Eight researchers share $5m in IT research grants

by Elizabeth Luciano, News Office staff

ight campus researchers working on four separate projects are among the recipients of the National Science Foundation's first grants under the new $90 million Information Technology Research (ITR) initiative. Two computer scientists and two engineers directing the projects will receive a total of roughly $5 million over the next several years. The awards, which will spur fundamental research and innovative applications of IT, are a step toward building on U.S. leadership in this area of growing importance to the economy, according to the NSF.

     "We are delighted to receive funding for not one, but four major projects as part of this new and forward-thinking NSF program," said Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Cora Marrett. "The awarding of this funding attests to the quality of UMass research as the Internet grows, and becomes a more significant tool in the lives of everyday people."

     The awards:

Eliot Moss, Computer Science, has won a five-year, $3,156,901 grant aimed at improving the performance of Java programs. Team members are Charles Weems and Kathryn McKinley, also of Computer Science.

Donald Towsley, Computer Science, has received a five-year, $1,882,115 grant focused on determining architecture for the next-generation Internet. The project involves finding ways to deliver high-quality Internet service as multimedia applications become more popular. Team members are Lixin Gao of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and James Kurose, Computer Science.

Russell Tessier, Electrical and Computer Engineering, received a two-year, $179,000 grant aimed at locating and isolating hardware faults and quickly correcting them within networked systems.

Ian Harris, Electrical and Computer Engineering, received a three-year, $167,000 grant focusing on ways of improving the testing of Very Large-Scale Integrated computer chips.

     "These projects represent major innovations in information technology, rather than routine applications of existing technology," said NSF director Rita Colwell. "Our strategy to support long-term, high-risk research responds to a challenge from the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), which called for increased federal investment to maintain the U.S. lead in this important sector of the global economy."

     Selected from more than 1,400 proposals, the newly funded activities will promote IT-driven science and engineering. Included are 62 large projects that will average $1 million per year for three to five years, involving 41 institutions in 22 states. Another 148 smaller projects will each total $500,000 or less for up to three years, involving 81 institutions in 32 states.

     ITR emphasizes the subject areas of software; scalable information infrastructure; information management; revolutionary computing; human-computer interfaces; advanced computational science; education and workforce; and social or economic implications of IT. The program's main goals are to augment the nation's IT knowledge base and strengthen the IT workforce.

     The NSF has also just kicked off its second ITR competition. The foundation's ITR budget request for fiscal 2001 is $190 million of additional funding, although the actual appropriation is yet to be determined by Congress.