ACCURATE is an multi-institution, interdisciplinary, academic research project on trustworthy computing. The research will focus on voting as a example of an application where trust is a critical issue (we expect that the results will be more widely applicable). It does not replace any existing organization; our goal is to help fill an existing gap by discovering new technology and new knowledge about trust and computing technology, including perspectives from computer science, psychology, and law. The grant can only be used for academic research, and most of it will go to student support.
ACCURATE is a team of researchers in computer science, psychology, and law, to do scientific research as part of NSF's "CyberTrust Program." The funded researchers are Prof. Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University, Drs. Drew Dean and Peter Neumann of SRI, International, Prof. Doug Jones of the University of Iowa, Profs. Dan Wallach and Michael Byrne of Rice University, Profs. Deirdre Mulligan and David Wagner of the University of California at Berkeley, and Profs. Dan Boneh and David Dill (me) at Stanford University. Every other individual or organization connected with the center is an "affiliate."
NSF funds long-term research and education in science and technology. The research to be conducted by this center will be on a broad variety of topics, including new approaches to computer security, auditing, program correctness, usability, and the relationship between technology and the law. We expect that the results will be applicable to many problems, not just voting. We also will be teaching classes that cover various aspects of voting technology.
Here is why we submitted the proposal: All of us got involved in the e-voting discussion because we are technology researchers who felt that bad decisions were being made about voting technology. We felt that we had a special responsibility as technology experts to speak up. Over the years, most of us have spent hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hours explaining the basics of computer systems to the press, critiquing proposed standards and legislation, making recommendations for voting equipment and procedures, etc.
While explaining things to the public should be a very important aspect of a professor's job, there are other major aspects, such as educating our own students and creating new knowledge and technology. We haven't had the resources to do as much of that kind of work on voting as we would like.
Research in voting technology is badly needed. As we all know, it is frustrating to have to choose the "least bad" solution to the difficult problems in voting, and often we just don't know the answers to important questions. We need new solutions to voting problems. We need better voting equipment, better security, more knowledge of how voters use voting technology, and more insight into how the law affects the proper use of technology. Ironically, we work on exactly these kinds of problems for a living, but we haven't had any funding to do it -- until now. So, ACCURATE is a major opportunity for us to use our professional skills and to take advantage of all we have learned about voting to improve voting technology and the use thereof.
This grant is not a financial windfall for the investigators. It is NSF's policy to pay only a small percentage of the salaries of faculty members, which are set by their employers. Most of this funding will go to pay the stipends and tuition of graduate students, who will work under the supervision of the investigators. They'll do most of the inventing and discovering, and, after they graduate, there will be a lot more voting technology experts with graduate degrees.
The answer to the question of whether ACCURATE center might necessitate a "shuffle" of leadership in VerifiedVoting.org or the Verified Voting Foundation is "no." It's a reasonable question, because the NSF and the institutions involved all have strong conflict of interest policies. However, there are no discernible conflict of interest issues related to VerifiedVoting.org, the Verified Voting Foundation, or other organizations. The staff at the NSF were very well aware of our activities while they were considering the grant. These issues might arise if there were money flowing between NSF and these organizations, but there isn't. (Of course, if unexpected conflict issues arise, we'll resolve them.) I don't have a major role in the day-to-day management of these organizations (the heavy lifting is done by Will Doherty, our Executive Director).
More generally, my research efforts will be guided by the same beliefs as to what is technically feasible, and what is right, that have guided my participation in the public dialog on e-voting. I'm not going to work on things I don't believe in, and I'm not going to do things with Verified Voting that I don't believe in.
The Verified Voting Foundation is an unfunded affiliate of the center, along with several individuals who are noted for their expertise in voting. These affiliates have expressed an interest in working with the Center on topics of mutual interest. None of these organizations or individuals receive any funding as part of the grant, and there are no contractual obligations on either side.
The affiliates don't endorse the views of the investigators. By being affiliates, they are on the record as saying that they thought some of the work we proposed was interesting enough to want to be involved. Similarly, the researchers are not going to agree with the affiliates on all matters. NSF doesn't necessarily endorse the views of the funded researchers, and certainly is not responsible for the views or activities of these affiliates.
VerifiedVoting.org is a separate organization from the Verified Voting Foundation. VerifiedVoting.org has no affiliation or financial connection with ACCURATE. My participation in that organization is a private activity that is not related to my employment by Stanford University or any of my research funding. I expect that the ACCURATE grant will have no effect on my participation in VerifiedVoting.org.
Sincerely,
David L. Dill
Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University
Founder of the Verified Voting Foundation and VerifiedVoting.org
Last updated 8/18/2005 by David L. Dill