Autonomic computing (AC) denotes a broad area of scientific and engineering research on methods, architectures and technologies for the design, implementation, integration and evaluation of special- and general-purpose computing systems, components and applications that are capable of autonomously achieving desired behaviors. AC systems aim to be self-managed in order to enable independent operation, minimize cost and risk, accommodate complexity and uncertainty or enable systems of systems with large numbers of components. Hence, system integration and automation of management are important areas of research whose contexts subsume other AC research topics. These might include, to varying degrees, self-organization, self-healing, self-optimization (e.g. for power or speed), self-protection and other so-called self-* behaviors. CAC research activities will advance several disciplines that impact the specification, design, engineering and integration of autonomic computing and information processing systems. They include design and evaluation methods, algorithms, architectures, information processing, software, mathematical foundations and benchmarks for autonomic systems. Solutions will be studied at different levels of both centralized and distributed systems, including the hardware, networks, storage, middleware, services and information layers. Collectively, the participating universities have research and education programs whose strengths cover the technical areas of the center. Within this broad scope, the specific research activities will vary over time as a reflection of center member needs and the evolution of the field of autonomic computing.

CAC members are afforded access to leading-edge developments in autonomic computing and to knowledge accumulated by academic researchers and other industry partners. New members will join a growing list of founding members that currently includes BAE Systems, EWA Governemnt Systems, IBM, Intel, Merrill-Lynch, Microsoft, Northrop-Grumman, NEC, Raytheon, Xerox, Avirtech, Citrix, Imaginestics, and ISCA Technologies. Benefits of membership include:

Per NSF guidelines, industry and government contributions in the form of annual CAC memberships ($35K/year per regular membership), coupled with baseline funds from NSF and university matching funds, directly support the Center's expenses for personnel, equipment, travel, and supplies. Memberships provide funds to support the Center's graduate students on a one-to-one basis, and thus the size of the annual membership fee is directly proportional to the cost of supporting one graduate student, while NSF and university funds support various other costs of operation. Multiple annual memberships may be contributed by any organization wishing to support multiple students and/or projects. The initial operating budget for CAC is projected to be approximately $1.5M/year, including NSF and universities contributions, in an academic environment that is very cost effective. Thus, a single regular membership is an exceptional value. It represents less than 3% of the projected annual budget of the Center yet reaps the full benefit of Center activities, a research program that could be significantly more expensive in an industry or government facility.