US gov't official: Changes needed in IT research

09.03.2007
Jeannette Wing is focused on the future -- and later this year she will be the person responsible for shaping it as the new head of the computer and information science and engineering directorate at the National Science Foundation.

But Wing, who heads the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University, sees big trouble for the U.S., private industry and users unless fundamental changes are made in the way research is done.

When Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates this week before a U.S. Senate committee with recommendations on improving U.S. competitiveness, he called for increases in basic research funding. It was a rare moment for basic science, which can elicit the same glazed-eye reaction from the media and lawmakers that one sees in an end-of-the-day high school science class.

Wing's concerns come at a time when basic scientific research has an image problem. It isn't seen as sexy, like a new Web 2.0 mashup or some speedy processor. Instead, Wing said, it may mean something as esoteric as development of an algorithm that has no immediate use because it's ahead of the technology that can utilize it.

Wing is about the subject and says people like Gates need to talk it up and urge Congress to increase research funding. "We cannot say it enough; we can't say it loud enough," she said.

The National Science Foundation funds 87 percent of all federally funded research in computer science out of a budget that is now about US$530 million. That budget, beginning July 1, will be managed under Wing's leadership. The NSF pays for research that private industry doesn't -- namely basic, long-range research without any immediate payback.