[TYPES] Grand Challenge Problems?

[Matthias Felleisen]

Dear Purush Iyer, 

what is a "grand challenge"? I naturally know the funding agency 
answer: 

 a tool for extracting a huge amount of money from politicians 
 who need something graphic to convince voters that their spending
 is acceptable and produces 'good' things

but I'd like to know whether there's a "scientific" definition 
that would make it worthwhile discussing the idea on a science
mailing list. 

Thanks -- Matthias





On Jan 16, 2010, at 5:04 PM, Purush Iyer wrote:

> [ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
> 
> Colleagues
> 
> Now that the lek (er, POPL community)   has decided on vexing questions
> about papers at POPL, I thought it best to consult this group on a harder
> problem.  In my current job at a funding agency I am confronted by the
> question, from Physicists and Control Theoreticians, "What are the main
> *scientific* grand challenge problems in Programming Languages and
> Systems?"   I have not too successful to date; hence this e-mail.
> 
> If y'all can come up with a list of five to ten challenges I would
> appreciate it very much.  I don't take this question lightly; I had a long
> chat with Jens Palsberg over the summer and I don't think we were able to
> make much headway.
> 
> Sincerely
> Purush Iyer