About the National Science and Technology Council

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) was established by Executive Order on November

23, 1993. This Cabinet-level council is the principal means by which the President coordinates science,

space, and technology policies across the Federal government. NSTC coordinates the diverse parts of the

Federal research and development enterprise. An important objective of the NSTC is the establishment of

clear national goals for Federal science and technology investments in areas ranging from information

technologies and health research to improving transportation systems and strengthening fundamental

research. The Council prepares research and development strategies that are coordinated across Federal

agencies to form a comprehensive investment package that is aimed at accomplishing multiple national goals. 

The NSTC Web site is: www.nstc.gov. To obtain additional information regarding the NSTC, please contact

the NSTC Executive Secretariat at (202) 456-6100.

About the Office of Science and Technology Policy

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was established by the National Science and Technology

Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976. OSTP’s responsibilities include advising the President in

policy formulation and budget development on all questions in which science and technology are important

elements; articulating the President's science and technology policies and programs; and fostering strong

partnerships among Federal, state, and local governments, and the scientific communities in industry and

academe. The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology serves as the Director of the OSTP and

directs the NSTC on behalf of the President. 

The OSTP Web site is: www.ostp.gov. For additional information about OSTP, please call (202) 456-7116.

Copyright Information

This is a work of the U.S. Government and is in the public domain. It may be freely distributed and copied,

but it is requested that the National Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and

Development (NCO/IT R&D) be acknowledged.

To Request Additional Copies

To request additional copies of this Supplement to the President’s FY 2005 Budget or other publications of

the National Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and Development, please contact:

National Coordination Office for IT R&D, Suite II-405, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22230;

(703) 292-4873; fax: (703) 292-9097; e-mail: nco@nitrd.gov.

Buy American Report

Congress requires information concerning non-U.S. high-performance computing and communications

funding activities. In FY 2004, DARPA was the only NITRD agency that entered into grants, contracts,

cooperative agreements, or cooperative research and development agreements for information technology

research and development with either 1) a company other than a company that is either incorporated or

located in the U.S. and that has majority ownership by individuals who are citizens of the U.S., or 2) an

educational institution or nonprofit institution located outside the U.S. DARPA funded an IT researchrelated award of $1.076 million to Cambridge University, Cambridge (UK). In FY 2004, no NITRD

procurement exceeds $1 million for unmanufactured articles, materials, or supplies mined or produced

outside the U.S., or for manufactured articles, materials, or supplies other than those manufactured in the

U.S. substantially all from articles, materials, or supplies mined, produced, or manufactured in the U.S.
NETWORKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

GUIDE 

TO THE 

NITRD PROGRAM

FY 2004 - FY 2005

SUPPLEMENT

TO THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET

FOR FY 2005

A Report by the Interagency Working Group 

on Information Technology Research and Development

National Science and Technology Council

DECEMBER 2004

N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20502

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:

I am pleased to forward with this letter the annual report on the multi-agency Networking

and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program. This

Supplement to the President s Budget for Fiscal Year 2005 describes activities funded by

Federal NITRD agencies in the areas of advanced networking and information technologies. Investments in these fundamental technologies are continuing to fuel the engine of

innovation in science and technology innovation that is essential to the Nation s current

and future security and economic prosperity.

The impact of the NITRD Program is felt not only in the research communities directly

supported by NITRD funds, but also in a wide range of scientific and engineering research

efforts that span both Federal programs and the private sector. Multi-agency programs like

NITRD provide the Federal government the opportunity to maximize this impact through a

coordinated investment strategy, and this report provides a clear picture of the value of

such coordination.

The NITRD Program helps to assure that the United States continues to lead the world in

science and engineering by supporting fundamental research, education, and the development of new information technologies that continue to transform our economy and

enhance our standard of living. I am pleased to provide to you this report.

Sincerely,

John H. Marburger, III

Director
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

iv

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

THE NITRD AGENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

NITRD Research Interests of the Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

THE NITRD PROGRAM TODAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

IWG: Coordination and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Grand Challenges: IT Goals in the National Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

16 Illustrative Grand Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

IT ‘Hard Problem’ Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Members of PITAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

HIGH END COMPUTING – INFRASTRUCTURE AND APPLICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Definition of HEC I&A PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Benefits of HEC to U.S. Science and Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

HIGH END COMPUTING – RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Definition of HEC R&D PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Roadmaps for Federal HEC R&D in the Years Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

HEC PCAs: Coordination and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Multiagency ESMF Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

New HEC-URA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

High End Computing Revitalization Task Force (HECRTF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Excerpts From the HECRTF Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Key Recommendations of the HECRTF Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

HECRTF Proposed R&D Priorities to FY 2010 (table) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

HEC I&A and R&D Programs by Agency: 

Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Definition of HCI&IM PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

HCI&IM PCA: Coordination and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

HCI&IM R&D Programs by Agency: Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans .34

Table of Contents
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

v

LARGE SCALE NETWORKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Definition of LSN PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

LSN PCA: Coordination and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Agencies’ Current Networking R&D Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

LSN R&D Programs by Agency: Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans . . . .45

SOFTWARE DESIGN AND PRODUCTIVITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

Definition of SDP PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

SDP PCA: Coordination and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Scope of SDP R&D Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

SDP R&D Programs by Agency: Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans . . . .57

HIGH CONFIDENCE SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Definition of HCSS PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

HCSS PCA: Coordination and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

HCSS R&D Programs by Agency: Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans . . .66

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND WORKFORCE IMPLICATIONS OF IT 

AND IT WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Definition of SEW PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

SEW PCA: Coordination and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

SEW R&D Programs by Agency: Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans . . .76

INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP ON IT R&D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

IWG Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

PCA Coordinating Groups and Team Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Participation in Federal NITRD Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

AGENCY NITRD BUDGETS BY PROGRAM COMPONENT AREA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

AGENCY CONTACTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Buy American Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .inside front cover

Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .inside back cover

Cover Design and Imagery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .inside back cover
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

vi

Dedication

This Blue Book is dedicated to the memory of Frank D. Anger, an esteemed

research manager in the National Science Foundation. Frank died in an auto accident

on July 7, 2004. He was an active and dedicated participant in the NITRD Program

who, as co-chair of the Software Design and Productivity Coordinating Group,

vigorously championed the need for new engineering paradigms to improve the

quality, reliability, and ease of use of contemporary software. His grace, wisdom,

kindness, and unfailing good humor will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

1



Introduction

The Supplement to the President’s FY 2005 Budget reports on the FY 2004

research and development (R&D) activities and FY 2005 plans of the multiagency

Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD)

Program. A collaborative effort of many Federal agencies (listed on pages 2-3), the

NITRD Program is the Nation’s principal source of long-term, fundamental

information technology (IT) R&D, including advanced technologies in high-end

computing systems and software, high-speed networking, software assurance and

reliability, human-computer interaction, and information management, as well as

research in the socioeconomic and workforce development implications of these new

technologies.

Each year, the NITRD Supplement to the President’s Budget, also known as “the

Blue Book,” seeks to illuminate the breadth of the NITRD portfolio and the impact

of NITRD research advances on U.S. leadership in national defense and national

security, cutting-edge science and technology, and economic prosperity, and on

improving the quality of life for all Americans. 

This year’s Blue Book highlights the technical domains, called Program

Component Areas (PCAs), in which the NITRD agencies conduct IT research and

collaborate to achieve common goals. The report, based on information provided by

the agencies, is structured to serve as a detailed guide to the program, including both

collaborative and agency-by-agency activities in FY 2004 and plans for FY 2005. The

document begins with an overview of the NITRD Program, followed by sections on

each NITRD PCA. The NITRD budget request for FY 2005, by agency and by PCA,

appears on page 83, along with FY 2004 estimates.
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

2

The NITRD Agencies

National Science Foundation (NSF)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Department of Energy/Office of Science (DOE/SC)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

National Security Agency (NSA)

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security

Administration (DOE/NNSA)
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

3

NSF – supports basic research in all NITRD areas,

incorporates IT advances in science and engineering

applications, supports computing and networking

infrastructure for research, and educates world-class

scientists, engineers, and IT workforce professionals.

NIH – is applying the power of computing, both to

manage and analyze biomedical data and to model

biological processes, in its goal to develop the basic

knowledge for the understanding, diagnosis, treatment,

and prevention of human disease.

DOE/SC – is exploring, developing, and deploying

computational and networking tools that enable

researchers in the scientific disciplines to model, simulate,

analyze, and predict complex physical, chemical, and

biological phenomena important to DOE. The Office also

provides support for the geographically distributed

research teams and remote users of experimental facilities

whose work is critical to DOE missions. FY 2004 is the

fourth year of the Office’s Scientific Discovery through

Advanced Computing (SciDAC) initiative, which is

focused on the next generation of scientific simulation and

collaboration tools for the scientific areas that are the

focus of DOE research.

NASA – is extending U.S. technological leadership to

benefit the U.S. aeronautics, Earth and space science, and

spaceborne research communities.

DARPA – is focused on future-generations

computing, communications, and networking as well as

embedded software and control technologies, and human

use of information technologies in national defense

applications such as battlefield awareness.

NSA – is addressing some of the most challenging

problems in the country in computing, storage,

communications, networking, and information assurance

in order to help ensure our national security.

AHRQ – focuses on research into state-of-the-art IT

for use in health care applications such as computer-based

patient records, clinical decision support systems, and

standards for patient care data, information access, and

telehealth.

NIST – is working with industry and with educational

and government organizations to make IT systems more

useable, secure, scalable, and interoperable; to apply IT

in specialized areas such as manufacturing and

biotechnology; and to encourage private-sector

companies to accelerate development of IT innovations.

It also conducts fundamental research that facilitates

measurement, testing, and the adoption of industry

standards.

NOAA – is an early adopter of emerging computing

technologies for improved climate modeling and weather

forecasting, and of emerging communications

technologies for disseminating weather forecasts,

warnings, and environmental information to users such as

policymakers, emergency managers, industry, and the

general public.

EPA – has the IT research goal of facilitating

multidisciplinary ecosystem modeling, risk assessment,

and environmental decision making at the Federal, state,

and local levels, and by other interested parties, through

advanced use of computing and other information

technologies.

DOE/NNSA – is developing new means of assessing

the performance of nuclear weapon systems, predicting

their safety and reliability, and certifying their

functionality through high-fidelity computer models and

simulations.

Other Participating Agencies

Other Federal agencies participate in networking and

information technology research and development,

and/or coordinate with NITRD activities, using funds

that are not budgeted under the program. These agencies

include:

• Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

• Department of Defense/High Performance Computing

Modernization Program Office (DoD/HPCMPO)

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

• General Services Administration (GSA)

• Office of Naval Research (ONR)

NITRD Research Interests of the Agencies
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

4

The NITRD Program Today

One of the few formal multiagency enterprises in the

Federal government, the Networking and Information

Technology Research and Development (NITRD)

Program was chartered by Congress under the HighPerformance Computing Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-194) and

the Next Generation Internet Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-305)

to improve coordination and cooperation among agencies

engaged in IT R&D. 

Over the past 13 years, the scope of the agencies’

collaborative activities has evolved and expanded to

encompass emerging technological fields – such as

wireless and optical networking, cybersecurity, highassurance software and systems, and embedded systems –

that did not yet exist when the program began. The

successful NITRD collaboration has come to be viewed as

a model Federal research effort that leverages agency

strengths, avoids duplication, and fosters interoperable

systems that maximize the benefits of Federal IT R&D

investments to both agency missions and private-sector

innovation.

Today, the NITRD Program remains the Nation’s

primary source of not only fundamental technological

breakthroughs but also highly skilled human resources in

the advanced computing, networking, software, and

information management technologies that underpin our

21st century infrastructure and quality of life. NITRD’s

broad impact derives in part from its highly diversified and

multidisciplinary research strategy, which funds

fundamental scientific investigations across Federal

laboratories and centers, research universities, nonprofit

organizations, and partnerships with industry.

Goals of the NITRD Program 

The NITRD Program provides agencies that perform

IT R&D with a framework to plan, budget, coordinate,

implement, and assess their research agendas. The

program is an R&D priority of the Administration that is a

distinct feature in the President’s annual budget. NITRD’s

signal role in supporting the national interest is reflected

in the program’s goals, which are to:

• Assure continued U.S. leadership in computing,

networking, and information technologies to meet

Federal goals and to support U.S. 21st century

academic, industrial, and government interests

• Accelerate deployment of advanced and experimental

information technologies to maintain world leadership in

science, engineering, and mathematics; improve the

quality of life; promote long-term economic growth;

increase lifelong learning; protect the environment;

harness IT; and enhance national security

• Advance U.S. productivity and industrial

competitiveness through long-term scientific and

engineering research in computing, networking, and

related information technologies

Management and Structure

The NITRD Program functions under the aegis of the

National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). Overall

program coordination at the operational level is provided

by the Interagency Working Group on IT R&D (IWG/IT

R&D), made up of senior managers from each of the

NITRD agencies and representatives of the Office of

Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of

Management and Budget (OMB). (See roster on page 81.)

The IWG, which is co-chaired by an agency representative

(currently, NSF’s Assistant Director for the Computer and

Information Science and Engineering Directorate) and the

Director of the National Coordination Office (NCO) for

IT R&D, meets quarterly to coordinate NITRD policies,

programs, and budget planning.

Program Component Areas (PCAs)

At the core of the NITRD enterprise are seven

research domains called Program Component Areas

(PCAs). The PCAs, which have evolved over time as the

ambit of information technology has expanded, encompass
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

5

In FY 2004, the IWG is leading several

major coordination initiatives in addition

to its regular program oversight

activities. As part of its ongoing responsibility to review

the NITRD structure periodically and evaluate the need

for program updating, the working group:

• Charged the NITRD agencies to report on their FY

2004 program activities, highlighting interagency

collaborations and plans, and to present their views on

research gaps and/or issues in the NITRD structure at

Special Meetings of all the CGs 

• Charged each CG to review the results of its Special

Meeting and, using those results, to develop a definition

of the PCA that reflects participating agencies’ current

research investments and interests

• Established a PCA/CG Task Group to coordinate

review of the new PCA definitions, evaluate the need

for changes in the PCA/CG structure based on agency

comments, and make recommendations to the IWG

• In coordination with OMB, authorized preparation of an

Interagency Coordination Report (ICR) that would

provide technical details of NITRD Program

collaborative activities on an annual basis

Also in FY 2004, the IWG Issued “Grand Challenges:

Science, Engineering, and Societal Advances Requiring

Networking and Information Technology Research and

Development,” a report by a multiagency NITRD task

force that spent a year on the effort (story on page 6).

Research Linkages

The PCA/CG Task Group, based on its review of

agency perspectives, identified two areas – cybersecurity

issues and interoperability standards – that cross PCA

boundaries in the current coordination structure. The task

group recommended, and the IWG approved, setting up

“temporary linkage groups” enabling agencies across PCAs

with an interest in these or future crosscutting subjects to

meet and plan activities on an ad hoc basis.

PCA Definitions and FY 2004 Programs

This Supplement to the President’s Budget provides

the new one-page PCA definitions developed by the CGs

as well as FY 2004 program activities reported by each

agency at the Special Meetings. The document also

summarizes coordinated activities in each PCA reported

by the CG and participating agencies. The IWG’s full

Interagency Coordination Report is available on the NCO

web site, at www.nitrd.gov/pubs/icr/.

the principal areas of mission-related IT research engaged

in by the NITRD agencies. The PCAs are:

• High-end Computing (HEC), with two PCAs:

– HEC Infrastructure and Applications (I&A)

– HEC Research and Development (R&D)

• Human Computer Interaction and Information

Management (HCI&IM)

• Large Scale Networking (LSN)

• Software Design and Productivity (SDP)

• High Confidence Software and Systems (HCSS)

• Social, Economic, and Workforce Implications of IT and

IT Workforce Development (SEW)

In each PCA, program managers from NITRD

agencies with R&D in that area and from other agencies

interested in the topic participate in a Coordinating Group

(CG). The CGs meet monthly to share information,

develop collaborative activities, and coordinate their

PCA’s overall research agenda. The CGs report to the

IWG, serving as the link between the coordinating body

and research activities at the agency program level. CG

chairs are listed on page 81.

National Coordination Office for IT R&D

The NCO provides technical and administrative

support for the interagency NITRD Program, including

extensive activities on behalf of the IWG and planning,

budget, and assessment tasks for the program as a whole.

The NCO also supports the President’s Information

Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), an external,

non-government panel appointed by the President to

provide independent reviews and guidance on IT R&Drelated topics (story on page 7). The NCO supported the

work of the High End Computing Revitalization Task

Force and is helping coordinate implementation of the

HECRTF plan (details on pages 14-16). The NSF serves as

the NCO’s host agency. Information about NITRD and

PITAC, and copies of NITRD documents, are posted on

the NCO web site:www.nitrd.gov.

IWG: Coordination and Activities

IWG

Highlights
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

6

Grand Challenges: IT Goals in the National Interest

In FY 2003, the IWG established a Grand Challenges Task

Force and charged it with identifying a set of science,

engineering, and societal challenges that require innovations

in IT R&D. The charge to formulate a new set of grand

challenges was a direct response to update the list of grand

challenges in IT called for in the HPC Act of 1991 and

documented in the FY 1994 Blue Book. The Task Force

comprised volunteers from ten NITRD agencies, FAA, the

NCO, and OSTP. The group completed its work in 

FY 2004.

The Task Force began by revising the HPC Act’s definition

of “grand challenge,” taking into account the impact of

current technological advances. The new definition of a

NITRD grand challenge is as follows: 

A long-term science, engineering, or societal advance,

whose realization requires innovative breakthroughs in

information technology research and development and

which will help address our country’s priorities.

Key criteria for defining the grand challenges included:

• Description of the multi-decade nature of the challenge

• Focus of the grand challenge in the next ten years

• Benefits of the grand challenge to the social, economic,

political, scientific, and technological well-being of

mankind

• Relationship of the grand challenge to vital national

priorities. In consultation with OSTP, the Task Force

identified six national priority areas that reflect the

country’s broad-based scientific, military, social,

economic, and political values and goals. The national

priorities identified are: Leadership in Science and

Technology; Homeland and National Security; Health and

Environment; Economic Prosperity; A Well-Educated

Populace; and A Vibrant Civil Society.

The Task Force formulated 16 new illustrative grand

challenges (below) mapped to these criteria and designed to

stimulate multidisciplinary thinking. The goal was to create a

set of visionary research attainments that would test the

intellectual aspirations of the Nation’s researchers, asking

them to reach for possibilities beyond their understanding

today or in the next decade.

The Task Force then considered what fundamental IT

research will be required to enable realization of each of the

16 grand challenge goals. Out of this discussion came a list of

14 “IT hard problem areas” – broad topical categories of

research in which solutions or advances are required to

achieve progress toward the grand challenge goals. Each IT

hard problem area was mapped to the relevant challenges.

The resulting Task Force document is the first NITRD

report of its kind. It is available on the NCO web site, at:

www.nitrd.gov/GCs/.

• Knowledge Environments for Science and

Engineering

• Clean Energy Production Through Improved

Combustion

• High Confidence Infrastructure Control Systems

• Improved Patient Safety and Health Quality

• Informed Strategic Planning for Long-Term Regional

Climate Change

• Nanoscale Science and Technology: Explore and

Exploit the Behavior of Ensembles of Atoms and

Molecules

• Predicting Pathways and Health Effects of Pollutants

• Real-Time Detection, Assessment, and Response to

Natural or Man-Made Threats

• Safer, More Secure, More Efficient, Higher-Capacity,

Multi-Modal Transportation System

• Anticipate Consequences of Universal Participation

in a Digital Society

• Collaborative Intelligence: Integrating Humans with

Intelligent Technologies

• Generating Insights From Information at Your

Fingertips

• Managing Knowledge-Intensive Organizations in

Dynamic Environments

• Rapidly Acquiring Proficiency in Natural Languages

• SimUniverse: Learning by Exploring

• Virtual Lifetime Tutor for All

• Algorithms and Applications

• Complex Heterogeneous

Systems

• Hardware Technologies

• High Confidence IT 

• High-End Computing

• Human Augmentation IT

• Information Management

• Intelligent Systems

• IT System Design

• IT Usability

• IT Workforce

• Management of IT

• Networks

• Software Technologies

16 Illustrative NITRD Grand Challenges

IT ‘Hard Problem’ Areas
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

7

President’s Information technology Advisory Committee

Members of PITAC

Co-Chairs

Marc R. Benioff

Chairman and CEO

Salesforce.com, Inc.

Edward D. Lazowska, Ph.D.

Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in

Computer Science

Department of Computer Science

and Engineering

University of Washington

Members

Ruzena Bajcsy, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Information

Technology Research in the Interest of

Society (CITRIS) and Professor

University of California, Berkeley

J. Carter Beese, Jr.

President

Riggs Capital Partners

Pedro Celis, Ph.D.

Software Architect

Microsoft Corporation

Patricia Thomas Evans

President and CEO

Global Systems Consulting Corporation

Manuel A. Fernandez

Managing Director

SI Ventures/Gartner

Luis E. Fiallo

President

Fiallo and Associates, LLC

José-Marie Griffiths, Ph.D.

Professor and Dean

School of Information and 

Library Science

University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill

William J. Hannigan

President

AT&T

Jonathan C. Javitt, M.D.,

M.P.H.

Senior Fellow

Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

Judith L. Klavans, Ph.D.

Director of Research, Center for the

Advanced Study of Language, and

Research Professor

College of Library and Information

Science, University of Maryland

F. Thomson Leighton, Ph.D.

Chief Scientist

Akamai Technologies, and

Professor of Applied Mathematics

Massachusetts Institute of

Technology

Harold Mortazavian, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Advanced Scientific Research, Inc.

Randall D. Mott

Senior Vice President and CIO

Dell Computer Corporation

Peter M. Neupert

Chairman of the Board

Drugstore.com, Inc.

Eli M. Noam, Ph.D.

Professor and Director of the Columbia

Institute for Tele-Information

Columbia University

David A. Patterson, Ph.D.

Professor and E.H. and M.E. Pardee

Chair of Computer Science

University of California, Berkeley

Alice G. Quintanilla

President and CEO

Information Assets Management,Inc.

Daniel A. Reed, Ph.D.

Chancellor’s Eminent Professor, Vice

Chancellor for Information Technology

and CIO, and Director, Institute for

Renaissance Computing

Department of Computer Science

University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill

Eugene H. Spafford, Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Center for

Education and Research in

Information Assurance and Security

(CERIAS)

Purdue University

David H. Staelin, Sc.D.

Professor of Electrical Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of

Technology

Peter S. Tippett, M.D., Ph.D.

CTO and Vice-Chairman

TruSecure Corporation

Geoffrey Yang

Managing Director

Redpoint Ventures

The President’s Information Technology

Advisory Committee (PITAC) is appointed

by the President to provide independent

expert advice on maintaining America’s preeminence in

advanced information technology. PITAC members are IT

leaders in industry and academe with expertise relevant to

critical elements of the national information infrastructure

such as high-performance computing, large-scale

networking, and high-assurance software and systems design.

The Committee’s studies help guide the Administration’s

efforts to accelerate the development and adoption of

information technologies vital for American prosperity.

Chartered by Congress under the High-Performance

Computing Act of 1991 and the Next Generation Internet Act

of 1998, the PITAC is a Federal Advisory Committee formally

renewed through Presidential Executive Orders. The current

Committee held its first meeting November 12, 2003.

In June 2004, the PITAC delivered its first report –

“Revolutionizing Health Care Through Information

Technology” – to the President, following eight months of

study by its Subcommittee on Health and IT. The report

concludes that although the potential of IT to improve the

delivery of care while reducing costs is enormous, concerted

national leadership is essential to achieving this objective.

The PITAC study focuses on specific barriers to the

nationwide implementation of health IT that can only be

addressed by the Federal government.

The report offers 12 specific recommendations for

Federal research and actions to enable development of 21st

century electronic medical records systems. At the core of

such systems is the concept of a secure, patient-centered

electronic health record (EHR) that: 1) safeguards personal

privacy; 2) uses standardized medical terminology that can

be correctly read by any care provider and incorporated into

computerized tools to support medical decision making; 3)

eliminates today’s dangers of illegible handwriting and

missing patient information; and 4) can be transferred as a

patient’s care requires over a secure communications

infrastructure for electronic information exchange.

Two other PITAC subcommittees – on Cyber Security

and Computational Science – have been charged by OSTP to

review and evaluate Federal R&D investments in these areas

to assess whether they are appropriately balanced between

long-term and short-term efforts and effectively focused to

achieve maximum benefits. Reports on these topics are to be

presented to the Administration in FY 2005.

PITAC

Highlights
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

8

High-End Computing

Infrastructure and Applications

HEC I&A Agencies

NSF 

NIH

DOE/SC

NASA

DOE/NNSA

NOAA

NIST

EPA

HEC I&A PCA Budget Crosscut

FY 2004 estimate FY 2005 Request

DoD/HPCMPO $516.2 M $505.7 M

The facilities and activities funded under

the NITRD Program’s HEC I&A PCA

include R&D infrastructure and research

and development to extend the state of

the art in computing systems, science and engineering

applications, and data management, keeping the U.S. at

the forefront of 21st century science and engineering

discoveries. HEC researchers develop, deploy, and apply

the most advanced hardware, systems, and applications

software to model and simulate objects and processes in

biology, chemistry, environmental sciences, materials

science, nanoscale science and technology, and physics;

address complex and computationally intensive national

security applications; and perform large-scale data fusion

and knowledge engineering. For scientific researchers in

every field, these advanced computing capabilities have

become a prerequisite for discovery.

The R&D that produces these capabilities requires

collaborations across Federal and academic institutions,

industry, and the international research community.

Interdisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, and

software specialists design and maintain the large,

complex body of applications software. The largest and

fastest computational platforms available are required

because of the great range of space scales (from subatomic to supernova) and time scales (such as nanosecond

to multi-century climate shifts) in the models and

simulations. Modeling and simulation produce vast

amounts of data that require leading-edge storage and

visualization technologies. 

Even with skilled teams and leading-edge technologies,

however, today’s HEC systems remain for the most part

fragile and difficult to use. Specialized systems and

applications software are needed to distribute calculations

across hundreds or thousands of processors in a variety of

massively parallel systems. Computational scientists are

faced with a proliferation of architectures and variety of

programming paradigms, resulting in a multitude of

questions that must be addressed and tasks that must be

performed in order to implement a modeling or

simulation algorithm on any specific system architecture.

But while this work progresses, advances in the size and

speed of computing systems open up opportunities to

increase the size, scale, complexity, and even nature of

the modeling and simulation problems that can be

addressed. The result is that a new cycle of systems and

applications software R&D is required to enable scientists

to take advantage of the increased computing power.

To maintain or accelerate the pace of scientific

discovery, HEC I&A efforts are needed to develop

breakthroughs in algorithm R&D, advances in systems

software, improved programming environments, and

computing infrastructure for development of the nextgeneration applications that will serve Federal agency

missions. Focus areas include, but are not limited to,

cyberinfrastructure tools to facilitate high-end

computation, storage, and visualization of large data sets

encountered in the biomedical sciences, climate modeling

and weather forecasting, crisis management,

computational aerosciences, Earth and space sciences, and

a wide range of other human activities.

Broad Areas of HEC I&A Concern 

• Algorithm R&D

• Data management and understanding

Definition 

of 

HEC I&A 

PCA

Participating 

Agency
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

9

Benefits of HEC Applications to U.S. Science and Engineering

Excerpt from a table in the “Federal Plan for High-End Computing” illustrating the critical role of HEC I&A in future scientific advances.

• Programming environments

• Scientific applications

• Computational facilities

Technical Goals

• Understand the interaction between applications and

architectures

• Provide mathematical and computational methods

needed for critical mission agency applications

• Provide technology base for next-generation data

management and visualization

• Enable new generations of mission agency computational

applications

• Provide measures of progress

• Reduce time and cost in HEC procurements 

• Reduce cost of ownership of HEC systems

Illustrative Technical Thrusts 

• Scientific discovery through advanced computing

• Cyberinfrastructure

• Leadership computing

• System monitoring and evaluation

• Integrated end-to-end data management

• Visualization clusters

• Common procurement methodology

Application Area Science Challenge Potential at 100-1,000 Times Current HEC Capability

Astrophysics Simulation of astrophysical environments such as

stellar interiors and supernovae.

Yield understanding of the conditions leading to the origin of

the heavy elements in the universe.

Nuclear Physics

Realistic simulations of the characteristics of the

quark-gluon plasma.

By developing a quantitative understanding of the behavior of

this new phase of nuclear matter, facilitate its experimental

discovery in heavy ion collisions.

Catalyst Science/ 

Nanoscale Science 

and Technology

Calculations of homogeneous and heterogeneous

catalyst models in solution.

Reduce energy costs and emissions associated with chemicals

manufacturing and processing. Meet Federally mandated NOx

levels in automotive emissions.

Nanoscale Science

and Technology

Simulate and predict mechanical and magnetic

properties of simple nanostructured materials.

Enable the discovery and design of new advanced materials for

a wide variety of applications impacting many industries.

Simulation of

Aerospace Vehicle

in Flight

Simulate a full aerospace vehicle mission, such as a

full aircraft in maneuver or an RLV in ascent or

descent.

Reduce aerospace vehicle development time and improve

performance, safety, and reliability.

Structural and 

Systems Biology

Simulations of enzyme catalysis, protein folding,

and transport of ions through cell membranes.

Provide ability to discover, design, and test pharmaceuticals for

specific targets and to design and produce hydrogen and other

energy feedstock more efficiently.

Signal Transduction

Pathways

Develop atomic-level computational models and

simulations of complex biomolecules to explain

and predict cell signal pathways and their

disrupters.

Yield understanding of initiation of cancer and other diseases

and treatments on a molecular level; prediction of changes in

ability of microorganisms to influence natural biogeochemical

cycles such as carbon cycling and global change.

Signal & Image

Processing &

Automatic Target

Recognition

Replace electromagnetic scattering field tests of

actual targets with numerical simulations of virtual

targets.

Design more stealthy aircraft, ships, and ground systems and

create the ability to rapidly model new targets, enabling more

rapid adaptation of fielded weapon systems’ ability to target

new enemy weapon systems.

Climate Science

Resolve additional physical processes such as

ocean eddies, land use patterns, and clouds in

climate and weather prediction models.

Provide U.S. policymakers with leading-edge scientific data to

support policy decisions. Improve understanding of climate

change mechanisms and reduce uncertainty in the projections

of climate change.

Solid Earth Science Improved statistical forecasts of earthquake hazards

(fault-rupture probabilities and ground motion).

Provide prioritized retrofit strategies. Reduced loss of life and

property. Damage mitigation.

Magnetic Fusion

Energy

Optimize balance between self-heating of plasma

and heat leakage caused by electromagnetic

turbulence.

Support U.S. decisions about future international fusion

collaborations. Integrated simulations of burning plasma crucial

for quantifying prospects for commercial fusion.

Combustion

Science

Understand interactions between combustion and

turbulent fluctuations in burning fluid.

Understand detonation dynamics (for example, engine knock)

in combustion systems. Solve the “soot” problem in diesel

engines.
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

10

High-End Computing

Research and Development

NSF DOE/NNSA NOAA

DOE/SC NSA NASA

DARPA NIH NIST

The activities funded under the HEC

R&D PCA include research and

development to optimize the

performance of today’s high-end

computing systems and to develop future generations of

high-end computing systems. These systems are critical to

addressing Federal agency mission needs and in turn many

of society’s most challenging large-scale computational

problems.

Most high-end systems are clusters of processor nodes

developed for the commercial computing market for use

in personal computers and Web servers, and are not

specifically targeted for HEC computing. Although the

“peak” performance of these processors has followed

Moore’s Law, increasing more than five orders of

magnitude in speed in the last decade, the sustained

performance of scientific applications measured as a

fraction of the peak value has continued to decline. Two

reasons for this decline are: (1) these HEC systems are

hundreds of times larger than those used in commercial

applications and require a highly specialized software

infrastructure to use effectively, and (2) the current HEC

systems are unbalanced in that they do not have the

optimal ratios of system parameters such as computation

rate versus memory bandwidth.

To remedy this situation, HEC R&D supports both

hardware and software R&D specifically aimed at

scientific and national security applications. HEC R&D

focuses on teraflop- through petaflop-scale systems and

computation. Research activities in this area seek

fundamental, long-term advances in technologies to

maintain and extend the U.S. lead in computing for

generations to come. Current research focuses on

advanced computing architectures, software technologies

and tools for high-end computing, mass storage

technologies, and molecular, nano-, optical, quantum, and

superconducting technologies.

HEC R&D engages collaborative research teams from

academic institutions, national laboratories, and industrial

partners in the development of new architectures that are

well suited for algorithms used in scientific applications.

HEC R&D supports fundamental investigations in

memory, interconnect, and storage technologies in order

to improve system balance. HEC R&D involves research

across the entire spectrum of software issues – operating

systems, languages, compilers, libraries, development

environments, and algorithms – necessary to allow

scientific applications to use the hardware effectively and

efficiently. In addition, HEC R&D supports system

modeling and performance analysis, which enable

researchers to better understand the interaction between

the computational requirements of applications and the

performance characteristics of any proposed new high-end

architectures.

Broad Areas of HEC R&D Concern 

• Hardware architecture, memory, and interconnects

• Power, cooling, and packaging

• I/O and storage

• Comprehensive system software environment

• Programming models and languages

• System modeling and performance analysis

• Reliability, availability, serviceability, and security

HEC R&D Agencies HEC R&D PCA Budget Crosscut

FY 2004 estimate FY 2005 Request

DoD/HPCMPO $355.1 M $317.5 M

Definition 

of 

HEC R&D 

PCA

Participating 

Agency
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

11

Hardware

Software

Systems

“Federal Plan for High-End Computing” roadmaps outline mid-term and long-term R&D advances required to revitalize U.S. HEC leadership.

Roadmaps for Federal HEC R&D in the Years Ahead

Technical goals

• Parallel architecture designed for scientific application

requirements

• Parallel I/O and file systems for sustained high data

throughput

• Systems scalable to hundreds of thousands of processors

• Reliable and fault-tolerant systems

• Improved programming model expressability and

parallel compiler support

• Effective performance measurement, optimization tools

• Improved ease of use and time to solution

Illustrative technical Thrusts 

• Parallel component architecture

• Parallel I/O and high-performance file systems

• Next-generation architecture

• Extreme-scale operating and runtime systems

• Global address space language

• Software infrastructure tools

• Development and runtime performance tools

• High-productivity computer systems

• Quantum computing

Component Near- to Mid-Term Long-Term

Microarchitecture Prototype microprocessors developed for HEC systems available Innovative post-silicon technology optimized for HEC 

Interconnect

technologies

Interconnect technology based upon optical interconnect and

electrical switches 

All-optical interconnect technology for HEC

Memory Memory systems developed for HEC needs. Accelerated

introduction of PIMs

Revolutionary high-bandwidth memory at petaflop scale

Power, Cooling, and

Packaging

Stacked 3-D memory and advanced cooling technologies address

critical design limitations

Ability to address high-density packaging throughout the

entire system

I/O and storage Petaflop-scale file systems with RAS focused on HEC requirements Revolutionary approaches to exascale “file systems”

Component Near- to Mid-Term Long-Term

System architecture

Three or more systems capable of sustained petaflops (up to

100,000 processors or more) on wider range of applications.

Programming much simpler at large scale. Emergence of adaptable

self-tuning systems.

High-end systems capable of sustained 10 to 100 petaflops

on majority of applications. Programmable by majority of

scientists and engineers. Adaptable self-tuning systems

commonplace.

System modeling 

and performance

analysis

Accurate models/tools for HEC systems and applications. Tools and

benchmarks provide better understanding of

architecture/application interactions.

Models enable analysis, prediction of software behavior.

Automated, intelligent performance and analysis tools and

benchmarks widely available, easy to use.

Programming models

Research implementations of novel parallel computing models.

“Non-heroic” programming: MPI follow-on for 1,,024 processors

and robust DSM implementations (UPC, CAF, ...) widespread and

available for 1,024 processors.

Parallel computing models that effectively and efficiently

match new or planned architectures with applications. Novel

parallel computation paradigms foster new architectures and

new programming language features.

Reliability, availability,

and serviceability

(RAS) + Security

Semi-automatic ability to run through faults. Enhanced prevention

of intrusion and insider attack.

Self-awareness: reliability no longer requires user assistance.

Systems will have verifiable multilevel secure environments.

Component Near- to Mid-Term Long-Term

Operating systems

(OSs) New research-quality HEC OSs that address scalability and

reliability 

Production-quality, fault-tolerant, scalable OSs

Languages,

compilers, and

libraries

Optimized for ease of development on selected HEC systems.

Research-quality implementations of new HEC languages,

supporting multiple levels of abstraction for optimization.

High-level algorithm-aware languages and compilers for

automated portability across all classes of HEC systems

Software tools and

development 

environments

Interoperable tools with improved ease of use across a wide range

of systems. First research-quality IDEs available for HEC systems.

IDEs that support seamless transition from desktop to

largest HEC systems

Algorithms

New multiscale algorithms suitable for HEC systems. Initial

prototypes of architecture-independent parallel computations.

Automatic parallelization of algorithms for irregular and

unbalanced scientific problems. Scaling up of parallel

algorithms to enable detailed simulations of physical systems.
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

12

HEC PCAs: Coordination and Activities

The HEC Coordinating Group (CG)

coordinates activities funded under both

the HEC I&A and HEC R&D PCAs. The

CG provides a forum in which Federal agency program

managers coordinate and collaborate on HEC research

programs and on implementation of Federal high-end

computing activities. The HEC CG is charged with:

• Encouraging and facilitating interagency coordination

and collaborations in HEC I&A and R&D programs

• Addressing requirements for high-end computing

technology, software, infrastructure, and management

by fostering Federal R&D efforts

• Providing mechanisms for cooperation in HEC R&D and

user access among Federal agencies, government

laboratories, academia, industry, application

researchers, and others

The HEC CG held a Special Meeting on March 19,

2004, with presentations and program descriptions from

ten Federal agencies: DARPA, DoD/HPCMPO,

DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC, EPA, NASA, NIST, NOAA,

NSA, and NSF. The meeting enabled the agencies to

identify opportunities for collaboration and coordination,

areas for HEC CG focus, and areas – such as open source

software – whose scope is broader than the HEC CG’s.

Multiagency Interests and Collaborations

The HEC agencies reported the following common

interests, collaborations, and commitments across a wide

range of topics, including:

• Acquisition coordination: DoD/HPCMPO,

DOE/NNSA, NASA

• Air-quality modeling applications: DOE/SC, EPA,

NOAA

• Applied research for end-to-end systems development:

NASA, NOAA, NSF

• Benchmarking and performance modeling:

DoD/HPCMPO, DOE/SC, NASA, NSA, NSF 

• Connectivity and technology delivery to universities:

NOAA, NSF

• Climate and weather applications: DOE/SC, NASA,

NOAA, NSF 

• Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF): DOE/SC,

NASA, NOAA, NSF/NCAR (details on next page)

• Grid demonstrations: DOE/SC, NOAA, NSF

• Hardware development: DARPA, DOE/NNSA, NSA

• HECRTF: DoD/HPCMPO, DoD/OSD, DOE/NNSA,

DOE/SC, EPA, NASA, NIST, NOAA, NSA, NSF

• HEC-URA: DARPA, DOE/SC, NSA, NSF (details on

next page)

• HPCS Phase II: DARPA, DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC,

NASA, NSA, NSF

• HPCS productivity metrics: DARPA, DoD/HPCMPO,

DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC, NASA, NSA, NSF

• Joint memo expecting open source software and Service

Oriented Data Access (SODA) for work funded at DOE

labs: DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC

• MOU among HPCS mission partners for joint planning,

coordination of directions, and leveraging each other’s

activities: DARPA, DoD/OSD, DOE/NNSA,

DOE/SC, NSA

• National Research Council study on the “Future of

Supercomputing”: DOE/SC, DOE/NNSA (report

expected in 2004)

• Optical switches and interconnects: DARPA,

DOE/NNSA, NSA

• Quantum information science: DARPA, NIST, NSA 

• Reviews of SV2 [procurements?]: DOE/NNSA, NSA

[and DOE/SC?]

• Quarterly reviews of Cray X1e/Black Widow R&D

programs: DoD/HPCMPO, DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC,

NRO, NASA, NSA

• Reviews of ASC White and ASC Q software

environments: DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC

• Single photon sources: DARPA, NIST

• Spray cooling: DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC

• Standards: DoD/HPCMPO, NIST, NOAA, NSA

• Technology transfer from universities: DoD/HPCMPO,

DOE/NNSA

• Testbeds: DoD/HPCMPO, DARPA, NIST, NOAA,

NSA

• Unified Parallel Compiler (UPC): DOE/SC, NSA

• Weather research and forecast (WRF): NOAA,

NSF/NCAR

HEC

Highlights
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

13

DARPA, DOE/SC, NSA, and NSF

collaboratively developed the HECUniversity Research Activity (HECURA) launched in FY 2004 as an outgrowth of the

HECRTF effort. The initiative funds universities to

conduct research in software specifically for high-end

computing. The strategy is to invest in:

• Basic and applied research to refill the academic pipeline

with new ideas and people

• Advanced development of component and subsystem

technologies

• Engineering and prototype development

– Integration at the system level

– Development of new technologies 

• Test and evaluation to reduce the risk for development,

engineering, and government procurement

Research emphases include DOE/SC and DARPA

efforts on runtime operating systems for extreme-scale

scientific computations and the NSF and DARPA focus on

languages, compilers, and libraries for high-end

computing. The agencies will participate in annual topic

selections, solicitations, peer review selections, PI

meetings, and the overall execution of this activity.

Selections will be in accordance with individual agency

requirements. Both university and industry researchers

will be invited to make proposals.

In its first year, the HEC-URA is focused on software

R&D to build a critical mass in research teams, advance

the field toward 2010/2015 HEC software, avoid

duplication, share lessons learned, and develop links

between basic research and advanced development and

engineering.

Another broad-based FY 2004 NITRD

activity that involves collaboration among

multiple Federal agencies and

coordination across multiple CGs, including HEC and

SDP, is the building of the Earth System Modeling

Framework (ESMF). Initiated by NASA researchers to

develop tools enabling broader scientific use of the

agency’s extraordinary Earth data collections, the effort

has become a key R&D component of Federal climate

research across many organizations.

The ESMF is a high-performance, flexible software

infrastructure designed to increase ease of use,

performance portability, interoperability, and reuse in

climate, numerical weather prediction, data assimilation,

and other Earth science applications. The ESMF is an

architecture for composing multi-component applications

and includes data structures and utilities for developing

model components. The goal is to create a framework

usable by individual researchers as well as major

operational and research centers, and to engage the

weather research community in its development.

The ESMF addresses the challenge of building

increasingly interdisciplinary Earth systems models and the

need to maximize the performance of the models on a

variety of computer architectures, especially those using

upwards of thousands of processors. The new structure

allows physical, chemical, and biological scientists to focus

on implementing their specific model components.

Software engineers design and implement the associated

infrastructure and superstructure, allowing for a seamless

linkage of the various scientific components.

The following agency organizations collaborate:

• NSF-supported National Center for Atmospheric

Research (NCAR)

• NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

(GFDL)

• NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Prediction

(NCEP)

• DoD’s Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA)

• DoD’s High Performance Computing Modernization

Program Office (HPCMPO) 

• DoD’s Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

• DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Los

Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

• NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

• NASA Goddard Global Modeling and Assimilation Office

(GGMAO)

• NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)

• NASA Goddard Land Information Systems project

(GLIS)

ESMF Version 2.0, the first version of the software

usable in real applications, was released in June 2004. It

includes software for (1) setting up hierarchical

applications, (2) representing and manipulating modeling

components, fields, bundles of fields, and grids, and (3)

services such as time management and logging messages.

Multiagency 

ESMF Effort

New 

HEC-URA
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

14

The United States has repeatedly demonstrated that leadership in

science and technology is vital to leadership in national defense

and national security, economic prosperity, and our overall

standard of living. Today, progress in many branches of science

and technology is highly dependent on breakthroughs made

possible by high-end computing, and it follows that leadership in

high-end computing is increasingly crucial to the nation.

***

In the past decade, computer modeling and simulation of

physical phenomena and engineered systems have become

widely recognized as the cost-effective “third pillar” of science

and technology – sharing equal billing with theory and

experiment. Simulations are performed on computing platforms

ranging from simple workstations to very large and powerful

systems known as high-end computers. High-end computers

enable investigations heretofore impossible, which in turn have

enabled scientific and technological advances of vast breadth and

depth. High-end computing (HEC) thus has become an

indispensable tool for carrying out Federal agency missions in

science and technology. 

***

[Recent agency studies] have revealed that current high-end

computing resources, architectures, and software tools and

environments do not meet current needs. Of equal concern,

they observe that sustained investigations of alternative high-end

systems have largely stopped, curtailing the supply of ideas and

experts needed to design and develop future generations of highend computing systems.

***

Revitalization of high-end computing is needed to refill the

research pipeline with new ideas and highly trained people,

support the development of robust and innovative systems, and

lower industry and end-user risk by undertaking the test and

evaluation of HEC systems and software technologies. This

revitalization must support advancement across the innovation

spectrum – from basic and applied research, to advanced

development, to engineering and prototyping, to test and

evaluation. Such a comprehensive approach is essential to the

establishment of a sustainable R&D process that encourages the

generation of competing innovations from the basic research

phase, the development of early prototype HEC systems, and

their evaluation on mission-critical test applications.

High-End Computing Revitalization Task Force (HECRTF)

The Need for HEC Revitalization: Excerpts from Report

In FY 2004, the NITRD agencies and others are

engaged in a major planning initiative to reinvigorate

Federal leadership in the development of leading-edge

supercomputing capabilities to serve the national interest.

The activity was launched in April 2003 with a charge

from OSTP to all government agencies with a major stake

in high-end computing. The charge directed the agencies,

under the auspices of the NSTC, to develop “a plan to

guide future Federal investments in high-end computing”

that would lay out an overall investment strategy based on

“the needs of important Federally funded applications of

HEC.” The plan was to include five-year roadmaps for

investment in R&D in core HEC technologies, as well as

approaches to addressing Federal HEC capability,

capacity, and accessibility issues, and Federal HEC

procurement.

The 63-member High-End Computing Revitalization

Task Force (HECRTF), representing 12 departments and

agencies, spent 15 months gathering information,

soliciting expert opinion from scientists, IT researchers,

industry, and Federal HEC users, and developing a

comprehensive report addressing the OSTP charge.

On May 13, 2004, OSTP Director John H. Marburger

released the “Federal Plan for High-End Computing” at a

hearing of the House Science Committee on H.R. 4218,

“the High Performance Computing Revitalization Act of

2004.” In his testimony, Dr. Marburger commended the

task force and called its report “an important first step” in

the “sustained and coordinated effort” required to address

the issues facing the Nation’s high-end computing

enterprise. He noted that results of the HECRTF effort

were already beginning to emerge – for example, the new

High-End Computing University Research Activity (HECURA) jointly developed by DARPA, DOE/SC, NSA, and

NSF to fund academic investigations in key HEC areas. FY

2004 solicitations focus on HEC software tools and

operating/runtime systems for extreme-scale scientific

computation.

Beginning in June 2004, the HECRTF Implementation

Committee, which was created to activate the Federal

Plan’s recommendations, began a series of activities that

include: 1) a meeting to coordinate FY 2006 agency HEC

budget requests; 2) a meeting to plan cooperative

development and use of HEC benchmarks and metrics;

and 3) planning for workshops on testbeds for computer

science research and on file systems.

The full “Federal Plan for High-End Computing” is available online at: http://www.nitrd.gov/pubs/2004_hecrtf/20040510_hecrtf.pdf
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

15

Key Recommendations of the HECRTF Report

Overarching Goals

The HECRTF recommends that the Federal government

and its private-sector partners carry out comprehensive,

complementary, and synchronized actions over the next five

years with these goals: 1) Make high-end computing easier

and more productive to use; 2) Foster the development and

innovation of new generations of HEC systems and

technologies; 3) Effectively manage and coordinate Federal

high-end computing; and 4) Make high-end computing

readily available to Federal agencies that need it to fulfill

their missions.

HEC R&D

To achieve goals 1 and 2, the plan’s roadmaps propose an

integrated, balanced, and robust program of basic and

applied research, advanced development, engineering and

prototype development, and test and evaluation activities in

each of three core HEC technologies:

• Hardware (microarchitecture; memory; interconnect;

power, cooling, and packaging; and I/O and storage)

• Software (operating systems; languages, compilers, and

libraries; software tools and development environments;

and algorithms)

• Systems technology (system architecture; system

modeling and performance analysis; reliability, availability,

serviceability, and security; and programming models)

As part of this research effort, the task force recommends

that the government return to a strategy – the development

of HEC systems specifically for HEC R&D – that had been

used in the early 1990’s. These “early access” systems, called

Research and Evaluation Systems by the HECRTF, will

enable testing of early prototypes and provide development

platforms for new algorithms and computational techniques,

software functionality and scalability testing, and system and

application testbeds. “Evaluation projects that identify failed

approaches save the government from acquiring systems that

simply do not perform as expected,” the report states. “They

may also suggest more fruitful approaches to remove the

sources of failure.”

The HECRTF also recommends that its proposed R&D

agenda be balanced and prioritized to provide a continuum

of efforts across the four developmental stages “required to

sustain a vigorous and healthy high-end computing

environment.” The table on page 16 provides an overview of

the proposed R&D priorities over the next five years.

HEC Resources

To achieve goal 4, the plan offers strategies to address

three distinct aspects of Federal HEC resources: 

• Access – Federal agencies with limited or no HEC

resources could partner with large agencies under mutually

beneficial multiyear HEC utilization agreements. The plan

proposes establishing pilot partnerships with industry to

work on HEC problems, with metrics to evaluate the

success of these arrangements.

• Availability – Agencies such as DoD, NSA,

DOE/NNSA, DOE/SC, EPA, NASA, NOAA, and NSF all

have programs that provide HEC resources to their

respective user communities. The plan calls for an increase

in the resources available to Federal mission agencies to

acquire and operate HEC resources.

• Leadership – To provide world-leading high-end

computing capabilities for U.S. scientific research, the plan

proposes that the Government develop what the HECRTF

calls Leadership Systems, HEC systems that will offer 100

times the computational capability of what is available in

the marketplace. These very advanced resources would be

made available for a limited number of cutting-edge

scientific applications, enabling the U.S. to be “first to

market” with new science and technology capabilities. The

Leadership machines, managed as a shared Federal research

resource, would not only support research but drive HEC

commercial innovation.

HEC Procurement

A significant barrier to achieving all of the plan’s goals is

presented by the technical complexity and demands of Federal

procurement processes, which burden both agencies and

industry vendors. The plan proposes testing more costeffective, efficient approaches in interagency pilot projects on:

• Performance measurement, or benchmarking –

agencies with similar applications will develop a single suite

of benchmarks for use in a pilot joint procurement process.

• Accurate assessment of the total cost of ownership

(TCO) – a multiagency team will evaluate TCO

(acquisition, maintenance, personnel, external networking,

grid and distributed computing) for several similar systems

and develop “best practices” for determining TCO for

comparing possible procurements.

• Procurement consolidation – Using these new tools,

agencies will test a combined procurement solicitation and

evaluate its effectiveness.

Plan Implementation

The HECRTF offers one example of an interagency

governance structure for the plan but notes that it is only a

starting point for discussion.
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

16

HECRTF Plan’s Proposed R&D Priorities to FY 2010

*Assumes no planning changes from FY 2004

This table provides an overview of the Federal HEC R&D

investments recommended by the HECRTF to address the needs of

Federally funded R&D over the next five years. The level of effort

called for in the major HEC components – hardware, software,

and systems – is shown for each of the following categories of

R&D work, which the Task Force deemed vital to a robust HEC

R&D program:

• Basic and Applied Research: Focus on the development of

fundamental concepts in high-end computing, creating a

continuous pipeline of new ideas and expertise.

• Advanced Development: Select and refine innovative

technologies and architectures for potential integration into highend systems.

• Engineering and Prototype Development: Perform

integration and engineering required to build HEC systems and

components.

• Test and Evaluation: Conduct testing and evaluation of HEC

software and current and new generations of HEC systems at

appropriate scale.

The HECRTF report notes that innovations in hardware and

systems have a natural transition from research into industrial

manufacturing but that software research and development will

require a different strategy. Since major advances in HEC system

software have generally occurred only when academe, industry,

and government research laboratories have teamed to solve

common problems (such as by developing the message passing

standard, MPI, to resolve internodal communications issues), the

Task Force concluded that the software revitalization strategy

should also include significant government involvement to ensure

long-term maintenance of critical HEC software infrastructure

components. The table thus shows a Long-Term Evolution and

Support category under software.

NOTE 1: The FY 2004 funding levels shown in the table

represent aggregate investments by all the agencies that

participated in developing the “Federal Plan for High-End

Computing,” not just those of NITRD agencies. In addition, the

figures represent only HEC R&D activities as defined by the

HECRTF plan. They do not include many related activities (such

as networking, visualization, and application-specific software

development) considered outside the scope of the plan.

Columns four through eight present investment levels

recommended by the Task Force for FY 2006 through FY 2010 in

each of the categories and activities. Modest funding increments

above the FY 2004 level are shown in medium orange. Moderate

funding increments above the FY 2004 level are shown in lined

orange. Robust funding increments above the FY 2004 level are

shown in solid orange. Modest funding redirections from the 

FY 2004 level are shown in pale orange.

Modest funding increment 

Modest redirection Moderate funding increment

Robust funding increment

($ in millions)

Increment compared to HEC R&D

Current Program

FY 2004 FY 2006 FY 2007 FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010

Current

Programs*

Basic and Applied Research

Hardware Advanced Development

Engineering and Prototypes

Test and Evaluation

TOTAL

Software

Basic and Applied Research

Advanced Development

Engineering and Prototypes

Test and Evaluation

Long-term Evolution and

Support

TOTAL

Systems

Basic and Applied Research

Advanced Development

Engineering and Prototypes

Test and Evaluation

TOTAL

TOTALS $1581

$75

$30

$1

$40

$4

$71

$0

$2

$15

$21

$12

$2

$0

$5

$5

$33
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

17

Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans

HEC I&A and R&D Programs By Agency

High-end computing capabilities are important to work

supported by all the NSF research directorates and offices

including: Biological Sciences (BIO); Computer and

Information Science and Engineering (CISE); Education and

Human Resources (EHR); Engineering (ENG); Geosciences

(GEO); Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS); and

Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE); and the

Office of Polar Programs (OPP). 

Directorates have complementary HEC investments. For

example: R&D on computer architecture, networking,

software, and cyberinfrastructure is funded by CISE; HEC

devices are funded by MPS and ENG; mathematical

algorithms are funded MPS and CISE; computational

algorithms and libraries are funded by CISE, with some

funding from MPS; science and engineering applications are

developed primarily with funding from MPS, ENG, GEO,

and BIO.

NSF HEC R&D Programs

NSF’s largest investments in HEC resources are in the CISE

Directorate. All CISE Divisions are responsible for HEC

activities, as follows:

Computing and Communication Foundations

(CCF) Division – has responsibility for:

• Formal and Mathematical Foundations – in particular

algorithmic and computational science

• Foundations of Computing Processes and Artifacts – in

particular high-end software, architecture, and design

• Emerging Models for Technology and Computation –

includes biologically motivated computing models,

quantum computing and communication, and

nanotechnology-based computing and communication

systems

Computer and Network Systems (CNS) Division –

supports programs in computer and network systems, in

particular distributed systems and next-generation software

systems.

Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) Division

– supports programs in data-driven science including

bioinformatics, geoinformatics, cognitive neuroscience, and

other areas.

Shared Cyberinfrastructure (SCI) Division –

supports programs in:

• Infrastructure development – creating, testing, and

hardening next-generation deployed systems

• Infrastructure deployment – planning, construction,

commissioning, and operations

The following illustrate ongoing HEC R&D:

• Chip Multiprocessor Architectures: on-chip shared-cache

architectures, arithmetic logic unit (ALU) networks, shared

memory architectures, and networks

• Scalable Multiprocessing Systems: system architecture

(communication substrate) and (heterogeneous) ensembles

of chip multiprocessors

• System-on-a-Chip building blocks and integrated

functionality

• Dynamic and Static (compiler) Optimizations: memory

systems (SMT/CMP support latency reduction,

prefetching, and speculative execution [load/value

prediction]), and verification and runtime fault tolerance

• Networking and storage

NSF also funds the following speculative research that

could provide breakthrough HEC technologies:

• Nanotechnology that promises unprecedented scale-up in

computing and communication through research in nanoarchitecture and design methodologies

• Post-silicon computing: development and application of

technologies such as quantum, DNA, chemical, and other

computing concepts to provide radically new models of

computation, algorithms, and programming techniques.

NSF Cyberinfrastructure Framework

A key NSF-wide interest in FY 2004 is development of an

overarching IT framework to support the communities

performing research and using computing resources.

Components include hardware (distributed resources for

computation, communication, and storage), shared software

HEC NSF HEC
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

18

cybertools (grid services and middleware, development

tools, and libraries), domain-specific cybertools, and

applications to make possible discovery and innovative

education and training. The framework will consist of:

• Computation engines (supercomputers, clusters,

workstations), including both capability and capacity

hardware

• Mass storage (disk drives, tapes, and related technologies)

with persistence

• Networking (including wireless, distributed, ubiquitous)

• Digital libraries and data bases

• Sensors and effectors

• Software (operating systems, middleware, domain-specific

tools, and platforms for building applications)

• Services (education, training, consulting, user assistance)

R&D in every component of this infrastructure will enable

HEC capabilities.

Support for the Supercomputing Needs of the

Broad Scientific Community

NSF plays a unique role nationally in supporting

supercomputing needs across the entire academic spectrum

of scientific research and education. NSF’s SCI Division

provides support for and access to high-end computing

infrastructure and research. NSF supports more than 22

high-performance computing systems that include both

capacity and capability systems. In FY 2004, NSF supports

supercomputing resources at the following national

partnerships and leading-edge sites:

• The National Computational Science Alliance (the Alliance)

led by the National Center for Supercomputing

Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign

• The National Partnership for Advanced Computational

Infrastructure (NPACI) led by the San Diego

Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of

California-San Diego

• The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) led by

Carnegie Mellon University and the University of

Pittsburgh, with its Terascale Computing System (TCS)

In FY 2003, NSF had 4,450 HEC users including 1,800

NPACI users, 1,200 NCSA users, and 1,450 PSC users – for

an estimated total of 3,000 unique users across all the

centers. These organizations participate in the following

ongoing NSF infrastructure initiative:

Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) – multiyear effort

to build and deploy the world’s largest, most

comprehensive, distributed infrastructure (also known as the

TeraGrid) for open scientific research. Four new TeraGrid

sites, announced in September 2003, will add more scientific

instruments, large datasets, computing power, and storage

capacity to the system. The new sites are ORNL, Purdue

University, Indiana University, and the University of Texas

at Austin. They join NCSA, SDSC, ANL, CalTech, and PSC.

With the addition of the new sites, the TeraGrid will have

more than 20 teraflops of computing power, be able to store

and manage nearly one petabyte of data, and have highresolution visualization environments and toolkits for grid

computing. All components will be tightly integrated and

connected through a network that operates at 40 gigabits per

second.

NSF FY 2005 plans include the following:

HEC R&D:

• CISE emphasis area focused on high-end computing –

new initiative intended to stimulate research and education on a

broad range of computing and communication topics, including

architecture, design, software, and algorithms and systems for

computational science and engineering. While the range of topics

is broad, the research and education activity is to focus strictly on

extreme-scale computing. One component of this emphasis area is:

– The special NSF/DARPA activity “Software & Tools for HighEnd Computing” (ST-HEC), developed as a High End

Computing University Research Activity (HEC-URA) –

supporting high-end software tools for extreme-scale scientific

computation, which are highly computation- and data-intensive

and cannot be satisfied in today’s typical cluster environment.

The target hosts for these tools are high-end architectures,

including systems comprising thousands to tens of thousands of

processors.

• Activities in planning or evaluation in all NSF

directorates on cyberinfrastructure development – will

include research and education areas in computational science and

engineering, such as high-performance computational algorithms

and simulation-based engineering

HEC I&A:

• Expansion of the Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) will continue,

providing high-end computing and networking for colleges and

universities
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

19

DOE/SC supports basic research that underpins DOE

missions and constructs and operates for the U.S. scientific

community large scientific facilities such as accelerators,

synchrotron light sources, and neutron sources. Six offices

oversee DOE/SC research: Basic Energy Sciences (materials,

chemistry, and nanoscale science); Biological and

Environmental Research (global climate, genomics research);

Fusion Energy Sciences (plasma fusion energy); High Energy

Physics (accelerator design, petascale experimental data

analysis); Nuclear Physics (quantum chromodynamics

[QCD], astrophysics); and Advanced Scientific Computing

Research.

Role of Computational Science

Computational science is critical to the DOE/SC mission in

energy production, novel materials, climate science, and

biological systems, where:

• Systems are too complex for direct calculation and

descriptive laws are absent

• Physical scales range over many orders of magnitude

• Several scientific disciplines are involved such as in

combustion and materials science

• Multidisciplinary teams are required

• Experimental data may be costly to develop, insufficient,

inadequate, or unavailable

• Large data files are shared among scientists worldwide

DOE/SC’s major HEC activities are integrated in the

following large-scale multiyear computer science initiative to

accelerate advanced research in scientific fields of interest to

DOE:

Scientific Discovery Through Advanced

Computing (SciDAC) Program – provides terascale

computing and associated information technologies to many

scientific areas to foster breakthroughs through the use of

simulation. Through collaborations among application

scientists, mathematicians, and computer scientists, SciDAC

is building community simulation models in plasma physics,

climate prediction, combustion, and other application areas.

State-of-the-art collaboration tools facilitate access to these

simulation tools by the broader scientific community to

bring simulation to a level of parity with theory and

observation in the scientific enterprise.

DOE/SC HEC R&D Programs

Recent DOE/SC accomplishments in HEC R&D that help

address DOE computational science needs include:

• PVM, a widely used early message passing model

• MPI, MPICH – THE standard message passing model in

use today (MPICH is the reference implementation used by

all commercial vendors to develop tuned versions)

• Global arrays – global memory model used by NWChem,

which greatly simplified electronic structure programs in

computational chemistry

• Co-Array Fortran – the first and only open source CoArray Fortran compiler

• UPC – the first open source Unified Parallel C compiler

• SUNMOS/Puma/Cougar/Catamount – microkernel

operating system used by ASC Red system and its 40

teraflops replacement being developed by Cray, Inc.

• Science Appliance – pseudo single system image Linux-

• Cyber-Infrastructure Training, Education,

Advancement, and Mentoring (CI-TEAM) – new FY

2005 activity will support the preparation of a workforce with the

appropriate knowledge and skills to inform the development,

deployment, support, and widespread use of cyberinfrastructure.

Goal is to support efforts that will prepare current and future

generations of scientists, engineers, and educators to use, develop,

and support cyberinfrastructure, and broaden participation of 

underrepresented groups and organizations in cyberinfrastructure

activities.

• Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery

(LEAD) – will create grid-computing environments for ondemand prediction of high-impact local weather such as

thunderstorms and lake-effect snows. 

• International Virtual Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL)

– collaboration of 16 institutions and more than 80 scientists is

deploying a computational and data grid for four international

high-energy physics experiments, including the Large Hadron

Collider.

HEC DOE/SC HEC
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

20

based operating system used by large-scale (10 teraflops)

clusters

• OSCAR – in a partnership with industry, the most widely

used open source toolkit for managing Linux clusters

• Low-cost parallel visualization – use of PC clusters to

achieve high-performance visualization

SciDAC Integrated Software Infrastructure Centers

(ISICs) – SciDAC interdisciplinary team activities that

address specific technical challenges in the overall SciDAC

mission. Three Applied Mathematics ISICs are developing

new high-performance scalable numerical algorithms for

core numerical components of scientific simulation, and will

distribute those algorithms through portable scalable highperformance numerical libraries. These ISICs are:

• Algorithmic and Software Framework for Applied Partial

Differential Equations (APDEC) – to provide new tools for

(nearly) optimal performance solvers for nonlinear partial

differential equations (PDEs) based on multilevel methods

• Terascale Optimal PDE Solvers (TOPS) – hybrid and

adaptive mesh generation and high-order discretization

techniques for representing complex, evolving domains

• Terascale Simulation Tools and Technologies (TSTT) –

tools for the efficient solution of PDEs based on locally

structured grids, hybrid particle/mesh simulations, and

problems with multiple- length scales

Four Computer Science ISICs are working closely with

SciDAC application teams and the math ISICs to develop a

comprehensive, portable, and fully integrated suite of

systems software and tools for the effective management and

use of terascale computational resources by SciDAC

applications. The Computer Science ISICs are:

• Center for Component Technology for Terascale

Simulation Software ISIC – to address critical issues in

high-performance component software technology

• High-End Computer System Performance: Science and

Engineering ISIC – to understand relationships between

application and architecture for improved sustained

performance

• Scalable Systems Software ISIC – for scalable system

software tools for improved management and use of

systems with thousands of processors

• Scientific Data Management ISIC – for large-scale scientific

data management

SciDAC National Collaboratory Software

Environment Development Centers and Networking

Research – DOE’s investment in National Collaboratories

includes SciDAC projects focused on creating collaboratory

software environments to enable geographically separated

scientists to effectively work together as a team and to

facilitate remote access to both facilities and data.

DOE/SC Workshops

Workshops – some general, others highly focused – are a

standard DOE/SC planning tool. FY 2004 workshops

include:

• SciDAC 

• Fast Operating Systems

• Multiscale Mathematics Workshop – to bridge the wide

scale between modeling on continuum or atomistic basis;

expected output includes a roadmap 

• High Performance File Systems – such systems should

support parallelism, be efficient, and be reasonably easy to

use

• Distributed Visualization Architecture Workshops (DiVA)

• Data Management Workshop series – to address where file

system ends and data-management system begins

• Raising the level of parallel programming abstraction 

• Parallel tool infrastructure 

DOE/SC HEC I&A Programs

National Energy Research Supercomputing Center

(NERSC) – delivers high-end capability computing services

and support to the entire DOE/SC research community

including the other DOE laboratories and major universities

performing work relevant to DOE missions. Provides the

majority of resources and services supporting SciDAC.

Serves 2,000 users working on about 700 projects – 35

percent university-based, 61 percent in national laboratories,

3 percent in industry, and 1 percent in other government

laboratories.

NERSC’s major computational resource is a10-teraflops

IBM SP computer. Overall NERSC resources are integrated

by a common high-performance file storage system that

facilitates interdisciplinary collaborations.

Advanced Computing Research Testbeds (ACRT) –

activity supports the acquisition, testing and evaluation of

advanced computer hardware testbeds to assess the prospects
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

21

The scientific drivers behind requirements for

supercomputers at NIH are recent and are increasing rapidly.

Although biomedical supercomputing is still in an early stage

of development, NIH grantees, taking the individual

initiative to apply for computer time, already consume

approximately one-third of the cycles provided by the NSF

supercomputing centers at Illinois, Pittsburgh, and San

Diego. NSF’s planned TeraGrid will most likely receive

similar use by the biomedical research community. 

The largest portion of the current biomedical

supercomputing use is for biomolecular modeling and

simulation. This class of application will continue to grow

rapidly. The areas of high-throughput bioinformatics, data

integration, and modeling of complex biosystems will grow

explosively as software linking high-throughput data

gathering with automated analysis and modeling tools

becomes widely available. This software is currently in early

development, with NIH support through new grant

programs instituted in the last few years. To realize the

potential of imaging and medical informatics will also require

increased computational resources. 

for meeting future computational needs such as SciDAC and

special-purpose applications. The ACRT provide two types

of computer testbeds for evaluation – early systems and

experimental systems. These research and evaluation (R&E)

prototypes have been identified as a critical element in the

HECRTF plan because they enable early partnerships with

vendors to tailor architectures to scientific requirements.

The results from these partnerships also play a key role in

the choice of both high-performance production systems and

potential leadership class systems governmentwide.

Scientific Application Pilot Programs (SAPP) –

support targeted efforts to integrate new applied

mathematics and computer science algorithms into SciDAC

applications projects through strong liaisons between

applications projects and ISICs. SAPP provides expertise in

adapting high-performance algorithms to terascale computers

and in adapting numerical modules to include applicationspecific knowledge.

Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on

Theory and Experiment (INCITE) Projects – new 

FY 2004 competitive program that supports a small number

of computationally intensive, large-scale research projects

that can make high-impact scientific advances through the

use of a substantial allocation of computer time and data

storage at NERSC. INCITE encourages proposals from

universities and other research institutions.

In December 2003, DOE/SC selected three projects to

receive a total of 4.9 million hours of supercomputing time

– 10 percent of the total computing time available this year

on NERSC’s Seaborg system. The projects are expected to

significantly advance understanding of the makeup of the

universe, the chemical process by which plants convert

sunlight to energy while removing carbon dioxide from the

atmosphere, and the turbulent forces that affect everything

from weather to industrial processes. The projects are:

• Thermonuclear Supernovae: Stellar Explosions in Three

Dimensions

• Quantum Monte Carlo Study of Photoprotection via

Carotenoids in Photosynthetic Centers

• Fluid Turbulence and Mixing at High Reynolds Number

DOE/SC FY 2005 plans include:

HEC I&A

• Installation of a Linux Cluster with more than 5 Tflops at NERSC

to support high-end capacity needs of science applications that do

not scale to more than 256 processors

•Partnership with DOE Office of Fusion Energy to develop next

generation of Tokamak simulation tools

• Initiative in multiscale mathematics to develop the mathematical

underpinnings for the simulation of complex physical and

biological systems

HEC R&D

• Continuation of partnership with DARPA in productivity metrics

for high-end computers

• Continuation of HEC-URA efforts to develop software base for

future high-end systems

• Complete evaluation of Cray X1 computer

HEC NIH HEC
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

22

In FY 2004, DARPA supports the following HEC

programs:

High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS)

program – addresses all aspects of HEC systems

(packaging, processor/memory interfaces, networks,

operating systems, compilers, languages, and runtime

systems). Goal of multiyear effort is to develop a new

generation of economically viable high- productivity

computational systems for the national security and industrial

user community in the time frame of FY 2009 to FY 2010.

Sustained petaflop performance and shortened development

time are key targets. DARPA is working with DOE/SC and

other agencies to understand how long it takes to develop

solutions today. These systems will be designed to have the

following impact:

• Performance (time to solution) – provide a 10-to-40-times

performance speedup on critical national security

applications

• Programmability (idea to first solution) – reduce the cost

and time of developing applications solutions

• Portability (transparency) – insulate the research and

operational application software from the system on which

it is running

• Robustness (reliability) – apply all known techniques to

protect against outside attacks, hardware faults, and

programming errors

Target applications are intelligence and surveillance,

reconnaissance, cryptanalysis, weapons analysis, airborne

contaminant modeling, and biotechnology. 

The HPCS program is structured to enable ongoing fielding

of new high-performance computer technology through

phased concept, research, development, and demonstration

approach. The program is in its second phase, with

productivity goals including:

• Execution (sustained performance) of 1 petaflop/second

(scalable to over 4 petaflop/second)

• Development productivity gains of 10 times over today’s

systems

In phase 2, a productivity framework baselined to today’s

systems is used to evaluate vendors’ emerging productivity

techniques and will provide a reference for phase 3

evaluations of vendors’ proposed designs. Phase 2 subsystem

performance indicators are a 3.2 petabytes/second bisection

bandwidth, 64,000 gigabyte updates per second (GUPS), 6.5

petabytes data streams bandwidth, and 2+ petaflops Linpack

Fortran benchmark (an HPC Challenge) that augments the

Top 500 benchmarks.

The NITRD agencies that provide additional funding for

HPCS activities are DOE/SC, DOE/NNSA, NASA, NSA,

and NSF; DoD’s HPCMPO provides complementary

support. Cray, Inc., IBM, and Sun Microsystems are phase 2

industry partners.

NIH has in place a planning process for the next stage of

growth by preparing an eight- to ten-year plan for

bioinformatics and computational biology that outlines the

software needs and challenges for the next decade of

biomedical computing.

Principal new investment areas for NIH include:

• Expanded development of molecular and cellular modeling

software 

• Applied computer science, such as algorithm creation and

optimization, creation of appropriate languages and

software architectures applicable to the solution of

biomedical problems 

• R&D in biomedical computational science, by developing

and deploying software designed to solve particular

biomedical problems 

• Providing infrastructure to serve the needs of the broad

community of biomedical and behavioral researchers 

• Enhancing the training for a new generation of biomedical

researchers in appropriate computational tools and

techniques 

• Disseminating newly developed tools and techniques to the

broader biomedical research community

In FY 2005, NIH plans to:

• Continue developing long-term plan for bioinformatics and

computational biology, including listed areas of new investment

HEC DARPA HEC
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

23

Council on Competitiveness HPC Initiative –

HPCS-related co-funded by DARPA, DOE/SC, and

DOE/NNSA has the goal of raising high productivity

computing to be a major economic driver in the United

States. Effort includes: an HPC Advisory Committee with

representatives from the private sector; an annual privatesector user survey; and annual user meetings. The first

conference, entitled “HPC: Supercharging U.S. Innovation

and Competitiveness," was held July 13, 2004, in

Washington, D.C.

Polymorphous Computing Architectures (PCA)

Program– aims to develop the computing foundation for

agile systems by establishing computing systems (chips,

networks, and software) that will morph to changing

missions, sensor configurations, and operational constraints

during a mission or over the life of the platform. Response

(morph) times may vary from seconds to months. The PCA

objective is to provide:

• Processing diversity with a breadth of processing to address

signal/data processing, information, knowledge, and

intelligence, and uniform performance competitive with

best-in-class capabilities

• Mission agility to provide retargeting within a mission in

millisecond, mission-to-mission adaptation in days, and

new threat scenario adaptation in months

• Architectural flexibility to provide high-efficiency,

selectable virtual machines with two or more morph states,

mission adaptation with N minor morph states, and

portability/evolvability with two-layer morphware

The PCA hardware being developed includes:

• Monarch/MCHIP – 2005 prototype is projected to

demonstrate 333Mhz, 64 GFLOPS, 64 GOPS, and 12

Mbytes EDRAM.

• Smart Memories – 2005 prototype is projected to

demonstrate Brook Language based on modified

commercial Tensilica CPU cores.

• TRIPS – 2005 prototype is projected to demonstrate 500

MHz, 16 Gflops peak floating point, and 16 GIPS peak

integer. Production technology is projected to provide 4

Tflops peak floating point and 512 GIPS peak integer.

• RAW (early prototype) to provide chips and development

boards (available now) and kernel evaluations with test

results in 2004. The technology provides early morphware,

software, and kernel performance evaluation. The

morphware will be demonstrated in a development

environment in which APIs, including Brook, will use highlevel compilers to provide stream and thread virtual

machine APIs to low-level compilers using PCA technology

such as TRIPS, Monarch, Smart Memories, and RAW.

Networked Embedded Systems Technology (NEST)

– will enable fine-grain fusion of physical and information

processes. The quantitative target is to build dependable,

real-time, distributed, embedded applications comprising

100 to 100,000 simple compute nodes. The nodes include

physical and information system components coupled by

sensors and actuators.

In FY 2005, work will continue on the following

DARPA efforts: 

• High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS)

• Polymorphous Computing Architectures (PCA)
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

24

FY 2004 NASA accomplishments in high-end computing:

• Testbeds

– Built the first SSI Linux base supercomputer, the world’s

fastest machine on the Triad Benchmark

• Advanced Architectures

– Invested in new architecture streams and PIM working

on languages and compilers and key application kernels

for stream technology (this is tied into DARPA’s PCA

and morphware efforts)

• Grid Technology

– Continued work on NASA’s Information Power Grid

(IPG) demonstration in cooperation with Earth Science

and Shuttle payload management

• Applications

– Developed advanced applications for aerospace,

nanotechnology, and radiation biology

– Provided major advance in ocean modeling in the

Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean

(ECCO) code

– Major advance in aerospace vehicle modeling

• Programming environments

– Improved scalability of multilevel parallelism (MLP)

• Tools

– Workflow and database management programming

environments

– Aero database/IPG Virtual Laboratory for workflow

management and ensemble calculation databasemanagement prototypes 

– Hyperwall (for viewing large datasets) used in

nanotechnology research, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,

and the Columbia Space Shuttle Mission accident

investigation. This technology is now being transferred

within NASA for general use.

Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the

Ocean (ECCO) – project goal is to use NASA data and

community code to improve Earth oceans modeling. Starting

in August 2003, the project has:

• Developed serial #1 512 Altix supercomputer

• Ported and scaled ECCO code from 64 to 128 to 256 to

512 processors

• Determined correct environment variables, optimized code 

• Assisted in revamping grid technique to improve prediction

at poles

• Developed Kalman filter techniques at high resolution for

data assimilation

• Developed archive for community access to data

• Improved resolution from 1 degree to 1/4 degree

• Developed unique visualization approaches

As a result of this work:

• Time to solution dropped from approximately one year to

five days (about a 50-fold speedup)

• Resolution improved by a factor of four

• Code accuracy and physics improved

• Data assimilation at high resolution was enabled

Shuttle return-to-flight problems are now being ported to

the Altix supercomputer for speedup by a factor of four or

more for some turbo-machinery.

Supercomputing support for the Columbia

Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) – NASA Ames

supercomputing-related R&D assets and tools produced

time-critical analyses for the CAIB. R&D and engineering

teams modeled a free object in the flow around an airframe

with automatic regridding at each time step. The

environment in which this was accomplished entailed:

• State-of-the-art codes

– Codes honed by R&D experts in large-scale simulation,

with their environment of programmer tools developed

to minimize the effort of executing efficiently

• A modeling environment that included experts and tools

(compilers, scaling, porting, and parallelization tools)

• Supercomputers, storage, and networks

– Codes and tools tuned to exploit the advanced hardware

that was developed for large tightly-coupled

computations

• Computation management by components of the AeroDB

and the iLab

– An environment and tools for efficient executions of

hundreds or thousands of large simulations and handling

of results databases

HEC NASA HEC
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

25

• Advanced data analysis and visualization technologies to

explore and understand the vast amounts of data produced

by this simulation

NASA HEC Resources

NASA high-end computing resources include:

• Goddard Space Flight Center, where the foci are in Earth

Science and Space Science

– 1,392 processing element (PE) Compaq (2.2 Teraflops)

– 640 PE SGI O3K (410 Gigaflops)

– Sun QFS (340 Terabytes)

– SGI DMF (370 Terabytes)

• Ames, where the foci are in Aeronautics and Earth Science

– 512 PE SGI Altix (2.3 teraflops)

– 1,024 PE SGI O3K (850 gigaflops)

– SGI DMF (1,600 terabytes)

NASA FY 2005-FY 2007 HEC R&D plans include:

• Collaborative decision systems to improve decision making

• Discovery systems to accelerate scientific progress

• Advanced networking and communications

• Advanced computing architectures and technologies

• Reliable software

• Adaptive embedded information systems

DOE/NNSA’s Office of Advanced Simulation and

Computing (ASC) provides the means to shift promptly from

nuclear test-based methods to computer-based methods and

thereby predict with confidence the behavior of nuclear

weapons through comprehensive science-based simulations.

To achieve this capability, ASC has programs in:

• Weapons codes and the science in those codes (advanced

applications, materials and physics modeling, and

verification and validation)

• Computational platforms and the centers that operate them

• Software infrastructure and supporting infrastructure

(Distance computing [DisCom], Pathforward, Problem

Solving Environments, and VIEWS)

ASC HEC R&D focuses on:

• Software-quality engineering oriented to processes to

provide for longevity of codes

• Verification to ensure numerical solutions are accurate

• Validation to ensure that a problem is understood correctly

• Certification methodology – improvements through

scientific methods

• Capability computing to meet the most demanding

computational needs

• Capacity computing to meet current stockpile workloads

• Problem Solving Environments (PSEs) to create usable

execution environments for ASC-scale applications

• Industry collaboration to accelerate key technologies for

future systems

• Tracking requirements

ASC activities – Pathforward work includes:

• Optical switch (with NSA)

• Memory usage

• Lustre file system

• Spray cooling (with DOE/SC)

ASC HEC I&A platforms – HEC systems and software

from Cray, HP, IBM, Intel, SGI, and Linux NetworX. ASC

procures machines with differing technologies to support

diverse requirements. These types include:

• Capability systems: Vendor-integrated SMP clusters used

for critical Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP)

deliverables and for particularly demanding calculations.

(These systems run a small number of large jobs.)

• Capacity systems: Linux HPC clusters that carry the largest

workloads in terms of numbers of jobs supporting current

weapons activities and as development vehicles for nextgeneration capability systems. (These systems run a large

number of smaller jobs.)

• Disruptive technologies: The Blue Gene/L system, for

example, is being procured as a highly scalable, lowHEC DOE/NNSA HEC
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

26

NSA has unclassified HEC R&D programs in the areas of:

• Architectures and systems

• High-speed switches and interconnects

• Programming environments

• Quantum information sciences

• Vendor partnerships

Cray X1e/Black Widow – under multiyear joint

development effort, NSA supports Cray Inc. in extending its

X1 NSA/ODDR&E/Cray development to build its nextgeneration scalable hybrid scalar-vector high-performance

computer. The technology will result in an X1e upgrade in

the market in late 2004. Black Widow system to be

introduced in 2006 will provide outstanding global memory

bandwidth across all processor configurations and will be

scalable to hundreds of teraflops. Should be the most

powerful commercially available system in the world at that

time. Many agencies have regularly participated in the

quarterly development reviews; several have serious plans

for acquisition of these systems.

HPC Applications Benchmarking Study – project

initiated by HPC users, the HPC User Forum, and IDC to

study the performance of applications on leading

supercomputers. The project will expand the understanding

of the performance of a set of complete, difficult HPC

applications on the largest computers around the world.

Each application will have a specific data set and will

represent an actual scientific problem. The results will be

posted at the HPC User Forum Web site. This study’s

objectives are to compare leading large HPC capability class

computers on a small set of large HPC problems, show

major science accomplishments on these capability systems,

explore the relative performance characteristics of the

machines on these problems, and explore the scaling abilities

of the computers. The HPC Users Forum effort is funded by

NSA, DoD/HPCMPO and several other agencies.

Reconfigurable Computing Research and

Development – an approach to general-purpose highperformance computing that takes advantage of field

programmable gate array (FPGA) technologies and

commercial platforms. This continuing effort is leveraging

prototype results from academic, industrial, and government

research and the continuing increase in the computational

capability of commercial FPGA chips. NSA is conducting

experiments and demonstrations of commercial

reconfigurable computing machines using its applications and

benchmarks. The principle difficulty being addressed is the

need for software-level programming tools. There is

substantial collaboration with the Air Force, NASA Langley,

and the NRO in reconfigurable research and development.

Major FY 2004 achievements:

• Completed a highly successful demonstration on an NSA

application of the C Compiler on a particular

reconfigurable computer to achieve a 65x performance

improvement over a modern 64-bit commodity

microprocessor. 

• Co-funded an NSA vendor partnership to develop an

FPGA addition to a commercial architecture, with a

prototype machine to be delivered in FY 2004.

Fine-grain Multithreaded Architectures and

Execution Models – ongoing research program in

collaboration with the University of Delaware to develop

architectures, execution models and compilation techniques

that can exploit multithreading to manage memory latency

and provide load balancing. 

power, low-cost computer. It is the first high-performance

computing system to incorporate all three attributes in a

single system. ASC works with vendors and universities to

push production environments to petaflop scales. ASC

works with industry to develop new technologies such as

optical switches, scalable visualization, memory

correctness, spray cooling, and the Lustre file system.

DOE/NNSA FY 2005 HEC plans include:

• Continue R&D in software-quality engineering; validation,

verification, and certification of software; PSEs; and Pathforward

topics

• Continue development of Blue Gene/L

HEC NSA HEC
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

27

Performance analysis of many real-world applications on

today’s large scale massively parallel processor systems

indicates that often only a relatively small fraction of the

potential performance of these machines is actually achieved

in practice. The applications that exhibit these problems are

generally characterized by memory access patterns that are

dynamic and irregular, and hence difficult to partition

efficiently, either by programmers or compilers. This

situation frequently results in processors being “starved” for

data due to the relatively high memory latencies. Fine-grain

multithreaded models coupled with effective compilation

strategies provide a promising and easy to use approach to

reducing the impact of long, unpredictable memory

latencies.

Work in the past year has resulted in an FPGA-based

implementation of a hardware emulation platform and a

compiler infrastructure that is enabling experimentation with

thread scheduling and synchronization units. 

Optical Technologies – Columbia University and

Georgia Tech University commissioned by NSA to

investigate high-end computer optical interconnect systems.

Columbia’s comparison of electrical and optical technologies

showed conclusively that specifically designed all-optical

switching can significantly outperform current and future

electronic switches. The collaborative effort demonstrated

that optical technologies can significantly improve bandwidth

if implementation difficulties of all-optical switching can be

overcome. Future efforts will investigate how current optical

components might be integrated to form a demonstration

system.

Support to DARPA HPCS Program, Phase 2 – NSA

participation includes funding, technical guidance, and

participation in program reviews.

Quantum Computing – major research program being

conducted through NSA’s ARDA affiliate. Collaboration

involves DARPA and ARL. Efforts focus on quantum

information sciences including investigation of selective

materials, related quantum properties, and managing

decoherence and entanglement issues. Funded research

under this multiagency collaboration is underway at many

universities, government laboratories, and other centers of

excellence.

FY 2005 NSA plans in HEC include:

• Continue R&D in all listed FY 2004 HEC R&D areas 

• Increase funding support for Black Widow development consistent

with its calendar-year 2006 introduction

• Maintain current research effort in all other efforts, including

quantum computing.
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

28

NOAA uses HEC resources and cutting-edge applications

to provide advanced products and services delivered to

users. NOAA’s HEC strategy is to:

• Develop skills, algorithms, and techniques to fully utilize

scalable computing for improved environmental

understanding and prediction

• Acquire and use high-performance scalable systems for

research

• Optimize the use of HEC resources across all NOAA

activities. This reflects NOAA’s view of HEC as an

enterprise resource.

NOAA’s HEC I&A resources are located at the:

• Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in

Princeton, New Jersey. (In FY 2003, GFDL acquired a

1,408-processor SGI system.)

• Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL) in Boulder, Colorado 

• National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP),

headquartered in Camp Springs, Maryland

NOAA expedites the development and use of improved

weather and climate models by:

• Supporting advanced computing for NOAA environmental

modeling research

• Developing software tools to optimize the use of scalable

computing

• Infusing new knowledge through new talent such as

postdoctoral students and contractors

NOAA Development Test Center (DTC) –

establishing a collaborative environment in which university

research and NOAA personnel can work together, focusing

initially on development of the Weather Research and

Forecasting (WRF) model that is designed as both an

operational model and a research vehicle for the larger

modeling community. Collaborators on the WRF include

FNMOC, NAVO, AFWA, NCAR, and others. The goal is

for Federal and university researchers working on specific

problems to explore models, develop improvements, plug in

to that part of the model, help the entire community, and

increase speed going from basic research to applications.

Potential benefits include frequent high-resolution analyses

and forecasts produced in real time that are valuable to

commercial aviation, civilian and military weather

forecasting, the energy industry, regional air pollution

prediction, and emergency preparedness.

NOAA is working cooperatively on the ESMF with NASA

and others, and is coordinating with other agencies its

research plans including the Climate Change Strategic Plan

and the U.S. Weather Research Program. Developing grid

technology with GFDL, PPPL, PU, FSL, PMEL, and CSU.

NOAA FY 2005 plans include the following:

• Continue work on the ESMF for climate model development and

extend it to all domains

• Explore the use of specific types of grid technology

• Develop a common weather research computing environment

• Apply the WRF modeling system standards and framework to

NCEP’s Mesoscale Modeling Systems, including the continental

domain Meso Eta and nested Nonhydrostatic Meso Threats runs

HEC NOAA HEC
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

29

NIST works with industry and with educational and

government organizations to make IT systems more usable,

secure, scalable, and interoperable; to apply IT in specialized

areas such as manufacturing and biotechnology; and to

encourage private-sector companies to accelerate

development of IT innovations. NIST also conducts

fundamental research that facilitates measurement, testing,

and the adoption of industry standards.

NIST HEC I&A 

Activities and accomplishments include:

• Interoperable Message Passing Interface (IMPI) to support

parallel computing research. The standard enables

interoperability among implementations of Message

Passing Interface (MPI) with no change to user source code.

• Java/Jini/Javaspaces-based screen-saver science system.

Distributed-computing environment leverages java’s

portability to use otherwise unused cycles on any set of

computing resources accessible over a local network

(including desktop PCs, scientific workstations, and cluster

compute nodes) to run any compute-intensive distributed

Java program.

• Immersive visualization infrastructure for exploring

scientific data sets drawn from both computer and

laboratory experiments. Visualization projects include a

three-wall Immersive Virtual Reality System that uses the

DIVERSE open source software and locally built

visualization software to display results at scale. The local

software includes the glyph toolbox and techniques for

immersive volume visualization, surface visualization, and

interaction. All the software runs unchanged on Linux

machines.

• Fundamental mathematical software tools to enable highend computing applications. Examples include:

– PHAML, a parallel adaptive grid refinement multigrid

code for PDEs

– Sparse Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (BLAS)

– Template Numerical Toolkit (TNT) for object-oriented

linear algebra

• HEC applications combining parallel computing with

immersive visualization for basic sciences, such as physics,

and other uses, such as building structure and material 

strength. Typical applications to which NIST applies these

resources are:

– Nanostructure modeling and visualization (especially in

nano-optics)

– Modeling cement and concrete, including modeling the

flow of suspensions and fluid flow in complex geometries

– Computation of atomic properties 

– Visualization of “smart gels” (which respond to specific

physical properties such as temperature or pressure) to

gain insight into the gelling mechanism

– Visualization of tissue engineering to study and optimize

the growth of cells on scaffolding

• Applications-oriented problem-solving environments, such

as Object-Oriented Finite Element Modeling of Material

Microstructures (OOF) for modeling materials with

complex microstructure and Object-Oriented

MicroMagnetic Computing Framework (OOMMF) for

micromagnetics modeling

NIST HEC R&D 

Activities and accomplishments include:

• Research in quantum computing and secure quantum

communications, as well as in measurement science aspects

of nanotechnology, photonics, optoelectronics, and new

chip designs and fabrication methods. Theoretical and

experimental investigations include:. 

– Algorithms and architectures for scalable quantum

computing

– Demonstrations of quantum computing within specific

physical systems such as ion traps, neutral atoms, and

Josephson junctions

– High-speed testbed for quantum key distribution

– Single photon sources and detectors

– Quantum protocols

FY 2005 NIST plans include:

HEC I&A

• Continue work in activities listed for FY 2004

• Pursue additional project in “Virtual Laboratories”

HEC R&D

• Continue work in activities listed for FY 2004

HEC NIST HEC
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

30

EPA’s mission is to protect human health and safeguard the

environment through research, regulation, cooperation with

state governments and industry, and enforcement. Areas of

interest extend from groundwater to the stratosphere.

EPA HEC I&A programs are focused on tools to facilitate

sound science using high-end computation, storage, and

analysis. These programs enable relevant, high-quality,

cutting-edge research in human health, ecology, pollution

control and prevention, economics, and decision sciences.

This facilitates appropriate characterization of scientific

findings in the decision process. The HEC programs are

performed in-house and as problem-driven research. 

EPA is launching the Center of Excellence (CoE) for

Environmental Computational Science to integrate cuttingedge science and emerging IT solutions to facilitate Federal

and state-level partnerships and enhance the availability of

scientific tools and data for environmental decision making.

The CoE will enable collaboration from within and without

the organization and will provide a flexible, dynamic

computing and information infrastructure to ensure

optimized yet secure access to EPA resources.

FY 2004 HEC programs include:

Multimedia Assessments and Applications (MAA)

Framework – provides a foundation for research on how to

structure compartmental modules and improve model

integration and interchangeability. The MAA framework’s

objective is to provide software that supports composing,

configuring, applying, linking, and evaluating complex

systems of object-oriented models. It will improve EPA’s

ability to simulate the interaction between individual

environmental media components (e.g., chemical fluxes,

water cycle) and will enable distributed computation.

The MAA framework is tailored to multimedia models but

is adaptable and generalized. It supports EPA programs such

as the Chesapeake Bay Program, the Tampa Bay Region

Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment, and the Office of Air

Quality Planning and Standards. The framework is currently

being tested by a number of clients.

Uncertainty Analysis (UA) Framework

Development – developing tools to support the analysis of

model sensitivities and the effects of input uncertainties on

model predictions. Specific tasks of this EPA work are to:

• Construct a 400-node Intel-based supercomputing cluster

called SuperMUSE, for Supercomputer for Model

Uncertainty and Sensitivity Evaluation

• Develop platform-independent systems software for

managing SuperMUSE

• Conduct uncertainty and sensitivity analyses of the

Multimedia, Multipathway, Multireceptor Risk Assessment

(3MRA) modeling system

• Develop advanced algorithmic software for advanced

statistical sampling methods and global sensitivity analyses

Air Quality Modeling Applications (AQMA) –

program aims to advance computational performance of the

state-of-the-art Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ)

Chemistry-Transport Modeling System while maintaining

modularity, portability, and single-source code. Efforts to

improve CMAQ take into account both the typical Linux

cluster in the States and also HEC deployments. Major areas

of effort include algorithmic improvement, microprocessor

tuning, and architecture assessment. Involves a phased

deployment that enables the states, which are the key

stakeholders, to participate in the development.

Grid deployment – goal is to provide phased

deployment of an EPA-wide enterprise grid that will

identify, develop, and integrate key technologies, align

organizational policies such as security and networking, and

field grid pilot systems to demonstrate success and benefits.

Historically, agency researchers with high-end applications

competed for time on EPA’s high-performance computing

resources located at the National Environmental Scientific

Computing Center (NESC2). With the implementation of

grid middleware, researchers will be able to tap unused

processing capacity on local and remote clusters at the

campus level or enterprise level. EPA’s compute grid is

being implemented in a phased approach with parallel

development of both grid infrastructure and security policy.

Pilot clusters have now been linked to demonstrate EPA

compute grid services both internally and also to external

partners.Ultimately, EPA researchers and trusted partners

will be able to access a partner (or global) grid extending to

organizations outside the agency.

Grid demonstration projects – part of EPA effort to

combine state-of-the-science air quality modeling and

observations to enable timely communication of meaningful

HEC EPA HEC
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

31

Participating Agency

The mission of DoD’s HPCMPO is to deliver world-class

commercial, high-end, high-performance computational

capability to DoD’s science and technology (S&T) and test

and evaluation (T&E) communities, thereby facilitating the

rapid application of advanced technology in superior

warfighting capabilities. Development of future technologies

supported by HPC includes: Micro Air Vehicles; Joint Strike

Fighter; surveillance systems; smart weapons design; ocean

modeling; parachute simulations; Unmanned Air Vehicle;

and blast protection.

HPCMPO requirements are categorized in the following

ten key Computational Technology Areas (CTAs):

• Computational Structural Mechanics (CSM)

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

• Computational Chemistry and Materials Science (CCM)

• Computational Electromagnetics and Acoustics (CEA)

• Climate/Weather/Ocean Modeling and Simulation

• Signal/Image Processing (SIP)

• Forces Modeling and Simulation (FMS)

• Environmental Quality Modeling and Simulation (EQM)

• Computational Electronics and Nanoelectronics (CEN)

• Integrated Modeling and Test Environments (IMT)

• Other

HEC I&A

High Performance Computing Centers – include four

major shared resource centers (MSRCs) and 16 distributed

centers. MSRCs provide complete networked HPC

environments, HPC compute engines, high-end data analysis

and scientific visualization support, massive hierarchical

storage, and proactive and in-depth user support and

computational technology area expertise to nationwide user

communities. The MSRCs are the Army Research

Laboratory (ARL), Army Signal Command (ASC), ERDC,

and NAVO.

Software Applications Support (SAS) – encompasses

the following four components:

• Common HPC Software Support Initiative (CHSSI)

• HPC Software Applications Institutes (HSAIs)

• Programming Environment and Training (PET) program to

enhance user productivity

environmental information, improve emission management

decisions, and track progress in achieving air quality and

public health goals.Technical collaborators in demonstration

project on air quality include DOE/Sandia and NOAA; pilot

partners include the state of New York and regional planning

organizations. Phase I of the project includes delivery of an

optimized CMAQ model and data sets to the client

community in summer 2004 and eventually the running of

CMAQ over the grid and at client sites.

In FY 2005, HEC I&A work will continue on the

following EPA efforts:

• EPA Center of Excellence for Environmental Computational

Science (CoE)

– Grid deployment and grid demonstration projects

• Air Quality Modeling Applications (AQMA)

HEC DoD/HPCMPO HEC
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

32

HCI&IM Agencies

Human-Computer Interaction

and Information Management

The activities funded under the NITRD

Program’s HCI&IM PCA increase the

benefit of computer technology to

humans through the development of

future user interaction technologies, cognitive systems,

information systems, and robotics. Current systems

overwhelm the user with information but provide little in

the way of adaptable access, necessitating adaptability on

the part of the user. The HCI&IM research vision is to

provide information that is available everywhere, at any

time, and to everyone regardless of their abilities; to

increase human use of this information by providing

customized access including the ability to interact using a

variety of devices and to meet varied needs for

manipulation, analysis, and control; and to provide

comprehensive management of vast information

environments. HCI&IM research focuses on developing

systems that understand the needs of the users and adapt

accordingly.

Broad Areas of HCI&IM Concern

• Usability and universal accessibility

• Interaction 

• Cognitive systems, learning, and perception 

• Information management and presentation 

• Autonomous agents and systems

Technical Goals

• Foster contributions from different branches of science

and engineering that are required to address the

problems in this multidisciplinary field and encourage

the needed technological convergence through

communication and coordination

• Develop a deeper scientific understanding of both

human and machine cognition, linking the various parts

of human-computer interaction and information

management together

• Enable development of machines and systems that

employ the human senses of perception to their full

potential, maximizing the information-flow bandwidth

between people and their tools

• Discover new and better ways to achieve information

integration across a wide range of different modalities,

media, and distributed resources

• Develop tools that are increasingly able to take on

planning, aid in decision making, learn from experience,

and develop knowledge from raw data, in order to tie

together information management and human needs 

• Develop flexible systems of control that manage the

degree of autonomy exhibited by machines according to

the constantly changing needs of humans, especially in

that broad and valuable area where HCI and IM unite for

the benefit of people

Illustrative Technical Thrusts 

• Fundamental science and engineering on humancomputer interfaces for stationary, mobile, and

ubiquitous computing and communications

environments

• Multi-modal, speech, gesture, visual, language, haptic,

and physical interactions

• Efforts to improve the collection, storage, organization,

retrieval, summarization, analysis, and presentation of

NSF 

NIH

DARPA

NASA 

AHRQ

NIST

EPA

NOAA

FAA

HCI&IM PCA Budget Crosscut

FY 2004 estimate FY 2005 Request

$469.2 M $419.5 M

Definition 

of 

HCI&IM 

PCA

Participating

Agency
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

33

information of all kinds in databases, distributed

systems, or digital libraries

• An understanding of the use of multiple modalities and

their relation to information content

• Information management and access that adapts to the

needs and preferences of a diverse population including

young, old, and disabled users as well as expert and

novice users and in complex, multi-person, collaborative

and distributed systems

• Research and technology development related to

perception, cognition, and learning by machines and by

human beings interacting with machines

• Mobile autonomous robots

• Remote or autonomous agents

• Collaboratories 

• Visualizations

• Web-based repositories

• The semantic web

• Information agents

• Evaluation methodologies and metrics for assessing the

progress and impact of HCI&IM research

HCI&IM PCA: Coordination and Activities

Early in FY 2004, the HCI&IM

Coordinating Group released its

“Human-Computer Interaction and

Information Management Research Needs” report. This

document identifies and illustrates the challenges

underlying HCI&IM R&D to achieve benefits such as:

• Changing the way scientific research is conducted

• Expanding the science and engineering knowledge base

• Enabling a more knowledgeable, capable, and

productive workforce

The report places agency HCI&IM R&D investments

within a conceptual framework that illuminates the

broader social context in which the need for “humancomputer interaction and information management”

arises. The framework’s four main categories are:

• Information creation, organization, access, and use 

• Managing information as an asset

• Human-computer interaction and interaction devices

• Evaluation methods and metrics

The CG is using the report to identify and assess

current agency investments, research gaps, and a wish list

of possible FY 2005 activities, including refining plans in

new R&D areas such as cognition, robotics, and devices

and identifying and coordinating activities in areas of

shared interests with other CGs, such as:

• With LSN on moving the bits in distributed data

• With SEW on the impact of distributed data on

organizations and groups sharing data

• With LSN in middleware

• With SDP in automatic software design and integration

• With SEW in universal accessibility and the use of

multiagent systems

The following is a sampling of FY 2004 activities in

which more than one NITRD agency participates (other

agencies involved in these efforts are not cited):

DARPA – Improving Warfighter Information Intake

Under Stress Program, with NSF; Translingual

Information Detection, Extraction, and Summarization

(TIDES), with NIST, NSA; Effective, Affordable,

Reusable Speech-to-Text (EARS), with NIST, NSA

NASA – High-end modeling and simulation, with

DOE/SC; global climate modeling, with DOE/SC and

NOAA; automated vehicle cockpits and air traffic

management and risk, with FAA

AHRQ – Considering funding proposals submitted to

AHRQ’s Health Information Technology (HIT), with

NIH/NLM; developing standards for improving patient

safety, as part of the Patient Safety Task Force, with

NIH/NLM; developing a U.S. health data standards

landscape model and application, with NIST; developing

data standards critical to improving patient safety in the

use of prescription drugs, with FDA; invites experts

from other agencies to participate in peer reviews of its

grant proposals

NIST – Human Language Technology and Interactive

Systems Technology Programs, with DARPA and NSA

HCI&IM

Highlights
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

34

Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans

HCI&IM R&D Programs By Agency

The bulk of NSF’s FY 2004 HCI&IM R&D investments are

in its Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences

and Engineering (CISE), in the Division of Information and

Intelligent Systems (IIS). Other HCI&IM activities are

funded under the NSF-wide Information Technology

Research Program (ITR). 

CISE/IIS Division 

IIS goals are to:

• Increase the capabilities of human beings and machines to

create, discover, and reason with knowledge

• Advance the ability to represent, collect, store, organize,

locate, visualize, and communicate information

• Conduct research on how empirical data lead to discovery

in the sciences and engineering

HCI&IM-related research is funded across IIS’s three

clusters:

Systems in Context – research and education on the

interaction between information, computation, and

communication systems, and users, organizations,

government agencies, and the environment. This cluster

integrates the following programs:

• Human-Computer Interaction

• Universal Access

• Digital Society and Technologies

• Robotics

• Digital Government

Data, Inference, and Understanding – basic research

with the goal of creating general-purpose systems for

representing, sorting, accessing, and drawing inferences

from data, information, and knowledge. Integrates the

following programs:

• Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (AI&CS) –

focuses on advancing the state of the art in AI&CS.

Includes research fundamental to development of

computer systems capable of performing a broad variety of

intelligent tasks and computational models of intelligent

behavior across the spectrum of human intelligence

• Computer Vision

• Human Language and Communication

• Information and Data Management

• Digital Libraries

Science and Engineering Informatics – includes:

• Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience

that will continue as a collaborative program

• Science and Engineering Information Integration and

Informatics (SEI), which focuses on development of IT to

solve a particular science or engineering problem and

generalizing the solution to other related problems

• Information Integration, to provide a uniform view to a

multitude of heterogeneous, independently developed data

sources including reconciling heterogeneous formats, Web

semantics, decentralized data-sharing, data-sharing on

advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI), on-the-fly integration,

and information integration resources

ITR Program

Other NSF HCI&IM investments are in the NSF-wide ITR

Program, which involves all NSF directorates and offices

including Biological Sciences; Engineering; Geosciences;

Mathematical and Physical Sciences; Social, Behavioral, and

Economic Sciences; Office of Polar Programs; and Education

and Human Resources.

NSF HCI&IM plans for FY 2005 include:

• Research to develop computer technology that

empowers people with disabilities, young children, seniors, and

members of traditionally under-represented groups, so that they

are able to participate as first-class citizens in the new information

society, including for example work on how blind people can

benefit from the information communicated when other people

gesture or exhibit facial expressions.

• Information Integration – special emphasis will be placed on

domain-specific and general-purpose tools for integrating

information from disparate sources, supporting projects that will

advance the understanding of technology to enable scientific

HCI&IM NSF HCI&IM
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

35

discovery, and that will creatively integrate research and

education for the benefit of technical specialists and the general

population

• Intelligent robots and machine vision technology –

research to develop intelligent robots and machine vision

technology that will help people do what they cannot or would

rather not do; protect critical infrastructure and monitor the

environment, and continue to explore extreme environments

• Projects to push the frontiers in human-computer

communication – automatic multilingual speech recognition

toolkits, systems to recognize spontaneous speech despite

disfluencies and multiple speakers, and development of information

infrastructure to enable cutting-edge research and development

about spoken, written, and multimodal communication

Illustrative of NIH HCI&IM activities is the Joint NIH

Bioengineering Consortium/NIH Biomedical Information

Science and Technology Initiative Consortium (BECON/

BISTIC) 2004 Symposium on Biomedical Informatics for

Clinical Decision Support: A Vision for the 21st Century

held June 21-22, 2004. The symposium involved 15 NIH

Institutes seeking to gain consensus about standards for

reducing medical errors and variability in patient information

by reviewing software tools and approaches to deliver the

benefits of biomedical information technologies to patients at

the time and place of decision making regarding risk,

diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. Specifically, the

meeting provided a scientific vision of the health care

information technologies that may be more fully deployed in

the workflow to improve efficiency and outcomes.

NIH FY 2005 plans in HCI&IM R&D include:

• Curation and analysis of massive data collections – a

focus that has emerged as a critical element for advances in

biomedical and clinical research in the 21st Century. NIH is

making substantial new investments in tools for management and

use of the massive new databases that will permit their use by

researchers throughout the country. Specific R&D topics include:

– Tools for building and integrating ontologies

– Software tools for visualizing complex data sets

– Curation tools

– Support for standard vocabularies, nationwide

– Information integration tools

DARPA’s FY 2004 HCI&IM investments involve four

programs that fall within the agency’s Information Processing

Technology Office (IPTO). IPTO’s mission is to create a

new generation of computational and information systems

that possess capabilities far beyond those of current systems.

The programs are:

Compact Aids for Speech Translation (CAST) –

developing rapid, two-way, natural-language speech

translation interfaces and platforms for the warfighter in the

field that overcome the technical and engineering challenges

limiting current multilingual translation technology; goal is

to enable future full-domain, unconstrained dialog

translation in multiple environments, replacing the DARPA

RMS (one-way) translator. The two-way capability will

greatly improve the ability of operators to converse with,

extract information from, and give instructions to a foreignlanguage speaker encountered in the field. Major research

thrusts are:

• Core research

• DARPA 1+1 Way

• DARPA Two-Way

• Evaluation and data collection

Improving Warfighter Information Intake Under

Stress – (formerly Augmented Cognition) R&D to extend,

by an order of magnitude or more, the information

management capacity of the human-computer warfighting

integral by developing and demonstrating quantifiable

enhancements to human performance in diverse, stressful,

operational environments. The goal is to empower one

person successfully to accomplish the functions currently

carried out by three or more people. The research aims to

enable computational systems to dynamically provide:

HCI&IM NIH HCI&IM

HCI&IM DARPA HCI&IM
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

36

• Real-time assessment of warfighter status (phase one)

• Real-time maximization of warfighter potential (phase two)

• Autonomous adaptation to support warfighter performance

under stress (phase three)

• Operational demonstration and test (phase four)

Warfighters are constrained in the amount of information

they can manage. Adaptive strategies will mitigate specific

information processing roadblocks impeding increased

performance and information flow. Strategies include:

• Intelligent interruption to improve limited working

memory

• Attention management to improve focus during complex

tasks

• Cued memory retrieval to improve situational awareness

and context recovery

• Modality switching (i.e., audio, visual) to increase

information throughput

Technical challenges and goals for IT capabilities that can

improve performance include: 

• Demonstrating enhancement of warfighter performance

(assess warfighter status in less that two seconds with 90

percent accuracy; adapt information processing strategies

in less than one minute, with no performance degradation)

• Overcoming information processing bottlenecks (500

percent increase in working memory throughput; 100

percent improvement in recall and time to reinstate

context; 100 percent increase in the number of

information processing functions performed

simultaneously; 100 percent improvement in successful

task completion within critical time duration)

Translingual Information Detection, Extraction,

and Summarization (TIDES) – seeks to enable military

personnel to operate safely and effectively around the globe by:

• Developing advanced language processing technology to

enable English speakers to find and interpret critical

information in multiple languages without requiring

knowledge of those languages

• Developing sophisticated statistical modeling techniques for

human language

• Taking advantage of substantial increases in electronic data

and computational power

• Developing and testing technology using speech and text

from English, Arabic, and Chinese news sources

TIDES has the following military impact:

• Enhancing the ability of U.S. forces to operate safely and

effectively around the globe

• Enabling commanders and policymakers to know what is

being said in a region by and to the local population

• Less dependence on scarce linguists

• Potential customers throughout the military and

intelligence communities

Effective Affordable, Reusable Speech-To-Text

(EARS) – developing automatic transcription technology

whose output is substantially richer and more accurate than

current methods. Research goals are to:

• Automatically transcribe and extract useful metadata from

natural human speech

• Develop powerful statistical techniques for modeling

variability of speech

• Take advantage of substantial increases in electronic data

and computational power

• Develop and test technology using broadcasts and

conversations in English, Arabic, and Chinese

The military impact of the EARS program includes:

• Substantial increases in productivity and situation

awareness

• Enabling analysts to read transcripts rapidly (in lieu of

listening to audio slowly)

• Many potential customers throughout the military and

intelligence communities

In FY 2005, work will continue on the following

DARPA efforts: 

• Compact Aids for Speech Translation (CAST)

• Improving Warfighter Information Intake under Stress

• Translingual Information Detection, Extraction and

Summarization (TIDES)

• Effective, Affordable Reusable Speech-to-Text (EARS)
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

37

NASA HCI&IM investments include fundamental research

in:

• Human information processing and performance

• Multimodal interaction

• Human-robotic systems

• Automation and autonomy

• Software engineering tools

• Knowledge management and distributed collaboration

• Computational models of human and organizational

behavior

In the aviation domain, for example, HCI&IM investments

include:

• Human-computer interaction for highly automated vehicle

cockpits (aviation/shuttle flight control systems; system

health management systems; International Space Station

[ISS] interfaces)

• Human-computer interaction for air traffic management

applications (air traffic control; cockpit display of traffic

information; distributed air-ground collaboration)

• Proactive management of system risk (air traffic

management; onboard flight-recorded data; human and

organizational risk)

• Human-computer interfaces for mission control and

ground control applications (shuttle and ISS mission control;

remote interactive automation for near-Earth and planetary

missions)

In the information management domain, NASA missions

require R&D in:

• Data mining and scientific discovery

• Interactive visualization of complex systems for analysis,

design, and evaluation

• High-end modeling and simulation (vehicle geometry,

functions, and behavior; climate, weather, and terrain;

science planning and operations with automation support;

homeland security)

In FY 2005, NASA plans to address the following

technical challenges in HCI&IM:

• Multimodal interaction

• Data visualization and understanding

• Human-in-the-loop supervisory control (the design of intelligent and

intelligible automation; human-robotic interaction)

• Knowledge engineering and capture

• Risk management and technology (aerospace, Earth science, space flight,

biological and physiological research, and space science)

FY 2004 HCI&IM R&D investments are for improved

patient safety and health quality. Specifically, these

investments support the Patient Safety Health Information

Technology (HIT) Initiative. They will support HCI&IMrelated work for transforming health care quality (for

example, promoting and accelerating the development,

evaluation, adoption, and diffusion of IT in health care) and

establishing health care data standards (e.g., development,

evaluation, and adoption of information standards and

technology to support patient safety). A major goal is to

support the development of an NHII that includes an

Electronic Health Record System (EHRS). The EHRS will be

a longitudinal collection of electronic health information for

and about persons. It will allow electronic access to personand population-level information by authorized users. The

system will provide knowledge and decision support that

enhances the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care.

An EHRS will support more efficient health care delivery

processes.

In the area of transforming health care quality, AHRQ

provides:

• Planning grants to rural and small communities for health

care systems and partners to implement HIT to promote

patient safety and quality of care

• Implementation grants for rural and small hospitals to

evaluate the measurable and sustainable effects of HIT on

improving patient safety and quality of care

• Assessment grants to increase the knowledge and

HCI&IM NASA HCI&IM

HCI&IM AHRQ HCI&IM
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

38

National Collaboratories Program – goal is to support

end-to-end scientific discovery processes. Petabyte-scale

experimental and simulation data systems will be increasing

to exabyte-scale data systems. The sources of the data, the

computational and storage resources, the scientific

instruments, and the scientists who are consumers of the

data and users of the instruments and computation are

seldom collocated. DOE/SC uses planning workshops to

develop its programs, including those reported in the

HCI&IM PCA.

DOE/SC is developing pilot collaboratories for the highenergy nuclear physics, supernovae, and cell biology

research communities. These pilot collaboratories are early

implementations of virtual laboratories that:

• Are focused on a problem of national scientific or

engineering significance clearly related to DOE mission

and having high visibility

• Involve geographically separated groups of personnel

and/or facilities that are inherently required to collaborate

or be used remotely for success of the project

• Have implementations to test and validate that scientific

research programs can integrate unique and expensive

DOE research facilities and resources for remote

collaboration, experimentation, simulation, and analysis

through use of middleware technologies to enable

ubiquitous access to remote resources – computation,

information, and expertise

• Demonstrate capabilities that make it easier for distributed

teams to work together over the short term and long term

Developing such collaboratories involves creating

partnerships among researchers in scientific disciplines and

R&D personnel in middleware, networking, and

computational science. DOE/SC’s middleware research has

two HCI&IM efforts:

• Information integration and access that address:

– Mechanisms for seamless interface to multiple storage

systems and mechanisms for replication management

– Open issues such as data provenance, metadata

standards, and mechanisms to resolve global names into

access mechanisms

• Services to support collaborative work that address:

– A wide variety of community services such as the Access

Grid

understanding of the clinical, safety, quality, financial,

organizational, effectiveness, and efficiency value of HIT.

Practice-based research networks are encouraged to apply.

AHRQ envisions the establishment of a center that will

coordinate the vast amounts of HIT information that results

from these grants. Potential duties include coordinating and

assisting grantees, supporting outreach and dissemination,

and hosting meetings.

In health data standards, AHRQ provides:

• Funding for expert consensus on EHR functions

• Funding for standards development

• Funding for mapping between standards

• Funding for developing a metadata health data registry

• Coordination of U.S. standards developing organizations

and standards users

• Consensus of U.S. positions on international health data

standards issues

“Making the Health Care System Safer: The 3rd Annual

Patient Safety Research Conference” is scheduled for

September 26-28, 2004, in Arlington, Virginia. The goal of

this conference series is to improve patient safety and health

quality by:

• Increasing awareness of Patient Safety Events (PSEs) by

supporting information systems that collect and analyze

(including classification, root cause analysis, failure mode

and effects analysis, probabilistic risk assessment) a large

body of medical error data and by disseminating scientific

findings that are translated into a useful decision-making

context

• Understanding the organizational, cultural, human, and IT

capabilities needed to guide the development of a network

for the collection and analysis of PSEs and build capacity

for patient safety research

• Developing informatics standards for uniform reporting,

storage, and retrieval of comparable PSE data

HCI&IM DOE/SC HCI&IM
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

39

Information Technology Laboratory (ITL)

The mission of ITL’s Information Access Division (IAD) is

to accelerate the development of technologies that allow

intuitive, efficient access, manipulation, and exchange of

complex information by facilitating the creation of

measurement methods and standards. IAD achieves the

objectives by contributing to R&D in these technologies;

enabling faster transition into the commercial marketplace;

and enabling faster transition into sponsors’ applications

(performance metrics, evaluation methods, test suites, and

test data; prototypes and testbeds; workshops; and standards

and guidelines). IAD works in collaboration with industry,

academe, and other government agencies. HCI&IM-related

programs and activities are:

Human Language Technology Program – includes

the following FY 2004 efforts and evaluations:

• TREC (for Text Retrieval Conference) – work on novelty

Web and Q&A, add robust retrieval, High Accuracy

Retrieval from Documents (HARD), and genomics

(retrieval within that domain)

• AQUAINT – continue dialogue testing, “what is” and “who

is” questions

• TIDES/DUC – continue evaluations and add crosslanguage Arabic summarization

• TIDES/TDT – continue evaluations

• EARS – speech-to-text (STT) and metadata evaluations

• ACE – evaluations for foreign languages

• TIDES/MT – continue evaluations

• Meeting Transcription – implement STT evaluation and

work with ARDA’s Video Analysis and Content Extraction

(VACE) program

• Speaker/Language Recognition – continue evaluations

Biometrics Technology Program – FY 2004 efforts

include:

• Tests of FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint

Identification System (IAFIS) on DHS and other data

• Tests to support conversion of US VISIT to more than two

fingers (US VISIT is the entry/exit system being

implemented by DHS at airports, seaports, and land

border crossings to secure the Nation’s borders)

• Integration of face recognition and multi-vendor

verification into US VISIT

• Fingerprint vendor technology evaluation (FpVTE) testing

and analysis

• Data and performance standards development

• Development of Multimodal Biometric Accuracy Research

Kiosk

• ANSI and ISO standardization of the Common Biometric

Exchange File Format (CBEFF) and the Biometric

Application Programming Interface (BioAPI)

• Chair International Committee for IT Standards (INCITS)

Committee on Biometrics (M1) and the ISO Committee

on Biometrics (SC37)

Multimedia Technology Program – multimedia

standards, video retrieval, and visualization and virtual

reality for manufacturing. FY 2004 efforts include:

• Work with industry on use of MPEG-7 (the metadata

standard for accessing video information) Interoperability

Test Bed

• Development of “light-and-simple” profiles for existing

industry-wide formats

• Video-retrieval evaluations, with a new story segmentation

task and more high-level features to extract; process and

ship 120 hours of new data

– Open issues such as scalable, easy-to-use primitives to

support multiple modes of secure wide-area

collaboration

A potential benefit is speeding up the multidisciplinary

research process. Today data resulting from research in one

field must be validated and published, then be discovered

and understood by people in other fields. DOE/SC is

looking to improve data pedigree and communications

between groups of researchers.

The DOE/SC National Collaboratories Program

activities reported in the HCI&IM PCA in FY 2004 have

been moved to the LSN PCA for FY 2005 because this

R&D is more aligned with LSN concerns. 

HCI&IM NIST HCI&IM
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

40

• X3D and Human Animation (H-ANIM) standardization

• Seek medical applications within Web3D and for human

modeling

Interactive Systems Technology Program – activities

include:

• Webmetrics – seek additional opportunities with World

Wide Web organizations

• Industry Usability Reporting (IUSR, a standard by which

software development companies can test results and

provide results to potential customers) – extend Common

Industry Format (CIF) to hardware and finalize CIF

requirements

• Voting – R&D for developing usability and accessibility

tests for certifying voting systems

• Novel Intelligence for Massive Data (NIMD) – experiment

with glass box data and develop NIMD roadmap

• Human Robot Interaction (HRI) – develop a user interface

for robotic mobility platform

• Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF) –

usability study for DLMF web site and animation of Virtual

Reality Modeling Language (VRML) worlds

• Accessibility standards – develop a prototype incorporating

new architecture from the INCITS Committee on

Accessibility (V2)

Smart Space Technology Program – includes a smart

space testbed for human interaction in an environment that

includes microphones and video cameras. FY 2004 work

includes:

• New version of NIST’s Smart Flow (a system that allows

large amounts of data from sensors to be transported to

recognition algorithms running on a distributed network)

that is easier to use, provides better performance, and is

more stable, portable, and scalable

• Upgrade Meeting Room with new capabilities (originally

for speech, Meeting Room is now being used to analyze

videos)

• INCITS V2 collaboration

• Provide data-acquisition services and analysis methods to

NIST’s Chemical Science and Technology Lab (CSTL) and

Physics Lab and upgrade real-time processing systems

Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL)

MEL Manufacturing Systems Integration 

Division (MSID) – promotes development of technologies

and standards that lead to implementation of informationintensive manufacturing systems that can be integrated into a

national network of enterprises working together to make

U.S. industry more productive. HCI&IM R&D includes

work in system interoperability, based on ontologies

(knowledge bases that provide the meaning of information

held in databases, whether structured or unstructured, in

ways that can be understood across systems and also by

humans). Ontologies are important to the development of

software systems in general, partly because such systems are

often created today by integration of existing systems and

partly because they can improve software engineering by

carefully and formally defining the requirements in ways that

can save money over the software life cycle and avoid hidden

mistakes. In commerce, ontologies can address such

problems as communication within machine shops, the

distribution of higher level information both between

factories and between factories and front offices.

MEL Intelligent Systems Division (ISD) – conducts

the following HCI&IM activities:

• Development of test arenas for robotics competitions,

particularly for urban search and rescue applications. Sites

of 2004 competitions are New Orleans, Osaka, Lisbon,

and San Jose.

• Study of methods and metrics for evaluating performance

of intelligent systems. ISD hosted 5th annual workshop on

Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems (PerMIS) on

August 24-26, 2004. Included new “Information and

Interpretation and Integration Conference” (I3CON)

centering on testing tools for alignment of different but

overlapping ontologies.

In FY 2005, NIST plans to continue the following

HCI&IM R&D activities:

• Human Language Technology Program

• Biometrics Technology Program, including new work in:

– Biometrics, used singly and in combinations, for forensics and

security 

• Multimedia Technology Program

• Interactive Systems Technology Program

• Cooperation with NIH in biomedical informatics and related areas

• MEL programs in manufacturing systems integration and

intelligent systems
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

41

EPA’s HCI&IM programs are focused on tools to facilitate

sound science using information management, analysis, and

presentation. These programs enable relevant, high-quality,

cutting-edge research in human health, ecology, pollution

control and prevention, economics, and decision sciences.

They facilitate appropriate characterization of scientific

findings in the decision process and convey important

information in such a way that researchers and policymakers

can better understand complex scientific data. These

programs are performed in-house and as problem-driven

research. FY 2004 activities cover a broad spectrum of areas,

including:

• Integrating data analysis and decision making across

physical, chemical, biological, social, economic, and

regulatory influences and effects

• Finding significant relationships, phenomena, differences,

and anomalies with multiple data techniques

• Integrating search and retrieval across multiple digital

libraries containing environmental and health information

• Enabling efficient management, mining, distribution, and

archiving of large data sets

• Creating services to enable and support collaborative

science across geographically distributed laboratories and

offices including data and computational grids

• Developing interactive visualizations of complex systems

for analysis, design, and evaluation

• Generating knowledge engineering and capture

FY 2004 HCI & IM activities have enabled the following

pilot projects:

Metabonomics Pilot – a collaborative framework to

enable shared access to data and results, joint use of

computational applications and visualization tools, and

participatory analysis across scientific boundaries.

Metabonomics data will be harmonized with both

proteomics and genomics data in order to better understand

and predict chemical toxicity and support risk assessment.

Activities on this pilot continue during FY 2005.

Air Quality Model Pilot – investigating tools and

approaches to explore potential linkages between air quality

and human health. Assessments include impacts of regulatory

and policy decisions through exploration of relationships

between regulations, emission sources, pollutants, and

ecosystems.

Tools and techniques developed in this pilot will be

transferred to states and applied to solve real problems such

as enhancing states’ abilities to predict and evaluate various

control strategies, expanding state-level forecasting

capabilities to include more pollutants, enhancing the states’

abilities to explore potential linkages between air quality and

human health, and improving states’ abilities to assess the

impact of regulatory and policy decisions. During FY 2005

HCI & IM activities will continue to enable this pilot.

FY 2005 EPA plans in HCI&IM R&D include:

• Evaluation of tools and models through the EPA Grid

• Evaluation and investigation of distribution, management and

archival of large data sets

• Investigation of significant relationships, phenomena, differences,

and anomalies in data

NOAA’s current HCI&IM work involves digital libraries.

The R&D is developing methods of cataloging, searching,

viewing, and retrieving NOAA data distributed across the

Web. Researchers are exploiting Geographical Information

Systems (GIS) and XML technologies to display and describe

data and are developing methods for distributing model data.

Recent results include:

• Fisheries-oceanography GIS with 3D presentations

• Prototype tools for analyzing and integrating hydrographic

data for a multi-server distribution system

• Using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) for service

registration and information discovery

In FY 2005, planned NOAA work in HCI&IM will

include:

• Developing improved access to current National Weather Service

(NWS) model data subsets

• Remote collaborative tools development

HCI&IM EPA HCI&IM

HCI&IM NOAA HCI&IM
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

42

LSN Agencies

NIH DOE/SC AHRQ DARPA NOAA

NSF NASA DOE/NNS NIST NSA

The activities funded under the NITRD

Program’s LSN PCA maintain and

extend U.S. technological leadership in

high-performance networks through

R&D in leading-edge networking technologies, services,

and techniques to enhance performance, security, and

scalability. These advances will support Federal agency

networking missions and requirements and will provide

the foundation for the continued evolution of global scale

networks and the services that depend on them. Today’s

networks face significant challenges in performance,

scalability, manageability, and usability that restrict their

usefulness for critical national missions. These challenges

are addressed by the LSN PCA, which encompasses

Federal agency programs in advanced network

components, technologies, security, infrastructure, and

middleware; grid and collaboration networking tools and

services; and engineering, management, and use of largescale networks for science and engineering R&D.

Broad areas of LSN concern

• The development of networks that deliver end-to-end

performance at least 1,000 times greater than today

• The development of a manageable, scalable security

system to support the evolution of the global Internet

and associated applications that require trust

• The development of advanced network services and

middleware that enable development of new generations

of distributed applications

• Specialized large-scale networks to enable applications

with special needs, such as sensor networks and

networks for real-time control

• International cooperation in the area of optical network

coordination and certificate authorities

• Outreach and cooperation with university and

commercial communities

• Network science education and workforce issues

Technical Goals

• End-to-end performance measurement including across

institutional and international boundaries

• Network trust, security, privacy, availability, and

reliability through research on vulnerability analysis,

scalable technologies, security testbeds, and promotion

of best practices 

• Collaboration and distributed computing environments

including grid

• Adaptive, dynamic, self-organizing, self-scaling, and

smart networking

• Revolutionary networking research including revisiting

networking fundamentals

Illustrative Technical Thrusts 

• Federal network testbeds and their coordination with

non-Federal networks and testbeds

• Infrastructure support such as Federal Internet exchange

points

• Network technologies, components, and services for

optical, mobile, wireless, satellite, and hybrid

communications

• Middleware to enable applications

• Sensornets

• Large-scale network modeling, simulation, and

scalability

• Protocols and network services to support highperformance networking applications such as high

energy physics data transfers, astronomy community

collaboration, and biomedical research

• Technologies for measuring end-to-end performance

Large Scale Networking

LSN PCA Budget Crosscut

FY 2004 estimate FY 2005 Request

DoD/HPCMPO $329.8 M $332.8 M

Participating

Agency

Definition 

of 

LSN 

PCA
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

43

LSN PCA: Coordination and Activities

Agency representatives meet monthly in

the LSN Coordinating Group to plan

collaborative activities and evaluate

Federal R&D in advanced networking technologies. 

In addition, the CG has established and works with

specialized teams to implement agreed-upon policies and

to provide interagency coordination. The LSN teams and

their roles are:

• Joint Engineering Team (JET) – coordinates

connectivity and addresses management and

performance of Federal research networks and their

interconnections to the commercial Internet

• Middleware and Grid Infrastructure Coordination

(MAGIC) Team – coordinates Federal agency grid and

middleware research and development and support to

grid applications

• Networking Research Team (NRT) – coordinates

Federal agency research programs in advanced

networking technology and protocols

Annual Planning Meeting

The LSN CG holds a yearly Interagency Coordination

Meeting at which each agency describes its programs

reported under the LSN PCA. This allows the agencies to

identify:

• Opportunities for collaboration and coordination with

other agencies on networking R&D activities

• LSN R&D focus areas

• Areas of interest to the LSN agencies that are outside or

larger than the stated scope of the LSN CG, such as

cybersecurity

At the November 3, 2003, planning meeting,

participants identified the following three overarching

areas in which most of the LSN agencies have significant

efforts and interests that would benefit from cooperation:

• Network testbed infrastructure

• Network performance measurement

• Grid outreach

Agencies also developed a broader list of networking

R&D areas that are currently of interest to LSN

participants. The list appears below. In optical

networking, for example, NSF and DOE/SC are directly

coordinating their work in building new experimental

optical network testbeds to assure that the networks will

be complementary, offering cross-network connectivity,

experimentation capability, and advanced infrastructure

for each agency’s community of researchers.

Network Testbed Infrastructure

Several high-performance testbeds are being built to

provide an infrastructure for networking researchers

within the Federal agencies, some at the national level and

others called Regional Operational Networks (RONs).

The national networks include:

• NSF’s Experimental Infrastructure Networks (EINs)

• DOE/SC’s UltraScience Net

• National LambdaRail (NLR)

The RONs include:

• California Research and Education Network 2 (CalREN 2)

• I-Wire (Illinois)

• Mid-Atlantic Exchange (MAX)

Agencies’ Current Networking R&D Interests

 Networking Research

• Basic technology

• Optical networks

• Services

• Applications

 Infrastructure

• Production

• Experimental

• Research

 Collaboration Support

• Middleware and Grid

• Collaboration

 Security

 Monitoring and Measurement

 Automated Resource

Management

 Wireless, Ad Hoc

• Wireless/nomadic

• Crisis response, CIP

• Sensornet

 Standards and Specifications

 Education and Training

Continued on next page

LSN

Highlights
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

44

There is an opportunity to coordinate connectivity,

research, and applications development for these

networks to address larger-scale issues such as

transparency across the networks. However, controlleduse networks or dual-use networks will be required to

assure that researchers doing research for network

development (with a high risk of bringing down the

network) do not interfere with applications researchers

who require highly reliable networks.

The LSN CG tasked the NRT to study the issue of

coordination of network testbed infrastructures and

report back on its recommendations.

Network Performance Measurement

Many LSN agencies have active network performance

measurement programs and others identified the need to

measure end-to-end performance for all points of the

network. Critical issues include development of standard

interfaces and architectures for network performance

measurement. This would enable comparisons of

performance measurement across network providers to

facilitate end-to-end performance measurement, which

are needed in identifying and eliminating network

bottlenecks and isolating network faults when they occur.

The ability to measure and compare performance across

network provider boundaries and to isolate network faults

is needed for optimizing end-to-end application

performance to take advantage of the increasing network

bandwidths.

The LSN CG tasked the JET to investigate mechanisms

of coordinating network performance measurement,

particularly standard interfaces and architectures, and to

provide recommendations on how to improve

performance measurement capabilities.

Grid Outreach

Many user and application communities are developing

grid capabilities, often focused on their particular needs.

The LSN agencies are fostering the development of

standardized grid middleware resources, tools,

architectures, and infrastructure to facilitate such gridenabled applications and are encouraging outreach to the

user and application development communities so these

users can:

• Benefit from the extensive grid resource base and tools

that currently exist and are being developed 

• Avoid balkanizing grid resources by relying on

standardized tools, middleware, and architecture rather

than unique discipline-specific grid capabilities 

• Benefit from the common policies, resource

infrastructure, and the Global Grid Forum (GGF). The

GGF is a community-initiated forum of thousands of

individuals from government, industry, and research

leading the global standardization effort for grid

computing.

The LSN CG tasked the MAGIC Team to develop a

strategy for outreach to grid user communities to inform

them of existing and developing tools, architectures, and

capabilities, to promote commonality, and to report back.

Possible FY 2005 LSN Coordination

The LSN CG has identified the following three

additional topics in which the LSN agencies have a

significant commonality of interest and which hold

potential for future collaborative activities:

• Autonomic networking

• High-speed transport

• Security

Current High-Speed Networks

Following is a list of all the networks, called

“JETnets,” across which LSN and its technical teams foster

coordination and collaboration. The JETnets are Federal,

academic, and private-sector networks supporting

networking researchers and advanced applications

development. They are:

• Advanced Technology Demonstration Network

(ATDnet), established by DARPA and including the

Defense Intelligence Agency, NASA, the Naval Research

Laboratory, NSA, and Bell Atlantic

• DARPA’s BOSSnet and SuperNet

• DoD/HPCMPO’s DREN

• DOE/SC’s ESnet and UltraScience Net

• NASA’s NREN and NISN

• National LambdaRail (NLR)

• Next Generation Internet Exchange Points (NGIXs)

• NSF’s EINs (now called DRAGON and CHEETAH) and

vBNS+

• StarLight, the international optical peering point in

Chicago

• UCAID’s Abilene
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

45

Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans

LSN R&D Programs By Agency

Healthcare and the Next Generation Networking

program – funds testbeds demonstrating advanced

networking capabilities such as Quality of Service (QoS),

security and medical data privacy, nomadic computing,

network management, and infrastructure technology as a

means for collaboration.

Applications of Advanced Network Infrastructure

Technology in Healthcare and Disaster

Management – funds work on applications that

demonstrate self-scaling technology; use self-optimizing endto-end network-aware real-time technology and/or

middleware; depend on wireless technology; involve

advanced authentication (biometrics or smartcards); and are

nomadic or use GIS technology.

NLM Scalable Information Infrastructure Awards –

supporting the following 11 testbed projects in FY 2004:

• Scalable Medical Alert and Response Technology (SMART)

• An Adaptive, Scalable, and Secure Internet2-Based Client

Server Architecture for Interactive Analysis and

Visualization of Volumetric Time Series Data

• National Multi-Protocol Ensemble for Self-Scaling Systems

for Health

• Project Sentinel Collaboratory

• Advanced Health and Disaster Aid Network (AID-N)

• Advanced Network Infrastructure for Distributed Learning

and Collaborative Research

• Advanced Network Infrastructure for Health and Disaster

Management

• Wireless Internet Information System for Medical

Response in Disasters (WIISARD)

• Advanced Biomedical Tele-Collaboration Testbed

• A Tele-Immersive System for Surgical Consultation and

Implant Modeling

• 3D Telepresence for Medical Consultation: Extending

Medical Expertise Throughout, Between and Beyond

Hospitals

In FY 2005, NIH plans to:

• Increase its investment in datagrid infrastructure including

middleware and other software development for support of

biomedical and clinical research activities using federated

databases

• Begin exploring optical networking testbeds for data sharing

between sites engaged in clinical research and for testing different

approaches to conducting distributed queries against federated

medical databases

• Expand use of wireless networks in clinical research environments

LSN NIH LSN
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

46

Computing and networking form a continuum of support

services for applications on desktop to high-end platforms.

Elements of the continuum include distributed

computational resources, clusters of computers, grid

infrastructure and applications, and the Extensible Terascale

Facility [ETF].) The support networking ranges from highperformance, end-to-end, and fine-grained to episodic

network services using optical, fiber, wireless, satellite, and

hybrid network links. Program areas and illustrative awards

are listed below.

Networking Research Testbed (NRT) program –

supports prototyping and benchmarking as part of

networking research. The Computer and Network Systems

(CNS) Division manages this program. The NRT program

supports research in:

• Disruptive technologies and approaches

• Hybrid and experimental designs

• End-device research

• Core technology development

• New protocol research

• Alternative network architectures

• Testbed implementations

Awards were made in FY 2003, including: 

• A unified experimental environment for diverse networks

• Testing and benchmarking methods for future network

security mechanisms

• Orbit: Open-access research testbed for next generation

wireless networks

• Agile and efficient ultra-wideband wireless network

testbed for challenged environments

• Heterogeneous wireless access network testbed

• Scalable testbed for next generation mobile wireless

networking technologies

• National radio network research testbed (NRNRT)

Experimental Infrastructure Network (EIN) –

supports research applications with high-performance

networking. EIN complements the NRT program. Some

EIN focus areas are:

• Control/management of the infrastructure end to end

• End-to-end performance/support with dedicated

provisioning

• Pre-market technologies, experimental hardware, and

alpha software

• Significant collaboration vertically and across sites

• Persistence, with repeatable network experiments and/or

reconfigurability

• Experimental protocols, configurations, and approaches for

high throughput, low latency, and large bursts

EIN projects include: dynamic resource allocation for

Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS)

optical networks (DRAGON); end-to-end provisioned

optical network testbed for large-scale e-science applications

(CHEETAH, for Circuit-switched High-speed End-to-End

Transport ArcHitecture); cyber defense technology

experimental research network (DETER); PlanetLab, an

overlay testbed for disruptive network services; and WANin-Lab.

NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) – program’s goal is

to design, develop, deploy, and support a set of reusable,

expandable middleware functions and services that benefit

applications in a networked environment. In FY 2003, 20

System Integrator (SI) Awards were made to further develop

the integration and support for long-term middleware

infrastructure. Ten other awards focused on near-term

capabilities and tool development.

Funded projects include: disseminating and supporting

middleware infrastructure – engaging and expanding

scientific grid communities; designing and building a national

middleware infrastructure (NMI-2); integrative testing

framework for grid middleware and grid environments;

extending integrated middleware for collaborative

environments in research and education; instruments and

sensors as network services; middleware for grid portal

development

Strategic Technologies for the Internet (STI) – FY

2003 theme areas are: complex network monitoring,

problem detection, and resolution mechanisms; applications

that promote collaborative research and information sharing;

networked applications tools or network-based middleware;

LSN NSF LSN
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

47

development of automated and advanced network tools; and

innovative access network technologies. Awards include:

• A security architecture for IP telephony

• Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC)

• Plethora: A wide-area read-write object repository for the

Internet

• Marist Grid collaboration in support of advanced Internet

and research applications

• Implementation of a handle/DNS server

• Efficient diagnostic strategies for wide-area networks (tools

and technologies to detect, diagnose, and correct network

faults in local broadcast domains, whether they are wired

(Ethernet) or wireless)

• Development of an infrastructure for real-time super

media over the Internet

• Viable network defense for scientific research institutions

• The Strategic Technology Astronomy Research Team

(START) collaboratory: Broadening participation in

authentic astronomy research

• Network measurement, monitoring, and analysis in cluster

computing

• Toward more secure inter-domain routing

• eXplicit Congestion Control Protocol (XCP) development

– potential transport protocol for high-performance

network environments

• Media-aware congestion control

• Self-organizing spectrum allocation

NSF International Connections – include these

initiatives receiving support in FY 2004:

• TransPac award supports networking to the Asia-Pacific

region with two OC-12 Packet Over SONET (POS) links.

It supports a 1 GigE circuit between Chicago and Tokyo

• Starlight project provides a 10 GigE facility in Chicago to

serve as a peering point for international high-performance

optical research networks including links to CERN and

Amsterdam

• NaukaNet provides OC-3 links to Moscow and Hong Kong

* AmPath provides OC-2 service from Miami to NAP

(Network Access Point) of the Americas 

* TransLight program supports additional optical networking

connectivity to Canada (Canarie2 network), Prague,

Stockholm, and London

Information Technology Research (ITR) Initiative

– supports research in theme areas that cut across science

disciplines and NSF division interests. ITR research areas that

are part of the LSN PCA include:

• Cybertrust: projects in operating securely and reliably and

assuring that computer systems protect information

• Education and workforce

Large FY 2003 awards related to LSN include:

• Sensitive Information in a Wired World

• Responding to the Unexpected

• Networked InfoMechanical Systems (NIMS)

• 100 Megabits per Second to 100 Million Households

Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) Connectivity –

networks connect computation and storage components at

each ETF site and connect the ETF sites with one another.

The sites currently are, or soon will be: ANL, CalTech, IU,

NCSA, ORNL, PSC, Purdue University, SDSC, and TACC.

NSF’s LSN plans for FY 2005 include:

• NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) – will continue to address

middleware deployment challenges and develop common enabling

middleware and domain-specific cybertools for grid-computing 

• International research connections – new investments will be made

to enable international science and engineering collaborations

• Programmable Wireless Networks – capabilities of programmable

radios to make more effective use of the frequency spectrum and to

improve wireless network connectivity will be exploited

• Networking of Sensor Systems – architectures, tools, algorithms,

and systems that will make it easy to assemble and configure a

network of sensor systems will be created

• Internet Architecture – the core architecture of the Internet will be

reexamined, because there are signs that the current IP-based

architecture cannot handle expected increases in communication

loads. This requires devising means to test and eventually deploy
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

48

Applications-related drivers of the DOE/SC scientific

research community’s growing needs for high-performance

network environments are the following:

• Petabyte-scale experimental and simulation systems will be

increasing to exabyte-scale data systems in such areas as

bioinformatics, climate, and the Large Hadron Collider

• Computational systems that process or produce data

continue to advance with Moore’s Law

• Network requirements are projected to double every year.

• The sources of the data, the computational resources, and

the scientists are seldom collocated

The result is increasing demands on DOE/SC’s network.

For example, in five years DOE/SC scientists are expected

to need the network to:

• Transfer three petabytes per year

• Move a petabyte of data in 24 hours for the high energy

nuclear physics community using secure file movement

over a 160 to 200 Gbps “best effort” service

• Provide the cell biology community with shared immersive

environments that include multicast and latency and

bandwidth guarantees using 2.4 Gbps links with strong

QoS guarantees

• Support real-time exploration of remote data sets using

secure remote connectivity over 1 to 10 Gbps links to the

desktop with modest QoS services

• Support experimental (non-production) networking and

grid research using unused wavelengths

DOE/SC works with its users to identify mid- and longterm network requirements. Its Office of Advanced

Scientific Computing Research (OASCR) is building

partnerships among its networking programs, its researchers,

and users of its facilities as well as with other LSN agencies.

Other DOE/SC priorities are program integration and

priority setting for its facilities and research.

UltraScience Net – new FY 2004 initiative to support a

breakable, schedulable, ultra-high-speed, all-optical network

for conducting networking research. Its technologies rely on

fundamental hardware research results of other LSN

agencies. The first UltraScience Net link, 10 GigE from Oak

Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to StarLight, was put in

place in early 2004. Linking to Sunnyvale,California, CERN,

and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBNL) is being done

cooperatively with NLR. This network will support end-toend scientific discovery. Towards that end, DOE/SC is

supporting R&D in the following areas:

Networking research – addresses end-to-end network

measurement and analysis for applications to enable

localization and elimination of bottlenecks, effective tuning

of the network path for an application, and resolution of

performance issues across provider boundaries. Developing

new protocols to support large data transfers; cybersecurity

policy and technology advances required for OC-12 to 

OC-192 speeds; QoS, and dynamic provisioning services.

Middleware research – focuses on: providing

transparent and scalable cybersecurity infrastructure;

developing services to support collaborative scientific work;

integrating remote resources and collaboration capabilities

into local experimental and computational environments;

and facilitating the discovery and use of scientific data,

computers, software, and instruments over the network in a

controlled fashion. (The National Collaboratories Programrelated research activities that are reported in HCI&IM in 

FY 2004 have been moved to the LSN PCA for FY 2005

because they are more aligned with LSN concerns).

ESnet – network facilities and testbed activities include

maintaining the high-performance production ESnet for

DOE/SC mission requirements. DOE/SC has as a goal to

transition the UltraScience Net prototype to a production

environment and to tighten the coupling of the prototype

and ESnet.

Connectivity – developing IPv6 protocol

implementation, multiplatform video conferencing services,

and implementation of distributed network measurement

and analysis tools, in coordination with the NSF

cyberinfrastructure program and other LSN agency program

managers

DOE/SC plans for LSN efforts in FY 2005 include:

• Completion of UltraScience Net deployment and initiation of

testbed activities

• Implementation of fiber ring metropolitan area networks in the

Bay Area and Chicago to improve connectivity of ESnet core to

DOE laboratories and its reliability

• Continue network research, grid middleware, and collaboratory

pilot projects in coordination with related efforts at NSF and other

agencies

• Participate in interagency network measurement collaboration

LSN DOE/SC LSN
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

49

NASA Research and Education Network (NREN)

adaptive networking program – developing a tool

called Resource Allocation, Measurement and Adjustment

System (RAMAS) to reserve bandwidth for applications,

either when requested or later. RAMAS features include:

passive monitoring and measurement; data capture of OC-3

and OC-12 data streams; graphical user interface (GUI)

enabling user-defined specifications to designate traffic of

interest and types of information to collect on designated

flows; data-collection summarization delivered to a central

process/control management system that archives

summaries and generates graphical representations;

interfaces for Ethernet, ATM, POS, and wireless. 

A RAMAS experiment captured low-bandwidth wireless

data using secure FTP from a field site connected by wireless

to a satellite link to mass storage facilities at Ames Research

Center and the University of Cincinnati. The test identified

the difficulty of optimizing TCP for satellite transmissions.

In FY 2004, work on RAMAS includes: upgrades to OC-48

and OC-192; enhanced data archive capabilities; enhanced

data analysis to reduce massive amounts of data to

information; security mechanisms to enable use on the

NASA Grid (previously called the Information Power Grid);

a distributable RAMAS package, possibly on a CDROM; and

identification of performance bottlenecks for selected

wireless applications.

Nomadic networking: Portable Satellite Dishes –

goal is to enable NASA science and engineering in remote

locations. Three components: ad hoc networking, hybrid

satellite and terrestrial networking, and mobile IP/IPv6. 

FY 2004 activities include: 

• Implement dynamic source routing, an ad hoc network

routing protocol

• Investigate use of directional antennas 

• Use portable satellite dishes to demonstrate mobile IP in a

hybrid environment

• Evaluate mobile IP/IPv6

• Deploy a portable Ka-band (radio spectrum from 18 GHz

to 31 GHz used in satellite communications) satellite dish

in collaboration with HP Labs

Mobile Agents Field Experiment – developing

techniques for planetary exploration, including command of

roving vehicles, wireless on-site networking, and

autonomous software testing. Experimental components will

include the NREN Transportable Earth Station (TES), a

rover, all-terrain vehicles, an astronaut, and a remote

mission support team at NASA Johnson Space Center.

Geology ground-truthing experiment – goal is to

calibrate satellite-derived geology data with in-situ data

taken in real time by on-site geologists. Uses wireless

networking and the TES to enable researchers to use mass

storage facilities, supercomputers, and the grid to conduct

experiments while they are on site. 

In one experiment, real-time satellite spectro-radiometer

data were transported to a mass storage facility while

scientists in Utah uploaded ground spectra data to a second

facility. The grid was used to move both data sets to

supercomputers at NASA Glenn and NASA Ames Research

Centers for analysis. The results were accessed by local

scientists and sent to the remote science team, which used

the results to locate and explore new critical compositions of

interest.

Wide Area Network (WAN) testbed – connects five

NASA centers and two exchange points, using Asynchronous

Transfer Mode (ATM) and Packet Over SONET (POS) OC12 and OC-3 circuits. For research and development of

technology to enable next-generation NASA missions,

demonstrate NASA applications, and transfer technology to

enhance the capabilities of NASA operational networks. In

FY 2004, MPLS, IPv6, and Differentiated Services (DiffServ)

will be deployed on the NREN backbone. The PCMon

network monitoring tool will be integrated on the TES

platform.

LSN NASA LSN
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

50

Network modeling and simulation – Information

Processing Technology Office (IPTO) program supports

projects to: 

• Develop modeling and simulation tools for online

measurement and analysis with the goals of designing

better protocols and new services such as for dynamic

provisioning

• Predict end-to-end performance and vulnerabilities

through traffic pattern analysis

• Dynamically optimize performance

In an effort co-funded with NSF, researchers achieved the

largest network simulation – of a 1.1 million-node network

– to date. The simulation used 1,500 parallel processors,

illustrating the use of parallel processing to improve the scale

of network simulations and advance the modeling of

network behavior. The simulation results are being used to

design better, faster protocols.

A DARPA fast-throughput experiment demonstrated 8.6

Gbps throughput using ten simultaneous flows.It attained 34

petabyte meters per second on a path from CERN through

StarLight in Chicago to Sunnyvale, California. This metric

attempts to capture the interrelationship between bandwidth

and delay.

Cognitive Networking – will assess the feasibility of

information and communication networks that possess

significant degrees of self-reliance and responsibility for their

own behavior and survival. Focuses on self-diagnosis,

automatic adaptation to changing and hostile environments,

reconfiguration in response to changes in the environment,

intelligent negotiation for tasks, and resources and

robustness under attack. Will also explore the possibility of a

virtual “application-private network,” whose on-demand

protocols are based on specific application requirements and

current network conditions.

Self-Aware Collective Systems – this technology thrust

will enable heterogeneous teams of individuals (e.g., people,

software agents, robots) and/or organizations (e.g., coalition

forces) to rapidly form, easily manage, and maintain virtual

alliances concerned with a specific task. Thrust involves two

efforts: 

• Self-Aware Peer-to-Peer Systems – will develop resilient,

scalable sensor/computation networks with decentralized

control. This technology will support battlespace

awareness by enabling the self-formation of large ad hoc

networks of sensors and computational elements within the

severely resource-constrained environment (power,

bandwidth, stealth) of military operations while enabling

networks to survive component failure, network intrusion,

and the subversion of elements.

• Collective Cognitive Information Processing for Improved

Asset Performance – will develop learning and reasoning

algorithms that can identify and classify emergent problems

and opportunities for proactive maintenance of equipment

and use of sensors in a dynamic operational environment.

These new self-aware distributed systems will be able to

reflect globally on their overall operation (including

understanding trends), and make decisions based on the

collective disposition of assets connected by networked

sensors (e.g., vehicles or other equipment).

In FY 2005, DARPA work will continue on:

• Cognitive Networking

• Self-Aware Collective Systems

LSN DARPA LSN
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

51

NIST supports network-related programs in its Advanced

Network Technologies Division (ANTD) and in the

Computer Security Division (CSD) of its Information

Technology Laboratory (ITL). Their mission is to provide

the networking industry with the best in test and

measurement research. Their goals are to improve the

quality of emerging networking specifications and standards

and to improve the quality of networking products based on

public specifications. Their core technical contributions are:

• Models and analyses from specifications to assess

consistency, completeness, precision, and performance

characteristics

• Prototypes and empirical studies from specifications to

determine feasibility

• Test and measurement tools, techniques, metrics, and data

to assess conformance, interoperability, and performance

ANTD research programs include:

• Pervasive Computing including Wireless Personal Area

Networks (WPAN), service discovery, wireless access

networking, wired access, core networks, and wireless adhoc networking. Focus areas are UltraWide Band (UWB)

and grid computing.

• Agile Switching: routing, signaling, protection, restoration,

and network management and metrology

• Internet Telephony including session-initiated protocol

(SIP) for voice to support nomadic information appliances,

particularly for the health care industry

• Infrastructure Protection for securing core services, secure

BGP, and survivable control planes

• Wireless Ad Hoc Networks for architecture, routing, and

services, particularly standards, and first responder

technologies

• Cryptographic: standards and quantum encryption keys

Details of some projects follow.

FY 2004 priority taskings – evaluating the economic

consequences of IPv6; planned a January 2004 workshop on

“spam” at the request of the White House

Resilient Agile Networking (RAiN) program –

developing, testing, and standardizing technologies for faulttolerant, self-adaptive and ad-hoc networks. RAiN projects

include: survivable control planes (work with the Internet

Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Network Processor

Forum to define security mechanisms that will scale to

performance levels necessary for the core Internet

infrastructure); large-scale BGP attack modeling to

characterize the performance impact and benefits of various

proposed approaches to secure BGP; new measurement

platforms; wireless ad hoc networks (work with public safety

agencies to develop requirements and standards for emerging

public safety communication and networking technologies)

Distance Computing (DisCom) program – a

component of NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing

(ASC) Program, formerly the Accelerated Strategic

Computing Initiative (ASCI). DisCom assists in the

development of an integrated information, simulation, and

modeling capability to support the design, analysis,

manufacturing, and certification functions of DOE’s defense

programs complex through advances in distance computing.

Extends the environments required to support high-end

computing to remote sites. Provides remote access to major

ASC platforms – Red, Blue Mountain, White, and Q. 

In FY 2004, DisCom is delivering additional key

communications technologies to efficiently integrate the ASC

platforms of Red Storm, Purple, Blue Gene/L, and beyond.

Supporting tools development for more reliable and

persistent file-transfer mechanisms over the WAN. 

DisCom cooperates and collaborates with NSA to closely

monitor the IP encryptor technology.

In FY 2005, LSN activities of DOE/NNSA will include:

• Begin deployment of new tools for reliable, persistent file transfer

over the WAN

• Continue development of integrated distance computing

capabilities for ASC

LSN NIST LSN

LSN DOE/NNSA LSN
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

52

Advanced Information Technology Program –

R&D strategy to: 

• Explore advanced technologies to make NOAA’s vast

amount of environmental data available easily, quickly, and

completely

• Exploit innovative data access technologies including Webbased tools and agents as they evolve

• Explore emerging security technologies to safeguard

NOAA data and information

• Transfer new technology to other NOAA users

NOAA is implementing the strategy through:

• Real-time collaborations such as Internet@sea and Ocean

Share

• Seasonal-Interannual Climate Collaboration: Distributed

collaboration visualizing the environment

• Access to Data: Satellites, radar, aircraft, in situ, and

models

• Fisheries Model Analysis such as for Pollack larvae in

Shelikof Strait in Alaska

• Hazardous Spill Response: Anytime, anywhere connectivity

Related NOAA R&D includes:

Computer and network security – projects address:

encrypted file systems; firewalls and intrusion detection at

gigabit speeds; automated, enterprise-wide patching; and

wireless security.

Next Generation Internet program – goal is to use

advanced networking technologies to enhance NOAA data

collection and dissemination and to support the NOAA HPC

architecture. Provides connectivity among seven NOAA sites

and to radar sites providing near-real-time weather data.

Currently developing phased-array radars (NEXRAD) to

collect near-real-time weather data. Deployment of these

radars will significantly increase data transport requirements.

Discipline-specific user toolsets – being developed to

support collaboration and grid applications. Plans to explore

the use of grid systems for data handling, computation, and

collaboration, and to test deployment of IPv6 at three

NOAA sites.

FY 2005 NOAA plans include:

• Continue developing advanced networking capabilities

• Optical networking

Self-Managing Systems – conducting research and

developing the test and measurement basis and standards

foundations for future self-managing systems. Working with

DARPA, the Global Grid Forum, Distributed Management

Task Force (DMTF), IETF, the Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IBM, Sun Microsystems,

Cisco, HP, and others, NIST is: exploring information and

knowledge management, learning, and reasoning techniques

to enable new levels of autonomic operation of increasingly

complex distributed systems; establishing the measurement

basis to assist industry in evaluating the behavior and

performance of emerging self-managing systems.

Information Security – focuses on cryptographic

standards and applications, such as: secure encryption,

authentication, non-repudiation, key establishment, and

pseudo-random number generation algorithms; standards

and guidance for e-Gov and e-Authentication; PKI and

Domain Name System (DNS) security standards, 

interoperability, assurance, and scalability; wireless and

mobile devices and smart card security; quantum computing

and quantum cryptography (in coordination with DARPA)

GLASS: GMPLS/Optical Simulation Tool –

developing a modeling tool to evaluate architectures and

protocols for routing, signaling, and management of GMPLS

for optical networks and to support multilevel,

multiprotocol schemes for traffic engineering, QoS,

protection, and restoration. Also developing a modular

simulation framework to support: optical network

restoration; MPLS DiffServ protocol recovery; GMPLS and

optical common control and measurement plane (CCAMP);

and a protection and restoration tool to provide multilevel

recovery schemes.

In FY 2005, NIST plans in LSN R&D include:

• Continue work in RAiN program, self-managing systems,

cryptographic standards for information security, and the GLASS

project

LSN NOAA LSN
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

53

Participating Agency

Defense Research and Education Network (DREN)

– maintains a production WAN, using MCI services,

providing DS-3 through OC-768 links and deploying GigE

and 10GigE services. This network supports IP, IPv6, and

multicast with increased security. It supports both

Continental U.S. (CONUS) and Outside the Continental

U.S. (OCONUS) sites. It provides OC-3 and OC-12

peering to OCONUS. Core network expansion by MCI

includes OC-192 in June 2004 and OC-768 when required.

Key network services provided:

• IP performance: latency, packet loss, and throughput

• ATM availability

• IPv6 and multicast

• Increased security

FY 2004 activities include:

• Connectivity: to the Advanced Technology

Demonstration network (ATDnet), StarLight, and other

experimental networks to support development of new 

technologies and services; to remote sites in Alaska and

Hawaii, in collaboration with NASA

• IPv6 pilot program: DREN deploys IPv6 native and

supports the Abilene IPv6 Transit Access Point (6TAP)

testbed and the IPv6/MPLS end-to-end testbed. Services

include: efficient routing using protocols such as BGP+,

GMPLS, and OSPF; QoS; priority, preemption, policy,

authorization, and audit; voice, video and data support;

dynamic network monitoring; scalable speeds, including

network test and measurement capabilities and passive

monitoring with time-stamping.

• Performance measurement: testing 10 GigE equipment.

In FY 2004, DREN is able to achieve near wire-speed

performance over 80 percent of the time across its OC-12

links.

• Network security: providing end-to-end WAN

encryption; developing IPv6 security with beta-testing of

NetScreen IPv6 currently in-place. It is considering NS-500

firewall protection. (NS-500 is a GigE security device that

uses a Virtual Private Network [VPN].)

Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences (LTS)

– programs continue to emphasize transmission of quantum

communications through optical elements. This work is part

of a joint research program with DOE/SC. Demonstrated a

quantum channel on the same fiber as a SONET channel. 

In FY 2003, NSA demonstrated techniques for regionalized

QoS management and developed a model for QoS pricing of

Internet services. In FY 2004 NSA is working to join these

two efforts to provide a viable pricing model and requisite

enforcement mechanisms. Also continuing are programs on

Critical infrastructure protection issues for converged

networks. Work slowed in nonlinearities and transients in

optical networks, regionalized quality of service

management, and firewalls in high-speed networks. Work

was phasing out in optical burst-switched protocols.

In FY 2005, NSA will continue network research in:

• Quantum communications, quality of service, and high- speed

network interfaces

• Implement additional network-enabled applications as they become

practical, including:

– Collaboratories

– Grid computing

– Storm-scale simulations with immersive environments

– Wireless: Data anywhere, anytime 

– Remote operations

LSN HPCMPO LSN

LSN NSA LSN
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

54

SDP Agencies

FAA

The activities funded under the Software

Design and Productivity (SDP) PCA will

lead to fundamental advances in

concepts, methods, techniques, and tools

for software design, development, and maintenance that

can address the widening gap between society’s need for

usable and dependable software-based systems and the

ability to produce them in a timely, predictable, and costeffective manner. The SDP R&D agenda spans both the

engineering components of software creation and the

economics of software management across all IT domains,

including the emerging areas of embedded systems, sensor

networks, autonomous software, and highly complex,

interconnected systems of systems. Today, software

development and maintenance represent by far the most

costly, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and frustrating

aspects of IT deployment in every economic sector. SDP

R&D seeks to foster a new era of innovation in software

engineering that addresses these serious design issues.

Broad Areas of SDP Concern 

• Overall quality of software

• Overall cost – in time, labor, and money – of software

development and maintenance

• Growing complexity of software

• Enabling more people to more easily create software

and software-based systems

• Need for expertise in emerging software areas such as

embedded systems, large-scale sensor networks,

autonomous software, and grid environments

• Workforce development

Technical Goals

• Scientific foundations for creating, maintaining, and

improving software that incorporates such qualities as

usability, reliability, scalability, and interoperability

• More cost-effective methods for software testing,

analysis, and evaluation

• New frameworks for understanding and managing the

economics of software

• Methods for developing and evaluating specialized

software systems for specific purposes and domains

Illustrative Technical Thrusts 

• Development methodologies such as model frameworks;

tunable, adaptable processes; component technologies;

open source practices for code portability and re-use;

integrated environments and tools for development; and

programming standards 

• Theoretical and technical aspects of programming

languages; compilers; software for visualizing and

verifying code and data structures; and automatic

program synthesis

• Software architectures and component-based methods to

incorporate re-usable software resources

• Measuring and managing software quality

• Scalability: Enhancing the ability of software to “grow”

along various axes without significant redevelopment

• Interoperability: Software that moves easily across

heterogeneous platforms as well as software units that

cooperate and exchange information seamlessly

• Fault-tolerant, adaptable software that can continue to

function under unexpected conditions

Software Design 

and Productivity

SDP PCA Budget Crosscut

FY 2004 estimate FY 2005 Request

$179.3 M $166.0 M

NASA DOE/NNSA NIH

NSF NIST NOAA

Participating 

Agency

Definition 

of 

SDP 

PCA
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

55

Continued on next page

• Enhancing software performance through code modeling

and measurement; understanding how to improve

runtime effectiveness of applications

• Techniques and tools - including automated approaches,

new metrics, and reference data - for testing, analysis, 

validation, and verification 

• Techniques and tools for assessing engineering risks and

tradeoffs and estimating and balancing developmental

and operational costs

• Specialized and domain-specific software such as for

application frameworks, platform reliability, and

modeling or control of embedded systems

SDP PCA: Coordination and Activities

Since the inception of the SDP PCA in

FY 2000, its Coordinating Group (CG)

has worked on developing a common

understanding of the SDP R&D terrain. In this process, it

has worked with the HCSS CG to make clear the research

distinctions between their two domains (see HCSS

definition on page 64). These efforts contribute to a

broader understanding by the policymaking community

and the public of software issues and the critical need for

R&D that addresses them.

In December 2001 at the outset of its deliberations,

the SDP CG sponsored a workshop at which researchers

from academe, industry, and government were

encouraged to “think out of the box” about “New Visions

for Software Design and Productivity.” The participants

identified five major facets of the growing problems in

contemporary software design and development:

• The large number and inherent complexity of

requirements

• Multiple independent sets of requirements and their

associated functionalities

• Testing, verification, and certification of large, complex

systems

• Composition and integration of software from multiple

sources

• Multidisciplinary distributed software development

Building on that workshop’s conclusions, in FY 2004

the SDP CG will complete a taxonomy of the PCA’s

scope of research. The preliminary taxonomy appears

CREATE, MAINTAIN, AND IMPROVE

SOFTWARE

 Software development methods 

• Model development framework

• Tunable development processes

• Component technologies

• Open source

• Development environments 

• Programming standards

• Adaptable systems

• Legacy systems

 Languages and tools

• Programming languages

• Cross-platform Fortran 90

• Compilers

• Programming environments

• Software visualization

• Automatic program synthesis

 Runtime environment

INVESTIGATING AND ACHIEVING

THE “-ILITIES”

 Quality management

 Platform reliability

 Scalability

 Interoperability

 Robustness

 Performance tuning

TESTING, ANALYSIS, AND EVALUATION

 Evaluation of complex integrated

systems with real-time characteristics

 Evaluation of models and simulations

 Evaluation of COTS

 Metrics and reference data

 Automatic verification and validation (V&V)

 Testing tools

 Software analysis

MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS

Tools for various aspects of software

process management

• Project management

• Cost and schedule estimation and

prediction

• Cost of testing

• Document management systems

• Quality vs. risk measurement and

management

SOFTWARE SYSTEMS FOR SPECIFIC

DOMAINS AND SPECIALIZED SOFTWARE

 Application frameworks

• Domain-specific tools etc.

• Specialized software products

• Large-scale data and information

access, sharing, security, etc.

• Scientific data management

• Visualization and analysis of scientific

data sets

 Software for platform reliability

• Software to model platform

architecture

 Embedded systems

• Software control

• Modeling and simulation

• Self-evolving (adaptable) systems

SDP

Highlights

Scope of SDP R&D Topics
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

56

Briefings with IT ‘User’ Agencies

In FY 2004, the SDP CG is holding briefings with

representatives of Federal “IT user” agencies to gather

information about software issues from agencies whose

missions involve large-scale, critical applications – such as

for Social Security records, Medicare transactions, and

Internal Revenue systems. The goal is to better

understand what IT managers – from their firsthand

practical knowledge – perceive to be the key problems of

their complex, real-time software environments. The first

briefing of the series was provided by the DHS Customs

and Border Protection agency, describing development of

a new distributed IT system to manage U.S. exportimport procedures.

Multiscale Modeling Workshop Planned

The SDP CG also is planning an FY 2005 workshop to

explore software issues in multiscale modeling and

simulation of complex physical systems. Modeling and

simulation software has become a principal research tool

across the sciences, and creating models that combine

multiple factors at varying scales – such as climate from

global to local scales, or interacting systems in the human

body through the shape and functions of protein

molecules – is both a key opportunity for scientific

discovery and a key challenge for high-end computing and

domain sciences. The workshop will bring computer and

domain scientists together to assess the state of the art and

possible synergies among computational tool sets

developed for differing scientific domains.

Multiagency SDP Activities

The following is a sampling of FY 2004 activities in

which more than one NITRD agency participates (other

collaborating agencies are not cited):

NASA – Software design for Earth System Modeling

Framework (ESMF); partners include DOE/SC,

NOAA, and NSF; problem-solving frameworks, with

DOE/SC and NSF; automated software engineering,

with NSF; joint work on grid software with DOE/SC

and NSF through the Global Grid Forum. (For more

details on ESMF, see page 13.)

NSF – collaborates with NASA, DARPA, and others with

overlapping missions, such as in the Highly Dependable

Computing and Communications Systems Research

(HDCCSR) program, with NASA, and ESCHER, with

DARPA (see below)

DOE/NNSA – the Advanced Simulation and Computing

(ASC) program is open to collaborations and dialogues

with other agencies, such as funding R&D in open

source software for high-performance computing. ASC

researchers collaborate with ASC university alliance

members that are also funded by other NITRD agencies,

strengthening the collaborative environment in academic

research and education.

DARPA – the Model-Based Integration of Embedded

Systems (MoBIES) program has an interagency activities

aspect, the Embedded Systems Consortium for Hybrid

& Embedded Research (ESCHER), with NSF. ESCHER

is a repository of technologies and tools from DARPA

and NSF programs in hybrid and embedded systems.

The prototypes and documentation are intended to

promote rapid transition of MoBIES results to DoD and

industry.

NIH – holding preliminary discussions with other

agencies about an FY 2005 multiagency workshop on

informatics associated with microbial science

NIST – collaborates with a wide range of Federal

organizations on SDP-related topics, including:

• Data uniformity and Standards Structural Bioinformatics

(includes Protein Databank, HIV Structural Database),

with DOE/SC, NIH, NSF, and universities

• Digital Library of Mathematical Functions, with NSF

• NeXus Data Exchange Standard (effort to get neutron

researchers to use sharable data structures), with

DOE/SC

• Numerical Data Markup Language (developing an XML

schema of encoding units of measurement, called

UnitsML), with DOE/SC

• Product Data Standards for HVAC/R, with DOE

• Product Engineering Program (role of CAD systems;

metrics for interoperable representation standards in

product engineering), with DARPA, NASA 
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

57

Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans

SDP R&D Programs By Agency

NASA missions are increasingly and critically dependent on

complex software systems; in many cases, software cannot

be repaired or reloaded after a mission begins. The agency

therefore has a critical need for: 

• Automated software verification and validation tools

• Automated program synthesis

• Evolvable and adaptable software

Science and engineering applications in general are

becoming more complex and multidisciplinary, and require

distributed computing including “high-performance”

applications, integration and interoperability of independent

components, and runtime support for efficient discovery,

access, and use of distributed resources including data and

software. The agency uses a Technology Readiness Level

(TRL) scale that runs from 1 (basic concept) to 9 (embedded

in a mission) to categorize R&D. 

FY 2004 agencywide SDP R&D activities are located in the

Computing, Information, and Communications Technology

(CICT) Program, Engineering for Complex Systems (ECS)

Program, and Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), in

the following programs:

Information Technology Strategic Research, CICT 

Automated Software Engineering Technologies

(with NSF) – automated mathematical techniques for the

software development process, yielding tools for costeffective development of high-confidence, highly reliable

software systems for aerospace applications. Low TRL.

Technology development includes:

• Scalable software model checking, automated program

abstraction, state-space search algorithms, and formal

method verification of integrated modular avionics design

to make possible analytical verification of concurrent

advanced aerospace software architectures and code

• Program generation through automated reasoning,

product-oriented certification methods, and automated

tools that certify automatically synthesized code

• Generate runtime monitors from requirements

specifications, automated behavioral verification, machine

learning to optimize exploration of potential behaviors,

and automated generation of software fault recovery, to

enable software that monitors itself and recovers from

faults at runtime with minimal computational overhead

Evolvable Systems – aiming to dramatically increase

mission survivability and science return through

development and application of evolutionary and adaptive

algorithms. Includes:

• Advanced evolutionary algorithms and automated design

and optimization for evolved fault recovery, to enable

programmable logic that automatically rewires following

damage

• Evolved sensor suite and evolutionary scheduling

algorithms to enable sensor electronics that survives

extreme radiation and temperature 

• Future developments may include defect-tolerant

nanosystems, distributed control, and evolved control

algorithms for evolvable robotic control and coordination

Intelligent Systems, CICT

Verification and Validation (V&V) for Autonomy –

addresses the complexity in verifying autonomous systems

that operate in rich and uncertain environments with no

human intervention, and that must adhere to internal

correctness constraints involving communication among

components, control flow, and resource utilization. This

project to develop state-of-the-art benchmarking tools for

V&V has successfully used rover software to test

experimental versions of V&V tools. TRL 3.

Computing, Networking, and Information 

Systems, CICT

Problem Solving Frameworks (with DOE/SC, NSF)

– objective is to develop infrastructures that support the

management of simulation, analysis, and data components in

application-specific environments. Challenges:

• Component representations that support the access, use,

and composition of multi-component applications

SDP NASA SDP
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

58

• Methods for automatic and user-based generation of work

plans

• Efficient management of the flow of work across

distributed resources

Projects include:

– Component and Data Representation Models

– GridWorks: Workflow Management Framework

– CIAPP: CORBA-based Framework

– TAF-J: Agent-based Framework

– AeroDB

Grid Middleware Services (with DOE/SC, NSF) –

developing a distributed infrastructure for seamless access to

resources that are heterogeneous (computers, data, and

instruments), distributed across multiple administrative

domains, and dynamically coupled. This involves developing

grid services (e.g., application and user-oriented, execution

management, grid management, and data management and

access) that provide a useful function independent of the

underlying resources, are discoverable, encourage the design

and use of reusable software components, and are easily

incorporated into application frameworks. The runtime

aspects of this program also fall under LSN’s MAGIC effort.

Parallel Programming Paradigm – seeks to improve

parallel programming tools and techniques to increase the

performance of HEC systems scaling to thousands of

processors, often in a grid environment of multiple

distributed platforms. The portability, scalability, and

usability of codes are technology challenges. The effort is

evaluating (and, if necessary, extending standards for)

parallel multilevel programming paradigms. Exploring:

Multilevel Parallelism (MLP); MPI + OpenMP Hybrid

Parallelism; and Distributed Shared Memory

Automated Programming Tools for Parallelization

– aims to reduce time-consuming and error-prone code

porting and development times for applications to run on

HEC systems and grids by providing an integrated set of

automated tools for parallelization that retains good

performance. Challenges:

• Straightforward porting process

• Accurate, effective code analysis

• Multi-level parallel code generation

• Correct answers with ported code

• Performance analysis

• Good performance

Projects include:

– CAPO: Computer-Aided Parallelizer and Optimizer

– Performance analysis

– ADAPT: Automatic Data Alignment and Placement Tool

– Automatic debugging

Performance Modeling, Benchmarking, and

Optimization – techniques, strategies, and tools to model,

predict, and optimize application performance, and to

improve applications’ maintainability, portability, and

performance in parallel and distributed heterogeneous

environments. Technical approach:

• Predicting application execution times on various platforms

• Predicting wait times in scheduler queues

• Developing benchmarks to understand the behavior of key

NASA applications on single (parallel) and distributed

systems

• Understanding application cache usage and optimizing

performance of regular and irregular problems

Projects are:

– NAS Parallel Benchmark

– NAS Unstructured Mesh Benchmarks

– NAS Grid Benchmarks

– Performance prediction

– Cache optimization

Resilient Software Engineering, ECS Program

High Dependability Computing – developing tools,

case studies, and testbeds to identify and characterize risk

precursors in mission software systems. NASA has a user

collaboration portal for design and development; computer

scientists and mission experts work together on

dependability models and metrics. Testing is done on rover

software and onboard spacecraft IT systems. The goal is to

transfer successful dependability metrics and technologies to

missions and industry. High TRL.

Intelligent Software Engineering Software Suite –

investigating software algorithms, processes, and

development procedures to improve software integrity and

reliability. The work begins with the study of critical NASA

software risks and prototype tool productization

(methodology development, tool enhancement, and beta

testing), then moves to a tool maturation and evaluation
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

59

stage (methodology integration and tool customization), and

finally to integration in mission processes and adoption by

mission partners. Low TRL.

Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF), ESTO

NASA leads this collaboration of many agencies and

academic researchers in building high-performance, flexible

software infrastructure to increase ease of use, performance

portability, interoperability, and reuse in climate, numerical

weather prediction, data assimilation, and other Earth

science applications. See story on page 13.

Applications software development is supported across

CISE and specific applications (such as in biology, chemistry,

and physics) are developed in other directorates. Across all

NSF directorates, more emphasis is being placed on

cyberinfrastructure, including software to support the

science and engineering enterprise. In FY 2004, a new,

cross-divisional “Science of Design” theme is being developed

in CISE. SDP work is also funded under the ITR program,

which involves all NSF directorates. As of December 2003,

there were 1,300 active ITR awards, about 10 percent of

which involve SDP research.

CISE SDP project areas include: 

• Software Engineering and Languages (SEL)

• Advanced Scientific Computing (ASC)

• Embedded and Hybrid Systems (EHS)

• Next Generation Software (NGS)

• Distributed Systems and Compilers (DSC)

The current NSF-funded topics can be mapped into the

SDP CG’s taxonomy (page 55) as follows:

• Create, maintain, and improve software

– Software development methods – ASC, EHS, NGS, SEL,

ITR

– Languages and tools – ASC, DSC, NGS, SEL, ITR

– Runtime environments – DSC, NGS, ITR

• Investigating and achieving the “-ilities”

– Platform reliability – DSC, ITR

– Robustness – EHS, SEL

• Testing, analysis, and evaluation

– Evaluation of models and simulations – ASC, DSC,

NGS, ITR

– Metrics and reference data – SEL, ITR

– Automatic V&V – SEL, ITR

– Testing tools – SEL, ITR

– Software analysis – SEL, ITR

• Management and economics – SEL, ITR

• Software systems for specific domains

– Application frameworks – ASC, NGS, ITR

– Embedded systems – EHS, NGS, ITR

NSF FY 2005 plans in SDP areas include:

• The CISE emphasis area “Science of Design” (SoD) will promote

the scientific study of the design of software-intensive systems.

Complex interdependencies strain our ability to create, maintain,

comprehend and control these systems. The Science of Design

activity seeks to rectify this situation by building a foundation for

the systematic creation of software-intensive systems. This

foundation will consist of a body of theoretical and empirical

knowledge on design, computational methods and tools for design,

and a new design curriculum for the next generation of designers.

• The special NSF/NASA “Highly Dependable Computing and

Communication Systems Research” (HDCCSR) program will

continue support for R&D to advance the design, test,

implementation, and certification of highly dependable softwarebased systems. Awardees are able to use a NASA testbed facility to

experimentally evaluate their research products on significant real

hardware/software artifacts.

SDP NSF SDP
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

60

The Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program

is responsible for providing designers and analysts with a

high-fidelity, validated, 3D predictive simulation capability

to certify the safety, reliability, and performance of the

Nation’s nuclear stockpile in the absence of physical testing.

ASC’s SDP R&D is focused on the:

Problem Solving Environment (PSE) program – one

of four Simulation and Computer Science (SCS) thrusts

involved in developing the ASC computational

infrastructure. PSE goals:

• Create a common, usable application development

environment for ASC platforms

• Produce an end-to-end high-performance I/O and storage

infrastructure to enable improved code execution

• Ensure secure, effective access to ASC platforms across

NNSA labs for both local and distributed computing 

FY 2004 PSE priorities include:

• Focus on Red Storm software development environment,

preparing for initial delivery and the final integrated

platform

• Plan and prepare software environments for Purple C and

Blue/Gene L. Planning for new platforms is a significant

multiyear activity that involves developing and testing

software configurations on smaller platforms and scaling up

toward the final ultrascale integrated system.

• Continue performance modeling and measurement for

increased effectiveness and efficiency of applications and

platforms

• Develop high-performance open-source, Linux-based

computing environments, targeting capacity computing.

Requests for information (RFI) and requests for proposals

(RFP) for open source software (OSS) projects are under

way.

• Track and test development of Lustre file system for

clusters and continue to evaluate alternative file systems

• Continue to evaluate alternatives to the distributed

computing environment (DCE) technology, which DOE/

NNSA labs have used for authentication, security, and

administrative services, due to technology phase-out at the

end of calendar year 2005

In FY 2005, DOE/NNSA plans to:

• Continue the SDP-related work in ASC’s PSE program

SDP DOE/NNSA SDP
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

61

In FY 2004, DARPA has two programs in the SDP PCA,

both within the agency’s Information Exploitation Office

(IXO). They are:

Software Enabled Control (SEC) – focuses on the

design of advanced control systems for innovative vehicles

(Unmanned Air Vehicle [UAV], Organic Air Vehicle [OAV],

rotorcraft, fighters), including controls at both the vehicle

and mission level. SDP-related technology areas are:

• Active state models enabling dynamic prediction and

assessment

• Adaptive, dynamic customization of online controls

• Hybrid, multimodal controls

• Open-control platform with reusable (CORBA-based)

middleware and tool support

Final demonstrations of small rotorcraft and fixed-wing

vehicles are scheduled.

Model-Based Integration of Embedded Systems

(MoBIES) – automates the design, construction, and testing

of complex embedded systems by exploiting mathematical

relationships between the physical platform, the

computational platform, and real-world constraints – i.e.,

“software that is too complex to write manually."

Mathematical models are used to meet multiple

requirements for application-independent design tools, such

as real-time control, network connectivity, fault tolerance,

environmental resilience, physical constraints, and

component libraries. Resulting tools for designing embedded

applications include:

• Intelligent programming tools

• Smart process schedulers

• Communications configuration

• Online resource allocation

• User interfaces

• Automatic code generation

• Automatic verification and validation

• COTS integration 

The MoBIES tool integration framework is being

demonstrated in avionics and automotive design projects.

DARPA reports no SDP programs in FY 2005.

In FY 2004, the Center for Bioinformatics and

Computational Biology of NIH’s National Institute of

General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) launches several

initiatives:

Establishment of four NIH National Centers for

Biomedical Computing – each center will serve as a

node for developing, disseminating, and providing relevant

training for computational tools and user environments in an

area of biomedical computing. 

Investigator-initiated grants – intended to foster

collaboration with the National Centers. The objective is to

avoid competition between “big” and “small” science by

encouraging collaborations within the Centers. 

Program for creation and dissemination of

curriculum materials – designed to embed the use of

quantitative tools in undergraduate biology education

The National Centers for Biomedical Computing grants

solicitation includes a specific software requirement: Source

code supported in this initiative must be shared and users

may modify it, creating a pathway to commercialization.

In addition, the FY 2004 grant program of NIH’s

agencywide Biomedical Information Science and Technology

Initiative (BISTI) includes a category for computer science

grants. BISTI also has a program in software development

and maintenance.

SDP DARPA SDP

SDP NIH SDP
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

62

SDP-related activities at NIST include:

• Health: Informatics, privacy, ubiquitous aids, device

controllers, diagnosis aids, decision support, and

computer-aided surgery

• Nanotechnology:Computer control, modeling, and

visualization

• Information and Knowledge Management: Data and

knowledge bases, formal representations, intelligent

access, and manipulation and testing tools

• Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure: Computer

security, encryption, biometrics, monitoring software, and

computer forensics as well as precision engineering and

calibration for gun-tracing equipment, bullet-proof vests,

and other security-related devices

• Weapons Detection: Monitoring devices such as sensors,

threat-detection information systems

• Measurement Science: Conformance testing, scientific

visualization and models, intelligent measuring tools, and

machine learning tools

Within NIST’s Systems Integration for Manufacturing

Applications (SIMA) program, SDP-related projects include:

Automating Equipment Information Exchange

(AEX) – aims to automate equipment design, procurement,

and operation through software interoperability.

Interoperability issues focus mainly on data.

Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (with

NSF) – FY 2004 activities include usability studies and

completion of the Web site.

Electronic Commerce for the Electronics Industry

(ECEI) – supply chain software interoperability 

IT Infrastructure Conformance Testing – working

with industry partners on standards, such as ebXML, a

version of XML for electronic business, and is partnering

with Korea and Europe on testbeds for trying out b2b

solutions 

Interoperability of Databases for the Structure,

Stability, and Properties of Inorganic Materials

Manufacturing Enterprise Integration – involves a

testbed and work with industries on software

interoperability, including research on automated methods

for integrating systems. Research takes an ontological

approach, using formal logic, to enable agent technologies

and expert systems to automate the process of integrating

systems.

NeXus Data Exchange Standard – developing sharable

data structures for neutron researchers

Numerical Data Markup Language – developing

UnitsML, an XML schema for encoding measurement units 

Open Architecture Control – developing key interface

standards and associated conformance tests to achieve

interoperability of manufacturing control systems

architectures with security taken into consideration. This has

CIP applications, such as electrical generating plants or

hydroelectric dams.

Product Data Standards for HVAC/R

Product Engineering Program – developing a

semantically-based, validated product representation scheme

as a standard for seamless interoperability among CAD

systems and with systems that use CAD data

Standards for Exchange of Instrument Data and

NIST Chemical Reference Data 

Standards for Physical and Chemical Property

Data Interchange

Anthropometric Data Standards (with U.S. Air

Force) – seeking accurate 3-D representation of human

measurements; an application is cockpit design.

NIST FY 2005 plans in SDP R&D include:

• Continue SDP-related work in health informatics, nanotechnology,

information and knowledge management, cybersecurity and

critical infrastructure, weapons detection, and measurement science

• Continue SIMA program activities listed for FY 2004

SDP NIST SDP
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

63

NOAA SDP activities focus on using two software

modeling frameworks:

Flexible Modeling System (FMS) – NOAA’s

Geophysical Fluids Dynamic Lab (GFDL) uses the FMS

programming structure to develop atmospheric, ocean, and

coupled climate models for climate projection studies. 

Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) –

ESMF, the next-generation community-wide version of

FMS, is being worked on by GFDL in collaboration with

NASA, NSF’s National Center for Atmospheric Research

(NCAR), the university community, and NOAA’s National

Weather Service (NWS).

The challenges of building increasingly interdisciplinary

Earth system models and the need to maximize the

performance of the models on a variety of computer

architectures, especially those using upwards of thousands of

processors, necessitates a new program structure. This

structure allows physical, chemical, and biological scientists

to focus on implementing their specific model components.

Software engineers then design and implement the associated

infrastructure and superstructure, allowing for a seamless

linkage of the various scientific components.

FY 2005 plans include:

• Continued cooperative ESMF development with NSF and NASA

• Establish Development Test Center (DTC) with NCAR and the

university community

• Provide modeling framework for weather research and atmospheric

science

• Improve the transition of research to operations

Safety is the FAA’s primary mission. Safety will remain the

FAA’s top priority as the aviation industry readjusts itself to

a world transformed by terrorism and economic challenges.

Increasingly, solutions to these challenges depend upon

secure and dependable software-based systems and the ability

to produce them in a timely, predictable, and cost-effective

manner.

FAA work straddles the SDP and HCSS PCAs.(Please see

the discussion of FAA activities in the HCSS section.)

Participating Agency

SDP NOAA SDP

SDP FAA SDP
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

64

HCSS Agencies

Participatimg Agencies

The activities funded under the High

Confidence Software and Systems

(HCSS) PCA focus on the basic science

and information technologies necessary

to achieve affordable and predictable high levels of safety,

security, reliability, and survivability in U.S. national

security- and safety-critical systems. These systems play

key roles in critical domains such as aviation, health care,

national defense, and infrastructure. Many complex

software-and information-intensive systems that have high

consequences of failure must be certified as to their safety

and security. Currently, however, this certification – even

when possible at all – requires overwhelming cost, time,

and effort, discouraging and delaying innovation of new

technologies and processes. The overall HCSS goal, then,

is to develop and demonstrate revolutionary capabilities

for system development and assurance that balance and

reduce risk, cost, and effort to achieve systems that

behave in predictable and robust ways. HCSS R&D will

help transform our ability to feasibly build certifiably

dependable systems in the challenging environment of an

increasingly interconnected and automated society.

Broad Areas of HCSS Concern

• Security and privacy

• Safety, robustness, reliability of software and systems

• Trust, risk, and accountability

• Assured development and certification of software and

systems

• Survivability

Technical Goals

• Provide a sound theoretical, scientific, and technological

basis for assured construction of safe, secure systems 

• Develop hardware, software, and system engineering

tools that incorporate ubiquitous, application-based,

domain-based, and risk-based assurance

• Reduce the effort, time, and cost of assurance and

quality certification processes

• Provide a technology base of public domain, advancedprototype implementations of high confidence

technologies to enable rapid adoption

• Provide measures of results

Illustrative Technical Thrusts

• Foundations of assurance and composition 

• Correct-by-construction system design and software

technologies 

• Evidence and measurement technologies for verification

and validation 

• Authentication, access control, intrusion detection, trust

models, and forensics

• Dependable open, distributed, and networked systems

• Secure and reliable hardware, network, operating

system, and middleware technologies

• Dependable and survivable real-time, embedded, and

control system technologies

• Verification and certification technologies 

• Dependable technologies for transportation, medical

High Confidence 

Software and Systems

NSF

NSA

NASA

DARPA

NIST

NIH

HCSS PCA Budget Crosscut

FY 2004 estimate FY 2005 Request

AFRL FAA FDA ONR $144.4 M $152.5 M

Definition 

of 

HCSS 

PCA
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

65

devices and health systems, power generation and

distribution systems, financial services, and other critical

infrastructures

• Experimentation and reference HCSS implementations

• Assured open source software

HCSS PCA: Coordination and Activities

In FY 2001, the word “Software” was

added to the name of the prior High

Confidence Systems PCA to reflect the

central role played by software in the overall reliability,

security, and manageability of the Nation’s most complex

and critical computing and communications systems. The

recommendation to make software a top priority of

Federal IT R&D activities had been highlighted by the

PITAC in its 1999 report on Federal IT R&D

investments. The purview of the High Confidence

Software and Systems PCA now includes R&D in all

aspects of software development for very-high-assurance

trusted systems.

Through monthly meetings, the HCSS Coordinating

Group (CG) shares information on agency research

programs, upcoming meetings, and workshops. The

group cooperatively supports studies on HCSS topics,

holds workshops in key research and programmatic areas,

and invites other agencies to conferences and principal

investigator (PI) meetings. FY 2004 CG activities include:

• A study on “Sufficient Evidence? Building Certifiably

Dependable Systems” being conducted by the Computer

Science and Telecommunications Board of the National

Academies. Sponsored by NSF, NSA, and ONR; AFRL,

ARO, DARPA, FAA, FDA, NASA, and NIST also

participate. The study brings together a broad group of

experts to assess current practices for developing and

evaluating mission-critical software, with an emphasis on

dependability objectives. The group is addressing system

certification and examining a few application domains

(e.g., medical devices and aviation systems) and their

approaches to software evaluation and assurance. The

goal is provide some understanding of what common

ground and disparities exist. The study committee

hosted a workshop on Software Certification and

Dependability on April 19-20, 2004, to survey

technical, business, and governmental perspectives and

to promote dialogue between the research community

and government and industry practitioners who develop

safety-critical systems.

• The HCSS CG hosted an Open Verification Workshop

on April 12, 2004.

• Several other HCSS agencies participated in NSA’s High

Confidence Software and System Conference, April 13-

15, 2004.

• A set of aviation safety workshops is being planned to

address safety issues related to the use of unmanned

aerial vehicles in civilian and military airspace. AFRL,

FAA, NASA, and NSF are the major planners.

• The HCSS CG is planning a workshop on medical

devices software safety, with FDA, NASA, NIST, NSA,

NSF, and others.

Multiagency Collaborations

In FY 2004, HCSS agencies are working together on

several collaborative research projects and workshops in

assurance, cybersecurity, and medical devices. For

example:

• Using a new NASA testbed facility, NSF and NASA are

jointly sponsoring the Highly Dependable Computing

and Communications Systems Research (HDCCSR)

program to promote the ability to design, test,

implement, evolve, and certify highly dependable

software-based systems.

• DARPA, NSF, and other agencies supported the 2003

kickoff of the Embedded Software Consortium for

Hybrid and Embedded Software and Systems (ESCHER,

which is included in both the HCSS and SDP PCAs).

This group, which has industry support and

participation, will focus on system design tools, open

source system software, and reference implementations.

• NSF is supporting a cybersecurity study by the

Computer Science and Telecommunications Board

(CSTB) of the National Academy of Science and invites

participation by other agencies. 

• FDA and NSF are exploring a joint project to promote

participation by computer-science students at FDA.

Students will work to facilitate the transition of software

methods and to expand FDA’s expertise in identifying

needs for software-enabled medical devices.

HCSS

Highlights
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

66

HCSS R&D Programs By Agency

Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans

NSF’s HCSS activities reside in the Cyber Trust and

Science of Design themes in the Computer and Information

Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate, and in the NSFwide Information Technology Research (ITR) Program as

follows:

Cyber Trust – initiative across CISE divisions that

envisions a society in which:

• Computing systems operate securely and reliably

• Computing systems protect sensitive information

• Systems are developed and operated by a well-trained and

diverse workforce

This program supports research on foundations, network

security, systems software, and information systems. It

sponsors integrated education and workforce activities.

Cyber Trust workshops, including PI workshops, are open to

participants from other government agencies. In other

current research efforts, NSF is seeking help from other

agencies in identifying technology transfer opportunities and

creating and distributing relevant cyber trust data sets.

Science of Design – a crosscutting initiative that

emphasizes design of software-intensive computing,

information, and communications systems. The goal is to

improve the development, evolution, and understanding of

systems of large-scale scope and complexity. These are

systems for which software is the main means of

conceptualization, definition, modeling, analysis,

development, integration, operation, control, and

management. A workshop was held November 2-4, 2003, in

Northern Virginia to develop the program’s foundations.

ITR Program – emphasizes national priorities including

national and homeland security, which includes research

related to critical infrastructure protection and SCADA

systems.

Other CISE program activities – CISE’s Distributed

Computing, Embedded and Hybrid Systems, Networking,

and Foundations of Computing Processes and Artifacts

programs also include HCSS work.

The following current projects are representative of NSF

support for efforts addressing aspects of trustworthy

systems:

• Cryptography

– Information Theoretic Secure Hyper-Encryption and

Protocols

• Data, Security, and Privacy

– DataMotion: Dealing With Fast-Moving Data

– Deployment-Oriented Security and Content Protection

– Sensitive Information in a Wired World

• High Confidence Control

– A Unified Framework for Distributed Control with

Limited and Disrupted Communication

– Algorithmic Synthesis of Embedded Controller

– Symbolic Approaches to Analysis and Hybrid Systems

• Prevention, Detection, and Response

– A Semantic-Based Approach for Automated Response to

Attacks

– Architectural Solutions for Preventing Distributed Denial

of Service Attacks

– Automated and Adaptive Diversity for Improving

Computer Systems Security

– Forensix: Large-scale Tamper-resistant Computer

Forensic System

– Intrusion Detection Techniques for Mobile Ad Hoc

Networks

• Systems Software for Protecting Critical Infrastructure

– Distributed Authentication and Authorization: Models,

Calculi, Methods

– High-Assurance Common Language Runtime

– Key Management for Secure Dynamic Group

Communications

– Language-Based Software Security

– Practice-Oriented Provable Security for Higher-Layer

Protocols: Models, Analyses and Solutions

– Security and Privacy for Publish-Subscribe Systems

– Survivable Trust for Critical Infrastructure

– Trusted Peer-To-Peer Systems

HCSS NSF HCSS
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

67

Information Assurance Research Group (IARG) –

promotes HCSS research through three product-assurance

capability threads:

• Trusted by design – to help software engineers achieve

assured designs and reduce the cost of certifying the

security of complex information systems

• Trusted by analysis – to assess the confidence in a system

that has been built outside of NSA control and whose

assurance is unknown

• Containment – to balance granularity of protection against

ease of use and cost

The HCSS roadmap for IARG comprises three areas of

research:

• Foundations to develop the supporting theory and

scientific basis for high-confidence systems such as

automatic theorem proving, design and analysis of

protocols, interoperability and composition and

decomposition of agents, and systems security and

survivability architectures. Current work includes:

– National Academy of Sciences Certification Study,

focused on addressing system certification and

approaches to software evaluation and assurance.

– Protocol Specification and Synthesis, effort focused on

foundational methods of secure communication, with the

goal of providing methods and tools upon which the

design, analysis, and implementation of security

structures might be carried out.

• Tools and technologies for building highconfidence systems of the future through the

development of analysis, evaluation, and vulnerability tools

and techniques. Projects include:

– Specware, an environment supporting the design,

development, and automated synthesis of correct-byconstruction software

– Cryptol, a programming language focused solely on the

domain of cryptography, and recently adopted by

General Dynamics 

– Vulnerability discovery, focused on developing and

demonstrating a support environment for the analyst

who is interested in software system vulnerabilities

– Java Program Verification Condition Generator, a tool

that uses formal analysis to eliminate classes of errors

during software development of Java programs

– Formal analysis of hardware/software co-design

– Biospark, reliability engineering in biometrics that teams

HCSS, smart card, and biometrics researchers

– Polyspace, a project focused on evaluating the fitness for

use of the commercial Polyspace static verifier for

detecting run-time software errors

• Engineering and experimentation to demonstrate

the effectiveness and efficiency of HCSS

technologies on diverse hardware and software

In FY 2005 , NSF will continue HCSS R&D in:

• Cyber Trust – research aimed at creating systems that are more

predictable, more accountable, and less vulnerable to attack and

abuse; developed, configured, operated, and evaluated by a welltrained and diverse workforce; and used by a public educated in

their secure and ethical operation

• Disciplinary research in science and technology for the design and

implementation of high-confidence networks, embedded and

control systems, computer hardware design, operating systems, and

distributed systems. CISE will also support research in assurance

technology and methods that help to verify safety, security,

timeliness, and correctness aspects of critical systems

• Research projects under ITR aimed at dramatically increasing our

ability to build high-confidence security- and safety-critical

systems

Selected new multiyear project awards made in August 2004

include:

• Byzantine Fault Tolerance for Large-Scale, High-Performance

Distributed Storage Systems

• The Design and Use of Digital Identities

• Graph-Based Refinement Strategies for Hybrid Systems

• IIT-based Collaboration framework for Preparing against,

Responding to and Recovering from Disasters involving Critical

Physical Infrastructures

• Panoply: Enabling Safe Ubiquitous Computing Environments

• Privacy-Preserving Data Integration and Sharing

• Toward a Multi-Layered Architecture for Reliable and Secure

Large-Scale Networks: The Case of an Electric Power Grid

HCSS NSA HCSS
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

68

NASA missions have several critical needs that HCSS R&D

helps address:

• Mission- and safety-critical software

• High-confidence software within predictable cost and

schedule

• High confidence for new types of software, such as for

model-based autonomy and adaptive control

• Sustained engineering (for example, the ISS and the Space

Shuttle)

• Security for ground and radio frequency networks

Several major programs span the agency’s technical

readiness level (TRL) scale, which runs from 1 to 9 (9

denotes a capability that has served on the space shuttle for

50 flights). High-TRL work has a strong process orientation,

mid-TRL is work in transition to practice, and low-TRL

work involves fundamental research. HCSS-related efforts

include:

Computing, Information and Communications

Technology (CICT) – (low- to mid-TRL) project aims to

develop automated mathematical techniques for the software

development process, yielding tools for cost-effective

development of high confidence, highly reliable software

systems for aerospace applications. Its goal is to develop

technologies with enhanced capabilities to:

• Analytically verify the next generation of aerospace

software:

– Scalable software model checking

– Automated program abstraction

– State-space search algorithms

– Formal method verification of integrated modular

platforms. Projects include the following:

– Trusted Web server, focused on developing a crossdomain server that can be certifiable for simultaneous

connection to networks spanning two or three domains

– Osker (the Oregon Separation Kernel), a prototype

POSIX-compliant operating system in Haskell (see the

next bullet) that provably achieves a strict separation

between processes according to a specified security

model. Osker is a challenge application for the

Programatica project, a system for developing highassurance software.

– Haskell on Bare Metal (HBM), an adaptation of the

Haskell runtime system, to replace the usual operating

system layers between application and hardware

– Java applet generation, an automatic generator that

produces Java Card applets from high-level formal

specifications

– AAMP7 development environment, a partition-aware

development environment for Rockwell Collins’s

AAMP7 microprocessor that will allow rapid

development of partitioned AAMP applications

NSA’s FY 2005 planned activities in HCSS include:

• Host 5th Annual HCSS Conference

• Continue joint sponsorship of National Academy of Sciences study

on software certification

• Initiate joint sponsorship of Open Verification activities with

HCSS CG members, resulting in sponsorship of IFIP working

conference of Verified Software as well as a Safe Code workshop

• Sponsor and conduct research through NSA IARG within the

following research themes:

– Product assurance: HCSS tasks focused on trusted development

and containment mechanisms

– Trusted Development Thread, which attempts to achieve assured

software and system designs and implementations through

enhancement of assured development and analysis techniques

throughout the entire software and system lifecycle

– Containment Thread, which is focused on mitigating the risk

posed by our inability to build systems whose components are all

perfectly assured, thereby limiting the impact of improper

software and system behavior. The primary challenge in

designing containment mechanisms comes in balancing

granularity of protection against ease of use and cost.

– Transparency: HCSS task focused on supporting the

development of critical architectures and components necessary

to support information assurance

– High Assurance Platform: HCSS tasks focused on supporting

very promising industrial partnerships through virtualization

and measurement capabilities

HCSS NASA HCSS
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

69

avionics design

• Produce certifiable program synthesis for the following

technologies:

– Program generation through automated reasoning

– Product-oriented certification methods

– Automated tools that certify automatically synthesized

code

• Develop adaptive, integrated software verification and

monitoring technology, including:

– Runtime monitors generated from requirements

specifications

– Automated behavioral verification

– Machine learning to optimize exploration of potential

behaviors

– Automated generation of software fault recovery

These capabilities would then be applied to specific

missions such as the ISS and the Mars Lander.

Highly Dependable Computing Platform Testbed –

provides a modern software platform for real-time

embedded systems. The approach (low- to mid-TRL) is to

evaluate real-time Java to address in-flight software demands

and use the Mission Data Systems (MDS) framework and

software as a testbed. While NASA typically runs older

hardware on the ISS and the Hubble telescope because that

hardware is known to be hardened against radiation, it

develops software on modern workstations and then ports

that software to the older hardware. The real-time Java

needs to have demonstrably lightweight CPU usage and

provide the desired throughput and response. NASA needs

to be sure that timing jitters do not surface and cause

problems.

Mission Data Systems (MDS) – (mid-TRL) developing

a reusable infrastructure for flight and ground software for

the mission to Mars in 2009. In preparation for the launch,

all needed technologies should be in place in 2005. MDS is

integrating the best systems engineering and software

engineering practices for autonomous control of physical

systems. The program was developed for unmanned space

science missions involving spacecraft, landers, rovers, and

ground systems. It is broadly applicable to mobile and

immobile robots that operate autonomously to achieve goals

specified by humans. It is also architecturally suited for

complex interactive systems where “everything affects

everything."

As complexity grows, the line between specifying behavior

and designing behavior is blurring. For each of the items in

the following illustrative list, systems engineers need to

know and want to specify the item, while software engineers

want to design software that knows the item:

• How a system is put together (connections and other

interactions)

• What functions each element performs (models of

behavior)

• How system elements might fail (models of faulty

behavior)

• What the environment is like and how it affects the system

(more models)

• What the system must be able to do (scenarios and their

objectives)

• What operating constraints the system must honor (flight

rules, etc.)

• What resources the system must manage (power, data

storage, etc.)

The MDS approach is through product line practice to

exploit commonalities:

• Define a reference architecture to which missions and

products conform

• Provide framework software to be used and adapted

• Define processes for systems engineering and software

development

An example is state analysis for embedded systems. The

Mars science lab now has some 10,000 state variables. The

relationship between each pair (for example a disk drive’s

power and the heat it produces) is described and the

software is designed to include rules on determining and

controlling state. This effort helps systems engineers and

software engineers use the same vocabularies.

Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Research

Program – mid-TRL effort that encompasses the following:

• Software assurance practices for auto-generated code:

– Evaluation of available artifacts from autocode processes

– Verification of the code generator

• Software assurance practices for commercial off-the-shelf

integration:

– V&V of interface to COTS
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

70

– Validation of a COTS application for an intended

purpose

• Software assurance practices for reused or heritage

software:

– Reuse or heritage factors that impact software risk

– Appropriate level of software assurance for reused or

heritage code

• Reliability of operating systems

• Tandem experiment to improve software assurance

• Independent V&V (IV&V):

IV&V is verification and validation performed by an

organization that is technically, managerially, and financially

independent. IV&V focuses on mission critical software,

provides addition reviews and analyses, and provides indepth evaluation of life cycle products that have the highest

level of risk. Examples of IV&V activities include the

following:

• Validation of design to meet system needs and

requirements

• Traceability of safety-critical requirements

• Code analysis of mission-critical software components

• Design analysis of selected critical algorithms

Software Engineering Initiative (SEI) – high-TRL

effort begun to respond to the growing complexity, size, and

sophistication of software components (for example, the two

Mars missions that landed in January 2004 involve 625,000

lines of source code). The goal of the SEI is to advance

software engineering development, assurance, and

management practices to meet NASA’s science and

technology objectives. Elements of this initiative include:

• Plans from each center to improve software process and

products

• Use of the Carnegie Mellon University Software

Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Models (CMM)

as benchmarks for assessments 

• Infusion of the “best of the best” software engineering

research and technology

• Software metrics to monitor the initiative’s progress and to

provide early warning of problems

• Effective guidelines, principles, and standards

• Enhanced knowledge and skills in software engineering

through training, education, and information exchange

• Improved software acquisition capabilities

Software Assurance Program – (high TRL) seeks the

following:

• Software risk mitigation

• Improved quality of software products while using risk

mitigation techniques

• Project management insight into software development

processes and products throughout the life cycle 

• Early error detection, problem prevention, and risk

identification and mitigation

• Improve the quality of future products and services

The level of software assurance needed is dependent on the

software size, complexity, criticality, and level of risk.

Software assurance covers practices for auto-generated code,

COTS integration, and reused or heritage software. Software

assurance work is performed in the following areas:

standards; guidance; policy; contractor evaluation criteria;

metrics; means to classify software across NASA; IV&V;

research; benchmarking; and outreach.

Software assurance involves both software safety and

software reliability, as follows:

• Software safety includes a systematic approach to

identifying, analyzing, tracking, mitigating, and controlling

software hazards and hazardous functions (data and

commands) to ensure safer software operation within a

system.

• Software reliability is the process of optimizing the

software through emphasis on requiring and building in

software error prevention, fault detection, isolation,

recovery, tolerance, and/or transition to planned reduced

functionality states. It also includes a process for measuring

and analyzing defects in the software products during

development activities in order to find and address possible

problem areas within the software.
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

71

Self-Regenerative Systems (SRS) – aims to develop a

military exemplar system that shows it is possible to: provide

100 percent of critical functions at all times in spite of

attacks; learn about one’s own vulnerabilities to improve

survivability over time; and regenerate service after attack.

The result of SRS activities will be intrusion-tolerant systems

that gracefully degrade and recover after an attack while

maintaining some level of system performance instead of

crashing. The development phase will involve selfregenerative systems that restore performance to full

operational capability. SRS technical areas include the

following:

• Biologically Inspired Diversity to reduce common software

vulnerabilities to attack by providing different versions of

software with different implementations and configurations

• Cognitive Immunity and Healing systems that incorporate

biologically inspired response strategies and machine

learning to identify and correct root causes of

vulnerabilities

• Reasoning About Insider Threats to pre-empt insider

attacks or detect system overrun by combining and

correlating information across system layers, inferring user

goals, and enabling effective anomaly detection

• Granular, Scalable Redundancy to survive massive attacks

or extreme hostility by approach exploiting environment

knowledge to scale or perform and develop probabilistic

consistency protocols that will survive extremely hostile

environments and provide “good enough” service

Security-Aware Systems.– goal is to minimize

unavoidable cyber risk to military missions by having the

system itself smoothly adapt to changing resources, building

blocks, security requirements, mission goals, and threats. A

security-aware system will reason about its own security

attributes, capabilities, and the utility of its functions with

respect to a mission context. It will dynamically adapt to

provide desired levels of service while minimizing risk and

providing coherent explanations of the relative safety of

service level alternatives.

In FY 2005, work will continue on the following

DARPA effort:

• Self-Regenerative Systems (SRS)

The following DARPA effort is new for FY 2005:

Security-Aware Critical Software (SACS) program –

will create a new generation of software that provides a

comprehensive picture of security properties and current status,

presenting this information at multiple levels of abstraction and

formality. SACS will thus make security properties and status

transparent to decision makers, which will increase the speed and

confidence with which military systems can be securely and

dynamically reconfigured, particularly under stressful conditions.

SACS will enable construction of a security-aware system that can

reason about its own security attributes and capabilities and the

utility of its functions with respect to a mission context.The software

will dynamically adapt to provide desired levels of service while

minimizing risk and providing coherent explanations of the relative

safety of service-level alternatives.

HCSS DARPA HCSS
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

72

Two divisions in the Information Technology Laboratory at

NIST – the Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing

Division (SDCTD) and the Computer Security Division

(CSD) – are the primary organizations involved in HCSS

activities. The SDCTD mission is to develop software testing

tools and methods that improve quality, conformance to

standards, and correctness, and to work with industry to

develop forward-looking standards. Five technical areas of

SDCTD involve HCSS R&D:

Electronic Commerce – focuses on extensible markup

language (XML), a universal interchange format including

core technologies. More generalized than HTML and can be

used for tagging data streams more precisely and extensively.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) interoperability

testing will be conducted to evaluate interoperability in both

messaging and smart card services. NIST aims to develop and

automate consistent, complete, and logical specifications and

turn these into performance testing for eventual commercial

use.

E-Health – developing Health Level Seven (HL-7)

standards and conformance and a standards roadmap so that

medical devices, hospital systems, and other health care

service provider systems can talk to each other while

protecting patient privacy. NIST is working with the

Department of Veterans Affairs on access control, sign-on,

and other procedures, acting as a trusted impartial “third

party” among providers, researchers, manufacturers, and

others to promote effective access controls.

Computer Forensics – working with the FBI and the

National Institute of Justice to develop a National Software

Reference Library (NSRL) and specifications and evaluations

of computer forensics tools to use in efficiently analyzing

seized property such as disk drives and verifying that rules of

evidence are observed.

Pervasive Computing – addressing development of

wireless service discovery protocols for wireless devices such

as palm pilots to assure trustworthy interactions. 

Test Method Research – fundamental work in objectoriented component testing and in automatically generating

tests from formal specifications in a cost-effective manner.

FY 2004 new opportunities – conformance testing for

medical devices and test suites for medical device

communication standards; using the NSRL for data

reduction, integrity management, and computer security

applications; and investigating grid computing vulnerabilities

to identify requirement for maintaining system robustness.

The mission of the CSD is to improve information systems’

security by: raising awareness of IT risks, vulnerabilities, and

protection requirements; researching, studying, and advising

agencies of IT vulnerabilities and devising techniques for

cost-effective security and privacy of sensitive Federal

systems; developing standards, metrics, test and validation

programs; and developing guidance to increase secure IT

planning, implementation, management, and operation. CSD

programs encompass the following:

Security Technologies – cryptographic standards, key

management, public key infrastructure (PKI), identity

management, protocols and e-government, and agency egovernment support

Systems and Network Security – technical guidelines,

checklists, smart cards, wireless/mobile, Intrusion Detection

System (IDS), ICAT, IP Security Protocol (IPSec),

authorization management, automated testing, and quantum

cryptography

Management and Assistance Program – outreach,

expert assistance, policy, and guidelines, and Information

Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB)

Security Testing and Metrics – security control

development, certification and accreditation, cryptographic

module validation, laboratory accreditation, and the National

Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP)

FY 2004 new opportunities – a Standard Reference

Model (SRM) for source code security to develop a metric

for automated tools to review security properties of software

and a database of known security flaws from “buffer

overflow” through “trap doors”; trust and confidence

taxonomy (reliability, security, interoperability) or “-ilities”

toolkit 

NIST FY 2005 plans in HCSS-related R&D include:

• Continue work in electronic commerce, e-health, computer

forensics, test method research, security technologies, systems and

network security, management and assistance, and security testing

and metrics

• Possible new activity in high-confidence methods for voting and

vote counting 

HCSS NIST HCSS
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

73

Participating Agencies

FAA’s Office of the Assistant Administrator for Information

Services and CIO focuses on security, processes (enterprise

architecture), and education issues. The Office must cosponsor its research, have an FAA customer, and either have

a short-term focus or collaborate with others on longer-term

issues.

Over the past three years, FAA has evolved a systematic

approach to defending the air traffic control system against

cyber attack:

• Harden individual system and network elements

• Isolate elements to avoid “viral” spread

• Replicate elements to avoid service disruption

This strategy is difficult because of the size and complexity

of the air-traffic-control system, the increased use of COTS

products, and the safety-critical nature of the air-traffic

control system. Significant challenges such as building

trustworthy systems with untrustworthy components

remain. FY 2004 AIO activities are:

• Rapid quarantine capability

• Wireless information systems security

• A Common Criteria test lab

• Integrity and confidentiality lab

• Estimating security costs

• A software reliability pilot

• Biometrics for single sign-on

• Data mining for vulnerabilities

FDA, through its Center for Devices and Radiological

Health, with other agencies develops medical devices that

require high-confidence, assured, safe software to deliver

quality medical care. The FDA Office of Science and

Technology leverages funds to work with other agencies.

Research interests focus on formal methods of design in

three areas:

• Safety and safety modeling

• Certification issues

• Forensic analysis

Specific research projects include:

• Life Support for Trauma and Transport (LSTAT), an

intelligent litter platform with Walter Reed Army Medical

Center (safety and safety modeling) • Proton beam therapy

device (safety and safety modeling)

• Software for an infusion pump with a control loop, which

led to an initiative to develop similar control loop software

for a ventilator device (certification)

• Blood bank software regulation (certification)

• Radiation-treatment planning systems that employ reverse

engineering of C programs to look for inconsistencies and

errors in analysis of brain tumors (forensics)

The Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio is

working on developing certifiability requirements for

autonomous aircraft that operate in civilian and military

airspace.

HCSS AFRL HCSS

HCSS FAA HCSS

HCSS FDA HCSS
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

74

The activities funded under the Social,

Economic, and Workforce Implications of

IT and IT Workforce Development

(SEW) PCA focus on the nature and

dynamics of IT impacts on technical and social systems as

well as the interactions between people and IT devices and

capabilities; the workforce development needs arising from

the growing demand for workers who are highly skilled in

information technology; and the role of innovative IT

applications in education and training. SEW also supports

efforts to transfer the results of IT R&D to the

policymaking and IT user communities in government at all

levels and the private sector. Amid today’s rapid global

transformations driven by IT, SEW research aims to

provide new knowledge to help society anticipate, identify,

understand, and address the diverse issues of the digital age.

Broad Areas of SEW Concern

• Economic, organizational, social, and educational

transformations driven by new information technologies

• Participation in the digital society, including egovernment

• Intellectual property and privacy rights

• Innovative applications of IT in education

• IT workforce development

Technical Goals

• Develop baseline empirical findings about the complex

interactions between people and IT

• Support training to expand the skilled IT workforce

• Increase understanding of intellectual property and

privacy issues in the digital society

• Promote linkages between the SEW research

community and policymakers

• Demonstrate innovative IT applications for education

Illustrative Technical Thrusts 

• Interactions and complex interdependencies of

information systems and social systems 

• Collaborative knowledge environments for science and

engineering

• Management of knowledge-intensive dynamic systems

• Tools and technologies and tools for social-network

analysis

• Application of information technology to law and

regulation

• Technologies and tools to facilitate large-scale

collaborative research through distributed systems

• Technologies in and theories of electronic business,

supply chains, economics of IT, productivity, and

related areas

• Innovation in computational modeling or simulation in

research or education

• Advanced graduate training in the strategically

important IT fields of bioinformatics and computational

science

Social, Economic, and

Workforce Implications of IT 

and IT Workforce Development

SEW Agencies

NSF

NIH

NASA

DOE/NNSA

DOE/SC

SEW PCA Budget Crosscut

FY 2004 estimate FY 2005 Request

$120.9 M $130.9 M

Definition 

of 

SEW 

PCA

Participating

Agency

GSA
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

75

The SEW PCA has two related but

distinct components: 1) education and

workforce development activities and 

2) activities involving the socioeconomic implications of

IT. NSF is the sole NITRD agency pursuing research in

the latter area, while the other SEW agencies’ investments

lie in the former. Because of the breadth of this portfolio,

the SEW Coordinating Group (CG) has taken on a

character somewhat different from those of the CGs

devoted to IT research topics that engage multiple

agencies. The SEW CG has developed a program of

briefings on themes of interest to agencies beyond the IT

R&D community. Subjects have included intellectual

property issues in open source software, issues in creating

a national health information infrastructure, and trends in

IT workforce demographics and their implications for

education and training. 

Since FY 2002, the CG also has supported, through its

Universal Accessibility Team, the development of a new

program of workshops sponsored by GSA and the Federal

CIO Council to foster collaboration among government

and community implementers of IT and to demonstrate

promising IT capabilities emerging from Federal research. 

Each of these evolutionary directions has sought to

position the SEW CG as a communications link between

IT researchers and policymakers and implementers of IT

applications. In FY 2004, the SEW CG’s principal activity

is an examination of how its role and structure have

changed since the PCA’s inception.

Universal Accessibility Team Activities

The monthly Collaboration Expedition Workshops,

completing their third year in FY 2004, bring together a

diverse group of IT researchers, developers, and

implementers representing such fields as emergency

preparedness and response, health care, environmental

protection, and citizen services. Drawing between 60 and

100 participants each month, the workshops also assist

Federal program managers in coordinating necessary steps

to implement the Administration’s Federal Enterprise

Architecture Program in their agencies.

The workshops have developed into a crossroads for

software and system developers, IT managers and

implementers, and public services practitioners across all

levels of government, in the private sector, and in local

communities. Each monthly meeting includes

demonstrations of emerging technologies and prototype

applications for developing intergovernmental “citizencentric” services, and discussions of barriers and

opportunities in applying technologies to enhance citizengovernment interactions. The goal is to accelerate multisector partnerships around IT capabilities that help

government work better on behalf of all citizens. Sample

meeting topics include:

• Taxonomies and the Semantic Web (XML and XML

Schema, Resource Description Framework/Schema

[RDF/S], DARPA Agent Markup Language

[DAML]+Ontology Inference Layer [OIL] and the new

Web Ontology Language OWL, derived from

DAML+OIL)

• Extensible Federal Enterprise Architecture components

that transcend “stove-piping” through open standards

technologies

• Realistic citizen-service scenarios for benchmarking

performance

• Audio e-book technology

• Multi-channel communication and information services,

including dynamic knowledge repositories

• Web-based collaboration

SEW PCA: Coordination and Activities

SEW

Highlights

• Efforts to eliminate barriers to IT workforce

participation for women and minorities

• Experimentation with cutting-edge networked

applications for engineering training and K-14 science

and mathematics education
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

76

SEW R&D Programs By Agency

Selected FY 2004 Activities and FY 2005 Plans

NSF’s SEW research portfolio encompasses a broad range

of efforts, from studies of the socioeconomic implications of

the ongoing digital revolution, to explorations of how IT can

enhance government-citizen interactions, to research on

ways to expand and better prepare the Nation’s IT

workforce, to R&D on innovative applications of

information technologies in education and training. 

In FY 2004, elements of SEW research are supported

under the following programs:

Information Technology Research (ITR) Program

This major foundation-wide interdisciplinary priority area

in FY 2004 began its fifth and final year of grant awards with

a new focus on Information Technology Research for

National Priorities. SEW interests are highlighted in NSF’s

call for ITR proposals that integrate research and education

activities or foster the development of a diverse IT

workforce. In addition, the solicitation calls for SEW

research related to the following national priorities:

• Advances in Science and Engineering (ASE), which could

include research on technologies and tools to facilitate

large-scale collaborative research through distributed

systems

• Economic Prosperity and Vibrant Civil Society (ECS),

which seeks projects that investigate the human and sociotechnical aspects of current and future distributed

information systems for economic prosperity and a vibrant

civil society. Examples of topics include human and social

aspects of distributed information systems for innovation,

business, work, health, government, learning, and

community, and their related policy implications.

• National and Homeland Security (NHS), which includes

research on critical infrastructure protection and

technologies and tools for understanding threats to national

security

About 100 ITR grants awarded in prior fiscal years for

SEW-related research are continuing in FY 2004. Under the

overarching FY 2004 theme, new ITR proposals must

address one or more of four specified technical focus areas.

The following two of the four directly address SEW research

interests:

• Interactions and complex interdependencies of information

systems and social systems

• Innovation in computational modeling or simulation in

research or education

Computer and Information Science and

Engineering (CISE) Directorate Programs

In the FY 2004 divisional reorganization within the CISE

Directorate, a substantial portion of SEW-related research is

housed in the Systems in Context cluster of the Division of

Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS). As part of the

directorate’s overarching FY 2004 emphasis on education

and workforce issues, SEW-related research in educational

technologies and IT workforce development is also

supported under the Combined Research and Curriculum

Development and Educational Innovation Program and the

Information Technology Workforce Program. These two

programs reside in the Education and Workforce Cluster of

the Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS).

CISE/IIS/Systems in Context

This IIS cluster includes three research thrust areas funding

SEW-related work in FY 2004. They are: 

Digital Government – supporting research that advances

IT applications for governmental missions and/or research

that enhances understanding of the impact of IT on structures,

processes, and outcomes within government, both from the

perspective of government agencies and from the viewpoint of

the citizenry at large. Sample research topics:

• The capture of government decision-making processes

• The application of information technology to law and

regulation

• Software engineering of large-scale government projects

• Online campaigning and e-voting

• New forms of IT-enabled civic engagement and interaction

• Failures and successes of governmental IT adoption

SEW NSF SEW
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

77

• Implications and impact of IT on democracy and forms of

governance

Digital Society and Technologies – FY 2004 emphases

in this thrust area are:

• Universal Participation in a Digital Society – research

seeking to understand the underlying processes by which

IT shapes and transforms society and society

simultaneously shapes and transforms new IT, and how

these transformations impact the goal of universal

participation in our democratic society. Areas of study

include e-commerce, digital science, the IT workforce,

community networking, and digital governance.

• Collaborative Intelligence – includes theories, models, and

technologies for distributed, intelligent, collective action

among humans, agents, robots, and other embedded

devices. Focus on:

– The science of collaboration (design principles, mixed

initiative and adjustable autonomy problems, and implicit

and explicit, affective and instrumental human-machine

interactions)

– Distributed intelligence (knowledge representation,

management and fusion, science of coordination, and

division of labor)

– Systems for managing trust, reputation, and other critical

elements in heterogeneous, dynamic, distant

relationships

• Management of Knowledge Intensive Enterprises –

research to understand how structured, global collections

of knowledge can be brought to bear on complex decisionmaking processes so that processes can rapidly reconfigure

and reschedule resources while the enterprise remains

stable enough to carry out routine processes and achieve

high levels of performance. The focus is on:

– Adaptive scheduling and control of product dynamics,

rapid reconfiguration and rescheduling of human and

machine resources

– Learning hidden workflow rules to optimize workflow

– Distributed decision-making and appropriate schemes for

distributing decision authority throughout hierarchies,

understanding how information is shared, partitioned,

and flows to the right places

– How we measure the productivity of dynamically, reconfiguring business processes, local vs. global problems

such as performance across levels of analysis

– Collaborative knowledge representation, acquisition,

retrieval, and inference

• Knowledge Environments for Science and Engineering –

research focused on:

– Identifying the requirements of distributed scientific

practices, how scientific practices are changing (e.g., due

to more complex data sets, more interdisciplinary teams)

and to what consequence

– Understanding barriers to adoption and use, building

trust across geographic boundaries, and IT strategies for

sharing resources

– Understanding the governance issues related to

distributed work practices, facilities, and shared

resources

– Understanding copyright restrictions, information

privacy and open source software issues related to

collecting and harvesting knowledge across geographic

and social boundaries

• Transforming Enterprise – research investigates:

– Technologies and theories of electronic business, supply

chains, economics of IT, productivity, etc.

– Technologies and theories of collaborative and

distributed work, including the development and use of

collective knowledge representations and open source

software development of human and machine resources

– Understanding the various legal, social, and cultural

issues when information, software, and autonomous

proxies flow across boundaries

– Understanding how to value information and evaluate

risks and reputations in transactions with distant

strangers

– Understanding and mitigating information balkanization

Universal Access – FY 2004 emphasis is on developing

new knowledge about how IT can empower people with

disabilities, young children, seniors, and members of other

traditionally under-represented groups to participate fully in

the digital society.

CISE/CNS/Education and Workforce

This CNS cluster supports projects that integrate research

and education across CISE, study the causes of the current

lack of diversity in the IT workforce, and lead to a

broadening of participation by all under-represented groups.

The cluster works closely with all CISE divisions to achieve

these goals. It also coordinates CISE participation in a
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

78

portfolio of NSF-wide education and workforce programs.

SEW-related work:

• Information Technology Workforce Program – projects to

develop and implement promising strategies to reverse the

underrepresentation of women and minorities in IT

education and careers

CISE/Combined Research and Curriculum

Development and Educational Innovation Program

FY 2004 efforts focus on the design, development, testing,

and dissemination of innovative IT approaches for increasing

the effectiveness of educational experiences, including

integration of research results into courses and curricula

NSF’s FY 2005 plans for SEW-related R&D include:

• A series of workshops on open standards, grid computing and

innovation diffusion, dynamic knowledge repositories and

collaboration, and agile frameworks for broad economic prosperity

• Approximately 120 new group projects under the ITR for National

Priorities program, which focuses on IT advances in science and

engineering, IT for economic prosperity and vibrant civil society,

and IT for national and homeland security 

• Digital Society and Technologies Program will focus on research to

understand the challenges facing enterprises in dynamic

environments and the ways in which IT can allow for complex,

distributed decision-making, rapid reconfiguration, and resource

scheduling and reallocation while achieving high levels of

performance

NIH’s National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the pioneer

supporter of advanced training in the emerging field of

bioinformatics, whose practitioners bring both high-end

computer science and medical expertise to the health-care

arena. The need for bioinformatics skills spans biomedical

research applications, telemedicine, and large-scale health

care systems. The NLM program of institutional support and

individual fellowships is establishing an academic training

infrastructure and expanding the ranks of bioinformatics

professionals, who are still far too few in number to fill the

growing nationwide demand for these practitioners.

Training efforts in FY 2004 include:

• Institutional Grants: NLM supports training grants in

medical informatics at ten major universities. They are

intended to train predoctoral and postdoctoral students for

research in medical informatics. Some offer special track

training in such informatics-intensive fields as radiation

oncology and biotechnology.

• Individual Fellowships: Informatics Research Training.

Post-doctoral health science workers who identify a

mentor, institution, research project, and curriculum are

eligible to compete for these fellowships. They

complement the institutional programs (described above)

by making it possible for students to enter informatics

training at any institution with appropriate mentor and

facilities.

• Applied Informatics: These fellowships support training for

those who will design or manage large information systems,

or adapt applications developed by research workers to

actual use in a clinic setting, classroom, laboratory, library,

or office. Although many applicants will have doctorates,

nurses, librarians, and other health professionals without

doctoral degrees are encouraged to apply.

• Integrated Academic Information Management Systems

(IAIMS): Over the last decade, NLM has supported the

development of IAIMS in selected major medical centers.

The experience gained by those who, through on-the-job

training, have developed and implemented complex

integrated information systems will now be systematically

exploited through designated training slots at IAIMS sites.

• Biotechnology: For recent doctoral graduates, the National

Research Council Research Associateship Program

provides an opportunity for concentrated research in

association with selected members of the NCBI scientific

staff.

• Medical Informatics: The Marine Biological Laboratory,

Woods Hole, Massachusetts, conducts an annual NLMsponsored one-week course in medical informatics. Thirty

trainees are selected from applicants in health professions,

research, and librarianship. They receive intensive handson experience with a variety of medical information

systems, including medical informatics, expert systems,

and molecular biology databases.

SEW NIH SEW
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

79

Learning Technologies Project (LTP) – NASA’s

educational technology incubator. LTP funds activities and

collaborates with endeavors that incorporate NASA content

with revolutionary technologies or innovative use of

entrenched technologies to enhance education at all levels in

the areas of science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics (STEM). LTP’s mission is to efficiently develop

world-class educational products that:

• Are poised for the widest possible market diffusion, that

inspire and educate

• Use innovative methods or emerging technologies

• Address educational standards utilizing NASA data. These

products account for diverse learning environments

whenever applicable and wherever possible.

FY 2004 projects include:

• Animated Earth – developing IT capabilities to provide

Internet-accessible animated visualizations of important

Earth Science processes, events, and phenomena to students,

educators and the public, using NASA remote sensing and

model data; includes work to determine which standards

and protocols will be adopted to convey these visualizations

over the Internet.and to implement and document a public

server-side infrastructure to deliver these visualizations using

the chosen standards and protocols.

• Information Accessibility Lab – research aiming to provide

software tools that enable development of assistive

instructional software applications for sensorily impaired K12 students; utilize a combination of graphing, sonification,

and mathematical analysis software to represent

mathematical and scientific information; and provide unique,

NASA-technology teaching tools that enhance STEM

education for sensorily impaired students.

• What’s the Difference? – research to: develop a simple to

use software component that uses richly visual and highly

interactive comparisons to teach science and math concepts;

design the component so that additional information and

new information sets can be developed and easily added by

curriculum developers; enable developers of educational

software applications to utilize the visual comparison

componentry and information in their applications; provide

information sets and tool capabilities beyond those delivered

for this project’s phase 1 effort.

• Virtual Lab – the goal of this R&D effort is to: provide

students and their educators with virtual but realistic

software implementations of sophisticated scientific

instruments commonly used by NASA scientists and

engineers; design and implement the virtual instruments

such that additional specimens can be added easily and

additional instruments can be used to study the same

specimens; build on the LTP Phase 1 Virtual Lab by

expanding the set of specimens for the Virtual Scanning

Electron Microscope; provide mechanisms to enable

independent applications to invoke and contain the virtual

instruments.

• HBCU Toxicology Information Outreach: NLM’s

Toxicology Information Program (TIP) supports projects

designed to strengthen the capacity of historically black

colleges and universities (HBCUs) to train medical and

other health professionals in the use of toxicological,

environmental, occupational, and hazardous wastes

information resources developed at NLM. A number of

HBCUs with schools of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing

are participating in the program, which includes training

and free access to NLM’s databases.

• Medical Informatics Elective: The Computer Science

Branch, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical

Communications (LHNCBC) at NLM, conducts an eightweek elective in Medical Informatics, as part of NIH’s

Clinical Electives Program. Each spring this elective

combines an extensive seminar series by senior figures in

the field with an independent research project under the

preceptorship of an LHNCBC professional. Eight to

fourteen fourth-year medical students are admitted each

year.

• Medical Informatics Training Program: LHNCBC conducts

a Medical Informatics Training Program to provide support

for faculty members, postdoctoral scientists, graduate

students, and undergraduate students for research

participation at the Center through visits of a few months

to several years.

SEW NASA SEW
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

80

DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship

(CSGF): Funded by the Office of Science and Office of

Defense Programs, this program works to identify and

provide support for some of the very best computational

science graduate students in the nation. The fellowships have

supported more than 120 students at approximately 50

universities. The program is administered by the Krell

Institute in Ames, Iowa.

The CSGF program partnership of DOE/SC and

DOE/NNSA to develop the next generation of leaders in

computational science will continue in FY 2005.

Academic Strategic Alliance Program (ASAP):

Through partnerships with universities, this element of the

Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program

pursues advances in the development of computational

science, computer systems, mathematical modeling, and

numerical mathematics important to the ASC effort. By

supporting student involvement in these research efforts,

ASAP aims to strengthen education and research in areas

critical to the long-term success of ASC and the Stockpile

Stewardship Program (SSP).

The ASAP will continue in FY 2005.

Participating Agency

Collaboration Expedition Workshop Series –

monthly open workshops for representatives of Federal,

state, and local government, community organizations, and

the private sector to explore how to create a citizen-centric

governance infrastructure supported by new technologies.

Sponsored by GSA’s Office of Intergovernmental Solutions

in conjunction with the Emerging Technology Subcommittee

of the Federal CIO Council. Objectives are to:

• Accelerate mutual understanding of the Federal Enterprise

Architecture (FEA) initiative and commitments toward

intergovernmental collaboration practices needed to

implement the E-government Act of 2002

• Accelerate maturation of candidate technologies

• Expand intergovernmental collaboration and facilitate

development of communities of practice 

• Provide a forum for discussion of and experimentation

with new IT capabilities and “best practices” in IT

applications and deployment

By bringing IT developers and researchers together with

practitioners across a broad range of government and citizen

service sectors, the Expedition Workshops are developing a

collaborative “incubator” process to facilitate emergence of a

lasting enterprise architecture by providing:

• Realistic citizen-service scenarios for benchmarking

performance 

• Innovation practitioners with multilateral organizing skills

• Faster maturation and transfer of validated capabilities

among intergovernmental partners 

• Extensible e-gov components that transcend “stove-piping”

through open standards technologies (OMB Circular 

A-119)

Plans for FY 2005 include:

• Continue to develop participant skills in managing an IT

innovation life-cycle process that scans emerging technology and

fosters collaborative prototyping

• Expand network of intergovernmental partners to include new state

and local government actors, non-governmental organizations,

and Federal leaders with e-government responsibilities

• Identify 1-3 emerging technologies with the greatest potential for

affecting the lasting value of enterprise architecture and

incorporate findings into information/service offerings of the

sponsors

SEW DOE/SC & DOE/NNSA SEW

SEW DOE/NNSA SEW

SEW GSA SEW
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

81

Interagency Working Group on IT R&D

Co-Chairs

Peter A. Freeman, NSF

David B. Nelson, NCO

PCA Coordinating Groups and Team Chairs

NSF

Representative

Peter A. Freeman

Alternates

Deborah L. Crawford

C. Suzanne Iacano

DARPA

Representative

Ronald J. Brachman

Alternate

Barbara L. Yoon

NIH

Representative

Michael Marron

Alternates

Michael J. Ackerman

Robert L. Martino

Judith L. Vaitukaitis

Karen Skinner

NASA

Representative

Walter F. Brooks

Alternate

Vacant

DOE Office of Science

Representative

C. Edward Oliver

Alternates

Daniel A. Hitchcock

Norman H. Kreisman

NSA

Representative

George R. Cotter

Alternate

James Rupp

NIST

Representative

Kamie M. Roberts

Alternate

Larry H. Reeker

NOAA

Representative

William T. Turnbull

AHRQ

Representative

J. Michael Fitzmaurice

ODUSD (S&T)

Representative

André M. van Tilborg

Alternate

Robert Gold

EPA

Representative

Gary L. Walter

Alternate

Robin L. Dennis

DOE/NNSA

Representative

Robert Meisner

OMB

Representative

David S. Trinkle

NSTC

Representative

Charles H. Romine

NCO

Representative

David B. Nelson

Alternate

Sally E. Howe

High End Computing (HEC)

Coordinating Group

Co-Chairs

Frederick C. Johnson, DOE/SC

José L. Muñoz, NSF

Human Computer Interaction and

Information Management (HCI&IM)

Coordinating Group

Co-Chairs

William S. Bainbridge, NSF

Jean C. Scholtz, NIST

Large Scale Networking (LSN)

Coordinating Group

Co-Chairs

Daniel A. Hitchcock, DOE/SC

George O. Strawn, NSF

LSN Teams:

Middleware and Grid Infrastructure

Coordination (MAGIC) Team

Co-Chairs

Mary Anne Scott, DOE/SC

Kevin L. Thompson, NSF

Joint Engineering Team (JET)

Co-Chairs

Douglas G. Gatchell, NSF

George R. Seweryniak, DOE/SC

Vice-Chair

Paul E. Love, Internet2

Networking Research Team (NRT)

Co-Chairs

Thomas Ndousse-Fetter, DOE/SC

Taieb F. Znati, NSF

Software Design and Productivity

(SDP) Coordinating Group

Co-Chairs

Frank D. Anger, NSF (deceased)

Thuc T. Hoang, DOE/NNSA

High Confidence Software and

Systems (HCSS) Coordinating Group

Co-Chairs

Helen D. Gill, NSF

Vacant

Social, Economic, and Workforce

Implications of IT and IT Workforce

Development (SEW) 

Coordinating Group

Co-Chairs

C. Suzanne Iacono, NSF

Susan B. Turnbull, GSA

Universal Accessibility Team

Chair

Susan B. Turnbull, GSA
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

82

The following are criteria developed by the multiagency IT research program that agencies 

considering participation can use to assess whether their research activities fit the NITRD profile.

NITRD Goals

Assure continued U.S. leadership in computing, information, and communications technologies to

meet Federal goals and to support U.S. 21st century academic, industrial, and government interests

Accelerate deployment of advanced and experimental information technologies to maintain world

leadership in science, engineering, and mathematics; improve the quality of life; promote long-term

economic growth; increase lifelong learning; protect the environment; harness information

technology; and enhance national security

Advance U.S. productivity and industrial competitiveness through long-term scientific and

engineering research in computing, information, and communications technologies

Evaluation Criteria for Participation

Relevance of Contribution

The research must significantly contribute to the overall goals of the Federal Networking and Information

Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program and to the goals of one or more of the Program’s

seven Program Component Areas – High End Computing Infrastructure and Applications (HEC I&A), High

End Computing Research and Development (HEC R&D), Human Computer Interaction and Information

Management (HCI & IM), Large Scale Networking (LSN), Software Design and Productivity (SDP), High

Confidence Software and Systems (HCSS), and Social, Economic, and Workforce Implications of Information

Technology and Information Technology Workforce Development (SEW) – in order to enable the solution of

applications problems that address agency mission needs and that place great demands on the technologies

being developed by the Program.

Technical/Scientific Merit

The proposed agency program must be technically/scientifically sound and of high quality and must be the

product of a documented technical/scientific planning and review process.

Readiness

A clear agency planning process must be evident, and the organization must have demonstrated capability to

carry out the program.

Timeliness

The proposed work must be technically/scientifically timely for one or more of the Program Component

Areas.

Linkages

The responsible organization must have established policies, programs, and activities promoting effective

technical and scientific connections among government, industry, and academic sectors.

Costs

The identified resources must be adequate to conduct the proposed work, promote prospects for coordinated

or joint funding, and address long-term resource implications.

Agency Approval

The proposed program or activity must have policy-level approval by the submitting agency.

Participation in Federal NITRD Activities
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

83

Agency NITRD Budgets 

by Program Component Area

FY 2004 Budget Estimates and FY 2005 Budget Requests

(dollars in millions)

Note: 

a These totals include discrepancies from numbers released with the President’s FY 2005 Budget 

due to a combination of rounding, shifts in program estimates, and inadvertent omissions in 

the numbers shown for DOC and HHS. 

Agency (HEC I&A) (HEC R&D) (HCI & IM) (LSN) (SDP) (HCSS) (SEW) Totals

High End

Computing

Infrastructure

and

Applications

High End

Computing

Research

and

Development

Human 

Computer

Interaction and

Information

Management

Large

Scale

Networking

Software

Design

and

Productivity

High

Confidence

Software

and

Systems

Social,

Economic,

and

Workforce

2,115

2,025

754

760

368

371

218

226

301

211

188

154

58

61

55

56

24

32

20

20

4

4

1,990

1,895

125

130

NSF

NSF

NIH

NIH

DOE Office of Science

DOE Office of Science

NASA

NASA

DARPA

DARPA

NSA

NSA

AHRQ

AHRQ

NIST

NIST

NOAA

NOAA

EPA

EPA

Subtotals

Subtotals

DOE/NNSA

DOE/NNSA

207.0

198.8

103.4

101.6

85.9

99.2

67.4

53.7

2.5

3.5

13.3

13.4

2.3

2.3

481.7

472.5

34.5

33.2

TOTALSa

TOTALSa

516.2

505.7

355.1

317.5

469.2

419.5

329.8

332.8

179.3

166.0

144.4

152.5

120.9

130.9

87.3

90.8

6.3

6.3

81.4

80.0

33.0

1.7

77.0

64.3

31.4

31.9

1.2

1.2

1.8

1.8

319.2

277.9

35.9

39.6

144.7

147.6

128.0

131.5

16.2

67.1

39.2

75.4

61.2

31.0

31.1

4.4

6.4

0.5

0.5

2.0

2.0

469.2

419.5

94.6

96.2

103.0

104.4

30.8

43.2

43.4

29.6

10.7

11.0

1.5

1.5

24.4

24.4

3.9

4.2

2.6

2.9

314.9

317.4

14.9

15.4

61.0

56.4

4.1

4.3

59.2

62.4

13.3

4.8

4.8

1.5

1.5

144.0

129.3

35.3

36.7

65.1

66.7

10.8

11.0

24.2

17.9

11.3

17.0

25.4

27.7

7.6

12.2

144.4

152.5

93.9

103.5

12.3

12..3

3.5

3.5

6.7

6.7

116.4

126.0

4.5

4.9
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

84

AHRQ

* J. Michael Fitzmaurice, Ph.D., FACMI

Senior Science Advisor for Information

Technology, Immediate Office of the Director

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

540 Gaither Road, Suite 3026

Rockville, MD 20850

(301) 427-1227

FAX: (301) 427-1210

mfitzmau@ahrq.gov

DARPA

* Ronald J. Brachman, Ph.D.

Director, Information Processing Technology

Office

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

3701 North Fairfax Drive

Arlington, VA 22203-1714

(703) 696-2264

FAX: (703) 696-4534

rbrachman@darpa.mil

Robert B. Graybill

Program Manager, Information Processing

Technology Office

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

3701 North Fairfax Drive

Arlington, VA 22203-1714

(703) 696-2220

FAX: (703) 696-4534

rgraybill@darpa.mil

Gary M. Koob, Ph.D. (retired)

Program Manager, Information Processing

Technology Office

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

3701 North Fairfax Drive

Arlington, VA 22203-1714

(703) 696-7463

FAX: (703) 696-4534

gkoob@darpa.mil

Mari Maeda, Ph.D.

Program Manager, Information Processing

Technology Office

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

3701 North Fairfax Drive

Arlington, VA 22203-1714

(571) 218-4215

FAX: (703) 248-1866

mmaeda@darpa.mil

Dylan Schmorrow, LCDR

Program Manager, Information Processing

Technology Office

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

3701 North Fairfax Drive

Arlington, VA 22203-1714

(703) 696-4466

FAX: (703) 696-4534

dschmorrow@darpa.mil

** Barbara L. Yoon, Ph.D.

Deputy Director, Information Processing

Technology Office

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

3701 North Fairfax Drive

Arlington, VA 22203-1714

(703) 696-7441

FAX: (703) 696-4534

byoon@darpa.mil

DOE/NNSA

Thuc T. Hoang, Ph.D.

Computer Engineer, ASC PathForward & PSE

Programs, Office of Advanced Simulation and

Computing

National Nuclear Security Administration

Department of Energy

NA-114, Forrestal Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585

(202) 586-7050

FAX: (202) 586-0405

thuc.hoang@nnsa.doe.gov

Dimitri F. Kusnezov, Ph.D.

Director, Office of Advanced Simulation and

Computing

National Nuclear Security Administration

Department of Energy

NA-114, Forrestal Building 

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W. 

Washington, DC 20585 

202-586-1800 

FAX: 202-586-0405 

dimitri.kusnezov@nnsa.doe.gov 

Sander L. Lee 

Computer Scientist, Office of Integrated

Computing Systems, Office of Advanced

Simulation and Computing

National Nuclear Security Administration

Department of Energy

NA-114, Forrestal Building 

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W. 

Washington, DC 20585 

202-586-2698 

FAX: 202-586-0405 

sander.lee@nnsa.doe.gov 

* Robert Meisner

Director, Office of Integrated Computing Systems,

Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing

National Nuclear Security Administration

Department of Energy

NA-114, Forrestal Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-0104

(202) 586-0908

FAX: 202-586-0405

bob.meisner@nnsa.doe.gov

* IWG Representative

** IWG Alternate

Agency Contacts
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

85

DOE/SC

** Daniel A. Hitchcock, Ph.D.

Senior Technical Advisor for Advanced Scientific

Computing Research, Office of Advanced Scientific

Computing Research (OASCR)

Department of Energy

OASCR, SC-30

Germantown Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-1290

(301) 903-6767

FAX: (301) 903-4846

daniel.hitchcock@science.doe.gov

Frederick C. Johnson, Ph.D.

Program Manager, Mathematical, Information,

and Computational Sciences (MICS) Division,

Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

(OASCR)

Department of Energy

OASCR/MICS, SC-31

Germantown Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-1290

(301) 903-3601

FAX: (301) 903-7774

fjohnson@er.doe.gov

Gary M. Johnson, Ph.D.

Program Manager, Mathematical, Information,

and Computational Sciences (MICS) Division,

Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

(OASCR)

Department of Energy

OASCR/MICS, SC-31

Germantown Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-1290

(301) 903-4361

FAX: (301) 903-7774

garyj@er.doe.gov

** Norman H. Kreisman

Advisor, International Technology

Department of Energy, SC5

Mail Stop 3H049-FORS

Forrestal Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585

(202) 586-9746

FAX: (202) 586-7719

norman.kreisman@science.doe.gov

Thomas Ndousse-Fetter, Ph.D.

Program Manager for Networking,

Mathematical, Information, and Computational

Sciences (MICS) Division, Office of Advanced

Scientific Computing Research (OASCR)

Department of Energy

OASCR/MICS, SC-31

Germantown Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-1290

(301) 903-9960

FAX: (301) 903-7774

tndousse@er.doe.gov

* C. Edward Oliver, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Office of Advanced Scientific

Computing Research (OASCR)

Department of Energy

OASCR, SC-30

Germantown Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-1290

(301) 903-7486

FAX: (301) 903-4846

ed.oliver@science.doe.gov

Mary Anne Scott, Ph.D.

Program Manager, Mathematical, Information,

and Computational Sciences (MICS) Division,

Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

(OASCR)

Department of Energy

OASCR/MICS, SC-31

Germantown Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-1290

(301) 903-6368

FAX: (301) 903-7774

scott@er.doe.gov

George R. Seweryniak

Program Manager, Mathematical, Information,

and Computational Sciences (MICS) Division,

Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

(OASCR)

Department of Energy

OASCR/MICS, SC-31

Germantown Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20585-1290

(301) 903-0071

FAX: (301) 903-7774

seweryni@er.doe.gov

EPA

** Robin L. Dennis, Ph.D.

Senior Science Program Manager, 

MD E243-01

Environmental Protection Agency

Research Triangle Park, NC 27711

(919) 541-2870

FAX: (919) 541-1379

rdennis@hpcc.epa.gov

* Gary L. Walter

Computer Scientist, MD E243-01

Environmental Protection Agency

Research Triangle Park, NC 27711

(919) 541-0573

FAX: (919) 541-1379

walter.gary@epa.gov

FAA

Ernest R. Lucier

Chief Scientist for Information Technology-Acting

Federal Aviation Administration

FAA/AIO-4

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20591

(202) 385-8157

FAX: (202) 366-3064

ernest.lucier@faa.gov

Hal Pierson

Research Scientist

Federal Aviation Administration

FAA/AIO-4

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20591

(202) 385-8153

hal.pierson@faa.gov

FDA

Paul L. Jones

Senior Systems/Software Engineer, MCSE, CDP,

CSQE

Food and Drug Administration

12720 Twinbrook Parkway (HZ-141)

Rockville, MD 20857

(301) 443-2536 x 164

FAX: (301) 443-9101

pxj@cdrh.fda.gov
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

86

GSA

Susan B. Turnbull

Director, Center for IT Accommodation

General Services Administration

1800 F Street, N.W. (MKC) Room 2236

Washington, DC 20405

(202) 501-6214

FAX: (202) 219-1533

susan.turnbull@gsa.gov

NASA

Terry Allard, Ph.D.

Acting Division Director, Mission and Science

Measurement Technology

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Code RD - Room 6J11

300 E Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20546-0001

(202) 358-1891

FAX: (202) 358-3550

tallard@mail.hq.nasa.gov

* Walter F. Brooks, Ph.D.

Chief, NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility,

NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 258-5

Moffett Field, CA 94035

(650) 604-5699

wbrooks@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Ricky W. Butler

Senior Research Engineer, Airborne Systems

Competency Division, NASA Langley Research

Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 130

Hampton, VA 23681-2199

(757) 864-6198

FAX: (757) 864-4234

r.w.butler@larc.nasa.gov

James R. Fischer

Project Manager, Earth and Space Sciences

Project, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Code 930 - NASA/GSFC

Greenbelt, MD 20771

(301) 286-3465

FAX: (301) 286-1634

james.r.fischer.1@gsfc.nasa.gov

Kenneth Freeman

HPCC/NREN Project Manager, 

NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 233-21

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-1263

FAX: (650) 604-3080

kfreeman@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Marjory Johnson

Associate Project Manager, NREN, NASA Ames

Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 233-21

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-6922

FAX: (650) 604-3080

mjjohnson@arc.nasa.gov

Kevin L. Jones

Network Engineer, NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 233-21

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-2006

FAX: (650) 604-3080

kjones@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Patricia M. Jones, Ph.D.

NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 262-11

Room 204

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-1345

FAX: (650) 604-3323

pmjones@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Nand Lal, Ph.D.

Computer Scientist, Digital Library Technologies,

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Code 933 - NASA/GSFC

Greenbelt, MD 20771

(301) 286-7350

FAX: (301) 286-1775

nand@voyager.gsfc.nasa.gov

Tsengdar Lee, Ph.D.

Information Systems Specialist

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

300 E Street, S.W.

Washington, DC 20546

(202) 358-0860

FAX: (202) 358-2770

tlee@hq.nasa.gov

Michael R. Lowry

Senior Research Scientist and Area Chief,

Automated Software Engineering, 

NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 269-2

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-3369

FAX: (650) 604-3594

lowry@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov

Piyush Mehrotra, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist, 

NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

M/S T27A-1

Moffett Field, CA 94035

(650) 604-5126

FAX: (650) 604-3957

pmehrotra@arc.nasa.gov

Paul S. Miner, Ph.D.

Senior Research Engineer, NASA Langley Research

Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 130

Hampton, VA 23681-2199

(757) 864-6201

FAX: (757) 864-4234

paul.s.miner@nasa.gov

Stephen Scott Santiago

Chief Information Officer, NASA Ames Research

Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 233-7

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-5015

FAX: (650) 604-6999

ssantiago@mail.arc.nasa.gov

* IWG Representative

** IWG Alternate
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

87

Michael G. Shafto, Ph.D.

Program Manager, Human-Centered Computing,

NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 269-4

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-6170

FAX: (650) 604-6009

mshafto@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Eugene Tu, Ph.D.

Program Manager, Computing, Information, and

Communications Technologies (CICT) Office,

NASA Ames Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mail Stop 258-2

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

(650) 604-4486

FAX: (650) 604-4377

eugene.l.tu@nasa.gov

NIH

** Michael J. Ackerman, Ph.D.

Assistant Director for High Performance

Computing and Communications, National

Library of Medicine

National Institutes of Health

Building 38A, Room B1N30

8600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20894

(301) 402-4100

FAX: (301) 402-4080

ackerman@nlm.nih.gov

Eric Jakobsson, Ph.D.

Director, National Institute of General Medical

Sciences (NIGMS) Center for Bioinformatics and

Computational Biology, and Chair, NIH

Biomedical Information Science and Technology

Iniitiative Consortium

National Institutes of Health

Natcher Building, 2As55

Bethesda, MD 20892

(301) 451-6446

FAX: (301) 480-2802

jakobse@nigms.nih.gov

Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.

Director, National Library of Medicine

National Institutes of Health

Building 38, Room 2E17B

8600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20894

(301) 496-6221

FAX: (301) 496-4450

lindberg@nlm.nih.gov

Jacob V. Maizel, Ph.D.

Biomedical Supercomputer Center, 

National Cancer Institute, 

Frederick Cancer Research and Development

Center

National Institutes of Health

P.O. Box B, Building 469, Room 151

Frederick, MD 21702-1201

(301) 846-5532

FAX: (301) 846-5598

jmaizel@ncifcrf.gov

* Michael Marron, Ph.D.

Director, Division for Biomedical Technology

Research and Research Resources,

National Center for Research Resources

National Institutes of Health

6701 Democracy Boulevard, Room 962

Bethesda, MD 20892-4874

(301) 435-0755

FAX: (301) 480-3659

marron@nih.gov

** Robert L. Martino, Ph.D.

Director, Division of Computational Bioscience

and Chief, Computational Bioscience and

Engineering Laboratory, Center for Information

Technology (CIT)

National Institutes of Health

12 South Drive, MSC 5654

Building 12A, Room 2033

Bethesda, MD 20892-5654

(301) 496-1112

FAX: (301) 402-2867

Robert.Martino@nih.gov

** Karen Skinner, Ph.D.

Deputy Director for Science and Technology

Development, Division of Neuroscience and

Behavior Research, National Institute on Drug

Abuse

National Institutes of Health

6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 4255

Bethesda, MD 20892-9651

(301) 435-0886

ks79x@nih.gov

** Judith L. Vaitukaitis, M.D.

Director, National Center for Research Resources

National Institutes of Health

31B Center Drive

Building 31, Room 3B11

Bethesda, MD 20892-2128

(301) 496-5793

FAX: (301) 402-0006

vaitukaitis@nih.gov

NIST

Paul E. Black, Ph.D.

Computer Scientist, Information Technology

Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8970

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8970

(301) 975-4794

FAX: (301) 926-3696

paul.black@nist.gov

Judith E. Devaney, Ph.D.

Group Leader, Scientific Applications and

Visualization Group, Mathematical and

Computational Sciences Division, Information

Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8911

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8911

(301) 975-2882

FAX: (301) 975-3218

judith.devaney@nist.gov

Simon P. Frechette 

SIMA Program Manager

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8260

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8260

(301) 975-3335

FAX: (301) 258-9749

simon.frechette@nist.gov
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

88

Cita M. Furlani

Chief Information Officer

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1800

Gaithersburg, VA 20899-1800

(301) 975-6500

FAX: (301) 975-4160

cita.furlani@nist.gov

Martin Herman, Ph.D.

Chief, Information Access and User Interfaces

Division, Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8940

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8940

(301) 975-4495

FAX: (301) 670-0939

herman@nist.gov

Douglas Montgomery

Manager, Internetworking Technologies Group,

Advanced Network Technologies Division,

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8920

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8920

(301) 975-3630

FAX: (301) 590-0932

dougm@nist.gov

Steven R. Ray, Ph.D.

Chief, Manufacturing Systems Integration

Division, Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8260

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8260

(301) 975-3524

FAX: (301) 258-9749

ray@nist.gov

** Larry H. Reeker, Ph.D.

Senior Computer Scientist, Information

Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8901

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8901

(301) 975-5147

FAX: (301) 948-1784

larry.reeker@nist.gov

* Kamie M. Roberts

Acting Deputy Director, Associate Director for

Federal and Industrial Relations, and Chief of

Staff, Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8901

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8901

(301) 975-2982

FAX: (301) 948-1784

kroberts@nist.gov

Ronald S. Ross, Ph.D.

Computer Science Division, Information

Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8930

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930

(301) 975-5390

ronald.ross@nist.gov

Jean C. Scholtz, Ph.D.

Information Access Division, Information

Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8940

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8940

(301) 975-2520

FAX: (301) 975-5287

jean.scholtz@nist.gov

David Su, Ph.D.

Chief, Advanced Network Technologies Division,

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8920

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8920

(301) 975-6194

FAX: (301) 590-0932

dsu@nist.gov

NOAA

Brian Gross

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Forrestal Campus, U.S. Route 1

P.O. Box 308

Princeton, NJ 08542

(609) 452-6597

FAX: (609) 987-5063

brian.gross@noaa.gov

Mike Kane 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Room 9855

1315 East-West Highway

Silver Spring, MD 20910

(301) 713-3575 x200

FAX: (301) 713-4040

mike.kane@noaa.gov

Ants Leetmaa, Ph.D.

Director, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Forrestal Campus, U.S. Route 1

P.O. Box 308

Princeton, NJ 08542-0308

(609) 452-6502

FAX: (609) 987-5070 

Ants.Leetmaa@noaa.gov

Alexander E. MacDonald, Ph.D.

Director, Forecast Systems Laboratory

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

325 Broadway

Boulder, CO 80303

(303) 497-6378

FAX: (303) 497-6821

macdonald@fsl.noaa.gov

* William T. Turnbull

Deputy Chief Information Officer

and Director, HPCC Office

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Room 9636

1315 East-West Highway 

Silver Spring, MD 20910

(301) 713-9600 x 133

FAX: (301) 713-4040

Bill.Turnbull@noaa.gov

Louis Uccellini

Director, National Centers for Environmental

Prediction

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

5200 Auth Road, Room 101

Camp Springs, MD 20746

(301) 763-8000

FAX: (301) 763-8434

louis.uccellini@noaa.gov

* IWG Representative

** IWG Alternate
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

89

Gary M. Wohl

New Technology Coordinator, National Weather

Service

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

5200 Auth Road, Room 307

Camp Springs, MD 20746-4304

(301) 763-8000 x7157

FAX: (301) 763-8381

gary.wohl@noaa.gov

NSA

* George R. Cotter

Office of Corporate Assessments

National Security Agency

9800 Savage Road, Suite 6217

Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755-6217

(301) 688-6434

FAX: (301) 688-4980

ajgrocot@fggm.osis.org

Candace S. Culhane 

Computer Systems Researcher

National Security Agency

9800 Savage Road, Suite 6107

Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755-6107

(443) 479-0569

FAX: (301) 688-3633

csculha@afterlife.ncsc.mil

Craig Holcomb

Senior Computer Scientist/Technical Director,

NSA/CSS CIO, Information and Technology

Governance and Policy Office

National Security Agency

9800 Savage Road, Suite 6459

Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755-6459

(301) 688-8762

FAX: (301) 688-4995

lcholco@nsa.gov

William Bradley Martin

Senior Computer Scientist

National Security Agency

9800 Savage Road, Suite 6511

Fort George G. Meade, MD 20750-6511

(301) 688-1057

FAX: (301) 688-6766

wbmarti@alpha.ncsc.mil

** James Rupp

National Security Agency

9800 Savage Road, Suite 6468

Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755-6468

(443) 479-8944

jrrupp@fggm.osis.gov

William J. Semancik, Ph.D.

Director, Laboratory for Telecommunications

Sciences

National Security Agency

c/o U. S. Army Research Laboratory

Adelphi Laboratory Center

2800 Powder Mill Road, Building 601, 

Room 131

Adelphi, MD 20783-1197

(301) 688-1709

FAX: (301) 291-2591

wjseman@afterlife.ncsc.mil

James Widmaier

Senior Infosec Researcher

National Security Agency

9800 Savage Road, Suite 6511

Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755-6511

(301) 688-1043

FAX: (301) 688-0255

jcwidma@orion.ncsc.mil

NSF

S. Kamal Abdali, Ph.D.

Division Director, Computing and Communication

Foundations Division, Directorate for Computer

and Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1115

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8910

FAX: (703) 292-9059

kabdali@nsf.gov

Gregory R. Andrews, Ph.D.

Division Director, Computer and Network Systems

Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1175

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8950

FAX: (703) 292-9010

gandrews@nsf.gov

William S. Bainbridge, Ph.D.

Deputy Division Director and Program Director,

Information and Intelligent Systems Division,

Directorate for Computer and Information Science

and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1125

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8930

FAX: (703) 292-9073

wbainbri@nsf.gov

Lawrence E. Brandt

Program Manager, Information and Intelligent

Systems Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1125

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8911

FAX: (703) 292-9073

lbrandt@nsf.gov

John C. Cherniavsky, Ph.D.

Senior EHR Advisor for Research, Research,

Evaluation and Communication Division,

Directorate for Education and Human Resources

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 855

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-5136

FAX: (703) 292-9046

jchernia@nsf.gov

** Deborah L. Crawford

Deputy Assistant Director, Directorate for

Computer and Information Science and

Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1105

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8900

FAX: (703) 292-9074

dcrawfor@nsf.gov
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

90

Frederica Darema, Ph.D.

Senior Science and Technology Advisor, Computer

and Network Systems Division, Directorate for

Computer and Information Science and

Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1175

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8950

FAX: (703) 292-9010

fdarema@nsf.gov

* Peter A. Freeman, Ph.D.

Assistant Director, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1105

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8900

FAX: (703) 292-9074

pfreeman@nsf.gov

James C. French, Ph.D.

Program Director, Information and Intelligent

Systems Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1125

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8936

FAX: (703) 292-9073

jfrench@nsf.gov

Douglas G. Gatchell 

Program Director, Shared Cyberinfrastructure

Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1145

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8962

FAX: (703) 292-9060

dgatchell@nsf.gov

Helen D. Gill, Ph.D.

Program Director, Computer and Network Systems

Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1175

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8950

FAX: (703) 292-9010

hgill@nsf.gov

Sol J. Greenspan, Ph.D.

Program Director, Computing and Communication

Foundations Division, Directorate for Computer

and Information Science and Engineering 

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1115

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8910

FAX: (703) 292-9059

sgreensp@nsf.gov

** C. Suzanne Iacono, Ph.D.

Program Director, Information and Intelligent

Systems Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1125

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8930

FAX: (703) 292-9073

siacono@nsf.gov

Sangtae Kim, Ph.D.

Division Director, Computer and Network Systems

Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1145

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8970

FAX: (703) 292-9060

skim@nsf.gov

Carl E. Landwehr, Ph.D.

Program Director, Computer and Network Systems

Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1175

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8950

FAX: (703) 292-9010

clandweh@nsf.gov

Stephen R. Mahaney, Ph.D.

Senior Advisor for Budget Management and

Planning and Policy, Directorate for Computer

and Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1105

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8900

FAX: (703) 292-9074

smahaney@nsf.gov

José L. Muñoz, Ph.D.

Deputy Division Director, Shared

Cyberinfrastructure Division, Directorate for

Computer and Information Science and

Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1145

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8970

FAX: (703) 292-9060

jmunoz@nsf.gov

Michael J. Pazzani, Ph.D.

Division Director, Information and Intelligent

Systems Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1125

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8930

FAX: (703) 292-9073

mpazzani@nsf.gov

Edwina L. Rissland, Ph.D.

Program Director, Information and Intelligent

Systems Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1125

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8918

FAX: (703) 292-9073

erisslan@nsf.gov

George O. Strawn, Ph.D.

Chief Information Officer, Office of Information

and Resource Management

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 305

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8102

FAX: (703) 292-9084

gstrawn@nsf.gov

Kevin L. Thompson

Program Director, Shared Cyberinfrastructure

Division, Directorate for Computer and

Information Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1145

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-8962

FAX: (703) 292-9060

kthompso@nsf.gov
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

91

ODUSD (S&T)

Larry P. Davis, Ph.D.

Deputy Director, High Performance Computing

Modernization Office, Office of the Deputy Under

Secretary of Defense (Science and Technology)

Department of Defense

1010 North Glebe Road, Suite 510

Arlington, VA 22201

(703) 812-8205

FAX: (703) 812-9701

larryd@hpcmo.hpc.mil

** Robert Gold

Information Systems Directorate, Office of the

Deputy Under Secreatary of Defense (Science and

Technology)

Department of Defense

1777 North Kent Street, Suite 9030

Rosslyn, VA 22209

(703) 588-7411

FAX: (703) 588-7560

robert.gold@osd.mil

John Grosh

General Engineer, Office of the Deputy Under

Secretary of Defense (Science and Technology)

Department of Defense

1777 North Kent Street, Suite 9030

Rosslyn, VA 22209

(703) 588-7413

FAX: (703) 588-7560

john.grosh@osd.mil

Cray J. Henry

Director, High Performance Computing

Modernization Office, Office of the Deputy Under

Secretary of Defense (Science and Technology)

Department of Defense

1010 North Glebe Road, Suite 510

Arlington, VA 22201

(703) 812-8205

FAX: (703) 812-9701

cray@hpcmo.hpc.mil

Rodger Johnson

Program Manager, Defense Research and

Engineering Network, High Performance

Computing Modernization Office, Office of the

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Science and

Technology)

1010 North Glebe Road, Suite 510

Arlington, VA 22201

(703) 812-8205

FAX: (703) 812-9701

rjohnson@hpcmo.hpc.mil

* André M. van Tilborg, Ph.D.

Director, Information Systems

Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense

(Science and Technology)

Department of Defense

1777 North Kent Street, Suite 9030

Rossyln, VA 22209

(703) 588-7443

FAX: (703) 588-7560

andre.vantilborg@osd.mil

ONR

Helen M. Gigley, Ph.D.

Program Officer

Office of Naval Research

800 North Quincy Street

Code 342

Arlington, VA 22217-5660

(703) 696-2160

FAX: (703) 292-9084

gigleyh@onr.navy.mil

Ralph F. Wachter, Ph.D.

Program Manager

Office of Naval Research

800 North Quincy Street

Code 311/361

Arlington, VA 22217-5660

(703) 696-4304

FAX: (703) 696-2611

wachter@onr.navy.mil

USAF

Raymond A. Bortner 

Senior Electronic Engineer, AFRL/VACC

Air Force Research Laboratory

2130 Eighth Street, Room 270

Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433

(937) 255-8292 

FAX: (937) 255-8297 

raymond.bortner@wpafb.af.mil

* IWG Representative

** IWG Alternate

Executive Office of the president

OMB

David S. Trinkle

Program Examiner

Office of Management and Budget

Room 8225

New Executive Office Building

725 17th Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20503

(202) 395-4706

FAX: (202) 395-4652

dtrinkle@omb.eop.gov

NSTC

Charles H. Romine

Office of Science and Technology Policy

Executive Office of the President

New Executive Office Building

725 17th Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20502

(202) 456-6054

FAX: (202) 456-6021

cromine@ostp.eop.gov
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

92

3D

Three-dimensional

3MRA

EPA’s Multimedia, Multipathway,

Multireceptor Risk Assessment

modeling system

6TAP

IPv6 Transit Access Point

A

AAMP7

Latest member of the Advanced

Architecture Microprocessor family

that supports high-assurance

application development exploiting

intrinsic partitioning

ACE

NIST’s Automatic Content Extraction

program 

ACRT

DOE/SC’s Advanced Computing

Research Testbeds activity 

ADAPT

NASA’s Automatic Data Alignment

and Placement Tool

AeroDB

Aeronautical Database

AEX

NIST’s Automating Equipment

Information Exchange project

AFRL

Air Force Research Laboratory

AFWA

Air Force Weather Agency

AHRQ

Agency for Healthcare Research and

Quality

AI&CS

NSF/CISE’s Artificial Intelligence and

Cognitive Science program

AIO

FAA’s Administrative Information

Office

Altix

A line of computers produced 

by SGI, Inc.

ALU

Arithmetic logic unit

ANL

DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory

ANTD

NIST’s Advanced Network

Technologies Division

APDEC

DOE/SC’s Algorithmic and Software

Framework for Applied Partial

Differential Equations ISIC

API

Application program interface

AQMA

EPA’s Air Quality Modeling

Applications program

AQUAINT

NSA/NIST’s Advanced Question and

Answering for Intelligence program

ARDA

Intelligence community’s Advanced

Research and Development Activity

ARL

Army Research Laboratory

ARO

Army Research Office

ASAP

DOE/NNSA’s Academic Strategic

Alliance Program

ASC

DOE/NNSA’s Advanced Simulation

and Computing program (formerly

ASCI, for Accelerated Strategic

Computing Initiative)

ASC

Army Signal Command, a

DoD/HPCMPO Major Shared

Resource Center

ASCR or OASCR

DOE/SC’s Office of Advanced

Scientific Computing Research

ASC Blue Mountain

DOE/NNSA program’s massively

parallel 3-teraflops SGI Origin

supercomputing platform at Los

Alamos National Laboratory

ASC Purple

DOE/NNSA program’s 100-teraflops

IBM SMP supercomputing platform

under development, in tandem with

Blue Gene/L, at Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory

ASC Q

DOE/NNSA program’s 20-teraflops

system, based on HP/Compaq

technology, at Los Alamos National

Laboratory

Glossary
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

93

ASC Red

ASC program’s first teraflops-level

platform, by Intel, installed at Sandia

National Laboratory in 1996

ASC Red Storm

DOE/NNSA program’s 40-teraflops

Cray system under development at

Sandia National Laboratory

ASC White

DOE/NNSA program’s massively

parallel, 12-teraflops IBM

supercomputing platform at Lawrence

Livermore National Laboratory

ATDnet

DoD’s Advanced Technology

Demonstration network

ATM

Asynchronous transfer mode

B

BECON 

NIH’s Bioengineering Consortium

BGP

Border gateway protocol

BIO

NSF’s Biological Sciences Directorate

BioAPI

Biometric application programming

interface

BISTI

NIH’s Biomedical Information Science

and Technology Initiative

BISTIC

NIH’s Biomedical Information Science

and Technology Initiative Consortium

BLAS

Basic linear algebra subroutines

Blue Gene/L

Scalable experimental new

supercomputing system being

developed by IBM in partnership with

DOE/SC and DOE/NNSA; expected

to achieve 300-teraflops+ processing

speeds

BOSSnet

BoSton-South network, MIT’s Boston

to Washington, D.C., fiber-optic

network

C

CAD

Computer-aided design

CAF

Co-Array Fortran

CAIB

NASA Columbia Accident

Investigation Board

CalREN2

California Research and Education

Network 2

CalTech

California Institute of Technology

Canarie2

Canadian Network for the

Advancement of Research, Industry,

and Education 2

CAPO

NASA’s Computer-Aided Parallelizer

and Optimizer

CAST 

DARPA’s Compact Aids for Speech

Translation program

CBEFF

Common Biometric Exchange File

Format

CCAMP

Common control and measurement

plane

CCF

NSF/CISE’s Computing and

Communications Foundations

Division

CCM

DoD/HPCMPO’s Computational

Chemistry and Materials Science CTA

CDROM

Compact disc read-only memory

CEA

DoD/HPCMPO’s Computational

Electromagnetics and Acoustics CTA

CEN

DoD/HPCMPO’s Computational

Electronics and Nanoelectronics CTA

CERN

European Laboratory for Particle

Physics

CEV

NASA’s crew exploration vehicle

CFD

Computational fluid dynamics

CFD

DoD/HPCMPO’s Computational

Fluid Dynamics CTA

CG

Coordinating Group

CHEETAH

NSF’s Circuit-switched High-speed

End-to-End ArcHitecture network

CHSSI

DoD/HPCMPO’s Common High

Performance Computing Software

Initiative
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

94

CI-TEAM

NSF/CISE’s Cyber-Infrastructure

Training, Education, Advancement,

and Mentoring activity

CI

Cyberinfrastructure

CIAPP

NASA’S Computational Intelligence

for Aerospace Power and Propulsion

systems

CICT

NASA’s Computing, Information, and

Communications Technology

program

CIF

Common industry format

CIO

Chief information officer

CIP

Critical infrastructure protection

CISE

NSF’s Computer and Information

Science and Engineering Directorate

CMAQ

EPA’s Community Multi-Scale Air

Quality modeling system

CMM

Carnegie Mellon University’s

Software Engineering Institute’s

Capability Maturity Models

CNS

NSF/CISE’s Computer and

Networking Systems Division

CoE

EPA’s Center of Excellence

CONUS

Continental United States

CORBA

Common object request broker

architecture

COTS

Commercial-off-the-shelf

CPU

Central processing unit

CSD

NIST/ITL’s Computer Security

Division

CSGF

Computational Science Graduate

Fellowship program supported by

DOE/SC and DOE/NNSA

CSM

DoD/HPCMPO’s Computational

Structural Mechanics CTA

CSTB

Computer Science and

Telecommunications Board of the

National Research Council

CSTL

NIST’s Chemical Science and

Technology Lab

CSU

Colorado State University

CTA

DoD/HPCMPO’s Computational

Technology Area

D

DAML

DARPA Agent Markup Language 

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency

DCE 

Distributed computing environment

DETER

NSF’s cyber DEfense Technology

Experimental Research network

DHHS

Department of Health and Human

Services

DHS

Department of Homeland Security

DiffServ

Differentiated services

DisCom

DOE/NNSA’s Distance Computing

program

DiVAs

DOE/SC’s Distributed Visualization

Architecture workshops

DIVERSE

NIST’s Device-Independent Virtual

Environments – Reconfigurable,

Scalable, Extensible

DLMF

NIST/NSF’s Digital Library of

Mathematical Functions

DMF

SGI’s Data Management Facility, a

mass storage system

DMTF

Distributed Management Task Force

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid

DNS

Domain Name System

DoD 

Department of Defense

DoD/HPCMPO

DoD/High Performance Computing

Modernization Program Office
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

95

DoD/OSD

DoD/Office of the Secretary of

Defense

DOE

Department of Energy

DOE/NNSA

DOE/National Nuclear Security

Administration

DOE/SC

DOE/Office of Science

DOJ

Department of Justice

DRAGON

NSF’s Dynamic Resource Allocation

(via GMPLS) Optical Network

DREN

Defense Research and Engineering

Network

DS

Data Send, a network transmission

speed standard

DSM

Distributed shared memory

DTC

NOAA’s Development Test Center

DUC

NIST’s Document Understanding

Conference

E

EARS

DARPA/NIST Effective, Affordable,

Reusable Speech-To-Text program

ebXML

electronic business Extensible Markup

Language

ECCO

NASA’s Estimating the Circulation

and Climate of the Ocean project

ECEI

NIST’s Electronic Commerce for the

Electronics Industry

ECS

NASA’s Engineering for Complex

Systems program

EDRAM

Erasable dynamic random-access

memory

EHR

NSF’s Education and Human

Resources Directorate

EHR 

Electronic health record 

EHRS 

Electronic health record system

EINs

NSF’s Experimental Infrastructure

Networks

ENG

NSF’s Engineering Directorate

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency

EQM

DoD/HPCMPO’s Environmental

Quality Modeling and Simulation

CTA

ERDC

U.S. Army’s Engineering Research

and Development Center, a

DoD/HPCMPO Major Shared

Resource Center

ESCHER

Embedded Systems Consortium for

Hybrid and Embedded Research, a

joint effort of DARPA and NSF

ESMF

Earth System Modeling Framework

ESnet

DOE/SC’s Energy Sciences network

ESTO

NASA’s Earth Sciences Technology

Office

ETF

NSF’s Extensible Terascale Facility

F

FAA

Federal Aviation Administration

FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

FDA

Food and Drug Administration

FEA

Federal Enterprise Architecture

FMS

NOAA’s Flexible Modeling System

FMS

DoD/HPCMPO’s Forces Modeling

and Simulation CTA

FNMOC

U.S. Navy’s Fleet Numerical

Meteorology and Oceanography

Center

FPGA

Field programmable gate array

FpVTE

Fingerprint vendor technology

evaluation

FSL

NOAA’s Forecast Systems Laboratory

FTP

File transfer protocol
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

96

FY

Fiscal year

G

Gbps

Gigabits per second

Gbytes, or GB

Gigabytes per second

GEO

NSF’s Geosciences Directorate

GFDL

NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

Laboratory

Gflops

Gigaflops, billions of floating point

operations per second

GGF

Global Grid Forum

GGMAO

NASA’s Goddard Global Modeling

and Assimilation Office

GHz

Gigahertz

GigE

Gigabit Ethernet

GIPS

Giga-integers per second

GIS 

Geographical information system

GISS

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space

Studies

GLASS

NIST’s GMPLS/Optical Simulation

tool project

GLIS

NASA’s Goddard Land Information

Systems project

GMPLS 

Generalized multi-protocol label

switching

GOPS

Giga-operations per second

GSA

General Services Administration

GSFC

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

GUI

Graphical user interface

GUPs

Giga-updates per second

H

H-ANIM

Human animation

HARD

NIST’s High Accuracy Retrieval from

Documents program

HBCUs

Historically black colleges and

universities

HBM

Haskell on Bare Metal

HCI&IM

Human Computer Interaction and

Information Management, one of

NITRD’s seven Program Component

Areas

HCSS

High Confidence Software and

Systems, one of NITRD’s seven

Program Component Areas

HDCCSR

Highly Dependable Computing and

Communications Systems Research

program, a joint effort of NASA and

NSF 

HEC

High-end computing

HEC I&A

HEC Infrastructure and Applications,

one of NITRD’s seven Program

Component Areas

HEC R&D

HEC Research and Development, one

of NITRD’s seven Program

Component Areas

HECRTF

High-End Computing Revitalization

Task Force

HEC-URA

HEC University Research Activity,

funded by DARPA, DOE/SC, and

NSF

HIT

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Health

Information Technology Initiative

HL-7

Health Level Seven, an electronic

medical-records standard

HP

Hewlett Packard

HPC

High-performance computing

HPCC

High-performance computing and

communications

HPCMPO

DoD’s High Performance Computing

Modernization Program Office
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

97

HPCS

DARPA’s High Productivity

Computing Systems program

HRI

NIST’s Human Robot Interaction

activity

HSAIs

DoD/HPCMPO’s High Performance

Computing Software Applications

Institutes

HTML

HyperText Markup Language

HVAC

Heating, ventilation, air conditioning

HVAC/R

Heating, ventilation, air conditioning,

and refrigeration

I

IAD

NIST’s Information Access Division

IAFIS

FBI’s Integrated Automated

Fingerprint Identification System

IAIMS

NIH/NLM’s Integrated Academic

Information Management Systems

IARG

NSA’s Information Assurance

Research Group

IBM

International Business Machines

ICAT

NIST/ITL/CSD’s searchable index of

information on computer

vulnerabilities

ICR

NITRD Program’s Interagency

Coordination Report

IDC

A global market intelligence and

advisory firm

IDE

Integrated development environment

IDS

NIST’s Intrusion Detection System

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers

IETF

Internet Engineering Task Force

IIS

NSF/CISE’s Information and

Intelligent Systems Division

iLab

NASA’s Information Power Grid

Virtual Laboratory, a software

package for creating and monitoring

parameter studies of grid resources

IMPI

NIST’s interoperable message-passing

interface

IMT

DoD/HPCMPO’s Integrated

Modeling and Test Environments

CTA

INCITE

DOE/SC’s Innovative and Novel

Computational Impact on Theory and

Experiment program

INCITS

International Committee for IT

Standards

I/O

Input/output

IP

Internet protocol

IPG

NASA’s Information Power Grid 

IPSec

IP security 

IPTO

DARPA’s Information Processing

Technology Office

IPv6

Internet protocol, version 6

ISD

NIST/MEL’s Intelligent Systems

Division

ISICs

DOE/SC’s Integrated Software

Infrastructure Centers

ISO

International Organization for

Standardization

ISPAB

NIST’s Information Security and

Privacy Advisory Board

ISS

International Space Station

IT

Information technology

ITL

NIST’s Information Technology

Laboratory

ITR

NSF’s Information Technology

Research program

IT R&D

Information technology research and

development

IU

Indiana University

IUSR

NIST’s Industry USability Reporting

activity
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

98

IV&V

Independent verification and

validation

iVDGL

NSF/CISE’s International Virtual

Data Grid Laboratory

IWG

Interagency Working Group

IXO

DARPA’s Information Exploitation

Office

J

Java

An operating system-independent

programming language

Javaspaces

Java-based component of the Jini

open architecture for networking

JET

LSN’s Joint Engineering Team

JETnets

Federal research networks supporting

networking researchers and advanced

applications development

Jini

Java-based open architecture for

development of network services

K

Ka-band

Kurtz above-band, a portion of the K

band of the electromagnetic spectrum

ranging from about 18 to 40 GHz;

often used in communications

satellites

L

LANL

DOE’s Los Alamos National

Laboratory

LBNL or LBL

DOE’s Lawrence-Berkeley National

Laboratory 

LEAD

NSF’s Linked Environments for

Atmospheric Discovery

LHNCBC

NIH/NLM’s Lister Hill National

Center for Biomedical

Communications

LSN

Large Scale Networking, one of

NITRD’s seven Program Component

Areas

LSTAT

FDA’s Life Support for Trauma and

Transport device 

LTP

NASA’s Learning Technologies

Project

LTS

NSA’s Laboratory for

Telecommunications Sciences

M

MAA

EPA’s Multimedia Assessments and

Applications framework

MAGIC

LSN’s Middleware and Grid

Infrastructure Coordination team

MAX

Mid-Atlantic Exchange

Mbytes, or MB

Megabytes

MCHIP

DARPA’s Multipoint

Congramoriented High-performance

Internet Protocol

MDS

NASA’s Mission Data Systems

program

MEL

NIST’s Manufacturing Engineering

Laboratory

MHz, or MH

Megahertz

MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MLP

Multi-level parallelism

MoBIES

DARPA’s Model-Based Integration of

Embedded Systems program

MOU

Memorandum of understanding

MPEG-7

Moving Picture Experts Group’s

multimedia content description

interface, release 7

MPI

Message-passing interface

MPICH

Freely available, high-performance

portable implementation of MPI

MPLS

Multi-protocol label switching

MPS

NSF’s Mathematical and Physical

Sciences Directorate
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

99

MSID

NIST’s Manufacturing Systems

Integration Division

MSRCs

DoD/HPCMPO’s Major Shared

Resource Centers

MT

NIST’s Machine Translation program

MTBF

Mean time between failures

N

NAP

Network access point

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space

Administration

NAVO

U.S. Navy’s Naval Oceanographic

Office

NCAR

NSF-supported National Center for

Atmospheric Research

NCBI

NIH/NLM’s National Center for

Biotechnology Information

NCEP

NOAA’s National Center for

Environmental Prediction

NCO

National Coordination Office for

Information Technology Research and

Development

NCSA

NSF-supported National Center for

Supercomputing Applications

NERSC

DOE/SC’s National Energy Research

Scientific Computing Center

NESC2

National Environmental Scientific

Computing Center

NEST

DARPA’s Networked Embedded

Systems Technology program

NEXRAD

NOAA’s Next Generation Weather

Radar System

NGIX

Next Generation Internet Exchange

point

NHII

National Health Information

Infrastructure

NIAP

NIST/NSA National Information

Assurance Partnership

NIGMS

NIH’s National Institute of General

Medical Sciences

NIH

National Institutes of Health

NIMD

NIST’s Novel Intelligence for Massive

Data activity

NISN

NASA Integrated Services Network

NIST

National Institute of Standards and

Technology

NITRD

Networking and Information

Technology Research and

Development

NLM

NIH’s National Library of Medicine

NLR

National LambdaRail

NMI

NSF Middleware Initiative

NOAA

National Oceanographic and

Atmospheric Administration

NOx

Nitrous oxide

NPACI

NSF-supported National Partnership

for Advanced Computational

Infrastructure

NREN

NASA Research and Education

Network

NRL

Naval Research Laboratory

NRNRT

National radio network research

testbed

NRT

LSN’s Networking Research Team

NRT

NSF/CISE’s Networking Research

Testbed program

NS-500

A GigE security device that uses

Virtual Private Network

NSA

National Security Agency

NSF

National Science Foundation

NSRL

National Software Reference Library,

joint effort of DOJ, FBI, and NIST

NSTC

White House National Science and

Technology Council
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

100

NWChem

Chemistry modeling software

developed by DOE’s Pacific

Northwest National Laboratory

NWS

NOAA’s National Weather Service

O

O3K

An SGI Origin computer

OASCR or ASCR

DOE/SC’s Office of Advanced

Scientific Computing Research

OAV

Organic air vehicle

OC-x

Optical carrier rate, an optical

network transmission standard. The

base rate (OC-1) is 51.84 Mbps;

higher transmission speeds such as

OC-3 or OC-48 are multiples 

of OC-1.

OCONUS

Outside the continental United States

ODDR&E

DoD’s Office of the Director,

Defense Research and Engineering

OIL

Ontology inference layer

OMB

White House Office of Management

and Budget

ONR

Office of Naval Research

OOF

NIST’s Object-Oriented Finite

Element Modeling of Material

Microstructures software

OOMMF

NIST’s Object-Oriented

MicroMagnetic Computing

Framework

OpenMP

An open message-passing standard

ORNL

DOE’s Oak Ridge National

Laboratory

OS

Operating system

Osker

Oregon separation kernel

OSPF

Open shortest path first, an interior

gateway protocol

OSS

Open source software

OSTP

White House Office of Science and

Technology Policy

OWL

Web Ontology Language derived

from DAML + OIL

P

PC

Personal computer

PCA

DARPA’s Polymorphous Computing

Architectures program

PCA

Program Component Area

PCMon

PC-based network traffic monitoring,

a monitoring and measurement tool

that enables detailed analysis of

individual traffic flows

PDE

Partial differential equation

PE

Processing element

PerMIS

NIST’s Performance Metrics for

Intelligent Systems workshop series

PET

DoD/HCPMPO’s Programming

Environment and Training program

Petaflops

Quadrillions of floating point

operations per second

PHAML

NIST’s Parallel Hierarchical Adaptive

MultiLevel project

PI

Principal investigator

PIM

Processor-in-memory

PITAC

President’s Information Technology

Advisory Committee

PKI

Public key infrastructure

PlanetLab

NSF’ overlay testbed for disruptive

network services

PMEL

NOAA’s Pacific Marine

Environmental Laboratory

POS

Packet over SONET

PPPL

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

PSC

NSF-supported Pittsburgh

Supercomputing Center
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

101

PSE

Patient safety event

PSE

DOE/NNSA’s Problem Solving

Environment program

PU

Purdue University

PVM

Parallel virtual machine

Q

QCD

Quantum chromodynamics

QFS

A Sun Microsystems computer

QoS

Quality of service

R

R&D

Research and development

R&E

Research and engineering

RAiN

NIST’s Resilient Agile Networking

program

RAMAS

NASA’s Resource Allocation,

Measurement and Adjustment System

RAS

Reliability, availability, serviceability

RAW

DARPA’s Reconfigurable

Architecture Workstation activity

RDF/S

Resource description

framework/schema

RFI

Request for information

RFP

Request for proposals

RLV

NASA’s reusable launch vehicle

RMS

DARPA’s Rapid Multilingual Support

one-way translation software

RONs

Regional operational networks

RSS

NOAA’s Really simple syndication

S

S&T

Science and technology

SACS

DARPA’s Security-Aware Critical

Software program

SAPP

DOE/SC’s Scientific Applications

Pilot Programs

SAS

DoD/HPCMPO’s Software

Application Support program

SBE

NSF’s Social, Behavioral, and

Economic Sciences Directorate

SCADA

Supervisory control and data

acquisition

SCI

NSF/CISE’s Shared

Cyberinfrastructure Division

SciDAC

DOE/SC’s Scientific Discovery

through Advanced Computing

program

SCS

Simulation and Computer Science,

part of DOE/NNSA’s ASC program

SDCTD

NIST/ITL’s Software Diagnostics and

Conformance Testing Division

SDSC

NSF-supported San Diego

Supercomputing Center

SDP

Software Design and Productivity,

one of NITRD’s seven Program

Component Areas

SEC

DARPA’s Software-Enabled Control

program

SEI

NASA’s Software Engineering

Initiative

SEW

Social, Economic, and Workforce

Implications of IT and IT Workforce

Development, one of NITRD’s seven

Program Component Areas

SGI

Silicon Graphics, Inc.

SI

System Integrator, type of award

made under NSF Middleware

Initiative

SIMA

NIST/MEL’s Systems Integration for

Manufacturing Applications program

SIP

Session-initiated protocol
S UPPLEMENT TO THE P RESIDENT ’ S FY 2005 B UDGET

102

SIP

DoD/HPCMPO’s Computational

Signal/Image Processing CTA

SMP

Symmetric multiprocessing

SMT/CMP

Simultaneous multithreading/chip

multiprocessing, a kind of highthroughput processor

SoD

NSF/CISE’s Science of Design

program

SODA

Service-oriented data access

SONET

Synchronous optical network

SP

IBM line of scalable power parallel

systems

SPC

DoD’s Software Protection Center

SRM

NIST’s standard reference model

SRS

Self-regenerative systems

SSI

Single system image, an operating

system architecture

SSP

DOE/NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship

Program

StarLight

NSF-supported international optical

network peering point in Chicago

STEM

Science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics

STI

NSF’s Strategic Technologies for the

Internet program

STM1

Synchronous transport mode 1 (155

Mbps)

STT

Speech-to-text

SUNMOS

Sandia University of New Mexico

Operating System

SuperMUSE

EPA’s Supercomputer for Model

Uncertainty and Sensitivity

Evaluation; 400-node Intel-based

supercomputing cluster

SuperNet

DARPA’s advanced research network

SV2

A Cray scalar-vector supercomputer

T

T&E

Test and evaluation 

TACC

Texas Advanced Computing Center

TAF-J

NASA’s Tool Agent Framework-Java

Tbyte, or TB

Terabyte, a trillion bytes

TDT

NIST’s Topic Detection and Traction

program

TCO

Total cost of ownership

TCP

Transmission control protocol

TCS

NSF-supported University of

Pittsburgh terascale computing system

TES

Transportable Earth Station, NREN

mobile ground control center for

distributed and grid-based scientific

experiments

Tflop, or TF

Teraflop, a trillion floating point

operations

TIDES

DARPA/NIST’s Translingual

Information Detection, Extraction

and Summarization program

TIP

NLM’s Toxicology Information

Program

TNT

NIST’s Template Numerical Toolkit

TOPS

DOE/SC’s Terascale Optimal PDE

Solvers ISIC

TREC

The DARPA/NIST Text Retrieval

Conference

TRIPS

DARPA PCA program’s Tera-op

Reliable Intelligently Adaptive

Processing System-x

TRL

NASA’s Technology Readiness Level

scale

TSTT

DOE/SC’s Terascale Simulation

Tools and Technologies ISIC
N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

103

U

UA 

NIST’s Uncertainty Analysis

framework

UA

Universal access

UAV

Unmanned air vehicle

UCAID

University Consortium for Advanced

Internet Development

UCAR

University Corporation for

Atmospheric Research

UltraScience Net

DOE/SC’s experimental research

network

UnitsML

NIST/DOE/SC’s XML schema for

encoding units of measurement

UPC

Unified parallel C, a programming

language

US VISIT

DHS’s United States Visitor and

Immigrant Status Indicator

Technology

UWB

Ultrawide band

V

V&V

Verification and validation

VACE

ARDA’s Video Analysis and Content

Extraction program

vBNS+

NSF’s very high-performance

Backbone Network Services plus

VIEWS

DOE/NNSA’s Visual Interactive

Environment for Weapons Simulation

VPN

Virtual private network

VRML

Virtual Reality Modeling Language

W

W3C

World Wide Web Consortium

WAN

Wide-area network

WAN-in-Lab

NSF’s wide-area-network laboratory

project, part of the EIN program

Web3D

Communicating with real-time 3D

across applications, networks, and

XML Web services

WPAN

Wireless personal area network

WRF

NOAA’s Weather Research and

Forecast program

X

X1

Cray, Inc. scalable, hybrid scalarvector high-end computing system

developed with support from NSA

and ODDR&E

X1e

NSA-supported next generation of

Cray X1 known as Black Widow;

under development now, is expected

to be available in 2006

X3D

An extensible open file format

standard for 3D visual effects,

behavioral modeling, and interaction

XML

Extensible markup language that is

more generalized than HTML and can

be used for tagging data streams more

precisely and extensively

N ETWORKING AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT

105

National Coordination Office (NCO)

for Information Technology Research and Development (IT R&D)

David B. Nelson

Director

nelson@nitrd.gov

Sally E. Howe, Ph.D.

Associate Director

FY 2005 Blue Book Executive Editor

howe@nitrd.gov

Martha K. Matzke

FY 2005 Blue Book Editor

Suite II-405

4201 Wilson Boulevard

Arlington, VA 22230

(703) 292-4873

FAX: (703) 292-9097

nco@nitrd.gov

Internet Web Site

http://www.nitrd.gov/

Michael J. Ackerman, NIH

Frank D. Anger, NSF (deceased)

William F. Bainbridge, NSF

Nekeia Bell, NCO

Walter F. Brooks, NASA

Stephen Clapham, NCO

George R. Cotter, NSA

Candace S. Culhane, NSA

Steven Fine, NOAA (formerly EPA)

J. Michael Fitzmaurice, ARHQ

Peter A. Freeman, NSF

Robert Graybill, DARPA

Pamela Green, NSF

Helen Gill, NSF

Cray J. Henry, HPCMPO

Daniel A. Hitchcock, DOE/SC

Thuc T. Hoang, DOE/NNSA

C. Suzanne Iacono, NSF

Frederick C. Johnson, DOE/SC

Betty J. Kirk (formerly NCO)

Frankie King, NCO

Gary M. Koob (formerly DARPA)

Norman H. Kreisman, DOE

Ernest R. Lucier, FAA

Stephen R. Mahaney, NSF

William Bradley Martin, NSA

Michael Marron, NIH

José Muñoz, NSF

William Bradley Martin, NSA

Piyush Mehrotra, NASA

Grant Miller, NCO

Virginia Moore, NCO

José L. Muñoz, NSF

Hal Pierson, FAA

Steven R. Ray, NIST

Larry H. Reeker, NIST

James Rupp, NSA

Jean C. Scholtz, NIST

William J. Semancik, NSA

Karen Skeete, NCO

Karen Skinner, NIH

Mary Anne Scott, DOE/SC

George O. Strawn, NSF

Alan Tellington, NCO

Diane R. Theiss, NCO

Susan B. Turnbull, GSA

William T. Turnbull, NOAA

Andre M. von Tilborg, ODDR&E

Gary Walter, EPA

Contributors

Acknowledgments

The Supplement to the President’s FY 2005 Budget reflects work and contributions by a

great many individuals – in Federal agencies, national laboratories, universities, and the IT

industry. The editors thank all the NITRD participants who helped compile and report the FY

2004 activities and FY 2005 plans that make up this detailed guide to the NITRD Program,

including the work of the NITRD IWG and Coordinating Groups, the rich assortment of

multiagency collaborations across NITRD’s seven Program Component Areas, and the

summaries of current agency activities by PCA.

Special thanks to Diane Theiss for contributing organizational skills, attention to detail, and

technical support that substantially eased the editorial production process, to Alan Tellington

for IT expertise and problem solving, and to Frankie King for preparation of much of the

programmatic information contained in this report.
Abstract

The Federal agencies that participate in the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development

(NITRD) Program coordinate their IT R&D activities both to support critical agency missions and to maintain U.S.

leadership in high-end computing, advanced networking, high-quality and high-confidence software, information

management, and related information technologies. NITRD also supports R&D on the socieconomic implications

of IT and on development of a highly skilled IT workforce. The NITRD Program’s collaborative approach enables

agencies to leverage strengths, avoid duplication, and increase the interoperability of research accomplishments to

maximize the utility of Federal R&D investments. 

The Supplement to the President's FY 2005 Budget summarizes FY 2004 NITRD accomplishments and FY 2005

plans, as required by the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991. The document serves as a directory of today’s

NITRD Program, providing detailed descriptions of its coordination structures and activities as well as extended

summaries of agencies’ current R&D programs in each of the seven NITRD Program Component Areas. The 

FY 2005 supplement highlights in particular the myriad formal and informal multiagency collaborative activities

that make the NITRD Program a uniquely successful effort of its kind within the Federal government. 

The NITRD Program is a top-priority R&D focus of the President’s FY 2005 Budget.

Cover Design and Imagery

The cover’s graphic design is the work of James J. Caras of NSF’s Design and Publishing Division.

Front-cover images, clockwise from top left: 1)Visualization of brain fiber tracts and fractional anisotropy

isosurface in a DT-MRI scan; developed by computational scientists with the NIH/BISTI Program of Excellence for

Computational Bioimaging and Visualization at the University of Utah's Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute.

Credit: Gordon Kindlmann, Dr. David Weinstein. http://www.sci.utah.edu/stories/2004/sum_tensorfields.html 

2) In a project that has won awards internationally, Tufts University mathematician Bruce Boghosian and University

of London chemist Peter Coveney used the NSF-supported TeraGrid – including 17 terabytes of computational,

storage, and visualization resources at ANL, NCSA, PSC, and SDSC – and linked sites in the U.K. to simulate the

behaviors of amphiphilic fluids, or surfactants. The work produced the discovery of a fleeting fluid state that is

structurally a gyroid (pictured), a shape associated with solids. http://www.psc.edu/science/physics.html 

3) New high-speed chipset designed by engineers at NOAA, NASA, and DoD and produced by Northrup

Grumman and others as a first of its kind, hardened for the extreme conditions of space applications; the set is able

to transmit data at 100 Mbps between satellite sensors and ground stations; it will be applied in the joint NOAADoD National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) to become operational in 2009.

Back-cover images, clockwise from top: 1) Step from a simulation of a proton beamline interacting with

surrounding electrons. The accelerator modeling project in DOE/SC's SciDAC initiative develops such simulations

to better understand beamline behavior and to optimize performance. The representation for particles in these

simulations is a 6D dataset composed of 3 spatial and 3 phase dimensions. Image shows trajectories of electrons

selected interactively with a box widget in the projection of the last simulation step along the z direction. The

proton beam is rendered as volume density data. The trajectories are rendered as splines colored by the magnitude

of the velocities. Credit: Andreas Adelmann, LBNL 2) Test simulation image of the interaction of strong shocks with

material surfaces in fluid phases, a key focus of the Virtual shock physics Test Facility (VTF) at the CalTech Center

for the Simulation of Dynamic Response in Materials supported by DOE/NNSA's ASC program. The center's goals

are to: facilitate simulation of a variety of phenomena in which strong shock and detonation waves impinge on

targets consisting of various combinations of materials, compute the subsequent dynamic response of the target

materials, and validate these computations against experimental data. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/ASAP/

3) On June 30, 2004, after seven years and a billion miles, NASA's Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reached Saturn and

began sending close-up image data. This view of the planet's rings from the inside out shows primarily the outer

turquoise A ring, with an icy composition. The reddish bands are inner rings composed of smaller, “dirtier”

particles than the A ring; the single red band in the A ring is known as the Encke gap. The image was taken with the

Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument, which is capable of resolving the rings to show features up to 97

kilometers (60 miles) across, roughly 100 times the resolution of ultraviolet data obtained by the Voyager 2

spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Colorado