COMPUTING RESEARCH NEWS A Publication of the Computing Research Association November 2001 Vol. 13/No. 5 Community Service Rotators Help Shape NSF Programs Opportunities By George Strawn By Jim Foley, CRA Chair As readers will know, NSF research programs are run by program The computing research com- completed full-time service roles and directors (PDs), who are a mix of munity is effective for two reasons: returned to their academic positions. federal employees and rotators. Our great researchers, and great researchers Shankar Sastry (Berkeley) served for rotator PDs provide NSF with, who are willing to give some of their two years as Director of the Infor- among other things, an “academic time to serve the research community. mation Technology Office at flavor” that helps to make it the least There are a number of ways to DARPA, where he was responsible bureaucratic of federal agencies. provide service to the community. for a computing research budget in Rotators are indispensable in helping For example, it might take the form excess of $200M. Ruzena Bajcsy to provide the staff power to get our of reviewing papers and proposals or (Penn) completed more than 3 years work done. So the first reason to by serving on editorial boards, review as CISE assistant director—the consider coming to NSF as a rotator longest serving CISE AD since the panels, or conference program com- is to help assure our ability to con- directorate was created, and the first mittees. Or it might involve chairing tinue providing research support to woman to hold this position. Ruzena George Strawn a program or serving as editor-in- the CISE community. managed a directorate budget that chief of a journal. Virtually everyone grew from approximately $300M And there are personal benefits to does some of this on a part-time basis. when she joined NSF to more than If you are a mid-career or senior being a rotator as well as benefits to Service might also be provided to $450M during the past fiscal year. computer and/or information science the CISE community. First, you have a broader community through a part- CRA honored Ruzena for her service and/or engineering faculty member the interesting experience of helping time role as a member or officer of at a reception in August (see photo (briefly, a member of the CISE com- to shape the NSF program(s) serving the CRA board of directors. And elsewhere in this issue). munity), why should you consider your area of expertise. This can opportunities exist on a national Our thanks to Ruzena and coming to NSF as an “Intergovern- involve re-focusing a program’s area level to serve full-time in a rotating Shankar, and to the many other rota- mental Personnel Act (IPA) and/or developing new program position at a government agency. tors who serve or have served at assignee” for a couple of years? And areas. Putting in place the right These government positions include NSF, DARPA, and other funding if you do consider it, how easy might program announcements and leading program director, division director, agencies. it be to do? the effort to evaluate and fund pro- or CISE assistant director at NSF; or Our community appears to be The author of this article, who posals written in response to those program manager and office director ambivalent about taking up this kind went to NSF twice as a “rotator,” will announcements can be both at DARPA or other government of full-time community service with offer some answers to these two ques- challenging and rewarding. funding agencies. a funding agency. Going to tions. (The informal term “rotator” Second, you not only have a This past year, two senior Washington, it is argued, disrupts can refer to both IPA and several chance to interact broadly with the members of our community CRN Continued on Page 11 other modes of temporary NSF members of your community, but you employment. I’ll use it here to refer also may want to get involved with Inside CRN to an “IPA rotator” because the IPA Rotators mechanism is usually the appropriate Continued on Page 7 Expanding the Pipeline .......................2 Automatic Speech Recognition...........4 one for a university faculty member Computer Engineering Numbers.........3 Historical Taulbee Trends ...................5 to use.) Research Lab Salaries........................3 Professional Opportunities ................12 PAID PITAC Reviews Progress, Moves Forward U.S. POSTAGE PERMIT NO. 993 NONPROFIT ORG. WASHINGTON, DC WASHINGTON, The President’s Information and the uncertainties in the economy. problem and a compromise is needed Technology Advisory Committee Overall, committee members that will address the needs of busi- (PITAC) met in Arlington, VA on expressed optimism that while this ness to collect information and the September 25 to review progress in new era offers many challenges, it need for consumers to protect their implementing the recommendations also presents new opportunities for personal information. This issue of its 1999 report, Information IT. From the perspective of the IT requires the attention of both Technology Research: Investing in Our workforce, some observed that more business and government. Future. Over the next few months researchers would return to and The Subcommittee on Socio- the findings of the original PITAC remain in universities, rather than economic, Education, and Workforce report will be revised and presented move to industry positions. There Issues (SEW) reported that while for comment at the committee’s next also was a sense among the members many high-quality grant applications meeting in February 2002. that the pace of innovation is con- had been submitted to participating In an address to the committee, tinuing, amid increasing consolida- agencies (NSF, DOE, NASA, and NSF Director Rita Colwell praised tion within technologies, industries, NIH), only a few could be funded. the 1999 report as influential and and infrastructure elements. Funding levels are still too low, and indicated that “PITAC is indispensable One panel (personal/individual to NSF.” In her view, “Investing in security) and four PITAC subcom- PITAC IT is one of the most important mittees provided briefings. The Continued on Page 7 things we can do for our country.” national security panel did not brief She announced at the meeting that the committee at this time. Infor- NSF would make 309 awards totaling mation on the briefings is available Our thoughts and con- $156 million as part of the on the Web at: http://www.itrd.gov/ dolences go out to Information Technology Research ac/agendas/agenda-25sep01.html. members of the comput- (ITR) initiative. More than 2,000 Some brief highlights of the reports proposals were received. are provided here. ing research community, The committee devoted one ses- The Panel on Personal/Individual their families, and friends sion to a discussion of issues resulting Security reported that it had met who suffered losses from from recent changes in the environ- with a number of government the September attacks in ment of the IT industry. Among agencies and will meet with privacy New York and at the these are the changing fortunes of advocates. One finding is that a fun- Pentagon. many dot-com companies, the drop damental definition of ‘identity’ is in the availability of venture capital, needed. Identity theft is a major CRA NW 1100 Seventeenth Street, Suite 507 DC 20036-4632 Washington, COMPUTING RESEARCH NEWS November 2001 Expanding the Pipeline Computing Research Transforming the Culture of Computing at Association Board Officers Carnegie Mellon James Foley Chair By Lenore Blum Georgia Institute of Technology This article is an abridged version of careers in the United States has then Associate Dean for the under- Janice Cuny “Women in Computer Science: The declined precipitously during the past graduate program, spearheaded an Vice Chair Carnegie Mellon Experience,” a chapter decade, and suggest this is unlikely to intensive effort to understand and University of Oregon that will appear in The Innovative change. Whether or not this conclu- change the representation of women. Kathleen McKeown Secretary University, Daniel P. Resnick and sion is valid, it is the view of many He collaborated with Jane Margolis, Columbia University Dana S. Scott, Eds., Carnegie Mellon observers in the field, and indeed was a social scientist and expert in gen- John Stankovic University Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002. cited by Rita Colwell, Director of der equity in education, on a Treasurer Permission granted by Carnegie Mellon the National Science Foundation, in research study aimed at acquiring a University of Virginia University Press. Faye Miller assisted her keynote address at the 2001 deeper understanding of the Board Members with the original report. Grace Hopper Celebration of nature of the problem and estab- Philip Bernstein Women in Computing. lishing a sound basis from which Microsoft Research In 1995, the Computer Science We hope the Carnegie Mellon to develop interventions. Randal Bryant Department at Carnegie Mellon experience may offer inspiration, Funded by the Sloan Foundation, Carnegie Mellon University University (CMU) began an effort to ideas, and concrete suggestions to the project consisted of hundreds of Doris Carver bring more women into its under- others who wish to reverse this interviews with both male and Louisiana State University graduate computer science (CS) pro- perceived trend. female CS students about their histo- Lori Clarke University of Massachusetts gram. At that time, just 7 percent (7 ries with computing, interests, moti- out of 96) of entering freshman com- Why (and How) the vations and aspirations, reasons for Timothy Finin Increase? University of Maryland, puter science majors at Carnegie majoring in CS, and their experi- Baltimore County Mellon were women. Five years It may be helpful first to say a few ences in the undergraduate program.