April 26, 2015

'COMPETES' STRAINS

In the HOUSE: Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) ranking Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, has introduced her party's version of an America COMPETES reauthorization. She denounced the bill advanced by panel chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) as "worse than an opportunity lost. It's a tragedy in waiting."

Johnson calls for 5 percent annual increases over five years for the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy. But in the GOP-controlled House, her bill serves mostly as a debating tool.

Smith's measure cleared the committee on a partisan 19-16 vote after Republicans rejected a series of Democratic amendments. The word among House staffers is that Smith is seeking floor time for debate and a vote by the full House as early as the coming week. His bill stays within the budget caps, increases funding of certain research, including engineering, and would keep spending the same for two years.

. . . and SENATE: Until very recently, the Senate Commerce Committee under John Thune (R-S.D.), right, had not shown a strong interest in COMPETES. This allowed a GOP champion of the 2007 and 2010 COMPETES laws, Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to assume the lead. He chairs Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which shares jurisdiction with the Commerce and Energy panels. Alexander's staff is said to be drafting a five-year bill with 4 percent annual increases for science agencies, slightly less generous than the House Democrats' plan. It could be introduced in a matter of weeks.

But Thune is now asserting himself. The day after the other Lamar -- Smith -- introduced his bill in the House, Thune tweeted about it favorably. And this week, Thune and Smith issued a joint statement, agreeing that: "The conversation about reauthorization of federal science and technology R&D agencies must include an honest assessment of how scarce federal dollars can have the greatest impact."

FUSION, MANUFACTURING, AND CLIMATE: Among amendments that will add new provisions to the House bill is one that stakes out a U.S. responsibility for fusion R&D. It states that training the next generation of fusion scientists "should in no way be diminished" by American participation in the France-based ITER project.  Another seeks to know whether U.S. domestic manufacturers are capable of equipping major Department of Energy facilities. A third allows continuation of Energy Frontier Research Centers, though not construction of new facilities. The committee also acknowledges that climate change is "real," but stripped out a provision stating that human activity was a significant contributor.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY TENSION: House appropriators want to slash the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program by 13.8 percent, to $1.66 billion, ScienceInsider reports. The White House has requested a 45 percent boost, to $2.72 billion. Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan complained in a letter that the cuts would curtail "critical innovation and technological advancement in clean and renewable energy" and undermine competitiveness "in the future global clean energy economy." The White House previously threatened to veto appropriations bills that lock in sequestration spending levels, as this bill does.

VULNERABLE ELECTRIC GRID: Overall, the House Appropriations Committee OKd adding $1 billion to Department of Energy funding above the current level, but came in $1.5 billion below what President Obama had requested. The panel looked closely at how to protect the nation's "highly integrated" electric grid from cyberattack. In a report accompanying the Energy and Water spending bill, the panel calls for accelerated deployment of "community-scale power microgrids that improve local energy reliability and resilience through technologies such as on-site generation and storage." Grid enhancements could include "microgrid systems . . . customized to connect distributed generation." DOE is urged to "establish one or more grid integration demonstration modules" comprising a utility and "industrial and academic partners." The department should also "partner with universities, national laboratories, and industry" to ensure that "regional weather and related environmental variables are accounted for in advanced grid modeling research." Other points:

• DOE should "prioritize" R&D investments "so that they engage and further develop the capabilities of university undergraduate and graduate programs in power and energy.
• Continuation of the $5 million Integrated University Program, "which is critical to ensuring the nation’s nuclear science and engineering workforce in future years.
• University partnerships to support ongoing fossil energy programs, to promote broader research into CCS (carbon capture and storage) technologies, and to expand technology transfer efforts.

NUCLEAR PAYLOAD: Appropriators allot nearly $50 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Academic Alliances and Partnerships. They fault NNSA for proposing to cut the program and thereby "undercutting these foundational partnerships." Of the total, $16.5 million would go toward Minority Serving Institution Partnerships. The panel also backs a Nuclear Science and Engineering Grant Program.

ARPA-E FLATLINED: House appropriators hold it at $280 million - $45 million less than the administration sought.

STRATEGY FOR HBCUs DEMANDED: A House Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee is calling on each military department to "develop a strategy for engagement with and support of the development of scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics capabilities with historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions" and report back to the panel.

GAO PROBE OF PENTAGON R&D? The House Armed Services ETC panel wants the Government Accountability Office to "review how the Department's research and development funds are used and whether this approach to funding effectively
supports technology risk reduction activities, operations analysis, prototyping, experimentation, and technology transition." Members are "concerned . . .  about the lack of technology transition that occurs between the Department's science and technology activities and acquisition programs." We'll see if this language makes it into the final bill.

CALL FOR DEBT-FREE EDUCATION: Inside Higher Ed reports on a pair of Democratic resolutions in the House and Senate that push the idea of "access to debt-free higher education" for all students at public institutions. The Senate resolution, whose backers include Elizabeth Warren of Massachusets, right, calls for support to states so they can lower costs for students and increase financial aid, innovation on the part of states and institutions to speed degree completion, and a reduction of the existing student loan debt.

SIZE OF THE U.S. S&E WORKFORCE BASED ON OCCUPATION AND S&E TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

2003 and 2010

Source of graphics above and below: National Science Board, Revisiting the STEM Workforce: A Companion to Science and Engineering Indicators 2014

INNOVATION DOES NOT EQUAL R&D: A new National Science Board report reflects on STEM workforce data collected for Science and Engineering Indicators 2014. It notes that "scientists and engineers with advanced degrees are necessary but far from sufficient for a globally competitive knowledge- and technology-intensive economy." With automation, "remaining jobs demand higher levels of STEM knowledge and skill." Also, "we have learned that innovation is not the sole province of R&D workers. Although companies engaged in R&D activities report a higher incidence of innovation, most of the innovation in the U.S. occurs in firms that are not significantly engaged in R&D. Adoption and diffusion of innovation commonly requires organizations to rely on workers with STEM competencies to learn, adapt, install, debug, train, and maintain new processes or technologies."

MANUFACTURING PRIORITIES: The National Science Foundation is the lead agency in setting up a $3 million to $6 million Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Foresights. Its purpose: "defining the critical needs of the advanced manufacturing research community." A proposal may only be submitted by "an existing organization that is a consortium or that represents a consortium, with a stake in basic research and education in advanced manufacturing" and that includes "institutions of higher education with strong research track records in advanced manufacturing and other private and public sector organizations, including industry."

CYBER CAREERS: Researchers in cyberinfrastructure are encouraged to apply for NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grants through the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure. The division's interests include "use-inspired and/or applied multidisciplinary research."

ENGINEER TAPPED FOR LEADING PENTAGON POST:  Stephen P. Welby, currently deputy assistant secretary for systems engineering at the Department of Defense, has been nominated as assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering. He spent about a decade at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and subsequently served in multiple roles at DARPA. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from The Cooper Union, an MBA from Texas A&M and master's degrees in computer science and applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins.

WHEELCHAIR INNOVATORS: Global Research Innovation & Technology, launched by MIT engineering graduates to market the  Freedom Chair, is among the organizations and companies that  earned a U.S. Patent Office Patents for Humanity award. The three-wheel chair, built from standard bicyle parts, "uses a push-lever drivetrain to help people move over broken pavement, dirt roads, fields, hills, rocky terrain and more."

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION: See a White House report on federally funded research. 

MATH WORLD SHAKE-UP: In a story that may also apply to engineering, Inside Higher Ed reports that life-science faculty across the country want their math departments to change the standard curriculum for non-math majors. Their students should be studying "more applicable math -- think equations about biological, ecological and evolutionary processes, many of which require computer programs to solve -- earlier in their careers." They also don't want to lose students who struggle through calculus.

DREAM TEAMS: With scientific collaboration growing across disciplines and institutions, a National Academies report explores what's needed to make "team science" effective. The top three requirements: "team composition (assembling the right individuals), team professional development, and team leadership."

NORTHEAST SECTION CONFERENCE: The final schedule is posted for the April 30 to May 2 conference at Northeastern University, organized around the theme, “Professional Formation of Engineers.” The lineup includes 112 oral presentations, 114 student posters, six workshops Thursday afternoon (available with or without conference registration), and a focus group, sponsored by Wiley, on Enabling Technologies in Active Learning for the 21st Century. See the website.