The CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development (CISDD)
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212.817.7221
Email:
(A CUNY Consortium)
The CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development (CISDD) is a University Consortium spur the development and commercialization of advanced software technologies and software engineering methods. The CISDD promotes job growth in the software and information technologies industries in New York by providing an important intellectual and economic resource to the software companies in New York City and related areas, including Westchester and Nassau counties. The Institute is designed to help the New York software industry compete more effectively with non-New York State regions in developing, incorporating, and bringing to market technological innovations in software functionality, performance, ease of development and maintenance.
The CISDD creates a conduit between industry and the large body of Computer Science faculty throughout CUNY. This conduit enables the software industry to make productive use of the knowledge and skills of CUNY Computer Science faculty. In so doing, CUNY, a public institution of enormous size, is at the forefront of addressing the software development needs of the entire metropolitan region.
The software, information technology, and Internet development businesses continue to be a major source of new jobs in New York City and its environs for the foreseeable future. Governor George E. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on August 2, 1999 announced a comprehensive $522 million economic development program that significantly increases the support for high-technology academic research and the state's capital investment in high-tech business growth. An April 1999 report on "The New York City Software/IT Industry" by the Office of the NYC Comptroller, shows that in 1997 there were 3,013 software and computer services companies in New York City with 29,550 employees. This represents an 84 percent increase in the number of firms and a 105 percent increase in the number of jobs in the five-year period from 1993 to 1997. The New York City area is now one of the largest software/Information Technology (IT) industry clusters in the country. The Comptroller's report identifies this software sector as a key component of an economic development strategy for the New York downstate area. This analysis also applies to New York State as a whole, which by 1997 had 7,446 companies and 73,597 software/IT jobs.
Nationally the need for additional funding for information technology research is being addressed as well. Based on a report drafted by the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (the PITAC report), the executive branch of the federal government has asked for an increase of $266 million dollars in federal funding for information technology for next year. The committee, made up largely of industry leaders, asked for a five-year funding increase of $1.3 billion dollars. Software is given the highest priority in the PITAC report, which calls for greater reuse of software components and the production of more reliable code.
The emphasis of the CISDD is on economic development of the software industry. This is done by developing and producing marketable software products and in aiding the software industry through a variety of education programs targeted to meet industry needs. The Institute concentrates on the creation of marketable products, tools for reliable software, and the development of "core" software technologies. Examples of the sorts of technologies that are addressed by the Institute include: database and search technologies, operating systems, Web protocols, application development tools, advanced programming languages such as Java, and mechanisms for sharing and creating the latest technological advances in reusable software for the broad software industry. All of these are critical to the long term success and viability of the software industry in New York.
Accordingly the Institute's major focus is the development and dissemination of software products, technologies and methodologies for the industry. By using small teams of faculty and students, the Institute serves as an incubation center for software by funding promising products or technologies internally and funding externally generated proposals for modest projects that have commercial merit. State funding is used as seed money for this purpose. The Institute makes a concerted effort to respond through its outreach program to the particular needs of the software industry. This outreach effort is enhanced by the CISDD's close working relationship with the New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA) and through contacts developed by the Institute's training sessions and forums (see below).
The Institute encourages and oversees promising grant applications of three types: grants provided to companies or small consortia of companies for collaborative work with CUNY faculty; internal CUNY grants which act as catalysts for writing innovative software; and larger collaborative projects that might be more speculative or research oriented. CISDD has created an education unit that provides high-level, state-of-the-art classes to industry and arrange forums for CUNY Computer Science faculty. The latter is done in conjunction with the CUNY Computer Science Discipline Council.
Internal Grants for Incubation Projects
Larger Grants, Contracts and Contributions
The Institute actively solicits contacts and larger grants (up to $100,000), as well as contributions from the larger New York area software companies. These funds are used for software projects that yield a marketable product or to support faculty and student research.
Proposal Evaluation
A joint committee of seven members, approved by the CISDD Director, consisting of four faculty, nominated by the computer science discipline council, and three industrial representatives, nominated by Board of the Institute, evaluate both internal and external grant proposals. The committee makes its recommendations to the Director, who transmits them to the Board for final approval. The Director prepares, and the Board of Directors review, the specific guidelines for each competition. Criteria for awarding grants include how likely the project can be completed in the given time limit and the likelihood that the project leads to a useful, marketable product.
Patent and Intellectual Property
The CUNY and Research Foundation patent and intellectual property policies and requirements of government funding sources determine intellectual property ownership and royalty participation in the creation and sale of software products that result from work completed with incubation funds.
Overview of Projects and Manual of Style
All software development projects (grants) are required to follow a manual of proper style. This stylebook includes proper documentation requirements for software, use of milestones incorporated into the grant application and in the software's implementation, and other software engineering design principles. By requiring participants to adhere to proper software engineering principles, their projects are more likely to succeed, the format of completed projects is more similar to one another, and follow-up tasks (patent applications, sales brochures, product testing, etc.) are simplified.
CISDD provides high-level technical education on a non-credit basis to the New York metropolitan area software industry. A large and growing number of small software company employees who are interested in improving their technical knowledge and skills benefit from exposure to the latest trends in software development. One obvious source of such people is the personnel employed by companies affiliated with NYSIA.
These non-credit courses and lectures are taught either by CUNY Computer Science and Engineering faculty or by industry experts employed as lecturers. The classes are held at the new GSUC Fifth Avenue location or at other CUNY campuses, as appropriate. Continuing education classes not fully subscribed are open to faculty and students affiliated with the Institute.
These classes and lectures focus on object-oriented methodology, sophisticated software and interface design tools, and methodologies for producing correct and reusable software.
Examples of classes and seminars offered
The CISDD implements its educational activities and outreach through its partnership with NYSIA, which has responsibility for coordinating publicity, outreach, and registration for the CISDD continuing education program. The CISDD managing director coordinates external educational activities with appropriate NYSIA staff. Campuses planning to run their own courses for software industry companies and wishing to have the imprimatur, publicity and outreach support of the CISDD, must submit the course plan to the director for review and approval.
Liaison with the CUNY Computer Science Discipline Council
The CUNY Computer Science Discipline Council was formed two years ago with a representative from each CUNY campus. This spring, the Discipline Council put together a special forum for computer science faculty that included presentations by industry professionals on the Java language, UML (Universal Modeling Language), and Web-based Oracle solutions. The Institute and the Discipline Council build on these efforts; their activities are closely coordinated. Periodically, CISDD staff attend council meetings to make presentations and announce funding and educational opportunities.
The administrative headquarters of the CISDD are at the new GSUC facilities at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. The CISDD staff consists of an Institute Director, a Managing Director, a Marketing Director, a Technical Support person, and a Secretary.
CISDD Director
The Director of the Institute is responsible for the overall running of the Institute. The CISDD Director is Professor Ted Brown, a full professor in the Computer Science department at Queens College and Executive Officer of the Doctoral Program in Computer Science. As Chair of the Computer Science Department at Queens College he engineered a great deal of change, including overseeing an ever-changing curriculum (e.g., the Queens Computer Science department was one of the first colleges in the country to change to Java as its students' first programming language). Professor Brown has been appointed chair of the Computer and Information Sciences section at the New York Academy of Sciences this past year.
The managing director is responsible for the daily operation of the Institute.
Marketing Manager
The marketing manager primarily works with NYSIA companies to help facilitate technology transfer opportunities. The marketing manager also works closely with CUNY's Technology Transfer officer to increase faculty and university marketing and patent opportunities in computer software.
Graduate Center Liaison-Associate Provost for Educational Technology and External Programs (Member of the CISDD Board)
The Associate Provost for Educational Technology and External Programs at the CUNY Graduate Center at the CUNY Graduate Center, who is responsible for all aspects of technology, instructional media, and distance learning at the Graduate Center, serves as liaison and serves on the Board. The current Associate Provost is Dr. Stephen Brier.
NYSIA Liaison- President of NYSIA (Member of the CISDD Board)
NYSIA (New York Software Industry Association) is a trade organization of 200 software companies in the New York City area. The President acts as a liaison to industry and as a member of the Board. The current president of NYSIA is Mr. Bruce E. Bernstein. Mr. Bernstein serves as a member of the New York Academy of Sciences Regional Technology Leadership Network and on New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi's High-Tech Advisory Board.
CUNY Workforce Initiative Liaison-Director of the Regional Educational Center for Economic Development (Member of the CISDD Board)
Current Director of the Regional Educational Center for Economic Development is Dr. Don Menzi.
CISDD has a twelve member governing Board consisting of
The three Computer Science faculty from CUNY and the three industrial representatives serve three year terms. Terms are organized so one computer science faculty and one industrial representative leaves the Board each year.
The Director and the Board are responsible for overall decision making and long range planning. The Board meets as necessary, but not less than four times a year, and establishes, as necessary, appropriate working committees.
Oversight
The University exercises oversight of the CISDD through the Office of Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The Director of CISDD reports in that capacity to the Vice Chancellor or designee.
The main goals of the CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development (CISDD) are to assist in the development of marketable software, to offer educational opportunities for software industry employees, and to work closely with the software industry in New York to enhance the region's high technology job sector.
The Institute's benefits to CUNY, New York City, and New York State include:
This web site is provided as a service by The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York. The Board of Trustees of CUNY reserves the right to make changes, without advance notice, in the academic offerings, requirements, fees, and other specifics provided by these pages.