Technologies for the 21st Century Executive Summary

	Executive Summary Program Component Areas    High End Computing and Computation    Large Scale Networking / Next Generation Internet    High Confidence Systems    Human centered Systems    Education, Training, and Human Resources Presidential Advisory Committee Applications Council Technology Policy Subcommittee FY 1997 Accomplishments and FY 1998 Goals
Executive Summary	As the 21st century approaches, the rapid convergence of computing, communications, and information technology promises unprecedented opportunities for scientific discovery, industrial progress, and societal benefit. The development of ever more powerful high-performance computers and effective low-cost computers, advanced networking technologies, evolving software technologies, and the phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web are enabling unparalleled advances in science and engineering, as well as facilitating the integration of information technology into the mainstream of American life. Research in computing, communication, and information systems will be pivotal at this unique juncture of technological, historical, and societal forces.   To meet the challenges of a radically new and technologically demanding century, the Federal Computing, Information, and Communications (CIC) programs are investing in long-term research and development (R&D) to advance computing, information, and communications in the United States. CIC R&D programs help Federal departments and agencies to fulfill their evolving missions, assure the long-term national security, better understand and manage our physical environment, improve health care, help improve the teaching of our children, provide tools for lifelong training and distance learning to our workforce, and sustain critical U.S. economic competitiveness.   These programs are an outgrowth of the highly successful, Congressionally-chartered High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiative. That initiative was responsible for accelerating entry of the U.S. into the era of teraop computers, gigabyte networks, and computation-intensive science and engineering applications.
Program Component Areas	One of the nine committees of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), the Committee on Computing, Information, and Communications (CCIC) -- through its CIC R&D Subcommittee -- coordinates R&D programs conducted by twelve Federal departments and agencies in cooperation with U.S. academia and industry. These R&D programs are organized into five Program Component Areas: HECC: High End Computing and Computation LSN: Large Scale Networking, including the Next Generation Internet Initiative HCS: High Confidence Systems HuCS: Human centered Systems ETHR: Education, Training, and Human Resources A brief synopsis of FY 1997 accomplishments and FY 1998 goals by PCA appears in this summary.
High End Computing and Computation	HECC R&D investments provide the foundation for 21st century U.S. leadership in high end computing. This R&D focuses on advances in hardware and software, and in algorithms for modeling and simulation needed for computation- and information-intensive science and engineering applications. HECC research also explores advanced concepts in quantum, biological, and optical computing.   HECC R&D targets system software technology with an emphasis on the usability and effectiveness of teraflops-scale systems, future generation computing focusing on petaflops-scale computation and exabyte-level mass storage, the incorporation of HECC technologies into Federal agency applications, and the maintenance of a state-of-the-art HECC R&D infrastructure.   HECC programs support outstanding, leading-edge science and foster innovative solutions to complex computational problems. Select FY 1997 HECC accomplishments highlighted in this report include advances in supercomputing technology, advances in design optimization techniques in such critical areas as aircraft wing design, improved system for visualizing output from computations such as atmospheric and ocean models with composite images from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), a more sophisticated understanding of the complex modeling of molecular and nuclear structures, and advances in biological modeling.   FY 1998 Federal investments in HECC will enable development of the distributed, computation-intensive applications necessary to support future U.S. science and engineering research, Government missions, economic competitiveness, and long-range national priorities.
Large Scale Networking	FY 1998 LSN R&D, including the new Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, focuses on developing the landmark networking technologies and applications that will keep the U.S. in the forefront of the information revolution. Key research areas include technologies and services that enable advances in wireless, optical, mobile, and wireline network communications; networking software that enables information to be disseminated to individuals, multicast to groups, or broadcast to an entire network; software for efficient development and execution of scalable distributed applications; software components for distributed applications; and research infrastructure support and testbeds.   FY 1997 LSN R&D accomplishments include improvements in the advanced Federal networks that connect U.S. researchers and educators to computing, information, and scientific resources and facilities such as remote telescopes, microscopes, and advanced light sources; and support for networking research in gigabit testbeds, optical fiber networks, adaptive networks, and packetized video and voice. These accomplishments are enabling researchers to use distributed database architectures to access, for example, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics data, such as GenBank, a key resource of the Human Genome Project.
Next Generation Internet	There is little historical precedent for the swift and dramatic growth of the Internet, which, just a few short years ago, was a limited scientific communication network developed by the Government to facilitate cooperation among Federal researchers and the university research community. With its rapid adoption by the private sector, the Internet, while remaining an important research tool, is now becoming a vital ingredient in maintaining and increasing the scientific and commercial leadership of the U. S.   In the 21st century, the Internet will provide a powerful and versatile environment for business, education, culture, and entertainment. Sight, sound, and even touch will be integrated through powerful computers, displays, and networks. People will use this environment to work, study, bank, shop, entertain, and visit with each other. Whether at the office, at home, or traveling, the environment and its interface will be largely the same. Security, reliability, and privacy will be built in. Customers will be able to choose among different levels of service at varying price points. Benefits of this dramatically different environment will include a more agile economy, improved health care -- particularly in rural areas, less stress on the ecosystem, easy access to life-long and distance learning, a greater choice of places to live and work, and more opportunities to participate in the community, the Nation, and the world.   The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative will be a primary focus of LSN R&D beginning in FY 1998. Announced by President Clinton and Vice President Gore on October 10, 1996, the NGI initiative will create a foundation for the more powerful and versatile networks of the 21st century. Based upon strong R&D programs across CIC agencies, NGI will foster partnerships among academia, industry, and Government that will keep the U.S. at the cutting-edge of information and communications technologies. It will accelerate the introduction of new networking services for our businesses, schools, and homes. Agencies are already taking actions to accomplish the initiative's goals, which are Conducting experimental research in advanced network technologies Developing a Next Generation Internet testbed Creating revolutionary applications The Federal NGI initiative is closely related to Internet2, a collaborative effort by more than 100 U.S. research universities to create and sustain a leading edge network capability enabling the creation of the broadband applications, engineering, and network management tools needed for advanced research and education. While the goals of the NGI and Internet2 are complementary and interdependent, they are clearly distinct. The NGI initiative is a Federal mission-driven R&D program, while Internet2 focuses on innovation in academic research and education applications. The NGI initiative will create an experimental, wide area, scalable testbed to develop mission-critical applications; Internet2 will meet end-to-end performance requirements by developing and deploying advanced network infrastructure. Much of the wide area testbed for Internet2 will be provided by the NGI initiative. Both the NGI initiative and the Internet2 project will develop and test advanced network technologies not supported by today's Internet, primarily through NGI-funded research at Internet2 universities. Continued strong coordination and communication between the Federal and academic communities will be crucial for the success of both programs.
High Confidence Systems	HCS R&D focuses on the technologies necessary to achieve high levels of security, protection, availability, reliability, and restorability of information services. Systems that employ these technologies will be resistant to component failure and malicious manipulation and will respond to damage or perceived threat by adaptation or reconfiguration.   High confidence technologies can be applied in the areas of system reliability, security and privacy, and testing and evaluation. With rapid advances in areas as disparate as Federal agency missions, health care, public safety, and manufacturing, HCS technologies are proving more important than ever to assure the reliable, secure transmission of critical data.   FY 1997 HCS accomplishments include advances in making images available over networks to authorized health care providers through the merging of computerized patient record systems and telemedicine systems in a way that assures integrity and confidentiality, and improvements in the reliability of information exchange among manufacturing applications.   FY 1998 HCS R&D will focus on applications requiring HCS technologies, including protocols and mechanisms that allow intrusion detection systems to share information, high assurance configurable security architectures, privacy protection methods for transmission of health data, and tools for assessing the vulnerability of source code.
Human centered Systems	The goal of HuCS R&D is increased accessibility and usability of computing systems and communications networks. HuCS technologies are needed to assure that today's rapid advances in computing, information, and communications continue to be readily accessible to Federal agencies and to all U.S. citizens no matter where they might live and work.   Select FY 1997 HuCS accomplishments include improvements in advanced visualization techniques, such as the Climate Visualization System, an interactive tool designed for examining online data at the National Climatic Data center; advances in the multiagency Digital Libraries Research Initiative, which supports university-led research in the development of advanced methods for collecting, storing, and organizing information in digital form for network access; and advances in multi-agency supported basic research on multimodal interaction with computing systems, including speech, text, image, and multimedia advanced technology.   FY 1998 HuCS R&D areas include the continuing development of knowledge repositories and information agents that sort, analyze, and present massive amounts of multimedia and multi-source information; collaboratories that provide access to knowledge repositories and facilitate knowledge sharing, group authorship, and control of remote instruments; systems that enable multi-modal human-system interactions including speech, touch, and gesture recognition and synthesis; and virtual reality environments and their use in scientific research, health care, manufacturing, and training.
Education, Training, and Human Resources	ETHR R&D supports research to advance education and training technologies. The complex and technically challenging applications flowing from leading edge HECC and LSN R&D make it increasingly important for today's students and professionals to update their education and training on an ongoing basis in order to exploit the latest technological advances. ETHR technologies focus on the user and will improve the quality of today's science and engineering education, leading to more knowledgeable and productive citizens and Federal employees.   Basic research and education remain foundations of the CIC R&D programs. FY 1997 ETHR accomplishments include improved access to information on technologies and resources for classroom use, including the ability to select and copy teacher's guides and activities for use at elementary, middle, and high school levels; and programs such as Telescopes in Education and 4-Winds that allow K-12 educators to bring astronomy and weather prediction research into the classroom via the Internet.   FY 1998 ETHR research includes curriculum development, fellowships, and scholarships for computational, computer, and information scientists and engineers; the application of interdisciplinary research to learning technologies; and R&D in information-based learning tools, lifelong learning, and distance learning -- especially critical in bringing the latest educational tools to isolated, rural, or underserved areas of the country.
Presidential Advisory Committee	Established on February 11, 1997 by Executive Order, the Presidential Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing and Communications, Information Technology, and the Next Generation Internet provides the NSTC, through the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), with an independent assessment of progress made in implementing high end computing and communications and information technology programs, advice on revising components of these programs, and an evaluation of their effectiveness in helping the U. S. maintain leadership in advanced computing and communications technologies and their applications. They will report on progress in designing and implementing the Next Generation Internet initiative. The distinguished researchers and industrial leaders on the Committee represent universities, the communications networking industry, the computing systems manufacturing industry, the entertainment industry, the software industry, the telecommunications industry, and applications communities including libraries and medicine.
Applications Council	The CCIC Applications Council promotes the early application of CCIC technologies throughout the Federal government, and especially in non-R&D organizations. Crisis Management, FedStats, Universal Access, and Next Generation Internet Applications Working Groups have been formed. Cross-disciplinary workshops including both creators and consumers of CCIC research products are planned for FY 1998.
Technology Policy Subcommittee	The Technology Policy Subcommittee of the CCIC succeeds the Technology Policy Working Group of the Committee on Applications and Technology of the Information Infrastructure Task Force. It supports the CCIC by identifying, studying, recommending, and, as appropriate, resolving relevant policy issues.
FY 1997 Accomplishments and FY 1998 Goals	With science and technology advancing at an almost dizzying speed, it seems at times that the 21st century has already arrived. Scientific breakthroughs that used to take decades to develop now take years or months. The CIC R&D programs are a driving force in information technologies, computing, and communications, and are a major component of America's investment in its future, helping to maintain and widen the competitive lead that will keep our citizens productive well into the next century. The estimated FY 1997 HPCC Program Budget for the 12 participating Federal organizations was $1,008.5 million. For FY 1998, the President requested $1,103.7 million for these same 12 organizations.   This report highlights many of these vital, ongoing efforts, focusing on representative FY 1997 accomplishments, key FY 1998 research and development areas, and the budget crosscut. It also highlights areas of special interest that are even now changing the way we live.   This book and links to other Web sites can be found at http://www.ccic.gov/.