May 30. 2015

DoD's 'SMART' PROGRAM COULD INCLUDE FOREIGN STUDENTS

The FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee would expand the Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarship program to include students from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The program is currently restricted to U.S. citizens. In a report accompanying the bill, the senators note that "over 50 percent of engineering doctorates are granted to foreign graduate students, with the percentage growing annually." Removing the restriction would allow the Pentagon to recruit "the best and brightest' into defense labs from these four countries. All close U.S. allies, the four are currently parties to the Technical Cooperation Program Memorandum of Understanding, originally signed in 1995 and amended since. Described as "the largest collaborative science and technology organization in the world," the program has enabled cooperation among thousands of scientists. Senators see this limited SMART expansion as a pilot project. Other friendly countries could be added in the future. 

LOSING OUR TECHNOLOGICAL EDGE: The Armed Services SMART proposal is just part of the panel's response to what it worries is an erosion of America's technological edge, a mainstay of U.S. global power for decades. Even the appointment of physicist Ash Carter as defense secretary hasn't eased the senators' concern. They question, for instance, whether the Defense Innovation Initiative launched in November 2014 by Carter predecessor Chuck Hagel is being implented "in an appropriate and expeditious manner." As noted in an earlier CS, the Committee proposes a $400 million initiative to spur the introduction of new technologies. Elaborating, the report says this new program would "accelerate the fielding of offset technologies, including, but not limited to, directed energy, low-cost high-speed munitions, autonomous systems, undersea warfare, cyber technology, and intelligence data analytics . . . ."

CUTS TO BASIC RESEARCH DECRIED: The administration's proposed reduction of Army basic research by almost 8 percent would "likely have a significant negative impact on the Department of Defense's ability to advance technology development," the senators say, because basic research lays the foundation "upon which other technology development and new defense systems are built."  

GLOBAL RESEARCH WATCH: Begun in 2003, this program is intended to assist Congress and DoD in directing research in areas where the United States is not the global leader, as well as finding and coordinating cooperative research projects. It's due to expire in September. The Senate Armed Services Committee wants it reauthorized for another decade. 

COMING UP: The next week will see House appropriators mark up their FY 2016 defense spending bill and the House Rules Committee consider how to proceed with the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriation, which funds the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

A HOUSE DIVIDED: Richard Jones of the American Institute of Physics summarizes the lengthy House debate that preceded passage of the GOP's COMPETES reauthorization bill.

CARVING UP THE BUDGET PIE

CQ, which prepared the chart below, explains: "Federal spending has been held relatively steady for the past few years by stringent budget caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act (PL 112-25). The December 2013 budget agreement known as Ryan-Murray (PL 113-67) eased those caps for two years (fiscal 2014 and 2015). Here's where the House, Senate and president prefer the money goes for the coming fiscal year."

PLAGIARISM PROBES NET $357,602: The National Science Foundation's Office of Inspector General, in its latest semi-annual report, says it recovered this amount after analyzing over 8,000 proposals from FY 2011 for evidence of plagiarism and opening 34 plagiarism investigations. Ten cases resulted in findings of research misconduct. One of the pending plagiarism investigations uncovered "significant financial issues," and could result in prosecution. "Overall, less than one half of one percent of the funded proposals contained enough plagiarism to constitute research misconduct." 

YOUR PUNISHMENT? HOLD A WORKSHOP: A Massachusetts associate professor found to have "recklessly" committed plagiarism in multiple NSF proposals was told by his university "to develop, obtain approval, and then present a workshop related to responsible conduct of research in STEM proposals; and, for three years, to submit external research proposals to the university’s research administration office three days before the internal deadlines." 

LEGAL RESOLUTIONS: The OIG report says two Florida scientists were convicted of defauding NSF and other agencies of $10.5 million; a South Carolina PI  got three years' probation and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty to theft in connection with false information on project reports; a South Dakota man was convicted of fraudulently obtaining award money from the SBIR-STTR program; two former NSF employees pleaded guilty to embezzlement; and a former program officer has been debarred for three years in connection with a probe into conflicts of interest and bribery.

UP TO 45 AWARDS totaling $9 million are available from NSF "to demonstrate proof-of-concept, prototype, or scale-up while engaging faculty and students in entrepreneurial/innovative thinking." A new solicitation "serves as an early opportunity to move previously NSF-funded research results with promising commercial potential along the path toward commercialization."

DEBUT DEADLINE: A contest sponsored by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering called  Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) has extended its deadline to 11:59 p.m. June 1. The contest challenges undergraduates to design solutions to unmet clinical needs.

'DEVASTATING': That's how Wes Bush, near left, CEO of defense giant Northrop Grumman, described the impact of sequestration on R&D, research universities, and faculty. "We are at risk of doing to higher education what we collectively have done to K-12," Bush said at a panel put on by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. (See a video). Even as his firm downsized to meet decreased Pentagon demand, it's been "aggressively" hiring to prepare for coming retirements across R&D disciplines. While praising the quality of expert graduates, "we've got to work on quantity." DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar, a fellow panelist, said that when she hears young technologists talking about their future plans, "very rarely do I hear national security on their list." DARPA hopes to change that with a September conference in St. Louis titled Wait, What?, exploring such topics as big data, neurotechnology, the forefront of biology, and the future of artificial intelligence.

FLOATING LABS: The National Science Foundation's ocean sciences division has accepted most of the recommendations contained in a National Academies decadal survey. See also: Vital Signs: Core Metrics for Health and Healthcare Progress. 

STUDENT ESSAY AND VIDEO CONTEST

ASEE's Diversity Committee is offering cash prizes for the top three submissions by undergraduates and grad students: "We are asking for a video or essay from current engineering and engineering technology students sharing a story related to any type of diversity (e.g., age, belief system, disability status, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and any other visible or non-visible differences)." The competition ends July 1, 2015! For more information, check out: http://diversity.asee.org/essay-contest

29th NETI: The National Effective Teaching Institute will be held July 29 -31, 2015, at the Hyatt Regency Montreal Hotel. Rebecca Brent, Richard Felder, Michael Prince will lead the workshop. Fifty faculty members from all branches of engineering and engineering technology will participate. Learn more.

A WORLD OF LEARNING: Come hear how Russia is building on an engineering tradition dating from Peter the Great. Find out about "friendly delivery" of lifelong learning in India and capstone design projects in China. Plus: Boeing's global R&D strategy, transcontinental academic partnerships, and more. Register for ASEE's 2015 International Forum June 14 in Seattle.