Center for Parallel and Distributed Intelligence Systems

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This award initiates a five-year continuing grant to support an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Parallel and Distributive Intelligence Systems at the University of Pittsburgh. In recent years the computer industry (manufacturers, programmers, users) has acknowledged the following critical research areas of importance: human-computer interfaces, conceptual modeling, programming environments, database design, system architecture, and performance and system simulation. Conferences, workshops and seminars have emphasized the concept of "visualization" and of a "visual computer" as a vital research approach to these critical areas. A Visual Computer is not a "black box," but a "transparent box" with many windows for the user to look into different aspects of the system and for the computer to visualize various aspects of the user and therefore adaptively improve its performance. The Center will initially concentrate on a Visual Computer approach to research in the general area of distributed intelligence systems with specific projects in user interface engineering, programming languages and environments, and novel systems architectures. The Principal Investigator, Dr. S.K. Chang, is chairman of the Department of Computer Science and is eminently qualified to be Director of the Center. He has recruited Dr. Bruce G. Buchanan, formerly of Stanford University and internationally recognized for his research on artificial intelligence and expert systems, to be co-director of the Center. Twelve U.S. companies have provided letters of intent to join the Center at $25,000/year; furthermore the university will return all indirect costs to the Center during the first three years and the indirect cost rate will be only 10% thereafter. Adequate space and research laboratories have been provided plus an allocation of at least two new permanent faculty members in computer science. An NSF continuing grant of $50,000 per year for five years is recommended. For year 2-5, $50,000 will be awarded on an annual basis. The Program Director will review annually the progress of the Center on a number of criteria, including: 1) the extent to which university/industry interaction and collaboration are developing; 2) the extent to which the support base for the center is expanding; and 3) the extent to which a robust research program is developing. An additional $5,000 is recommended during this first year to support an undergraduate research assistant, Miss Patricia Rapp, in work on "Parallel Algorithms for Visualization," a Center project. Dr. S.K. Chang will supervise Miss Rapp's research.