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This document has been archived. For current NSF funding opportunities, see
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/browse_all_funding.jsp
Directorate
for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Division of Computer and Network Systems
• Computer Systems Cluster
Future computing systems will be required to control a greater variety
of computing, communication, storage, and external devices; support a broader
range of increasingly demanding applications; and to manage hundreds of
asynchronous activities correctly, securely, and reliably. The Computer
Systems cluster supports research and education activities that address
these requirements in a variety of systems, including distributed, mobile,
and embedded systems; sensing and control systems; dynamically configured,
multiple-component systems; parallel systems; and trusted systems.
Topical areas include new ways to organize systems (ex. peer to peer);
software architectures that scale to handle thousands of components or a
spectrum of heterogeneous components; ways to handle complex combinations
of requirements, such as meeting real-time constraints and coordinating
control in an embedded, failure-prone environment; methods that enable systems
to detect problems and to take corrective action without human intervention;
tools to analyze and predict the behavior of entire computing systems; techniques
for developing complex, dynamically changing applications and for managing
them at runtime; storage systems that are low-cost, scalable, and reliable;
and operating systems and libraries for new technologies.
1. Distributed Systems
Sponsors research and education on methodologies
and designs of system software and runtime support for distributed applications
in order to achieve efficient, flexible, and robust computing in a parallel/multiprocessor/network
execution environment. Focus is on novel concepts for design of distributed
systems to capture the dynamic and open nature of the underlying system
platforms. The program encompasses areas ranging from fundamental operating
systems, cluster and grid computing, and middleware, to emerging pervasive
agent/mobile systems and peer-to-peer web-based computing. Experimental
designs and formal methods and analytical/simulation tools for such systems
are also encouraged.
Topics of interest fall into two program components:
- Topics in the Distributed
Systems component include system architectures for global-scale networked
applications, programming paradigms for parallel
and distributed systems, and mobile system architectures for pervasive
and ubiquitous computing.
- Topics in the Operating Systems component include system architectures,
run-time systems, and hardware impacts. Special emphasis is placed on operating
system support for middleware and distributed applications and on creative
system concepts brought forth from hardware innovations.
2. Embedded and Hybrid Systems
Supports research and education in
scientific principles and technology to revolutionize the design and development
of embedded systems for a broad range of applications. Software has enabled
increasingly ambitious, often safety-critical systems such as transportation,
manufacturing, medical devices and systems, environmental control, and
energy management. These include distributed and coordinated embedded systems
that
demand high levels of autonomy, adaptability, and component integration,
such as multi-modal sensing and control.
The goal of the program is to create and unify the foundations for managing
interacting physical and computational systems, and to supply the technologies
needed for building reliable software- and network-enabled embedded systems.
Relevant research includes areas such as hybrid (discrete and continuous)
modeling and control of physical systems; domain-specific design, programming,
and software synthesis approaches for embedded systems; verification and
analysis technology for checking and certifying correct operation of embedded
systems; real-time open systems, middleware, and virtual machine strategies
for embedded systems; dynamic scheduling that accommodates both hard and
soft real-time processes; and program composition approaches for synthesizing
software while preserving essential properties.
3. Next Generation Software (NGS)
Fosters multidisciplinary group
and single investigator software research. The overall thrusts of NGS are
research and development for new software technologies integrated across
the systems architectural layers; supporting the design and operation cycle
of applications and computing and communications systems; and delivering
quality of service (QoS). Topics of interest fall into two program components:
- Technology for Performance Engineered Systems (TPES) component, supports
research and education leading to the development of performance frameworks
for modeling, measurement, analysis, evaluation, and prediction of performance
of complex computing and communications systems; and of the applications
executing on such systems.
- Complex Application Design and Support Systems (CADSS) component, supports
research on novel software for the development and run-time support of
complex applications executing on complex computing platforms; CADSS-fostered
technology
breaks down traditional barriers in existing software components in the
application development, support and runtime layers, and leverages technology
for performance engineered systems-developed technology for delivering
QoS.
• Computing Research Infrastructure Cluster
1. CISE Research Infrastructure
Provides support to aid in the establishment,
enhancement, and operation of major experimental facilities that are planned
for the support all the research areas in the CISE Directorate. The program
may also assist activities for integration of research and education. The
program recognizes the emergence of research groups requiring strengthening
of experimental facilities in a variety of environments—those solely
within a single academic department; those drawing from several departments
in a single institution; and those spanning several different institutions.
This program supports the areas of research supported by the CISE Directorate
that are described in this Guide to Programs.
2. CISE Research Resources
Increases the capability and capacity
to carry out basic research in information technology at U.S. institutions.
The program supports the acquisition and development of advanced resources
for research and integrated research and education activities. Resources
may include research equipment, instrumentation, software, data repositories,
or services. Resources supported under this program are those generally
not supported by other programs due to cost, complexity, level of shared
use, or other reasons. Three elements comprise this program: CISE instrumentation,
collaborative research resources, and distributed research resources.
3. Minority Institutions Infrastructure
Provides awards to aid efforts
that might significantly expand the numbers of minority students attracted
to and retained in computer and information science and engineering disciplines.
Eligible institutions must be minority institutions as defined by significant
percentages of minority students. The program considers a variety of activities
including research programs involving minority students, curriculum development
projects, mentoring, and outreach. Both 1-year planning grants and continuing
grants of up to 5 years in duration are awarded.
• Network Systems Cluster
In the future, networks are likely to exhibit unpredictable, complex behavior
and dynamics. They are likely to span a broad range of technologies and
bandwidths--from wireless sensors to a high-performance core--and to carry
increasingly large amounts of increasingly demanding traffic. The Network
Systems cluster supports a range of research and education activities in
network systems, including networking research, new technologies, and networking
research test beds. Topical areas include rethinking the architecture of
the core of the network to accommodate orders of magnitude increases in
traffic; sensor networks that are self-diagnosing, self-healing, and self-organizing;
overlay networks that seek to build a rich layer of support for application-level
functionality on top of the current IP infrastructure; extensible networks
that provide a framework by which new services and applications can be added
dynamically; adaptable networks that detect and respond to threats; and
wireless networking systems that support more users, have higher bandwidth,
require less power, have longer range, and integrate seamlessly with wired
networks.
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