CRA Bulletin
September 27, 2001
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Senate Passes Legislation to Enhance Electronic Monitoring
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist acts of September 11, the Senate passed legislation to enhance law enforcement wiretap authorities and loosen restrictions on Internet surveillance techniques. The "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001" is sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Ranking Minority Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Specifically, the legislation permits prosecutors to work with Internet service providers and telecommunications carriers to monitor certain communications of individuals for 48-hour periods without a court order under circumstances that threaten national security. By voice vote, the legislation was attached to the annual appropriations bill that funds the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State. The House of Representatives is yet to consider similar legislation.
More information can be found in articles from Wired News at www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46852,00.html and www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47111,00.html
Terrorists Utilize Encryption Techniques
Recent articles suggest that modern-day terrorists are leveraging encryption technologies to conceal their online activities. Technologies range from the use of basic encryption tools to more advanced techniques including steganography. According to the Washington Post, government agencies have been contacting computer experts for assistance in deciphering captured encrypted electronic messages. In addition, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) has introduced legislation requiring software developers to share the “keys” to commercial encryption products with the government.
A Washington Post article can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52687-2001Sep18.html. The Los Angeles Times reports a similar story at www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-attacks-cybertrail0920sep19.story
A New York Times article on the controversy regarding the sharing of 'keys' with the government can be found at www.nytimes.com/2001/09/25/technology/25CODE.html
NSF Awards $156 Million for Information Technology Research
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced 309 awards designed to preserve America’s position as the world leader of computer science and its applications. The projects will receive more than $156 million from NSF’s Information Technology Research (ITR) priority area, which spurs fundamental research and innovative uses of IT in science and engineering.
Selected from over 2,000 competitive proposals, the newly funded activities include eight large projects that will each total between $5.5 million and $13.75 million over five years. Another 113 mid-sized projects will each total $1 million to $5 million for three to five years, and 188 smaller projects will receive up to $500,000 each for up to three years.
The program's main goals are to augment the nation's IT knowledge base and strengthen the IT workforce. Major subject areas include Systems Design and Implementation (including human-computer interfaces), People and Social Groups Interacting with IT (including economic and workforce implications), Information Management (including content/data analysis and informatics), Applications in Science and Engineering (including simulations and advanced computation) and Scalable Information Infrastructure (includes security, "tetherfree" computing and "teleimmersion").
NSF has also just begun its third annual ITR competition. The foundation's ITR budget request for fiscal 2002 is $217 million of additional funding, although the actual appropriation is yet to be determined by Congress.
For more information about the ITR program, as well as a searchable database of the FY 2001 ITR awards, see: www.itr.nsf.gov/
Intel has undertaken a new approach to its research and development effort, according to Technology Review. Aside from its traditional focus on semiconductors, Intel has begun new programs to encourage research on 'disruptive technologies.' Intel's methods are drawn from research director David Tennenhouse's earlier experiences as director of DARPA's Information Technology Office.
Intel is creating small groups of program managers to evaluate, fund and oversee long-term research projects that are beyond the scope of its existing business lines and research. These projects may take place at Intel's labs or in universities and nonprofit research organizations. A second part of the effort is the creation of six to eight 'lablets' near universities, each with 20 to 30 researchers. The first three lablets will be located near the University California at Berkeley, the University of Washington, and Carnegie Mellon University. Eventually, more than $100 million of Intel's R&D budget may be devoted to these efforts.
According to the article, five 'sectors' of exploration have been chosen for the new initiatives: microelectromechanical systems, distributed systems, biotechnology, statistics and machine vision. Tennenhouse expects it to take at least five years before the success of the new initiatives can be measured.
The Technology Review article is available at www.techreview.com/magazine/oct01/innovation1.asp
IBM's Revamped R&D Model Leads to Success
A recent article in the New York Times explores IBM Research's successful turnaround in the 1990s. It credits this to the "reinventing of its own management system and tools, to encourage researchers to focus on work that can translate into products-- and profits."
Compensation for research unit managers is partly linked to the performance of their respective IBM business units, as well as their ability to work with them. Funding from business units and corporate matching grants based upon those units' investments also help to focus research on the creation of marketable products.
Of the $5.2 billion that IBM spent on R&D last year, about $600 million went to its central research budget-- significantly larger than similar types of budgets at Siemens, NEC, GE, and Bell Labs. At the same time, the budget for IBM Research grew at a faster rate than spending on development. About a third of the central research budget comes from a corporate grant to support long-term research. The other two-thirds come either from units within the company or from corporate matching grants.
For the eighth consecutive year, IBM was awarded the largest share of patents in the United States-- 2,922 last year. It also received $1.7 billion in licensing fees during 2000.
The New York Times article is available at www.nytimes.com/2001/09/09/business/09IBMM.html
Science Magazine's Special Issue on "Computers and Science"
The September 14 issue of Science magazine contains a special section on "Computers and Science," and is available online for all users until October 5. There also is an online supplement which presents links to resources, laboratories, libraries, and other Web sites pertaining to the major themes raised in the articles.
The articles are:
The issue is available at www.sciencemag.org/content/vol293/issue5537/
Robots Aid World Trade Center Search and Rescue Effort
A New York Times article highlights the use of approximately a dozen robots to help search the debris of the World Trade Center. The machines are used to search openings too small for human rescuers, as well as to explore dangerously unstable areas.
The robots have come from a variety of sources, including military and federal disaster units, private companies, and the University of South Florida. Several of them were developed originally with funding from NSF, DARPA, and the Office of Naval Research.
The New York Times article can be found at www.nytimes.com/2001/09/27/technology/circuits/27ROBO.html
CRA Academic Careers Workshop: February 10-12, 2002
The Computing Research Association's Academic Careers Workshop is scheduled for February 10-12, 2002 at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia (just outside of Washington, DC).
Designed for new faculty and advanced graduate students in computer science, computer engineering, computational science, and other computing-related disciplines, it focuses on practical methods for having a successful and fulfilling academic career. Topics include learning styles, designing a course, lecturing effectively and collaborative learning. Other sessions will discuss important aspects of the academic career, such as selecting and managing a research project, preparing a tenure dossier, time management and family issues, and writing a successful research-funding proposal.
The workshop will include talks by senior members of the two largest funding agencies for computing research, NSF and DARPA, as well as a session by NSF staff on how to write a good funding proposal.
The workshop is collocated with the CRA Board of Directors' meeting and the CRA Computing Leadership Summit, the latter bringing together the presidents, executive directors, and other senior volunteers from AAAI, ACM, CACS/AIC, CRA, CSTB, IEEE Computer Society, SIAM, and USENIX. A joint reception will be held with CRA board members and Summit attendees in order to give workshop participants an opportunity to meet informally with senior leaders from the computing community.
The fee for students, professors, and researchers of CRA academic and lab/center member-organizations is $195. The fee for non-members is $255. The hotel room rate is $135/night.
CRA has received a grant from NSF to assist a number of advanced graduate students interested in an academic career who want to attend the workshop. Members of underrepresented groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
For more details, visit the CRA website at www.cra.org
NSF Names Seven for Director's Awards for Distinguished Teaching Scholars
This week the National Science Foundation (NSF) took a step to further encourage scientists and engineers to apply their talents to education, inside the classroom and out, by announcing the first Director's Awards for Distinguished Teaching Scholars. Five men and two women, whose research excellence has been shared liberally through education efforts among their student bodies and the public at large, have received $300,000 each over four years to continue and expand their work beyond their institutions.
"This award embodies our priority to recognize the outstanding contributions of scientists and engineers to the leading edge of scientific knowledge at the same time they are advancing the frontiers of education in science, mathematics, engineering and technology," NSF director Rita Colwell said.
The recipients, Arthur B. Ellis (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Leah H. Jamieson (ECE, Purdue University), Gretchen Kalonji (University of Washington), Eric Mazur (Harvard University), Joseph O'Rourke (CS, Smith College, Mass.), H. Eugene Stanley (Boston University) and Carl E. Wieman (University of Colorado) will share NSF's "highest honor for excellence in both teaching and research." They will be honored at a ceremony on November 8 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
More information about the awards can be found at www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr0170.htm
MentorNet Seeks Mentors for Women Studying Engineering, Science, or Math
MentorNet, the nonprofit electronic industrial mentoring network for women in engineering and science, is looking for a few good mentors.
Specifically, to reach its goal of 3,500 mentors for the 2001-2002 academic year, MentorNet needs about 1,500 more mentors to pair community college, college, and university women studying engineering, science, or math with men and women professional scientists and engineers for a year-long email relationship. This number is up from 2,000 students who were matched with mentors last year, and dramatically up from the 204 pairs MentorNet matched in 1998, its first year of operation.
MentorNet mentors who were involved with last year's program reported spending an average of 20 minutes per week, at their convenience, communicating with their proteges via email. They also reported gaining personal satisfaction, skills from guiding future colleagues, expanded contacts, and recruiting opportunities for their companies. Many call it a way to give back to their profession and help it grow.
The deadline for applications, accepted on-line at www.mentornet.net/ , is October 31.