President William J. Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Clinton:
Last year you asked our Committee to provide advice about the
direction of the national research program in high performance
computing and communications, information technology and the Next
Generation Internet. We shall refer to these programs collectively
as "information technology." We are developing a report
evaluating the effectiveness of federal funding of the information
technology research endeavor. We expect to deliver an interim
version of that report by July. Here we summarize its most salient
points.
In the past, sound federal R&D investment strategies carried
out over long periods of time have laid the foundations for dramatic
advances in many diverse areas including farm production, aeronautics,
space, and health disciplines. Similarly, the funding for federal
R&D in information technology has been instrumental in creating
the boom in computing and communication which is responsible for
much of the current national economic growth as well as for major
advances in health care, public safety, and other critical areas.
This relationship between information technology research and
economic prosperity a decade later has been clearly documented
by the Brooks-Sutherland report, "Evolving the High Performance
Computing and Communications Initiative to Support the Nation's
Information Infrastructure" (NRC 1995).
We are concerned, however, that over the past decade federal funding
for information technology research has focused increasingly on
short-term results at the expense of long-term, high-risk investigations.
There are two reasons for this. First, most of the funding for
information technology research lies in federal agencies for which
information technology is a secondary concern, subordinate to
the primary mission. Second, the total amount of funding is so
limited relative to the need that these agencies are forced to
make priority decisions that favor the immediate challenges. If
left unchecked, this trend away from innovative, long-term research
in information technology will interrupt the flow of ideas that
are needed to fuel the information economy and solve critical
national problems.
To secure the nation's future prosperity and the health and welfare
of its population, we must continue to make rapid progress in
information technology research and development. If federal R&D
activity in information technology is allowed to stagnate, not
only will we fail to sustain the growth we have enjoyed over the
past decade, we will postpone the solution of problems of critical
national importance. To ensure that this does not happen, we recommend
that over the next five years federal funding for information
technology R&D be doubled or better, from one billion dollars
per year to two billion or more. For this increase to be effective,
the research and development investment must be creatively managed
to ensure that sufficient attention is given to innovative, long-range
projects and that the effort remains focused on information technology
broadly defined rather than on support for specific applications.
Our report summarizes many areas of computing and communications
that could make dramatic strides forward with increased support
for long-term research. Three topics of particular importance
are:
- Methods for efficiently
creating and maintaining high-quality software of all kinds
and for ensuring the reliability of the complex software systems
that now provide the infrastructure for much of our economy.
- Techniques for ensuring
that the national information infrastructure -- communications
systems, the Internet, large data repositories, and other emerging
systems -- is reliable and secure, and can grow gracefully to
accommodate the massive numbers of new users and applications
expected over the coming two decades.
- Continued invention
and innovation in the development of fast, powerful computing
systems and the accompanying communication systems needed to
implement high-end applications ranging from aircraft design
to weather and climate modeling.
Increasing research funding
will help to address another problem faced by the nation and discussed
at length in our report -- the shortage of high-technology workers.
To increase the number of computer science bachelor's graduates
significantly, we need more faculty members. To increase faculty
sizes, we need to produce more Ph.D. computer scientists. We cannot
do that without increasing the number of students entering graduate
school or recruiting a larger percentage of those students into
academia when they finish. Although salary is a major factor in
a student's decision not to go to graduate school, an equally important
factor is the perception that universities are no longer the place
where the most exciting work is being done. It is likely that substantial
increases in funding for long-term research would change that.
Although investment in long-term research in universities educates
future information technology professionals for careers in academia,
industry and the public sector, it cannot by itself solve the current
serious shortage of skilled workers. New programs are needed to
educate more people with these skills, to re-train information technology
workers whose skills have become outdated, and to ensure adequate
participation by women and minorities. We also need to ensure that
every American emerges from school with the skills needed to prosper
in an information-rich society.
Not only is the overall level of funding for information research
inadequate, but the current system for managing information R&D
is not appropriate to the task. In the past information technology
has been considered largely the byproduct of research in other areas
and increasingly has been combined with programs whose primary function
has been to fund infrastructure and technology transfer. This must
change if we are to make progress on fundamental problems in computing
and communications. We recommend developing a new approach to management
of civilian information technology R&D with the goal of providing
adequate levels of multi-year funding to pursue longer-range research
agendas. Both large multi-investigator projects, such as centers,
and smaller efforts involving a few researchers should be supported.
While the new program should be responsive to application needs,
it must have information technology as its fundamental objective.
Moreover, the program needs to be managed in a way that allows greater
flexibility and more risk-taking.
The U.S. is approaching the 21st century with one of the most prosperous
economies in history. Information technology presents enormous opportunities
for growing the economy and improving health care, education, public
safety, the environment, and many other areas of importance to the
nation. To capitalize on these opportunities, we should be increasing,
not reducing federal investments in this critical area. We urge
you to take steps now to ensure that the nation continues to enjoy
the fruits of the current boom in high technology.
Respectfully,
Bill Joy
Co-Chairman
|
Ken Kennedy
Co-Chairman
|
Presidential Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing and
Communications, Information Technology, and the Next Generation
Internet
