Sunday, July 11

Speakers:
Moshe Vardi, Rice University (Academic Snowbird Chair)
Dick Waters, MERL (Labs/Centers Snowbird Chair)

8:40- 10:00 AM

The post-2000 environment for academic CS is quite different from the one we got used to in the late 1990s. IT jobs are moving offshore and undergraduate enrollments are down, but graduate enrollments seem to be up, and faculty retention does not seem to be a problem. Three deans will review the new environment.

Chair:
Moshe Vardi (Rice University)
Speakers:
Maria Klawe (Princeton University)
Richard Newton (UC Berkeley)
Jeffrey Vitter (Purdue University)

10:30 AM – Noon

Concerns over issues of privacy and intellectual rights have led to new laws and regulations. Researchers can run afoul of these laws in the course of their work, often without knowing it. Examples include wiretapping laws covering data collection used for network security and performance analysis, and research into reverse-engineering mechanisms violating the DMCA. This session will address some notable examples of where researchers should be concerned, and will speculate about future conflicts.

Chair:
Eugene Spafford (Purdue University)
Speakers:
Charles Brownstein (Computer Science and Telecommunications Board)
Jeff Grove (ACM Washington Office)
Peter Harsha (CRA)
Barbara Simons (ACM)

New Models for Programs in CE

Discussion of cooperation, competition, and co-dependence between computer science and computer engineering degree programs.

Chair:
James Aylor (University of Virginia)
Speakers:
Srinivas Devadas (MIT)
Milos Ercegovac (UCLA)

Complexity vs. Robustness in the Information Infrastructure

Our information infrastructure is gaining ever more functional and trust requirements. Yet, most software systems are already very complicated by almost any metric. Programmers, administrators, and users often view today's systems on which they work as ungainly and run amuck. While we might like to justify our problems by the newness of our discipline, it is now over 50-years old, and many overly complex systems have been built using widely prescribed techniques of modularity and layered abstraction. This session will explore issues of the growing complexity in systems, and discuss how to address the growth in functional requirements with the need for increased resiliency. We will address both research-and education-related topics.

Chair:
Alfred Spector (IBM)
Speakers:
John Doyle (California Institute of Technology)
Clive Dym (Harvey Mudd College)
Stuart Feldman (IBM)

Trends in Research Funding 1

This workshop will report on federal research funding priorities and initiatives, with a focus on recent developments at NSF-CISE and DARPA-IPTO.

Chair:
Moshe Vardi (Rice University)
Speakers:
Greg Andrews (NSF CISE)
Ron Brachman (DARPA IPTO)

1:30 - 3:00 PM

Because neither society nor the discipline of computer science can afford to waste the talents women could contribute, it is important to retain the relatively few undergraduate women who choose the major. Recent research shows that faculty are key to successful retention of women in computer science. This talk will first describe the imbalance in current enrollments, and then identify and discuss which faculty actions promote successful retention of women students.

Chair:
Lori Clarke (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Speaker:
Joanne McGrath Cohoon (University of Virginia)

3:30 - 5:00 PM

Richard Tapia, Rice University, will give a 20-minute presentation on diversity in computing, based on a number of difficult questions that have been asked of him in the past. The audience will write questions they would like to ask on index cards, and Dr. Tapia will answer as many as time permits.

Chair:
Bryant York (Portland State University)
Speaker:
Richard Tapia (Rice University)

Implementing the Fluency Report: Models and Experience

In 1999, the National Research Council published Being Fluent with Information Technology. The report, sometimes jokingly called "Computer Literacy on Steroids," recommended a substantial knowledge upgrade for the general population. Many departments have used the report as an opportunity to rethink their service course offerings and to consider alternate ways of implementing the recommendations. Models range from a one-size-fits-all course that doubles as a CS-0 class, to discipline-specific courses suitable for an IT minor taught by non-CS departments. This workshop will include a quick review of the "Being FIT" recommendations, followed by a description of representative implementations and early experience.

Chair:
Larry Snyder (University of Washington)
Speakers:
Rick Adrion (UMass, Amherst)
Dorothy Deremer (Montclair State University)

Computer Science and the Humanities

This workshop will explore possibilities for collaboration between computer scientists and scholars in the Humanities by presenting several existing projects involving a variety of humanities disciplines. These will show how sophisticated CS methodologies can be applied to work in the humanities, and provide a basis for discussion of other possibilities for collaboration.

Chair:
Nancy Ide (Vassar)
Speakers:
Peter Allen (Columbia University)
Sayeed Choudhury (Johns Hopkins University)

Trends in Research Funding II

This workshop will report on federal research funding priorities and initiatives, with a focus on recent developments at NIH and the Department of Homeland Security.

Chair:
Moshe Vardi (Rice University)
Speaker:
Eric Jakobsson (National Institutes of Health)

Speakers:
James Foley (CRA Board Chair; Georgia Institute of Technology)
Andrew Bernat (CRA Executive Director)

The CRA Distinguished Service and A. Nico Habermann Awards will be presented.

CRA-Women slides during awards presentation.

Tuesday, July 13

8:30 - 10:00 AM

Recent research has confirmed that information technology has been responsible for substantial increases in productivity and GDP growth of the US economy (see the article at: http://archive.cra.org/CRN/articles/sept03/king.html). The long-predicted promise of IT seems to be coming true. This story has great potential to help CS leaders connect the importance of CS education and research to state and national welfare. In addition, lessons learned from the past will provide direction for making the contributions of this community even more valuable in the future. Unfortunately, the story is not well known in the computer science community. In this talk, Professor Vijay Gurbaxani of UC Irvine, one of the country's top experts in the economics of information technology, will explain the story and its implications.

Chair:
John King (University of Michigan)
Speaker:
Vijay Gurbaxani (UC Irvine)

10:30 AM - Noon

For a number of years, our discussions on diversity have centered on determining barriers to successfully including more women and minorities in computer science and engineering. It is now time to focus on what really works. Because the problem of underrepresentation of women and minorities is so critical, research, studies, and programmatic projects have been addressing the challenges of full participation of women and minorities in a number of ways. Finally, strategies and approaches that are successful are beginning to appear. In this session, speakers who are national leaders in this effort will describe their experience with what works for increasing participation by underrepresented groups in computer science. The goal of the session is to provide the participants with concrete strategies that they can take back to their institutions and implement to improve diversity.

Chair:
Lori Clarke (UMass)

Speakers:
Ann Q. Gates (University of Texas, El Paso)
John S. Hurley (The Boeing Co.)
Cynthia Lanius (Sinton ISD)
Telle Whitney (Institute for Women and Technology)

The Role of Research Faculty in an Academic Department

This session will address the following questions:
• What are appropriate criteria for appointment and promotion?
• What are appropriate evaluation and reward procedures in the absence of tenure?
• What are the privileges and duties of research faculty?
• What can be done to provide a positive environment in which tenure-track and research faculty interact?

Chairs:
Gerard Medioni (University of Southern California)
J Strother Moore (University of Texas at Austin)

Panelists:
Larry Davis (University of Maryland)
Rangachar Kasturi (University of South Florida)
Marc Snir (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Matt Mason (Carnegie Mellon University)

Expanding the Frontiers of Information Technology: The Challenge to Academic Leadership

This workshop will feature a discussion of how IT (education) needs to change so that much closer cooperation with domain expertise can be obtained. IT has been expanding rapidly from its initial bases of application in scientific calculation and administrative data processing into virtually every field of human endeavor. Computer science and other technical fields traditionally focused on the "supply side" of technology, leaving the "demand side" issues of application to others. The emerging situation requires much closer cooperation between the supply side and the demand side. Technical experts must be able to work with domain specialists. This workshop will address the broadening cultural worldview of technical education, the range of disciplinary perspectives that are required to meet this need, and the challenges faced by leadership of technical academic programs as they attempt to deal with cross-disciplinary programs. Particular focus will be on challenges of evaluating academic performance, establishing coherent research and instructional programs, and maintaining civil society among heterogeneous faculty.

Chair:
John King (University of Michigan)
Speakers:
William Aspray (Indiana University)
Jim Foley (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Vijay Gurbaxani (UC Irvine)

The Future of Industrial Research Labs

Over the past decade, industrial research labs have been changing the way they operate. These changes were accelerated by the dot-com/communications/semiconductor crash. This workshop discusses these changes and the trends pointing to further changes in the future.

Chair:
Dick Waters (MERL)
Speakers:
Jeff Jaffe (Lucent)
Alfred Spector (IBM)
David Tennenhouse (Intel)

1:30 - 3:00 PM

Societal applications—or applications that benefit a group of people with common interests, beliefs, or professions—can significantly benefit from computer science research results. Applications such as literacy, energy resources, or a better quality of life for the elderly can benefit from different computing technologies. This panel will include three computer scientists who have applied different computing technologies to address some societal issues. The panelists will present different perspectives on the role of CS in societal applications.

Chair:
Valerie Taylor (Texas A&M University)
Panelists:
Ruzena Bajcsy (CITRIS, UC Berkeley)
Leah Jamieson (Purdue University)
Bryant York (Portland State University)

Accreditation of IT Programs

This session will explore current issues in the accreditation of computing education. The first part of the session will be devoted to recent issues related to traditional computer science and engineering education. The session will also consider accreditation of other computing disciplines such as information systems and the newly emerging programs in information technology. Discussion topics will include the need for multiple or alternate accreditation to that offered by ABET for programs that are multidisciplinary.

Chair:
William Aspray (Indiana University)
Speakers:
Stuart Zweben (Ohio State), moderator
David Feinstein (University of South Alabama)
John King (University of Michigan)

Grand Challenges in Trustworthy Computing

This session will report on some of the results of CRA's second Grand Research Challenges conference held in November 2003, and discuss the long-term research issues related to secure computing.

Chair:
Eugene Spafford (Purdue University)
Speakers:
Rich DeMillo (Georgia Tech)
Eugene Spafford (Purdue University)
Jeannette Wing (Carnegie Mellon University)

Software Offshoring: Risks and Opportunities for Computing Programs

Over the course of the last several years, there has been a growing concern in the computing industry over the number of jobs that have been lost to workers in India, China and, more recently, in Southeast Asian and Eastern European countries. This has caught the attention of political leaders who are worried about the future of an industry that was once thought to be immune from offshoring and who have raised the specter of legislation to protect jobs. This session will try to assess the scope and scale of software offshoring. It will also discuss the risks and opportunities that this trend will bring to academic computing departments.

Chair:
Stephen Seidman (New Jersey Institute of Technology)
Speakers:
Alok Aggarwal (Evalueserve)
Larry Finkelstein (Northeastern University)
Stephen Seidman (New Jersey Institute of Technology)

Chair:
Bobby Schnabel (University of Colorado, Boulder)