STRATEGIC PLAN FOR 2004

VISION
To gain enhanced visibility and national prominence, the Department of Computer Science at LSU will focus its emphasis on three core research areas that are contemporary, still maturing and also complement the skills of existing department faculty. Research in networking has garnered national attention due to the immense potential of computer, sensor and optical networks for exploiting information technology and providing users the ability to control and understand the natural environment. High-end scientific computing/visualization with implementation in Grid environment has taken on an increased significance to understanding of large-scale scientific issues in various disciplines including biology, Earth science and astrophysics. Due to the enhanced national security environment, research in the area of cyber-security/information assurance is in high demand and will continue to intensify over the next several years. Achieving critical mass through new hires in these areas will have an immediate impact on the Department's competitiveness for federal funding and for ability to gain national recognition.

MISSION
In recent years, we have strengthened our research groups in the areas of networking, computing/visualization, and cyber-security/information assurance through the establishment of two laboratories, one for Sensor Networking/Security laboratory and other for Medical Imaging and Computing/Visualization. We have received approximately $1 million/year from different funding agencies including NSF, AFOSR, NASA, DARPA and DOE. The department has currently active grants (started in 2003) of about $2.5 million from NSF in the areas of sensor networking and security. The department has recently received NSF Career Award of nearly half a million dollars in scientific computing and visualization. The research conducted by the faculty has been featured in news articles and popular journals including IEEE transactions. Awards and honors received include the 2004 Richard E. Merwin Award, the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, and editors of several highly reputed journals.

The department has been increasingly stronger in its educational program by having a large number of graduate and undergraduate students including women and minorities. The department has 51 PhD, 85 M.S. and 250 undergraduate students. It also offers a wide spectrum courses in information technology for both science and non-science majors. We have developed new courses in the areas of computer and sensor networking, grid computing, scientific visualization and software engineering. Our students gain highly practical training in software development. Strong background in information technology and high-quality dissertation research make our students highly competitive in job searches. Our dual-degree program in physical and computer sciences has been highly successful. Our graduates have taken research positions at Silicon Graphics, Microsoft, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and faculty positions across the United States and the world such as the University of Pittsburgh, University of Georgia, University of Alabama, and Drexel University. Undergraduates are also being exposed early to research through NSF-REU grants.

GOALS

Over the last several years, the department has significantly contributed to the areas of sensor networking, cyber security and high-performance scientific computing. It will continue to lead this effort by providing:
Information technologies such as networked intelligent systems, metacomputing framework for scientific simulations, visualization, grid computing framework, different application softwares;
Education in networking, cyber-security, high-performance scientific computing, visualization, grid computing for both technical and non-technical students.

PLANNING PROGRESS REPORT (2003-2004)
Strategic Direction 1: To strengthen research in the three focused areas, networking, scientific computing/visualization, and cyber-security/information assurance:
1. Seek Funding: We have been successful in getting grants from NSF, MURI and a few other funding agencies through sensor networking, security and high-performance computing groups of the department. Some of these grants have already started in 2003 and some including NSF Career grant will start from July 2004. We will seek more funding from NSF, NASA' Information Power Grid, DOE's ASCI, DARPA's MURI, and NIH.
2. Computing/Visualization: Allen, Iyengar and Karki's groups have been using parallel computing facilities provided by LSU-CCT to enhance high-end computational research and are working towards extending them to a Tera-Grid computing framework. The department has started the visualization laboratory that will be used to develop/apply various techniques for different scientific needs. Several visualization and imaging projects have already been developed.
3. Sensor/Security: We have recently started a sensor network and security laboratory that will be further developed with support from CCT and NSF.
4. Faculty Hiring: We are currently hiring four faculties in the areas of networking, grid computing and visualization. These are joint positions with LSU-CCT. The department has already offered two positions (one in sensor networks and other in visualization) and will fill up other two positions in near future. We plan to reach a critical mass of about 20 faculty as recommended by the Review Panel 2003.

Strategic Direction 2: To strengthen education in the three focused areas: Dr. Iyengar and others were able to get a half-million dollars from NSF for IT training.
1. We have introduced new courses in sensor networking and grid computing. We will revise the existing courses and develop new courses towards strengthening the focused areas at undergraduate level. We have been revising our curriculum according to recommendation made by Review Panel last year
2. We will extend our current dual degree program in which a student gets a PhD in physics and an MSc in computer science to bio- and geo-informatics interdisciplinary education
3. We will further enhance our current web-based courses through the use of the recently established Access-Grid facility to expose our faculty and students to the outside world.
4. We have been improving graduate student fellowships (Teaching or Research Assistantships) in quality and quantity to attract outstanding students to the department
5. We plan to organize the computational workshop for underrepresented group of the type that was conducted in January 7-11, 2003 to motivate undergraduate students to graduate program and research in computer science as well as to recruit more underrepresented students.

Strategic Direction 3: To act as the IT engine for distributed, multidisciplinary collaborations in research and teaching at LSU and around the world
1. Tutorials: Provide tutorials on parallel/distributed computing.
2. Visualization: Provide scientific visualization needs through the establishment of a modern visualization laboratory. We have already initiated some visualization projects.
3. Multiscopic computing: Synthesis of currently fragmented subareas of computational sciences by seamless software engineering of, for example, engineering and first-principles physics approaches.
4. Outreach to nonmajors: We have been providing web-collaboration software tools for both technical and nontechnical students to be able to participate actively and interactively in web-based courses.

  Department of Computer Science
  298 Coates Hall
  Phone: (225)578-1495
  Fax: (225)578-1465
  Louisiana State University
  Baton Rouge, LA 70803