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National Science FoundationCISE - The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
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About CISE

Mission
The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering has three goals:
  • To enable the U.S. to uphold a position of world leadership in computing, communications, and information science and engineering
  • To promote understanding of the principles and uses of advanced computing, communications and information systems in service to society
  • To contribute to universal, transparent and affordable participation in an information-based society.

To achieve these, CISE supports investigator initiated research in all areas of computer and information science and engineering, helps develop and maintain cutting-edge national computing and information infrastructure for research and education generally, and contributes to the education and training of the next generation of computer scientists and engineers.

CISE is organized in four divisions: the Division of Computing & Communication Foundations (CCF); the Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS); the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS); and the Division of Shared Cyberinfrastructure (SCI). Each division is organized into a small number of clusters that are responsible for managing a portfolio of grants and proposal competitions within a broad area of research and education. While individual program directors may be designated as the point of contact for specific sub-disciplines, collaboration takes place within each cluster, across each division, and between divisions and directorates.


CISE Divisions

Division of Computing & Communication Foundations (CCF)
CCF supports research and education activities that explore the foundations of computing and communication devices and their usage. The Division seeks advances in computing and communication theory, algorithms for computer and computational sciences, and architecture and design of computers and software. CCF-supported projects also investigate revolutionary computing paradigms based on emerging scientific ideas and integrate research and education activities to prepare future generations of computer science and engineering workers.

The CCF Division is organized into three clusters, each of which is responsible for a related set of activities.
Division of Computer & Network Systems (CNS)
CNS supports research and education activities that invent new computing and networking technologies and that explore new ways to make use of existing technologies. The Division seeks to develop a better understanding of the fundamental properties of computer and network systems and to create better abstractions and tools for designing, building, analyzing, and measuring future systems. The Division also supports the computing infrastructure that is required for experimental computer science, and it coordinates cross-divisional activities that foster the integration of research, education, and workforce development.

The CNS Division is organized into four clusters, each of which is responsible for a related set of activities.
Division of Intelligent & Information Systems (IIS)
The Division of Information & Intelligent Systems supports research and education that increases the capabilities of human beings and machines to create, discover and reason with knowledge by advancing the ability to represent, collect, store, organize, locate, visualize and communicate information. The division contributes to interdisciplinary research on how observational data leads to discovery in the sciences and engineering.

The IIS Division is organized into three clusters, each of which is responsible for a coordinated strategy across a set of research and education areas.

Division of Shared Cyberinfrastructure (SCI)

High-Performance Computational Infrastructure: SCI supports acquisition, operation and upgrading of national infrastructure in support of high-end computation for the academic research and education community. These resources may include: supercomputers; high-capacity mass-storage systems; system software suites and programming environments; productivity software libraries and tools; large-scale data repositories; and the experts and support staff that create and maintain the facilities.

Advanced Networking Technologies and Infrastructure: SCI supports networks of various reach and granularity from high-speed backbone networks that connect high-performance computational resources and high-end instrumentation sites, to wireless networks that connect embedded sensor nodes in remote scientific field sites. SCI fosters deployment of networks as well as development and fielding of networking technologies that enhance cyberinfrastructure. Some of the key areas include end-to-end networking protocols; performance monitoring tools and measurement infrastructure; wireless networks; strategic international collaborations; and testbeds to support trial deployment.

Advanced Services and Cybertools: There is a need for development and support of an array of software tools and services that hide the implementation complexities and heterogeneity while offering clean logical interfaces to users. These tools and services include information management systems and data services, scalable interactive visualization tools, middleware service building blocks for high-end computational resources as well as for networked instrumentations and sensors.

In each of above areas, we stress fielding, testing, and ongoing support of advanced technologies beyond basic proof-of-concept demonstrations. The division collaborates closely across the NSF Directorates and Offices to ensure the advancement of CI will meet the demands of tomorrow's science and engineering communities.

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