Next: What's proposed? Up: PROPOSAL: Institute for Complex Previous: Introduction
Goals, Objectives and Areas of Interest
One of the objectives of the Institute is new component-based software development methodologies for integration of complex scientific software. This is a non-trivial research problem requiring bridges between disciplines. The kind of component integration here is unique. The challenge is in putting the pieces of software together, typically at the end of independent software development efforts.
Software developers in industry often complain that there is never time to do things right, but always time to do them over again. Unfortunately, to a large extent, the same is true for using pieces of software in research. Single researcher use does not justify the time to pause, step back, and develop the right tools properly. The Institute will make the development of those tools worthwhile, because other researchers can reuse them as well. The scientist needing to integrate software quickly would benefit the most.
Meanwhile, the lessons learned from putting these massive units of software together, will also make the research effort in software components worthwhile. Research in scalable software components requires testing ideas on large software testbeds, something that is usually hard to do in academia. It is possible to gain experience through interactions with industry, but industry does not have the luxury of doing long term basic research. If fundamental design principles are to be discovered, academia will provide a logical home base.
The Institute would therefore be an invaluable opportunity to advance component software research, and provide competitive credibility in seeking external funding. For example, the major concerns raised by the PITAC Report 2 are: ``fragility" of existing software systems, inability to routinely and cost-effectively produce high-confidence software, and insufficient skilled software developers to meet available opportunities and demands.3
In sum, the benefits to Northeastern University are:
- Enhancing the visibility of Northeastern University in developing
a unique new methodology with little external competition;
- A platform with a demonstrated history of collaboration,
positioning us well for large interdisciplinary grants.
- Enhancing the academic and industrial marketability of Northeastern
University students through greater interdisciplinary training in the
context of large, complex research projects.
- Better training of undergraduate and graduate students as skilled
software developers beyond the confines of a computer science department.
Subsections
Next: What's proposed? Up: PROPOSAL: Institute for Complex Previous: Introduction David H. Lorenz 2002-03-25