National Science Foundation

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What Does National Science Foundation Mean?

The National Science Foundation (SF) is a U.S. federal government agency that promotes and supports research and education in math, science, engineering and computer technology. The NSF is the major source of federal funds for computer science research. Initial research into networking was conducted by the NSF, which would eventually lead to the development of the Internet.

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Techopedia Explains National Science Foundation

The NSF was founded in 1950 following a broad agreement in Washington to provide federal support for science. In 1977, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), and involvement by NSF helps to expand a three-tiered network system to several universities and governmental agencies across the country. This system continued to expand and came to be known as NSFNet. This eventually developed into a major part of today's Internet backbone.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.