Strategic Directions in Engineering Research

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Strategic Directions in Engineering Research
Eugene Wong Assistant Director of NSF
(Engineering)

NEEDHA 2000 New Orleans 3/18/00
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Overarching Goals

• Growth
• zero-growth means stagnation
• Equity
• distribution across disciplines and population
• Legacy
• making and leaving a better world

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Searching for a Framework

• Culture vs. Civilization (Isaiah Berlin)
• time of rapid change
• New Age
• materials energy information
• Transcendent Technologies

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Transcendent Technologies of Our Time

• Micro/Nano systems
• Moores Law - unlimited scalability
• Information technology
• confluence of computing and communications
• Biotechnology
• molecular secrets of life

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Crossing of Technology Streams
Education
XYZ on a Chip Enterprise Systems Networked
Infrastructure Nano-Bioengineering Wireless
Networking Model-Based Simulation Transport
Systems
Micro/Nano Systems
Information Technology
Biotechnology
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Strategic Directions

• Nanotechnology
• major national initiative
• Quantitative system bioengineering (QSB)
• information based biotechnology
• Engineer the world of service
• towards an engineered service economy
• Engineer a tether free world
• wireless wireless everywhere
• New technologies for the environment

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The World of Service

• Service is big
• 70 of the economy and growing fast
• Service is diverse
• transport, finance, health care, education, etc.
• Timely topic
• Internet, e-business
• Goals
• consistency, predictability, value, efficiency
• Research issues
• science base, modeling, human/process interface

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Convergence at 1 Nanometer

• Nano one-billionth
• man-made devices meet the natural world
• smallest transistors 10-30 nm
• protein molecules 1-10 nm
• New tools
• direct subatomic observation
• atom-by-atom manipulation
• New Phenomena, e.g., self-assembly
• New structures, devices, systems
• First commercial use (e.g., GMR heads)

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The Promise of Nanotechnology

• Minimize
• energy use (synthetic photo-synthesis)
• waste product (pollution free manufacturing)
• side effects (chemotherapy)
• Designer Molecules
• drugs and therapeutic agents
• materials with extraordinary properties
• Nanosystems
• new era for chips (gene chips)
• molecular device and interconnect
• quantum logic

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Aligning Directions and Programs
BES CMS CTS DMII ECS EEC
XYZ on a Chip Enterprise Systems Networked
Facilities Nano-Bioengineering Wireless
Networking Simulation/Modeling Transport Systems
Q.S.Biotechnology Nanotechnology Service
Economy Tether Free World Environment
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Three Year Comparison

• Division 1999 2000 2001
  
• BES 32.11 34.27 42.05 7.78 22.7
  
• CTS 41.89 44.32 54.39 10.07 22.7
• CMS 48.08 48.24 56.19 7.95
  16.5
• DMII 103.98 109.11 133.36 24.25 22.2
• ECS 42.67 45.36 58.87 13.51 29.8
• EEC 101.4 100.54 111.64 11.10 11.0
• Total 370.13 381.84 456.5 74.66 19.6
• NEES (CMS) 7.7 28.2 20.5