Five, while decisions about specific situations will depend both on overall governmental policies as well as on judgments made by individual representatives of Federal agencies, wise decisionmaking will depend on having technically sophisticated people in the Federal agencies involved.

Sixth, it should be recognized that the United States must ultimately depend on the strength and accomplishments of its scientific and technical community for its national security. This community needs the freedom to communicate openly to retain its vitality.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to testify, Mr. Chair

man.

[The statement of Professor Willenbrock follows:]

UNITED STATES ACTIVITIES BOARD

THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC.

1111 19th STREET, N W WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA TELEPHONE (202) 785-0017

TESTIMONY OF

DR. F. KARL WILLENBROCK

CHAIRMAN OF THE IEEE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER COMMITTEE

BEFORE THE

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COURTS, CIVIL LIBERTIES

AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

NOVEMBER 3, 1983

My name is F. Karl Willenbrock. I am Cecil H. Green Professor of Engineering at Southern Methodist University. 1 appear before you today as Chairman of the Technology Transfer Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). This Institute was founded in 1884 and is a transnational technical society with more than 230,000 members worldwide. The Technology Transfer Committee which has developed this testimony is administered by the Institute's U.S. Activities Board, which is concerned with the public policy issues that affect the 190,000 Institute members who live in the United

States.

The U.S. attained a position of world leadership in science and technology in the post World War II era. One reason for the success of the U.S. technological enterprise is that an extremely effective system of communication, among the professionals in the various disciplines, has been developed. At the heart of this communication system are the scientific and professional societies. I should like to give the Committee some indication of the scope and character of these societies by reference to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the leading professional society in the electrical, electronics, and computer fields. Almost all active fields of science and technology in the U.S. are served by one or more professional societies.

A major function of these societies is to provide the means for technical communication among the professionals in the various scientific and engineering fields and to create, for the future, a permanent record of the knowledge generated. The major modes of communication are the publication of journals and the sponsorship of meetings. At present, the IEEE publishes more than fifty technical periodicals (about 115,000 pages a year) and sponsors a minimum of 225 major technical meetings a year. In these periodicals and at these meetings, the theories, experimental results, and data that constitute the body of knowledge on which electrical, electronic, and computer engineering is based, are presented and debated. This procedure of research and discovery

followed by communicating the results to professional peers is an Integral part of the process of the continuing growth of scientific understanding and the continuing development of new technological capability. The process engages participants ranging from the leading researchers in the field to the neophytes just entering the field. It stimulates new ideas and new contributions to knowledge and it disseminates this knowledge in a systematic and effective way to the professional community who will

use it.

The vital role of the professional societies and the open communication systems they operate were brought home to me personally as the result of a trip I made to Indonesia last summer, was part of a group from the National Academies of Science and Engineering whose objective was to advise the Indonesian Minister of Research and Technology on ways to make his country's scientific and technical programs more effective in that nation's development. It turned out that there are no effective professional societies in Indonesia and so the scientists and engineers there did not have available a systematic means of comuni cation among the specialists in various technical fields. They had practically no knowledge of the programs and projects in the various governmental, university, and private-sector laboratories In their own country. It is not surprising that their rate of progress is slow. A slow rate of technological progress charac

terizes many societies in which free scientific and technical

communication is inhibited.

In contrast, the U.S. has probably the most open system of technical communication in existence. The professional

societies, as a major element in this system, continue to grow and expand their activities. Their resources are generated almost entirely from the dues paid by members and the sale of periodicals. For example, the 31 societies which constitute the IEEE represent the current specialties within the electrical/electronics/computer community. As new fields of knowledge are created and new technologies emerge, additional societies or groupings will be formed within the Institute.

It is because these societies are so successful and contri

bute so directly to the advance of the various fields of engineering, science and technology that the science and technology community is greatly concerned with interference with their operations. Yet there have been an increasing number of occasions in which the dissemination of technological information has been adversely affected because of concern that information being disseminated would damage U.S. security. These occasions include the suppression of papers scheduled to be presented at conferences and modifications of papers submitted for publication.

It is of utmost importance for the continuing technological progress in the U.S. to examine the reasons for these interferences and to develop procedures to eliminate the conflict between the requirement of maintaining national security and the