YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?

A new National Science Foundation venture in the professional formation of engineers (PFE) bears the title Revolutionizing Engineering Departments and the acronym RED. It addresses the "processes and value systems by which people become engineers" and declares that "the engineering profession must be responsive to national priorities, grand challenges, and dynamic workforce needs; it must be equally open and accessible to all." Cultural barriers to inclusion of students and faculty must be identified," and other changes made to "educate inclusive communities of engineering students." The lead program manager listed is Donna Riley, deputy editor of ASEE's Journal of Engineering Education. Learn more.

NOT FORGOTTEN: Engineering education research is still sought, particularly if it delves into diversifying pathways; credentialling, scaling up educational innovations, learning "in broader ecosystems such as innovation, globalization, or sustainability," and learning theories. Find out more.

TEAM PLAYERS: NSF I-Corps Teams represent one of three components of a program established to advance commercialization of innovations arising from NSF-funded research. The others are I-Corps Nodes and I-Corps Sites. The teams' purpose "is to identify NSF-funded researchers who will receive additional support - in the form of mentoring and funding - to accelerate innovation that can attract subsequent third-party funding."  Regular webinars are scheduled.

MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS: The NSF is interested in "supply chain optimization and management; production planning and scheduling; monitoring and control of manufacturing processes; and maintenance and repair. Of particular interest are methods that incorporate increasingly rich enterprise process and product information and models, methods that address sustainability, and methods that incorporate characteristic uncertainty and risk." Proposal window: Sept. 1-15.

other looming deadlines: Design of Engineering Material Systems; Hazard Mitigation and Structural Engineering; and the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program.

DEVELOPING-WORLD COLLABORATION: The NSF and USAID are funding 39 research projects "that advance the scientific and technical capacity of both the United States and countries in critical areas of development" -- chiefly Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

NATIONAL ACADEMIES

'BROADER IMPACTS' best practices: The National Science Foundation is making a modest investment in getting better results from "broader impacts," the second key criterion in its merit-review process. It's provided $500,000 for a five-year project led by the University of Missouri called the Broader Impacts and Outreach Network for Institutional Collaboration (BIONIC). NSF hopes to see "a systematic and consistent approach to Broader Impacts that will lead to better fulfillment . . . better evaluation . . . and a system for evaluating the effectiveness of Broader Impacts activities in the aggregate." But something still seems to get lost in translation. Missouri's press release says the effort is designed to "encourage education and outreach efforts that communicate the value of taxpayers' investment in federal scientific research." That's not guite what the Broader Impacts guidelines call for.

ex-professor faces possible charges: The University of Kentucky is accusing Dongping "Daniel" Tao, a former professor of mining engineering, of having faked invoices, made graduate students work for his private consulting business for free while he pocketed more than $1 million, and of  ultimately misusing more than $400,000. In a lengthy story, the Lexington Herald-Leader says the results of two investigations have been turned over the local, state, and federal authorities.