CRA Bulletin

August 5, 2002

• House Approves Homeland Security Plan, Senate Delays Decision
• NSF Receives Big Boost From Senate Appropriators
• US Intelligence Community to Fund NSF "Data Mining" Research
• Federal Share of Funding for Academic R&D in 30 Year Decline
• Size of the U.S. Science & Engineering Workforce Debated
• New Fulbright Program offers short-term Grants
• ACM Seeks Award Nominations
• AAUW Offers Fellowships to Women in CIS and CE
• Coalition to Diversify Computing Offers Conference Support to Minority Students

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House Approves Homeland Security Plan, Senate Delays Decision

The House last week approved a plan that would create a new, cabinet level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and result in the largest reorganization of the federal government in fifty years. By a two-to-one majority, the House passed its version of the President's Homeland Security Act (H.R. 5005), approving the transfer of a number of federal agencies including the Coast Guard, elements of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Secret Service, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the new department. The House bill also contained provisions not found in the President's proposal, including the creation of a new Undersecretary for Science and Technology position, which would oversee research and development efforts -- including Cyber Security research efforts -- in support of the department's mission. Notably absent in the House plan is the proposed transfer of NIST's Computer Security Division to the new department. CSD will remain at NIST under the House plan, although some computer security standards promulgation responsibilities will be transferred to DHS.

The Senate was to have taken up its version of the legislation -- likely to be very different from the House version -- this week but delayed action until after the August recess under the threat of a filibuster from Appropriations Chairman Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) who wants more time to consider options for the legislation.

A copy of H.R. 5005 and complete summary are available at: http://hsc.house.gov/

NSF Receives Big Boost From Senate Appropriators

Members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on VA-HUD and Independent Agencies last week approved a significant increase to the National Science Foundation's research account for fiscal year 2003. The panel approved a $564 million increase to NSF's overall budget, and increase of 11.8 percent over FY 2002. NSF's Research and Related Activities Account would see an increase of $532 million, an increase of 14.8 percent over FY 2002. The level of increase is enough to put NSF's research funding to double in five years, a stated goal of the Subcommittee Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Ranking Member Kit Bond (R-MO). Under the panel's plan, NSF's Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE) would see an increase of $102.6 million, or 19.8 percent over FY 2002. The measure next moves to the full Senate in September.

The House has not yet marked up its version of the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies appropriations bill, though support for NSF there is also believed to be strong. Earlier this month, the House approved an NSF bill that would have authorized increases at the agency at 15 percent a year for three years. However, House Appropriators are not bound by this authorized level.

For more details on the status of the appropriations process, see http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app03.html or the CRA Government Affairs website at http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/index.php

US Intelligence Community to Fund NSF "Data Mining" Research

The Intelligence Technology Innovation Center (ITIC), which falls administratively under the Central Intelligence Agency will provide up to $8 million to supplement existing National Science Foundation (NSF) data mining research. In particular, the research seek to develop new methods of extracting underlying patterns -- and even developing predictive abilities -- from data sets such as television broadcasts and Web pages.

According to CISE program officer Gary Strong, this agreement will allow the intelligence community access to NSF researchers -- including some it would not otherwise encounter -- while the researchers gain access to large databases that will facilitate their research. Stron also asserts that the research will be freely available to scientists as with other NSF-supported findings.

The partnership is seen by NSF as a way to further an aspect of its charter: to support science and engineering research related to national security. "NSF's priority remains keeping the United States at the cutting edge of development in all scientific fields, including computer and information sciences," said NSF Director Rita Colwell. "That the agency can, at the same time, contribute materially to the nation's security is beneficial to all Americans."

The arrangements with ITIC and the CIA were made through the interagency Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination (KDD) program. Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) and Data Mining are concerned with the extraction of high-level information (knowledge) from low-level data (usually stored in large databases). Through KDD, NSF identifies projects and programs in which research might be related to national security and then calls on the research community to focus its efforts, where appropriate, in that direction. For more information see http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/02/pr0264.htm

Federal Share of Funding for Academic R&D Has Declined During Past Thirty Years

Although the Federal Government continues to provide the largest share of support for academic research and development (R&D), its role has diminished during the last thirty years, as reported in a recent National Science Foundation InfoBrief.

• The Federal Government accounted for 58 percent ($16.3 out of $28.1 billion) of all academic R&D funding in 2000. However, the Federal share declined fairly steadily from the early 1970s through 2000, dropping from 68 percent in 1972.
• Among science and engineering fields, computer sciences saw the smallest decline in the Federal share of R&D funding between 1973 and 2000, from 70 to 66 percent.
• Funds from academic institutions—institutional funds—constitute the second largest source ($5.5 billion) of academic R&D funding. The share of support represented by institutional funds has been increasing fairly steadily since the early 1970s, except for a brief downturn in the early 1990s; specifically, it has risen from 12 percent in 1972 to 20 percent in 2000.
• Although industrial support still accounts for a small share of funding ($2.0 billion), its share rose faster than that of any other source during the past three decades, more than doubling from 3 percent in 1972 to 7 percent in 1990—the level where it remains.
• The share of academic R&D funding provided by state and local governments has declined fairly steadily, from 10 percent in 1972 to 7 percent in 2000.

The NSF InfoBrief, "Changes in Federal and Non-Federal Support for Academic R&D Over the Past Three Decades," can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/infbrief/nsf02323/start.htm

Size of the U.S. Science & Engineering Workforce Debated

A recent article published by Science Resource Statistics and based on data from the NSF discusses different methods of classifying and measuring the nation's S&E workforce and estimates the size of this workforce using each method.

In general, employees can be categorized occupationally or according to their educational background. The first approach is more common, and best captures the work an employee is actually doing at present. This method does have the drawback of excluding those, like managers, analysts, or writers, who use S&E knowledge and tools but whose work is not defined as S&E.

The second approach, which classifies employees based on their formal training, also has its advantages and drawbacks. While this method would include those who use training in S&E to do S&E-relatated jobs, it also includes people with multiple degrees, of which S&E might be the least-used, and people who have some training in S&E but work in a totally unrelated field or position.

Using the first classification system, the S&E workforce included approximately 3.5 million employees in 1999. Computer and mathematical scientists made up roughly 1.2 million, or 33 percent, of this workforce. 3 million members of the S&E workforce report that their highest degree is in an S&E discipline, while the remainder have a highest degree in a non-S&E field or no degree in S&E.

The second classification system results in a much larger S&E workforce. If educational background is the standard for an S&E employee, then the S&E workforce was approximately 10.5 million people in 1999. Of course, many of these employees were working in non-S&E jobs, despite their educational training. Still, of the 62 percent (5.0 million) of S&E degree-holders not working in S&E jobs in 1999, about 67 percent indicated that their jobs were at least somewhat related to their highest S&E degree field.

To view this report in its entirety, go to http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/infbrief/nsf02325/start.htm

New Fulbright Program Offers Short-Term Grants

The Fulbright Scholars Program, sponserd by the US State Departments’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs now offers short-term grants of two to six weeks for U.S. faculty and professionals. The new "Senior Specialist Program" is designed to extend the scope and reach of the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program as well as to increase the number of faculty and profressionals who have the opportunity to go abroad on a Fulbright. Fulbright Senior Specialists will have the opportunity to collaborate with their overseas counterparts on curriculum and faculty development, institutional planning and a variety of other activities.

Academics who apply to be on a roster of Senior Specialist Scholars will be matched with requests from host countries. Countries eligible to participate in the program include those where there is a U.S. embassy or a Fulbright Commission. Lists of these countries can be found at http://usembassy.state.gov/ and http://exchanges.state.gov/education/commiss.htm

There is a rolling application deadline. Applications will be reviewed and vetted on-line by peer review committees in speciifc disciplines. For more information on eligibility and to apply on-line, see: http://www.cies.org/specialists/

ACM Seeks Nominations for 2002 Awards

The Association for Computing Machinery has put out a call for nominations for several awards with upcoming deadlines.

The Doctoral Dissertation award is presented annually to the author(s) of the best doctoral dissertation(s) in computer science and engineering, and is accompanied by a prize of $5000. The deadline for Doctoral Dissertation nominations is August 31, 2002.

ACM Council established the ACM Fellows Program in 1993 to recognize and honor outstanding ACM members for their achievements in computer science and information technology and for their significant contributions to the mission of the ACM. ACM Fellow nominations and endorsements should be received by September 6, 2002.

Nominations for all other ACM Awards are due by October 31, 2002. Nominations for all 2002 awards should be submitted to the respective award subcommittee chair listed on the ACM Web site (http://www.acm.org/awards/). In addition, ACM has compiled a web page to provide guidance for ACM Fellow nominations. The guide is available at: www.acm.org/awards/nomination_packet/. For more information on ACM award nominations, see: http://www.acm.org/awards/award_nominations.html

AAUW Offers Fellowships to Women in CIS and CE

On August 1, 2002 the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, began accepting applications for its "Selected Professions Fellowships." The Selected Professions Fellowships are awarded to women who intend to pursue a full-time course of study at accredited institutions during the 2003 –2004 academic year in one of several designated degree programs where women’s participation traditionally has been low. AAUW now includes Computer and Information Sciences on its list of selected professions.

Candidates from computer and information science are eligible to apply for support for the final year of study only and are expected to receive their degrees at the end of the fellowship year. Women pursuing master’s in engineering programs are eligible to apply for either the first or final year of study. Doctoral candidates in engineering programs must be entering the final stages of writing their dissertations. Special consideration is given to applicants who show professional promise in innovative or neglected areas of research or practice in areas of public interest. Awards range from $5,000 to $20,000.

Applications for both the Master's and First Professional Awards and the Engineering Dissertation Awards are now available on the AAUW website: http://www.aauw.org/3000/fdnfelgra/selectprof.html

Coalition to Diversify Computing Offers Conference Support to Minority Students

Applications are now being accepted for minority students to attend a technical conference with their mentors. With the goal of helping students break through the ice and learn to enjoy conferences, the Coalition to Diversify Computing (http://www.npaci.edu/Outreach/CDC/) is offering support of up to $1000 for minority students in CSE and up to $1000 for eligible mentors who attend a professional conference as a student/mentor team.

According project coordinator Pat Teller, (University of Texas, El Paso), "attending a professional conference is a critical step in a student's academic career. It exposes them to the process of preparing and presenting a talk to colleagues, and enlightens them about the networking possibilities at such events. Students always come away much more prepared to submit a poster or paper of their own after having spent time with a mentor at a conference, showing them the ins and outs of this aspect of our professional lives."

First round applications are now being accepted. The deadline for review is September 1, 2002. A second round or applications will be accepted next spring (March 1, 003 deadline). Applications are available at http://www.npaci.edu/Outreach/CDC/conf-support/index.html.

The Coalition to Diversify Computing is a joint committee of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the Computing Research Association (CRA), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) Computer Society. Currently, the NSF’s Education, Outreach, and Training Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (EOT-PACI) program, CRA, and ACM sponsor CDC projects. For more information on CDC, see http://www.npaci.edu/Outreach/CDC.

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