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News Bites
Information of interest from other publications
related to quality, participation, change, and
leadership
Report Envisions a Future
Cyberinfrastructure That Will “Radically
Empower” the Science and Engineering
Community
The critical needs of science
and rapid progress in information technology are
converging to provide a unique opportunity to create
and apply a sustained cyberinfrastructure that will
“radically empower” scientific and
engineering research and allied education, according
to the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s
Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. The
committee details its recommendations in a report,
entitled “Revolutionizing Science and
Engineering through
Cyberinfrastructure.”
Like the physical infrastructure of roads,
bridges, power grids, telephone lines, and water
systems that support modern society,
“cyberinfrastructure” refers to the
distributed computer, information, and communication
technologies combined with the personnel and
integrating components that provide a long-term
platform to empower the modern scientific research
endeavor.
Cyberinfrastructure is “essential, not
optional, to the aspirations of research
communities.” For scientists and engineers, the
report states, cyberinfrastructure has the potential
to “revolutionize what they can do, how they do
it, and who participates.” The seeds of this
revolution are seen in community-driven efforts,
supported by NSF and other agencies, such as the
Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulations
(NEES), the Grid Physics Network (GriPhyN), and the
National Virtual Observatory (NVO).
“We’ve clearly documented extensive
grass-roots activity in the scientific and
engineering research community to create and use
cyberinfrastructure to empower the next wave of
discovery,” said Dan Atkins, chair of the
advisory committee and professor in the University of
Michigan School of Information and the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
“NSF has been a catalyst for creating the
conditions for a nascent cyberinfrastructure-based
revolution. We’re at a new threshold where
technology allows people, information, computational
tools, and research instruments to be connected on a
global scale.”
Pilot Project Approved for Good Works
Initiative
Late last year the ASQ board
of directors approved a series of pilot programs over
a two-year span for the Community Good Works
initiative. The initiative is aimed at providing
matching grants and knowledge transfer to
not-for-profit, community-based
organizations.
The city of Kingsport, TN, was selected as the
first recipient of matching funds of $5,000 to
support the city’s drive to reduce costs and
improve the service reliability of trash
collection.
According to Danny Duhan, chairman of the Good
Works Committee, “The committee members and I
were very impressed with the city of
Kingsport’s approach, which relies heavily on
the Six Sigma DMAIC—define, measure, analyze,
improve, and control—process. We are excited
this project has the potential to improve local
communities and create a body of evidence that
documents the efficacy of quality.”
The pilot is to be completed this spring, with an
analysis and recommendations presented to the ASQ
board in November. The city of Kingsport will
participate in the May 2003 Annual Quality Congress
(AQC), which will feature a track on not-for-profit
organizations.
For more information about the initiative, contact
Danny Duhan at dduhan@northropgrumman.com
. For information about the not-for-profit track at
AQC, contact Heather McCain at heathermcc@aol.com
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