Setting an Interagency HCS Research Agenda
Released May 1998
leftright
1.  Introduction
1.1  Background
1.2  Workshop Organization


1.  Introduction

Introduction
 
On 25 March 1998, the High Confidence Systems (HCS) Working Group, under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Computing, Information, and Communications (CCIC) Research and Development (R&D), sponsored an invitational workshop to begin setting an interagency HCS research agenda that can be used to help establish new Federal research funding initiatives. The workshop was hosted by the National Coordination Office for Computing, Information, and Communications (NCO for CIC), Arlington, Virginia, and chaired by Ms. Teresa Lunt, Program Manager, Information Survivability, Information Technology Office/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
 
The objectives of the workshop were to:

  • Elicit agency perspectives on HCS
  • Establish a set of challenging research goals that could help drive the research and support the necessary funding
  • Continue to build the critical mass of HCS research support
To achieve its objectives, the workshop brought together individuals from various agencies possessing HCS issues, garnered their perspectives, and began the process of setting the HCS research agenda by setting forth a set of top level goals.



1.1
Background


Background
 
The 1995 CCIC workshop and 1997 HCS workshop1 explored HCS issues, needs, potential solutions, and future technology research that could improve the state of safety- and security-critical systems. From the two workshops, the clear need for developing a national agenda for HCS research emerged. Further, the 1997 workshop made it clear that the timing was right for pursuing such research, in part because of technology advances and also because the projected performance goals of various agencies were becoming dependent upon achieving improvements in HCS technology.



1.1
Workshop Organization

Workshop Organization
 
The 1998 HCS workshop was conducted in three parts: Review of the 1997 HCS Workshop, Agency HCS-Related Research Program Overviews, and HCS Research Agenda Development. The first session brought all of the attendees up to date on the results from the previous workshop. The second session allowed each agency to express its HCS research needs, desires, and plans. The final session consisted of a group brainstorming effort to coalesce agencies' needs and desires into a set of goals that would support an interagency HCS research agenda.


 
  1. America in the Age of Information: A Forum, July 1995, is available at http://www.ccic.gov/ccic/cic_forum_v224/. Research Challenges in High Confidence Systems, August 1997, is available at http://www.ccic.gov/pubs/hcs-Aug97/.
leftright