Ed LazowskaBill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering

University of Washington

Chair, Computing Research Association, 1997-2001

October 2005

My own involvement with CRA

CRA Government Affairs Committee Member, 1990-present Chair, 1992-97 and 2001-03

CRA Board of Directors Member, 1995-2003 Chair, 1997-2001

CRA Distinguished Service Award 2005

Today

MissionMembershipOrganizationHistoryLeadershipActivities

How things get done

How’s it going?Why IT?Beyond ITActions!

Mission

Strengthen research and advanced education in computing and allied fields Promote a cohesive community of computing

researchers Encourage the development of human

resources Collect and disseminate information about the

importance and state of computing research Influence policy that impacts computing research

C H I P

Membership

229 academic programs in the US and Canada Almost all are Ph.D.-granting

27 industrial and governmental research labs and centers active in the field E.g., Argonne, Google, Microsoft, NCSA

6 affiliated professional societies AAAI, ACM, CACS/AIC, IEEE-CS, SIAM, USENIX

Organization

33-member Board of Directors Elected by the membership

5-member Executive Committee The elected officers of the board

14 committees Mixture of permanent and ad hoc Staffed by board members and others from

the computing research community

9-person professional staff

History

1972: Computer Science Board formed Periodic discussions among the chairs of the

major computer science departments

1986: => Computing Research Board Embraced computer engineering and

computational science

1990: => Computing Research Association Professional staff, Washington DC office

Leadership

Chairs of the CRB/CRA Board of Directors Andy van Dam, Brown Univ., 1985-87 David Gries, Cornell Univ., 1987-89 Paul Young, Univ. of Washington, 1989-91 John Rice, Purdue Univ., 1991-93 Dave Patterson, UC Berkeley, 1993-97 Ed Lazowska, Univ. of Washington, 1997-2001 Jim Foley, Georgia Tech, 2001-05 Dan Reed, Univ. of North Carolina, 2005-

Executive Directors of the CRA Rick Weingarten, 1990-96 Bill Aspray, 1996-2002 Andy Bernat, 2002-

Activities

Community CRA Conference at Snowbird

2004 CRA Conference at SnowbirdSunday July 11

• 8:00 – 2:45– CRA Board of Directors Meeting

• 3:00 – 6:00– Workshop for New Department Chairs

• 6:00 – 7:00– Welcoming Reception

• 7:00 – 9:00– Dinner and Keynote– Vint Cerf: “Internet Future”

Monday July 12• 8:40 – 10:00 (plenary)

– Computer Science Education After the Crash• 10:30 – noon (parallel sessions)

– Computing-Related Policy Issues– New Models for Computer Engineering Programs– Complexity vs. Robustness in the Information

Infrastructure– Trends in Research Funding 1

• 12:00 – 1:30– Luncheon

• 1:30 – 3:00 (plenary)– Stop the Female Brain Drain

• 3:30 – 5:00 (parallel sessions)– Politically Incorrect, Fast-Pitch, Hardball Questions

about Diversity in Computing– Implementing the Fluency Report– Computer Science and the Humanities– Trends in Research Funding II

• 6:30 – 9:30– Dinner, “State of the CRA” address, awards

Tuesday July 13• 8:30 – 10:00 (plenary)

– The Impact of IT on the US Economy• 10:30 – noon (parallel sessions)

– Diversity: What Works?– The Role of Research Faculty– Expanding the Frontiers of Information Technology

Education– The Future of Industrial Research Labs

• 1:30 – 3:00 (parallel sessions)– The Role of Computer Science in Societal

Applications– Accreditation of IT Programs– Grand Challenges in Trustworthy Computing– Software Offshoring: Risks and Opportunities

• 3:00 – 9:00 (and 8:30 – noon Wednesday)– Workshop for IT Deans

Community (cont’d) Federated Computing Research Conference Computing Leadership Summit IT Deans Group CRA Distinguished Service Award Forsythe List (contact information) “Grand Research Challenges”

workshops/reportsRevitalizing Computer Architecture ResearchGrand Research Challenges in Information Security &

AssuranceGrand Research Challenges in Information Systems

Community (cont’d) “Research Directions” workshops/reports

Road Map for the Revitalization of High-End Computing

R&D for the NII: Technical ChallengesResearch Related to National SecurityResearch Challenges for the Next Generation

InternetSetting a Computer Science Agenda for Educational

Technology

Human Resources Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in

Computing

Tapia Conference (Coalition to Diversify Computing)

Human Resources (cont’d) CRA-Women

Distinguished Lecture SeriesSysters – AcademiaCareer Mentoring WorkshopsDistributed Mentor Project (undergraduates)Graduate Cohort for Women Cohort of Associate Professors

Mary JeanHarrold,Co-Chair

Jan Cuny,Past Co-Chair

John Marburger,White HouseOSTP Director

Arden Bement,NSF Director

2003 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, & Engineering Mentoring

2005 National Science Board Public Service Award (group)

Human Resources (cont’d) Workshops for young faculty

Academic CareersEffective Teaching

AwardsOutstanding Undergraduate AwardA. Nico Habermann Award (diversity)

Researcher Databases for women and minorities

Jobs listserve and web

Human Resources (cont’d) Workshops/Reports

Recruitment and Retention of Faculty in CSERecruitment and Retention of Women Graduate

Students in CSERecruitment and Retention of Underrepresented

Minority Graduate Students in CSE

Information Computing Research News – print and web CRA Bulletin – web, email, and blog Computing Research Policy blog Surveys:

Taulbee (student, faculty)Departmental Profiles (funding, space)Industry Lab Salary

Information (cont’d) “Best Practices” Reports

University-Industry Sponsored Research AgreementsCommercialization Oversight for Computing

Research DepartmentsEvaluating Computer Scientists and Engineers for

Promotion and TenureGraduate Student Information GuideCareer Mentoring

Policy Full-time professional Director of Government

Affairs (Peter Harsha, ex House Science Committee staff)

Office co-staffed by US-ACM (Cameron Wilson, also ex House Science Committee staff)

Congressional testimony and visits Coalition participation (CSSP, AAAS, CNSF,

etc.)CNSF annual Congressional “demo day”

Executive Fellowship Program

Policy (cont’d) Computing Research Policy blog Community action (CRN articles, electronic

bulletins, “Computing Research Advocacy Network”)

Studies/workshops/reports:Grand Research Challenges (noted previously)Research Directions (noted previously)The Supply of IT Workers in the United StatesComputing Research: An National Investment for

Leadership in the 21st Century

How things get done

Limited income (members are organizations, not individuals)

A volunteer organization! – the staff largely coordinates volunteers1. Executive Director2. Director of Government Affairs3. Director of Programs

4. Surveys and Evaluation5. Meetings and Human Resources

6. Senior Communications Associate7. Manager of Membership and Information

Services8. Business Manager

9. Administrative Assistant

So, how’s it going?

The good news A disproportionate increase in research

funding A very significant expansion of the field

More programsBigger programsMore “connections”

Respect on campus A far stronger “middle tier” of programs Strong industry/university relations

The bad news Undergraduate enrollment Ph.D. production Gender trends Research funding trends

Bachelors data for Ph.D.-granting departments

Undergraduate data for Ph.D.-granting departments

Percentage of freshmen interested in CS

0.0%

0.5%

1.0%

1.5%

2.0%

2.5%

3.0%

3.5%

4.0%

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Nationwide survey of freshmen

NSF data for all CS departments

$530 million short of the1999 PITAC recommendation for FY04, and headed in the wrong direction

Basic research has flat-lined!

DARPA Support for IT Research

Total IT research funding

University IT research

funding

$0

$100

$200

$300

$400

$500

$600

$700

FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004

An

nu

al f

un

din

g, $

M

DARPA response to SASC, 4/2005

DARPA Support for overall IT R&D is at best holding

steady University participation is dramatically

decreasingClassification of programsShortened research horizon12-month go/no-go evaluations

This is bad for DARPA and it’s bad for the nation

Decreased DARPA mind-share among some of the best researchers

Future manpower issues

NSF CISE, 1994-2004 Budget: 2x Proposals: 3x

Larger coreBroader missionBehavior of other agencies

Funding rate: 38% -> 16%

FY 2006 R&D RequestPercent Change from FY 2005

(basic + applied)

Source: AAAS Preliminary Analysis of R&D in the FY 2006 Budget, February 2005

DHS Simply doesn’t get it!

90% of S&T budget is for deployment, vs. research• DHS is generally ignoring research

<2% of budget is for cyber security

DHS is generally ignoring the nation’s infrastructure

The agency is focused almost entirely on WMD threats (bio, chem, rad) against individuals

Advances in IT drive advances in all other fields

Advances in IT power our economy Not just through the growth of the IT industry –

through Multi Factor Productivity Growth throughout the economy

Advances in IT are the cornerstone of our national security

Advances in IT change the way we live, the way we work, the way we learn, the way we communicate

IT is where the jobs are

Why IT?

Annual Degrees and Job Openings in Broad S&E Fields

-

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

160,000

Engineering Physical Sciences Mathematical/Computer Sciences

Biological/Agricultural Sciences

PhD

Master's

Bachelor's

Projected Job Openings

SOURCES: Tabulated by National Science Foundation/Division of Science Resources Statistics; degree data from Department of Education/National Center for Education Statistics: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Completions Survey; and NSF/S RS: Survey of Earned Doctorates; Projected Annual Average Job Openings derived from Department of Commerce (Office of Technology Policy) analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics 2002-2012 projections

John Sargent, Senior Policy Analyst, U.S. Department of Commerce, presented to the Computing Research Association, 2/2004

Beyond IT

Actions

VoteAttack shared problems togetherPropose visionary research agendasLine up behind recent NRC R&D studies

“Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future”

We have a long way to go … and it’s not something that can be done alone, or delegated

References

CRA:http://www.cra.org

2004 Snowbird: http://www.cra.org/Activities/snowbird/2004

2006 Snowbird: http://www.cra.org/Activities/snowbird/2006

NRC Computer Science & Telecommunications Board: http://www.cstb.org