State of NSF and CISE

Jeannette M. WingAssistant Director

Computer and Information Science and Engineering

NSF, October 19, 2007

2CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Outline

• NSF news– Transformative Research– Major Research Infrastructure (MRI)– Merit Review (session later)– Broadening Participation (session later)

• CISE– Budget and staff– FY08 initiatives– What I’ve been up to– Community support

3CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Transformative Research

• What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?– How important is the proposed activity to advancing

knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources?

• Important Notice No. 130: Transformative Research from Director Arden Bement was sent on Sept 24, 2007 to Presidents of Universities and Colleges

4CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Major Research Infrastructure (MRI)

• Effective FY08, the Major Research Infrastructure (MRI) Program will require 30% cost-sharing on all proposals.– Title VII of the America COMPETES Act dictates this change

to NSF.– Non PhD-granting institutions are exempt.

• Upper limit on budget per project has increased to $4M. – Anything between $2M and $4M must be for the acquisition

of a single instrument.

State of CISE

6CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Federal Budget Update

• FY’08 (FY began 10/1/07)– President’s Request for CISE $574M (+9%)– Continuing Resolution (CR) through 11/16– CR likely to be extended through 12/07– Cautiously optimistic that appropriations will be made

• FY’09 (FY begins 10/1/08)– NSF’s Request to OMB submitted 9/07– Pass-back at Thanksgiving– President’s Request released 2/08

• FY10 (FY begins 10/1/09)– Planning begins with visioning today

7CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

NSF and CISE Funding Rate Trends

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8CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

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9CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

CISE Workforce

• Filling CISE Leadership Positions– Ty Znati, CNS Division Director– Gwen Owens, CNS Operations Manager– Searching for CCF Division Director

• CISE of CISE Workforce– 89 positions allocated (IPA + federal)– Compare with ENG (140 positions) and BIO (129 positions) – CISE position allocations increasing – Positioning CISE to fill more positions if they are allocated

• Constant Search for Division and Program Directors– Now or coming up: software foundations, bio-inspired computing,

nano/quantum computing, robotics, vision, graphics, distributed systems and ubiquitous computing, networking, education and outreach

• Role of CISE AC– Beating the Bushes subcommittee: help create a pool of viable

candidates

10CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Reminders From May AC Meeting

• Vision: Computational Thinking For All• 5 Deep Questions in Computing

– P = NP?– What is computable?– What is intelligence?– What is information?– How can we build complex systems simply?

• 5 Broad Themes– Math Computing– Parallel and Distributed Thinking– Software for Complex Systems– Human-in-the-Loop– Understanding the Brain

11CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

CDI: Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation

• Computational Thinking for science and engineering

• Paradigm shift– Yesterday: metal tools (transistors and wires)– Today: mental tools (abstractions and methods)

• “Algorithms” is becoming a household word, e.g., NY Times, Forbes magazine, Harvard Business Review, Economist, …

• It’s a partnership.– To advance BOTH computer science and the other

science/engineering discipline.

• Three dimensions1. Extracting knowledge from data2. Understanding complexity in natural, built, and social systems3. Virtual organizations

• FY08: $52M agency-wide, $20M CISE

This is a big deal both for the community and for NSF.

12CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

FY08 CISE Specific New Initiatives• Expeditions in Computing

– Goal: Fund teams long enough to pursue a bold vision.

• Software for Real-World Systems [complexity, SCS, CPS]– Challenge: Address “How can we build complex systems simply?”

• Foundations of Data and Visual Analytics [information, intelligence, foundations, data-intensive]– Challenge: Algorithms for the first step in

Data -> Knowledge -> Visualization

• [OCI lead] Sustainable Digital Data Preservation and Access Network Partners (DataNet) [information, data-intensive]– Challenge: Stewardship of digital data in perpetuity

• CreativeIT [intelligence, human-in-the-loop]– Dual challenges: How can IT foster creativity and how does innovation happen

in IT?

- SGER “sugars” - Small Grants for Exploratory Research

13CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Education

• CISE Pathways to Revitalize Undergraduate Education (CPATH)

• Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC)– Focus: Women, underrepresented minorities, people with

disabilities

What is an effective way of teaching computational thinking to K-12? - What concepts should we teach when? What is our analogy to numbers in K, algebra in 7, and calculus in 12?

- We uniquely also should ask how best to integrate The Computer with teaching the concepts.

- Hope to work with Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate

Question and Challenge for the Computing Community:

14CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

What I’ve Been Doing (Across CISE)

• All-hands meeting

• Meetings with everyone in CISE– Met one-on-one with each PD (47*) and DD (4*)– Met with all staff (8 OAD, 37 divisional)

• Three division and one cross-division reviews

• Re-affirmed mentoring of new PDs

• Starting monthly CISE-ALL meetings

• Back to science– Encouraging clusters to do scientific strategic planning– Started internal Science Talk Series, interleaved with

external Distinguished Lecturer Series

* including those who left and those who just arrived

15CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

What I’ve Been Doing (Across NSF)

• Getting to know Director, Deputy Directory, fellow ADs and ODs– OCI, MPS, ENG, BIO, GEO, OPP, EHR, …

• Getting to know National Science Board– Lunch presentation

• Getting to know the budget process, e.g., OMB

• Getting to know the MREFC process

• Getting to know NITRD

16CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

What We’ve Been Doing (For You)

Communicating with the Community

• Dear Colleague Letter (October 2, another to come)– De-confusing CISE

• Networking News Item (to come)

• CRN (November 2007 issue)– Column: 5 Deep Questions– CDI article with Sirin Tekinay

• External talks/presentations– ISAT, CSTB, NAE Section 5, European eScience, “European CRA”

(ECCS), Grace Hopper, technical workshops, universities and colleges (scheduled)

– CDI outreach

• Highlights

Enlisting Community Engagement

18CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Back to Basics

• NSF is about basic science and engineering.Preserve CISE core.

• It’s all about good ideas and good people.

• It’s about “high risk” long term impact.Impact may be far in the future.Impact is long-lasting (that is real science).Impact can create new economies and change societal behavior.

Say “No” to incrementalism!

Promote new, emerging areas of computing.

: Transformative Research

19CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

NSF Needs Good People

• Quality of program directors Affects quality of reviewers chosen on panels and ad

hoc Affects quality of reviews PIs receive

Affects funding decisions Affects the nature and content of our research

Affects the frontiers of our discipline!

• Collective effort• We are all part of the solution.• We are in this together!

• CSTB, CRA, ACM, CCC, …• Government—Academia—Industry ecosystem

20CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

What You Can Do for NSF, for ComputingIn increasing order of comfort:

• Service counts: Discuss at your institution how to include service as part of the evaluation, promotion, and tenure process.

• Names, names, names: Have your department head/dean/lab director send us (1) a list of qualified reviewers, (2) a list of potential program directors, division directors, assistant directors.

• Support the field, support your colleagues: Our self-hypercriticalness hurts us when we compete at the foundation level (e.g., MRI, PECASE, S&TCs, ERCs, IGERT, CDI).

• Most importantly: Do great research!• Be creative, innovative, bold, visionary. As senior members of the

community, set an example for and mentor the junior members.• Send us your good ideas!

21CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Engaging the AC• Beating the Bushes Subcommittee

– Mission: To help name and recruit potential PDs, DDs, and ADs– Volunteers?

• Education Subcommittee– Goal: To help advise CISE on computing education programs and

more broadly engage the community on issues such as my CT K-12 Question&Challenge

– Harriet Taylor, Brian Blake, Alan Kay, Annie Anton (?)

• Broadening Participation Subcommittee– Goal: To help CISE development its own BP plan and more broadly

to advise CISE on how to effectively invest in BP.– Jan Cuny, Richard Ladner, Jorge Diaz-Herrera, Melissa O’Neill

• International Subcommittee– Goal: To help advise CISE on what makes sense for CISE to do

internationally– Suzi Iacono, Randy Bryant, Stu Feldman, Martha Pollack, Marc

Snir

22CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Engaging Industry• Your suggestions welcome!

• Learn from ENG report out on Industry subcommittee Oct 24• ERC, I/UCRC, SBIR

• Idea: Academia-Industry-Government “Imagine the Future” Forum– Drivers of our field come from society, technology, and science. How are

we responding in both research and education? How should we be leading (“creating our future”)?

– Forum: 6-8 speakers from academia and industry. 30 additional participants. One-day meeting.

• Idea: Industry-Academia-Government Summit on the Future of Computing Education– Focus on undergraduate education, meeting industry and national

workforce needs– Splash event in DC, organized by CCC?, working with CISE and CPATH, with

help from NSF Office of Legislative and Public Affairs

• Questions for You: Should CISE facilitate Visioning Forum and/or Education Summit (say for Spring 2008)?

• Yes/Yes, but on a different topic/No/No, leave it to the CCC/Other– I will ask this question again after the Visioning Exercise.

• If “yes” then please give us names of people who should participate

23CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Engaging the AC Today!Visioning Exercise

• Goals: To inform CISE on research trends based on your visions of the future for computing.

• Plan:– Today

• Lunchtime: Share with your colleagues your visions for the future and what CISE might want to do.

• 1:30-2:30: 10-minute presentation per breakout group– Between now and the Spring AC meeting

• Prepare a short (2-5 page) write-up of each vision. – Spring AC meeting

• Give a short presentation of each vision and what CISE might do

• Your output will feed into– CISE’s DD retreat (November)– FY08 and FY09 spending (now)– FY10 budget planning (Spring, Summer 2008)– CCC

24CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Breakout Groups

• Room 1120: Brian Blake, Randy Bryant, Yolanda Gil (phone in), Rico Malvar, Ellen Zegura

• Room 1105.09: Bill Dally (phone in), Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Dave Clark, John King, Richard Ladner

• Room 1235 (this room): Dave Farber (phone in), Stu Feldman, Alan Kay, Antonio Lopez, Martha Pollack

• Room 1105.13: Jorge Diaz-Herrera, Stephanie Forrest, Dick Karp, David Tennenhouse, Roz Picard

• Between now and the spring AC meeting, feel free to engage:– Al Aho, Annie Anton, Vint Cerf, Andrew Chien, Arnold Douglas, Dwight

Gourneau, Melissa O’Neill, Joe O’Rourke, Cherri Pancake, Marc Snir, Margaret Wright

25CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Working with the CCC (Running List)

• Research Visioning– Academia-Industry-Government “Imagine the Future”

Forum– Outcome of CISE AC Visioning Exercise

• Education– Industry Summit on the Future of Computing Education– Top 25 Universities and Educational Transformation

• <Your ideas go here>

26CISE AC October 2007 Jeannette M. Wing

Thanks to CISE!

• CISE works as a team

• Debbie Crawford, Frederica Darema, Laura Gent, Rita Koch, Joe Koss, Suzi Iacono, Gracie Narcho, Timothy Pinkston (January), Jason Soleil, Maggie Whiteman

• Michael Foster and all PDs and admin staff in CCF

• Ty Znati and all PDs and admin staff in CNS

• Haym Hirsh and all PDs and admin staff in IIS

Thank You!