September 5, 2014
CONGRESS
AND THE BUDGET
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HOUSE TO VOTE ON PERMANENT R&d
TAX CREDIT
The tax credit already passed
the House May 9, but is now being packaged together with four other
measures by House Republicans. Whether this move helps the R&D
cause is unclear, since the White House has threatened to veto such tax
breaks because their costs are not offset, according to CQ. A memo
obtained by CQ quotes Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as
saying the package is intended "to remind Harry Reid and Senate
Democrats" of the House GOP's economic priorities.
IMMIGRATION SHIFT ON hOLD? That's the signal being sent by the White House,
press reports indicate. The administration worries that executive
action easing the plight of some undocumented immigrants would hurt
Senate Democrats campaigning in conservative states and thus further
weaken Democrats' chances of keeping control of the upper chamber.
Delaying action until after the election also makes a government
shutdown less likely after fiscal 2014 ends Sept. 30. Rep. Steve
King had threatened action that could stall a stopgap funding
bill if Obama acted on immigration. Now there appears to be no major
threat to a "clean CR" -- Hill-speak for a continuing resolution
without controversial riders.
LITTLE THREATS: Passing
the CR could still get complicated, even in the short period Congress
has left in the fiscal year. The bill "is just about the only piece of
legislation Congress is likely to advance before the midterm
elections," CQ notes, and so it will be "a tempting vehicle for
lawmakers looking to aid pet programs and address larger issues at the
tail end of a historically unproductive Congress."
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i
DATA
POINTS
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FEDERALLY FUNDED R&d
(In
millions)
FEDERAL
BASIC RESEARCH PERFORMED AT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Total
Computer
Science and Math
Engineering
Source: National Center for
Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF
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THE ADMINISTRATION AND RESEARCH AGENCIES
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DAVOS FOR EDUCATORS
Present and former
administration officials assumed prominent roles at this week's inaugural
meeting of the Global
Learning Council, a high-wattage virtual organization formed around
the idea that "the
promise of technology-enhanced learning to improve learning outcomes
for people everywhere has the potential to change the face of
humanity." The Pittsburgh event was jointly hosted by former National
Science Foundation Director Subra Suresh, now president of Carnegie
Mellon and chair of the GLC, and Patrick Gallagher, former director of
the National Institute of Standards and Technology and now chancellor
or the University of Pittsburgh. Tom Kalil, big-ideas honcho at the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, gave the
keynote.
Speakers and panelists included Joan Ferrini-Mundy, who heads the NSF
Education and Human Resources directorate, and Carl Wieman, formerly at
OSTP and now at Stanford. A playlist
of the sessions is on YouTube.
HAIL FELLOWS:
The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy is offering two-year
fellowships. The applied-research agency, part of the Department of
Energy "is looking for the next generation of scientific leaders to help solve the most pressing challenges in
energy."
WIND INNOVATION:
Texas Tech, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln will share in $4.5 million worth of DOE
awards "to help increase deployment of innovative wind power
technologies by optimizing the operation, boosting efficiency, and
improving the environmental performance of wind energy systems." See
the projects.
A FEW GOOD MENTORS: Nominations are due October 3 Texas for the Presidential
Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring
(PAESMEN). The award "recognizes individuals for their mentoring
of persons from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, women,
persons with disabilities, persons from disadvantaged socioeconomic
backgrounds, and early career scientists and engineers."
BRIDGEs TO BROADER PARTICIPATION: The enduring Louis
Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation
"assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM workforce"
by increasing student success in STEM. Its Bridge to the Doctorate has
an October 3 deadline. Other program deadlines are later in
October.
PICK UP THE PACE: The Designing
Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future program "integrates
materials discovery, development, property optimization, and systems
design and optimization, with each employing a toolset to be developed
within a materials innovation infrastructure."
It's NSF's piece of the Materials Genome Initiative for Global
Competitiveness, which aims to "deploy advanced materials at
least twice as fast as possible today, at a fraction of the cost." Learn
more.
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NATIONAL ACADEMIES
IT's here, it's there . . . STEM
Learning is Everywhere summarizes a
convocation that explored "how
connections among the formal education system, afterschool programs,
and the informal education sector could improve STEM learning." It's a
topic "that could have far-reaching implications for
how students learn about STEM subjects and how educational activities
are organized and interact."
cyber
malevolence: A National
Academies report
bills itself as "a call for action
to make cybersecurity a public safety priority." Until now, "most policy focus has been on the short-term
costs of improving systems." It should be "an ongoing process that needs to evolve as new
threats are identified."
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PUBLIC
POLICY AND HIGHER
ED
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WHOSE VOTE COUNTS? Two
deans whom University of Miami President Donna Shalala recruited from
Duke got a thumbs-down from faculty in
a vote that occurred as part of their reappointment review. She
kept them on anyway. A year earlier, the engineering dean was rejected
by faculty and subsequently resigned. Exploring the drama, a
Chronicle of Higher Education story reports that Miami's is "an unusual
system" but notes that "a strong faculty role is increasingly
recognized by colleges and universities nationwide as valuable in
reviews of deans and provosts."
COLLATERAL DAMAGE: If
you think the more citations a paper gets, the better, think again. If
a study is retracted in a high-profile case of misconduct, the
reputational loss is felt more widely, researchers at MIT found. A press
release
from the university reports: "Even valId older research, when cited in
a retracted study, loses credibility -- especially if the retracted
paper involves malfeasance."
BEHAVING BADLY: Manoj
Kumar Jha, a Morgan State University engineering professor and founding
director of the school's Center of Advanced Transportation and
Infrastructure Engineering Research, has been sentenced to three years
in prison for defrauding the National Science Foundation of grant
money. A judge also ordered him to pay $105,726 in restitution.
According to the U.S.
attorney's office,
trial testimony showed that Jha "fraudulently obtained $200,000 in
grant funds" from NSF's Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)
program to fund a highway project" and instead spent the money for
mortgage and credit-card payments and a salary for his wife.
'constructive disruption' is
the title of an ABET symposium next April 23 and 24. ABET encourages
those "influencing the future of technical education" to submit
abstracts. Find
out more.
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ASEE
& COMMUNITY NEWS
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ASEE,
DEAN KAMEN'S FIRST FORM
PARTNERSHIP: The
alliance
between ASEE and the nonprofit founded by the inventor "aims to promote
engineering careers and education to students across the country,
exposing them to all the possibilities a degree in STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and math) can offer," according to a press
release. ASEE will promote FIRST programs to K-12 teachers who
attend its engineering workshops. It will also promote Army, Navy, Air
Force, and NASA scholarship and internship programs managed by ASEE to
over 10,000 middle and high school FIRST students. In addition,
ASEE will provide its 13,000 members information and the opportunity to
support FIRST
by serving as mentors, coaches and volunteers. ASEE President Nicholas
Altiero is quoted as saying, "ASEE shares in the vision of FIRST
to enhance and expand the engineering and STEM workforce of the nation.
. . The skills of problem solving, team work, and critical thinking are
essential for students’ success in higher education and in their
subsequent careers. FIRST activities instill those skills."
REGISTER FOR ETLI: The
Engineering Technology Leadership Institute is set for Oct. 10 in
Crystal City, across the Potomac from Washington DC. The session brings
engineering technology educators together to discuss topics of
importance to the discipline and plan for the future. Find
out more.
start preparing abstracts: The
abstract submission phase opened Sept. 2, 2014 for the 2015 ASEE
Annual Conference and Exposition in Seattle. The Calls for Papers from
various divisions can be found here
TAKING THE LEAD: The
Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is hosting a workshop entitled
Academic Leadership for Women in Engineering at the WE14+ICWES16 Annual
Conference in Los Angeles on Oct. 24 and 25. There will be a specific
focus on best practices central to leadership in academia. Click here to learn
more and apply to attend the workshop.
Please complete the participant application by August 25. Funded
through support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the workshop is free to
all who are accepted. Contact learning@swe.org with any questions.
ON-LINE STEM
SUSTAINABILITY LIBRARY: This on-line library of
over 1700 juried articles and 300 videos was developed at James Madison
University with NSF funding. The site provides resources for those
researching or teaching sustainability across contexts.
ANNUAL
CONFERENCE - STORIFY VERSION: ASEE's
Engineering Libraries Division has put together a lively collection of
photos and tweets that captures the collaboration and camaraderie
of the Indy conference. Check it out here.
DEANS' FORUM ON
HISPANIC HIGHER EDUCATION
The
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) invites
engineering deans and chairs to the Third Annual Deans’ Forum on
Hispanic
Higher Education: Advancing Graduate School Opportunities and Success
for
Hispanic Students, following HACU’s 28th Annual Conference, Tuesday,
Oct. 7,
2014, 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. The forum will address issues facing
Hispanic
students in graduate education and highlight promising practices to
enhance
access and success. For more information, see http://www.hacu.net/hacu/Deans_Forum.asp.
‘PROFILES’
IS OUT: ASEE's
eagerly awaited 540-page Profiles of
Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges has been
published. Call ASEE (202-331-3500) to order a copy.
ASEE DIVERSITY
COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER: The
spring edition of the semi-annual newsletter is now
available. ASEE Past President J.P. Mohsen discusses a proposed
Year of
Dialogue on Diversity and details on safe zone ally training at the
annual
conference are posted, among other items.
VIDEOS
OF
THE PPC: View sessions from February's Public
Policy Colloquium of the Engineering Deans Council dealing with
advanced manufacturing, federal R&D, and K-12 engineering.
STAY
UP TO DATE
on ASEE's Retention Project by
clicking here
for updates.
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EDITOR: Mark Matthews;
CONTRIBUTOR:
William E. Kelly; NEW MASTHEAD DESIGN by Francis Igot,
incorporating the new ASEE logo.
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