IP: Fact Sheet: Information Technology Research and Development: Information Technology for the 21st Century

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR
>                              THE 21ST CENTURY
>                              January 21, 2000
>
> The President?s FY 2001 budget provides $2.268 billion for IT R&D, $605
> million more than last year?s appropriations and a billion dollars more
> than the FY 1999 appropriation.  The largest increases above FY 2000
> funding are proposed for the National Science Foundation, which is leading
> the interagency effort (+$223M), the Department of Defense (+$126M), the
> Department of Energy (+$150M), the National Aeronautics and Space
> Administration (+$56M), and the Department of Health and Human Services
> (+$42M).
>
>                            IT R&D Budget Summary
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> |                              | FY 2000 ($M)  |  FY 2001 ($M)  |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |    Percent     |
>   |    Increase    |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | Department of Commerce       |     $  36     |      $ 44      |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |      22%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | Department of Defense        |     $ 224     |      $350      |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |      56%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | Department of Energy         |     $ 517     |      $667      |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |      29%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | Environmental Protection     |    $     4    |     $   4      |
> | Agency                       |               |                |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |       0%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | Health and Human Services    |    $  191     |      $233      |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |      22%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | NASA                         |    $  174     |      $230      |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |      32%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | National Science Foundation  |    $  517     |      $740      |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |      43%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> |                              |               |                |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |                |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
> |                              |               |                |
> | TOTAL                        |    $1,663     |     $2,268     |
> |                              |               |                |
> |------------------------------+---------------+---------------->
>   >----------------|
>   |                |
>   |      36%       |
>   |                |
>   >----------------|
>
>
>
> During the past seven years, computers, high-speed communication systems,
> and computer software have become more powerful and more useful to people
> at home and work. Nearly half of all American households now use the
> Internet, with more than 700 new households being connected every hour.
> More than half of U.S. classrooms are connected to the Internet today,
> compared to less than three percent in 1993. IT allows Americans to shop,
> do homework, and get health care advice online, and it has enabled
> businesses of all sizes to join the international economy. Since 1995, more
> than a third of all U.S. economic growth has resulted from IT enterprises.
> Today, more than 13 million Americans hold IT-related jobs, and the rate of
> growth is six times as fast as overall job growth.
>
> This astonishing progress has been supported in part by Federal investments
> in research conducted in universities, Federal research facilities, and
> partnerships with private firms.  Agencies will continue to support the
> basic goals established in last year?s initiative, focusing on fundamental
> research in software; development of information systems that ensure
> privacy and security of data and allow people to get information they want,
> when they want it, in forms that are easy to use; support for continued
> advances in high-speed computing and communications, including work needed
> to ensure that raw speed translates into usable speed; and work to
> understand the social, economic, and other impacts of IT with a special
> emphasis on ensuring that all Americans can benefit from these
> technologies.
>
> FY 2001 IT R&D priority areas include:
>
> Teams to Exploit Advances in Computing:  Expanded activities will support
> new partnerships where information scientists, mathematicians, and experts
> in areas such as medical research, weather modeling, and astronomy can work
> together to build tools for solving the Nation?s most pressing information
> problems.  These partnerships will advance information science and lead to
> research breakthroughs in application areas.
>
> Infrastructure for Advanced Computational Modeling and Simulation:  In FY
> 2001, NSF plans to establish a second terascale (five trillion operations
> per second) computing facility to support the civilian research community.
>
> Educate and Train a New Generation of Researchers: New investments will
> fund more researchers, who are critical to increasing both IT research and
> teaching, and support major research centers.  Programs such as the teams
> to exploit advances in computing will provide opportunities to educate and
> train a new generation of researchers whose skills cross-disciplinary
> boundaries.
>
> Storing, Managing, and Preserving Data:  Current networks and data storage
> systems are straining to support vast amounts of information. NASA's new
> earth observing satellite will generate data equivalent to three times the
> information in the Library of Congress every year. Research will include
> developing devices capable of storing a year?s output of such systems in
> devices the size of PC hard disks; searching data in a variety of formats
> including pictures, video, audio; and developing improved ways of filtering
> information, data mining, and tracking lineage and quality of information.
>
> Managing and Ensuring the Security and Privacy of Information: Research
> will focus on systems that can ensure privacy and security without
> compromising speed and ease of use.  DOE, for example, recently developed a
> prototype chip that can encrypt 6.7 billion bits per second.  Work will
> accelerate in network protection and advanced encryption.
>
> Ubiquitous Computing and Wireless Networks: This research will ensure that
> mobile and wireless systems can be integral parts of the Internet.   These
> inventions will permit devices embedded in equipment, vehicles, portable or
> wearable devices such as medical monitoring equipment to identify
> themselves to networks automatically and operate with appropriate levels of
> privacy and security.
>
> Intelligent Machines and Networks of Robots: Fundamental research in robots
> will help revolutionize our work and our lives -- from earthmoving devices
> in hazardous environments to devices that fit inside blood vessels and help
> operating room surgeons to simple household robots. For example, NASA needs
> space probes that are smart, adaptable, curious, self-sufficient in
> unpredictable environments, and capable of operating in groups.
>
> Future Generations of Computers: New paradigms will use advances in quantum
> computation and molecular and nano-electronics to devise radically faster
> computers to solve problems previously described as "uncomputable," such as
> full-scale simulations of our biosphere or surgical simulations. Viewing
> cells as computational devices will help enable the design of next
> generation computers that feature self organization, self repair, and
> adaptive characteristics that we see in biological systems.
>
> More Reliable Software: Software bugs and glitches continue to shut down
> airports, delay product shipment dates, and crash 911 emergency systems.
> Methods to design and test software need to be as productive and
> predictable as tools used to design and test aircraft and bridges.
>
> Broadband Optical Networks: DOD researchers have shown that optical
> networking can provide 1,000 times faster network backbone speeds.
> Improvements in optical switching and development of all-optical end-user
> access technologies will let users take full advantage of these speeds.