Part II

Case Studies in Computing Research

Part II, Chapters 6 through 10, presents five case studies in computing research. These case studies are not meant to be definitive histories of the fields they address; rather, they are intended to illustrate the role the federal government has played in the innovation process by investing in computing research. They contain historical material that is important not only in indicating the government's role per se, but also in characterizing the larger innovation process, including the movement of researchers between universities and industry, the transfer of research results into practice, and the interrelationships among people and research in government, universities, and industry.

Taken together, the cases cover a range of technologies, time periods, and federal investments; individually, they differ considerably in their scope and emphasis. The case studies of relational databases and the Internet, for example, are relatively narrow in the sense that they trace the development of a particular technology or system. The innovations described have a fairly well defined beginning and end, although clearly the systems described in each will continue to evolve over time. The case study of theoretical computer science highlights the development of theory as well as its relationships to computer engineering and the construction of computer systems. It traces the refinement and dissemination of ideas throughout the research community and into educational curricula. The final two case studies, artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), address relatively broad areas of research that are motivated by a long-term vision: development of systems that display intelligent behavior in the AI case, and development of systems that generate synthetic environments meant to resemble the real world in the VR case. Progress in both these fields is marked by a series of research breakthroughs or technological advances that move ever closer to these objectives.

Each case study concludes with a summary of themes or lessons regarding the innovation process and the government's essential role within it. Because they derive from the individual case studies, these lessons reflect the particular conditions that prevailed at the time described, such as the nascent state of the computing field and dominant styles of federal research management in past decades. The case studies themselves do not attempt to discuss the relevance of these lessons to the current policy environment or to provide guidance regarding future federal support for research in computing. That task is taken up instead in Chapter 5 of this report, which synthesizes the lessons from all the case studies and attempts to consider their more general applicability.

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Copyright 1999 National Academy Press