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Computing Research Policy Blog (RDF)
Advocacy and Policy Analysis for the Computing Research Community (English (US))
Added to The Feed Directory on Sun, 6 Jun 2004 13:16:51 PDT
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Last Feed Sample: The Emergency Supplemental for FY08 -- the last chance to rectify the appropriations shortfall for science caused by the FY 08 Omnibus Appropriation -- has been signed by the President and is now law. Though science funding made it into the supplemental -- one of the few non-defense items in the bill -- the win for the science community is somewhat symbolic. The amount included ($400 million -- see here for a breakdown) is only about a third of the total shortfall of the FY08 appropriations, but it is nevertheless a sign that Congress and the White House understand the importance of research funding and are willing to back up their vocal support with some additional funding. Meanwhile, the FY 09 appropriations process marches on, with some better news for science. As always, stay tuned here for the latest as the appropriations cycle moves forward (or not) this year....
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
The Coalition for National Science Funding held another successful Science Exposition on Capitol Hill last night and once again CRA played a part. Manning this year's booth for CRA was Dr. R. Michael Young from North Carolina State University who did a fantastic job showing his work using the underlying technology of video games for more serious educational and research purposes. The exhibit received a great deal of attention from Congressional staff, Members of Congress, and other exhibitors. The event, a sort of science fair for Congress and staff, had 32 booths manned by researchers representing universities and scientific societies featuring some of the important research funded by the National Science Foundation. NSF showed its support for the event with staff coming out en masse including Director of NSF Arden Bement, shown here with Rep. David Price (NC). Several hundred attendees roamed the room this year including a number of...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
A symbolic (and that's about all) victory for science in managing to get included in the FY 08 Emergency Supplemental Appropriation approved by the House today, though the amounts leave a lot to be desired. Even though the funding levels are pretty anemic, at least some money appeared in the bill. The great majority of other "special interests" that were clamoring to get into the bill didn't make it. The House and Senate Leadership agreed on a $400 million bump for science agencies that got shortchanged in the FY 08 Omnibus Approps -- a far cry from the $1.2 billion included by the Senate in its version and an even further cry from the levels called for in the COMPETES Act (and ACI, and the Democratic Innovation Agenda). Here's how it breaks out:$62.5 million for Department of Energy's Office of Science (to "eliminate all furloughs and reductions in force which...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
Noah Shactman has an interesting post on the Danger Room Blog at Wired noting that the Pentagon has "reprogrammed" $32 million of DARPA funding, including $2 million from the Information and Communications Technology account because of DARPA's inability to attract program managers and spend the money allocated it. From the Reprogramming Action (pdf) report:"DARPA continues to underexecute its Research, Development, Test and Evaluation programs for two reasons: first, several key program managers' positions are unfilled because there are few experts in advanced sciences and technology, and second, DARPA's approval process is delaying contract awards."If I had to guess, I'd say the latter reason might have something to do with the former, too. It's certainly possible that the same policy changes at DARPA that have made it more difficult for university researchers to work on DARPA problems have also made DARPA a less-desireable place to spend a few years, but that's...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
[Dustin Cho is CRA's new summer fellow from the Tisdale Fellowship Program, which has been bringing college students to Washington, DC, for internships that explore current public policy issues of critical importance to the high-tech sector. Dustin is a recent graduate of Yale University with a degree in political science and an interest in the intersection of public policy and technology. After suffering through what is sure to be a tortuous summer with us here at CRA World HQ, Dustin plans to begin law school at Harvard in the Fall. Until then, expect to see plenty of his writing here on the blog as we wring all we can out of him. -- Peter] I’ve just finished reading the RAND report, and as Peter points out, its authors take the contrarian position that U.S. science is as competitive as ever. They contend that the U.S. remains on top, and we’re...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
Two articles this week on women in science and technology fields. The first “Why Women Quit Technology Careers” in ComputerWorld talks about a trend that we have been watching for awhile. The article notes a study that shows that despite a strong presence in the early stages of science and technology careers, 40 percent of women leave those fields in their 30s and 40s. While having children is a factor for the drop, it is not the most significant one the study found. There were four other factors that were more important in the drop in women. 1. High levels of blatant and subtle misogyny or sexual harassment. 2. Isolation 3. Lack of a career map 4. Rewarding of risk taking as a path to promotion (building a system that doesn’t break is not rewarded but high pressure situations involving fixing broken systems are rewarded with promotions) The study is...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
Two recent pieces in The Chronicle of Higher Education riff off a just-released report by the RAND Corporation to make the case that those who have argued that U.S. science and technology dominance is at risk in a globally competitive world are exaggerating. Richard Monastersky writes in "Despite Recent Obits, U.S. Science and Engineering Remain Robust": Although Congress, President Bush, and top university chancellors have publicly fretted about the declining health of science and engineering in the United States, a new report argues that the U.S. has maintained its supremacy in those sectors. Further, the report says, the nation should not overreact to overseas growth in technological prowess.And Daniel Greenberg writes in "Call Off the Funeral: Science in U.S. is Lively and Growing":The RAND report stands out because gloomy findings predominate in assessments of American science. In 1985, for example, the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the National...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
...but don't get too excited, yet. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science today approved (pdf) a nearly 14 percent increase for the National Science Foundation ($830 million over NSF's lackluster FY 08 number) in its version of the FY 09 CJS Appropriations bill. While the committee is doing this with the stated goal of getting NSF back on the doubling track called for in the America COMPETES Act, this is just one step along a long and tortuous path appropriations will take to get completed this year. Unfortunately, all the dynamics that were in play last year that led to science getting completely shut out of increases in the final FY 08 Omnibus Appropriations are still in play this year. And frankly, it appears that we are once again headed for a long-term continuing resolution until at least early next year, when lawmakers can assess the new climate...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
The next couple of weeks will be busy ones here at CRA World Headquarters. On June 18, the Congressional Robotics Caucus will be holding its second briefing, this time on Industrial Robotics. (CRA is on the Robotics Caucus Advisory Committee.) The lunch briefing will feature Jeff Burnstein of the Robotic Industries Association, Richard Seif and Chris Bailey of the Lincoln Electric Company, and John Dulchinos of Adept Technology. In conjunction with the Caucus event, CRA's Computing Community Consortium will be hosting three days worth of robotics workshops. All the details on the CCC endeavor can be found on the CCC blog. CRA is also gearing up to participate in the Coalition for National Science Funding's Annual Science Exposition on June 25. This year we will be represented by Dr. R. Michael Young from North Carolina State University. Dr. Young will visit his Congressional delegation during the day and then host...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
CRA is looking to expand its staff once again -- we're looking for a business/office manager type to help us get a handle on our growing responsibilities. If you know someone who fits the bill, please pass this along! Wanted: Business Manager The Computing Research Association, a non-profit representing the academic and industrial IT research community, seeks a Business Manager for its Washington, DC office. This position supports CRA initiatives, provides technical coordination and administration of grants and subcontracts, develops project management plans and monitors execution, works with stakeholders, prepares presentations and reports, and handles office human resource requirements. Requirements: a Bachelors degree or four years of related experience, an employment history of progressively responsible experience, and demonstrated management and administrative skills. Knowledge of federal grants/contracts management is desirable. Please email resume and salary requirements to: employment@cra.org....
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
Well after a lot of rumors, innuendo, and veto threats, the House supplemental appropriations bill -- the last hope for rectifying the shortfall for science in FY 2008 -- does not contain additional funding for science and technology but the Senate version does. The House version, which is scheduled to be debated and voted on today, only includes additional domestic funding for veterans education, unemployment benefits, and Medicaid and some additional international aid that the President requested. The Senate version, which is scheduled to have floor time next week, also includes $1.2 billion for science at NASA, NSF, NIH, and DOE. It is unlikely that the Senate will pass the supplemental with a veto proof majority so the question going forward is how to reconcile the two bills -- and how they will handle the science funding -- and avoid a Presidential veto. It is likely that much of the...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
CRA Chair Dan Reed (who is also Microsoft's "Scalable and Multicore Strategist") will testify Thursday before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee to talk about the computational aspects of U.S. climate modeling. From the committee: This hearing will examine the current computing capacity to process models at the regional and local scales, the need for continuous observational data to support the models, and the basic science to support the improvement of the next generation of climate models to meet the needs of decisionmakers. The hearing will focus on developing applications, consumer expectations, and network operation.We'll have Dan's testimony here, links to any archived video and audio coverage of the proceedings, as well as our take on how it all went down, so stay tuned....
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
The Computing Community Consortium -- a partnership between CRA and the National Science Foundation that seeks to catalyze the computing research community to debate longer-range, more audacious research challenges, then work to realize them -- has launched its new blog, and it's definitely worth checking out. Given the goal of CCC to get the community talking about research visions (and then setting to work on developing the most promising ones into clearly defined initiatives that could receive funding from various federal agencies), a blog seems like a reasonable way to help spur the discussions. Researchers on the CCC Council will author some of the initial (hopefully opinionated) pieces, but I think the hope is that the discussions will get carried on both in the open comments section and in some additional online fora. Anyway, you can check it out at http://www.cccblog.org. They've already got a good summary of some of...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
The saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, NSF and AAAS agree and are sponsoring the sixth annual Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. There are five awards categories: Photographs/Pictures, Illustrations/Drawings, Informational/Explanatory Graphics, Interactive Media, and Non-Interactive Media. The deadline for entries is May 31. The premise of the Challenge is that science is often communicated through visuals better than words, particularly in our web and graphics culture. Winning entries in each category will be published in Science Magazine and Science Online as well as at the NSF web site. One of the winners will be on the cover of Science Magazine’s September 26 issue. More information and winning entries from the previous five years can be found here....
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
The National Academies, in conjunction with the National Math and Science Initiative, will hold a day long convocation today called “Rising Above The Gathering Storm Two Years Later: Accelerating Progress Toward A Brighter Future.” Discussions will include what has happened since the 2005 report was release at the federal, state, and private sector levels and, of course, what still needs to happen. Competitiveness overall, K-12, higher education, and research are all panel and breakout topics throughout the convocation. Frequent readers will remember that the Gathering Storm report, released in October 2005, was a report requested by Sens. Alexander (R-TN) and Bingaman (D-NM) and Reps. Boehlert (R-NY) and Gordon (D-TN) that listed the top 10 actions Congress should undertake to secure America’s competitiveness. The report was a catalyst for news, legislation, and further reports that we have reported on regularly over the last couple of years. The convocation has spurred a...
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:42:07 PDT
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