In our previous post, “From Science Fiction to Science Fact: Beth Mynatt Traces the Multi-Trillion Dollar Impact of Computing Innovation in the U.S.”, we explored how Beth Mynatt, Dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, highlighted the profound impact of federally funded computing research in her May keynote speech at the CCC Computing Futures Symposium, held in Washington, D.C.  While her keynote expertly mapped out the “tire tracks” of innovation — tracing ideas back and forth between university labs and companies, eventually contributing to trillion-dollar industries — a critical question lingers: In an era dominated by tech giants, why does government funding for academic research […]

The following blog post is by CCC Vice Chair and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Mark D. Hill.  I write about a recent Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB), an operating unit within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, workshop report “Continuing Innovation in Information Technology.” This report updates famous “Tire Tracks” diagram for IT (Figure I.1, P. 5). Literally, “tire tracks” is a dense illustration of how federally-funded university research and industrial research and development (R&D) precede the emergence of large IT industries by decades. On one hand, this diagram shows “old” areas like Personal Computers that exceeded $1G annual revenue in the mid-1980s and then exceeded $10G the early 2000s. On the other hand, it […]