Jan 30, 2009 - Claremont, Calif. - Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe has been asked to participate in the development of a strategic plan for the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program (NITRD), an agency of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of President Barack Obama.

The NITRD program comprises 13 member agencies (listed below) and a variety of participating units. Collectively, the NITRD agencies invest over $3 billion annually in networking and information technology research and development. The strategic plan is intended to guide coordination of those investments.

Klawe has been asked to provide individual input, along with that of a small number of visionary thinkers in the academic and commercial sectors. She was recruited for her expertise in developing educational and career tracks for broadening participation in the IT sector.

She will be participating in a public workshop in Washington, D.C., Feb. 25. The workshop will be webcast live and viewers will be able to submit questions via e-mail during the proceedings.

NITRD member agencies:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• Department of Energy – National Nuclear Security Agency (DOE/NNSA)
• Department of Energy – Mathematical, Information, and Computational Science Division (DOE/SC)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• National Security Agency (NSA)
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Office of the Deputy, Under Secretary of Defense (OSD/DOD)
• DoD Service research organizations (Science and Technology)

President Klawe was the co-author of a recent cover article "Inspiring Women in Computing" in the magazine Communications of the ACM. Co-authored with Telle Whitney and Caroline Simard, it traces the progress made over the last 15 years in educating females about opportunities in the computing field, as well as the many obstacles still standing in the way.