The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) met April 15th in their second public session since being reconstituted last year after nearly two years of inactivity. The two items on the agenda were a report on the draft recommendations (pdf) of PITAC's subcommittee on Health and IT, and the first taking of public testimony by the subcommittee on cyber security. CRA is well-represented on the Committee. Ed Lazowska, the co-chair, Dan Reed, and Gene Spafford are all current members of CRA's Board of Directors, and committee member Dave Patterson is a former CRA board member and past Chair.

The cyber security portion of the meeting featured testimony from a number of agency officials that elicited some interesting give and take with the committee. 

More highlights can be found at http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000065.html.

The White House last Friday released its response to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists that claims

the administration is distorting and censoring scientific findings that contradict its policies; manipulating the underlying science to align results with predetermined political decisions; and undermining the independence of science advisory panels by subjecting panel nominees to political litmus tests that have little or no bearing on their expertise; nominating non-experts or underqualified individuals from outside the scientific mainstream or with industry ties; as well as disbanding science advisory committees altogether.

The administration response, authored by the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Marburger, is a 20 page, point-by-point rebuttal. The gist:

In this Administration, science strongly informs policy. It is important to remember, however, that even when the science is clear – and often it is not – it is but one input into the policy process.

This item was posted on the CRA blog at: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000064.html.

Faculty Salaries Show Slight Increases

Average faculty salaries increased very little in the past year, according to a report issued by the American Association of University Professors.

Among the report's findings:

• Overall, average faculty salaries increased only 0.2 percent above the rate of inflation in the past year.

• Faculty continuing at the same institution ("continuing faculty") received an average salary increase of just 1.2 percent above inflation - the lowest real increase in seven years.

• Continuing faculty members at public institutions received salary increases of 2.6 percent on average (before adjusting for inflation) while faculty at private-independent institutions averaged a 4.0 percent increase.

• The average salary of full professors at public doctoral universities is now only 77.4 percent of the average salary of full professors at private doctoral institutions. This percentage is the lowest since the AAUP started archiving its salary data in the late 1970s.

• The average female salary was 88.4 percent of the average male salary at the full professor level, 93.0 percent of it at the associate professor level, and 92.3 percent of it at the assistant professor level in 2003–04.

The AAUP Press Release, with a link to the report, is at http://www.aaup.org/newsroom/press/2004/zreport.htm

Slowdown in Undergraduate CS Degrees

After several years of growth, results from CRA's most recent Taulbee Survey show a slight decrease in the number of Bachelor's degrees in computer science granted last year by Ph.D.-granting schools, and a 20+ percent drop in the number of new undergraduates declaring their major in computer science.

• The number of Bachelor's degrees granted declined 3 percent (following an increase of 21 percent the year before).

• The number of new undergraduate majors dropped 23 percent. For the previous three years, the number of new undergraduate students was approximately constant, whereas during the five years before that the number of new undergraduate students more than doubled.

• Total enrollments in Bachelor's programs dropped by 19% (having increased in US CS departments by 4%-5% and overall by 11% the previous year)

The Taulbee data on Bachelor's degrees are available online at http://www.cra.org/statistics/. The full results will be posted online in early May.

Task Force Unveils Advocacy Campaign for Basic Research

Per a recent press release by the Association of American Universities (AAU), leaders from technology industry and academia unveiled an advocacy campaign to illustrate the importance of basic research to the future of American innovation, economic growth and job creation. The initiative, targeted at policy makers and the public, will seek to reverse a decline in federal investment in basic research in the physical sciences and engineering that puts at risk the development of new technologies, new industries, and high-value jobs.

The Task Force on the Future of American Innovation, which includes 14 organizations associated with business and academia, is calling on the federal government to grow the budgets of key research agencies through an advocacy campaign that includes paid advertising and outreach to policy makers.

For the full press release go to AAU web site: http://www.aau.edu/budget/RDEvent42004.pdf

Conference Support for Minority Students in CSE and their Mentors

Second National Software Summit to Convene in May

The second National Software Summit (NSS2), themed “Software: The Critical Infrastructure Within the Critical Infrastructures!”, will convene in Washington, D.C., May 10-12 at the J.W. Marriott hotel.  NSS2 will gather an invited group of senior software and technology leaders from industry, academia and government to address growing concerns over the role of software and the software industry in our nation today. The objective of this summit meeting is to develop findings and recommendations leading to the creation of a national software public policy agenda, as well as a follow-on action plan. 

Phillip Bond, United States Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology, will keynote the summit at a dinner address the evening of May 10^th.  Additional keynotes the following morning will be delivered by Amit Yoran, National Cybersecurity “Czar” with the United States Department of Homeland Security; Dr. Alan Merten, president of George Mason University; and John Chen, chairman, president and CEO of Sybase, Inc.  Sybase software is widely deployed within corporate and government infrastructures, particularly in the financial services, government, defense and telecommunications sectors.  Dr. William A. Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering will also address the summit participants at their May 11^th luncheon.

For more information about this workshop, visit www.cnsoftware.org/nss2.