Cost Estimate

Our cost estimate is based on the assumption that 15 FTEs would be allocated to CS&E faculty over a six-year period. We assume that these 15 FTEs would be distributed as follows: four full professor, five associate professor, and six assistant professor FTEs. Start-up funds for both junior and senior faculty hires in CS&E would, in general, be substantially less than those typically needed for ``traditional laboratory scientists.'' A CS&E faculty member would require start-up funds primarily for computer systems, massive data storage systems, high-speed (optical) networks, parallel computer systems, graphics workstations, powerful PCs, and possibly large-scale stereo projection systems required for virtual reality applications. The following table summarizes our cost estimate.

	Office Space	Lab. Space	Start-Up Funds
	[sq. ft.]	[sq. ft.]	[$]
Four Full Professors, Step IV
Individual:	280	1,500	500,000
Sub-Total:	1120	6,000	2,000,000
Five Associate Professors, Step II
Individual:	210	900	300,000
Sub-Total:	1050	4,500	1,500,000
Six Assistant Professors, Step III
Individual:	210	600	200,000
Sub-Total:	1260	3,600	1,200,000
Total:	3,430	14,100	4,700,000

Office Space refers to the office space required for a faculty member and associated researchers. We assume that a full professor would require office space for two research associates, while an associate and assistant professor would require office space for one research associate (required office space per faculty member: 140 sq. ft, required office space per research associate: 70 sq. ft.). What we call Lab Space would effectively be the combined space required for students and computing equipment. We assume that Start-Up Funds would encompass the costs of an individual faculty member for computer hardware and software and potentially networking needs. In addition to these costs, one would have to consider the permanent costs for administrative support, technical support, and other forms of permanent maintenance of a CS&E Center and a CS&E Division. It seems reasonable to assume that the costs for these items, on a per-faculty basis, would be similar to those of a unit like Computer Science. Besides these costs, there would also be the costs to support the basic administrative office infrastructure that would be required for a Division of CS&E. Considering potential joint appointments with national laboratories, it is be reasonable to expect that the start-up requirements of a new faculty member also working at a national laboratory would be relatively lower as a result of the existing infrastructure provided by the laboratory.