Science Foundation rewards IT research

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By Patrick Thibodeau

(IDG) -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $156 million for IT research projects, some of which may ultimately affect business IT.

One such project, which received $5.5 million in NSF funds, is intended to close the gap between theoretical algorithm research and the use of algorithms in applications, a process that can now take 10 to 30 years, said Guy Blelloch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Businesses use algorithms extensively in optimization, such as developing efficient scheduling of flights and trucking routes. "The smarter the algorithm, the better you can get the schedules," said Blelloch.

But there is now a disconnect between algorithm researchers and application developers, said Blelloch, who's heading the project. "It's really a communications gap," he said, noting that a large part of the grant is aimed at bringing researchers and application developers together through such things as workshops.

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Researchers will also use the money to study ways of improving algorithm performance by making it possible for algorithms developed for different purposes to share ideas.

The NSF, a federal agency that funds basic scientific research, last year awarded $90 million in IT research. The Bush administration has made technological research a priority.

"Our objective is to support the development of software and IT services that will help scientists and engineers make the kinds of discoveries that will eventually be applied by industry," said Rita Colwell, NSF director, in a statement.

One of the larger awards, approximately $7.5 million, is to fund an ongoing project at the University of California, Berkeley, designed to create a broad-based computer network that would, among other things, use sensors to optimize traffic flow, as well as provide real-time information on the conditions of roads, bridges and buildings after an earthquake.

Another Carnegie Mellon project, which received a $1 million NSF grant over two years, aims to develop new ways to verify the reliability of embedded and autonomous systems. An embedded system may be the controller of some gadget in an automobile. An autonomous system operates without any direct control, such as a guidance system on a space probe.

"Obviously, the reliability of such systems is extremely important," said Edmund Clarke, a professor of computer science and lead investigator at Carnegie Mellon. The goal of the research is to verify the reliability of software and hardware used in such systems as they are designed, he said.

"The only way that is currently known for doing this is by simulation. You guess what the inputs to the system would be and see how it would behave under that particular set of inputs," he said.

Clarke and his student collaborators have developed a more thorough approach that uses algorithms to "exhaustively" examine systems in search of potential problems, she said. Researchers, for example, are now working with some automobile makers to test embedded systems that will be used to replace hydraulic systems.

Clarke said that having the grant will let him not only do more research, but will also support graduate students who can apply that research and develop it further.

Awards funding research on computer security, human/computer interfaces, information management and other subjects were also granted by the foundation.