Since I came to Syracuse and successfully set up NPAC as a nationally recognized computer science research center, there have been many institutional and technical changes at both Syracuse and in national scene. I have made some important changes to NPAC that adjust to these external realities but I need the leave to be able to focus on the consequences of these external changes. The proposed activities during the leave will focus on both new initiatives and "solidifying" changes already initiated. I believe that the result of the leave will be a better center NPAC that is better able to thrive in the future and this will surely benefit the University in general as well my research in particular.

The major issues to be addressed by the leave concern:

1) Significant changes in both Computer Science (ECS) and Physics with reduced size, greater emphasis on education and new research areas.

2) Changing character of NPAC’s expertise from parallel computing to education technology and information systems.

3) National changes with more competition for funding, and remarkable technology change centered on the growth of Internet.

4) Change of NPAC’s outreach program from large to small businesses.

NPAC has an annual budges of some $3.5M and it requires significant attention. I will take my leave "in residence" and continue to supervise Syracuse students and guide the organization.

"Consolidation" activities during the proposed leave will be centered on redirecting NPAC’s research and outreach directions, and adjusting staff and infrastructure accordingly.

Most important will be to start or accelerate some new initiatives which will have significant importance for my research (and NPAC) for several years.

1) NPAC has developed a national reputation for education technology centered on the use of innovative multimedia tools and collaborative objects. We are engaged in several emerging national efforts in this area – One is DoD’s advanced distributed learning activity ADL. NPAC gets credit for both developing technology and using it in the classroom. Here we have greatly benefited from collaboration with physics, we wish to build this up and extend to ECS. The new proposed Instructional Technology masters program is typical of new University initiatives we are involved in.

2) A major component of NPAC activity is the support of NYS businesses and there has been a significant increase in this as Web Technology matures and becomes attractive to many businesses. NPAC identified the trend and is well prepared to help companies wishing to integrate advanced Web Technologies in their products and services. We work both in Central New York and Mid Hudson/New York City. We need to show the State that we are creating jobs and set up a proactive program to ensure this.

3) One of the growing areas of interest has been use of Web Technology and HPCC (High Performance Computing and Communications) in financial modeling and NPAC has developed substantial expertise in this are. Both ECS (online services) and Physics (Neural Nets, Monte Carlo methods) students are involved in advances in this area. I would like to plan and set up a new computational science course "Physics and Computer in finance" to be offered in spring 99. I believe this could be very attractive to both Arts and Sciences and ECS students. I will also investigate if this style course could be expanded into a new master’s program.

The above three thrusts highlight NPAC’s new linkage of research and education. We will interact with the many new federal initiatives to advance NPAC’s research in a way that is synergistic with the above.