Government Should Double Spending on Technology

Rice University Office of Media Relations
Feb. 25, 1999
CONTACT: Lia Unrau PHONE: (713) 831-4793 99-106 [email protected]

PANEL: GOVERNMENT SHOULD DOUBLE SPENDING ON TECHNOLOGY

HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 1999 -- The federal government needs to more than double its spending on computer and information technology over the next five years to halt a trend threatening the nation's progress, a report delivered to President Clinton recommends.

To ensure the nation's future well-being, the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee urges that the priority for increased funding should be on long-term, high-risk investigations to reinvigorate research programs and computing infrastructures, which are rapidly falling behind the state of the art.

Ken Kennedy, co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee and a Rice University professor, is available for interviews on this report.

Among the report's findings are that federal information technology research and development investment is inadequate, and it is too heavily focused on near-term problems. The committee recommends the creation of a strategic initiative in long-term information technology research and development.

The committee highlights four areas of the overall research agenda as deserving of particular attention and increases in research funding. They include increases in research on software; development of scalable information infrastructure; development of high-end computing, or extremely fast computing systems; and examination of socioeconomic impact.

The 26-member committee, made up of leading university researchers and industry executives, is charged with advising the government on issues that impact high-end computing, information technology and networking.

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Editors: For a copy of the full report, visit http://www.hpcc.gov/ac/report/ or contact Lia Unrau, Rice Office of Media Relations, at (713) 831-4793, or by at [email protected].

Ken Kennedy, the Ann and John Doerr Professor of Computer Engineering at Rice, can be reached at (713) 527-6009, and at [email protected], or contact Lia Unrau at (713) 831-4793, .