February 1985
From The Space Library
In its Federal Scientific and Technical Workers: Numbers and Characteristics, 1973 and 1983, the National Science Foundation reported that the federal government was the largest single employer of scientific and technical personnel in the U.S.
Government employment of scientists grew by 20% between 1973 and 1983, from 74,000 to 89,000, although such employment declined during that period at NASA and the Department of Defense.
The variation by government agency in the proportion of scientists, engineers, and computer (SEC) specialists with at least a bachelor's degree was not great, ranging from 95% at the Department of Transportation (DOT) to 99% at NASA. The proportion of NASA SEC personnel with advanced degrees increased from 29% to 36% between 1973 and 83, reflecting the higher separation rates of bachelor's degree holders and those without degrees during the long-term cutbacks in SEC employees at NASA. The number of SEC staff at NASA declined 8% between 1973 and 83.
The decline of 1,800 electronics technicians during the period reflected primarily a fall in total white-collar employment levels of 10% at DOT and NASA; DOT's electronics technicians went from 8,800 to 7,800, NASA's from 900 to 600. (NSF 85-312 [final report], Feb 85)
Ames Research Center (ARC) announced it had formed the information sciences office to do basic and applied research in artificial intelligence (Al), automation sciences, and space-related computer science technology, with emphasis on applications to the NASA space station.
NASA had designated ARC as the lead center in Al research, and the new office's research would cover Al programming languages, expert-systems development, knowledge representation and information understanding, machine vision and learning, sensor fusion, and optical processing.
Space-related computer-science research would focus on symbolic-processing and data-flow architectures; network design, protocols, and simulation; and optical read/write information-storage technology.
ARC would combine in-house studies, primarily on applied research and development of flight experiments to validate and demonstrate the technologies being developed, with the work of outside research organizations, such as SRI International, Symbolics Inc., Innovative Optics, Inc., Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, MIT, University of Texas, and University of Michigan, on basic research issues to accomplish project objectives.
ARC would orient research toward the user community, particularly other NASA centers, focusing on both technology development for user applications and help to users during implementation. Space station automation would be the primary application, and ARC had signed agreements with Johnson Space Center and Goddard Space Flight Center to work together on this implementation. ARC would also advise on space station automation through participation on NASA advisory groups such as the space station automation study team, space station automation and robotics panel, advanced-technology automation committee, and NASA headquarters space station data systems steering committee. (ARC Release 85-6)
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