UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska, along with Kathryn McKinley (Microsoft Research) and Kelly Gaither (Texas Advanced Computing Center), testified today to the House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Science Education on the topic of innovation in information technology.
Lazowska sang a familiar refrain:
- Research often takes a long time before it pays off – often 15 years or more.
- Research often pays off in unanticipated ways – we can’t predict what the biggest impact will be.
- Advances in one sector enable advances in other sectors.
- The research ecosystem is fueled by the flow of people and ideas back and forth between academia and industry.
- Every multi-billion-dollar IT industry sector has a clear relationship to Federal research investment. Federal investment doesn’t supplant private sector investment – it complements it.
A transcript of Lazowska’s testimony is here. Visuals are here.
See coverage in GeekWire, Computing Research Association Policy Blog.