An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories Fiscal Year 2002 (2002) / Chapter Skim
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8 Information Technology Laboratory
8 Information Technology Laboratory
Pages 261-310
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8 Information Technology Laboratory 261
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1U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory Technical Accomplishments 2001, NISTIR 6815, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., November 2001; U.S.
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Convergent Information Svstems. ~ — 1~ — - - - - ~ ~ — - - - — ~ O ~ Information Services and Computing, Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing, and Statistical Engineering.
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. 1 Mathematical and Advanced Computer Information Computational Networking Security Division Access Division Sciences Division Technologies · Security · Speech · Mathematical Division Technology · Retrieval Modeling · High Speed · Security · Image · Mathematical Network Management and · Visualization and Software Technologies Guidance Usability · Optimization and · Wireless · Systems and Computational Communication Network Security Geometry Technologies · Security Testing · Scientific · Internetworking and Metrics Applications and Technologies Visualization Convergen Information Software Statistical Information Services and Diagnostics and Engineering Systems Division Computing Conformance Division · Distributed Division Testing Division · Measurement Systems · Enterprise · Software Quality Process Technologies Systems · Interoperability Evaluation · Information Administration · Standards and · Statistical Storage and · Web and Internet Conformance Modeling and Integrated Technology Testing Analysis Systems Services · Boulder Statistics · Administrative Computing Support · PC Support · High Performance Systems · Network and Telecommunica tions Systems FIGURE 8.1 Organizational structure of the Information Technology Laboratory.
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An example is the Computer Security Division's Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) , which has enabled purchasers, 3National Research Council, An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2001, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2001.
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In the Information Access Division, the new Common Industry Format (CIF) standard provides a foundation for exchanging information on the relative usability of products and is already being used for procurement decisions by several large enterprises.
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The panel commends the focus in both the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division and the Statistical Engineering Division on building robust collaborations with scientists and engineers throughout ITL and the other NIST laboratories. One example is the work of the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division on the mathematical modeling of solidification with staff from the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory; another is the Statistical Engineering Division's development of a method to combine data from diverse building materials studies for the Building and Fire Research Laboratory.
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Laboratory Resources Funding sources for the Information Technology Laboratory are shown in Table 8.1. As of January 2002, staffing for the laboratory included 389 full-time permanent positions, of which 319 were for technical professionals.
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. quality of the space in NIST North is significantly better than what would be available on campus; however, access to these improved facilities sloes not compensate for the distance from the rest of the campus for two of the ITL divisions the Mathematical and Computational Sciences and the Statistical Engineering Divisions.
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Examples of positive responses to suggestions made in last year's report include the improved strategic planning observed in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division, the redirection of the work on distributed detection in sensor networks in the Advanced Networking Technologies Division, the transfer of the latent fingerprint workstation to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) contractor in the Information Access Division, and the work on connecting NIST to Internet 2 in the Information Services and Computing Division.
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The panel applauds the laboratory's efforts in outreach and notes that the progress reflects improvement in a whole range of areas, from gathering wider and more useful input to help with project selection to increased dissemination and planning for how customers will utilize NIST results and products. · The strong customer relationships now need to be balanced by robust visibility and recognition in ITL' s external peer communities.
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The Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division is organized in four groups: Mathematical Modeling, Mathematical Software, Optimization and Computational Geometry, and Scientific Applications and Visualization have common themes, such as better mathematical models, better solvers, application of parallelism, and the development of reference implementations and data sets. The projects are mostly collaborative, with collaborators chosen from other NIST laboratories and from external organizations.
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This "hot" area is attracting a great deal of attention from the research community, and the panel believes that NIST is well positioned to have an impact here, owing to NIST's Nobel Prize-winning physicists, who have expertise relevant to quantum computing, and to the strength of the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division both in continuous modeling and simulation and in discrete algorithms. The work on mathematical modeling of solidification is an excellent example of how the applied mathematicians in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division can effectively leverage their expertise to produce significant impact from their consulting and collaborative roles.
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In the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division, some research projects will probably achieve a higher profile because of their relevance for homeland security. Examples include the projects on image processing and on laser radar (LADAR)
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As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 39 full-time permanent positions, of which 36 were for technical professionals. There were also 15 nonpermanent or supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.
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As has been noted in many past reports, the housing of most of the division at NIST North makes informal interaction between division staff and personnel on the main campus difficult. This is a significant disadvantage for the division, as collaborative efforts with other NIST laboratories are a primary focus.
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The Advanced Networking Technologies Division consists of three groups: High Speed Network Technologies, Wireless Communication Technologies, and Internetworking Technologies. Currently, the division's work is organized in six projects: Networking for Pervasive Computing, Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Agile Switching, Internet Telephony, Internet Infrastructure Protection, and Quantum Information Networks.
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In early 2001, the Advanced Networking Technologies Division completed its valuable work on developing reference implementations for Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)
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The panel also urges the division to be alert to potential new issues in high-performance IPsec extensions that are expected to arise in the next year or two. As part of the NIST-wide initiative in quantum computing, the Advanced Networking Technologies Division is working with the Computer Security Division on protocols and prototypes for quantum cryptography.
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There were also 10 nonpermanent or supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers. The primary issue for the Advanced Networking Technologies Division is its limited number of full-time permanent staff.
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Computer Security Division Technical Merit The mission of the Computer Security Division is to improve information systems security by: · Raising awareness of information technology risks, vulnerabilities, and protection requirements, particularly for new and emerging technologies; · Researching, studying, and advising agencies of IT vulnerabilities and devising techniques for the cost-effective security and privacy of sensitive federal systems; · Developing standards, metrics, tests, and validation programs to promote, measure, and validate security in systems and services, to educate consumers, and to establish minimum security requirements for federal systems; and · Developing guidance to increase secure IT planning, implementation, management, and operation. The division's programs directly support this mission and are consistent with the mission of the Information Technology Laboratory and of NIST.
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Specific NIST efforts include the development of automated test suites and a testbed for the Government Smart Card Program, as well as the development of architectural models and security testing criteria. This work is appropriate because it will enable the development of consistent test methodologies for smart cards and will also reduce their cost and encourage their use in many areas.
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The customers of the two validation processes, and the goals of those processes, differ significantly, and merging them would be detrimental to both. Program Relevance and Effectiveness The Computer Security Division's activities are relevant to a broad audience, including hardware and software makers and users in industry, the federal government, academic and industrial researchers, and the public.
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As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 48 full-time permanent positions, of which 42 were for technical professionals. There were also 17 nonpermanent or supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.
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In the discussion of Computer Security Division resources in the 2001 assessment report, the panel expressed concerns about two programs: CSEAT and the CIP Grants Program. While funding for NIST for both of these programs has been eliminated in FY 2002, before that time the division had been very responsive to the panel's concerns, and the panel commends the division for its efforts.
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Information Access Division Technical Merit The mission of the Information Access Division is to accelerate the development of technologies that allow intuitive, efficient access, manipulation, and exchange of complex information by facilitating the creation of measurement methods and standards. Through collaboration with industry, academia, and government, the division contributes to the advancement of these technologies, enables faster transition into the commercial marketplace, and enables faster transition into applications of division sponsors by coordinating and providing performance metrics, evaluation methodologies, test suites and test data, prototypes and testbeds, workshops, standards, and guidelines.
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This program is not specifically aimed at homeland security applications, but these sorts of techniques could certainly increase analysts' ability to find useful information quickly. The division's role, developing testbeds and evaluating the performance of systems on these more complex tasks, is critical to the overall success of the program.
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Staff from several Information Access Division groups contribute to tne ~ ~ -wale errors on pervasive computing. The Pervasive Computing Program began 3 years ago, and NIST has now reached the point at which it can contribute substantially to this nascent field.
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In all of the Information Access Division's groups, work is under way to provide developers and users of information management systems with the tools they need to measure and improve the performance of these systems. In the Speech Group, NIST-administered benchmark tests have clearly contributed to the improvements in the capabilities of commercial automatic speech recognition products over the years.
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The division's recent completion of a room for automatic meeting data collection and perfecting of an API for pervasive computing devices will enable staff to produce important tools for the pervasive computing research community. One output is a collection of multimedia databases of meetings produced by the automatic meeting transcription project.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Information Access Division are shown in Table 8.5. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 40 full-time permanent positions, of which 35 were for technical professionals.
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However, the low turnover among the permanent staff does testify to the high morale and good working environment that clearly exist in this division. Convergent Information Systems Division Technical Merit The mission of the Convergent Information Systems Division is to conduct research and development into integrated systems, architectures, applications, and infrastructure for the exchange, storage, and manifestation of digital content and to explore their scalability, feasibility, and realization for new applications.
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Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Common Biometric Exchange File Format, NISTIR 6529, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2001. Available online at |
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Overall, the panel commends the willingness of the Convergent Information Systems Division to refocus and to conclude programs. The division has been responsive to recommendations made in last year's assessment, as can be seen in the conclusion of some projects (such as time synchronization, DASE, and the Braille Reader)
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Even prior to the emphasis on homeland security, the Convergent Information Systems Division' s biometrics programs were relevant to various government customers, and division results are being utilized already in the Department of Defense's Biometric Management Office and the General Services Administration's Common ID card project. Another division effort with potential homeland security applications is the work on data preservation in the optical disk storage area.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Convergent Information Systems Division are shown in Table 8.6. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 14 full-time permanent positions, of which 12 were for technical professionals.
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NIST-STRS, 2.6 2.2 2.3 2.3 excluding Competence STRS supercomputing 9.9 10.0 0.5 0.0 ATP 0.6 0.8 0.6 0.8 OA/NFG/CRADA 0.4 0.8 0.3 1.0 Other Reimbursable 0.0 0.8 0.0 0.0 Agency Overhead 6.7 7.4 0.0 0.0 Total 20.2 22.0 3.7 4.1 Full-time permanent 75 81 13b 14 staff Total NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 8.1. aThe significant difference between the FY 2000 and FY 2001 funding and staff levels reflects the reorganization of the Information Technology Laboratory, in which the information technology service groups and the Scientific Applications and Visualization Group were moved out of this division to the Information Services and Computing Division and the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division, respectively.
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Facilities were constructed in Gaithersburg and Boulder, and the service was officially launched in February 2002. The scope of the help to be offered is broad; people's questions on PC support, Web services, scientific computing, computer security, networking, telecommunications, administrative applications, and Unix and NT servers will all be directed to the help desk staff.
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Division Resources The panel believes that for the Information Services and Computing Division to move forward with many of its plans for improving the IT environment at NIST, it must proactively engage the NIST research community. While the division is the primary source of IT expertise and support, some of the responsibilities for IT services are dispersed throughout NIST, as is the case in many research universities.
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Funding sources for the Information Services and Computing Division are shown in Table 8.7. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 136 full-time permanent positions, of which 109 were for technical professionals.
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Although few women and minority management candidates were ultimately identified, the initiative set an important precedent, and the panel supports further efforts in this area. Technical Merit Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division The mission of the Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division is to develop software testing tools and methods that improve quality, conformance to standards, and correctness; to participate with industry in the development of forward-looking standards; and to lead efforts for conformance testing, even at the early development stage of standards.
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The Standards and Conformance Testing Group develops conformance tests and reference implementations, performs research into better ways to do conformance testing, and, working with industry, develops standards for emerging technologies. Currently, the primary focus areas of this group are XML and pervasive computing.
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The division develops products such as reference implementations and conformance test suites, provides technical leadership by chairing standards committees and participating in consortia, and lays the groundwork for overall advancements in this field by researching improved methods of conformance testing. NIST's role as an active but neutral third party in standards processes, coupled with the outstanding quality of the conformance tests developed by this division, provides government and industry with a service that is both necessary and unique.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division are shown in Table 8.8. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 37 full-time permanent positions, of which 33 were for technical professionals.
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Statistical Engineering Division Technical Merit The mission of the Statistical Engineering Division is to advance measurement science and technolo~v bv collaborating on NIST multidiscinlinarv research. bv formulating and developing statistical - on - ~ - - -- -- - - - -- -- -- I - -- - ~ -- - -r -- -- -- -I - - - - -- - - -- 7 - ~ - - -- -- -- -- -- -- -= -- -- -- -- - -- - r -- -I - -- -- -- -- - -- ..
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The challenge was that the quality of the data varied greatly from study to study. Statistical Engineering Division researchers developed a Bayesian hierarchical model to combine the data from different studies with and without uncertainty measures by constructing vague priors at the lowest level of the hierarchy.
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Another important contribution of the Statistical Engineering Division is the study of uncertainties associated with process measurements. Data from these types of measurements, such as fluid-flow measurements, information about high-speed optoelectronic signals, and measurement of spray characteristics, occur frequently in the NIST laboratories.
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As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 19 full-time permanent positions, of which 17 were for technical professionals. There were also 12 nonpermanent or supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.
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The panel believes that the staff should aggressively continue these outreach activities, which produced the surge in national and international SRM work. The panel continues to be concerned about the relative isolation of the Statistical Engineering Division in its current location at NIST North.
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