NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the panel responsible for this report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
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The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
This work was performed under Department of Navy Contract N00014-93-C-0089 issued by the Office of Naval Research under contract authority NR 201-124. However, the content does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Department of the Navy or the government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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PANEL ON COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Ruth M. Davis,
Pymatuning Group, Inc.,
Chair
Walter R. Beam,
Alexandria, Virginia
George Cybenko,
Dartmouth College
Steven K. Feiner,
Columbia University
W. Michael McCracken,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Brian P. McCune,
McCune & Associates
Raj Reddy,
Carnegie Mellon University
Victor Vyssotsky,
Digital Equipment Corporation
Navy Liaison Representatives
Paul G. Blatch,
Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (N911T1)
Ronald N. Kostoff,
Office of Naval Research
Consultant
Sidney G. Reed, Jr.
NAVAL STUDIES BOARD
David R. Heebner,
Science Applications International Corporation (retired),
Chair
George M. Whitesides,
Harvard University,
Vice Chair
Albert J. Baciocco, Jr.,
The Baciocco Group, Inc.
Alan Berman,
Center for Naval Analyses
Norman E. Betaque,
Logistics Management Institute
Norval L. Broome,
Mitre Corporation
Gerald A. Cann,
Raytheon Company
Seymour J. Deitchman,
Institute for Defense Analyses (retired)
Anthony J. DeMaria,
DeMaria ElectroOptics Systems, Inc.
John F. Egan,
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Robert Hummel,
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
David W. McCall,
AT&T Bell Laboratories (retired)
Robert J. Murray,
Center for Naval Analyses
Robert B. Oakley,
National Defense University
William J. Phillips,
Northstar Associates
Mara G. Prentiss,
Jefferson Laboratory, Harvard University
Herbert Rabin,
University of Maryland
Julie JCH Ryan,
Booz, Allen and Hamilton
Harrison Shull,
Naval Postgraduate School (retired)
Keith A. Smith,
U.S. Marine Corps (retired)
Robert C. Spindel,
Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington
David L. Stanford,
Science Applications International Corporation
H. Gregory Tornatore,
Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
J. Pace VanDevender,
Prosperity Institute
Vincent Vitto,
Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bruce Wald,
Arlington Education Consultants
Navy Liaison Representatives
Paul G. Blatch,
Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (N911T1)
Ronald N. Kostoff,
Office of Naval Research
Staff
Ronald D. Taylor, Director
Peter W. Rooney, Program Officer
Susan G. Campbell, Administrative Assistant
Mary (Dixie) Gordon, Information Officer
Christopher A. Hanna, Project Assistant
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
Robert J. Hermann,
United Technologies Corporation,
Co-Chair
W. Carl Lineberger,
University of Colorado,
Co-Chair
Peter M. Banks,
Environmental Research Institute of Michigan
Lawrence D. Brown,
University of Pennsylvania
Ronald G. Douglas,
Texas A&M University
John E. Estes,
University of California at Santa Barbara
L. Louis Hegedus,
Elf Atochem North America, Inc.
John E. Hopcroft,
Cornell University
Rhonda J. Hughes,
Bryn Mawr College
Shirley A. Jackson,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Kenneth H. Keller,
University of Minnesota
Kenneth I. Kellermann,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Margaret G. Kivelson,
University of California at Los Angeles
Daniel Kleppner,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
John Kreick,
Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company
Marsha I. Lester,
University of Pennsylvania
Thomas A. Prince,
California Institute of Technology
Nicholas P. Samios,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
L.E. Scriven,
University of Minnesota
Shmuel Winograd,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Charles A. Zraket,
Mitre Corporation (retired)
Norman Metzger, Executive Director
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Preface
The Panel on Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence was established in early 1992 by the Naval Studies Board (NSB) of the National Research Council in response to a request from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The NRL called on the NSB to establish a panel of experts in the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence to interact informally with the laboratory's research staff regarding plans, facilities, capabilities, prospects, and problems faced by the represented communities (government, academia, and industry) and to address the tasks contained in the formal terms of reference. Those tasks delineated the following priority topics:
- Software production. Provide a critical examination of the scientific issues that could be pursued (as opposed to commercial developments that are likely to evolve without fundamental R&D activities).
- Adaptive software (machine learning). What opportunities are envisioned in this area?
- Interface technology. What are the scientific issues that are to be examined over the next decade and which hold the potential for providing an improved base for sound developments in this field? What centers of activity worldwide are currently active leaders in such activities?
- Speech synthesis/recognition. What fundamental pursuits are likely to lead to further principles in this field (as opposed to commercial developments, which will indeed provide more sophisticated systems under many conditions)?
- Neural networks. Which scientific pursuits are required to place the behavior of these systems on a firm basis? Where are the leadership roles associated with this set of issues?
- Facilities. What facilities are the highest priority to emphasize in furthering the unique strengths that a government laboratory brings to this field? Which facilities are most appropriate at a university?
In addition, communications between Timothy Coffey, Director of Research at the Naval Research Laboratory, and the panel's chair, Ruth M. Davis, provided further clarification concerning the terms of reference and the objectives of the panel: The panel was to provide an outside perspective on key scientific and technical topics and to highlight technical opportunities for NRL. In particular, the panel was asked for such perspectives in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and human-computer interface (HCI). The panel was also requested to assess industrial interest in recommended opportunity areas.
The panel was not asked to conduct a critical review of NRL's current research program in computer science and AI/HCI and did not do so.
The panel performed its task in the course of four meetings: March 26-27, 1992, at which discussions were held with Timothy Coffey and presentations were made by NRL's Information Technology Division and Human-Computer Interface Laboratory; June 24-25 and September 28-29, 1992, at which presentations were made by government and academic experts on computer science and AI research programs; and October 21-22, 1992, which included further discussions with Timothy Coffey.
NRL has a considerable investment in computer science and is a node of the U.S. High Performance Computing Consortium. Its AI research laboratory was established some 20 years ago and is the only government laboratory of its kind.
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