S. economic competitiveness.”
Also faring well is NIST, which would receive an additional $33 million over FY11 “to support core NIST scientific research programs that help advance U.S. competitiveness, innovation, and economic growth.”
NASA would see a decrease of about $648 million, which is not quite as bad as first thought. NASA will also be able to continue work on the James Webb Space Telescope, but funding for cost overruns in the program will have to come out of other existing programs at the agency, which may make a lot of non-telescope people unhappy.
So, this is a very good thing, especially when considering the alternatives we thought were on the table. It’s clear the basic research -> competitiveness argument still has legs in Congress, and that’s very important in this overall atmosphere of belt-tightening. There’s still a recognition among both parties that federal support for basic research is an investment with real payoff for the country’s future.
Both chambers still have to approve the conference report, but it’s unlikely much will change in it as that would restart the negotiation process in both the House and Senate. The bill also contains a needed extension of the stop-gap continuing resolution currently required to keep government operating, but set to expire on November 18th. Without the extension, much of government would be forced to shut down midnight Friday. The minibus includes an extension of the CR through December 16th. By then, congressional leaders will have to figure out the remaining nine funding bills and square those with spending caps put in place by the debt limit agreement last August, or pass another CR. My money is on another CR.
We’ll have more detail as we actually get in and take a look at the 400 page report. Until then, the House Appropriations Committee has posted a summary.
Senate Minibus Cuts NSF, NASA and NIST
/In: Funding, FY12 Appropriations, Policy /by Peter HarshaYesterday the Senate managed passage of its first so-called “minibus” appropriation bill — a combination of FY12 Agriculture Appropriation; Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriation; and Transportation-HUD Appropriations bills — and retained the cuts to the FY12 budget of the National Science Foundation budget we covered back when the bill was first approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Those cuts would amount to a 2.4 percent reduction to NSF’s budget, a cut of nearly $162 million compared to the agency’s FY11 level. In addition, the Senate minibus includes cuts to both NASA (2.8 percent reduction, or $509 million less than FY11) and NIST (9.3 percent or $70.1 million less than FY11).
Though the House hasn’t passed its versions of all three appropriations bills, it will nevertheless go forward with a conference with the Senate on the minibus (technically, the minibus is based on the FY12 Agriculture Appropriation, which the House did manage to pass back in June — the other two bills have been added to the Agriculture bill). House conferees will use CJS and Transportation-HUD bills approved by the House Appropriations committee, but not approved by the full House, as the basis for their negotiations with the Senate. House appropriators approved essentially level funding for NSF in their version of the bill, along with a smaller reduction for NIST (6.6 percent, or $49.3 million less than FY11) and a much larger reduction for NASA (8.9 percent or $1.6 billion less than FY11), so there may be some challenging negotiations. One significant difference between the two versions that may impact funding available for other programs is that the Senate approved more than half a billion dollars for NASA’s James Webb Telescope, while the House zeroed the program. Should the conferees agree to move forward with the telescope, that will likely mean less funding available for other science programs within the minibus.
The House and Senate leadership are under some pressure to get the conference done quickly. Since October 1st, the start of the 2012 Fiscal Year, the government has been operating under a “continuing resolution” — a stop-gap spending measure designed to keep agencies funded at current levels until Congress can approve their FY12 appropriations. That continuing resolution is set to expire November 18th. It appears that the plan is to conference the current minibus expeditiously and attach a new continuing resolution that would keep government running through mid-December. For his part, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has named a slate of fairly moderate, but very experienced appropriators as conferees from the House majority, which suggests he isn’t necessarily interested in scoring ideological points with this bill as much as he is in just getting it done.
Senate leaders are hoping to move a second minibus by the end of the month. That bill would include the Energy-Water appropriation — which includes funding for the Office of Science at the Department of Energy — in addition to the Financial Services, and possibly the State-Foreign Operations or Homeland Security appropriations bills. However, complicating the calculus somewhat are the actions of the so-called Supercommittee charged with producing recommendations for dealing with the mounting debt crisis (the compromise solution to the debt limit crisis that garnered many headlines back in August and resulted in a downgrade of the country’s debt rating). The committee has until November 23rd to produce legislation to reduce the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Failing to enact such legislation would trigger a series of automatic cuts that would guarantee $1.2 trillion in budgetary savings. With the outcome of the debt panel’s recommendations still unknown and, perhaps, in doubt, there’s a fair bit of gamesmanship and political calculation going on in both the majority and minority leadership offices — gamesmanship that could impact final passage of one or both minibuses. Congressional Democrats could opt to let the committee fail to produce recommendations because they view the cuts that would occur automatically to be more preferable than the ones they’re likely to receive at the negotiating table in the supercommittee. At the moment, the committee has stopped meeting, citing lack of progress, so it’s quite possible that there will be no agreed-upon recommendations come November 23rd.
Whatever the outcome, we’ll have all the details here!
CCC Wants You!
/In: Computing Community Consortium (CCC) /by MelissaNorrFrom our colleague Erwin Gianchandani, at the blog of CRA’s Computing Community Consortium:
Richard Tapia Awarded Natl. Medal of Science
/In: Diversity in Computing, People /by MelissaNorrComputing’s own Richard Tapia, University Professor and Maxfield-Oshman Professor in Engineering at Rice University, will receive the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony this fall. The National Medal of Science is the highest government honor the United States bestows on scientists and engineers. Six other scientists will also receive the award this year. They are Jacqueline K. Barton, Ralph L. Brinster, Shu Chien, Rudolf Jaenisch, Peter J. Stang, and Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan. More about the Medal and the other recipients can be found here.
Among Dr. Tapia’s previous numerous honors and awards are the inaugural A. Nico Habermann award from CRA in 1994, the Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement from AAAS in 1997, the Reginald H. Jones Distinguished Service Award by NACME in 2001, and the SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession in 2004. His work with increasing diversity in computing is celebrated every other year with the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing conference. More on his work and life can be found on his website.