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http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/stis1994/nsf9534/nsf9534.txt Title : NSF 95-34 - OPTICAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING: NEW DIRECTIONS AND
OPPORTUNITIES IN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
Type : Report
NSF Org: CROSS-DIRECTORATE
Date : December 31, 1994
File : nsf9534
NSF Workshop
May 23-24, 1994
Arlington, Virginia
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the workshop
participants and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Science
Foundation.
-------------------------
OPTICAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
CONTENTS
Workshop Panels and Participants
NSF Workshop Coordinators
Preface
Executive Summary
Introduction
Workshop Goals
Optical Science and Engineering within NSF
Panel Organization and Challenge to the Panels
Basic Findings and Recommendations
Introduction
Panel Reports
Information and Communications
Biology and Biomedical Engineering
Optical and Photonic Materials and Devices
Fundamental Optical Interactions
Optical Processing and Manufacturing
Instrumentation and Sensing
NSF-Wide Initiative in Optical Science and Engineering
Introduction
Recommendations
Example Proposals
Summary
---------------------------
WORKSHOP PANELS AND PARTICIPANTS
Robert Byer, Stanford University, Workshop Chair
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
Alan Willner, University of Southern California, Chair
Nim Cheung, Bellcore, Inc.
William Doane, Kent State University
Pierre Humblet, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Miller, AT&T
Robert Street, Xerox - PARC
Kelvin Wagner, University of Colorado
BIOLOGY AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Duncan Steel, University of Michigan, Chair
Tom Baer, Biometric Imaging, Inc.
Tom Deutsch, Massachusetts General Hospital
Enrico Gratton, University of Illinois, Urbana_Champaign
Eva Sevick-Muraca, Vanderbilt University
John Spudich, University of Texas Medical School
OPTICAL AND PHOTONIC MATERIALS AND DEVICES
Gary Bjorklund, IBM, Chair
Nan Marie Jokerst, Georgia Institute of Technology
Theodore Morse, Brown University
Richard Powell, University of Arizona
Ben Streetman, University of Texas, Austin
Galen Stucky, University of California, Santa Barbara
FUNDAMENTAL OPTICAL INTERACTIONS
Dan Grischkowsky, Oklahoma State University, Chair
Anthony Johnson, AT&T Bell Labs
Jeff Kimble, California Institute of Technology
Keith Nelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mara Prentiss, Harvard University
Warren Warren, Princeton University
OPTICAL PROCESSING AND MANUFACTURING
Suzanne Nagel, AT&T Bell Labs, Chair
Duncan Moore, University of Rochester
Gerard Mourou, University of Michigan
Henry Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
George Whitesides, Harvard University
Eli Yablonovitch, University of California, Los Angeles
Jerrold Zimmerman, Litton Itek Optical Systems
INSTRUMENTATION AND SENSING
D. Lansing Taylor, Carnegie Mellon University, Chair
Richard Clause, Virginia Tech
Bernard Couillaud, Coherent, Inc.
Eric Fossum, Jet Propulsion Laboratories
Tom Lucatorto, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Margaret Murnane, Washington State University
John Schott, Rochester Institute of Technology
----------------------------
NSF WORKSHOP COORDINATORS
ENGINEERING
Lawrence Goldberg (Electrical and Communications Systems) - Co-Chair
Deborah Crawford (Electrical and Communications Systems)
MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Tom McIlrath (Physics) - Co-Chair
Laverne Hess (Materials Research)
Benjamin Snavely (Astronomy
Alfons Weber (Chemistry)
John Weiner (Physics)
Francis Wodarczyk (Chemistry)
COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Darleen Fisher (Networking and Communications Research)
Michael Foster (Microelectronic Information Processing)
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Michael Lamvik (Biological Instrumentation and Resources)
EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES
Terence Porter (Graduate Education and Research)
-----------------------------
PREFACE
The National Science Foundation (NSF) workshop on Optical Science and
Engineering: New Directions and Opportunities in Research and Education met
May 23_24, 1994. The workshop was attended by more than 40 individuals
representing many of the disciplines and application areas included in Optical
Science and Engineering (see page i). The participants came from government,
universities, and industry and included representatives from those involved in
basic research in the physical sciences to individuals interested in the
applications of Optics to communications and to advanced manufacturing.
The workshop on Optical Science and Engineering was organized to examine
approaches NSF could use to identify opportunities in optical science,
engineering, and education that meet both the mission of NSF and our broader
national goals. Science and Engineering have contributed in the past and will
continue to contribute in the future to the health, welfare, education, and
defense of the citizens of this nation. Many of these contributions have been
integrated so thoroughly into our lives that they are now taken for granted as
to their invention, development, or broad application. Radios, computers,
lasers, fiber optics, medical imaging, and advanced lithographic manufacturing
techniques are only a few examples of ideas and technologies that derived from
research and investigation by individuals motivated by the desire to understand
the natural world better. The 50 years since the establishment of NSF have
seen unprecedented advances in the economic well being of citizens of this
country in no small measure due to the understanding and application of basic
scientific discoveries.
Our nation is now in the midst of renegotiating the social contract between
academic scientists and engineers and the public. This contract over the past
50 years led us to invest 1 percent of our domestic productivity in scientific
research, both basic and applied. The cold war is no longer the primary
justification for our investment in research, and we are striving to define a
new set of principles to guide the nation's investment in research and
education that meet our nation's goals. These goals include a healthy and
educated citizenry; sustained economic growth; a national information
infrastructure; improved environmental quality; world leadership in science,
mathematics, and engineering; and national security.
Those who have had the privilege of being supported by public funds in their
research have an obligation to enter into the public debate. Scientists and
engineers need to identify examples that demonstrate ways research has led to
discoveries that have contributed to our nation in the past and to inform the
public about future opportunities for new discoveries and inventions that will
benefit the nation in the future.
The goals of the workshop were to identify research opportunities in Optical
Science and Engineering and to propose ways in which NSF could create a
multi-disciplinary approach to research and education that would address the
identified opportunities. The NSF is unique in that it has built strength at
the core of many disciplines. The strength and quality of its research
programs allow NSF to undertake a cross-disciplinary research program in
Optical Science and Engineering with confidence that the proposed research
projects will be of the highest quality.
Optical Science and Engineering is an enabling technology_that is, a technology
with applications to many scientific disciplines and with the potential to
contribute in significant ways to those disciplines.
The workshop participants identified opportunities where Optical Science and
Engineering research conducted by small teams of investigators from more than
one discipline would significantly accelerate progress in areas of interest to
the nation including the national information infrastructure, biology and
medicine, chemistry and physics, materials processing and manufacturing, and
education. The participants of the workshop agreed that NSF should initiate a
Foundation-wide research and education program in Optical Science and
Engineering that is multi-disciplinary and is motivated by national goals. In
keeping with the success of the past, where ideas initiated by individuals have
led to fundamental discoveries and breakthroughs, the program would seek ideas
in Optical Science and Engineering from small teams of investigators and
evaluate these ideas using merit review panels composed of experts
knowledgeable in the disciplines. The proposed programs would include
education and traineeships as an integral part of the research and would
suggest ways to leverage NSF support by joint projects with other agencies,
laboratories, and industry.
The proposed NSF-wide initiative in Optical Science and Engineering, which cuts
across NSF directorates, is an experiment: a new approach to funding
multi-disciplinary research. If adopted, the program should be revisited in
five years to evaluate its success and to fine-tune elements of the program to
increase its future continued success. If successful, the initiative in
Optical Science and Engineering could be extended in the future to other
enabling science and technology areas.
Robert L. Byer
Chair
------------------------
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
The workshop on Optical Science and Engineering identified a number of critical
challenges in Optical Science and Engineering that could lead to major
opportunities for the programs of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The
workshop determined that investments in research and education in Optical
Science and Engineering across multiple disciplines are timely and that
significant opportunities exist for leveraging NSF resources by supporting
these investments. Moreover, the workshop determined that Optics is an
enabling technology and that a multidisciplinary initiative in Optical Science
and Engineering would help meet NSF strategic areas of advanced materials
processing, biotechnology, environment and global change, communications,
manufacturing, and science, math, engineering and technical education. An
NSF-wide, crossdirectorate, multi-disciplinary research and education
initiative in Optical Science and Engineering would also meet the identified
national needs in biology and health; the nation's information infrastructure;
world leadership in science, math, and engineering education; enhanced
environmental quality; and national security.
Findings
Optical Science and Engineering is recognized as an enabling technology that
will allow leapfrog advances in many fields. There are identified
opportunities in Optical Science and Engineering that with timely investment
will yield significant advances.
Research to address critical challenges in Optical Science and Engineering
crosses disciplinary boundaries and by its nature requires informed input from
several investigators. Research supported by NSF ranges from individual
investigator projects to Science and Technology Centers and Engineering
Research Centers. Multi-disciplinary research initiated by small teams of
investigators offers a new approach to addressing problems that are in the
national interest where the scale of the problem is beyond the capacity of a
single investigator and yet does not require the structure and complexity of
the larger-center-based programs.
Research in Optical Science and Engineering holds exceptional promise for
innovations that will have impact on long-term national goals. The workshop
identified opportunities in biology, chemistry, physics, materials, information
infrastructure, and manufacturing that could be addressed by progress in
Optical Science and Engineering. The critical challenges to be addressed in
Optical Science and Engineering will be identified in proposals submitted by
the investigators. Since these proposals incorporate ideas that cut across the
disciplines, the merit of the proposed research should be evaluated by panels
whose members are knowledgeable in the appropriate disciplines.
The education of students in this new style of small-group research offers an
opportunity to teach teamwork: a skill that is critical to the modern work
force. Traineeships would allow for an exchange of visitors, scholars, and
students to enhance the quality of the research further.
To be successful in the support of cross-disciplinary research, NSF should
sustain the funding for an adequate period and leverage its limited resources
by encouraging cooperation with partners. There are significant advantages to
be gained by forming cooperative ventures in this smallteam style of research.
The need for interaction across disciplines and across agencies, universities,
laboratories, and industry is well recognized and should be encouraged.
The proposed agency-wide, multi-disciplinary initiative in Optical Science and
Engineering is an experiment within NSF, where proposal support and evaluation
is now largely discipline based. Like any experiment, there are lessons to be
learned by the evaluation of the program. Criteria for success should be
established, and the program should be evaluated according to these criteria.
Recommendations
Based on these findings, the workshop recommends that:
NSF create an agency-wide, multi-disciplinary research initiative in
Optical Science and Engineering,
The proposed research in Optical Science and Engineering be evaluated by
multi-disciplinary review panels,
The proposed research be evaluated in light of long-term national goals,
The research in Optical Science and Engineering be conducted by small
teams of investigators representing several disciplines,
The proposed research incorporate education and training as an integral
part of the effort,
The research be supported for three to five years' duration and that NSF
funds be leveraged by encouraging cooperation with other agencies,
laboratories, universities, and industry,
This agency-wide, multi-disciplinary initiative be reviewed after five
years and be evaluated by an established set of criteria as to its success.
Summary
The proposed agency-wide, multi-disciplinary initiative in Optical Science and
Engineering builds on the disciplinary strengths of the directorates of NSF.
In analogy with building a house, the individuals skilled in each discipline
must bring expertise to the program and work cooperatively under a single plan
to achieve a goal. A small team of investigators representing different
disciplines is in many cases the best approach to solving a scientific or
technical problem. This approach to cross-disciplinary research could be
extended in the future to other technologies, which, like Optical Science and
Engineering, are enabling.
---------------------------
INTRODUCTION
Workshop Goals
The goals of the workshop on Optical Science and Engineering: New Directions
and Opportunities in Research and Education are to identify major growth areas
and opportunities in Optical Science and Engineering (OS&E) within the basic
research and education mission of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and to
stimulate new interactions across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The
goal includes consideration of mechanisms for the implementation of
multi-disciplinary research and the support for such research within NSF. Any
proposed initiative in OS&E must include scientific and technical education and
training. Furthermore, the limited resources of NSF should be leveraged, if
possible, by joint ventures with industry, government, and other research
organizations. Finally, in light of the changing environment for research
support, proposed initiatives in OS&E must meet both NSF strategic areas and
the nation's needs and provide benefit to society.
The NSF strategic areas include advanced materials and processing,
biotechnology, civil infrastructure, environment, global change,
highperformance computing and communications, manufacturing, and science, math,
engineering, and technical education. These NSF strategic areas reflect,
broadly, the national goals of a healthy, educated citizenry, job creation and
economic growth, information infrastructure, world leadership in science, math,
and engineering, enhanced environmental quality, and national security.
Optical Science and Engineering within NSF
OS&E encompasses research and education that cut across the directorates of
NSF. Optics is an enabling technology that has impact from astronomy,
physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science to communications,
information processing, storage, and display and to medicine. Optics provides
a natural and visible approach to education at all levels. For these reasons,
and because research in OS&E is timely and is growing in importance, OS&E was
selected as the science and technology on which to focus this workshop.
Multi-disciplinary OS&E projects are currently supported within most of the
Directorates of NSF: Biological Sciences (BIO); Computer and Information
Science and Engineering (CISE); Education and Human Resources (EHR);
Engineering (ENG); and Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS).
In the BIO Directorate, OS&E includes the development of high-speed
charge-coupled-devices recording microscopes, refinement of two-photon
fluorescence excitation microscopes, the development of time-resolved
fluorescence microscopy, studies of neurobiology of perception, the development
and use of optical "laser tweezers," the development of fiber-optics probes,
and physiological optics and devices.
OS&E is supported within the CISE Directorate in the areas of optics for
computation, optics for communication and optical networking, computation for
optics, and optics for the human interface. The support for OS&E research in
CISE represents about 10 percent of the total research budget.
In the ENG Directorate, OS&E activities affect five research areas including
information and communications, optical and photonic materials and devices,
fundamental optical interactions, optical processing and manufacturing, and
instrumentation and sensing. The total investment in research and development
(R&D) on OS&E in this Directorate exceeds 20 million dollars annually,
primarily through activities in the Division of Electrical and Communications
Systems and the Division of Engineering Education and Centers.
The MPS Directorate includes research in OS&E primarily in the Divisions of
Astronomical Sciences, Chemistry, Materials Research, and Physics.
Applications of OS&E to astronomy are historically in the area of advanced
instrumentation and sensors. Virtually all astronomical instruments are
optical or quasi-optical in nature, including radiotelescopes. There are on
the horizon opportunities for significant advances in OS&E as applied to
astronomical observation including flexible mirror telescopes and correction of
ground-based telescopic images using an artificial laser guide star.
The Chemistry Division supports OS&E activities at a level of 6 percent of the
division budget. The activities include optical materials research, analytical
and surface chemistry, organic dynamics, instrumentation, and experimental
physical chemistry.
The Division of Materials Research has eight major areas in which OS&E affects
the programs. These include ceramics studies, such as the synthesis of optical
materials and glasses and optical coatings, and electronics and photonic
materials, including semiconductors, nonlinear optical materials, epitaxy
materials synthesis, and laser-beam_solidmatter interaction studies for the
processing of photonic materials. Polymers, including nonlinear polymers and
photoresists, are also an area of research, as are studies of the theory of
optical materials. Solid-State Chemistry, Condensed Matter Physics, and
Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers also include OS&E research
activities. Finally, instrumentation for the evaluation of materials includes
an array of optically based devices. The OS&E-related research activities in
the Division of Materials Research amounted to 16.1 million dollars for fiscal
year 1993.
The Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Physics encompasses the
disciplines that historically have supported basic research in OS&E. With the
invention of the laser in 1961, OS&E activities spread far beyond the
boundaries now defined by AMO research. However, ultrafast optical science,
light dynamics and force, laser cooling of atoms, and quantum optics are
exciting and evolving areas of fundamental research. Many of these new
research areas are less than 10 years old. They form the basis for fundamental
understanding of the nature of matter and light and will, in the future, inform
us about the limits of the application of light to communications and to
materials control. The OS&E research in this division amounts to 11.9 million
dollars, which is approximately one-half of the total division support for
research.
The OS&E support across all of the directorates of NSF amounts to approximately
43 million dollars per year. The bulk of the research support lies within the
Directorates for Engineering and for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. There
are, however, significant opportunities for research in OS&E through the
Directorates for Biological Sciences and for Computer and Information Science
and Engineering.
It is clear that OS&E activities cut across the directorates and divisions and
that they are a significant part of the programs with NSF. NSF, however, is
organized in a vertical "stovepipe" structure that reflects the departmental
organization structure of universities. The need to support the disciplines
and to maintain the highest quality of research within each discipline is
paramount in the university context. However, modern research often involves
more than one discipline and so does not map well onto the existing directorate
structure. NSF has responded to the need for coordinating research across the
directorates by creating the OS&E Coordinators. The workshop was challenged to
consider other approaches to support cross-disciplinary research.
Panel Organization and Challenge to the Panels
The workshop was organized into six working panels structured to include the
key areas of OS&E that fall within the research and educational areas of NSF.
The six panels are Optical Information and Communications, chaired by Alan
Willner; Biology and Biomedical Engineering, chaired by Duncan Steel; Optical
and Photonic Materials and Devices, chaired by Gary Bjorklund; Fundamental
Optical Interactions, chaired by Dan Grischkowsky; Optical Processing and
Manufacturing, chaired by Suzanne Nagel; and Instrumentation and Sensing,
chaired by D. Lansing Taylor.
The primary goal for the first panel session was to identify critical
challenges in OS&E that would lead to significant breakthroughs in technical
and application areas and potentially would have significant impact on the
strategic areas of NSF and on national goals. A second goal was to consider
means of implementing OS&E cross-disciplinary research within NSF. Thus each
panel was to identify research opportunities and then make recommendations for
implementation of the research. The recommendations for implementation were to
take into account the programmatic elements that would be necessary for a
successful project including educational and training elements. Each panel's
critical challenges and recommendations are presented in the section on Basic
Findings and Recommendations.
To suggest new approaches to the conduct of research is difficult at best and
in the current research climate of constrained resources is challenging indeed.
Recognizing that the background and experience of the workshop participants
was diverse, the workshop chair began by reviewing for the participants the
structure of NSF and the national research climate.
The current structure of NSF was reviewed so that initiatives suggested by
panels could account for the strengths and the weaknesses of NSF. The climate
for R&D in this country was reviewed briefly so that the panel members could
begin the discussion with the same understanding. It was recognized that the
growth of R&D funding that took place in the early 1980s was now reduced to
zero and that the country was concerned about the value it receives from
investments in R&D. In the past, R&D was generally understood to contribute
to the welfare of the nation. In the future, R&D will continue to contribute,
but the justification for investment in R&D must be motivated by the long-term
national needs.
The panels were asked to consider national needs as part of their
recommendations regarding the critical issues in OS&E research. Any new
initiative in NSF must take into account NSF strategic areas as well as the
national goals. Any new initiative proposed for NSF must be compelling such
that it is acceptable to scientists and engineers across the multiple
directorates and divisions. It was recognized that the "bottom-up" research
proposal process and subsequent merit review has been a very successful
approach for determining where to invest research resources. However,
multi-disciplinary research in OS&E might demand new approaches to proposing
and selecting research areas to be funded. Further, it was recognized that
OS&E research is by its nature multidisciplinary and that opportunities exist
for significant breakthroughs in many discipline areas. The challenge to the
panels was to find a new style of research that could meet all of the above
factors and could leverage NSF investment in OS&E. Cooperative models for
research were to be examined in which projects might involve government labs,
university labs, and industrial research labs.
The workshop was informed of the National Research Council (NRC) report on AMO
Science, which was published the weekend of the workshop. Further, an NRC
study on OS&E is planned for the fall of 1994. Two weeks following the
workshop, the NRC and Stanford University were sponsoring the third of three
regional workshops to examine the Future of the Physical and Mathematical
Sciences. Thus the workshop did not take place in a vacuum, but
recommendations from the panels and the workshop would be considered in the
context of the broader national discussion underway.
--------------------------
BASIC FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The work of the panels was at the heart of the workshop. The panels in their
first meeting were to identify critical challenges in Optical Science and
Engineering in their scientific and technical areas that would offer the
opportunity for breakthrough advances. The panels were to report back to the
plenary session of the workshop their identified research challenges and were
to suggest how these challenges supported the National Science Foundation
strategic areas and the long-term national goals.
The panels were also to consider the programmatic elements of any proposed
initiative in OS&E. The programmatic elements were to reflect the
multi-disciplinary nature of OS&E, the directorate and divisional structure of
NSF, and the need to include education as an integral part of the research.
The results of the panel deliberations were presented by the panel chairs to a
plenary meeting of the workshop. The discussion of the research themes and of
the recommendations regarding the proposed program elements was spirited. In
many cases, the recommendations of the panels were similar and overlapped in
approach and intent. However, the work of the panels in the first session was
open-ended so that the presentations and subsequent discussion were far
ranging. The consensus of the plenary discussion was that more focus was
required for a second panel meeting to move the broad ideas that had been
presented to firmer ground.
A second set of panel meetings was held and focused on identifying, in a common
format, prioritized critical challenges in OS&E. For this panel session, a
mock "call for proposal" form was used to motivate the panel discussion. The
goal of this exercise was to test the proposed NSF-wide initiative in OS&E
firsthand to see that it could lead to quality proposals that offered the
potential for leapfrog advances in technology. The panels, in a short time and
under considerable pressure, were remarkably innovative in creating model
proposals.
The panel reports contained in this section provide background and support for
the recommendations put forward by the workshop. The principal recommendation
that NSF create an agency-wide, multi-disciplinary research and education
initiative to identify critical challenges in OS&E was unanimously adopted by
the workshop. The workshop recognized the unique opportunity for research by
small teams and the need for the research to be evaluated in light of national
needs by a multidisciplinary panel of experts. Further, the workshop
reinforced the value of the longstanding NSF practice of "bottom-up" generated
research proposals and ideas and strongly supported the incorporation of
education and training as an integral part of the proposed research programs.
Recognizing that multi-disciplinary research undertaken by a small team of
individuals often requires considerable resources, the workshop participants
suggested that NSF funds be leveraged by encouraging joint research programs
with other agencies, laboratories, and industry. This recommendation was not
to be a requirement but to be an opportunity to enhance the success of the
research effort.
------------------------
PANEL REPORTS
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
Alan Willner, chair
Introduction
OS&E is expected to constitute the technical foundation of an information-based
United States economy in the 21st century. A major component of our economy
will be the new National Information Infrastructure (NII), or Information
Superhighway, as it is often called. The role of NSF, through its support of
basic and applied research, is to stimulate the creation of the science and
technology base required to realize the NII. A major challenge to this
national goal is the provisioning of ubiquitous and intelligent user access to
the NII through a user ON/OFF ramp. We believe that images and image capture,
image display, image storage, and image transfer will be critical to the future
of the NII.
A new research initiative in the next generation of image display, storage, and
access would meet NSF strategic areas on environment, global change,
high-performance computing, biotechnology, civil infrastructure, and
manufacturing.
Critical Challenges
The critical challenges in Information and Communication are display, storage,
and access of vast quantities of information necessary based on images. In
displays, there is a need for a lightweight, robust, low-power, "paper-like"
information viewer with all of the high resolution and warm and soft feeling of
paper to which we have become accustomed. The multidisciplinary research
challenges to achieve this "paper-like" viewer are formidable and include basic
physics and surface physics research, computational mathematics, materials
research, systems research, and manufacturing research. The display is of
strategic importance to all areas of the NII.
Optical data storage is a critical challenge that must be met if images are to
be received, handled, displayed, and transmitted on the NII. Large-scale use
of images requires terabyte capacity with portability, rapid memory access, and
memory correction. A possible approach to this challenge is the use of volume
holographic data storage which provides parallel readout. However,
nonmechanical readout and recording methods must be devised, and fundamental
materials issues must be resolved. Terabyte high-speed memory, if available,
would be of strategic importance in supporting large data bases, rapid
information processing, and NII switching. Data storage is a huge worldwide
market with tremendous national relevance. For progress in meeting this
critical challenge, efforts are required in the cross-disciplinary areas of
materials science, software algorithms, architecture and networks, optical
communications, systems research, fundamental physics, micromechanical systems,
manufacturing, and electronics.
Information transfer and switching are critical to realizing the ON/OFF ramp to
the National Information Highway. The NII will rely on Optics for
transmission, with advanced systems using multiple wavelengths and time domain
technologies. The challenge is to increase the system performance and reduce
cost by using Optics within the switches instead of converting to electronic
switches. Thus high-speed switching is a critical challenge. In addition,
faster switching will force reconsideration of the network architecture. A key
question is how to best combine the capabilities of Optics and electronics to
build networks that can be controlled, managed, and interconnected.
The research directions needed to support high-speed switching and network
architecture include ultra-high-speed optical switching, portability of data
transfer, broadband wireless communication, routing, control, synchronization,
signaling and compression of data, and the understanding of time and wavelength
division multiplexing trade-offs in data transfer. Research in these areas is
enabling for the NII and requires cross-disciplinary efforts in the physics of
nonlinear optical interactions, materials science, software algorithms,
architectures of networks, optical communications, and system research.
With the growing use of displays, there is a corresponding need for smart
sensors to take the information that is currently available in other forms and
to capture an image for digital transfer. This is a critical challenge and one
that, if met, would allow the collection, through multiple imaging devices, of
information as diverse as a printed page or medical image.
Recommendations
A major goal of the proposed new initiative in OS&E is to leapfrog the present
technology base and to lay the groundwork for leading-edge technologies for the
21st century. The proposed new initiative would address fundamental technical
issues that cut across a wide range of existing NSF-supported programs. Thus
the panel recommends that the research initiative be multi-disciplinary and
that NSF provide for an umbrella program for strategic-driven basic research.
It is clear that the proposed research initiative spans the range from basic
physics and materials research to advanced system considerations. To be
effective in this type of research program, the faculty in universities must
learn the needs of industry. The panel recommends that internships in industry
be a programmatic element of the proposed initiative. The internships should
span all levels to include faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate
students. Further, NSF should provide fellowships for industry researchers to
come into the university to work side by side with the faculty and students.
A research initiative must overcome the high cost of optoelectronic device
fabrication and the limited resources of universities. The panel proposes an
Optoelectronics implementation service similar to the Metal Oxide Semiconductor
Implementation Services (MOSIS) project for university researchers to obtain
access to critical devices.
BIOLOGY AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Duncan Steel, chair
Introduction
The goal of this proposed initiative is to address the basic scientific issues
of the interaction of light with biological systems, and to develop optical
methodologies for advancing the fundamental understanding of all aspects of
life sciences, including plant life sciences. This research will fill a
current national need to provide a supply of trained professionals to the
expanding job market in the biotechnology industry.
Basic research toward new technologies directed at clinical goals is not
supported by NSF or by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Research
proposed to address opportunities for new technologies falls between the
priorities for these two organizations. Further, the experience of the
scientific community is that, in the present vertically integrated
discipline-based structure of NSF, submission and review of interdisciplinary
research usually do not lead to funding of a scientific program. Thus there is
a critical gap that results from the exclusion of many basic scientific
programs that fall within the goals of the Foundation. This gap compromises
the leadership role for the United States in developing biomedical
technologies.
Critical Challenges
The critical challenge is to exploit the power of Optics to advance
biotechnology, biomaterials, and biomedical engineering and to probe the
biomolecular structure and function in a minimally invasive manner.
Furthermore, the challenge is to integrate basic research across the
disciplines of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. This research
initiative is designed to take advantage of complementary aims of NSF, NIH, and
other agencies. The aim of NSF-supported basic research in this initiative is
to develop physical understanding of Optical science used in biological
systems. The aim of NIH will be to use the knowledge gained toward its
application in medical science.
The critical challenge that can be addressed by this initiative is basic
research to study the interactions of light with biological molecules, cells,
and tissues to understand their structure and function. Examples of key
biological problems that could be addressed by this initiative include protein
folding, protein_protein interactions, molecular recognition, and protein_DNA
interactions.
A second aspect of this critical challenge is to support advanced research to
develop new optical and laser-based techniques and methodologies to enable
fundamental research in biology. The new techniques that show promise for
eventual application to clinical, bioremediation, and agricultural needs should
be supported. We recommend that NSF encourage proposals that support the use
of OS&E as an enabling technology for biotechnology, health sciences, and other
aspects of life sciences.
Examples of applications to biology and biomedical engineering of optical
techniques include noninvasive imaging, diagnostic spectroscopy, early
detection of disease, blood supply monitoring and purification, brain function,
drug delivery, gene sequencing, and hazardous waste cleanup and remediation.
The initiative should also include the support of programs focused on the
development of photoactive biomaterials for applications outside of biology.
Examples include photoactive biological molecules for engineering applications
such as light switches and indicators and lightactivated protein synthesis.
Recommendations
The panel recommends that the initiative include multidisciplinary
opportunities and training that integrate optical science and life sciences.
This initiative should be directed by a multi-investigator team with expertise
from the fields of chemistry, physics, biology, and optical engineering. The
training of students should include core training in biophysical and the
physical sciences. The initiative should provide opportunities for
cosponsorship of fellowships by industry in the biological and optical fields.
The review process for the initiative should include experts from all related
disciplines.
This initiative is particularly timely because the problems in biology have
become complex and critical; they demand new approaches. Optical science has
now developed to a level of sophistication at which its integration into
biology can enable research.
OPTICAL AND PHOTONIC MATERIALS AND DEVICES
Gary Bjorklund, chair
Introduction
The hallmark of the last half of the 20th century was energy. The hallmark of
the coming century will be information technology. The nation that excels in
this area will have a distinct economic advantage. The next generation of
information systems will influence our society in ways that we can now only
begin to imagine. Information not only will improve the educational level of
the country, but will have a dynamic impact on the growth of industry and the
health of the citizens of our country through the transmission and analysis of
medical images. The information revolution has only begun to change our lives.
It is mandatory that we guide the revolution with the best scientific and
technical skill available.
The underpinning of all photonic and optical applications is advanced
materials. The development of these new materials requires the understanding
and control of materials at the atomic level, the engineering of the bandgap of
semiconductors, and the ordering of threedimensional structures. We need to
understand defects, compositional and epitaxial defined interfaces, and the
integration of multicomponent assemblies onto a material substrate.
One aspect of the materials issues that is not well served by NSF is the
application of materials in systems. Here the individual investigator programs
do not offer the breadth of expertise required to understand all of the system
issues that govern the materials uses from devices to subsystems to complex
systems. The problems are multi-disciplinary and need to be attacked by three
to five cooperating investigators working in teams with graduate and
undergraduate students. This is a research program size that "falls between
the cracks" with the present NSF structure. In this type of team research,
there is an opportunity for NSF to use "smart funding," that is, to pool the
resources of the interacting partners to leverage NSF funds in support of the
materials research. Systems and subsystems research is in need of this new
small-team style of research.
Critical Challenges
The critical challenges that need to be resolved through NSF-sponsored research
initiatives include material fabrication and processing, structure and device
research, and integration and packaging research for low-cost reliable
manufacturing of systems.
The understanding and control of materials at the atomic level and the
nucleation and assembly of matter are now essential in modern materials
research. For example, to grow generic semiconductor materials on varied
surfaces, one must tailor the surface in such as way that the materials to be
grown will exhibit the desired characteristics and structure. Epitemplates
will be needed for the growth of new materials such as GaN for use in blue
diode lasers. These wide-bandgap semiconductor materials will become
increasingly important for high-density information storage and for display
applications. New materials often grow with an array of defects that limit the
quality and the application of the material. There is a critical need to
understand the nature of defects and to reduce and control defects. This
understanding will shorten the time from discovery of a new material to its
development and practical use.
The understanding of interfaces and of thin films grown on interfaces is
critical to the development of new materials. For example, strain layer
super-lattice semiconductor materials are a recent development but are already
a critical aspect of diode laser design and application. Optical coatings are
an essential component of many optical systems. Much of the previous work on
optical coatings has been more an "art" than a "science." There is a critical
need to bring the state of optical coatings onto a sound scientific basis. In
optical communications, optical planar waveguide structures, primarily used in
telecommunication applications, are an area of materials research that has been
neglected. There is a need for increased use of waveguide materials for
passive and active devices such as wavelength division multiplexing, beam
splitters, switches, and lasers.
The synergistic properties of biphasic materials, such as polymers, present
numerous potential opportunities in OS&E. New types of devices are possible,
such as bragg gratings, GRIN lenses which depend upon the spatial control of
the optical index of refraction, smart materials with controllable physical
parameters that can respond to external stimuli, photorefractive materials for
information storage, nonlinear optical materials for changing the frequency of
the optical field, and bio-optic materials
The development of new and efficient coherent light sources is critical to the
future of OS&E. Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers are an example of a
new type of semiconductor laser that promises widespread use. New types of
laser cavity, microcavities, are another example of materials solving a
critical need in source development. In the future, blue light sources will
play an important role in the storage and display of information. Tunable
coherent laser-like sources are also important for applications. The optical
parametric oscillator now being reintroduced as a commercial product meets
application requirements from environmental monitoring to chemical detection
and analysis. The combination of a lowpower, semiconductor laser master
oscillator with a power amplifier has led to improved characteristics of diode
laser sources with power levels now exceeding 1 watt for small devices the size
of a grain of sand. These lasers have extremely narrow linewidths and can be
efficiently frequency converted with the use of nonlinear optical materials.
There are growing applications for improved laser sources from medical surgery
to chemical monitoring and control.
The integration and packaging for low-cost and reliable manufacturing of
devices are a critical challenge for the next generation of optical devices.
An example of this is the need to invent a low-cost, reliable method to couple
a diode laser to a nonlinear waveguide device for the generation of blue light.
Packaging to control heat flow is also critical for device performance.
Finally, any packaged device must also be manufacturable and low cost to meet
the application markets. For advanced devices, the materials that form the
device must be integrable into a single subsystem. This involves consideration
of fiber-optics coupling, threedimensional interconnects, and advanced
lithographic techniques to allow the manufacturability of new systems.
Recommendations
The materials issues for the next century are important. The panel recommends
that investigators be challenged to define the research programs in Photonic
Materials and Devices. Further, the panel recommends that NSF should fund an
initiative in OS&E that is crossdisciplinary with funding at a level to support
three to five cooperating investigators working as a team with graduate as well
as undergraduate students. The teams should be encouraged to cooperate with
other agencies such as the National Institute for Standards and Technology
(NIST) or with the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and with other
university and government laboratories or with industry in the pursuit of
research.
As United States industry moves away from long-range basic research to
near-term applied research, it is important for NSF to preserve the capability
of the United States industry to look more than three years into the future.
To do this, NSF should allow funding to university investigators to be used as
matching funds for proposals to NIST and to ARPA. Further, NSF should assist
in the resolution of industry_university patent and intellectual property
issues that stand in the way of cooperative research activities.
The panel also recommends that Optics be reintroduced into the undergraduate
curriculum and be supported by a laboratory course, where possible, to help
train the next generation of students in this enabling technology.
FUNDAMENTAL OPTICAL INTERACTIONS
Dan Grischkowsky, chair
Introduction
Ultimately, progress in OS&E depends on having optical sources. Although
dramatic advances in laser power, efficiency, pulse duration, and bandwidth and
wavelength tunability have been made in the 30 years since the invention of the
laser, there remain major scientific and technical breakthroughs that are
restrained by the lack of a suitable optical source. Progress in source
development is leveraged to an extraordinary degree across a broad range of
applications. Some of the outstanding issues include compact laser amplifier
sources compatible with low-dispersion optical fibers, improved nonlinear
optical materials, and improved availability to the broad R&D community of
low-cost, reliable laser technology.
Fundamental studies in optical interactions also inform us about the ultimate
limits of what is physically possible. Thus the understanding of the
interaction of the electron and the photon or the atom and the photon at the
fundamental level informs us of possible future progress across many
disciplines of science. Current basic research is exploring the interactions
of a single atom with a single photon and is exploring the fundamental quantum
limits of measurement and detection accuracy. We have moved from a world
governed by statistical interactions of many particles to a world of single
particle interactions. The knowledge gained at this fundamental level has
implications on our understanding of nature from communications to biology.
Critical Challenges
The panel identified optical sources, optical communications and information
processing, materials design and fabrication, metrology, and education as
critical areas in which progress is needed to meet broad societal needs.
Progress in these areas depends on the support and progress in fundamental
studies of optical interactions.
There is a critical need to improve laser sources to meet the needs of a broad
range of research and scientific applications. The laser sources need to be
tailored in their wavelength, pulse duration, and power for the application at
hand. The laser sources need to be compact, less expensive to buy, and less
expensive to operate so that they are available to a wider range of users _ not
just to those with adequate funds and experts dedicated to the operation of
advanced laser systems.
There is a crucial need for accurate metrology of temporal and spatial
coordinates from the global scale to the nanoscale. The use of lasers
stabilized to high precision will allow accurate navigation using "smart"
vehicles, may allow progress in earthquake prediction, and air and ship
navigation. On the microscopic scale, precision frequency-stabilized lasers
will allow accurate control of semiconductor fabrication through advanced
lithographic techniques and the accurate alignment of structures to a nanometer
scale. This area of research has long been the domain of the National Bureau
of Standards. There may be opportunities for NSF and the NIST to encourage
joint research in this area that include studies of basic to applied metrology
using advanced optical sources.
Complex materials play an increasingly important role in advanced technology.
Natural and biological materials offer examples of complex materials where
optical characterization of surfaces, interfaces, thin films, multilayer
structures, and structures of mesoscopic size scales, such as quantum dots,
clusters, and ferroelectric domains, must be developed. These optical
characterization tools can be viewed by one community as tools for analysis and
by another community as a tool for nondestructive evaluation or by a third
community as a tool for control and modification of the material. Thus the
optical tools are by their very nature used across multiple disciplines. There
is need for a concomitant educational drive to foster the training of students
in new optical methods that bridge disciplines. Further, there is a need for
interaction between the academic and the industrial community to inform each
about the other's needs. This is an area in which an active educational effort
at the student through professional level could have a major impact on R&D
breakthroughs.
"Designer" nonlinear optical materials tailored and controlled for specific
nonlinear responses are an important critical challenge. The need for high
nonlinear response with low loss and high speed remains primary. Improvements
in periodic polling of ferroelectric nonlinear materials and other fabrication
techniques on the scale of the optical wavelength to the size of the atom are
critical. Fabrication at these length scales will provide enabling
technologies for x-ray to optical wavelength applications.
Recommendations
Addressing these critical challenges requires an interdisciplinary approach to
research that joins optical engineering, materials science, electrical
engineering, and the fundamental understanding of nature through basic
research. Optoelectronic material and system improvements require close
interactions among fabrication, evaluation, and testing at the device level.
These interactions often require strong university_industry interactions which
in turn should lead to improved graduate education training and should expose
students to future career paths that are an alternative to the traditional
specialized training of a graduate student for a future in the academy.
OPTICAL PROCESSING AND MANUFACTURING
Suzanne Nagel, chair
Introduction
Optics enables advanced manufacturing of a broad set of products, and advanced
optical systems and products require manufacturing breakthroughs to make
optical sources, detectors, displays, communication equipment, imaging systems,
sensors, and storage devices economically. Both of these aspects of Optics in
manufacturing are critical to achieve an industrial infrastructure for
manufactured goods and to affect multibillion dollar markets.
Advanced manufacturing takes advantage of a multiplicity of unique attributes
of optical technology including massive parallelism; nanometer accuracy and
precision; photon delivery controlled in time, intensity, energy, wavelength,
speed, and spatial resolution; remote distribution and delivery of optical
power through optical fibers or by line of sight; precision ranging; and
light-controlled surface interactions.
These attributes give rise to a broad range of capabilities which include
materials processing, such as laser machining, nanofabrication, and
lithography; process control, such as machine vision, sensors, and metrology;
process monitoring, for example, bar code readers, scanners, displays, and
optical local-area networks; rapid prototyping, such as laser stereolithography
and three-dimensional model fabrication from digital information; advanced
packaging, including welding and joining using optical means; and optical
writing, such as imaging holography, gratings, pattern generation, and the
labeling of products.
Complete realization of the potential for Optics in manufacturing requires firm
scientific understanding and engineering control of the interaction of light
with matter.
Critical Challenges
Critical challenges include continued advances in fundamental OS&E to overcome
some of the current limitations in optical assisted manufacturing. Generally,
these advances include new materials, improved sources and associated Optics,
system integration of materials and devices to realize a practical approach to
a given manufacturing process, and a continued basic understanding of the
interaction of photons with materials on all scales from molecular through
bulk. Crossdisciplinary and multidisciplinary investment of resources in
optical processing and manufacturing will provide new and unique,
cost-effective, optical-based manufacturing approaches and processes.
Equally important, the panel identified the need for low-cost manufacturing of
a range of new products based on Optics and optoelectronic devices. The
combined efforts to address materials issues, component, assembly, and
manufacturability requirements include key advances in OS&E. Displays, storage
devices, sources and detectors, optoelectronic integrated circuits, imaging
devices, sensors, instruments, optical switches, and computers are all examples
of information age technologies that represent huge markets. Success in
bringing such products to market will be determined by engineered materials,
optical and optoelectronic components, new approaches to high-throughput,
highyield materials, growth and fabrication technology, and new paradigms for
assembly such as self-assembly, that result in cost-effective end-to-end
manufacturability.
Recommendations
NSF can play a critical role in sponsoring longer-term horizon research
activities that build the fundamental knowledge to allow breakthrough
approaches to advanced manufacturing and that encourage creative new ways to
realize products. For example, why does a display have to be "flat"? Why can
we not design and produce displays in flexible rolls, similar to making film,
and overcome the limitations of glass-based flat panel displays? We need to
encourage investigations that will lead to an image display that has the look
and feel of the paper we now use more widely than at any time in history.
The panel strongly endorses an NSF-wide initiative approach for OS&E to build
the longer-term enabling capability in this important area. The nature of the
field encourages cross-disciplinary and functional interaction, and leads to
teamwork and integrated solutions. A strong foundation in OS&E not only
prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers with enabling
technology, but is critical to the health of the national industrial
infrastructure. An NSF investment in this area can benefit and be coupled to
mission-oriented initiatives of other agencies and benefit from industrial
interactions.
INSTRUMENTATION AND SENSING
D. Lansing Taylor, chair
Introduction
Optical instrumentation and sensing involves the detection, measurement,
manipulation and analysis of a variety of physical, chemical, and biological
properties. Traditionally most single-investigator research efforts in this
area have been focused on the development of individual enabling component
technologies and the first level of integration into measurement instruments.
Through the development of new concepts in optical instrumentation and sensing,
in particular in response to multidisciplinary applications and with an
interdisciplinary approach, it may be possible to integrate and develop
high-performance instrumentation systems more fully.
The support and development of advanced optical instrumentation and sensing
methods are important for a variety of reasons. R&D in advanced
instrumentation requires an interdisciplinary education on the part of
undergraduate and graduate students and demands the ability to work in teams to
solve problems. Teamwork is an attribute that is critical to success in
industry. Research on optical instrumentation promotes extended interactions
with an interdisciplinary team and with extrauniversity researchers, and it
facilitates communication between the university and the industrial
researchers. Research in instrumentation provides new economic opportunities
both in improved optical instrumentation and in the application of the
instrumentation, and it provides a bridge between the R&D environment and the
application of the technology to meet national needs in health, environment,
energy, national security, and space.
Critical Challenges
The Instrumentation and Sensing panel recognized that new optical sources and
technologies can lead to the development of new instrument capabilities for
characterization, monitoring, manipulation, testing, and processing of
samples.
With these capabilities in mind, the panel identified the following critical
challenges in new instrumentation and sensing that will improve scientific and
technological capability and ultimately lead to commercializable products.
New microscopes including confocal, scanning probe, time-resolved, twophoton,
field synthesis, and x-ray microscopes, need to be developed. Such new
microscopes will have applications in biology and bioengineering, advanced
materials, environmental studies, biochemistry, and microfabrication and
nanofabrication and testing. Advanced telescope systems for astronomical
observation and tracking and for environmental monitoring on a global scale are
a critical need. Medical imaging systems, including noninvasive optical
imaging spectroscopes, x-ray, and other spectroscopes for internal and external
diagnostics, with the goal of developing new, better, safer, and lower-cost
systems are an identified critical challenge. Massively distributed sensor
networks for the realtime monitoring of large civil infrastructure systems such
as highways, bridges, pipelines, buildings, electrical generation, and
distribution systems is a research need along with self-calibrated instruments
that would be used to explore the interface between optical hardware and
computer software for advanced robust systems for remote applications.
To accomplish advances in the above-identified instrumentation and sensing
systems requires progress in enabling optical component technologies. These
enabling component technologies include light sources, detectors, transducers,
Optics and electro-optics, and display systems. The light sources also include
lasers from the far infrared, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and extended
vacuum ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. These advanced laser sources would
have to be controlled in their spectral, power, energy, and pulse width
parameters. The applications of these advanced light sources include
chemistry, trace analysis, remote sensing, lidar, surgery, micromachining,
optical data storage, process control, and displays.
The advances in detectors include the need for two-dimension arrays of greater
size and sensitivity, increased spectral range, and increased readout rate.
Arrays with on-chip processing would have applications to spectral analysis,
data acquisition, biomedical imaging, and astronomy.
Transducers, including those with optical fiber and integrated signal
processing, are an essential element in any optical instrumentation and sensing
system. There is a need for transducers for biological, chemical, mechanical,
thermal, and physical measurements. The enabling component technologies also
extend to optical and electro-optical components, especially nonlinear optical
materials and devices for shifting laser wavelengths to new regions,
spectroscopic elements, modulators, and advanced optical manufacturing
capabilities in optical coatings and aspheric Optics.
Finally, display system advances, especially advances in high-resolution two-
and three-dimensional displays, are critical to instrumentation and sensors
applications.
Advances in optical components allow advanced optical instrumentation systems
to be developed. Instrumentation that has been identified that has particular
promise for near-term applications includes a microscope that is integrated
from the light source to the detector and display with applications to
biomedicine, chemistry, and nanofabrication. Remotesensing instrumentation for
environmental sensing has applications to both local and global scale
environmental measurements and monitoring. Process control instrumentation for
advanced manufacturing and optical metrology for manufacturing control are also
identified instrumentation needs.
Recommendations
The proposed initiative in OS&E should involve NSF-wide support. Individual
research proposals would likely involve some level of support from more than
one NSF directorate. It is suggested that all NSF directorates be involved in
the initiative and that proposal review panels incorporate multi-disciplinary
input for proposal evaluation. In addition to crossing NSF directorate
boundaries, the proposed research projects are encouraged, but not required, to
include other organizations such as industry, government laboratories, small
businesses, multiple universities, and state and local governments. This
interaction with other agencies and entities is especially encouraged when it
brings to the project multi-disciplinary expertise, specialized equipment, or
test facilities. Where the proposed initiative is similar to that of existing
or planned major initiatives of other government agencies or industrial
consortia, the relationship and unique contribution of the proposed initiative
should be explained.
The proposed initiative should include an educational component. From an
educational standpoint, the instrumentation-oriented research requires a
systems perspective which is typically a missing link between academia and
industry. Students working in this area will see firsthand how scientific and
engineering links must be formed, not only from a design perspective but also
from the perspective of practical teamwork and personal interactions.
Instrumentation research also has the attractive feature of allowing the
involvement of undergraduate students in the assembly, measurement, and testing
stages.
The panel suggests several possible mechanisms for enhanced research and
education in instrumentation and sensing initiatives. Training internships
could be a part of the research initiative allowing students to work on site at
a company or national laboratory. Conversely, representatives from industry or
national labs would be encouraged to work at the host institution.
Investigators should be encouraged to incorporate possible involvement at the
local primary and secondary schools and to disseminate the research results to
the general public.
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NSF-WIDE INITIATIVE IN OPTICAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Introduction
The panel reports on critical challenges in OS&E and recommendations for the
implementation of an NSF-wide initiative were discussed in a plenary session of
the workshop. Several themes were apparent from the discussion and were
reinforced in the conversation.
It is clear from the panel reports that there are several significant
opportunities in OS&E that could lead to leapfrog advances in science and
technology across multiple disciplines. OS&E is clearly multidisciplinary in
nature, and research may be best performed by small teams of investigators.
Small teams of investigators can attack problems that are more complex than
those usually studied by a single investigator. The team approach also
involves students in collaboration with other team members and with other
laboratories, universities, and industry groups when appropriate. This joint
venture approach to the research initiative would allow NSF support to be
leveraged.
The workshop participants noted that NSF's directorate and division structure
is vertically integrated and that there are very few programs that are funded
across directorate lines. The workshop also noted that the merit review
process for this multi-disciplinary initiative in OS&E would have to be
reviewed by a panel composed of experts from appropriate disciplines. This in
turn argued that the initiative should be NSF-wide to be successful.
The workshop participants then discussed the importance of evaluating the
research with respect to NSF strategic goals and the long-term national needs.
The participants agreed that the evaluation should contain an element that
judged the research initiative in light of national needs. Further, the
participants agreed that the panel reports had identified research initiatives
in OS&E that were timely and compelling in their potential to spur leapfrog
advances in science and technology.
Recommendations
Based on the panel reports and the plenary discussion, the workshop recommends
that NSF create an agency-wide, multi-disciplinary, research initiative in
Optical Science and Engineering.
It was noted that the panel reports identified some common characteristics of
the research initiatives in OS&E. One of the characteristics was the
opportunity for the research initiative to be conducted by small teams of
investigators and coinvestigators from multiple disciplines. The
multi-disciplinary nature of the research led to the recommendation that the
research in OS&E be evaluated by multidisciplinary review panels.
Further, it was noted that the panel reports all had identified areas of OS&E
research that were of importance to the nation, to NSF, and to the
investigators. OS&E is an enabling technology for the nation that has the
potential for significant impact to many disciplines. This discussion led to
the recommendation that the research be evaluated in the light of longterm
national goals.
The interdisciplinary nature of the OS&E research was noted by more than one
panel. The workshop also noted that this scale of research would fill the gap
between the individual investigator research and the center level of research,
both of which are now supported by NSF. The workshop recommends that the
research in OS&E be conducted by small teams of investigators representing
several disciplines.
The panel reports also addressed the education and training aspects of the
proposed initiative in OS&E. It was noted that research in small teams
involves students in a learning environment and in a style of problem solving
that is closer to the norm in industry and is valuable to industry. It was
also noted that students should spend time in industrial laboratories and,
equally important, that industrial scientists should be supported to spend time
in the university research environment. The workshop recommends that the
projects incorporate education and training as an integral part of the effort.
Example Proposals
The plenary discussions were positive and reinforced the concept that OS&E
offered significant opportunities to enable advances in many disciplines.
However, there was some discomfort expressed that the panel reports were broad
in scope and did not attempt to prioritize critical challenges. Perhaps the
panels could be more focused in their recommendations if their deliberations
were to address a set of issues in a common format.
The above concerns were addressed by suggesting that the panels prepare a mock
proposal describing the critical challenge in the highest-priority research
opportunity within each panel's technical area. This approach had the
advantage of focusing the panel deliberations on priority setting and testing
the programmatic elements of the proposed NSF-wide initiative. The task of
creating a proposal in OS&E would help to bring forward those questions that
remained unresolved.
A "call for proposals" to address critical challenges in OS&E was prepared and
presented to the panels. Each panel responded by preparing a proposal
describing the highest-priority critical challenge in the technical area. The
process proved to be valuable and informative. The proposals were presented to
the workshop by the panel chairs. Here an element of competition was evident
as the panel chairs described their highestpriority critical challenge to the
workshop in competition with the other five panel proposals. The process
confirmed that there are significant opportunities for identifying critical
challenges in OS&E even on short notice, and the process identified issues that
needed clarification regarding the programmatic elements of the proposals.
It was recognized that the multi-disciplinary research programs were more
complex than the typical single-investigator programs and that to be successful
NSF needs to support the research program for a longer period and needs to
leverage its funds.
The final two recommendations of the workshop were: First, the research should
be supported for three to five years' duration, and NSF funds should be
leveraged by encouraging cooperation with other agencies, laboratories,
universities, and industry. Second, this agency-wide, multi-disciplinary
initiative should be reviewed after five years and be evaluated by an
established set of criteria as to its success.
The panel mock proposals also opened discussion as to what should be required
and what should be recommended aspects of the OS&E research initiatives. The
workshop agreed that the incorporation of the educational programmatic elements
into the initiatives should be highly recommended but not required. The
workshop agreed that cooperative research with other agencies, government
laboratories, universities, and industry should also be recommended but not
required. The addition of hard requirements for research initiatives as
complex as these was seen as an unnecessary burden on the investigators who
were to identify critical challenges and propose approaches to solving them
through small-team-led research efforts.
Summary
The proposed NSF-wide initiative in OS&E builds on the core strengths of
disciplines housed in the Foundation's directorates and divisions. However,
the proposed initiative in OS&E creates a new type of multidisciplinary
research that bridges across the directorates and disciplines. The projects
would be proposed and conducted by teams of investigators and coinvestigators
from more than one discipline. The proposed research initiative builds on NSF
traditions of an investigator-initiated bottom-up proposal process. However,
proposals are evaluated by panels of experts knowledgeable in the relevant
disciplines. Educational and traineeship elements are to be an integral part
of the research initiative. Based on the deliberations of the panels, whose
members represented six aspects of OS&E, it is expected that this NSF-wide
initiative, if adopted, would have significant impact on NSF strategic goals.
Research in OS&E offers the opportunity for leapfrog technical advances that
would enable progress in long-range national goals ranging from the nation's
information infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and remote sensing for
environmental and global studies, to the use of new optical tools in biology,
biotechnology, and medicine.
The workshop noted that the nation had been driven by technology innovations in
the past 100 years and is now moving to an informationdriven era. More than
one panel identified a critical challenge in OS&E that addressed the NII. From
advanced materials to new optical sources, panels noted the importance of OS&E
to the information highway of the future. New OS&E breakthroughs must occur if
the ON/OFF ramp for the information highway is to be designed. Further, there
was a clearly identified need for information storage and retrieval if all
citizens are to have access to the highway. The need for a "paper-like"
display was noted in order to overcome the current flat panel display
technology limitations of a hard glass display that takes considerable power to
operate and lacks the high-fidelity image quality of a paper display. The
manufacturing panel noted that new techniques for inexpensive manufacturing of
such a display must also be invented if the "paper-like" display is to become
reality.
New optical and photonic materials were another common theme of the panel
reports and were reinforced in the plenary discussion. New materials ranged
from nonlinear optical materials for laser wavelength conversion to
semiconductor materials for the blue laser of the future to biological "soft"
materials that are only now being investigated. It was noted that, although
Optics is important for the evaluation and understanding of biological
materials and systems, Optics has not been integrated into biology. There is
clearly a need to alter our educational structure to allow the training of
students in both the physical and biological aspects of nature. There was an
appreciation that the newer optical tools of microscopy and laser manipulation
of biological matter through the invention of "laser tweezers" were to have an
important impact on biology in the future.
Research in OS&E offers an opportunity to define the interface for the
information era where the storage, switching, and display of information at the
ON/OFF ramp of the information superhighway will be achieved through advanced
optical technologies. The ability to make these technologies, such as a
"paper-like" electronic display, inexpensive is critical to opening access to
the information highway to all citizens of the nation. In turn, the ability to
access the information, to store and retrieve it at will, and to display it in
a convenient manner will have an impact on the education and productivity of
all citizens.
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The Foundation provides awards for research in the sciences and engineering.
The awardee is wholly responsible for the conduct of such research and
preparation of the results for publication. The Foundation, therefore, does not
assume responsibility for the research findings or their interpretation.
The Foundation welcomes proposals from all qualified scientists and engineers,
and strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to
compete fully in any of the research and related programs described here.
In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and NSF policies, no person
on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be
excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or be subject to
discrimination under any program or activity receiving financial assistance
from the National Science Foundation.
Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities (FASED)
provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with
disabilities (investigators and other staff, including student research
assistants) to work on an NSF project. See the program announcement or contact
the program coordinator at 703-306-1636.
Privacy Act and Public Burden. Information requested on NSF application
materials is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation
Act of 1950, as amended. It will be used in connection with the selection of
qualified proposals and may be used and disclosed to qualified reviewers and
staff assistants as part of the review process and to other government
agencies. See Systems of Records, NSF-50, "Principal Investigator/Proposal File
and Associated Records," and NSF-51, "Reviewer/Proposals File and Associated
Records," 56 Federal Register 54907 (Oct. 23, 1991). Submission of the
information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information,
however, may reduce the possibility of your receiving an award. The public
reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120
hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send
comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection
of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Herman G.
Fleming, Reports Clearance Officer, Division of CPO, NSF, Arlington, VA 22230;
and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project
(3145-0058), Wash., D.C. 20503. The National Science Foundation has TDD
(Telephonic Device for the Deaf) capability, which enables individuals with
hearing impairment to communicate with the Foundation about NSF programs,
employment, or general information. This number is 703-3060090.
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NSF 95-34
(New)
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Modified Tuesday, November 02, 2010 Copyright @ 2010 by Fathers' Manifesto & Christian Party |
