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Learned Societies in an International Context
A Perspective from the United States
Eric Roberts
Stanford University
co-chair, ACM Education Board
CPHC “Grand Challenges” Conference
Glasgow, Scotland
March 24, 2006
A Stanford-UK Story
Once upon a time, the Financial Times ran a
story comparing Silicon Valley and Silicon Fen:
A Stanford-UK Story
A year later, we got a visit from a delegation of
MPs:
Barry Sheerman: Huddersfield, Labour [Chairman]
Charlotte Atkins: Staffordshire Moorlands, Labour
Valerie Davey: Bristol West, Labour
Michael Foster: Worcester, Labour
Helen Jones: Warrington North, Labour
Gordon Marsden: Blackpool South, Labour
Dr Evan Harris: Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat
Stephen O’Brien: Eddisbury, Conservative
Nick St Aubyn: Guildford, Conservative
What is a Learned Society?
The term learned society conjures up visions of
the Royal Society, which has several potential
analogues across the pond:
 The National Academies
– National Academy of Science
– National Academy of Engineering
– National Institute of Medicine
 American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS)
Our work in computing research and education
is influenced more strongly by professional
societies and professional associations.
Professional Societies in Computing
As all of you who have been involved in IFIP
know, the U.S. has two computing societies:
The Association of Computing Machinery
The IEEE Computer Society
The two societies operate independently, but
collaborate in several important areas, such as
the development of computing curricula.
CC200x Series
Computing Curricula 2001
Computer Science
Computing Curricula 2002
Information Systems
Software Engineering
As so cia tio n for Com pu tin g Machin ery
As so cia tio n for Inform ation Syste m s
Th e Join t Tas k Force on
Software En gine erin g Ed ucation
Project
(SWE EP)
Th e Join t Tas k Force
on Co m putin g Curricula
As so cia tio n for Com pu tin g Machin ery
IEEE Com pu ter So cie ty
Computing Curricula 2005
Computing Curricula 2005
Computing Curricula 2006
Computing Curricula 2006
Computer Engineering
Information Technology
The Overview Volume
Th e Join t Tas k Force
on Co m putin g Curricula
Th e Join t Tas k Force
on Co m putin g Curricula
As so cia tio n for Com pu tin g Machin ery
IEEE Com pu ter So cie ty
As so cia tio n for Com pu tin g Machin ery
As so cia tio n for Com pu tin g Machin ery
IEEE Com pu ter So cie ty
Professional Associations
The ACM and IEEE-CS are organized around
individual memberships. Most top research
institutions (academic and industrial) also take
part in a research consortium:
Computing Research Association (CRA)
The CRA is responsible for:
– The Taulbee survey of research universities
– The biannual Snowbird conferences
– A large number of useful reports
Challenges Facing Computing in the U.S.
• Federal funding for research has declined. At the same
time, fewer companies can support academic research
or maintain their own research labs.
• The Bush administration’s aversion to taxes and the
staggering U.S. debt make funding increases unlikely.
• Science is under attack in the current political climate,
along with the mission of universities more generally.
• Student interest in computing degrees has declined
precipitously in recent years.
• The 9/11 attacks—and the subsequent appeal to fear
used to bolster support for the Iraq war—have made it
harder for the United States to attract talented students.
Erosion of Research Funding
• Corporate support for research has declined since the
collapse of the dot-com bubble. Although there are
growing opportunities at wealthy companies like
Microsoft and Google, there are fewer companies
supporting university research.
• Despite calls for increased funding for science in the
most recent “State of the Union” address, actual
increases in the NSF budget are small. Funding for
science education has in fact declined.
• Under Tony Tether, DARPA research funding has
become far more mission-directed.
The New DARPA Funding Model
• For many years, DARPA invested a great deal of
money in research projects to create autonomous
vehicles.
• In the last two years, DARPA put $2M into a prize
instead.
The Crisis in Computing Education
The Crisis in Computing Education
• The CRA finds that computing enrollments have
fallen between 40 and 50% since 2000.
• At UCLA, the number of students listing CS as a
possible major has declined significantly in recent
years, particularly for women.
Source: Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 2005
Possible Reasons for Declining Enrollments
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No understanding of opportunities in computing
Negative image of work in computing fields
Static curricula that fail to attract today’s students
Growing complexity of introductory courses
Concerns about job security in the wake of offshoring
Belief that all jobs vanished with the dot-com collapse
Students pursuing wealth over good salaries
Failure to believe statistics showing good opportunities
The “No Jobs” Fear is Widespread
December 1, 2005
Blue Skies Ahead for IT Jobs
BY MARIA KLAWE
Contrary to popular belief, career
opportunities in computer science
are at an all-time high. We’ve got to
spread that message among students
from a rainbow of backgrounds, or
risk becoming a technological
backwater.
All this talk about “Blue Skies” ahead just
can’t hide the stark fact that Americans
who don’t wish to migrate to India and/or
some other off-shore haven are going to
have a difficult career.
Why would any smart American undergrad
go into IT when companies like IBM and
HP are talking of stepping up their offshoring efforts in the coming years? They
want cheap labor, no matter the real cost.
I have been very successful in IT, but I
certainly wouldn’t recommend it today to
anyone except people who are geeks. . . .
I think the latest figures from the U.S.
Department of Labor are not correct.
Crisis and Opportunity
• In this age of technology-enabled globalization (see
Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat), the problems in
the United States create opportunities for the rest of
the world.
• India and China have seized these opportunities with
a vengeance. There is no reason that Europe cannot
do the same.
• Given the current political situation and its apparent
trends, the United States may be unable to respond
to the crisis without this kind of external pressure.
• Economic strength in the rest of the world can serve
as an essential counterweight to U.S. dominance.