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This document has been archived.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
CISE Emphases for FY 2004
1. Cyber Trust
Networked computers reside at the heart of systems
on which people now rely, both in critical national infrastructures and
in their homes, cars, and offices. Today, many of these systems are far
too vulnerable to cyber attacks that can inhibit their function, corrupt
important data, or expose private information. Cyber Trust promotes a vision
of a society in which these systems are more predictable, more accountable,
and less vulnerable to attack and abuse; are developed, configured, operated,
and evaluated by a well-trained and diverse workforce; and are used by
a public educated in their secure and ethical operation. Trustworthiness
is
a system property and economic, legal, social, and organizational factors--as
well as technical ones--influence how systems are put together. Cyber Trust
research aims to advance the science and technology of trustworthy system
design and development and better understand the factors that will enable
that technology to be incorporated in systems on which the public depends.
Specific technical research and education topics may include but are not
limited to: efforts addressing security and privacy needs of applications,
including improved policy specification, accountability mechanisms, privacy
assurance, and comprehensible user interfaces; research in systems software,
including trustworthy operating system architectures and mechanisms and
middleware for trustworthy software-controlled real-time systems; advances
in the trustworthiness of networks at all scales, including affordable
network security designs, secure collaboration and Grid computing mechanisms,
denial
of service prevention and avoidance, and improved accountability and network
forensics; and research to establish a sound scientific foundation and
technological basis for trustworthy computing, including means to specify
and reason about
the trustworthiness of individual components and combinations of trustworthy
and untrustworthy components. Integrative research that addresses these
technical areas in combination with social, organizational, economic, and
legal influences on system design is also sought. For more information,
see http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf04524.
2. Education & Workforce
Rapid advances in computing technology
lead to the need to transfer research results into the classroom. Developing
and making effective use of new research results requires a well educated
and diverse computer and information science and engineering workforce
that is representative of and able to interact with the entire populace.
This
emphasis involves all CISE divisions and supports projects that integrate
research and education, study the causes of the current lack of diversity
in the information technology workforce, and lead to a broadening of participation
by all underrepresented groups in the CISE workforce. Specific activities
include:
- CISE Combined Research and Curriculum Development and Educational
Innovation Program (CRCD/EI)—Supports innovative activities
in the computer and information science and engineering disciplines by
encouraging
the transfer of state-of-the-art research results into undergraduate and
introductory graduate curricula; disseminating best practices in information
technology (IT) education; investigating emerging areas; and implementing
new IT programs. The CRCD/EI Program supports the design, development,
testing, and dissemination of innovative approaches to increase the effectiveness
of educational experiences. CRCD/EI projects may involve integrating research
results into courses and curricula (the research may be ongoing or completed
and may be drawn from any research activities in the computer and information
sciences and engineering fields); planning and implementation of formal
activities designed to publicize effective innovative programs and IT
concepts
through workshops, publication, and other dissemination mechanisms; and
the creation of educational programs and tools that address cutting edge
IT. The CRCD/EI Program places special emphasis on curricular approaches
that address the recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented
minorities in IT educational programs. For more
information, see http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf04001.
- Information Technology Workforce (ITWF)—Since its inception
in 2000, the Information Technology Workforce Program (ITWF) has supported
basic research studies on the under representation of women and minorities
in information technology (IT). ITWF is expanding its portfolio to include
implementation and intervention projects that--based on research findings--seek
to increase the numbers of women and underrepresented minority students
and faculty in IT in the nation's colleges and universities. Implementation
projects must incorporate rigorous programs of evaluation and dissemination.
For more information, see http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf03609.
- CISE
also participates in a number of NSF-wide education and workforce programs,
including:
3. Information Integration
Traditionally, an individual researcher
developed hypotheses, designed experiments to test these hypotheses, collected
observational data, and published results based on experiments. The data
were often published in print to allow others to build upon or verify the
results. In nearly every field of 21st century science and engineering,
including all of the disciplines funded by NSF, research is now achieved
by teams of researchers analyzing data sets that are far too large to publish
in journals and sometimes collected independently by other scientists with
different goals in mind. The goal of information integration research is
to provide the necessary foundations to provide science and engineering
researchers seamless access to a multitude of independently developed,
heterogeneous data sources. Information integration seeks to maximally exploit
available
information to create new scientific knowledge. Effective information integration
will also enhance public education by facilitating comprehensive access
to distributed information resources. Topics may include, but are not limited
to: integrating many different, disparate, and possibly distributed sources;
supporting automated discovery of new data sources and information within
them; integrating structured, semi-structured, text, image, video, time-series,
3D images, citations, graphs, and data streams; unifying data models and
system descriptions; reconciling heterogeneous formats, schemas, and ontologies;
web semantics; decentralized data-sharing; data-sharing on advanced cyberinfrastructure;
and on-the-fly integration. For more information, see http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf04528.
4. Science of Design
Supports science and engineering research and
education that develops the foundations of a Science of Design, leading
to more effective development, evolution, and understanding of systems
of large scale, scope, and complexity. The emphasis of this program is on
software-intensive
computing, information, and communication systems (ex, systems for which
software is the principal means to conceptualize, define, model, analyze,
develop, integrate, operate, control, and manage such systems). In other
disciplines with a longer history than computing and software, there are
scientifically discovered and validated facts, volumes of codified experience,
and formalized, teachable principles. Analogous foundations are needed
for a Science of Design for software-intensive systems. Research may address
theories, models, principles, formalisms, empirical studies, and the nature
and limits of design.
Proposals are expected to be crosscutting and topics may include, but
are not limited to: design structures and composition techniques leading
to robust and evolvable systems; representation of problem formulations
and requirements for software-intensive systems, coupled with problem-solving
and reasoning techniques to find designs that meet requirements; studies
of designs, designers, and design methodology for software-intensive systems;
design automation or computer-aided design for these systems; development
and integration of design education into curriculum and training for computer
scientists, software engineers, and systems engineers. (Note: A Science
of Design solicitation is pending; please monitor http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=CISE for more information.)
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