CRA Bulletin
April 25, 2002
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President's Science Advisor Defends Science Budget Imbalance
The President's science advisor, facing criticism for a Presidential budget request that many in the science community believe furthers the imbalance in funding between the life sciences and the physical sciences, defended the request as responsive to the relative opportunities each discipline presents.
In a speech before the AAAS Science and Technology Colloquium on April 11, 2002, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Marburger justified the large requested increase for the National Institutes of Health, and the significantly smaller requested increase at the National Science Foundation, by noting that he believed "[a] strong case can be made that the discovery of the molecular basis of life processes created research opportunities vastly greater than those in the physical sciences."
"We are witnessing advances in the technical infrastructure of science that do justify large increases in certain fields, and large increases have been forthcoming. The President's proposal to complete the doubling of the NIH budget in FY03 is an example, so are the priorities given to information technology and nanotechnology. ... One product of these capabilities is the current excitement of biotechnology and its inorganic counterpart, nanotechnology. Both deserve support in proportion to the potential they hold for discovery. My impression is that potential is greater in the vastly more complex organic domain, but huge opportunities remain to be exploited in both areas."
Under the President's plan, NIH is slated to receive a 15.7 percent increase of $3.7 billion over FY 2002, bringing the total agency budget to $27.3 billion and completing a five-year effort to double the agency's budget begun in FY 1998. In contrast, the National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive $5.0 billion for FY 2003, an increase of 5 percent over FY 2002. However, contained in that 5 percent increase is the planned transfer of a number of science programs from the US Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to NSF. Excluding those transfers (which are unlikely to happen given the bipartisan opposition to the transfer in Congress), NSF would see an increase of only 1.4 percent for FY 2003.
The complete text of Marburger's speech can be found at http://www.ostp.gov/html/02_4_15.html
IEEE to Modify Form Requiring Authors to Claim Adherence to DMCA
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has reversed its decision to require authors who submit articles to sign a form promising not to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). IEEE publishes about 30 percent of computer science journals worldwide. The reference to the DMCA had been added in November 2001.
According to Bill Hagen, manager of IEEE Intellectual Property Rights, “We reevaluated our requirement that authors warrant their compliance because it has proven to be much more controversial than expected. We needed to respond to author objections to signing the form."
Among its provisions, DMCA prohibits “any technology, product, service, device component or part” that circumvents digital copy protection systems. This has been perceived as a serious problem, by scientists and engineers who fear that this could prevent them from even publishing articles about digital protection, encryption, or cryptography technologies.
The IEEE press release regarding its decision can be found at http://www.ieee.org/newsinfo/dmca.html. A Chronicle of Higher Education article on the issue is available at http://chronicle.com/free/2002/04/2002041802t.htm
"Pentagon Considers Tighter Controls on Academic Research"
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the Department of Defense (DoD) is considering several restrictions on research sponsored by the military which may cause to discourage future university research. The proposed rules would require scientists to seek authorization before they could disclose research findings or results, even for basic research. Unauthorized disclosure could result in sanctions or criminal penalties. In addition, scientists who receive DoD funds would have to report all foreign travel, new restrictions might be placed on access by foreigners to "critical research technologies," and a database might be used to track researchers using DoD funds.
According to the Chronicle, "If enacted, [the rules] would mark a drastic change from current policy, which exerts tight controls only on research on classified technologies...The military now allows scientists using funds from the department to discuss and publish fundamental research in conferences and journals."
The proposed rules began circulating within the DoD for review last month.
The April 24 article is available for subscribers to the Chronicle of Higher Education at http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/04/2002042401n.htm
According to MIT's Technology Review (TR), a "patent or perish" mentality continued in high-tech sectors even during the recent economic downturn. TR's annual Patent Scorecard tracks the U.S. patenting activity of 150 top companies in eight high-tech sectors. The IT and telecommunications industries were particularly active.
TR's Erika Jonietz reports that "Semiconductor companies saw an average increase of 21.4 percent in the number of patents issued from 2000 to 2001. Similarly, patenting grew 20.4 percent in the telecom industry, and in computing 11.6 percent." In addition, the semiconductor, telecommunication, and computing industries saw the highest numbers of new patent applications filed in 2000.
For the ninth year in a row, IBM led the list of patentees, receiving 3,454 in 2001. It also earned more than $1.5 billion from licensing income.
Patents from IBM, Lucent Technologies, NEC and Microsoft, are included among TR's "Five Patents to Watch."
The May 2002 article is available online to paid subscribers at http://www.technologyreview.com/
CRA Digital Government Fellows to speak at FCC
The Federal Communications Commission will host Computing Research Association (CRA) Digital Government Fellows at two separate upcoming events. On April 29 and May 7, respectively, David Wagner of UC Berkeley and Amy Greenwald of Brown University will present their research and discuss technical and policy issues at the FCC.
On April 29, 2002, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Dr. Wager will give a talk on the security of wireless networks. Wagner, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Division at the University of California at Berkeley, will discuss security issues associated with 802.11 wireless networks, presenting the history, outlining risks and challenges for wireless security, and presenting recent research results and future directions. Dr. Wagner has extensive experience in computer security and cryptography, and has published two books and over 50 technical publications. He and his Berkeley colleagues are known for discovering a wide variety of security vulnerabilities in various cellphone standards, 802.11 wireless networks, and other widely deployed systems.
On May 7, 2002 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00pm, Amy Greenwald, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brown University will discuss combinatorial auctions and the problem of choosing a set of winning bids that maximizes revenue---the so-called winner determination problem. Her talk will present an architecture for autonomous bidding in simultaneous auctions. Dr. Greenwald's primary research area is the study of economic interactions among computational agents. Her primary methodologies are game-theoretic analysis and simulation.
Both David Wagner and Amy Greenwald are presenting their talks under the auspices of Computing Research Association's 2002 Digital Government Fellows Program. This program seeks to bring early career computing researchers together with government IT workers to explore topics of mutual interest. CRA is an association of more than 200 North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia engaging in basic computing research; and affiliated professional societies. CRA's mission is to strengthen research and education in the computing fields, expand opportunities for women and minorities, and improve public and policymaker understanding of the importance of computing and computing research in our society.
Both talks are open to the public. Those who wish to attend will be seated on a first-come first-serve basis. Reservations are neither accepted nor required. Real Audio and streaming video access to the meeting will be available at http://www.fcc.gov. Further information about the CRA's Digital Government Fellows Program can be found at: http://www.cra.org/Activities/fellows/dgf.html
Dorothy Denning Wins Augusta Ada Lovelace Award
The Association for Women in Computing's Augusta Ada Lovelace Award honors individuals who have excelled in the areas of outstanding scientific and technical achievement and extraordinary service to the computing community through their accomplishments and contributions on behalf of women in computing.
Dorothy E. Denning is the Patricia and Patrick Callahan Family Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University and Director of the Georgetown Institute for Information Assurance. Her current work encompasses the areas of cyber crime and cyber terrorism, information warfare and security, and cryptography. She has published 120 articles and four books, her most recent being Information Warfare and Security. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on encryption policy and cyber terrorism, and has served in leadership and advisory positions with government agencies and private sector organizations.
This year's award will be presented on Saturday, June 15, 2002, 7:00 P.M. at the Holiday Inn-Select in Bethesda, Maryland. More information can be found on the Association for Women in Computing website at http://www.awc-hq.org/lovelace/index.html
Grace Hopper Registration Now Open
Registration for the Institute for Women and Technology's Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is now available on line. Hopper 2002 is the fourth in a series of conferences designed to highlight the achievements and career interests of women in computing research fields. CRA was the original sponsoring organization of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and continues to be involved through its Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research and the Coalition to Diversify Computing. This year's conference will take place October 9-12, 2002 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Funding is available for student and junior professional scholarships, which cover conference registration, hotel accommodations, and travel. The deadline for scholarship applications is June 1, 2002. Further information and conference registration can be found at: http://www.gracehopper.org
CRA-Women's Committee Seeks Sites for Distinguished Lecture Series
CRA's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), with a grant from Lucent Technologies, is sponsoring a Distinguished Lecture Series to encourage females and minorities to pursue graduate education in computer science and engineering. Now in its third year, this lecture series aims to "express the excitement of research" by sending faculty and industry researchers to college campuses to talk with undergraduate students about graduate education and research careers. Each of the workshops featured a panel of current graduate students and a female Ph.D. researcher from industry in addition to the participation of the Distinguished Speaker. The panelists discussed their reasons for choosing to attend graduate school and briefly explained their research before inviting questions from the audience.
Ten university sites are needed for the Fall term 2002 to host the series of individual events, which will feature Ph.D. faculty, industry researchers, and current graduate students. CRA-W welcomes all interested computer science departments to apply to participate in this event. Nearby institutions are welcome to propose a joint event. Department chairs interested in hosting such an event are invited to contact Carla Ellis, the Program Coordinator and Duke University Professor of Computer Science, at carla@cs.duke.edu.
First priority will be given to email applications received on or before May 31, 2002.
For additional information: The program overview is available at the CRA-W Web site at http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/dist_lect.html.
Fulbright Scholar Grants: August 1 Deadline for 2003-2004
The Fulbright Scholar Program is offering 61 lecturing, research, and lecturing/research awards in Computer Science for the 2003-2004 academic year. Awards for both faculty and professionals range from two months to an academic year.
While many awards specify project and host institution, there are a number of open "Any Field" awards that allow candidates to propose their own project and determine their host institution affiliation. Foreign language skills are needed in some countries, but most Fulbright lecturing assignments are in English.
The application deadline for traditional lecturing and research grants worldwide is August 1.
For information, visit our Web site at http://www.cies.org
Or contact:
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars
3007 Tilden Street, N.W. - Suite 5L
Washington, D.C. 20008
Phone: 202-686-7877
E-mail: apprequest@cies.iie.org
Sloan Research Fellowships: September 15 Deadline
Nominations for candidates for Sloan Research Fellowships in Computer Science are due by September 15. Candidates must be members of the regular faculty at a college or university in the United States or Canada and at an early stage of their research careers. For further information write:
Sloan Research Fellowships
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
630 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2550
New York, NY 10111-0242
e.mail: teitelbaum@sloan.org
More information can be found on the Sloan Foundation's website at http://www.sloan.org