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April 2002 NOAA computer graphic of oceanic warming associated
with a developing El Niño pattern, which could affect the
U.S. climate from summer 2002 through the winter. The lighter
ocean areas show the warmer than average water temperatures typical
of El Niño (white area at the top is polar ice shelf).The
demand for IT professionals with the skills to work with advanced
applications of IT such as those used in NOAA climate modeling
will grow substantially in this decade. NITRD research dollars
have supported the training of the current generation of leading
IT researchers and educators.
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Representative FY 2003 agency activities
NSF: IT tools and applications in education and
training, including approaches to increasing IT literacy; research
on barriers to IT careers for women and minorities; and multidisciplinary
research opportunities for students
NIH: Expanded opportunities for IT training, especially
in bioinformatics; individual and program grants for advanced IT
R&D training for health professionals
NASA: Use Internet for training and development
of engineers and scientists in IT security and collaborative engineering
DOE Office of Science: Computational Science Graduate
Fellowship Program, a nationwide competitive program to train the
next generation of leaders in computational science for DOE and
the Nation
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Over the last 10 years, the infusion of
networking and computing technologies throughout our society is
credited with generating historic rates of productivity growth and
the world's most vibrant economy. U.S. Department of Commerce statistics
show that between 1996 and 2000, the IT sector accounted for 28
percent of real economic growth, two-thirds of productivity growth,
and thousands of new jobs created at twice the national average
rate. Even during the economic downturn of 2001, productivity growth
continued at a robust 1.9 percent rate instead of decreasing as
in all prior recessions, suggesting that information technologies
add resilience as well as strength to the economy. R. Glenn Hubbard,
chairman of the President's Council of Economic
Advisors, put the case forcefully in a recent address, saying, "Our
productivity future hinges on IT."
Current predictions see tremendous growth in IT-related employment
continuing over the coming decade, with an estimated total of 2.5
million new workers needed, or some 250,000 annually. "The
job of the IT professional is more critical than ever before,"
Vance Coffman, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation,
told Federal officials at a March 2002 conference. "IT permeates
virtually every system, every process, every action the government
undertakes. Consequently, the results - whether it's a missile hitting
its target or a commercial airliner taking off on time or a satellite
being placed in its proper orbit - very much depend upon the performance
of the individual IT professional."
At the same time, however, leaders in industry and IT research
are sending strong warning signals of continuing shortages of workers
with the education and technical skills required to sustain IT advances
and innovation in the years ahead.
Employers suggest that a four-year college
degree will be the minimum expectation in the preponderance of IT
jobs, along with technical, business, and social skills. Continued
U.S. leadership in advanced IT amid increasingly competitive international
research efforts will also require increased production of Ph.D.
recipients prepared to become the intellectual leaders in next-generation
technological research. One urgent example of the IT training gap,
noted by computer scientist Eugene Spafford of Purdue University
in Congressional testimony, is that only about two dozen students
trained in computer security technologies earned doctorates from
U.S. universities in 2001.
Most of the current generation of IT researchers and many industry
leaders were supported in their graduate studies and postdoctoral
research with funding from NITRD agencies. As in the field of biomedical
research, the Federal government plays the primary role in supporting
the fundamental IT research and research leaders that together constitute
a strategic national resource. NIH's National Library of Medicine
(NLM), for example, has pioneered in supporting advanced training
in the emerging field of bioinformatics, whose practitioners bring
both high-end computer science and medical expertise to the health
care arena, in such areas as biomedical
research applications, telemedicine, and large-scale health care
systems. The NLM program of institutional support and individual
fellowships is establishing an academic training infrastructure
and expanding the ranks of bioinformatics professionals, who are
still far too few in number to fill the growing nationwide demand
for these skills.
In FY 2003, the NITRD agencies will continue
support for programs providing advanced and specialized IT training.
They will also support efforts to increase IT literacy and to address
fundamental questions about the efficacy of IT in education, including
theories and models of learning and exploration of high-quality
IT applications for learning environments.
Major Research Challenges
- Better understanding of IT workforce dynamics and their relationship to strategic education and training needs
- Better understanding of barriers to IT careers among underrepresented groups, such as women and minorities
- New knowledge about human cognitive development and about group and individual learning in varied settings
- More substantial empirical data on the effects of IT systems in education and training environments
- Software for self-instruction and collaborative learning
- Integration of information technologies in learning environments
- Innovative technologies for use in workforce hiring, retention, development, and training
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