An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories Fiscal Year 1999 (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Chapter 8 Information Technology Laboratory
Chapter 8 Information Technology Laboratory
Pages 187-218
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Chapter 8 Information Technology Laboratory
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From page 188... ...
Kernighan and Richard E Nance, this assessment of the fiscal year 1999 activities of the Information Technology Laboratory is based on a site visit by the panel on February 16-17, 1999, in Gaithersburg, Md., and documents provided by the laboratory.
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From page 189... ...
in particular, the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division has successfully addressed many of the issues related to its role within ITL; this process has been helped significantly by the appointment of a permanent division chief. Progress has been made on defining the range of the collaborative research functions of the Statistical Engineering Division into the ITE, but this task is not yet complete and watt continue to require care and attention on the part of management at all levels of NTST.
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From page 190... ...
Since so many companies and universities are active in the general field of pervasive computing, ITE risks being seduced by intriguing research problems that could divert focus away from more appropriate NIST activities. For example, ITE may not be uniquely qualified to develop yet another protocol in this field, but the laboratory could provide significant value to the community by developing tests that verify or demonstrate deficiencies in existing protocols.
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From page 191... ...
The Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division and the Statistical Engineering Division have a long history of supporting work in other NIST laboratories, and they continue to perform crucial services in areas such as modeling and validation of standards activities. As TTE appropriately seeks to refocus some of the mathematical and statistical work in these divisions onto information technology issues under study in other TTE divisions, it is important not to lose sight of the value of the traditional work as well.
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As of January 1999, staffing for the Information Technology Laboratory included 381 full-time permanent positions, of which 3 14 were for technical professionals. There were also 91 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and parttime workers.
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The NIST director's initiative to institute management training and preparation for staff throughout NIST addresses a concern that is by no means unique to ITL: There are too few people who are ready for and interested in assuming a management role, and as a result, managerial departures can leave a significant vacuum. DIVISIONAL REVIEWS Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division Mission According to division documentation, the mission of the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division is to provide technical leadership within NIST in modern analytical and computational methods for solving scientific problems of interest to U.S.
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One example of the striking benefits of this approach can be seen in the Digital Library of Mathematical Functions project, in which nationally known experts are contributing as associate editors on topics in their area of specialty. The quality of the expertise present and the work done in the division is also evident through the recognition received by division personnel, such as receipt of the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (the second such award for Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division personnel in 3 years)
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Overall, program planning within Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division programs should be strengthened. In general, clear directions are articulated for each project; however, goals and milestones against which progress and performance can be evaluated are not evident.
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As of January 1999, staffing for the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division included 30 full-time permanent positions, of which 27 were for technical professionals. There were also ~ ~ nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.
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Although much progress has been made, the panel emphasizes that communication throughout the management chain should continue to be a high priority. Advanced Network Technologies Division Mission According to division documentation, the mission of the Advanced Network Technologies Division is to provide the networking industry with the best in test and measurement technology.
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This project is an excellent opportunity for the Advanced Network Technologies Division to take advantage of the considerable mathematical and statistical expertise available in other ITE divisions. Also in the area of Internetworking Technologies, the division staff seem to be aware of but not actively involved in industry debates related to IP Multicast.
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Given that having a scalable, robust communications infrastructure is in the national interest, it is critical that there be an unbiased party in a position to facilitate industr-Y-wide standards decisions. One option is for the Advanced Network Technologies Division to follow the model set by the Computer Security Division in its work on the AES.
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1 As of January 1999, staffing for the Advanced Network Technologies Division included 30 full-time permanent positions, of which 25 were for technical professionals. There were also 7 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and parttime workers, as well as 1 8 faculty and guest researchers from other organizations.
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This work wtIl be a major accomplishment that NTST can be proud of for many years to come. Similarly, the completion of the Common Criteria with specific Protection Profiles and the development of Mutual Recognition agreements among participating countries will establish the Computer Security Division as a major contributor to the U.S.
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NIST-STRS, 6.3 5.4 excluding Competence ATE 0.0 0.2 OA/NFG/CRADA 3.7 3.8 Total 10.0 9.4 As of January 1999, staffing for the Computer Security Division included 48 full-time permanent positions, of which 42 were for technical professionals. There were also nine nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and parttime workers.
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This mission is consistent with NIST's overall mission of providing standards, measurements, and infrastructure and assuring the availability of these tools. Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work The Information Access and User Interfaces Division consists of four groups: Spoken Natural Language Processing, Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval, Visualization and Virtual Reality, and Visual Image Processing.
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show promise, but the research needs to be accompanied by a corresponding metrology in order to be useful. The Visual Image Processing Group covers a variety of areas, including document recognition, fingerprints, mug shots, neural networks, and optical processing.
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By providing these important tools to the industrial and academic research communities, the group has played a key role in building and strengthening the emerging commercial industry in automatic speech recognition. In the Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval Group, the TREC process has played a pivotal role in helping to scale up the IR technology and transitioning it to the commercial sector.
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There were also ~ 2 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers. High Performance Systems and Services Division Mission According to division documentation, the mission of the High Performance Systems and Services Division is to enable effective application of high-performance computing and communications systems in support of the U.S.
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Research results are emerging from collaborations between the Scientific Applications Support staff and other NIST scientists, as can be seen in the publication of joint research papers and presentations. The timelines and project plans presented to the pane!
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The work done in migrating NIST users from the Cray to more powerful parallel and distributed computing resources has been very successful and promises to provide long-term improvements in high-performance computing for scientists throughout NTST. Resources Funding sources for the High Performance Systems and Services Division (in millions of dollars)
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may require flexible increments in funding in order to work on the fast time scales required. Distributed Computing and Information Services Division Mission According to division documentation, the mission of the Distributed Computing and information Services Division is to provide the information technology resources, supporting infrastructure, applied research, and assistance to NIST staff, collaborators, and clients for application in the conduct of scientific and engineering studies, the development of administrative applications, and the broad dissemination of information.
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The active involvement of division staff in educating and advising the NIST community on hardware and software upgrades seems highly desirable. Given that NIST has stated its strategic dependence on a well-functioning, state-ofthe-art information technology environment, the Distributed Computing and Information Services Division's role in making this vision a reality is of central importance.
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~ As of January ~ 999, staffing for the Distributed Computing and Information Services Division included 72 full-time permanent positions, of which 65 were for technical professionals. There were also nine nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.
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Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work The Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division has done an excellent job determining which standards merit attention. The division has emphasized newer technologies, and without exception, the programs can be expected to have widespread industry impact.
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Impact of Programs Division projects are currently having a positive impact on industry in a variety of ways. A large number of companies report significant benefits from the division's Computer Graphics Metafile test suite.
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NIST-STRS, 4.6 4.7 excluding Competence Competence 0.5 0.6 ATP 0.4 0.1 OA/NFG/CRADA 2.2 2.0 Other Reimbursable 0.2 0.0 Total 7.9 7.4 As of January ~ 999, staffing for the Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division included 39 full-time permanent positions, of which 34 were for technical professionals. There were also nine nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.
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With personnel from the Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division, Statistical Engineering Division staff are working on Software Testing Protocol Comparisons and Reliability of Conformance Tests. These projects are good examples of research aimed at comparing and evaluating state-of-the-art statistical techniques in the literature, demonstrating their utility in the context of NIST-related applications, and developing new methods as necessary to fill gaps in the literature.
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Division staff conduct workshops aimed at training NIST scientists in basic statistical methods as well as workshops and conferences on more focused research topics. The director of the TTE has suggested that one technique for satisfying the long list of routine requests for statistical services is to have NtST scientists do more of the statistical work themselves, perhaps with the help of automated software packages supplied by the Statistical Engineering Division.
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NIST-STRS, 2.8 2.8 excluding Competence Competence 0.3 0.5 STRS-Supercomputing 0.5 0.0 OA/NFG/CRADA 0.0 0.9 Total 3.6 4.2 As of January 1999, staffing for the Statistical Engineering Division included 23 full-time permanent positions, of which 21 were for technical professionals. There were also eight nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and parttime workers.
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Several divisions in ITE have experienced difficulties in interacting with the Department of Commerce's legal services divisions. The two examples in most desperate need of being resolved soon are the year-Ion" failure to finalize the arrangements with the University of Maryland for a joint institute for information technology and the 2-year delay in approval for NTST to join the World Wide Web Consortium.
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