Title : NSF 95-58 CISE NEWSLETTER Type : Letter NSF Org: CISE Date : April 7, 1995 File : nsf9558 CISE NEWSLETTER NSF 95-58 (Replaces NSF 94-7) April 1995 Dr. Paul R. Young Assistant Director of NSF for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) CONTENTS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS R&D STRATEGIC PLAN NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL REPORT ON THE FEDERAL HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE TASK FORCE TO EXPLORE FUTURE OF NSF SUPERCOMPUTER CENTERS NII 2000 PROJECT CALL FOR WHITE PAPERS: PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND FEDERAL NII POLICY METACENTER REGIONAL ALLIANCES - 1995 NSF THEORY OF COMPUTING PROGRAM SEEKS COMMENTS ON FUTURE DIRECTIONS RICHARD KIEBURTZ APPOINTED CCR DIVISION DIRECTOR CISE CURRENT STAFF LIST ----- INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS R&D STRATEGIC PLAN At the request of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the NSTC Committee on Information and Communications R&D has developed a strategic implementation plan which lays out an agenda for information and communications R&D which has six strategic focus areas: global-scale information infrastructure technologies, high performance/scalable systems, high confidence systems, virtual environments, user-centered interfaces and tools, and human resources and education. The plan builds on the successses of the interagency HPCC program and sets forth a high level strategy for the federal government's research and development in information and communications into the 21st century. It is expected that a workshop with academic and industrial participants will be held in June, 1995 to refine and help further develop the plan. The report was released by the White House on March 21, 1995. Copies of the report can be obtained by contacting the National Coordination Office for HPCC: nco@hpcc.gov. Paul Young of NSF and John Toole, then of ARPA, co-chaired the interagency group which developed the plan. Effective March 1, John Toole became head of the National Coordination Office for HPCC and chair of the Interagency Committee on High Performance Computing, Communications and Information Technology which coordinates the federal HPCC program and is actively involved in working with the NSTC Committee on Informations and Communications in developing future plans. The NSTC Committee on Infromations and Communications is co-chaired by Anita Jones of DOD and Skip Johns of OSTP with Paul Young, NSF CISE Assistant Director, serving as vice-chair. ------ NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL REPORT ON THE FEDERAL HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE In early 1994, Congress asked the National Research Council (NRC) to examine the status of the high performance computing and communications initiative. For this study the NRC's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board convened a committee of 12 members co-chaired by Fred Brooks of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Ivan Sutherland of SUN Microsystems Laboratories. The committee conducted a comprehensive review of the HPCC program and produced a report titled "Evolving the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative to Support the Nation's Information Infrastructure." This report which was released by the NRC, February 2, 1995 contains important recommendations of which the CISE community should be aware. One of its important recommendations was that the federal government "continue to support research in information technology. Ensure that the major funding agencies, especially the NSF and ARPA, have strong programs for computing research that are independent of any special initiatives." Copies of the report can be obtained from: National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20148. ----- TASK FORCE TO EXPLORE FUTURE OF NSF SUPERCOMPUTER CENTERS At its October 1994 meeting, the National Science Board (NSB) approved a two year extension of the cooperative agreements with the four NSF Supercomputer Centers with the understanding that a plan for the future of the Centers program would be presented to the NSB in late 1995. To aid in the task of planning the future, Neal Lane, Director of NSF, and Paul Young, Assistant Director of NSF for CISE, have appointed a task force to explore alternative futures for the Centers program and make recommendations about them. The task force is chaired by Ed Hayes, former NSF comptroller and now Vice President for research at Ohio State University. Its membership consists of computational and computer scientists from industry, national labs and universities. The first meeting was held in February and the task force expects to complete its work in the summer of 1995. The task force is committed to gather inputs from as broad a segment of the scientific and engineering communtiy as possible. If readers have comments or questions, they can contact the committee staff at . ---------- NII 2000 PROJECT CALL FOR WHITE PAPERS: PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND FEDERAL NII POLICY The NII 2000 Steering Committee -- a group of executives and distinguished academicians -- seeks white papers from academia, businesses, foundations, industry, interest groups, trade associations and other interested parties on topics relevant to NII technology deployment. The Committee is charged by the Technology Policy Working Group (TPWG) of the federal Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) with a year-long course of activities to develop a baseline understanding regarding what technologies are to be deployed, when, where, and by whom. The project is being coordinated by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). NSF, NIST and ARPA are jointly sponsoring the project for the TPWG via a grant through the Division of Information, Robotics and Intelligent System (IRIS) of NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). The project is drawing upon inputs from multiple industries, sectors, organizations and individual experts. It is anticipated that the white papers received may fall into three broad categories: sector-specific (e.g., industry by industry projections over the next 5-7 years), domain-specific (e.g., those aimed at enabling major NII Application domains) and specific topics. All white papers will be made available to federal NII decision makers and will be considered for discussion at a Spring Forum in Washington, D.C., May 23-24, 1995. White paper authors will have the opportunity to revise their papers after the Spring Forum. All papers -- regardless of whether they are selected for discussion at the Spring Forum -- will be presented to the government and will contribute to the Steering Committee's final NII 2000 report to the TPWG and the public. Directions for responding to the Call for White Papers, including guidelines for content, outline of format and style, are available to the public on-line on the World Wide Web at: "http://ntiaunix1.utia.doc.dov:70/0/iitf/appstech/techpolwg/tpwgcall.html". It may also be reached by browsing through "http://iitf.doc.gov" heirarchy under: "IITF Committees and Working Groups: Committee on Applications and Technology: The Technology Policy Working Group: Private Investment and NII Policy Call for Papers." Abstracts were due March 27. Forum version papers are due April 27. Edited (final) version papers are due June 30. For more information, contact John Godfrey, CSTB, (202)334-2605 or e-mail to jgodfrey@nas.edu. ----- METACENTER REGIONAL ALLIANCES - 1995 Introduction The term Metacenter refers to the joint cooperative activities of the four NSF Supercomputer Centers and others in naturally overlapping research and technology areas. The Metacenter facilitates effective collaboration, communication, technical progress, and interoperability among participating institutions. To encourage further extension and collaborative integration of Metacenter activities with those of other providers of high performance computing, communications and information infrastructure, in FY1994 the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate initiated a program of Metacenter Regional Alliances (MRAs). In addition to augmenting national support activities, MRAs are intended to complement, expand and strengthen existing Metacenter activities at the regional, state or local level. Participants in MRAs are expected to prototype new local and regional activities having the potential for being broadly replicated. Metacenter Regional Alliances enhance the computing, communications, and information technology expertise of a wide variety of organizations and individuals in the university, education, public and private sectors. The purpose is to facilitate broad involvement in the emerging National Information Infrastructure (NII), and contribute to the nation's ability to address Grand and National Challenge application problems, i.e., those problems which are either computation or information intensive, in the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program. Six awards were made in FY1994, and four to six additional MRA awards are anticipated in FY 1995. A Program Guideline "Metacenter Regional Alliances -1995" (NSF 95-38) is available on STIS. For more information, contact Dr. Richard Hirsh, (703) 306-1970, rhirsh@nsf.gov. ----- NSF THEORY OF COMPUTING PROGRAM SEEKS COMMENTS ON FUTURE DIRECTIONS There are several new research areas being contemplated for the future in the Theory of Computing Program, including: * Machine learning and human learning interactions; * Approximate solutions for NP hard problems; * Computational molecular biology utilizing traditional algorithms; and * Foundations of complexity theory. To explore these and other new areas, the NSF Theory of Computing Program is holding a session at ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, '95 (STOC'95) on Thursday , June 1, 1995 (5:30pm - 6:30pm). This session will provide input for an invitational workshop on new directions for research in theoretical computer science, chaired by Richard Karp. Interested parties are invited to submit their thoughts by May 22, 1995 so that copies of material received can be made available to attendees. Input is limited to one page and should be sent in writing, or by email to: Dana May Latch Program Director Theoretical Computer Science dlatch@nsf.gov ------- RICHARD KIEBURTZ APPOINTED CCR DIVISION DIRECTOR Dr. Richard B. Kieburtz has been appointed Division Director for the Division of Computer and Computation Research (CCR) effective July 1, 1995 and is expected to assume full duties as Division Director by August 1, 1995. Dr. Kieburtz comes to NSF from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology where he is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His research interests are in functional programming languages, software generators, and formal methods in software engineering. -------- CISE CURRENT STAFF LIST National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering 4201 Wilson Blvd. Suite 1105 Arlington, VA 22230 POSITION NAME EXT NETNAME DIRECTORATE FOR COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING (Suite 1105) FAX Extension 0577 Assistant Director Paul Young 1900 pryoung Deputy Assistant Director Melvyn Ciment 1900 mciment Acting Executive Officer Merrell Patrick 1900 mpatrick Sr.Advisor for Planning Analysis & Policy Jerome S. Daen 1900 jdaen Acting HPCC Coordinator Robert G. Voigt 1900 rvoigt Policy Analyst Roger Shull 1900 rshull Executive Director, Federal Networking Council Walter Wiebe 1900 wwiebe DIVISION OF COMPUTER & COMPUTATION RESEARCH (Suite 1145) FAX Extension 1947 Division Director (Acting) Bruce H. Barnes 1910 bbarnes Deputy Division Director Bruce H. Barnes 1910 barnes Theory of Computing Dana Latch 1911 dlatch Computer Systems Yechezkel Zalcstein 1914 zzalcste Numeric Symbolic & Geometric Comp. S. Kamal Abdali 1912 kabdali Programming Languages & Compilers (Acting) Krishna Kavi 1910 kkavi Helen Gill 1912 hgill Operating Systems & Software Systems Krishna Kavi 1912 kkavi Software Engineering Helen Gill 1912 hgill Special Projects Gerald Engel 1910 gengel DIVISION OF INFORMATION, ROBOTICS & INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (Suite 1115) FAX Extension 0599 Division Director Yi-Tzuu (YT) Chien 1930 ytchien Deputy Division Director (Acting) Howard Moraff 1928 hmoraff Special Projects Stephen M. Griffin 1930 sgriffin Special Projects John Hestenes 1930 jhestene Database and Expert Systems Maria Zemankova 1926 mzemanko Info.Tech. & Organizations Su-Shing Chen 1927 schen Interactive Systems Gary W. Strong 1928 gstrong Knowledge Models & Cog. Syst. Larry Reeker 1926 lreeker Robotics and Machine Intelligence Howard Moraff 1928 hmoraff Ron Ashany 1928 rashany DIVISION OF MICROELECTRONIC INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS (Suite 1155) FAX Extension 0610 Division Director Bernard Chern 1940 bchern Deputy Division Director John R. Lehmann 1940 jlehmann Design, Tools, and Test Robert B. Grafton 1936 rgrafton Microelectronic Systems Architecture J. Robert Jump 1936 jjump Circuits & Signal Processing John H. Cozzens 1936 jcozzens Experimental Systems Michael J. Foster 1936 mfoster Systems Prototype & Fabrication John Staudhammer 1936 jstaudha DIVISION OF ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING (Suite 1122) FAX Extension 0632 Division Director Robert R. Borchers 1970 rborcher Deputy Division Director Richard Hirsh 1970 rhirsh Supercomputer Centers Richard E. Kaplan 1963 rkaplan Assoc. Prog. Dir. Lawrence E. Brandt 1963 lbrandt Staff Associate Irene Lombardo 1963 ilombard New Technologies (Acting) Richard Hirsh 1962 rhirsh DIVISION OF NETWORKING & COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH & INFRASTRUCTURE (Suite 1175) FAX Extension 0621 Division Director Jane S. Caviness 1950 jcavines Deputy Division Director(Acting) Aubrey Bush 1950 abush Staff Associate Donald R. Mitchell 1950 dmitchel Staff Associate Roger Taylor 1950 rotaylor NSFNET Priscilla Huston 1949 phuston International Coordinator Steven Goldstein 1949 sgoldste Associate Program Officer David A. Staudt 1949 dstaudt Associate Program Officer Douglas Gatchel 1949 Networking & Comm. Res. Prog. Dir. Aubrey Bush 1949 abush Program Manager Darleen L. Fisher 1949 dlfisher OFFICE OF CROSS-DISCIPLINARY ACTIVITIES (Suite 1160) FAX Extension 0589 Head John Cherniavsky 1980 jchernia CISE Special Projects - other Tse-Yun Feng 1981 tfeng CISE Educational Infrastructure Tse-Yun Feng 1981 tfeng CISE Research Infrastructure Caroline Wardle 1981 cwardle CISE Minority, Disabled Special Projects Harry Hedges 1981 hhedges CISE Education, Women Special Projects Caroline Wardle 1981 cwardle CISE Minority Infrastructure Harry Hedges 1981 hhedges CISE Instrumentation Tse-Yun Feng 1981 tfeng NETADDRESSES ARE: netaddress@nsf.gov (INTERNET) OR netaddress@nsf (BITNET). TELEPHONE NUMBERS ARE 703-306-EXT NSF'S TDD NUMBER IS (703) 306-0090 ------ CISE Newsletter Editor Dr. John R. Lehmann Deputy Division Director MIPS Division National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22230 703-306-1940 FAX: 703-306-0610 jlehmann@nsf.gov