Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Science Policy
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HPC and the Excluded Middle
Betwixt and between ubiquitous consumer software and the ethereal realm of ultra-high-performance computing, lies the excluded middle, the world of day-to-day computational science problems. This “no man’s land” lacks both the ready availability of application software suitable for solving problems in a host of domains – advanced manufacturing, materials analysis, and biomedical assessment – and…
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Spectrum Future Shock
Several studies have shown that large parts of the available spectrum are unused most of the time at most locations, within a reasonable detection threshold.With the rise inexpensive, high-performance microprocessors and radio frequency (RF) system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs, more nimble, cognitive radio designs are now possible that can operate across wide portions of the spectrum.
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Research and Innovation
As a lifelong researcher (at least my professional life), I periodically remind myself that the return on investment for basic research is sometimes long, but the payoff can be dramatic.
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Presentations, Humor and Memes
I have been reflecting on the nature of technical presentations. The motivations are manifold, the potential audiences are diverse, the expected outcomes varied, and there are so many ways to sink irretrievably into the quicksand of somnambulant soliloquy.When done well, however, public speaking is a form of performance art. Enjoy it, and help your listeners…
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Innovation Via Client Plus Cloud: Microsoft-NSF Partnership
Today, February 4, Microsoft and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a collaborative project where Microsoft will offer individual researchers and research groups (selected through NSF’s merit review process) free access to advanced client-plus-cloud computing. Our focus is on empowering researchers via intuitive and familiar client tools whose capabilities extend seamlessly in power and…
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Technology Strategy and Policy
It seems axiomatic that technology strategy must include – drumroll please – both technology and strategy. It is all about the right ideas at the right times. We live in a world of exponential technology change, and understanding when quantitative technical change begets qualitative strategic and policy change is the essence of innovation.