Science of Design: Software-Intensive SystemsScience of Design: Software-Intensive Systems
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has announced forthcoming support for science and engineering research and education on the Science of Design, with an emphasis on the design of software-intensive computing, information, and communications systems. The goal is to improve the development, evolution and understanding of systems of large scale, scope and complexity. According to the NSF, these are systems for which software is the main means of conceptualization, definition, modeling, analysis, development, integration, operation, control, and management. The research initiative is meant to foster the development of foundations for such a science in scientifically discovered and validated facts, codified experience, and formalized, teachable principles developed through research addressing theories, principles, formalisms, empirical studies, and the nature and limits of design.
To date, no major research effort has addressed the science of design in a comprehensive, systematic manner, with a particular emphasis on software and software-intensive systems. In the context of a stated intention of the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering to establish a crosscutting research theme on the Science of Design, Kevin Sullivan (University of Virginia Department of Computer Science) applied for and received a National Science Foundation grant (CCR-0346938), to organize a workshop on the topic. The workshop, Science of Design: Software and Software-Intensive Systems, was held at Airlie Center, from November 2–4, 2003. The workshop objectives were to develop community perspectives on proper formulations of a science of design, addressing its subject, scope, methods, and so forth to identify major open problems and opportunities; and to identify research priorities for an assumed ten-year time frame.