Microsoft has joined a diverse set of leaders from industry, academia, the non-profit sector and government selected to assist the administration of President George W. Bush with some of the difficult challenges the United States faces in the realm of science and technology. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which convened its first meeting on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., includes 22 leaders from such companies as Intel, Lockheed Martin, and Dell Computer; universities including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgia Institute of Technology, and North Carolina State University, and such non-profit groups as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Semiconductor Industry Association. The council will assist the administration by developing recommendations on a wide range of issues -- from utilizing technology in the war on terrorism and investigating new ways to reduce energy consumption to reducing barriers to broadband availability.
|