Chapter 6 provides a detailed analysis of the NSF programs in computer facilities and computer education prior to the founding of CISE in 1986.
Chapter 7 provides case studies of early NSF support for research in circuits, computer architecture, software, numerical analysis, computer engineering theory, artificial intelligence, and computer graphics.
Chapter 8 covers the Information Technology Research Program from its beginning in FY (fiscal year) 2000 through to 2005, when it became part of base CISE research funding.
Chapter 9 provides a case study of NSF’s support of research on concepts and mechanisms of networking, and deployment of operational networks.
Chapter 10 covers High Performance Computing, an activity NSF has supported even as the power of such machines has grown exponentially.
Chapter 11 covers CISE’s programs to broaden participation in computing to women, underrepresented minorities, and the disabled.
Chapter 12 provides a personal view of what a CISE AD does.
Chapter 13 recaps the narratives in Chapters 1 to 5 and provides a set of high-level conclusions about the history of computing and NSF funding.
Readers seeking an overview of NSF activities in computing research and education, as well as related activities, are encouraged first to read Chapters 1–5, and then follow up by reading any deeper studies that are of particular interest. The organizational charts in the appendixes may also be useful in understanding one aspect of the changing relationship between NSF and computing.
Readers with limited time and/or scope of interest may want to read only the chapter(s) in Part II that speak to their interests. A quick scan of the chapters’ beginnings may help to determine whether one of them addresses the reader’s interest.
Table P.2 may be of use in connecting Part I chapters with Part II chapters. It illustrates the major connections between a given chronological chapter and one or more subject study chapters.
Work on this project was supported in part by NSF Grant #1743282, EAGER: Exploring the History and Impact of the Computing and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate of the National Science Foundation, a grant made to the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC). We worked independently of the NSF. Any views expressed in this book are solely due to us or named third-party sources, not the NSF nor the MGHPCC. Any errors of fact are our responsiblity.
Table P.2Relation between Part I chapters and Part II chapters
Work on this project would not have been possible without NSF support and the help of many people. Erwin Gianchandani, currently Deputy AD/CISE, guided us on the usage of NSF materials and other issues. NSF Historian Leo Slater answered questions and Assistant NSF Historian Emily Gibson provided access to some NSF records. Janet Abbate (Virginia Tech), Thomas Haigh (University of WisconsinMilwaukee), and Jeffrey Yost (Charles Babbage Institute) served as our historical advisory committee. We have worked closely with Amanda Wick, the Acting CBI Archivist, on the deposit of project materials at CBI. Several former and current CISE staff have donated material to the project. Over 50 individuals have agreed to sit for oral history interviews. A succession of four people provided diligent support to the project: Jana Vetter, Julia Fan, Jessica Ewen, and Kayla Heslin. In particular, we want to thank Julia and Jessica for their work on the oral histories and Kayla for the work at the end of the project as we compiled this book and readied materials to be sent to the CBI. Finally, we wish to thank our families, who have sometimes missed us and been neglected as we worked on this project. Many thanks to all!
Notes
1.Before the early 1960s there was no computer science, but by the 1970s the term was widely known and departments of computer science rapidly became a dominant academic unit and scientific discipline. We will use “computer science” primarily to refer to the research discipline and “computing” to refer to the broader activity of using computers and studying that usage.
2.William Aspray, Bernard O. Williams, and Andrew Goldstein, “Computing as Servant and Science: Impact of the National Science Foundation” (unpublished, 510 pages, 1992).
3.The CISE History Archive (CHA) is described in Part III of this book.
4.We use the ambiguous term “computing” to denote computer science and closely related disciplines, but not all uses of computing by other fields; however, especially in the early days, the distinction was not yet clear.
5.One motivation for this collection effort was the physical move of NSF headquarters in September 2017 from Arlington to Alexandria, Virginia, and the knowledge that valuable documents might be discarded. Another motivation was that early NSF employees are starting to pass on—and their memories and their documentation with them. Two interviewees passed away during the project and several potential interviewees were incapacitated.
6.These included documents from Gordon Bell, Mel Ciment, Mike Foster, John King, Irene Lombardo, Jack Minker, Rick Adrion, and Peter Freeman. Archival collections consulted included those of Ed Feigenbaum and John McCarthy at the Stanford archives.
7.The oral history record is strong but not complete. Many of the principal people involved with CISE and its predecessors have been interviewed, but a few are deceased, a few we could not reach or they did not agree to be interviewed, and due to oversight or lack of time, no doubt a few were missed. While there were perhaps 10 or 20 oral histories concerning the NSF computing story existing at the time we began this project (mostly at the Charles Babbage Institute Archives, the IEEE History Center, and the Computer History Museum), the new interviews we have added represent a major increase in coverage of this topic.
8.The AD is the head of the directorate; “Assistant” indicates they also have NSF-wide responsibilities, reporting to the NSF Director.
