Computing the Future A Broader Agenda for Computer Science and Engineering (1992) / Chapter Skim
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5 RECOMMENDATIONS
5 RECOMMENDATIONS
Pages 139-160
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From page 139... ...
OVERALL PRIORITIES Priority 1: Sustain the CS&E Core The first priority is to sustain the core effort in CS&E, i.e., the effort that creates the theoretical and experimental science base on which computing applications build, bearing in mind that the core effort is highly dynamic as the result of rapid changes in the field. This core effort has been deep, rich, and intellectually productive 139
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From page 140... ...
The committee calls attention to its use of the word "sustain." Many in the CS&E community (and some on the committee itselfl have been concerned about the increasing tightness in the availability of research funding for core topics in CS&E and have argued with some cogency that the first priority should be to strengthen rather than merely sustain the core. Advocates of this position would say that the track record of CS&E in research and education has been so positive and successful that it speaks for itself, that there is not enough support for computer scientists and engineers to perform the "core" research in CS&E that will be necessary in the future, that computing technology will improve as the result of advances in CS&E, and that the information revolution promises to develop as it has in the past.
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From page 141... ...
· Embrace the creation of significant new knowledge and demonstrable intellectual achievement as the relevant standards of meaningful scholarship in CS&E, rather than focusing on artificial distinctions among basic research, applied research, and development (as discussed in Chapter 2~. · Increase traffic in CS&E-related knowledge and problems among academia, industry, and society at large, and enhance the cross-fertilization of ideas in CS&E between theoretical underpinnings and experimental experience.
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From page 142... ...
Moreover, better undergraduate education is necessary for better research, since it is necessary for transmitting recently developed core knowledge to the next generation and for providing the intellectual basis in CS&E for individuals pursuing a broader research agenda. Thus, improving undergraduate education is a necessary component of both prior .
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From page 143... ...
And finally, a fully funded HPCC Program will have a major impact on relieving the funding stress affecting the academic CS&E community. Consistent with Priority 1, the committee believes that the basic research and human resources component of the HPCC Program is critical, because it is the component most likely to support the research that will allow us to exploit anticipated technologies as well as those yet to be discovered through such research.
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From page 144... ...
Support of interdisciplinary CS&E research, i.e., CS&E research undertaken jointly with research in other fields, should be taken on by mission agencies with responsibilities for those other fields. That research will often involve an important computational component whose effectiveness could be enhanced substantially by the active involvement of researchers working at the cutting edge of CS&E research.
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From page 145... ...
This may be easier said than done, since CS&E researchers interact primarily with only the four federal agencies that contribute the bulk of CS&E research supports group of agencies that places a high value on research and provides many opportunities for interaction between agency staff and researchers. The very existence of such a program would prompt strong interest on the part of academic computer scientists and engineers in pursuing interdisciplinary and applications-oriented research, but some care must be taken to ensure that the "bridging of cultures" between CS&E and others is successful.
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From page 146... ...
In performing the coordinating role for this new program, FCCSET would approach agencies not already participating in the HPCC Program, such as the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Transportation. It would also be appropriate for FCCSET to ask large commercial users of computers to indicate what CS&E research might be relevant to their needs.
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From page 148... ...
To Universities COMPUTING THE FUTURE University policy will play a key role in broadening academic CS&E. Any one of the recommendations below may suggest a specific action that has been taken in the past, but their collective strength is that they are part of a coherent strategy to broaden the scope of academic CS&E.
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From page 149... ...
These collaborations will benefit both computer scientists and engineers (as a result of new intellectual challenges posed) and those from other problem domains (as a result of the more effective use of their computational resources)
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From page 150... ...
that academic computer scientists and engineers could use to develop familiarity with and expertise in other areas. Such appointments would typically involve reduced teaching responsibilities and could be held by new Ph.D.s and senior faculty alike.
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From page 151... ...
For these individuals, programs of continuing education to bring them up to date on recent developments in CS&E would have significant value. Such programs would enable them to develop their own approaches to the subject material, informed on the one hand by exposure to the current state of the art and on the other by knowledge of local institutional needs, and they could have a major impact on the quality of undergraduate CS&E education in the United States, as well as on its ability to use computing in support of other science .
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From page 152... ...
Following these workshops, the participants would give a series of short courses for individuals who are not current with recent developments in the field, including CS&E faculty at non-Ph.D.-granting institutions, scientists and engineers from other disciplines, and appropriately qualified high school teachers. (The program would provide course leaders with financial support for the development of materials text materials, exercises, software, and so on.
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From page 153... ...
Like the original BRHR component, it is appropriate that the proposed continuing education program be funded by most if not all agencies participating in the HPCC Program, although such a program could be administered within the NSF. To Universities Universities are the front line of educational delivery.
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From page 154... ...
(ii) collaborate with other departments in teaching courses that familiarize non-CS&E undergraduate students with advanced computational tools in the context of their own fields of interest.
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From page 155... ...
For example, very fast computers with large amounts of storage are necessary to support three-dimensional realtime graphics and certain new and important programming languages and systems. Keeping the educational computer infrastructure approximately current with the cutting edge of technology will be an
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From page 156... ...
In considering the views of the computer industry and large commercial users of computers, the committee concluded that the needs for continuing education in CS&E, especially among those responsible for designing, programming, testing, and maintaining the software systems on which the information age depends, are enormous, especially given the speed with which the field changes. These needs are often recognized by all potential participants in the continuing education endeavor, but for various reasons not fully understood by the committee, continuing education is often relegated to the backwaters of universities and neglected by industry and commerce.
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From page 157... ...
This expansive view of CS&E will require a commensurately broader educational agenda for academic CS&E, as well as undergraduate education of higher quality. Adequate funding from the federal government and greater interactions between academia and industry arid commerce will help immeasurably to promote the broadenir~g and strengthening of the discipline.
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From page 158... ...
By concluding that the basic technology for machine translation had not been developed at that time (and by implication that work on machine translation was not likely to be immediately fruitful) , the report contributed to a subsequent and substantial decline in funding for such research.
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From page 159... ...
Rather, this work should usually involve sustained and intimate interaction between academic computer scientists and engineers and those in working in nonresearch activities in industry and commerce. While it would be most desirable if the computing aspects of the problem were novel, such activity would in any event enhance the social and economic impact of CS&E research.
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From page 160... ...
See National Science Foundation, Report on the NSF Disciplinary Workshops in Undergraduate Education, NSF, Washington, D.C., April 1989, p.
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