Pentagon Redirects Its Research Dollars
The New York Times has an excellent article by John Markoff about the significant decline in support for basic computer science research generally, and the specific moves by the director of DARPA that have exacerbated it.
"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon - which has long underwritten open-ended 'blue sky' research by the nation's best computer scientists - is sharply cutting such spending at universities, researchers say, in favor of financing more classified work and narrowly defined projects that promise a more immediate payoff. Hundreds of research projects supported by the agency, known as Darpa, have paid off handsomely in recent decades, leading not only to new weapons, but to commercial technologies from the personal computer to the Internet. The agency has devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to basic software research, too, including work that led to such recent advances as the Web search technologies that Google and others have introduced."
'The shift away from basic research is alarming many leading computer scientists and electrical engineers, who warn that there will be long-term consequences for the nation's economy. They are accusing the Pentagon of reining in an agency that has played a crucial role in fostering America's lead in computer and communications technologies. 'I'm worried and depressed,' said David Patterson, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley who is president of the Association of Computing Machinery, an industry and academic trade group. 'I think there will be great technologies that won't be there down the road when we need them.' The shift away from basic research is alarming many leading computer scientists and electrical engineers, who warn that there will be long-term consequences for the nation's economy. They are accusing the Pentagon of reining in an agency that has played a crucial role in fostering America's lead in computer and communications technologies."
Note, however, that the Association for Computing Machinery is the leading professional society in information technology (IT), not an industry and academic trade group.
"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon - which has long underwritten open-ended 'blue sky' research by the nation's best computer scientists - is sharply cutting such spending at universities, researchers say, in favor of financing more classified work and narrowly defined projects that promise a more immediate payoff. Hundreds of research projects supported by the agency, known as Darpa, have paid off handsomely in recent decades, leading not only to new weapons, but to commercial technologies from the personal computer to the Internet. The agency has devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to basic software research, too, including work that led to such recent advances as the Web search technologies that Google and others have introduced."
'The shift away from basic research is alarming many leading computer scientists and electrical engineers, who warn that there will be long-term consequences for the nation's economy. They are accusing the Pentagon of reining in an agency that has played a crucial role in fostering America's lead in computer and communications technologies. 'I'm worried and depressed,' said David Patterson, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley who is president of the Association of Computing Machinery, an industry and academic trade group. 'I think there will be great technologies that won't be there down the road when we need them.' The shift away from basic research is alarming many leading computer scientists and electrical engineers, who warn that there will be long-term consequences for the nation's economy. They are accusing the Pentagon of reining in an agency that has played a crucial role in fostering America's lead in computer and communications technologies."
Note, however, that the Association for Computing Machinery is the leading professional society in information technology (IT), not an industry and academic trade group.
Labels: Policy
posted by Jim Horning at 2:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< NIASAWHIWB Home