Computing and the National Science Foundation, 1950-2016. William Aspray

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      Preface

The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate and its predecessors at the National Science Foundation (NSF) have played a seminal but untold role in the growth of computing¹ from the 1950s to today. Since the mid-1990s, CISE has provided a large majority of all funding for basic research in computer science and closely related disciplines in the United States, as well as substantial support for other fields that study computing or push the state-of-the-art of advanced computation. The results have formed the foundations on which modern computing is built.

Two of the authors of this book, Peter Freeman and Rick Adrion, were aware of much of this history and knew also that, to date, no comprehensive record of the influential role played by CISE and its predecessors existed. As a result, in late 2016, we undertook to remedy this situation by producing a documented history of NSF’s role in modern computing. Recognizing that we had no formal training as historians, we enlisted William Aspray, an historian who had published extensively on computing-related subjects including at NSF,² and with whom we had worked in other contexts, to join us on the project; his experience has been essential. This book, and a related publicly available collection of research materials³ deposited at the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) of the University of Minnesota, are the principal results of our efforts.

Our project had four objectives. The first was to bring together as much information as possible that pertains to the history of computing⁴ at NSF. We have collected approximately 4,000 paper and electronic records, which were donated to the CBI.⁵ We spent considerable time talking with longtime members of the CISE staff to locate materials and develop context for later project activities. We also collected materials and consulted various archival collections.⁶

We have augmented this written material with approximately 50 oral histories,⁷ which have been transcribed and lightly edited. (Most of these will be available through the CBI as well.) They include interviews with several NSF directors and eight of the nine living Assistant Directors (ADs) of CISE.⁸ Additional oral histories were conducted with staff within CISE (program officers, division directors, or chief scientists) as well as with other members of the Washington computer science community; for example, former members of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). A list appears in the back of this book.

      A second objective of this project was to rigorously document major events in the history of NSF support for computing research and education. Throughout the text, we have provided citations to numerous primary sources, including NSF internal memoranda and internal plans that are no longer sensitive, published documents, and other government publications. In those cases where materials we cite in this book would be difficult for readers to obtain, we have placed them with the CBI.

A third objective was to write a set of narratives describing the history in a readable and accessible way. This has been greatly facilitated by the fact that both Adrion and Freeman served as employees or rotators⁹ at NSF on several occasions for a combined total of 18 years, and were not only active researchers and educators (professors) but also engaged members of the professional community for almost 50 years each. Additionally, Aspray had led a team in the early 1990s that produced a large body of unpublished research on pre-CISE activities based on internal NSF documents. When he became part of this project, we gained particular advantage for satisfying this objective as he accessed those writings and drew from his 40-plus years of experience as an historian of computing.

      Our fourth objective was to analyze what we have learned. Conclusions are indeed drawn in Chapter 13 as well throughout the rest of the text. However, generally speaking, we have not evaluated CISE programs or the individual projects that CISE supported; where we have offered judgmental opinions, these are solely the opinions of the chapter’s author(s). Further analysis must await future authors. We mention other major government funders including DARPA, NASA, DoE, and the military research agencies; science policy in both the legislative and executive branches of the federal government and in the National Academies; and computing professional organizations including ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, SIAM, AFIPS, and the Computing Research Association. While we occasionally discuss the relations of these organizations to NSF, we have not identified and analyzed the many connections among the various players in this milieu and NSF. Nor have we tried to evaluate their relative contributions and merits.

Our primary focus has been on CISE (created in 1986) and its predecessor organizations, such as the Office of Computing Activities (OCA, created in 1967) and the Office of Science Information Services (OSIS). However, computing activities within NSF often extended beyond the boundaries of OCA and OSIS.¹⁰ We mention these, but typically do not follow them in the same detail that we give to CISE and its predecessors.

      Readers will find that there is some variation in the nature of the three main parts of this book, and even variation in style among its individual chapters. We wrote some chapters as participant accounts, but wrote others more objectively as historians who did not directly participate in the events described. In parts of Chapters 3, 4, and 9, for example, Peter Freeman writes from the perspective of a direct participant; in Chapter 12, he reflects on his time as the AD/CISE. In Chapters 1 and 2, Rick Adrion draws upon his early role as a program director and on his later key management experience at NSF to tell the story of critical events before and after CISE was created. In Chapter 13, Freeman and Adrion reflect on the history of NSF and computing to identify some themes that may help in future understanding. William Aspray, who has never been employed by NSF, has worked as both an historian and as the executive director of the Computing Research Association (CRA—one of the major non-profit players in Washington on computing research policy). The chapters he wrote on CISE’s role in the development of modern computing are informed by this perspective.

      While there has been coordination among the authors to ensure thorough coverage of the history of computing at NSF in the period from 1950 to 2016, this book is best read as a collection of linked essays rather than as a tightly written monograph. The three authors each have their individual voices, and no effort has been made to harmonize them completely. While we have all read and СКАЧАТЬ