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UCGIS News (con't)
Research Committee News: Next Steps for the UCGIS Research Agenda
 by
Timothy Nyerges, Chair, UCGIS Research Committee, University of
Washington
From the 2006 Summer Assembly … Next Steps for the UCGIS Research Agenda
During the Summer Assembly several research committee sessions discussed the
UCGIS Research Agenda. In particular, two sessions brought a focus to discussion
by considering “Research Accomplishments” and “Research Agenda Next Steps”. The
sessions were well attended and lots of discussion ensued. The results of those
sessions bring momentum to carry the discussion forward onto the topic of “grand
challenges for geographic information science research” as outlined below. As background material for the research accomplishments session, in mid-March
2006, Research Committee Chair (Tim Nyerges) sent an email to co-authors of the
book chapters appearing in A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science
(Robert McMaster and E. Lynn Usery, CRC Press). He requested a brief report of
research accomplishments for each of the chapters. At the Assembly, several
chapter authors presented brief overviews of accomplishments. When an
accomplishment report was submitted, and one of the co-authors was not in
attendance at the meeting, that material was overviewed by research co-chairs
Tim Nyerges and Dawn Wright. At this time, thanks to Dawn, the UCGIS Research
Committee web page now has posted all of the research accomplishment materials
received as of July 15. The research committee will continue to collect reports
of research accomplishments for each of the book chapters. We also welcome
updates and synthesis to those already provided. A research plenary session about “Next Steps” was convened with four of the five
(past and present) UCGIS Research Committee Chairs in attendance (David Mark was
enjoying wine in Italy at the Vespucci Institute, while Bob McMaster, Lynn
Usery, John Wilson with Tim Nyerges moderating). Note: John recently returned
from wine tasting in Italy, just the night before, and he was ready to go early
in the morning. During this plenary session each of the panelists had an
opportunity to share insights about the UCGIS research agenda in whatever way
they wanted. The discussion contained an overview of how the UCGIS research
agenda evolved, how many of the priority areas are still very viable research
endeavors, and how syntheses across priority areas might lead to a fruitful
articulation of “grand challenges” as the next steps.
There are a number of ways to look at the idea of “grand challenges”. One way
offered up was comparing a topic to a “moon shoot” that lead to walking on the
moon. Another was what DARPA has been sponsoring for the past several years
regarding autonomous ground vehicle races; this year it is the urban challenge.
Another cohesive thought on the topic was provided during Vice President Sean
Ahearn’s research plenary talk when he offered the idea of several "baby-grand
challenges" associated with dynamic geospatio-temporal modeling. A number of
people wanted a definition, and Lynn Usery followed with a Google search, coming
up with a definition of a grand challenge problem on Wikipedia as A Grand Challenge Problem is a general category of unsolved problems. The
definition of a Grand Challenge problem has a certain degree of inherent
subjectivity surrounding what is, or is not, a Grand Challenge. A Grand
Challenge problem exhibits at least the following characteristics:
- The problem is demonstrably hard to solve, requiring several
orders-of-magnitude improvement in the capability required to solve it.
- The problem cannot be unsolvable. If it probably can't be solved, then it
can't be a Grand Challenge. Ideally, quantifiable measures that indicate
progress toward a solution are also definable.
- The solution to a Grand Challenge problem must have a significant economic
and/or social impact.
- Another, more simple definition is:
A grand challenge problem is one that cannot be solved in a reasonable amount of
time with today's computers.
The Wikipedia page provides examples of several other grand challenges from a
number of disciplinary areas. Another perspective is what the UK Computing
Research Community has been doing about articulating grand challenges in UK
computing. Keith Clarke made mention of the grand challenges in computing and
environmental sciences recently articulated through National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) work. Doing a search on the NAS web site identifies many more results in
addition to those for computing and environmental science.
It appears the idea of grand challenge for research is resonating with quite a
few disciplines these days. Articulating grand challenges in your research area
highlights the significance of the research area. Toward this end, the UCGIS
research committee is hosting a Wiki discussion to articulate and elucidate what
the grand challenges for the UCGIS research agenda area. Perhaps every priority
area could have one. Perhaps it would be better if a small set of challenges
were identified as cross-cutting endeavors. Te results of the discussion will be
reviewed at the Winter Assembly in the research committee meeting. A full
discussion will take place at the 2007 Summer Assembly. Watch for an announcement and link to a Wiki discussion board that will be
posted on the Next Steps page of the UCGIS Research Agenda.
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