Current Developments in the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)

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Current Developments in the NSF Directorate for
Computer and Information Science and
Engineering(CISE)

• Brett D. Fleisch
• Division of Computer and Network Systems
• bfleisch_at_nsf.gov

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Outline

• Context
• Mission, organization strategic objectives
• CISE 2004 2005 Reorganization
• Divisions, Clusters, Programs
• FY 2005 activities FY 2006 plans
• Highlighted Emphasis Areas/Program
• CAREER
• Cybertrust
• Science of Design
• Broadening Participation
• GENI Initiative
• Awareness Resources at NSF
• Pointers on proposal writing

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National Science Foundation
Dr. Arden L. Bement Director
Dr. Kathie L. Olsen Deputy Director
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National Science Foundation

• Basic scientific research research fundamental
  to the engineering process
• Programs to strengthen scientific and engineering
  research potential
• Science and engineering education programs at all
  levels and in all fields of science and
  engineering and,
• A knowledge base for science and engineering
  appropriate for development of national and
  international policy

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NSF Strategic Mission

• People
• to develop a diverse, internationally competitive
  and globally-engaged workforce of scientists,
  engineers, and well-prepared citizens
• Ideas
• to provide a deep and broad fundamental science
  and engineering knowledge base
• Tools
• to provide widely accessible, state-of-the-art
  science and engineering infrastructure
• Organization Excellence
• to develop an agile, innovative organization that
  fulfills its mission through leadership in
  state-of the-art business practices

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CISE Mission

• CISE has three goals
• To uphold a position of world leadership in
  computing, communications and information science
  and engineering
• To promote the understanding of the principles
  and advance uses of computing, communications and
  information systems in service to society
• To contribute to universal, transparent and
  affordable participation in an information-based
  society

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Current CISE Organization
Office
of the
Dr. Peter A. Freeman Assistant Director
Assistant
Director
Computing and
Information and
Computer and
Communications
Intelligent
Network
Foundations
Systems
Systems
(CCF)
(IIS)
(CNS)
Dr. Michael Foster CCF
Dr. Michael Pazzani IIS
Dr. Wei Zhao CNS
No picture available
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CISE Strategic Objectives

• Enhance research portfolio
• Strengthen the core e.g.,
• Cyber Trust (cybersecurity)
• Science of Design
• Emerging models of computation
• Networking and Computer Systems
• Broaden participation
• Improve organizational effectiveness

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CISE BudgetFY05 Current Plan (M)
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Funding Outlook

• NSF funds available to support computing have
  nearly doubled in the past five years
• However, proposals have almost tripled
• lt 1 per yr per CS faculty member to
• gt 1 per year
• CISE budget outlook for near future
• slow growth or small decline likely
• transition of ITR funds into core programs

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CISE 2004 and 2005 Reorganization Drivers

• Scientific changes to the field
• The same organization from 1985 to 2003
• Administrative proposal pressure as described
  earlier
• Previously Cyberinfrastructure part of CISE
• Financial end of ITR
• How to invest those funds

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CISE Reorganization Goals

• Align divisions to reflect the field
• Group similar programs into clusters
• Sharpen focus
• Increase flexibility
• Eventually increase grant size duration
• Develop and support cross-cutting emphasis areas
• Integrate education and research
• Build on success of ITR

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Key Concept Clusters

• Comprehensive activity in a coherent area of
  research and education
• Team of Program Officers and staff working
  closely with the community
• Initially group of existing programs
• One program solicitation per cluster
• Funds associated with solicitation

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CISE Organization
Clusters
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Computer Systems Cluster

• Program Directors
• Dr. Frederica Darema High-Performance Software
• Dr. Brett D. Fleisch Distributed Systems OS
• Dr. D. Helen Gill - Embedded and Hybrid Systems
• Dr. Carl Landwehr - Trusted Computing
• My Current Activities
• Distributed Systems and Operating Systems
  Proposals
• Prepare Solicitation Announcement for Cluster
• Community Outreach Activities
• Continuing Grant Oversight Annual Reports
• Workshop, Strategic Planning and Conference
  Outreach
• CAREER Proposal Management

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Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF)

• Theoretical Foundations
• Computer science theory numerical computing
  computational algebra and geometry signal
  processing and communications
• Foundations of Computing Processes and Artifacts
• Software engineering software tools for HPC
  programming languages compilers computer
  architecture graphics and visualization
• Emerging Models for Technology and Computation
• Computational biology quantum computing
  nano-scale computing biologically inspired
  computing

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CCF Competitions

• FY 2004
• Responsible for about 1900 proposals
• Heavy mortgages and commitments
• Competitive proposal success rate 18
• FY 2005 and FY 2006 One solicitation per cluster
• CAREER competition (16 success in 2005)
• Theoretical Foundations January 2005 due date,
  received about 440 proposals 2006 competition
  TBD
• Emerging Models for Technology and Computation
  February 2005 due date, received 150 proposals.
  2006 competition TBD
• Foundations of Computing Processes and Artifacts
  Due Date June 20, 2005
• FY 2007 Fall deadlines for all three clusters

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Computer and Network Systems (CNS)

• Computer Systems
• Distributed systems embedded and hybrid systems
  Next Generation system
• Network Systems
• General networking wireless systems sensor
  networks
• Computing Research Infrastructure
• Research infrastructure minority institutional
  infrastructure research resources
• Education and Workforce
• Curriculum development/educational innovation IT
  workforce special projects cross-directorate
  activities (e.g., REU sites)

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CNS Competitions

• FY 2004
• Responsible for about 2035 proposals
• Success rates CAREER Infrastructure 18,
  others 10-15
• FY 2005 One solicitation per cluster
• CAREER 2005 competition complete, success rate
  25
• Computer Systems November 2004 due date,
  received 440 proposals.
• Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS)
  December 2004 due date, received 500 proposals
• Computing Research Infrastructure July/August
  2004 due date, received 250 proposals
• Education and Workforce REU Site competition
  complete, IGERT ongoing
• FY 2006 - similar deadlines see CISE web site

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CSR Cluster Competition

• Program Directors
• Dr. Frederica Darema, Senior Science and
  Technology Advisor
• High-Performance Software
• Dr. Brett D. Fleisch
• Distributed Systems Operating Systems
• Dr. D. Helen Gill
• Embedded and Hybrid Systems
• Dr. Carl Landwehr -
• Trusted Computing
• 37 Million solicitation

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FY 2005 CSR Program Results
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Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)

• Systems in Context
• Human computer interaction educational
  technology robotics computer-supported
  cooperative work digital government
• Understanding, Inference, and Data
• Databases artificial intelligence text, image,
  speech, and video analysis information
  retrieval knowledge systems
• Science Engineering Informatics/Information
  Integration
• Bioinformatics geoinformatics cognitive
  neuroscience
• Driven by a computer science agenda and
  application domains

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IIS Competitions

• FY 2004
• Responsible for about 2590 proposals
• Success rates CAREER 17, regular 5
• Heavy mortgages and committments
• FY 2005
• CAREER almost complete, awards still being made
• Science Engineering Informatics December 2004
  due date, 200 proposals received, merit review
  ongoing.
• Universal Access December 2004 due date,
  received 50 proposals, merit review ongoing
• Data, Inference, and Understanding and Systems in
  Context Combined solicitation, with proposals
  due in May 2005.
• FY 2006 Same deadlines as in FY 2005

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Cross-Foundational Programs

• IGERT preliminary proposals by Feb 2005
• The Integrative Graduate Education and Research
  Traineeship (IGERT) program seeks to train PhD
  scientists and engineers with the
  interdisciplinary background and the technical,
  professional and personal skills needed to
  address the global questions of the future
• REU Sites August 2005, tell students about
  summer opportunities, post flyer
• ADVANCE spring 2005, institutional
  transformation and leadership
• GK-12 - May, June, great fellowships and outreach
• CAREER spring 2005, recognized starting place
  for new faculty

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CAREER Program

• Foundation-wide activity that offers the National
  Science Foundations most prestigious awards for
  new faculty
• NSF supports the early career development
  activities of those faculty members who are most
  likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st
  century
• CAREER awards have a 5-year duration
• In FY06, the minimum CAREER award (including
  indirect costs) is 400,000 for all NSF
  directorates

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Cross Cutting Emphasis Areas

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Cross-Cutting Emphasis Areas

• Characteristics
• Cuts across clusters and divisions
• Addresses scientific or national priority
• Has a program solicitation and funds
• FY05 Emphasis Areas Cyber Trust, Science of
  Design, Information Integration, DDDAS Dynamic
  Data Driven Application Systems
• FY 2006 Emphasis Areas
• Cyber Trust February 6 2006
• Science of Design Waiting for New Solicitation
• Information Integration December 2005
• Broadening Participation April 06

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Cyber Trust

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CyberTrust Theme

• Vision A society in which
• Computing systems operate securely and reliably
• Computing systems protect sensitive information
• Systems are developed and operated by a
  well-trained and diverse workforce
• Research on foundations, network security,
  systems software, and information systems
• Integrated education and workforce activities

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CyberTrust

• On July 19, 2001, more than 359,000 computers
  were infected with the Code-Red worm in less than
  14 hours
• This worm infects computers running Microsoft's
  Internet Information Server web server software
• It starts with a 19-day infection cycle
• it seeks out new machines to infect
• It goes through an eight-day attack cycle during
  which all infected servers attack the same IP
  address or host name
• Each server devotes 99 threads to attacking the
  target with a massive Distributed Denial of
  Service attack, delivering something on the order
  of 20 gigabits-per-second on a single target

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National Cyber Security Context
Homeland Security Critical Infrastructure
Protection Cyber Security Cyber Trust
Trust

• Homeland
• Security

CIP
CS
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Cyber Trust Emphasis

• Center-scale up to 10M over 5 years
• Teams up to 2M over 3 years
• Single investigators up to 500k over 3 years
• FY 2004 competition
• 30M available in FY 2004
• 390 projects proposed
• 32 awards with success rate 8
• FY 2005 competition
• 500 proposals received in February 2005, no data
  available yet on project s

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Science of Design

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Science of Design

• Considers formal theories and computational
  methods for the representation, synthesis, and
  evaluation of designs and requirements
• Design processes supporting compositionality,
  maintainability, adaptability and evolution
• The role of requirements and specifications in
  design
• Computer-aided design for software-intensive
  systems
• Studies of designs, designers and design
  methodologies
• Development of design education and the
  integration of knowledge about design
  methodologies into educational curriculum and
• Training for computer scientists, software
  engineers and systems engineers.

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Science of Design

• FY 2004 competition
• Proposals received in May 2004
• Projects up to 300,000k/year for 3 to 5 years
• Received 190 proposals (160 projects)
• Made 16 awards, project success rate of 10
• 10 million invested
• FY 2005 competition
• New solicitation to be released in summer of
  2005

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Solicitation Information

• Information about the 2nd Science of Design
  solicitation will appear in September on the CISE
  web page
• This years competition will be significantly
  different than last years
• It will encourage team projects to bring new
  thinking and people into the effort
• It will lay a fundamental basis for the creation
  of software-intensive systems
• An informational meeting for potential PI's is
  being planned for late September/early October

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Broadening Participation in Computing Program

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BPC Program

• The Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC)
  program aims to significantly increase the number
  of students who are U.S. citizens and permanent
  residents receiving post secondary degrees in the
  computing disciplines.
• New Program FY05
• Available Funds 14 Million
• Full Proposal April 5, 2006
• Check CISE web site concerning which proposals
  require a Letter of Intent and due dates

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BPC Program

• Initial Emphasis will be on students from
  communities with longstanding under-representation
  in computing
• Women, persons with disabilities, and
• Minorities African Americans, Hispanics,
  American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native
  Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
• Develop and implement innovative methods to
  improve recruitment and retention of these
  students at the undergraduate and graduate levels
• Develop effective strategies for identifying and
  supporting members of the targeted groups who
  want to pursue academic careers in computing

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BPC Program Components

• Alliances (up to 1M/year for up to 3 years)
• Comprehensive programs that address
  under-representation in the computing disciplines
• Join academic institutions of higher learning
  with secondary schools, government, industry,
  professional societies, and other not-for-profit
  organizations
• Demonstration Projects(average 200k/year for
  2-3yrs)
• Demonstration Projects (DPs) are smaller in scope
  and narrower in focus than Alliance projects.
• DPs will be pilots that could be incorporated
  into the activities of an Alliance
• Supplements

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GENI Initiative

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GENI Initiative

• New Initiative called Global Environment for
  Networking Investigations or GENI
• Explore new networking capabilities that will
  advance science and stimulate innovation and
  economic growth.
• Advance significantly the capabilities provided
  by networking and distributed system
  architectures.
• Intended to catalyze a broad community effort
  that will engage other agencies, other countries,
  and corporate entities.
• GENI comprises two components
• 1) the GENI Research Program and
• 2) the experimental GENI Facility

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GENI Initiative

• The GENI Initiative envisions the creation of new
  networking and distributed system architectures
  that, for example
• Build in security and robustness
• Enable the vision of pervasive computing and
  bridge the gap between the physical and virtual
  worlds by including mobile, wireless and sensor
  networks
• Enable control and management of other critical
  infrastructures
• Include ease of operation and usability and
• Enable new classes of societal-level services and
  applications.

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GENI Initiative

• The GENI Initiative will support research,
  design, and development of new networking and
  distributed systems capabilities by
• Creating new core functionality Going beyond
  existing paradigms of datagram, packet and
  circuit switching designing new naming,
  addressing, and overall identity architectures,
  and new paradigms of network management
• Developing enhanced capabilities Building
  security into the architecture designing for
  high availability balancing privacy and
  accountability

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GENI Initiative (contd)

• Deploying and validating new architectures
  Designing new architectures that incorporate
  emerging technologies (e.g., new wireless and
  optical technologies) and new computing paradigms
  enabled by pervasive devices
• Building higher-level service abstractions
  Using, for example, information objects,
  location-based services, and identity frameworks
• Building new services and applications Making
  large-scale distributed applications secure,
  robust and manageable developing principles and
  patterns for distributed applications and
• Developing new network architecture theories
  Investigating network complexity, scalability,
  and economic incentives

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GENI Outreach

• In planning for GENI CISE has supported numerous
  community workshops
• CISE is supporting on-going planning efforts,
  including needs assessment and requirements for
  the GENI Facility.
• CISE will hold town meetings and continue to
  support future workshops to broaden community
  participation.
• CISE will work with industry, other US agencies,
  and international groups to broaden participation
  in GENI beyond NSF and the US government.

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Resources at your Disposal

• Keeping Aware Resources
• Proposal Preparation
• Grant Management
• Hurricane Katrina Updates to Awardees

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Resources at your DisposalKeeping Aware

• Funding Opportunities Calendar at NSF
• Guide to Programs/Browsing of Funding
  Opportunities at NSF Web site
• Funding Search Engine at NSF web site
• Upcoming Due dates/Events and Events Calendar
• Example On Sept. 16 the National Science
  Foundation (NSF) will host more than a dozen
  robots and their creators to showcase advanced
  robotics technology from across the nation

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Proposal Preparation

• Grant Proposal Guide
• Frequently Ask Questions
• Regional Grants Conferences

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Award Management

• Grant Policy Manual
• Grant General Questions
• Cooperative Agreements Conditions
• Federal Demonstration Project
• NSF Policy Office Website

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Hurricane Katrina Information for Awardees
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NSF Response to Katrina

• NSF pledges strong and continuing sponsorship of
  research and education in affected areas
• NSF is committed to minimize disruption to our
  grantees, to the academic science and engineering
  enterprise, and to the valuable federal
  investment in colleges, universities, faculty and
  students in the region

An unmanned aerial vehicle operated by Safety
Security Rescue Research Center (SSRRC) team
members captured this image of devastation in
Pearlington, Miss., during a search for survivors
of Hurrican Katrina. SSRRC is one fo the National
Science Foundation's Industry-University
Cooperative Research Centers.
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Observations on Proposal Preparation
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NSF Merit Review Process

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NSF Merit Review Criteria

• Criteria include
• What is the intellectual merit and quality of the
  proposed activity?
• What are the broader impacts of the proposed
  activity?

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What is the intellectual merit of the proposed
activity?

• Potential Considerations
• How important is the proposed activity to
  advancing knowledge and understanding within its
  own field or across different fields?
• How well qualified is the proposer (individual or
  team) to conduct the project?
• To what extent does the proposed activity suggest
  and explore creative and original concepts?
• How well conceived and organized is the proposed
  activity? (Management plan)
• Is there sufficient access to resources?

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What are the broader impacts of the proposed
activity?

• Potential Considerations
• How well does the activity advance discovery and
  understanding while promoting teaching, training
  and learning?
• How well does the activity broaden the
  participation of underrepresented groups (e.g.,
  gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)?
  
• To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure
  for research and education, such as facilities,
  instrumentation, networks and partnerships?
• Will the results be disseminated broadly to
  enhance scientific and technological
  understanding?
• What may be the benefits of the proposed activity
  to society?

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Seven Deadly Sins of Proposal Writing

• Fail to focus on the problems and payoffs
• No persuasive structure
• No clear differentiation competitive analysis
• Fail to offer a compelling value proposition
  potential impact
• Key points are buried no highlights, no impact
• Difficult to read full of jargon, too long, too
  technical
• Credibility killers misspellings, grammatical
  errors, wrong client name, and inconsistent
  formats

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Ingredients for a Good Proposal

• Educate the reviewers and the Program Director
• What problem(s) does you work address?
• Why is this problem important?
• What will you do to contribute to a solution?
• What unique ideas/approaches do you have? Put in
  context
• Why are you the best person to do this work?
• How will you evaluate your results?
• How will we know if you were successful or if you
  failed?
• How will you assure that the work has an impact?

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Conclusion

• NSFs role is fundamental to all areas of our
  society - the most basic future investment
• Computer science and related disciplines are very
  important in their own right and essential to
  advancement in all areas of SE
• NSF is the acknowledged leader in funding
  Computer Science and Engineering
• NSF and our field are facing unprecedented
  pressures that can only be overcome by concerted,
  cooperative action

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Help from the Community

• Submit High Quality Proposals
• Innovative, but achievable
• Well-written Address broader impacts
• Participate in Reviewing/Panels
• Keep an open mind to alternative approaches
• Give Constructive Reviews
• Keep Program Manager informed of findings
• Nuggets
• CISE Newsletter
• Joint Press Releases
• PowerPoint of Conference Presentations
• Participate in NSF Workshops

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Contact Information

• Dr. Brett D. Fleisch
• Program Director, Computer Systems Cluster
• Computer and Network Systems Division
• CISE Directorate
• Phone [phone]
• bfleisch_at_nsf.gov
• visit NSF at www.nsf.gov

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My proposal wasnt accepted. Should I resubmit?
YES, but

• Rated Highly Competitive but not funded à
  Update proposal (6 months to a year have passed),
  address concerns and resubmit if proposal still
  timely.
• The reviewers didnt get it
• Was the proposal clear? Especially abstract
  how it is a significant advantage over state of
  art broadly defined.
• Was it sent to the right program? We almost
  always fix within CNS, sometimes with CISE and
  rarely across NSF.
• Too preliminary Do some initial work and
  resubmit.
• Constructive Criticism in reviews. Fix, update,
  make sure its clear

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My proposal wasnt accepted. Should I resubmit?
YES, but

• Multidisciplinary but the other discipline didnt
  like it. Are you dabbling or doing
  multidisciplinary work? If the other discipline
  is more of an inspiration than an application,
  keep it out of the title and abstract or mention
  several in the abstract
• Didnt address broader impacts à Mention outreach
  programs at university and/or help dept, school
  create some. Will your software and DATA be
  available to others, etc
• Multi-investigator Integrate research topics
  rather than append them. Be critical of each
  other.