Vviewpoints
DOI:10.1145/2983529
Viewpoint
Wanted: Toolsmiths
Seeking to use software, hardware, and algorithmic ingenuity
to create unique domain-independent instruments.
AS WE HONOR the more math- ematical, abstract, and ‘sci- entific’ parts of our subject more, and the practical parts less, we misdirect the
young and brilliant minds away from a
body of challenging and important
problems that are our peculiar domain, depriving these problems of the
powerful attacks they deserve.”
—Fredrick P. Brooks, Jr.
Computer Scientist as Toolsmith II2
“
I have the privilege of working at the
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) and currently serve
as the Acting Director of the Defense Sciences Office (DSO). Our
goal at DARPA is to create and prevent
technological surprise through investments in science and engineering, and
our history and contributions are well
documented. The DSO is sometimes
called “DARPA’s DARPA,” because we
strive to be at the forefront of all of
science—on the constant lookout for
opportunities to enhance our national security and collective well-being,
and our projects are very diverse. One
project uses cold atoms to measure
time with 10−18th precision; another is
creating amazing composite materials
that can change the way in which we
manufacture. We have other programs
that aim to reinvent synthetic chemistry,
and we even have one program that
attempts to reimagine the entire process
of scientific discovery itself.
Nearly all of our projects in the Defense Sciences Office are using computing and data to transform our view of
fundamental scientific questions. Com-
putation has become the most important tool for reimagining scientific problems since the advent of calculus and
codification of the scientific method
over 300 years ago. This observation has
been made several times over the past
decade, from a major issue of Nature7 in
2006 to the major report by the Computing Community Consortium4 in 2016.
But, as I look across the people working
on all of these and other exciting DSO
projects, where are all of the computer
scientists? I am actually kind of lonely.
This loneliness has led to a concern
that the field of computer science (in
particular computer science education)
might have a growing problem. In this
new wave of interest in computing we
may be unintentionally “misdirect[ing]
the young and brilliant minds” away
from important, use-inspired problems. In Fred Brooks’ Newell Award lecture over 20 years ago, entitled “
Computer Scientist as Toolsmith,”2 Brooks
notes that “a scientist builds in order to
study.” As computer scientists we build
algorithms and software systems of various kinds in order to study. Yet, in spite
of the expanding set of interdisciplinary
opportunities for computer scientists
to reimagine with our tools, too few of
us venture to build tools in foreign territory and we certainly do not teach the
interdisciplinary thinking to our undergraduate computer science students.
I have grown concerned that our educational priorities as a discipline are misplaced. We focus on training students to
become productive software developers,
which is driven by the current availability
of lucrative jobs. Hence, when they complete their education, most students’ experience of computing is limited to what
they have encountered in the classroom
or their personal life. Employers hand
them existing problems or they work
on things they know (such as games or
social media). The hard and complex
problems of scientific, engineering, societal, or national security importance are
rarely used to inspire students, let alone
to seriously shape curricula, at the undergraduate level.
We need a renewed emphasis on the
study of computing phenomena in the
physical world and stronger call to service to address issues of societal need.
Consider that Hilbert’s Tenth Problem
inspired Turing’s theoretical specification of a computing machine. The
needs of ballistics experts at the Aberdeen Proving Ground and Manhattan
Project scientists wrestling with neutron propagation and explosive “
lenses” motivated the need for ENIAC,
MANIAC and calculating machines.
Computer graphics emerged from the
Semi-Automatic Ground Environment
(SAGE), a system designed for Cold War
air defense. Some readers might recall
IMAGE BY MIKHAIL GRACHIKOV
