Blog: Computer Science Outside the Box; research project requirements

Computer Science Outside the Box
Computing Community Consortium (11/12/08) Lazowska, Ed

Computing Community Consortium (CCC) chairman Ed Lazowska attended the "Computer Science Outside the Box" workshop hosted by several organizations, including the National Science Foundation and the CCC. One of the insights he took away from the event was that smart decisions can be aided by a model of computer science's evolution depicted as an ever-expanding sphere. "Even when working inside the sphere, we've got to be looking outward," Lazowska writes. "And at the edges of the sphere, we've got to be embracing others, because that's how we reinvent ourselves." Lazowska observes that most computer science work is driven both by usage concerns and a longing to evolve precepts of lasting value, and he contends that researchers may be ascribing too little worth to research without obvious utility and may also be too hesitant to spurn work that concentrates on applications where it may not be apparent that their own field will move forward. This assumption applies to both the interfaces between computer science and other disciplines as well as the intersections between sub-disciplines of computer science. "We've got to produce students who are comfortable at these interfaces," Lazowska says. A research project must be challenging enough to sustain the participant's interest, yet easy enough to be achievable, he says, and the project must possess a long-term vision and be undertaken in increments.

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