CRA Bulletin

November 23, 2004

• Omnibus Appropriations Bill Includes Cut to NSF
• Supercomputing Bill Heads to President, Appropriators Provide Funding
• First Decline in Three Decades Among International Student Enrollments
• New International Graduate Student Enrollments Decline
• Corporate Spending Research & Development Drops Slightly
• CSTB Publishes Report on Supercomputing
• CRA-W Invites Nominations for the Anita Borg Early Career Award

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Omnibus Appropriations Bill Includes Cut to NSF

The National Science Foundation will lose just over $100 million for FY 05 (compared to FY 04), a cut of 1.8%, as part of the mammoth FY 2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill passed this week. The largest cut within NSF is to the Education and Human Resources Directorate ($97 million, 10%), with most of that cut falling on the Graduate Education and Research, Evaluation & Communication accounts. The Major Research Equipment account will see an increase of about $19 million over FY04. Research and Related Activities (home of the Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering Directorate) was to be held essentially flat for FY05, but will lose $28 million (0.7%) as the result of an across-the-board 0.8% cut to all non-defense agencies.

For full details, including links to the bill and report language: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000187.html.

Supercomputing Bill Heads to President, Appropriators Provide Funding

Before adjourning for the last time, the 108th Congress passed last week HR 4516, the High End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004, which authorizes the creation of a "leadership class" supercomputer at DOE and a "High-end Software Development Center." The action means that the bill will now head to the President, who is expected to sign it.

In related news, the Omnibus Appropriations bill passed this week does include funding for DOE's Leadership Class computing effort in FY 2005. Appropriators funded the effort at $30 million -- $25 million for hardware and $5 million for software development.

More details on both developments: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000185.html.

First Decline in Three Decades Among International Student Enrollments

The number of international students enrolled in U.S. higher education institutions decreased by 2.4% in 2003/04 to a total of 572,509, according to a report by IIE. This was the first absolute decline in foreign enrollments since 1971/72. The number enrolled in Math and Computer Science programs declined 5.8%.

India, China and Korea send the most students to the U.S., and Asian countries account for almost 57% of the total number of foreign students studying in the U.S.

Further information about the Institute for International Education's Open Doors 2004 report can be found at http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/.

New International Graduate Student Enrollments Decline

A survey conducted by an association of education societies found that new enrollments of international graduate students in U.S. programs declined 6% between 2003 and 2004. This follows declines between 6 and 10% in the previous three years. The decline in the number of enrolled students was not as great as some had anticipated. The decline in the number of those who enrolled followed a 28% drop in international graduate student applications and an 18% drop in the number of those who were admitted by U.S. schools.

A summary of the NAFSA survey can be found at http://www.nafsa.org/public_policy.sec/public_policy_document/international_student_5/survey_of_foreign_student

Corporate Spending Research & Development Drops Slightly

Research and development among the top 150 corporate spenders dropped 0.6% in 2003, according to MIT Technology Review. This followed sharper declines in 2002 and 2003. The declines were seen in a cross section of industries. R&D expenditures among telecommunications companies fell 10%, and spending by computer hardware companies declined 0.4%. R&D budgets expanded by around 10% among computer software, pharmaceutical/medical devices, and heavy machinery companies. The three biotechnology firms among the top 150 spenders also increased their budgets by an average of 28%.

North America is the home of 42% of the 150 companies with the highest R&D expenditures, followed by Europe (33%) and China (25%).

The MIT Technology Review report can be found at http://www.techreview.com/articles/04/12/scorecard1204.asp.

CSTB Publishes Report on Supercomputing

Getting Up to Speed: The Future of Supercomputing examines U.S. needs for supercomputing and recommends a long-term strategy for government support of high-performance computing research and development. The report concludes that the demands for supercomputing to strengthen U.S. defense and national security cannot be satisfied with current policies and levels of spending. The federal government should provide stable, long-term funding and support multiple supercomputing hardware and software vendors in order to give scientists and policy-makers better tools to solve problems in areas such as intelligence, nuclear stockpile stewardship, and climate change.

To learn more about this report go to: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cstb/pub_supercomp.html.

CRA-W Invites Nominations for the Anita Borg Early Career Award

The Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) is accepting applications for their annual Anita Borg Early Career Award. The award honors the late Anita Borg, who was an early member of CRA-W and an inspiration for her commitment in increasing the participation of women in computing research. The award will be given to a woman in computer science and/or engineering who has made significant research contributions and who has contributed to her profession, especially in the outreach to women. This award recognizes work in areas of academia and industrial research labs that has had a positive and significant impact on advancing women in the computing research community and is targeted at women that are relatively early in their careers (no more than 10 years past the Ph.D.). Applications will be accepted through February 15, 2005.

For more information about the award, see http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/borg/index.php