October 18, 2002

• Keith Uncapher, Internet Pioneer, Dead at 80
• DMCA Provisions to Be Reviewed
• New Digital Signature Technology Gets Government-Wide License
• NIST Technology Program Announces $101 Million in Research Funding
• NSF Expands TeraGrid Project With New Awards of $35 Million
• UCSD and UIC to Build New Computing Grid Over Optical Networks
• Research Awards Expected to Spur Advances in IT
• Internet Growth Slowing Says Report
• Universities Face Threat of Lawsuits Over Student File Sharing
• Colleges and Universities Face Reduced Funding
• 30th Anniversary of Title IX Shifts Focus From Sports to Science
• Unlocking The Clubhouse Author Allan Fisher to Speak at UMBC
• IEEE Student Scholarships and Awards - Oct 31 Deadlines
• CRA Releases Analysis of Taulbee Data

Keith Uncapher, Internet Pioneer, Dead at 80

Computer scientist Keith Uncapher, 80, a pioneer in computer networking who helped lay the foundations for the Internet, died Oct. 10 in Los Angeles from a heart attack.

In 1950, Mr. Uncapher joined the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., and eventually became director of its computer science division.  In 1972 Uncapher founded the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at the University of Southern California School of Engineering three decades ago and served as its executive director until 1987. Under his leadership ISI researchers developed such key elements of the Internet as the "dot.com" domain name system and made major contributions to electronic mail and basic Internet protocols.

For more information see: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/16/obituaries/16UNCA.html?ex=1035782203&ei=1&en=4d6df8c60f6d1a97

Vinton Cerf's Comments at Keith Uncapher Memorial: http://www.usc.edu/isinews/photos/cerf.htm

DMCA Provisions to Be Reviewed

The United States Copyright Office will begin taking public comments on the section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which prohibits people from breaking encryption technologies.  The public comment period begins November 19, 2002.

When the DMCA was enacted Oct. 28, 1998, a provision was built in that requires the registrar of copyrights and the assistant secretary for communications and information to revisit certain aspects of the law every three years. 

The upcoming rule making -- the second since the law's inception -- is part of an ongoing process that will allow the Librarian of Congress to determine what types of encryption circumvention activities are allowed under the law. 

Once written comments have been filed, rebuttal comments will be taken until Feb. 19, 2003. In addition, there will likely be a series of town hall-style meetings on the subject held around the country during 2003, Rob Kasunic, a spokesman for U.S. Copyright Office's Office of the General Counsel, said. 

For this round, the Copyright Office has specifically asked for comments from librarians, academics and researchers, likely in response to the case of Professor Ed Felten. Last year, the Computing Research Association filed a Declaration in the case brought by Princeton University computer science faculty member Ed Felten and others against the Recording Industry Association of America and others. RIAA et al. had sought to prevent the publication of a paper by Felten which outlined the security holes in a digital music encryption technology, by threatening suit under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Felten et al. filed suit, claiming a First Amendment right to present the results of their research. 

For more information see: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,55801,00.html

For more information on Felten et al. v. RIAA et al. and the CRA declaration in support of Professor Felten, see: http://lazowska.cs.washington.edu/felten/

To view the text of the DMCA, visit http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR:

New Digital Signature Technology Gets Government-Wide License

In ceremonial fashion, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Spencer Abraham and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mitch Daniels, introduced a government-wide license for a new digital signature technology using a new public key infrastructure (PKI).

Developed by Texas-based company, Entrust, the technology gives federal departments and agencies the ability to timestamp and place secured Adobe Acrobat documents on Web servers. It is also protects documents from being altered after they have been digitally signed and allows recipients of e-documents to transparently validate the signature.

In a ceremony highlighting the administrations e-government initiative, Secretary Abraham presented OMB Director Daniels with a digitally signed copy of the DOE e-Government Strategic Action Plan: A Road Map for Delivering Services. Secretary Abraham also presented Director Daniels with a government wide license to use the digital signature technology.

For more information, see: http://www.energy.gov

NIST Technology Program Announces $101 Million in Research Funding

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP), managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, made 40 awards, totaling $101 million, to 40 industry-led teams to "accelerate enabling technology research."  ATP's projects and research priorities are focused on the needs of American industry, not government or academia and the current year's  funding will support an array of computing related projects among the 40 awards.  ATP does not fund product development but does offer cost sharing opportunities for "high-risk research and development projects that have the potential to spark important, broad-based economic or social benefits for the United States."  

A detailed listing of the awards and links to project fact sheets can be found at http://www.atp.nist.gov/awards/2002list.htm.

NSF Expands TeraGrid Project With New Awards of $35 Million

National Science Foundation (NSF) expanded the previously funded TeraGrid project from three to five research institutions in its multi-year effort to build and deploy the world's largest, fastest,  and most comprehensive, distributed computing infrastructure for scientific research.  The Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) award expands the TeraGrid to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

It is expected that the extended TeraGrid will provide the national research community with more than 20 teraflops of computing power distributed among the five sites and nearly one petabyte (one million gigabytes) of storage capacity.

"Bringing the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center together with the four TeraGrid partners is a tremendous strengthening of the team. PSC brings a major computational resource to the table for TeraGrid users, coupled with a strong technical development and support staff who will contribute to building this next generation of national cyber infrastructure," said Rick Stevens, director of Argonne National Laboratory’s Math and Computer Science Division and TeraGrid project director.

For more information and links to each of the TeraGrid sites, see:  http://www.sdsc.edu/Press/02/101102etf.html

UCSD and UIC to Build New Computing Grid Over Optical Networks

The National Science Foundation awarded one of its largest Information Technology Research (ITR) grants -- $13.5 million over five years -- to a consortium led by the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) to support design and development of a  distributed grid infrastructure to support data-intensive scientific research in biosciences and earth sciences research, including brain and seismic imaging, and environmental remote sensing. 

Dubbed the "OptIPuter"—for optical networking, Internet Protocol, and computer storage and processing—the envisioned grid will couple computational, storage and visualization resources over parallel optical networks using the IP communication mechanism

UCSD and UIC will lead the research team, in partnership with researchers at Northwestern University, San Diego State University, the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California and University of California-Irvine [a partner of UCSD in Cal-(IT)²]. 

For more information, see http://www.npaci.edu/online/v6.20/optiputer.html.

Research Awards Expected to Spur Advances in IT

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will support new approaches to software development and computer networking and communications that will in turn provide scientists with entirely new ways of working with large data sets, visualizing what the data represent and sharing knowledge around the globe.  The ITR program is designed to spur fundamental research and innovative uses of IT in science and engineering with cross-directorate and multidisciplinary grants.  NSF this year awarded a total of $144 million in new grants under the program. The newly funded projects were selected from over 1,600 competitive proposals.

http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/02/pr0278.htm

Internet Growth Slowing Says Report

According to a new report issued by Washington research firm TeleGeography, the rate of growth for Internet bandwidth worldwide slowed to just under 40 percent after years of triple digit growth.

TeleGeography reports that the maturing Internet markets of Europe contributed most directly to the global deceleration of international Internet capacity growth. Europe, which accounts for 82 percent of the world's cross-border bandwidth, experienced an international capacity increase of only 35 percent, a steep decline from the 191 percent growth rate recorded in 2001 according to the TeleGeography.

For more information see: http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/1482821

To purchase a copy of the report, see: http://www.telegeography.com/pubs/internet/reports/ig_gbl/index.html 

Universities Face Threat of Lawsuits Over Student File Sharing

Last week, the leaders of six major higher-education groups sent a letter to the presidents of all American colleges asking them to take steps to prevent the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials after a group of recording and motion-picture associations sent their own letter to more than 2,300 colleges and universities and their lawyers warning that "an increasing and significant number of students are using university networks to engage in online piracy of copyrighted creative works."

The follow-up letter sent by the presidents of the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges urged a "campus-by-campus" solution to the issue but shared the recording and motion picture industry's concern over "inappropriate file sharing".

The education organizations' letter was motivated, in part, by a "collective concern about potential legal liability for copyright infringement," said Sheldon E. Steinbach, vice president and general counsel for the American Council on Education.

"This is a growing liability that universities can ill afford and over time will affect their ability to provide Internet access for legitimate education purposes," according to Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology.

In a related event, Congressman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, convened a forum on Internet piracy at the University of Texas at Austin where Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance urged universities to "play a key role in efforts to reduce illegal Internet file sharing on college campuses" and discussed the findings of a BSA sponsored study of internet piracy.

See the Chronicle of Higher Education for access to the complete article and copies of the letters: http://chronicle.com/free/2002/10/2002101401t.htm

A copy of the BSA piracy survey can be found at www.bsa.org

Colleges and Universities Face Reduced Funding

Colleges and universities across the country are struggling with shrinking endowments, dim fundraising prospects, and state budget cuts, putting administrators and trustees under pressure to raise tuition fees, cut spending, and reduce financial aid, according to the Boston Globe.

College and university endowments fell 3.6 percent in 2001 and are expected to fall at least 5 percent this year. 

The fundraising environment is also looking tough, with individuals, corporations, and foundations facing their own shrinking investment portfolios. According to Steven Lawrence, director of research at the Foundation Center, foundation giving will be flat this year and is projected to decline in 2003. Public institutions face cutbacks in state budgets.

See: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/286/nation/College_endowments_lose_billions_in_market_squeeze+.shtml

See also, http://fdncenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=14800017

30th Anniversary of Title IX Shifts Focus From Sports to Science

Most Americans associate the 1972 legislation known as Title IX with women's athletics but several events marking the 30th anniversary of the bill have focused on the role of Title IX in ensuring equity for women in academics as well as sports.

Earlier this month, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) convened a hearing of the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space to discuss stronger enforcement of the Title IX statute with respect to math, science and engineering education. Wyden, who chairs the Subcommittee, announced earlier this year that he wants to help triple the number of women graduating with degrees in these fields.

The National Coalition for Women and Girls, the American Association of University Women and several other organizations collaborated on a report Title IX at 30: Report Card on Gender Equity. The report assesses the impact of the law, reviews progress made to date, outlines improvements needed, and proposes strategies educators, parents, students, policy-makers, and the administration can use to promote equity.

Remarks and testimony from the Senate hearing are available at: http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/hearings0202.htm

To read the report, Title IX at 30 online, see: http://www.aauw.org/1000/titleix30.html

See also, http://www.post-gazette.com/lifestyle/20021006titleixed1006fnp7.asp

Unlocking The Clubhouse Author Allan Fisher to Speak at UMBC

The Center for Women & Information Technology (CWIT) is sponsoring a talk by Allan Fisher, co-author of Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. Dr. Fisher, Principal Systems Scientist at Carnegie Technology Education and former Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, will speak at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, on Tuesday, October 22, at 4:00 p.m.

Dr. Fisher will discuss some of the reasons that women are under-represented in computer science and what can be done to increase women's involvement in this field. He will describe the transformation that has occurred at Carnegie Mellon, where the percentage of female computer science majors has risen from 7% in 1995 to 42% in 2000.

For more information, see http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/lecseries.html

IEEE Student Scholarships and Awards - Oct 31 Deadlines

October 31 is the deadline to apply for both the Lance Stafford Larson Student Scholarship and the Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE)/Computer Society Award for Academic Excellence offered by IEEE.

The Larson award is a contest for the best student papers concerning computer related subjects. The recipient receives $500, a certificate, and writing implement. 

The UPE award is given to students with high academic achievement. A minimum grade point average of 3.0 out of a possible 4.0 is required. Up to four awards of $500, a certificate, and a choice of book of periodical subscription. 

Applications are available on-line and should be sent to:

IEEE Computer Society — Student Awards
1730 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1992

For more information and to download the application forms, see: 
http://www.computer.org/students/schlrshp.htm

CRA Releases Analysis of Taulbee Data

Articles on long-term trends in Taulbee Survey results are now available on three topics:

- Women Students and Faculty
- Ph.D. Programs and Ethnicity
- Early Employment of Ph.D.s

CRA's annual survey of department chairs is the principal source of information on the enrollment, production, and employment of Ph.D.s in computer science and computer engineering (CS & CE) and in providing salary and demographic data for faculty in CS & CE in North America. 

For more information, see http://www.cra.org/statistics

---

Search WWW Search cra.org

---

Copyright © 2007 Computing Research Association. All Rights Reserved. Questions? E-mail: webmaster@cra.org.