NISTIR 6815

NOVEMBER 2001

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Donald L. Evans, Secretary

Technology Administration

Phillip J. Bond

Under Secretary for Technology

National Institute of

Standards and Technology

Arden L. Bement, Jr., Director

CONTENTS

Director’s Foreword 1

ITL at a Glance 3

ITL Research Blueprint 5

Accomplishments of our 

Research Program 6

Foundation Research Areas 7

Selected Cross Cutting Themes 28

Accomplishments of our 

Services Program 32

Industry and International Interactions 34

Staff Recognition 42
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 1

Welcome to the

Information Technology

Laboratory (ITL). As

one of the National

Institute of Standards

and Technology (NIST) Laboratories, our mission is 

to develop and promote measurement, standards, 

and technology for information technology (IT) to

enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve

the quality of life. We also develop computer security

standards and guidelines for the federal government

in fulfillment of a legislative mandate. Working in

partnership with industry, academia, government, and

consortia, we develop and demonstrate tests, test

methods, reference data, proof-of-concept implementations, and other IT infrastructure technologies. Our

goal is to enable the future of the U.S. IT industry to

produce products and services that are high quality,

reliable, interoperable, and secure. 

ITL made significant strides forward this year in 

critical research and standards areas. Industry, 

government, academia, and consortia recognized 

the valuable contributions of our work, including:

ANSI/NIST Image Standard for the Interchange of

Fingerprint, Facial and Scar Mark, and Tattoo

Information – ITL was instrumental in the development

of this image data exchange standard, enabling 

crucial new applications in law enforcement;

Security/Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) – 

ITL administered the CIP grants program, providing

$5 million in funding for nine research grants that

will enhance security for critical infrastructures such

as electrical grids and air traffic control systems;

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) – ITL’s AES

development team received the RSA Public Policy

Award. Published as Federal Information Processing

Standard (FIPS) 197, the AES will be the standard

way to encrypt government content in the future. The

AES will replace the Data Encryption Standards (DES);

see http://www.nist.gov/director/prog-ofc/report01-

2.pdf for an analysis of the economic impact of DES;

E-Book/Braille Reader – The ITL development team

received the prestigious 2001 R&D 100 Award for the

development of technology that could enhance

accessibility to the Internet and electronic media 

for the visually impaired; 

DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD

William O. Mehuron,

ITL Director
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2

Extensible Markup Language (XML) – ITL released the

XML Test Suite, Second Edition (+2000 tests), which

is considered the metric for testing XML processors.

We are also developing a reference implementation

for the registry/repository of XML vocabularies for

use in vertical markets;

Digital and Interactive TV – ITL developed the NIST

Digital TV Application Software Environment (DASE)

Reference Implementation, which provides application developers and consumer electronic manufacturers an application development environment and a

basis for an interoperable digital TV receiver implementation. This is a major accomplishment for the

digital TV industry, as all analog transmission is 

mandated by the FCC to be digital in 2007;

JavaNumerics - ITL chairs the JavaTM Grande Forum’s

Numerics Working Group, which works with Sun

Microsystems to implement changes in Java’s specifications that admit much faster execution (up to ten

times faster) for computing-intensive applications;

Wireless Personal Area Networks - ITL is addressing

important technical issues, such as the critical issue

of wireless palmtop computers crowding the unregulated 2.4 GHz-frequency band for small wireless 

pico-cellular networks; and 

Scientific Applications and Visualization - ITL’s work

enabled NIST physicists to discover unknown properties

of super-cooled matter, known as Bose-Einstein condensates, through unique computation and visualization techniques. NIST Senior Scientist Eric Cornell is

a co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Physics for

pioneering work in this breakthrough area. 

We continued our laboratory-wide pervasive computing

initiative, focusing on smart space integration, pervasive software tools, and pervasive networking technology. We are working with industry partners in vital

areas of human computer interaction, such as speech

and visual recognition and tracking, sophisticated

information access from multimedia databases, 

extensive information presentation capabilities, 

collaborative working environments, dynamic 

networking, security, and reliability. To ensure access

for people with disabilities, ITL sponsored a major IT

Accessibility Conference this year. Our collaboration

with NIST’s Physics Laboratory on quantum computing and quantum information systems moved forward,

as did our work in biometrics and smart cards.

We continued to provide research collaborations and

technical services to the NIST laboratories. The

Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division

and the Statistical Engineering Division support work

in other NIST laboratories and perform crucial services

such as modeling and certification of Standard

Reference Materials (SRMs). Further, ITL provides vital

services to the entire NIST community, including 

networking, high performance computing, support 

for desktop computers and workstation machines, the

telephone system, and a host of other infrastructure

activities. ITL also hosts the office of the NIST Chief

Information Officer. 

We appreciate your interest in the Information

Technology Laboratory. In partnership with industry,

government, and academia, we will continue to

enable the future of the Nation's measurement and

standards infrastructure for information technology. 

William O. Mehuron, Director

Information Technology Laboratory

Web: http://www.itl.nist.gov

E-mail: itlab@nist.gov
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3

William O. Mehuron, ITL Director and Acting 

NIST Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Susan F. Zevin, Deputy Director

Bruce Rosen, Office of the CIO

Catherine Nicoletti, Acting Assistant Director 

for Boulder

Kamie Roberts, Associate Director for Federal 

and Industrial Relations 

Robert Glenn, IT Security Office

Kendra Cole, Senior Management Advisor

Ronald Boisvert, Chief of Mathematical and 

Computational Sciences Division

David Su, Acting Chief of Advanced Network 

Technologies Division

Edward Roback, Chief of Computer Security Division

Martin Herman, Chief of Information Access Division

Victor McCrary, Chief of Convergent Information 

Systems Division

Raymond Hoffmann, Chief of Information Services 

and Computing Division

Mark Skall, Chief of Software Diagnostics and

Conformance Testing Division

Nell Sedransk, Chief of Statistical Engineering Division

ITL MISSION

Our goals are to develop and promote measurement,

standards, and technology for information technology

(IT) to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and

improve the quality of life and to provide NIST with

high-quality information technology services.

ITL AT A GLANCE

Susan F. Zevin,

ITL Deputy Director
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 4

ITL CUSTOMERS

U.S. industry

federal agencies

academia

NIST staff and collaborators

research laboratories

IT users and providers

industry standards organizations

ITL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

reference data sets and evaluation software

proof-of-concept implementations

standards

tests and test methods

advanced software tools

automated software testing techniques

statistical model-based testing

specialized databases

electronic information on the web

hardware, software, and network support to 

NIST staff

mathematical and statistical consulting services

ITL RESOURCES

highly qualified professional and support staff of 

487 (includes part-time and faculty appointments),

supplemented by 126 guest researchers 

(as of September 22, 2001)

total authorization for fiscal year 2001 budget 

of $95.0M, all sources

research facilities in Gaithersburg, Maryland, 

and Boulder, Colorado

opportunities for cooperative research and 

interaction with industry and academia

ITL RESEARCH PROGRAM

The following chart represents the ITL Research

Blueprint, the framework by which we describe our

research program. Our seven research divisions provide a crucial foundation in information technology

measurements and standards and these efforts are

integrated into cross cutting areas such as critical

infrastructure protection and pervasive computing.

This thorough research approach provides enabling

technologies necessary to achieve the promise of all

e-Applications.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 5
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 6

Steven Satterfield studies a 3-D visualization of idealized

particles inside wet concrete using a RAVE device. Reprinted

with permission of Government Computer News, Copyright©

Post Newsweek Tech Media Group.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 7

BIOMETRICS AND SMART CARDS

ITLis assisting industry and government in 

the deployment and use of biometrics and

smart card technologies. Working with the Biometric

Application Programming Interface Consortium

(BioAPI), ITL spearheaded the development of the

Common Biometric Exchange File Format (CBEFF), 

a biometric data format that greatly facilitates the

integration of biometric technologies into networks

that have important mass commercial applications.

We are also leading the development of the

Government Smart Card (GSC) interoperability specification. Additionally, we are developing conformance

tests and a testing program for the GSC specification.

In FY2001, we developed a high-level technology

roadmap for the GSC effort, established the GSC

Interagency Advisory Board, completed the test plan

for Phase I (Card Edge Interface), tested file system

smart cards using the plan, and provided technical

refinements on the GSC interoperability specification.

We also contributed to the smart card protection 

profile and corresponding evaluation methodology.

For the law enforcement community, we are advancing

standards and evaluation technology for interoperable Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS),

providing standard reference implementations of 

fingerprint-related software. For the Department of

Defense, we are developing evaluation methods and

test data for biometric systems that operate at long

distances from the subject (HumanID). In FY2001,

we obtained American National Standards Institute

(ANSI) approval for the final version of the Data

Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial,

and Scar Mark & Tattoo (SMT) Information

(ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000), providing crucial interoperability in support of the CJIS. We published the 

NIST Fingerprint Image Software CD-ROM, which 

was needed as an interface to fingerprint Standard

Reference Data. For the HumanID project, we

designed and implemented data collection protocols

and released metadata and face databases to customers and research collaborators. We implemented

scoring software to measure HumanID recognition

performance and defined new methods for analyzing,

evaluating, and comparing recognition algorithms.

The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/

isis/projects/biometricsproject.html.

CRYPTOGRAPHIC STANDARDS AND

APPLICATIONS

ITL is providing a toolkit of secure cryptographic

algorithm standards, standardized security protocols

and techniques, with tests for correct implementations,

interoperability and assurance. In FY2001, the

Secretary of Commerce announced NIST’s selection 

of the Rijndael algorithm to be proposed as the

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in a Federal

Information Processing Standard (FIPS). The

Secretary announced approval of FIPS 197 in 

December 2001. Other cryptographic FIPS are being

updated to provide commensurate levels of security.

SECURITY

FOUNDATION RESEARCH AREAS

Pauline Bowen and Kathy Lyons-Burke plan the 

activities of ITL's Computer Security Expert Assist Team.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 8

We conducted two workshops for modes of operation

for symmetric key block ciphers and are planning one

in FY2002 to develop a public key-based key management standard. To enable the deployment of cryptography, we collaborated with the Federal Deposit

Insurance Corporation and the General Services

Administration to develop a high-level Application

Programming Interface (API) for public key-based

cryptographic services. This API allows PKI-enabled

applications to use PKI clients from any vendor. 

We also completed the Certificate Issuing and

Management Components protection profile and a

Directory Profile for the Federal PKI to address naming and other interoperability issues. We supported

the Federal PKI Steering Committee and subcommittees, including the development of the Federal Bridge

Certification Authority (FBCA), which became 

operational in June 2001. 

More efficient, secure, and interoperable information

systems and electronic commerce will be enabled

through the NIST toolkit of standard algorithms, 

protocols, and techniques. It will be easier to build

secure, interoperable applications with high-assurance

products that implement needed cryptographic

security functionality. The website is

http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/.

SECURITY MANAGEMENT AND

GUIDANCE

For many years, ITL has had statutory responsibilities

for developing information technology security standards and guidelines for protecting sensitive unclassified information in federal IT systems and networks.

We develop computer security policy and management guidance for federal agencies, and we provide

tools, techniques, and databases to protect against

economic loss or injury due to disruption of critical

federal systems and/or services. Those in the private

sector use many of our products on a voluntary basis. 

In FY2001, we published seven guidance documents

on the following topics: PKI, random number generation, IT security engineering principles, security

assessment framework, self-assessment, intrusion

detection, and mobile code/active content. Drafts 

are in process on six additional topics. We also 

published five ITL Bulletins with a security focus.

We established the Computer Security Expert Assist

Team (CSEAT), developed the CSEAT methodology, 

initiated the CSEAT program to provide automated

information security program reviews of federal 

agencies, and completed the first CSEAT review. 

This review, completed for the Federal Emergency

Management Agency, was well received. The website

is http://cseat.nist.gov.

We defined a plan for conducting small- and mediumsized business regional security meetings and for

developing appropriate educational material. 

As a result of our security management and guidance

program, agencies can more easily and cost-effectively

address their computer security policy and management needs, issues, and problems. Agencies can use

standard, tested solutions (such as best practices),

avoiding duplication of effort and resources. Our

Computer Security Resource Center is one of the 

most visited websites at NIST: http://csrc.nist.gov.

SECURITY OF EMERGING

TECHNOLOGIES

ITL is identifying emerging information technologies

Vickie Harris, 

Katie Shuggars,

and Kelly Watkins

learn details of

the new Travel

Manager 

system in 

ITL's Computer

Security Division

to support its

travelers.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 9

impacting critical infrastructures, defining standards

during the initial stages of these technologies and

focusing on their security implications. By early 

participation in the development of standards, tests,

test methodologies, assurance metrics, and reference

materials for emerging technologies, we gain hands-on

experience and insights into new technologies. We

then can produce timely technical guidance for 

agencies and others in the secure use of these 

new technologies. 

Focus areas include intrusion detection, role based

access control (RBAC), authorization management,

automated security testing, mobile agents, Internet

Protocol security (IPsec), the ICAT metabase (a 

web-based index of 2,700 vulnerabilities with over

75,000 hits per month), critical infrastructure 

protection (CIP) grants (nine issued in FY2001), and

technical guidance. We completed the second draft of

the RBAC standard, which received acceptance by the

National Committee for Information Technology

Standards as a fast-track standard. Sun cites NIST’s

RBAC work in their flagship Solaris implementation.

We enhanced and released PlutoPlus 2.0; NAI Labs

adopted PlutoPlus as the basis for an SNMP-based

IPsec Policy Management product. We demonstrated

several privilege management components for mobile

agents and completed a working mobile agent 

prototype demonstration. The website is

http://csrc.nist.gov/focus_areas.html#research

SECURITY TESTING

Our security testing program includes cryptographic security testing, the Cryptographic Module

Validation Program (CMVP), the National

Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), the

Common Criteria (CC) Evaluation and Validation

Program, International Recognition Arrangements,

testing laboratory accreditation, automated security testing and test suite development, industry

forums, and education, training, and outreach programs. In FY2001, the Secretary of Commerce

approved the updated FIPS 140-2, Security

Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. More

than 170 products have received certificates of

validation to date and a fifth testing laboratory

was accredited this year.

The CC Recognition Arrangement was expanded to 14

nations, adding Israel. Under the auspices of NIAP, a

joint NIST-National Security Agency program, we 

co-sponsored a government/industry IT security

forum to identify strategies for the development of 

IT security requirements and specifications for the

protection of government, business, and personal

computing and real-time control systems. We participated in the second International CC Conference, as

well as in a number of NIAP and CC workshops. We

worked with the insurance industry to initiate an

industry requirements forum. In the area of healthcare, we contributed to protection profiles for security

and electronic signature standards for healthcare, as

well as patient admission, discharge, and transfer

system applications. We assisted Japan in building 

a CC testing program. We taught multiple protection

profile classes. Through NIAP and the CMVP, we 

provided assistance to a number of federal and state

agencies, industry corporations, research laboratories,

and professional and trade associations.

The impact of our IT security testing programs is significant. Our programs provide timely, cost-effective

IT security testing, increased security in IT systems

through the availability of tested products, and the

creation of business opportunities for vendors of

security products, testing laboratories, and security

consultants. The websites are

http://www.nist.gov/cmvp and http://niap.nist.gov. 

Peter Mell discusses the intrusion detection testing software

with students Michael Reilly and Derek Dye.
SOFTWARE

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 1 0

COMPUTER FORENSICS

Computer forensics is rapidly becoming recognized

by the legal and law enforcement communities as

a science on a par with the other forensic sciences.

As this trend continues, it will become even more

important to handle and examine computer evidence

properly. The National Institute of Justice, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department

of Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory asked ITL

to provide a neutral and technically proficient source

of reference data and test procedures.

In FY2001, we developed the National Software

Reference Library (NSRL), a repository of known 

software, file profiles, and file signatures. More than

1000+ products and 1,000,000 file profiles populate

the library. The Computer Forensics Tools Testing

project provides a measure of assurance that the

tools used in the investigations of computer-related

crimes produce valid results. We continued to develop

tests and procedures for forensic tools, including the

Disk Imaging Requirements Specification and tests

for disk imaging tools. We contacted law enforcement

organizations on test

results, resulting in immediate improvements in the

tested products. 

By improving the tools used

by the law enforcement

community and proving

their effectiveness to third

parties, ITL is making an

impact in computer forensics. Our tools will reduce

the time it takes for law

enforcement to analyze

seized computers or media

and will provide confidence

in the analysis of evidence

presented in court. Our contributions to the improved

efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement will

profoundly affect the nation. The websites are

http://cftt.nist.gov and http://nsrl.nist.gov.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE (EC)

ITL works with industry to develop standards, measurements, and reference implementations to ensure

EC growth and use by all, including small- and

medium-sized enterprises and individual users. We

achieve this goal through several efforts and products. We develop conformance test suites for XML

technologies and for Interactive TV (ITV) specifications, which provide developers and users with the

necessary metrics to determine whether a particular

implementation or application is conformant to a

specification. Conformance is a recognized way to

increase the likelihood that software products and

applications are implemented correctly. We are also

developing specifications and implementations 

for metadata descriptions and registries that will

enhance the means by which information is defined,

discovered, and retrieved. The development of referACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

Martha Gray and Jim

Lyle analyze computer

forensics test procedures

to make sure test results

will be rigorous and

meet the high quality

needs of the law enforcement community.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 1 1

ence implementations, prototypes, and

conformance tests for ITV applications

and XML registries for ebXML, circuit

board supply chain (Internet Commerce

for Manufacturing or ICM), EPA, and

XML.gov will also help to enable and

advance EC. These reference implementations and prototypes will help to find

ambiguities and/or inconsistencies in

the specifications, will be used for 

conformance testing, and will serve 

as models upon which other 

implementations can be built.

In FY2001, we released the XML Test

Suite, Second Edition (+2000 tests),

DOM Level 1 Test Suites, and partial test

suites for XSLT, XSL-FO, and Schema. We

developed a portal (roadmap) to EC 

standards that allows dynamic views. 

We authored conformance statements for

ebXML, DASE, OASIS, and Government

Smart Card specifications. We developed

an OASIS and ebXML Registry information model and

specification, as well as a Registry reference implementation and Registry conformance tests. We developed an ICM and Learning Object prototype registry.

We served as a catalyst and contributor to the development of XML.gov and EPA registries. We provided

tests and helped to develop standards for Interactive

TV, including tests for the Declarative Data Essence

(DDE) Group of the Society of Motion Picture and

Television Engineers (SMPTE), a DDE reference application, and a JavaTM-based, educational application

for the Digital Application Software Environment

Committee (DASE), within the Advanced Television

Standards Committee (ATSC). Finally, as part of our

effort to harmonize our conformance testing work

with the international community, we participated 

in the ITU JRG1 standards harmonization effort and

served as the Editor of ISO/IEC 11179 Part 5 and

Procedures for Achieving Data Registry Content

Consistency. 

By enabling and advancing EC, ITL is making a 

substantive impact. We are improving the quality 

of XML and EC specifications and implementations,

thereby promoting portability and interoperability.

Distributed, interoperable registries enable information exchange among marketplaces. Finally, we

enhance the ability of the EC community to grow

their businesses by facilitating information interchange and the creation of business alliances in 

the world marketplace. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/.

HEALTHCARE

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) asked ITL to

help them assess new information technologies for

application to their hospitals. Since the initiation of

this effort, ITL has participated in the development

of healthcare information technology standards, such

as the Resource Access Decision (RAD) Facility in 

the Object Management Group (OMG) and the G-8

Healthcare Data Card Project. We strive to improve

the quality of healthcare information systems by

designing distributed models and architectures for

healthcare information systems, developing reference

implementations for these models and architectures,

and participating in the development of standards for

healthcare information systems. A significant aspect

of this project is technology transfer of NIST Role

Based Access Control (RBAC) work. 

In FY2001, we developed the Remote Procedure Call

Broker to automate access to patient records. We

Andrew McCaffrey and Michael Koo create a videotape containing NIST

Interactive TV Conformance Tests for the Declarative Data Essence

Standard of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 1 2

designed and implemented the Inter-Organizational

Role Based Access Control (IORBAC) authorization

mechanism. We designed and deployed the Enterprise

Single Sign-On (ESSO) to all VA hospitals. The OMG

RAD Facility was formally adopted as an OMG

Specification. We are also collaborating with 2AB Inc.

to apply RAD to the VA environment.

Our impact in these healthcare efforts has been 

significant. We made significant contributions to the

VA moving patient data access from a manual to an

automated system, while, at the same time, designing and implementing authorization and authentication mechanisms. ITL designs and implementations

are a permanent part of the VA Health Information

Systems Architecture, and NIST is a permanent 

consultant to the VA Architecture Design Group. Our 

contribution to the OMG RAD Facility is prominently

acknowledged in the specification, which is being

processed as an ISO and ASTM standard. The website

is http://www.nist.gov/va/.

RESEARCH TO IMPROVE TESTING

Software testing improves software quality. Up to 50

percent of the cost of software development is testing.

Writing tests is expensive, labor-intensive, and time

consuming; consequently, developers

often skimp on testing. Software testing

also reduces vulnerabilities that can be

attacked by hackers. 

The goal of this ITL project is to

improve the science of software testing

and measurement. The project focuses

on the application of formal methods

and statistical methods to improve software quality. We are harnessing formal

methods to improve the quality of software by automatically generating tests

for software from formal specifications,

thereby reducing costs. Deriving tests

from specifications is particularly 

useful for bodies developing software

standards, e.g., W3C, OMG, IEEE, and

ANSI. Our project furthers software 

quality by companies implementing 

software, based on specifications, by

providing a method to generate software

tests that are automatically run to determine 

whether the software conforms to its specification.

Quantifying software by applying statistical methods

to software testing is another area of research.

In FY2001, we developed a method and reference

implementation to automatically generate tests and a

coverage metric to support the method. We developed

a new mutation engine for automated test generation.

We developed intermediate representation (in XML)

to translate between formal languages. We formed an

intermediate representation group with industry and

academia to standardize the NIST intermediate

model. Using statistical methods, we developed a

method to quantify results of conformance tests and

a second method to test and validate object-oriented

software. We worked with the standards organizations,

W3C and OASIS, to apply methodologies and incorporate techniques into specifications, test design, and

development. Finally, we developed methods to test

and validate object-oriented (OO) software via automated techniques. Our work is making a significant

difference as software products with fewer failures

and closer adherence to standards come to the 

market earlier and at less cost. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/.

Len Gallagher and Michael Kass discuss their development of the XML Registry

information model and prototype for electronic commerce applications.
NETWORKS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 1 3

AGILE SWITCHING

INFRASTRUCTURES

I

n response to industry needs

to develop standards for an

integrated Internet and optical

network infrastructure, ITL has

expanded its agile switching

project to include testing and

analysis of competing technical

approaches in this area. Our

initial focus was on integrated

control planes for optical

switched networks and dynamic

control algorithms for traffic

engineering and fault tolerance.

In FY2001, we released a

research prototype of G-MultiProtocol Label Switching

(MPLS) signaling protocols. 

We completed the design and

implementation of a simulation

framework for MPLS/optical

switching infrastructures. We contributed 

comparative evaluations of integrated routing and

signaling protocols to the Internet Engineering Task

Force (IETF) and the Optical Internetworking Forum

(OIF). In the fault tolerance area, we analyzed and

reported results on potential modes of attacks on

optical transport networks and their potential 

detection and recovery schemes. Working with George

Washington University, we also implemented optical

network restoration algorithms on our optical network-modeling tool called MERLiN.

Our work impacts the industry by improving the 

quality and timeliness of interoperable standards 

for integrated MPLS/optical signaling protocols 

and control systems. Our contributions of rapid 

prototypes and modeling and analysis tools benefit

industry and academic researchers working on the

next-generation optical Internet. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov/agile_switch.shtml.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

Olivier Deruelle, Marc Bednarek, Christophe Chazeau (standing), Tim Hall and

Mudumbai Ranganathan (seated) work on future optical networks.

DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS FOR

WIRELESS PERSONAL AREA NETWORKS 

ITL researchers are working with industry to promote

the development of cost-effective, interoperable, and

secure protocols for networking of pervasive computing devices. One research project involves working

with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic

Engineers (IEEE) standards group IEEE 802.15 to

standardize Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)

technologies, and we have made significant 

contributions to the IEEE 802.15’s work.

WPANs are essentially cable replacement technologies

that allow closely located digital devices to exchange

information. Most technologies considered for WPANs,

such as Bluetooth* and HomeRFTM employ an unlicensed radio frequency band in the range of 2.4 GHz

(the so-called Industrial, Scientific, and Medical, or
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 1 4

ISM, band). This same frequency range is also 

used by existing standards for Wireless Local Area

Networks (WLAN), for example IEEE 802.11. As the

number of technologies using the ISM band increases,

concern arises about the possibly deleterious effects

of mutual electromagnetic interference. Designing

wireless protocols that can share this scarce 

spectrum presents a key challenge in the design 

of WPANs. 

ITL’s efforts focused on: (1) modeling and validation

of the Bluetooth* protocol specifications, (2) assessment of interference among wireless devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band, and (3) development and

evaluation of coexistence mechanisms for wireless

devices sharing the same spectrum. ITL researchers

led the effort within the IEEE 802.15 Task Group on

Coexistence to study and quantify radio-frequency

interference between Bluetooth* and WLAN devices.

In addition, ITL researchers proposed mechanisms

and technical solutions to allow these devices 

to coexist when operating in close proximity.

Contributions by ITL researchers were adopted by the

IEEE 802.15 as the basis for a recommended practices

document on coexistence that will be published

in 2002. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov/net_pc.shtml.

INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE

PROTECTION

ITL works with the Internet Engineering Task Force

(IETF) community to improve the scalability and performance of integrated Internet security systems and

to expedite the development of Internet infrastructure protection technologies. The project originated

from a request by the IETF directors and the

Department of Defense for ITL to collaborate with 

key industry partners to ensure the timely 

development of Internet security technologies.

In FY2001, we released expanded reference prototypes and test systems to include advanced authentication and interfaces to Public Key Infrastructure

X.509 (PKIX) systems. We developed benchmarking/

management tools for Domain Name System (DNS)

Security (DNSSEC). We published simulation analysis

of the scalability of Internet Protocol Security

(IPsec) / IKE / PKIX in largescale virtual private network

(VPN) environments. Finally,

we contributed to the design

of IETF security policy 

management protocols. 

ITL is advancing the crucial

area of Internet infrastructure

protection by leading the

development of IETF standards

for DNS security. Our rapid

prototypes and online test

systems assist industry in the

testing of early product developments. Through the release

of simulation tools, we facilitate the work of industry and

academic researchers in the

evaluation of the scalability 

of emerging IETF security 

systems. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov/

iipp.shtml.

David Cypher, Nada Golmie, and Robert Van Dyck perform modeling and evaluation

of wireless personal area networks protocols.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

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WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORKS

This ITL project responds to the needs of industry

organizations, such as the Internet Engineering Task

Force (IETF), and government agencies, such as the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),

for standards and protocols for wireless mobile adhoc networks (MANETs) that enable communication

among autonomous collections of mobile users and

distributed sensors. We work with industry, academia,

and government to facilitate the development of

technology and standards for MANETs and smart 

sensor networks. 

To accomplish this work, we are investigating methods

for implementing priority access and messaging for

MANETs. We developed an OPNET evaluation 

platform for MANETs, including models for the

Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and Ad Hoc On

Demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocols. We developed analytical techniques for validating simulations.

We improved the convergence behavior of an optimal

distributed detection algorithm, thereby lowering the

probability of interception. In addition, we extended

distributed detection/estimation algorithms to provide robustness for use in wireless sensor networks.

ITL’s impact is significant. Industry benefits from 

our assistance in the design and analysis of protocol

standards for routing in mobile ad-hoc networks.

Research communities utilize our contributions to

define models and algorithms for self-organizing 

networks. Finally, we are building a competence that

positions NIST to become a major contributor to the

development of next-generation wireless ad-hoc 

networks. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov/wctg/manet/manet2.html.

Eun-Hyuk Lim,

Kwang-il Lee, Mark

Carson, Richard Rouil

(standing), Oliver

Borchert, David Griffith,

and Young-Tak Kim 

(seated), members of 

the Agile Switching

Infrastructures Project,

are researching integrated, multilevel control and

signaling protocols for

next-generation optical

Internets.
INFORMATION ACCESS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

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HUMAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY

ITLis developing and applying metrics and testing to advance the state of the art of human

language processing, including speech and speaker

recognition, spoken language understanding, information search, retrieval, and filtering, and other

advanced text processing techniques such as summarization and extraction. This work also increases 

communication and technology transfer between

industry and academia in the field of human language technology. To meet these goals, we are 

developing measurement methods and evaluation

infrastructure, providing reference materials, including

test data, coordinating community-wide benchmark

tests within the research and development community,

and building prototype systems. 

This program is composed of several major projects,

including automated speech recognition (ASR), the

Text Retrieval Conferences (TREC), Topic Detection

and Tracking (TDT), Automatic Content Extraction

(ACE), and the Document Understanding Conferences

(DUC). Since the mid 1980s, NIST has been developing the test protocols and speech corpora for the

training, development, and evaluation of ASR technologies. Since 1998, NIST has produced over 250

speech corpus CD-ROMs. NIST has continued to

advance the state of the art in spoken language

technologies by focusing its benchmark tests on

ever-more-difficult domains such as the recognition

of broadcast news recordings in several languages. In

FY2001, we conducted the NIST speaker recognition

evaluation with 12 participating sites. We also 

conducted the NIST conversational telephone speech

recognition evaluation with 8 participating sites. We

provided test participants for DARPA Communicator

trials and analyzed results. We also created a data

collection facility for the automatic meeting 

transcription project and initiated work on 

software tools infrastructure.

The annual TREC conference series began in 1992 to

advance the state of the art of text-searching technologies, such as document retrieval and question

answering. Through TREC, NIST provides a vehicle 

by which the broader text retrieval community can

participate in metrics-based evaluation of these 

technologies. In FY2001, we performed evaluation

and analysis of data for text retrieval of web 

information and presented results at TREC-9, which

was organized and hosted by ITL. In the area of

question answering, we created a test collection and

queries for testing the retrieval of answers rather

than documents. We led the English portion of the

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

NIST Meeting Room Data Collection photos taken simultaneously with multiple cameras during a focus group discussion. Pictured are (clockwise from bottom left) Mark

Przybocki, Elham Tabassi, John Garofolo, Vincent

Stanford, Alvin Martin, Martial Michel, and (in lower view)

Jonathan Fiscus.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 1 7

European Union’s 2001 Cross Language

Evaluation effort. We performed evaluation

and analysis of cross language text retrieval

using English and Chinese. We administered

the Topic Detection and Tracking 2000

evaluation and performed analysis of 

evaluation results.

ITL also participates in the Document

Understanding Conference (DUC), which is

part of a DARPA project called Translingual

Information Detection, Extraction, and

Summarization (TIDES). Following an 

organizational meeting in November 2000,

the first evaluation meeting took place 

in September 2001. 

ITL’s work is resulting in industry’s improving

web information retrieval performance in

next-generation search engines. We are

improving the capability to answer complex

questions from information on the web (as

opposed to just retrieving documents), to retrieve

documents in other languages, and to transcribe 

telephone speech, as well as improving interactive

telephone speech processing. We are also increasing

the availability of test collections (for document

retrieval, filtering, speech recognition, speaker 

recognition) to the research community for further

improvements, facilitating the cross-fertilization of

ideas across research groups, and launching new

research areas by providing necessary evaluation 

infrastructure. The websites are 

http://www.nist.gov/speech/ and http://trec.nist.gov.

INTERACTION AMONG USERS AND

INFORMATION

ITL is providing metrics, standards, and test methodologies to improve interactive systems by developing

standard usability reporting formats, new approaches

and benchmarks to support usability testing, especially for the web, test methods for accessibility, 

and advanced user interface prototypes. 

In FY2001, we completed and released Version 2.0 of

the NIST Web Metrics software, and we upgraded the

WebSAT and WEBVIP tools. We organized and hosted

the fourth workshop on pilot testing of the Common

Industry Format (CIF) and submitted it to the

National Committee for Information Technology

Standards (NCITS) as a fast track standard; the standard was approved on November 15, 2001. We distributed a CD for the purpose of pilot studies on CIF

Testing, Evaluation, and Reporting (CIFter). We initiated development of an evaluation methodology and

toolkit for usability evaluation of complex information management applications. We participated in the

NCITS V2 standards committee to develop an alternative accessible interface protocol. We organized and

hosted a successful IT Accessibility Conference at

NIST in May 2001. We also hosted a Usability

Professional Association (UPA) Workshop on

Evaluation and Measurement for Accessibility. 

As a result of this program, a standardized reporting

format will be available to help software procurers

compare results of usability tests so they can make

better purchasing decisions; it also provides usability

testers with a standard means to report the results 

of their tests. The program will also help provide

methodologies and a set of benchmarks for testing

usability. In the near-term, there will be novel

approaches available for evaluating the usability 

of websites; in the long-term, there will be new

methodologies for evaluating the ever-changing web

environment. Industry-developed standards for new

interaction paradigms, such as the NCITS V2

Ellen Voorhees, Donna Harman, Paul Over, and Ian Soboroff design the

next series of evaluations for the NIST Text REtrieval Conference (TREC).
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

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Alternative Interface Access Protocol, will provide a

variety of new ways beyond keyboard input for users,

especially people with disabilities, to interact with

computers and other electronic devices; ITL will help

provide the testing infrastructure to measure the

usability of these new interfaces. The websites are

http://www.nist.gov/webmetrics/,

http://www.nist.gov/iusr, and http://www.nist.gov/cifter.

MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY

ITL is using metrics, standards, and testing to

advance technologies for accessing and using multimedia information, including multimedia searching

and filtering. We advance multimedia standards

through leadership positions on standards committees (MPEG, JPEG, Web3D). We develop measurement

methods for the evaluation of multimedia metadata

(MPEG-7) for the purpose of content-based multimedia retrieval. We provide measurement and evaluation

infrastructure to advance the technologies dealing

with content-based access to audio-visual multimedia.

We foster research in content-based retrieval from digital video and help ensure that encoders are MPEG-7-

compliant by developing scoring software. Finally, we

coordinate the development and establishment of a

conformance and interoperability test bed to validate,

enhance, provide for interchange, and benchmark the

MPEG-7 technology. 

In FY 2001, we continued to chair

NCITS/L3 – U.S. Technical Advisory Group

and delegation to ISO for the JPEG and

MPEG international standards bodies, 

coordinating the MPEG and JPEG international meetings and maintaining the NIST

online data site for MPEG and JPEG standards activities. In December 2000, 

ITL established NIST as the host for the

online MPEG data repository and management information system for at least the

next three years. We identified the needs

and approaches for conducting conformance

and interoperability tests for MPEG-7 technology. We participated with MPEG-7 XM

and CE developers to validate and produce

MPEG-7 reference software and test data,

developed a web-based MPEG-7 validator

to validate MPEG-7 DSs, Ds, and DDL, and

integrated MPEG-7 XM reference software

via plug-ins with Virage Toolkit to evaluate MPEG-7 DSs, Ds, and DDLs. We created

WebChisel, a web-based tool based on Chisel (a VRML

optimizer) open source. Finally, ITL staff served as

Vice President and on the Board of Directors of the

Web3D Consortium, playing a key role in organizing

the Web3D 2002 Conference. 

Our work is making a difference, helping to increase

the availability of commercial products for retrieving

multimedia in a flexible way, including content-based

retrieval technologies for automatically indexing 

multimedia. We contribute to the research community

in content-based retrieval from digital video, with

ITL providing the evaluation infrastructure. We facilitate the coordinated effort within the MPEG-JPEG

standards community in the domains of multimedia,

including digital video, digital audio, virtual reality,

motion and still images, synchronized sound and

music, and associated technologies. The existence of

an ITL-developed evaluation infrastructure will enable

the industry to test, validate, enhance, provide for

interchange, and benchmark MPEG-7-based technologies. We promote the wider availability and use of

commercial products for 3D on the web. Finally, our

ITL-developed tools for industry support and 

accelerate standards development. The websites are 

http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.02/projects/dv/dvr.ht

ml and http://ovrt.nist.gov/home.html.

Paul Hsiao, Joe Konczal, and Emile Morse pilot usability tests as part 

of the Common Industry Format (CIF) reporting project.
INFORMATION INTEGRATION

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

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DIGITAL CINEMA

QUALITY

T

o help U.S. video/cinema

producers and related

industries by developing

quality measurements for

digital cinema, ITL is creating a digital cinema laboratory with software and

hardware for digital cinema

acquisition, compression,

display, and storage. In

cooperation with U.S.

industry, we are developing

measurements and test

materials for assessing the

contribution of compression

and other system components to digital cinema 

performance. We disseminate recommended test

clips through the Society of

Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) or

other suitable organizations. Our customers are U.S.

movie producers, studios, distributors, exhibitors,

federal agencies, and equipment manufacturers in

order to assure content fidelity and integrity.

As a result of industry input from ITL’s Digital Cinema

2001 Conference (co-sponsored by the National

Information Standards Organization) held at NIST in

January 2001, we are developing a research program

to develop video/image test patterns materials and

test methods to be used by the movie industry for

digital cinema applications. We are directing the

development of SMPTE standard subjective test materials, accessible, high-quality materials for technology development and assessment. We worked with the

movie industry in Hollywood to complete standard

definition materials in 2001. Eighty industry standard

patterns were developed and delivered for projection

system characterization. These were used for MPEG

digital cinema compression tests. High-definition

digital cinema materials are in development. The

websites for project information and for downloading

the NIST Digital Cinema Test Patterns and Image

Viewer are http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/

projects/digitalcinemaproject.html and

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/products.html.

DIGITAL DATA STORAGE

ITL’s digital storage laboratory works with industry,

government, and academia to support interoperability

and reliability testing of optical disks, to provide the

U.S. disk industry with standards, to improve the safe

preservation of digital information, and to develop

new technology for next-generation data storage.

Projects include the development of CD/DVD disk

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

Jian Zheng, Richang Lu, Tracy Comstock, Xiao Tang, and Oliver Slattery

inspect results of NIST-developed environmental tests for the preservation of CDs and DVDs.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 0

drive software to check compliance to the Optical

Storage Technology Association (OSTA) MultiRead

specification, the development of a test bed to

determine optical disk lifetime and performance in

terms of aging and environmental factors, e.g., light

exposure, and the determination of reliability and

performance of various writable optical disk media

types. We also initiated a study of advanced 3-D data

storage technology, which is opening up a new 

generation of optical data storage. 

Our work will result in standard testing procedures

for optical disk reliability and lifetime. User demand

will cause drives to become compliant to the MultiRead

specification, as more users test their disk drives with

the NIST CD Compliance Tester. Standards for storage

and preservation of data on optical disk media will

improve digital data storage for multimedia and other

applications. The websites for project information and

for downloading the NIST CD Compliance Test Software

are http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/projects/datastorageproject.html and

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/products.html.

ELECTRONIC BOOK TECHNOLOGY

ITL is developing guidelines and prototypes for the

use of electronic content on eBooks and other

devices, e.g., Braille Readers. We are developing a

prototype tactile graphics display to read text and

pictures, developing and documenting comparisons 

in eBook file formats, and exploring applications for

eBooks. In FY2001, we facilitated the development 

of the Open eBook (OEB) specification v 1.0. We also

assisted in the initial organization of the Open eBook

Forum, the industry standards and trade organization

for eBooks. Our Braille/eBook R&D efforts merited

the prestigious national 2001 R&D 100 Award. We

also initiated a partnership with Stanford Research

Incorporated and the Army’s Distance Laboratory, 

the Washington eLearning Forum. Finally we have

developed a Linux platform viewer to examine 

OEB documents.

By producing guidelines for the development and 

use of interoperable content for multiple reading 

platforms, we are creating opportunities for all 

readers, including greater accessibility to digital 

content for the visually impaired. The websites are

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/projects/ebookproject.html, http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/

projects/brailleproject.html, and

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/products.html.

INTERACTIVE DIGITAL TELEVISION

ITL has been a catalyst for the

approval of an interactive 

digital television standard.

The Advanced Television System

Committee (ATSC), an international industry consortium of

more than 200 members consisting of broadcasters, content

creators, software vendors, and

equipment manufacturers,

announced at their October

2001 meeting that the digital

television (DTV) Application

Software Environment (DASE)

standard was approved. DASE is

the North America middleware

standard for broadcast interactive television. NIST and the

DASE specialist group are 

developing these standards in

advance of widespread use of

digital television technology.

Mike Indovina, Rob Snelick, Alan Mink, and Barry Hershman (seated) view a simulation of

an interactive digital TV session based on their NIST-developed reference implementation.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 1

The NIST open reference implementation of the DASE standard

provides application developers

and consumer electronic manufacturers an application development

environment and a basis for an

interoperable Digital TV receiver

implementation.

The NIST implementation was 

a deciding factor in the final

approval of the DASE standards

documentation. Because of the

complexity and size of this forward-looking standard, industry

participants requested that ATSC

demonstrate that DASE was

implementable. The ATSC membership voted, by a clear majority,

that this requirement was 

satisfied by the NIST Procedural

(JavaTM) Application Environment

implementation and the Samsung

Declarative Application Environment implementation.

The interactive digital television community has been

very responsive to the NIST prototype implementation. Over 800 copies of the software have been

downloaded since its release, announced in June 

at the 2001 DASE Symposium held at NIST. Many 

key industry players such as Liberate Technologies,

Insignia Inc., Panasonic, Sharp, and other ATSC 

member companies are early adapters of the NIST

technologies. The NIST implementation is an 

enormous undertaking, consisting of over 100,000

lines of JavaTM code. The NIST environment provides

not only the DASE implementation, but also an ATSC

DTV receiver simulation and DASE reference applications. This is a major accomplishment for the digital

TV industry, as all analog transmission is mandated

by the FCC to be digital in 2007. The websites for

more project information and for downloading the

NIST DASE Prototype Reference Implementation 

are http://www.dase.nist.gov and

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/products.html.

TRUST MANAGEMENT

ITL seeks to expand business opportunities to the

smallest of web enterprises, which constitute half or

more of the marketplace. We are providing standards,

guidelines, and measurement technology for inexpensive, interoperable third-party trust and assurance

mechanisms for Internet business. We seek flexible,

modular Internet trust architectures. Our projects

address identity authentication, agreement assurance,

and participant rights, privacy, and responsibilities.

In FY2001, we released a Phase One Report on the

Financial Agent Secure Transaction (FAST) assurance

framework. FAST addresses e-commerce participants

with concerns about valid identities for other web

parties, characteristics being claimed, promised or

contracted for (examples are payment guarantee,

shipping reliability or rights of product use), and 

privacy for personal data and business marketing

information. Finally, we implemented a test 

application server to explore IPC (Electronics

Interconnection Industry consortium) information

format needs. 

Working toward the goal of a trustworthy Internet,

our trust management efforts will contribute to the

expansion of the digital products market, projected

to grow 50 fold from 1998 to 2003, due to the 

benefits of interoperability. The website is 

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/cmr/ecom/index.

Hai Tang, Alexandria Chambers, Monique Spencer, and Elizabeth Williams review

a B2B portal testbed to simulate trusted e-commerce transactions.
MATHEMATICS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 2

APPLIED MATHEMATICS

Ensuring that sound mathematical methods are

applied in NIST research is a cornerstone of the

ITL applied mathematics program. Working directly

with NIST scientists and engineers, we develop requisite mathematical technologies, including mathematical

models, methods, and software. Mathematical 

modeling provides a cost-effective alternative to

experiments-based science and engineering, hence its

growing use in industry. Within NIST, mathematical

modeling is used as a complement to its experiments-based measurement program, allowing the

analysis of measurement systems before and after

experimental programs. This helps avoid costly delays

and helps ensure success. One example is our development of a new method for blind image deblurring

(i.e., deblurring when the cause of the blur is

unknown). The technique is very fast and widely

applicable. The new technique is in use in several

projects in the NIST laboratories. 

Our impact on NIST research and the larger scientific

community is considerable. At NIST, we have successful ongoing collaborations in such areas as materials

science, high-speed machining, and construction

technology. Distribution of related methodology and

tools, including computer software, allows these 

benefits to accrue to the scientific community at

large. For example, we have developed widely used

packages for modeling magnetic materials (OOMMF),

as well as materials with complex microstructure

(OOF). We also have direct connections to other

agency programs relevant to NIST needs. For example,

two of our researchers recently began a significant

new multi-year Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency (DARPA) project on high-accuracy geometry

representation and quadrature methods for 

computational electromagnetics. The website is

http://math.nist.gov/mcsd/.

DIGITAL LIBRARY OF MATHEMATICAL

FUNCTIONS (DLMF)

The goal of this ITL project is to develop an authoritative and comprehensive reference work on the special functions of applied mathematics. Such functions

are extremely useful tools in mathematical and 

computational modeling in a very wide variety of

fields. The effective use of these functions requires

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

Alfred Carasso has developed

a unique highly efficient

method for the blind deblurring of images. Blind refers

to the fact that the cause of

the blur is unknown. This

technique is being applied

to several applications of

electron microscopy at NIST,

but is widely applicable.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 3

access to a convenient source of information on their mathematical properties,

such as series expansions, asymptotics,

integral representations, relations to

other functions, methods of computation,

etc. The DLMF will replace the outdated

NBS Handbook of Mathematical Functions

(AMS 55, 1964), presenting information

in a freely accessible online, web-based,

highly interactive, and visual format. The

project is scheduled for completion in

2003.

In FY2001, the DLMF project continued

on schedule. External experts are generating most of the technical material for

the DLMF. Contracts were issued for all

40 technical chapters, and first drafts

were received for most. Many are now

undergoing revision. Candidate validators

for the technical data were identified.

We also developed a prototype search

capability for the online resource.

External enthusiasm for the project

remains high. The April 2001 issues of Physics World

and Physics Today featured news articles on the DLMF.

An expected benefit of the DLMF will be the 

standardization of notations and normalizations 

for the special functions, as well as enhanced 

traceability to NIST for standardized 

mathematical objects. The website is

http://dlmf.nist.gov/.

HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING AND

VISUALIZATION

ITL collaborates with NIST scientists on the application of parallel computing and scientific visualization

to mathematical models of physical systems. The

most demanding computing applications require

resources that far exceed those routinely found on a

scientist's desktop. To perform such computations in

a reasonable amount of time, one must often resort

to the use of parallel computers. The effective use of

such systems requires that algorithms be redesigned,

often in fundamental ways. Effecting these changes,

and debugging the resulting code, requires expertise

and a facility with specialized software tools that

most working scientists do not possess. We support

the use of NIST’s centralized parallel computing facility by providing expert consulting and collaboration

in these areas. This work often leads to new tools of

widespread use. This year, for example, working in

collaboration with the NIST Materials Science and

Engineering Laboratory, we developed a parallel 

version of the popular Feff code for X-ray absorption

spectroscopy that runs 20-30 times faster than the

original. Another example is the Interoperable

Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard, which 

saw its first public demonstration by vendors at 

a major trade show this year.

The use of sophisticated visualization equipment 

and techniques is necessary to adequately digest the

massive amounts of data that high-performance 

computer simulations can produce. ITL provides hardware and software tools to enable scientific discovery

in large datasets of this kind. Effective use of these

tools requires a great deal of expertise, and hence we

work closely with NIST scientists to make effective

use of them. In FY2001 for example, we achieved a

series of extremely successful visualizations of the

results of simulations of Bose-Einstein condensates in

collaboration with the NIST Physics Laboratory, which

were featured in Physics Today, Optics and Photonic

News, and Scientific American. We completed the

installation of the RAVE visualization environment, 

a system that enables three-dimensional immersive

visualization, using stereo eyeglasses. A variety of

applications from the NIST laboratories have been

Bonita Saunders (seated) works with students Brianna Blaser and Elaine Kim to

develop graphics that illustrate the properties of standard functions of applied

mathematics for the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 4

ported to the system. The website is

http://math.nist.gov/mcsd/savg/.

MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE

Mathematical modeling in the sciences, engineering,

and finance inevitably leads to computation, the core

of which is typically a series of very well defined,

recurring mathematical problems, such as the solution

of a differential equation, the solution of a linear

system, or the computation of a transform. Much

research has focused on how to solve such problems

efficiently. The most effective means of passing on

this expertise to potential customers is by encapsulating it in a reusable software component. Since

much work at NIST relies on such computations, NIST

has a natural interest in seeing that such components

are developed, tested, and made available. ITL develops mathematical algorithms and software of this

type in response to NIST needs. The computational

science community outside of NIST has similar needs

for programming methodologies. We also advance

the development of standards for mathematical 

software tools and ensure widespread dissemination

of research software, testing artifacts, and related

information to the computational science community

at large.

In FY2001, working with the Basic Linear Algebra

Subprograms (BLAS) Technical Forum, we finalized

the specification for the Sparse BLAS interface 

standard; a reference implementation is in process.

We released the Zoltan dynamic load-balancing library

jointly with Sandia National Laboratory. We worked

with the JavaTM Grande Forum, demonstrating the

utility of JavaTM for scientific computing with our

web-based SciMark benchmark. Finally, we maintained

the popular Guide to Available Math Software and

Matrix Market web services. These services 

are available at http://math.nist.gov/.

QUANTUM COMPUTING

ITL is working with the NIST Physics and Electronics

and Electrical Engineering Laboratories to develop a

measurement and standards infrastructure to support

quantum communications, and to demonstrate and

exploit new technologies for quantum computing.

Quantum information networks have the potential 

of providing the only known provably secure physical

channel for the transfer of information. The technology has been demonstrated only in laboratory settings,

and a solid measurement and standards infrastructure

is needed to move this into the technology development arena. Quantum computers have potential for

speeding up previously intractable computations. We

are supporting the work in the Physics Laboratory to

develop quantum processors and memory, concentrating on the critical areas of error correction, algorithm

and tool development, and information theory.

In FY2001, we began the development of an open,

measurement-focused testbed facility for quantum

communications for the DARPA Quantum Information

Science and Technology program. This will allow a

better understanding of the practical commercial

potential for secure quantum communication and

serve the development of standardized network protocols for this new communications technology. We

developed a hybrid quantum authentication protocol

for use on such networks. We are also collaborating

with the NIST Physics Laboratory on the development

of models of quantum gates, as well as on models of

error propagation through arrays of gates representing quantum algorithms. Our website is

http://math.nist.gov/quantum/.

Jim Filla provides support to a large number of scientists at

the NIST Boulder Laboratories who are using LabVIEW to control and monitor measurement test systems and to collect,

display, and analyze data. Here he is pictured with the VeryHigh-Temperature Guarded-Hot-Plate apparatus, used to make

absolute thermal conductivity measurements on ceramics and

ceramic coated super-alloys. Measurements made with this

apparatus will be used to help establish international hightemperature thermal conductivity standards. 
STATISTICS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

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BAYESIAN METROLOGY

NIST statisticians are expanding fundamental statistical theory necessary to

the specialized development and implementation of Bayesian methods for metrology. Important topics for metrology are

traceability of measurements and the 

propagation of uncertainty, interlaboratory

comparisons, calibration, scientific process

modeling constrained by physical laws, 

and the development of a scientific basis

for "uncertainty B." In FY2001, Bayesian

methodology developed at NIST was used

for the analysis of key comparison data for

international laboratories. The development

of both generic and specialized Bayesian

hierarchical models for the "consensus

mean" problem was followed by implementation. Adding these calculation tools to

DataPlot makes this Bayesian analysis

available to scientists at NIST and at other National

Metrology Laboratories around the world. By way of

example, this Bayesian methodology was applied to

the estimation of the consensus means and the 

uncertainties for 88 compounds as part of the

Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) Program.

Graphical representations of Bayesian inferences are

currently being developed, implemented, and prepared

as web-based products for use by NIST scientists and

those in the industrial arena. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/BayesMetrics/.

KEY COMPARISONS AND

INTERLABORATORY EQUIVALENCE

With the signing of the Mutual Recognition

Agreement (MRA) by the National Metrology

Institutes around the world, international interlaboratory key comparisons have taken on even greater

importance in the NIST mission. These key comparisons serve as the technical basis for acceptance of

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

Nien-Fan Zhang, Will Guthrie, and Blaza Toman discuss potential

uncertainty analyses for international interlaboratory studies

between National Metrology Institutes known as Key Comparisons.

measurements by the various member laboratories for

purposes of commerce. The International Committee

on Weights and Measures has developed an MRA that

requires a measurement comparison mechanism that

reflects accurately the true relationships between

measurement systems maintained by its member 

laboratories. The results of these key comparisons

must also be extensible to members of Regional

Metrology Organizations to maximize recognition 

of measurement capabilities of other metrology 

laboratories around the world. 

In FY2001, with three other NIST laboratories, we

drafted an outline for collaborative research to define

a consolidated approach to key comparisons. The use

of key comparisons is increasing both in scope and in

depth. ITL’s experience with key comparisons in many

different areas makes it a natural hub where design

templates and analytic methodology for key comparisons can help ensure the success of the MRA to

streamline measurement issues in international trade
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 6

and measurement science. NIST statisticians also 

provide an international statistical resource for 

other metrology issues. With membership in the U.S.

Technical Advisory Group for ISO/TC69 and as project

leader for ISO/PDTS 21749, NIST statisticians provided an official review of the revision to ISO/Guide 35,

Certification of Reference Material-General and

Statistical Principles. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/InterlabStats/.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF IT

PERFORMANCE

Assessing quality in software, hardware, and networks

draws on statistical models that are developed

expressly for this purpose. At NIST, statistical modeling and research addresses these areas with major

collaborative efforts in software testing, in information retrieval, in network performance assessment,

and in ongoing work on standards for electronics. In

FY2001, new methodology for algorithmic comparison

was developed to provide statistical tools for comparing human identification system algorithms. This

new methodology was based on using partial rank

correlation methods together; other methods relied

on analysis of variance and multiple comparisons

techniques. The need for statistical evaluation of the

reliability of conformance tests resulted in the construction of new methodology and its application to

the NIST Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) graphical

conformance test suite. In a different venue, extension

of multidimensional scaling methodology gives a

more informative data analytic approach, leading 

to new insights to data from the Text Retrieval

Conference (TREC). The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/ITStats/.

STATISTICAL COLLABORATIONS,

MEASUREMENT

Measurement is the backbone for advancing scientific

research and creating new technologies. Expertise in

the design of experiments, process modeling, estimation of components of variance, quality control, and

uncertainty analysis is coupled with a strong focus 

in applied research to bring ITL statisticians into

contact with leading researchers in measurement 

science, both at NIST and elsewhere. Current

advances in statistical methods for metrology, for

modeling, for graphical data representation, for 

evaluation of uncertainty, and for data mining are

used to support NIST research in physical science and

engineering. Statistical metrology with uncertainty

analysis, leading to certification, supports the

Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) Program (60+

SRMs certified in FY2001) and NIST Calibration 

services. In FY2001, we implemented new methodologies for SRMs, including consensus mean code

and Bayesian solutions. Research collaborations and

general statistical consultation is provided to all 

the other laboratories at NIST; in FY2001 NIST 

statisticians from the Statistical Engineering Division

collaborated with 79 percent of the other scientific

research divisions at NIST. 

Development of statistical measures can lead to

adoption by industry, as in the case of measuring

the sharpness of scanning electron microscope

images. Statistical approaches to measurement and

to comparison, the development and evaluation of

test methods both in the laboratory and in the field,

statistical experimental design and analysis, and

optimizing experiment efficiency have recently been

applied to products and/or industries as varied as

paint, police body armor, electro-deposited coatings,

magneto-resistive heads in computer disk drives,

and integrated circuitry. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/StatServices/.

HumanID team members Kimball Kniskern, Susan Heath, Alan

Heckert, Andrew Rukhin, and Stefan Leigh of the Statistical

Engineering Division discuss ranking performance of algorithms for

face recognition with (seated) Patrick Grother and Jonathon Phillips

of the Information Access Division. 
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 7

STATISTICAL METROLOGY

EDUCATION

ITL statisticians maintain an active series of

courses taught at NIST, some of which are

open to non-NIST scientists and engineers.

Regular course offerings include Exploratory

Data Analysis, Uncertainty Analysis,

Experimental Design, Regression I & II,

Analysis of Variance, Combining Information,

Using Bayesian Statistics, and Analyzing

Time Series Data. Additional courses on

special topics are offered when demand 

is sufficient.

A significant joint project by NIST statisticians and SEMATECH is the development of

a hyper-linked web document for constructing experiments and for analyzing data in

order to improve and document measurement and production processes. This electronic Handbook is unique because readers

access statistical software from within its pages to

analyze either case studies in the Handbook or to

reproduce analyses on other data. The Handbook

updates the NBS Handbook 91, Experimental

Statistics, and utilizes public domain software,

Dataplot (developed at NIST), coupled with the case

studies in the Handbook. Individuals can access the

Handbook, for example, to follow instructions to 

construct a calibration curve from their own data.

Alternatively, the Handbook can be used to implement training in design of experiments, analysis of

data using linear models, or other topics. The 

electronic Handbook also interfaces with various

commercial software packages. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/StatWebEd/.

STATISTICAL PROCESS

CHARACTERIZATION

ITL statisticians collaborate with NIST researchers

and their industrial partners to characterize complex

processes and to address measurement and standards

aspects of physical science, engineering, and information technology. Current examples of process characterization include stochastic models for high-speed

communications using optical fibers, new measurement methods for characterizing the complex permittivity of dielectric materials (widely used throughout

the electronics, microwave, communication and 

aerospace industries), statistical models for polymer

temperature and pressure measurement during 

fabrication, and characterization of high-speed 

oscilloscopes for use in optoelectronic device 

metrology, in nonlinear device metrology, and 

in high-speed digital circuit design. 

This year we developed a procedure for estimating

the electrical length and diameter of the microwave

cavity in Dielectric Materials Measurement Systems,

then determined the properties of the estimation

procedure itself, and finally completed the uncertainty analysis. The NIST Kurtosis Program, developed by

NIST statisticians as a multivariate kurtosis measure

of SEM image sharpness measurement, has been

implemented in the workstation designed by Spectal

Company. Drawing on an underlying probabilistic

model together with a statistical approach to data

analysis, NIST statisticians developed a prediction

model for Neutron Depth Profiling, both the energy

spectrum for a material concentration profile and 

the theoretical stopping power. We also developed a 

procedure to adaptively estimate jitter and correct

power spectrum of optoelectronic signals. The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/StatModels/.

At the NIST Boulder Laboratories, Dom Vecchia, Kate Remley

(EEEL), Don DeGroot (EEEL), Kevin Coakley, and Jolene Splett

develop methods for characterizing nonlinear devices, components,

and circuits used in digital wireless communications.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 8

ITLis actively engaged in protecting the

nation’s vital infrastructures. American business and government operations rely directly and

indirectly upon a national information infrastructure

and supporting physical infrastructure, such as

telecommunications, energy, financial services, water,

and transportation sectors. Many of the systems and

physical assets of these infrastructures are critical to

the nation’s security, economy, or health and safety.

Information technology (IT) advances have caused

these infrastructures to become increasingly automated and interlinked, creating new vulnerabilities to

equipment failures, human error, weather and other

natural causes, and physical and cyber attacks. 

Consistent with its overall mission and long-standing

security responsibilities in information technology,

ITL focuses on security standards and testing to help

ensure the security of our nation’s critical infrastructures. We support federal departments and agencies

under the Computer Security Act of 1987 and follow-on

legislation that assign to NIST responsibility to

develop security standards and guidelines for sensitive

federal systems. We also help IT users and vendors

build products that will protect information and

improve security. (See the Security section of this

report.) By working with IT vendors and users to

develop security standards and security testing 

programs, ITL strengthens the security of commercial

IT products, which provide the

communications and information

processing backbone of our

infrastructures. By enhancing

the confidence of the public, 

we enable more widespread and

secure infrastructures supporting

e-Government and e-Commerce.

A significant contribution to

infrastructure protection is ITL’s

administration of the Critical

Infrastructure Protection Grants

Program. Congress established

the program at NIST in response

to the President’s Committee 

of Advisors on Science and

Technology (PCAST), which

called for funding of significant

critical information infrastructure protection research. The

program funds research and

development of new security

solutions that are needed by 

the public and private sectors.

Individual companies may be

reluctant to pursue research in

S E L E C T E D C R O S S C U T T I N G T H E M E S

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

PROTECTION

Engineered Compositions for Infrastructure Design

Metrics and Tools for Evaluating Intrusion

Detectors

Compiler-Assisted Intrusion Detection/Prevention

and Automated Damage Repair

Industrial Applications of Information Security

to Protect the Electric Power Infrastructure

Advanced Security Profiles and Enforcement

for Next Generation Networks

Real-Time Intrusion Detection

Secure Wireless Infrastructure Test Bed

A Survivable and Secure Wireless

Information Architecture

Vulnerability Analysis Tools and Attack

Management Systems for Converged Networks

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION GRANTS FOR 2001

CygnaCom Solutions Inc., McLean, Va.

Decision Science Associates, Vienna, Va.

and Lockheed Martin, Gaithersburg, Md.

Rether Networks Inc., Centereach, N.Y.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc. and

Washington State University, Pullman, Wash.;

and the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho

Telcordia Technologies, Morristown, N.J.

University of California, San Diego, Calif.

University of Maryland, College Park, Md. and

NAI Labs, Glenwood, Md.

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa.

University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Okla.

ORGANIZATION(S) PROJECT TITLE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 2 9

areas that are not cost-effective for them or that 

do not meet their unique market demands.

Industry and academic researchers are eligible to

apply through a competitive evaluation process for

the NIST grants. Proposals are evaluated based upon

scientific merits, potential impact on future systems,

and potential for technology transfer. To encourage

the use of new technology, research results will be

presented at a series of annual conferences open to

government and industry. Grant topics may cover a

wide range of areas, for example:

Network system interactions and vulnerabilities 

to cascading effects;

Robustness, resilience, and behavior of tightly 

coupled, complex, nonlinear systems;

Design of "test beds" and other means for experimentally validating network security technologies;

Fundamental principles, scientific basis, 

methodologies, and metrics for information 

assurance as an engineering discipline;

Information assurance for emerging information 

technologies;

Concepts for high-confidence systems and 

software;

Increasing resistance to penetration;

Next-generation intrusion and malicious 

code detection;

User interfaces such as visualization of system 

security information;

Self-healing systems;

Security and forensics toolkits; and

System architecture to ensure survivability, 

graceful degradation under stress, and ease 

of reconstitution.

In FY2001, the Critical Infrastructure Protection

Grants Program funded nine research grants and

awarded $5M. The website is

http://csrc.nist.gov/grants/index.html. 

Computing has permeated

our society -- in academia,

business and government.

We depend on our 

computing infrastructure for national

defense, law enforcement, finance, medical

care, communications, education and 

entertainment. Yet, despite its critical role,

much of this infrastructure is built from 

software that was poorly designed and tested,

connected using experimental protocols, and

deployed based on lowest initial cost. This

leaves us all in peril from criminals, vandals,

and (especially) mistakes. Thus, it is 

gratifying to see NIST assert leadership 

and address important aspects of the critical

infrastructure. It is an important initial

investment in the public and private 

sector's Critical Infrastructure needs. I am

confident that their choices will yield 

important results.”

Eugene H. Spafford

Professor and Director

Purdue University Center for Education and Research

in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS)

“
PERVASIVE COMPUTING

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 0

ITLis pursuing a laboratory-wide pervasive computing initiative. This multi-faceted project

is a natural fit for our organization, as we have

robust research and development programs in human

computer interaction, such as speech and visual

recognition and tracking, sophisticated information

access from multimedia databases, extensive information presentation capabilities, dynamic networking,

wireless networking, software testing, and security.

The goals of the pervasive computing initiative are to

foster adoption of pervasive computing by providing

industry, users, standards organizations, and academia

with the tools and tests to identify and define 

product requirements. To accomplish this, we are

developing, analyzing and comparing technical 

solutions, measuring components and systems, and

developing high-quality, correct, robust implementations. We are also providing methodologies, metrics,

tests, reference data, and technology. 

Our approach is to define the necessary and sufficient

conditions under which a system can be considered

as pervasive, assess the suitability and applicability

of current measurement techniques, develop new

design and testing techniques to model and measure

pervasive systems, and investigate integration and

interoperability among sensors, devices, and computing components in a pervasive system. Specific 

projects include the development of new integration

software to facilitate pervasive system experiments in

industry, the analysis and evaluation of interference

and coexistence techniques in the 2.4 GHz ISM band

for pico-cellular wireless communication, and the

development of tests and measures for dynamic 

service discovery. 

To accomplish these objectives, we have been sponsoring a Pervasive Computing Conference series since

1998. We developed and released (open source) the

S E L E C T E D C R O S S C U T T I N G T H E M E S

College students Stephanie Gantt, Jennifer Quinn, Virginie Galtier, Alexandria Chambers, 

Peng Ying, Chris Brown, and Jack Hudson discuss their projects in ITL.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 1

NIST Smart Flow System -- an 

integration and interoperability

software system. We developed 

a unique 59-element microphone

array for speech data acquisition;

we deployed the system and microphone array to the MIT Artificial

Intelligence laboratory. We developed a "smart" projector prototype

and benchmark test for the prototype. We developed Architecture

Description Language models and

performed an analysis of service

discovery protocols. We developed 

a seven-layer conceptual model for

defining pervasive computing with

industry. We completed the EXiST

Simulation Tool for modeling and

measuring pervasive computing systems. We conducted measurements and performance

evaluation of wireless devices (Bluetooth* and IEEE

802.11) in a coexistence environment. We developed

behavior models and performance measurements for

JiniTM, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), and Service

Location Protocols (SLPs). We released benchmarking

tools for service discovery protocols. We developed

the software framework for simulation of large-scale,

highly dynamic pervasive computing environments.

Finally, we modeled adaptive control mechanisms 

for fault-tolerant service discovery.

Our contributions to industry in pervasive computing

are expected to make a significant impact. Some

examples are

Establishment of the Smart Flow System as 

an interoperability standard for industry; 

Development of evaluation infrastructure for 

end-to-end integrated systems; 

Assistance to industry in the development of 

integrated smart space environments with 

multiple sensors, devices, and computers; 

Improvement of service discovery protocol 

specifications and metrics for comparison of 

the protocols; 

Simulation tool to facilitate requirements 

specification, modeling, and prototyping; 

Tools and measurements for performance and 

conformance; 

Software tools to create, manage, measure and 

test pervasive services and applications; 

Robust, correct, interoperable software and 

pervasive products; 

Support for industry to standardize technical 

mechanisms to facilitate coexistence among 

various technologies occupying the same 

unlicensed wireless frequency bands, thus 

enabling a rich and diverse market for portable 

pervasive computing devices; 

Assistance to industry in understanding the 

technical properties of the current (first) 

generation of dynamic service discovery and 

device configuration technologies emerging in 

industry, to better inform the design of the next 

and subsequent generations of such protocols; and

Goal of positioning NIST to become a major 

contributor to the development of Internet 4.0.

The website is 

http://www.itl.nist.gov/pervasivecomputing.html.

Students Virginie

Galtier, Alexandria

Chambers, and

Peng Ying share

their views on

technology during

their summer 

tenure at NIST.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 2

BUSINESS SYSTEMS

ITL supports the NIST mission through the development and maintenance of central administrative

applications (e.g., accounting, procurement, property,

human resources). We continue to implement our

Commerce Standard Acquisition Reporting System

(CSTARS) project, with completion scheduled in

FY2002. Our support for the Commerce Administrative

Management System (CAMS) effort continues, with a

FY2003 deployment date. As a result of our support

for these critical services, NIST benefits from more

secure, modern, and effective business systems. 

The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896/.

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER (CIO)

ITL currently hosts the Office of the NIST CIO, which

provides centralized business-level planning and 

program management for all NIST information 

technology resources and programs. This office

administers for NIST the development of the NIST IT

Strategic Plan, the NIST IT Operations Plan, and the

NIST Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The

Office of the NIST CIO also oversees the NIST implementation of the governmentwide 508 Accessibility

program. The 508 Accessibility program is intended

to ensure that IT resources are available to all users.

Also under development is an IT Architecture Plan for

NIST, the specification for which is to be completed

in early FY2002. The impact of this centralized 

management program is more consistent, businessfocused information technology support within NIST. 

COMPUTER CENTER OPERATIONS

ITL provides central high-performance scientific computing resources and secure full-purpose data center

facilities for all NIST scientific and administrative

computer systems. Through central account management and resource allocation, we offer our NIST 

customers the benefit of cost-effective scientific

computing and secure data center operations. 

The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896/.

DESKTOP COMPUTING

ITL supports desktop computing resources throughout

NIST. Projects include the implementation of a

Central Help Desk and migration towards the Managed

Desktop. Through these efforts, ITL ensures a more

secure and effectively managed desktop computing

environment. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896/.

E-NIST

The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA)

requires all federal agencies to offer services to the

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

OF OUR SERVICES PROGRAM

The PC Support Team at the NIST Boulder Laboratories: Wendy Morrison

(left front), Cathy Nicoletti, Reiner Teichmann, and Lisa Eldrige.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 3

public electronically, replacing paper and wet signatures with electronic/digital signatures and messages.

With the e-Approval project, ITL initiated the process

by first adopting digital signatures, electronic forms,

and electronic routing for NIST internal use. This year

we successfully implemented Travel Manager across

NIST, which will save time and reduce costs. With the

completion of e-Approval in FY2003, all NIST forms

will be prepared electronically, with important information stored in a database, and then be electronically transmitted over the network for approval. Once

the new internal electronic process is successfully

implemented, ITL may extend the process of adopting

electronic routing and digital signatures with other

agencies and trading partners as part of a broader

public key infrastructure (PKI). The result of 

e-Approval will be a more efficient, timely, and 

cost-effective paperwork approval process for the

NIST staff, our customers, and industry partners.

Many of the e-NIST applications involve automating

public business practices (e.g., web-based shopping

carts). These applications have stringent security

needs. With the implementation of e-NIST in FY2002,

NIST will have a secure, integrated, and more unified

architecture for supporting these applications and

will minimize the risk these applications pose to

internal NIST networks. 

ENTERPRISE SERVERS

To meet the needs of the NIST staff for centralized

server computing support, ITL operates and maintains the central NIST servers (e.g., e-mail, calendar,

file servers, application servers). Ongoing projects

include the centralization of e-mail accounts, NISTwide Windows 2000 server administration, and NISTwide directory architecture. Our centralized support

results in more secure and cost-effective server

administration for the organization. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896/.

IT SECURITY OFFICE

To respond to the increased security threats to 

computing resources and to adhere to all relevant

federal policies concerning the implementation of

agency security programs, ITL established the IT

Security Office. This office assures the security of

NIST computing resources, setting and approving 

policy for the NIST firewall, which repels hacker

attacks and minimizes the effects of computer 

viruses. Through a variety of tools, techniques, 

training, and guidance documents, the IT Security

Office provides the NIST staff with a more secure

computing environment. 

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

A reliable telecommunication system is key to the

NIST mission. ITL operates and maintains the central

NIST network and telecommunications facilities and

provides for the NIST presence on the Internet.

Through enhancements and upgrades, we strive to

provide a more secure and effectively managed 

internal networking environment with increased

capacity and connectivity. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896/.

WEB

ITL operates and maintains the central NIST web

servers and provides web consultation services to the

NIST staff. To present a more visually appealing and

effectively managed web presence, we are supporting

the NIST laboratories as they implement a "One Face

for NIST" on the web. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896/.

David Kao, Jeanne Springmann, Joe Kau, and Leslie

Piwowarczyk (not pictured) design the database 

and web interface for the NIST KnowledgeNet. 
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 4

ITL’s research, measurement, and standards

programs are greatly enhanced by our interactions with partners in industry, academia, government, and standards developers. In addition to four

Cooperative Research and Development Agreements

(CRADAs) with industry in FY2001, we participated 

in many consortia and industry interest groups,

including the following:

ADVANCED TELEVISION SYSTEMS

COMMITTEE (ATSC)

The ATSC establishes voluntary technical standards

for advanced television systems. ITL staff members

Alan Mink, Robert Snelick, Wayne Salamon, Alan

Goldfine, and Lynne Rosenthal participate in T3/S17,

Digital TV Applications Software Environment (DASE)

Application Programming Interface (API). ITL has

been a catalyst for the approval of an interactive

digital television standard.

AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARDS

INSTITUTE (ANSI)

ANSI has served in its capacity as administrator and

coordinator of the U.S. private sector voluntary 

standardization system for 80 years. Michael Hogan

serves on the ANSI Information Systems Standards

Board (ISSB), the Information Infrastructure

Standards Panel (IISP), and the IISP Steering

Committee. NIST/ITL is an ANSI-accredited standards

developer. Michael McCabe is the contact for the

ANSI/NIST-ITL 1/2000, Data Format for the

Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & SMT 

Information standard.

INDUSTRY & INTERNATIONAL

INTERACTIONS

ITL is developing software to optimize the use

of qubits in quantum computing.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 5

ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING

MACHINERY (ACM)

ACM is the world's oldest and largest educational and

scientific computing society. John Barkley participates

in the Role Based Access Control working group.

Ronald Boisvert serves as Vice-Chair of the ACM

Publications Board; he is the senior member of the

Board, specializing in ACM’s electronic publication 

program.

ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION AND

IMAGE MANAGEMENT (AIIM)

INTERNATIONAL 

ITL participates in AIIM, the world's leading global

association for information management professionals

and providers of digital document technologies.

Fernando Podio represents ITL on AIIM’s Standards

Board, as well as Committee C21, Advanced Data

Storage Subsystems and two related subcommittees.

Through our participation in AIIM, we facilitate the

development of digital document standards worldwide.

ASTM

ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) is

a not-for-profit organization that provides a forum

for producers, users, ultimate consumers, and those

having a general interest (representatives of government and academia) to meet on common ground and

write standards for materials, products, systems, and

services. Through the participation of Nien-Fan Zhang

in Technical Committee E-11, we promote quality 

in statistics.

BASIC LINEAR ALGEBRA SUBPROGRAMS

(BLAS) TECHNICAL FORUM

The BLAS Technical Forum is an industry/government/academic working group, which is developing

community standards for sparse matrix operations

and extending the BLAS to new domains. Roldan Pozo

chairs the sparse matrix subcommittee. Through 

participation in the forum, ITL contributes to the

development of interface specifications and 

reference implementations for BLAS.

BIOMETRIC APPLICATION PROGRAMMING

INTERFACE (BIOAPI) CONSORTIUM 

The BioAPI Consortium is the federal government’s

focal point for research, development, testing, evaluation, and application of biometric-based personal

identification and verification technology. Fernando

Podio serves on the Steering Committee and the

External Liaisons Working Group. Through this interaction, ITL supports the advancement of technically

efficient and compatible biometric technology 

solutions on a national and international basis.

COMMON CRITERIA RECOGNITION

ARRANGEMENT MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 

This group of 14 industrialized nations formed a

cooperative agreement to recognize the results of

security testing of IT products and systems conducted by accredited, independent, third party testing

laboratories. Stuart Katzke serves as the Chairman of

the Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement

Management Committee Executive Subcommittee.

ITL's leadership in this area has benefited both government and industry by increasing the availability of

commercially tested IT products necessary to build

more secure systems and networks for critical infrastructure applications. 

CROSS INDUSTRY WORKING TEAM (XIWT)

The XIWT is a multi-industry coalition of information

technology companies that attempts to identify common issues and concerns in IT strategic directions

and policy matters. ITL’s participation assists in this

process by providing technical guidance that bridges
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 6

the gap between the research, standardization, and

policy communities. Doug Montgomery represents

NIST on the executive committee. 

DIGITAL VERSATILE DISC (DVD) FORUM

The DVD Forum promotes the implementation and

standardization of this data storage technology. 

Xiao Tang represents ITL on the Working Group on

Data Format. Through our representation, we are 

contributing to a standard data format for DVD 

data storage. 

ELECTRONIC BOOK EXCHANGE (EBX)

Providing intellectual property protection for the 

e-Book industry is the focus of EBX. ITL participates

as a team member with technical support for the 

project. ITL chairs the authoring group for the Open

e-Book Initiative, an industry group focused on 

developing a standard for electronic content on electronic book reading systems. We also participate in

the Open e-Book Forum. Victor McCrary represents 

ITL in these efforts; he also serves on the Japanese

Electronic Book Consortium Steering Committee.

Through these interactions, ITL is advancing this

important new technology.

FINANCIAL SERVICES TECHNOLOGY 

CONSORTIUM (FSTC) FAST WORKING GROUP

ITL participates with FSTC in its FAST (Financial

Agent Secure Transaction) project. FAST addresses 

e-commerce participants with concerns about valid

identities for other web parties, characteristics being

claimed, promised or contracted for (examples are

payment guarantee, shipping reliability or rights of

product use, and privacy for personal data and 

business marketing information. Gordon Lyon 

represents ITL. Our support promotes economical

trust and assurance for e-Commerce.

FORUM ON PRIVACY AND SECURITY 

IN HEALTHCARE 

Sponsored by the National Information Assurance

Partnership (NIAP) (a joint National Institute of

Standards and Technology and National Security

Agency initiative) and the Healthcare Open Systems

and Trial (HOST), the forum is incorporated as a 

nonprofit charitable organization consisting of 

participating members from approximately 50 

healthcare organizations. Arnold Johnson represents

ITL, which with support from the NIST Advanced

Technology Program (ATP) and NIAP, is developing

guidance material and reference Common Criteria

(CC)-based profiles to assist, demonstrate, and 

educate the healthcare community in specifying

Protection Profile security requirements using 

the ISO/IEC 15408 CC standard. 

HIGH DENSITY STORAGE ASSOCIATION

(HDSA)

The HDSA has a well-defined charter to focus on

automated, storage-centric technologies known as

jukebox or library storage and acts as a centralized

communicator among the industry, resellers, and

users. The group identifies interoperability, connectivity, and compatibility issues and develops specifications to enhance the storage infrastructure. Xiao

Tang represents ITL, which provides a neutral platform

to perform testing and development that makes it

possible for the industry to improve the interoperability and performance of their products for the

increased demands for high-density data storage.

INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS (IEEE)

IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. IEEE focuses on advancing the theory and practice of electrical, electronics and computer engineer-
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 7

ing, and computer science. Sharon

Laskowski participates in P2001,

Web Best Practices Working Group.

David Cypher, Robert Van Dyck, Nada

Golmie, and Nader Moayeri participate in IEEE 802.15, Working Group

for Wireless Personal Area Networks,

and Nader Moayeri also attends IEEE

802.16, Working Group on Broadband

Wireless Access Standards. Finally,

Larry Reeker represents ITL on the

Industrial Advisory Board of the

Software Engineering Body of

Knowledge (SWEBOK) project, 

which seeks to identify the body of 

knowledge of software engineering

and to provide suitable access to

that knowledge. 

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR

INFORMATION PROCESSING (IFIP)

ITL participates in the IFIP Working Group on

Numerical Software (WG2.5), which is part of the 

IFIP Technical Committee on Programming Languages

(TC 2). The aim of WG2.5 is to improve the quality of

numerical computation by promoting international

cooperation in the development of languages, 

guidelines, tools, and standards for numerical 

software. Ronald Boisvert chairs WG2.5

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR

STANDARDIZATION (ISO)

The ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards

bodies from some 140 countries, one from each

country. Nien-Fan Zhang serves on the Committee on

Reference Materials WG1 for ISO Guide 35. Zhang and

Nell Sedransk participate in the management group

for Statistical Methods. Our contributions facilitate

the development of international agreements that 

are published as International Standards.

Two renderings of a Bose-Einstein condensate containing quantized

vortices. The left image shows the condensate density, where

brightness and color are proportional to the number of atoms; the

vortices appear as dark spots. The right image shows the phase

(color) and the superfluid flow field (arrows).

INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE

(IETF)

ITL contributes to the technical development of 

the Internet through participation in the Internet

Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF is a large

open international community of network designers,

operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with

the evolution of the Internet architecture and the

smooth operation of the Internet. Doug Montgomery,

Scott Rose, and Sheila Frankel participate in the

Internet Area; David Griffith participates in the 

SUB-IP Area; Mark Carson, Leonard Miller, Doug

Montgomery, and Nader Moayeri participate in the

Routing Area; Okhee Kim, Doug Montgomery, Sheila

Frankel, Nelson Hastings, and Tim Polk participate 

in the Security Area; and Doug Montgomery and

Mudumbai Ranganathan participate in the 

Transport Area. 

INTERNET SOCIETY (ISOC)

The Internet Society provides leadership in addressing

issues that confront the future of the Internet. It is

the organizational home for the groups responsible
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 8

for Internet infrastructure standards, including the

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the

Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Doug Montgomery

represents ITL. Our participation ensures that ITL has

a voice in the next generation of the Internet.

INTEROPERABLE MESSAGE PASSING

INTERFACE (IMPI)

ITL actively participates in the development of standards and conformance testing for IMPI. William

George, John Hagedorn, and Judy Devaney represent

ITL; our contributions benefit industries that use a

parallel code across different vendor systems, 

including the embedded computing community.

JAVATM GRANDE FORUM

The JavaTM Grande Forum (JGF) is an open working

group of industrial, government and academic

researchers, and software developers interested in

improving the JavaTM language and environment for

technical computing applications. Roldan Pozo and

Ronald Boisvert co-chair the Numerics Working Group,

which has worked with Sun Microsystems to implement changes in Java’s specifications which admit

much faster execution (up to ten times faster) for

computing-intensive applications.

JTC1 TAG

The Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) develops,

maintains, promotes, and facilitates IT standards

required by global markets meeting business and user

requirements concerning the design and development

of IT systems and tools. Michael Hogan represents

ITL on the U.S. TAG to ISO/IEC JTC1 on Information

Technology, ensuring that ITL has a voice in global

IT standards development. 

MICROMAGNETIC MODELING ACTIVITY

GROUP (muMAG)

muMAG is an organization of industrial, government,

and academic researchers investigating fundamental

issues in micromagnetic modeling through the establishment of standard problems for testing micromagnetic simulation software and the development of a

public domain reference implementation of micromagnetic simulation software. Michael Donahue and

Donald Porter represent ITL on the steering committee.

NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS (NCITS)

NCITS's mission is to produce market-driven, voluntary consensus standards in a wide range of IT areas.

Michael Hogan serves on the NCITS Policy and

The pictures illustrate scanning electron microscope

(SEM) images of a heavily gold-coated oxide test 

sample, on the left, and their two-dimensional 

Fourier frequency magnitude distributions, on the 

right. A statistical measure of SEM image sharpness

has been developed in terms of the multivariate kurtosis of the 2D spatial spectrum of the image.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 3 9

Procedures Committee. ITL technical staff participate

in many working groups, including multimedia and

hypermedia information, MPEG development, still

image coding, data representation, open distributed

processing, IT security techniques, IT access interfaces, and e-Commerce. Through these interactions,

we contribute our expertise to the development of 

IT industry standards.

NATIONAL INFORMATION ASSURANCE

PARTNERSHIP (NIAP)

NIAP is a NIST/NSA partnership for testing methods

and measures to ensure the quality of information

security systems. ITL’s Ronald Ross serves as Director

of NIAP. Our involvement helps to ensure that the

security testing needs of federal and industry IT 

consumers and producers are met.

NORTH AMERICAN OPEN MATH INITIATIVE

Open Math is a standard for communicating 

mathematical objects between computer programs.

Bruce Miller represents ITL in this organization.

ORGANIZATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF

STRUCTURED INFORMATION STANDARDS

(OASIS)

OASIS is an international consortium dedicated to

accelerating the adoption of product-independent

formats based on public standards. These standards

include XML, HTML, and CGM as well as others that

are related to structured information processing. 

Mary Brady, Lisa Carnahan, and Lynne Rosenthal 

represent ITL; Brady chairs the conformance working

group. ITL’s participation includes the development 

of conformance tests for these standards.

OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP (OMG)

OMG is a nonprofit international consortium of 500

organizations whose mission is to research, develop,

and promote the use of object-oriented technology

for distributed systems development. Elizabeth Fong

participates in the Business Object Management

group. John Barkley is ITL's principal representative

to OMG.

OPEN GROUP

The OPEN GROUP focuses on the development and

implementation of a secure and reliable IT infrastructure. Shu-Jen Chang participates in Security Services. 

OPTICAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

ASSOCIATION (OSTA)

OSTA is an international trade association dedicated

to promoting the use of writable optical technology

for storing computer data and images. Xiao Tang 

represents ITL. 

OPTICAL INTERNETWORKING FORUM (OIF)

The OIF fosters the development and deployment 

of interoperable products and services for data

switching and routing using optical networking 

technologies. David Su and David Griffith represent

ITL in the Architecture, Internetworking, and

Management groups.

PARALLEL TOOLS CONSORTIUM (PTOOLS)

Ptools brings together representatives from the federal,

industrial, and academic sectors to address the factors

that inhibit tool use and tool usability on parallel

computers. Gordon Lyon represents ITL.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 4 0

REAL-TIME JAVATM EXPERT GROUP

The Real-Time JavaTM Expert Group operates under 

the Sun MicrosystemTM Open Community Process.

Composed of industry representatives, the group is

creating a standard for real-time extensions for the

JavaTM platform. Alden Dima represents ITL on the

expert group, which bases its work on ITL’s publication, Requirements for Real-Time Extensions for the

JavaTM Platform. 

ROSETTANET eBUSINESS STANDARDS

CONSORTIUM

Founded in 1998, RosettaNet is an independent, 

self-funded, nonprofit consortium dedicated to the

development and deployment of standard electronic

commerce interfaces to align the processes between

IT supply chain partners on a global basis. 

Thomas Rhodes represents ITL.

SMART CARD SECURITY USERS GROUP

(SCSUG)

Organized in 1999 under the sponsorship of NIAP,

the SCSUG develops and promotes the use of standardized security requirements to ensure that the

device security and data protection needs of the

smart card end users are appropriately represented

and met in smart card products. The SCSUG is 

composed of the major worldwide credit card brands

(financial payment systems): American Express®,

Europay, JCB, MasterCard®, MondexTM, and Visa®.

Stuart Katzke represents ITL.

SOCIETY OF MOTION PICTURE AND

TELEVISION ENGINEERS (SMPTE)

SMPTE is an international technical society devoted

to advancing the theory and application of motionimaging technology. John Barkley, Andrew McCaffrey,

and Michael Koo participate on the Committee on

Data Essence Technology. Randall Easter attends the

Study Group on Conditional Access for Digital Cinema.

Charles Fenimore represents ITL on the Video Quality

Experts Group.

STANDARDS COMMITTEE T1,

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Committee T1 is sponsored by the Alliance for

Telecommunications Industry Solutions and accredited by the American National Standards Institute to

create network interconnections and interoperability

standards for the U.S. David Cypher and David Su 

participate; Su also attends T1X1, Digital Hierarchy

and Synchronization. Through these efforts, ITL 

helps to ensure the interoperability of 

telecommunications systems in the U.S.

U.S. BIOMETRIC CONSORTIUM

The Biometric Consortium serves as the U.S.

Government's focal point for research, development,

test, evaluation, and application of biometric-based

personal identification/verification technology.

Fernando Podio participates in the Common Biometric

Exchange File Format group. ITL was instrumental 

in the development of this standard.

VIDEO ELECTRONICS STANDARDS

ASSOCIATION (VESA) 

VESA promotes and develops timely, relevant, open

display and display interface standards, ensuring

interoperability and encouraging innovation and 

market growth. John Roberts represents ITL on four

committees in this organization. As a member of

VESA, ITL participates in the technical development

of standards and develops laboratory implementations

of proposed interface architectures. 
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 4 1

WEB3D CONSORTIUM

The Web3D Consortium provides an open forum for

the creation of open standards for Web3D specifications and accelerates the worldwide demand for 

products based on these standards through the 

sponsorship of market and user education programs.

Sandy Ressler represents ITL.

WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM (W3C)

The W3C is an international industry consortium 

created to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote

its evolution and ensure its interoperability. Mark

Skall serves on the Advisory Committee. ITL staff

members serve on a host of committees within 

this organization, including the Assurance Quality

Activity, the Document Object Model (DOM) Working

Group, the Schema Working Group, the Extensible

Stylesheet Language (XSL) Working Group, the

Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) Working Group, the XML

Working Group, and the SYMM Working Group. ITL’s

contributions facilitate the interoperability of the web.

X 9

X9 develops, establishes, publishes, maintains, and

promotes standards for the financial services industry

in order to facilitate delivery of financial products

and services. Morris Dworkin participates in X9F, Data

and Financial Information Security Committee, and

X9F.1, Cryptographic Tool Standards and Guidelines.

Elaine Barker, Lawrence Bassham, Sharon Keller, and

Annabelle Lee serve as Editors in X9F.1. Elaine Barker

attends X9F.3, Cryptographic Protocols, and

Annabelle Lee participates in X9F.5, Digital Signature

and Certificate Policy. ITL promotes the security of

the financial services industry through participation

in this forum.

To determine the viability of

gait as a biometric, NIST 

collaborated with University of

Notre Dame and University of 

S. Florida to stereoscopically

capture 100 individuals walking

an elliptical course on video.

The database allows the effect

of walking surface, shoe type,

and load on gait to be studied.

The images show a subject on

concrete and grass with and

without briefcase, view from two

angles.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 4 2

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 2001

MEDAL AND NIST AWARDS

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Team,

consisting of (first row) Morris Dworkin, Elaine

Barker, Larry Bassham, Edward Roback, (second row)

James Dray, William Burr, Miles Smid, James

Nechvatal, and Juan Soto (James Foti not pictured)

received the Gold Medal Award for Leadership in

developing the Advanced Encryption Standard. 

The team also received the RSA Public Policy Award

for significant contributions to the application 

of cryptographic technologies towards the 

advancement of personal privacy, civil justice, 

and basic human rights. 

Roldan Pozo and Ronald Boisvert, Mathematical and

Computational Sciences Division, received the Bronze

Medal Award for

their leadership in

technology transfer

introducing significant improvements

to the JavaTM programming language

and environment for

scientific computing

applications. 

Michael McCabe, Information

Access Division, received the

2001 NIST Edward Bennett

Rosa Award for outstanding

leadership in the development

of law enforcement image data

exchange standards. 

STAFF RECOGNITION
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 4 3

Robert Raybold, Gale Richter, Robert Glenn, Joe

Matusiewicz, and Jeff Gift (Robert Sorensen and

Sandy Yu not pictured) received the Bronze Medal

Award for their design and implementation of the

NIST network firewalls in Gaithersburg and Boulder. 

Joe Kau and

Audrey Houser,

Information

Services and

Computing

Division, were part

of a NIST team

selected to receive

a Bronze Medal

Award for successfully implementing CSTARS, a new

automated system to process acquisitions at NIST.

Peter Mell, Computer

Security Division, received

the Bronze Medal Award 

for conceiving, developing,

and fielding the Internet

Catalogue of Assailable

Technologies (ICAT) vulnerability database and search

engine.

EXTERNAL STAFF RECOGNITION

Christopher Dabrowski,

Software Diagnostics and

Conformance Testing

Division, received a 2000

Committee Management

Award from the National

Committee for Information

Technology Standards

(NCITS). The award 

recognizes Dabrowski's

outstanding leadership, as ISO/TC 211/WG 1

Convener, in the rapid progression of the ISO 19100

series of standards for Geographic Information

Systems (GIS). 

Raghu Kacker, Statistical

Engineering Division, was

elected a Fellow of the

American Society for

Quality. He was honored

for pioneering work in

advancing the application

of statistical sciences,

especially Taguchi 

methods, to quality,

measurement science, calibration, and interlaboratory comparisons. 

Anthony Kearsley,

Mathematical and

Computational Sciences

Division, was named a recipient of the prestigious Arthur

S. Flemming Award for 2001,

given each year to outstanding federal employees with

less than 15 years of federal

service. Kearsley was cited for

a sustained record of contributions to the development and use of large-scale optimization techniques for the solution of partial differential equations arising in science and engineering. 
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

PAGE 4 4

Frances Nielsen and Marianne Swanson, Computer

Security Division, received 2001 Federal 100 Awards

from Federal Computer Week for their role in developing the Information Technology Security Assessment

Framework for the Federal CIO Council. Federal 100

Awards recognize executives from government, 

industry, and academia who have made the greatest

impact on the government systems community 

in 2000.

John Roberts and the 

E-Book/Braille Reader

Development Team,

Convergent Information

Systems Division, received

a prestigious 2001 R&D

100 Award from R&D

Magazine. Roberts led the

project team that included,

over several years, Oliver

Slattery, Brent Swope, Dave Kardos, Edwin Mulkens,

Volker Min, Gina Rodgers, and Michael Sutton. Now 

in its 39th year, the international R&D 100 Awards

program selects 100 of the most important, unique,

and innovative technologies. 

Bonita V. Saunders,

Mathematical and

Computational Sciences

Division, presented the

2001 Claytor Lecture 

entitled Numerical 

Grid Generation and 3D

Visualization of Special

Functions on January 13,

2001. The National

Association of Mathematicians (NAM) inaugurated the

Claytor Lecture in 1980. Founded in 1969, NAM is a

non-profit professional organization whose mission is

"to promote excellence in the mathematical sciences

and promote the mathematical development of 

underrepresented American minorities."

Alan Dunn, a high-school summer intern in the

Computer Security Division, placed fourth in Intel's

Science Talent Search. Dunn's project was to optimize

the Advanced Encryption Standard finalist encryption

algorithm candidates for the AltiVec vector processor

of the Macintosh G4. He received a $25,000 

scholarship to the college of his choice. 
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a non-regulatory

federal agency within the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology

Administration. NIST's mission is to develop and promote measurement,

standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and

improve the quality of life. NIST carries out its mission through four 

interwoven programs:

NIST Laboratories that provide technical leadership for vital components 

of the nation's technology infrastructure needed by U.S. industry to 

continually improve its products and services; 

a highly visible quality outreach program associated with the Baldrige 

National Quality Program that recognizes business performance 

excellence and quality achievement by U.S. manufacturers, service 

companies, educational organizations, and health care providers; 

the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nationwide network of local 

centers offering technical and business assistance to smaller 

manufacturers; and 

the Advanced Technology Program, accelerating the development of 

innovative technologies for broad national benefit through R&D 

partnerships with the private sector. 

NIST has an operating budget of about $720 million and operates primarily in

two locations: Gaithersburg, Maryland and Boulder, Colorado. NIST employs

more than 3,200 scientists, engineers, technicians, business specialists, and

administrative personnel. The website is http://www.nist.gov.

About ITL

For more information about ITL, contact:

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8900

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8900

Telephone: (301) 975-2900

Facsimile: (301) 840-1357

E-mail: itlab@nist.gov

Web site: http://www.itl.nist.gov

NOTE: Reference to specific commercial products or brands is for information 

purposes only; no endorsement or recommendation by the National Institute of

Standards and Technology, explicit or implicit, is intended or implied.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, Java, and Jini are trademarks or 

registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other 

countries.

*Bluetooth SIG Inc. U.S.A. owns the Bluetooth trademarks.