The San Diego Union Tribune has a nice piece today on supercomputing, with a particular focus on the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Here’s a snippet:
Jean-Bernard Minster wants to know how a magnitude-7.7 earthquake would affect Southern California. J. Andrew McCammon wants to find a cure for AIDS. Michael Norman wants to learn how the universe began.
All of them rely on supercomputers in their quest for answers.
Twenty years ago this Monday, the San Diego Supercomputer Center began using what was then the world’s most powerful computer. Now, its data-crunching successors worldwide are indispensable to science, engineering, business, even the war on terrorism.
…
Fran Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, said one way to think about these high-end tools is to compare them to high-performance race cars.
“It’s not easy for you and I to buy an Indy 500 car and to maintain that,” she said. “That’s where it’s important to have government and large-scale investment in these kinds of computers. … And a real concern from the scientific community right now is that (U.S.) leadership is really falling behind.”
In November 2004, Congress passed legislation calling for an additional $165 million a year for research to develop new supercomputers. But President Bush’s fiscal 2006 budget didn’t allocate any funds. Instead, it requested budget cuts for supercomputing research at the Department of Energy.
…all things considered.
The House passed the conference version of the FY 06 Energy and Water Appropriations bill (H.R. 2419) today (399-17). Included in the bill is funding for the Department of Energy’sOffice of Science, and within the Office of Science, the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. Both the Office of Science and ASCR will see slight increases in FY 06 compared to FY 05. Office of Science will see an increase of $33 million over FY 05 — $170 million over the Administration’s request — to $3.63 billion. ASCR received $237.1 million, $30 million more than the President’s request and $5 million more than FY 05 (an increase of about 2.2 percent).
Neither increase is particularly dramatic, but in a year in which the pressure to cut discretionary spending is relatively severe, DOE computing fared OK.
Here’s what the appropriations conferees had to say about the program:
Advanced Scientific Computing Research.–The conference agreement includes $237,055,000 for advanced scientific computing research, an increase of $30,000,000 over the budget request. This increase is provided to the Center for Computational Sciences to accelerate the efforts to develop a leadership-class supercomputer to meet scientific computational needs. Of this $30,000,000, $25,000,000 should be dedicated to hardware and $5,000,000 to competitive university research grants
The bill is expected to get Senate approval on Thursday.
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, who will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom today at the White House, will also be fielding questions as part of a White House online chat at 4 pm ET today. So if you’re itching to ask these two networking pioneers their thoughts on the Internet, what it’s like to receive a Presidential medal, or anything else the White House webmaster might allow, today’s your chance.
An outspoken group of information and communications technology innovators is worried that the United States is falling behind the rest of the world in technological innovation because fewer dollars are being allocated to long-term research.
Many in the research community also believe that the research being conducted today is too focused on short-term, market-oriented results. The current DARPA policy, which mandates 12-month “go, no go” research milestones for information technology, has shortened deadlines, thus discouraging long-term research. And with more research focused on national security, programs formerly open to academics are now classified. DARPA has also slashed spending on academic research.
“Traditionally funding in computer sciences has come from the U.S. government,” Kleinrock said. “And it’s contributed to some remarkable advances, such as the Internet and artificial intelligence. They (the government) used to step back and with some direction let you go develop something new. But that’s not the case today. And DARPA is no longer thinking long-range.” More competition, fewer dollars
The effects have been significant. In the last five years, IT proposals to the National Science Foundation jumped from 2,000 to 6,500, forcing the agency to leave many proposals unfunded. Other agencies, such as NASA, have also reduced spending on communications research. Since most government funding comes only from these two sources, researchers are flocking toward the NSF as DARPA cuts back or changes its priorities.
Read the whole thing here. And check here or here for good collections of similar stories that have run this year.
The House and Senate just reached agreement on the FY 06 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill and it appears NSF will receive just over a 3 percent bump over FY 05. Details are a bit scant at the moment, but it appears NSF will receive $5.65 billion in FY 06 — that’s $10 million more than the House approved in its version of the bill, $50 million over the President’s request, and $120 million over the Senate number.
There are still a couple of unknowns at the moment — whether the agreement means CJS is safe from across-the-board cuts that are still possible, and the disposition of a transfer of Coast Guard ships to NSF that could effect the overall NSF number — but NSF is in a much better situation at the moment than most of us thought was possible at this point.
More details as they emerge…. Update (4:20 pm, 11/4): Here are some of the specific numbers (compare to this chart for previously approved House and Senate levels): NSF Overall – $5,653.27 million. That’s 3.3 percent above FY05 and nearly one percent about the President’s request. Research and Related Activities: $4,387.52 million. That’s 4 percent above FY05 and 1.2 percent above the President’s request. Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction: $193.35 million. Equal to the House and Senate versions. Education and Human Resources: $807 million. That’s equal to the House number, 9.5 percent higher than the President’s request, and includes $4 million above the President’s request for the Math and Science Partnership. Salaries and Expenses: $250 million. 12 percent above FY05 but 7 percent below the President’s request. Office of the Inspector General: $11.5 million National Science Board: $4 million
An across-the-board cut still looms. The Conference appears to have exceeded its spending target for the bill, so there will likely be some across-the-board cut to repair the problem before the bill is actually filed on Monday. According to NSF, appropriations staff indicate that the cut would amount to no more than 0.3 percent at this point (which would mean NSF would lose approximately $17 million of the funding gained above), leaving them with about a 3 percent gain overall.
Even with the possibility of a 0.3 percent across the board cut, NSF fared very well — exceeding even the high mark originally laid down by the House Appropriations committee last May. Credit for this improvement in fortune has to go to the coalitions and individuals who have advocated strongly for better support for basic science even in the face of an ugly, ugly budget environment. And, of course, thanks are also owed to those members of Congress who worked hard to achieve any increase for NSF in the face of enormous pressures to cut discretionary spending. In the coming weeks we’ll single out quite a few of those members, but right off the top it’s worth passing along our thanks to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) who are the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over NSF.
President Bush announced today that Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the Nation’s highest civil award — next Wednesday, November 9th. Kahn, a CRA Board member and member of my Government Affairs committee (I’m proud to say) and Cerf, the only two technologists on today’s list, will receive their awards for their work “design[ing] the software code that is used to transmit data over the Internet.”
“Dr. Cerf and Dr. Kahn have been at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment.”
They join an amazing group of honorees for Wednesday’s event, including Muhammad Ali, Alan Greenspan, Aretha Franklin, Frank Robinson, Jack Nicklaus…wow.
Here’s the full text of the White House announcement:
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients
President George W. Bush today announced the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civil award. Established by Executive Order 11085 in 1963, the Medal may be awarded by the President “to any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” President Bush will honor these recipients at a White House ceremony on Wednesday, November 9, 2005. Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest athletes of all time. He was the first three-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, successfully defended the title 19 times, and was a Gold Medalist for the United States at the 1960 Olympic Games. Carol Burnett is one of America’s most accomplished comediennes and actresses. She debuted on Broadway in 1959 and starred for more than a decade on The Carol Burnett Show. Ms. Burnett won a special place in the hearts of people across America through her combination of creativity, humor, and compassion. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn designed the software code that is used to transmit data over the Internet. Dr. Cerf and Dr. Kahn have been at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment. Robert Conquest is a historian known for his groundbreaking work on Soviet history, politics, and foreign policy. More than 35 years after its publication, his landmark book, The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties, remains one of the most influential studies of Soviet history and has been translated into more than 20 languages. Aretha Franklin has brought joy to millions with her music. She has nearly two dozen number-one singles and has won numerous awards. Ms. Franklin was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Alan Greenspan has chaired the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve for the last 18 years. Mr. Greenspan has been an extraordinary leader who has made great contributions to America’s economic growth and prosperity. Andy Griffith is an American icon of the stage, cinema, and television. He first achieved national acclaim in the 1950s for his stand-up comedy routines, and he went on to star in television shows such as The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, as well as numerous Broadway productions and films. Paul Harvey is one of America’s most respected radio personalities and has set a standard of excellence for broadcasters. Since his radio broadcasts first aired nationally in 1951, Mr. Harvey has won the trust of millions of radio listeners. Sonny Montgomery was a champion for veterans during his 30 years as a Member of the House of Representatives from Mississippi. His signature achievement was the Montgomery GI Bill, which has helped make education affordable for millions of veterans. General Richard B. Myers served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during one of the most challenging and dangerous periods in American history. General Myers was at the forefront of preparing America’s armed forces to meet the threats of the new century. His tenure was marked by the toppling of brutal dictatorships in Afghanistan and Iraq and the liberation of more than 50 million people. Jack Nicklaus is the greatest professional golfer of all time. He won 18 majors as a professional, the first in 1962 and the last in 1986, and he won more than 70 PGA Tour events. Frank Robinson is one of the greatest baseball players ever. Among his awards are National League Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player in both the American and National Leagues, and the American League Triple Crown in 1966. He also has been a top manager and earned Manager of the Year in the American League in 1989. He broke the color barrier for managers, becoming Major League Baseball’s first African-American manager in 1975. Paul Rusesabagina demonstrated courage and compassion by sheltering people at the hotel he managed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. By risking his own life, he helped to save the lives of more than 1,000 fellow Rwandans. Mr. Rusesabagina’s selfless acts have inspired millions, and he represents the best of the human spirit.
# # #
Congratulations, Bob and Vint! Update: (November 12th) – CRA’s press release congratulating Bob and Vint appears after the jump.
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 be ones shared by the computing research community, including “nonfiscal limitations such as the classification of work in areas that were previously unclassified; precluding university submissions as prime contractors on certain solicitations; [and] reducing the periods of performance to 18 to 24 months.”
This kind of short-term focus is not conducive to university programs to address broad fundamental technological and scientific challenges, especially when we know that research in computer science will be at the very core of network-centric warfare.
So I would hope, Mr. Young, that you would look into this and, assuming you are confirmed, that you would take this as a very serious charge, because we just had another study by the National Academy of Sciences that basically said the United States is losing its technological and scientific leadership, and that’s going to have long-term consequences certainly for defense but also for our standard of living and our economic prosperity.
Clinton rightly notes that these concerns are shared by not just the university researchers directly affected by these policies, but many of the industrial and multi-disciplinary users downstream who have come to depend on advances in information technology for their own progress. Additionally, the DOD’s own Defense Science Board, the National Academies, the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, and several Congressional committees have all raised concerns about the impact of DARPA’s move away from long-term, university-led research in information technology and its implications for the country’s long-term health and prosperity.
Unfortunately, as we’ve noted recently, at the same time these concerns about the state of computer science research at DARPA are being raised, one of the agency’s truly positive activities – its Cognitive Computing program – is imperiled by a sizeable cut approved in the Senate version of the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2863). The Senate bill would cut $55 million from DARPA’s $114 million Learning, Reasoning, and Integrated Cognitive Systems account, a move that would hamper advancements in defense-related information technology in the short- and long-term and would also slow technological advancement essential to current and future military operations in Iraq and around the globe. We at CRA hope that Clinton will help urge her colleagues on the conference committee negotiating the bill to abandon the cut and provide the President’s requested funding level, the level approved in the House version of H.R. 2863.
I’ve included the whole of her statement — which is very good — after the jump. The importance of her remarks are multi-fold. One, she’s placed an important marker down for the computing research community — the concerns of the community will be on the new DDR&E’s plate as soon as he takes the job. Second, she’s raised the profile of the concerns among the rest of the members on the Senate Armed Services Committee and staff (though they’re already pretty sympathetic). And finally, it never hurts to have the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008 using her five minutes at a confirmation hearing to talk about your concerns.
Anyway, read the whole thing after the jump — and if you get a chance, especially if you’re at a NY institution, drop Senator Clinton a note of thanks for looking out long-term research….
NC State prof and former CRA Digital Government FellowAnnie Antón sends word that The Privacy Place is conducting its 2005 survey of online privacy policies and user values. The Privacy Place is an inter-disciplinary team of researchers at North Carolina State University’s Computer Science and Business Management departments as well as the Georgia Tech College of Computing, the Purdue University Computer Science Department and the University of Lugano Communication Sciences department — all committed to disseminating information and creating tools and techniques that help IT professionals and policy makers bring privacy policies and system requirements into better alignment.
They hope to get a few thousand respondents to their survey, so Annie’s asked for some help getting the word out. I just took the survey and it only took me a few minutes (and I’m pretty dense). Here’s Annie’s request with all the details:
ThePrivacyPlace.Org 2005 Privacy Survey is Underway!
Researchers at ThePrivacyPlace.Org are conducting an online survey about privacy policies and user values. The survey is supported by an NSF ITR grant (National Science Foundation Information Technology Research) and will help us establish with our investigations of privacy policy expression and user comprehension thereof.
The URL is: http://survey.theprivacyplace.org/
We need to attract several thousand respondents, and would be most appreciative if you would consider helping us get the word out about the survey which takes about 5 to 10 minutes to complete. The results will be made available in 2006 via our project website. Prizes include
$50 Amazon.com gift certificates
and
IBM sponsored giveaways!
On behalf of the research staff at ThePrivacyPlace.Org, thank you!
Annie Antón
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 their states — as well as a creator of high-wage jobs and an enabler of workforce productivity — and they credit the universities and labs performing the research with being “the training ground for our country’s next generation of highly-skilled workers.” They also cite the changing competitive environment that challenges current U.S. dominance in technology innovation:
Through economic globalization, competition in research and development has risen dramatically in the last few years. Asian and European countries have committed new resources to scientific and engineering research programs at nearly unprecedented rates. While the U.S. currently remains a global leader in science and technology, we must continue to be at the forefront of discovery and development. Only by investing in the research of today can we take full advantage of the innovations of tomorrow. Despite a period of scarce resources, basic science and engineering research is a vital national investment.
This is an important message for the President to hear, especially as the Administration is working now to put together his FY 2007 budget in time for its February release.
Unfortunately, the U.S. basic research enterprise is going to need all the help it can get. As we’ve noted before, it appears that pressures will be high on Congress to cut mandatory and discretionary spending (including federal science agencies) to offset the spiraling costs for hurricane relief and a possible tax cut. Yesterday, House Majority Leader Roy Blunt noted that Congress will be focusing on three pieces of budget legislation before they wrap up the current session this fall: a package carving savings from mandatory programs, an across-the-board cut in discretionary spending and a new hurricane relief package. Any across-the-board cut is likely to once again fall on agencies like the National Science Foundation, which suffered a similar 2 percent cut last year.
So any effort by an influential group like the 27 governors who signed this letter (and thanks to the Science Coalition for “working” this letter), is useful in the attempt to reverse what is becoming a very damaging trend of cutbacks in federal support for fundamental research.
Here’s the full letter (pdf, 1 mb). Did your governor sign?
With short notice, the House Armed Services CommitteePanel on Asymmetric and Unconventional Threats will hold a hearing tomorrow to examine cyber security, information assurance and information exploitation issues at the Department of Defense. I say short notice because the witness list for the hearing didn’t appear until today and the hearing’s lead witness, CRA Board member and Purdue professor Eugene Spafford, didn’t receive an invitation to attend until Tuesday. Joining Spaf on the panel are David Grawrock, Principal Engineer and Security Architect at Intel, and Paul Kurtz, Executive Director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance.
Spaf has already submitted his written testimony (pdf) and it’s excellent (especially given the time constraint). In it, he notes that DOD faces some worrisome trends in defending itself from cyber threats:
The number of reported attacks of various kinds is generally increasing annually;
Attacks are becoming more sophisticated and more efficient;
Few perpetrators are ever caught and prosecuted;
An unknown (but probably large) number of attacks, frauds and violations are not detected with current defenses;
A large number of detected attacks are not reported to appropriate authorities;
The problem is international in scope, both in origin of attacks and in location of victims;
The majority of the attacks are enabled by faulty software, poor configuration, and operator error.
Exacerbating these trends at DOD are a number of factors:
An over-dependence on commercial-off-the-shelf products (COTS);
A lack of metrics measuring the safety, security and quality of IT products in a general and meaningful way;
A lack of deterrence — vandals and criminals operate with the knowledge that there’s almost no chance of being caught unless they are exceedingly careless;
A lack of fallback alternatives — no planning for how to proceed with critical mission responsibilities with degraded or disabled IT resources;
An under-investment in research, especially long-term research at DOD and throughout the federal research portfolio; and
An ill-informed application of classification by agencies like DARPA that prevent some of the best minds in the country from working on cyber security problems.
Spaf has a number of recommendations of actions to take to reduce the threat to DOD IT systems, but I thought I’d list his primary recommendation here, especially as it echoes recommendations we’ve made manytimesinthepast:
1. Most importantly, increase the priority and funding for scientific research into issues of security and protection of IT systems. This was the conclusion of the PITAC, and of numerous other studies cited in the PITAC report. Too much money is being spent on upgrading patches and not enough is being spent on fundamental research by qualified personnel. There are too few researchers in the country who understand the issues of information security, and too many of them are unable to find funding to support fundamental research. This is the case at our military research labs, commercial labs, and at our university research centers. Increased spending for research is an investment in national defense and national economic competitiveness, and is not in other expenditures for basic and applied research.
The hearing begins at 9 am, October 27th, and will be webcast (click on the microphone icon next to the hearing notice) and archived.
Spaf’s full testimony is here. (pdf)
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San Diego Union Tribune: On Supercomputing
/In: R&D in the Press /by Peter HarshaThe San Diego Union Tribune has a nice piece today on supercomputing, with a particular focus on the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Here’s a snippet:
As we reported on Wednesday, Congress restored some of that funding in the FY 06 Energy and Water Appropriations.
Anyway, the article is called “Supercomputing now indispensable” and it’s worth a read…
FY 06 Appropriations: Energy and Water — Not so Awful…
/In: FY06 Appropriations /by Peter Harsha…all things considered.
The House passed the conference version of the FY 06 Energy and Water Appropriations bill (H.R. 2419) today (399-17). Included in the bill is funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and within the Office of Science, the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. Both the Office of Science and ASCR will see slight increases in FY 06 compared to FY 05. Office of Science will see an increase of $33 million over FY 05 — $170 million over the Administration’s request — to $3.63 billion. ASCR received $237.1 million, $30 million more than the President’s request and $5 million more than FY 05 (an increase of about 2.2 percent).
Neither increase is particularly dramatic, but in a year in which the pressure to cut discretionary spending is relatively severe, DOE computing fared OK.
Here’s what the appropriations conferees had to say about the program:
The bill is expected to get Senate approval on Thursday.
Cerf and Kahn to “Chat” from White House
/In: Events /by Peter HarshaVint Cerf and Bob Kahn, who will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom today at the White House, will also be fielding questions as part of a White House online chat at 4 pm ET today. So if you’re itching to ask these two networking pioneers their thoughts on the Internet, what it’s like to receive a Presidential medal, or anything else the White House webmaster might allow, today’s your chance.
CNET: “Research Money Crunch in the U.S.”
/In: R&D in the Press /by Peter HarshaMarguerite Reardon writes in CNET News.com what’s becoming a very familiar refrain:
The piece does a good job of laying out concerns of the computing research community, which should be very familiar to readers of this blog.
Read the whole thing here. And check here or here for good collections of similar stories that have run this year.
NSF Does Well (All Things Considered) in Conference?
/In: FY06 Appropriations /by Peter HarshaThe House and Senate just reached agreement on the FY 06 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill and it appears NSF will receive just over a 3 percent bump over FY 05. Details are a bit scant at the moment, but it appears NSF will receive $5.65 billion in FY 06 — that’s $10 million more than the House approved in its version of the bill, $50 million over the President’s request, and $120 million over the Senate number.
There are still a couple of unknowns at the moment — whether the agreement means CJS is safe from across-the-board cuts that are still possible, and the disposition of a transfer of Coast Guard ships to NSF that could effect the overall NSF number — but NSF is in a much better situation at the moment than most of us thought was possible at this point.
More details as they emerge….
Update (4:20 pm, 11/4): Here are some of the specific numbers (compare to this chart for previously approved House and Senate levels):
NSF Overall – $5,653.27 million. That’s 3.3 percent above FY05 and nearly one percent about the President’s request.
Research and Related Activities: $4,387.52 million. That’s 4 percent above FY05 and 1.2 percent above the President’s request.
Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction: $193.35 million. Equal to the House and Senate versions.
Education and Human Resources: $807 million. That’s equal to the House number, 9.5 percent higher than the President’s request, and includes $4 million above the President’s request for the Math and Science Partnership.
Salaries and Expenses: $250 million. 12 percent above FY05 but 7 percent below the President’s request.
Office of the Inspector General: $11.5 million
National Science Board: $4 million
An across-the-board cut still looms. The Conference appears to have exceeded its spending target for the bill, so there will likely be some across-the-board cut to repair the problem before the bill is actually filed on Monday. According to NSF, appropriations staff indicate that the cut would amount to no more than 0.3 percent at this point (which would mean NSF would lose approximately $17 million of the funding gained above), leaving them with about a 3 percent gain overall.
Even with the possibility of a 0.3 percent across the board cut, NSF fared very well — exceeding even the high mark originally laid down by the House Appropriations committee last May. Credit for this improvement in fortune has to go to the coalitions and individuals who have advocated strongly for better support for basic science even in the face of an ugly, ugly budget environment. And, of course, thanks are also owed to those members of Congress who worked hard to achieve any increase for NSF in the face of enormous pressures to cut discretionary spending. In the coming weeks we’ll single out quite a few of those members, but right off the top it’s worth passing along our thanks to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) who are the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over NSF.
Two Networking Pioneers to Receive Nation’s Highest Civilian Award
/In: People /by Peter HarshaPresident Bush announced today that Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the Nation’s highest civil award — next Wednesday, November 9th. Kahn, a CRA Board member and member of my Government Affairs committee (I’m proud to say) and Cerf, the only two technologists on today’s list, will receive their awards for their work “design[ing] the software code that is used to transmit data over the Internet.”
“Dr. Cerf and Dr. Kahn have been at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment.”
They join an amazing group of honorees for Wednesday’s event, including Muhammad Ali, Alan Greenspan, Aretha Franklin, Frank Robinson, Jack Nicklaus…wow.
Here’s the full text of the White House announcement:
Congratulations, Bob and Vint!
Update: (November 12th) – CRA’s press release congratulating Bob and Vint appears after the jump.
Read more →
Sen. Clinton Raises Concerns About DARPA Computer Science
/In: Policy /by Peter HarshaSen. 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 be ones shared by the computing research community, including “nonfiscal limitations such as the classification of work in areas that were previously unclassified; precluding university submissions as prime contractors on certain solicitations; [and] reducing the periods of performance to 18 to 24 months.”
Clinton rightly notes that these concerns are shared by not just the university researchers directly affected by these policies, but many of the industrial and multi-disciplinary users downstream who have come to depend on advances in information technology for their own progress. Additionally, the DOD’s own Defense Science Board, the National Academies, the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, and several Congressional committees have all raised concerns about the impact of DARPA’s move away from long-term, university-led research in information technology and its implications for the country’s long-term health and prosperity.
Unfortunately, as we’ve noted recently, at the same time these concerns about the state of computer science research at DARPA are being raised, one of the agency’s truly positive activities – its Cognitive Computing program – is imperiled by a sizeable cut approved in the Senate version of the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2863). The Senate bill would cut $55 million from DARPA’s $114 million Learning, Reasoning, and Integrated Cognitive Systems account, a move that would hamper advancements in defense-related information technology in the short- and long-term and would also slow technological advancement essential to current and future military operations in Iraq and around the globe. We at CRA hope that Clinton will help urge her colleagues on the conference committee negotiating the bill to abandon the cut and provide the President’s requested funding level, the level approved in the House version of H.R. 2863.
I’ve included the whole of her statement — which is very good — after the jump. The importance of her remarks are multi-fold. One, she’s placed an important marker down for the computing research community — the concerns of the community will be on the new DDR&E’s plate as soon as he takes the job. Second, she’s raised the profile of the concerns among the rest of the members on the Senate Armed Services Committee and staff (though they’re already pretty sympathetic). And finally, it never hurts to have the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008 using her five minutes at a confirmation hearing to talk about your concerns.
Anyway, read the whole thing after the jump — and if you get a chance, especially if you’re at a NY institution, drop Senator Clinton a note of thanks for looking out long-term research….
Read more →
2005 Internet Privacy Survey
/In: Misc. /by Peter HarshaNC State prof and former CRA Digital Government Fellow Annie Antón sends word that The Privacy Place is conducting its 2005 survey of online privacy policies and user values. The Privacy Place is an inter-disciplinary team of researchers at North Carolina State University’s Computer Science and Business Management departments as well as the Georgia Tech College of Computing, the Purdue University Computer Science Department and the University of Lugano Communication Sciences department — all committed to disseminating information and creating tools and techniques that help IT professionals and policy makers bring privacy policies and system requirements into better alignment.
They hope to get a few thousand respondents to their survey, so Annie’s asked for some help getting the word out. I just took the survey and it only took me a few minutes (and I’m pretty dense). Here’s Annie’s request with all the details:
Governors Urge President to Support Fundamental Research
/In: Funding, FY06 Appropriations, Policy /by Peter HarshaThe 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 their states — as well as a creator of high-wage jobs and an enabler of workforce productivity — and they credit the universities and labs performing the research with being “the training ground for our country’s next generation of highly-skilled workers.” They also cite the changing competitive environment that challenges current U.S. dominance in technology innovation:
This is an important message for the President to hear, especially as the Administration is working now to put together his FY 2007 budget in time for its February release.
Unfortunately, the U.S. basic research enterprise is going to need all the help it can get. As we’ve noted before, it appears that pressures will be high on Congress to cut mandatory and discretionary spending (including federal science agencies) to offset the spiraling costs for hurricane relief and a possible tax cut. Yesterday, House Majority Leader Roy Blunt noted that Congress will be focusing on three pieces of budget legislation before they wrap up the current session this fall: a package carving savings from mandatory programs, an across-the-board cut in discretionary spending and a new hurricane relief package. Any across-the-board cut is likely to once again fall on agencies like the National Science Foundation, which suffered a similar 2 percent cut last year.
So any effort by an influential group like the 27 governors who signed this letter (and thanks to the Science Coalition for “working” this letter), is useful in the attempt to reverse what is becoming a very damaging trend of cutbacks in federal support for fundamental research.
Here’s the full letter (pdf, 1 mb). Did your governor sign?
HASC to Review DOD Cyber Security Efforts Tomorrow
/In: Security /by Peter HarshaWith short notice, the House Armed Services Committee Panel on Asymmetric and Unconventional Threats will hold a hearing tomorrow to examine cyber security, information assurance and information exploitation issues at the Department of Defense. I say short notice because the witness list for the hearing didn’t appear until today and the hearing’s lead witness, CRA Board member and Purdue professor Eugene Spafford, didn’t receive an invitation to attend until Tuesday. Joining Spaf on the panel are David Grawrock, Principal Engineer and Security Architect at Intel, and Paul Kurtz, Executive Director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance.
Spaf has already submitted his written testimony (pdf) and it’s excellent (especially given the time constraint). In it, he notes that DOD faces some worrisome trends in defending itself from cyber threats:
Exacerbating these trends at DOD are a number of factors:
Spaf has a number of recommendations of actions to take to reduce the threat to DOD IT systems, but I thought I’d list his primary recommendation here, especially as it echoes recommendations we’ve made many times in the past:
The hearing begins at 9 am, October 27th, and will be webcast (click on the microphone icon next to the hearing notice) and archived.
Spaf’s full testimony is here. (pdf)