October 17, 2014
THE
ADMINISTRATION AND RESEARCH AGENCIES
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EBOLA ALERT: NSF SEEKS RAPID
NON-MEDICAL RESEARCH
In
a "Dear Colleague" letter
today, National Science Foundation Director France Cordรณva invites proposals for "non-medical,
non-clinical care research that can be used immediately to better
understand how to model and understand the spread of Ebola, educate
about prophylactic behaviors, and encourage the development of
products, processes and learning that can address this global
challenge." Proposals would come under the Rapid
Response Research funding mechanism, requiring only internal merit
review at NSF. One-year awards can be up to $200,000.
CISE-ING UP INFRASTRUCTURE: NSF's
Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE) is
offering grants of up to $1 million for infrastructure projects that
enhance community use and have a plan for longterm sustainability.
Applicants should document prior research and education contributions,
new research opportunities that infrastructure would provide, and plans
for community outreach. Learn
more. CISE, Engineering and several other directorates are
participating Major
Research Instrumentation Program (MRI), which aims to increase
access to shared scientific and engineering instruments for research
and research training.
IN SEARCH OF . . . a new
director of the Division of Engineering Education and Centers within
NSF's Engineering Directorate. It's a Senior Executive Service-level
job. Find
out more.
TOO MUCH TESTING: The
STEM Coalition, an advocacy group to which ASEE belongs, met recently
with Roberto Rodriguez, who serves on the White House Domestic Policy
Council as special assistant to the president for education. ASEE's
Nathan Kahl participated. He reports: The
administration feels there is too much
testing in math and reading, to the potential detriment of science
education.
Rodriguez cited the recent Tackling
Excessive Standardized Testing Act, introduced by Rep. Steve Israel
(D-NY)
as one effort to reduce the “testing footprint.” In
his final two years, President Obama hopes to
make strides on his high school
redesign
efforts, in which he encouraged all districts to reconceptualize
teaching. Rodriguez notes the administration
has a blueprint
for the reauthorization of the Perkins Act, which provides over
$1
billion in support for career and technical education (CTE) programs.
He says,
“We need to think about the CTE pathways and what the ‘next gen’ of CTE
looks
like. People all over are engaged in career-relevant activities and
kids are
getting strong, hands-on background experiences.”
[To find out what an analyst at the center-left New America Foundation
thinks of the current state of career education -- which is not much --
click here.]
OBAMA'S NEXT BUDGET to SEEK
SEQUESTER RELIEF: Office
of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, right, says the FY
2016 proposal will emphasize increasing non-defense discretionary
spending, the part of the budget that supports university research at
the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and
other agencies. CQ Roll Call quotes him as saying "it's absolutely
critical on the non-defense side that we continue to make progress
against sequestration" to fund, among other things, infrastructure and
research and development. (See below for congressional appropriators'
post-election plans for the current fiscal year.) Separately, OMB has
clarified its
guidance on the dual role of student and postdoctoral researchers.
DEFENSE SBIR PROGRAM: WHERE ARE THE WOMEN AND MINORITIES?
A National Research Council study of
the Pentagon's Small Business Innovative Research program found that
participation of women and under-represented groups "is low and not
increasing," and is not something DoD has made a sustained effort to
foster and encourage. During the period the NRC studied, "approximately
15 percent of awards went to women-owned small businesses . . . and 7
percent to minority-owned small businesses." What's more, black- and
Hispanic-owned firms "are themselves a very small share" of
minority-owned small businesses overall. "There is no evidence" that
Congress's objective of encouraging increased female and minority
participation plays a role in the selection processes "at any DoD
component."
ISIS, iraq, SYRIA, AND . . . "Drastic
weather, rising seas, and changing storm patterns could become 'threat
multipliers' for the United States, vastly complicating security
challenges faced by American forces." So reads a Washington Post summary
of a new Pentagon report on the
impact of climate change, described as an "adaptation roadmap."
CAN'T GET IT TOGETHER: Federal
agencies are having trouble responding to congressional mandates for
research into and monitoring of ocean acidification, which the Government
Accountability Office
says "could have a variety of potentially significant effects on marine
species, ecosystems, and coastal communities." The pertinent agencies
have yet to implement several of the 2009 law's provisions, "including
outlining the budget requirements for implementing the research and
monitoring."
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i
DATA
POINTS
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LABOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES 2000-11
labor productivity growth in
knowledge-intensive services 2000-11
growth
in average salaries
AVERAGE 2012 ANNUAL SALARIES FOR SELECTED U.s.
INDUSTRIES AND BROAD OCCUPATIONS
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CONGRESS
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hOPE FOR AN OMNIBUS IN LAME-DUCK
CONGRESS: CQ
reports that Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) has
"told staffers to use the current recess to review the differences
between the chambers, so that omnibus negotiations could begin in
earnest on Nov. 5 -- the day after the elections." Her House
counterpart, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) "said crafting an omnibus
should not be a 'Herculean' task." As opposed to a bare-bones
continuing resolution, an omnibus would lump together the spending
bills already approved by appropriators and assure their views guide
future spending.
ROBBED OF SUSPENSE: As the
Washington Post's Election
Lab
data crunchers see it, there's no longer even a question of whether
Republicans will gain control of the Senate in the upcoming election.
Their latest forecast gives the GOP a 95 percent chance of gaining the
needed six seats. Others are more hesistant: The New York Times gives
Republicans a 72 percent chance of gaining a majority; Nate Silver's
FiveThirtyEight gives them a still-comfortable 62.2 percent chance.
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NATIONAL ACADEMIES
big data in the classroom: Training students to exploit
big data "requires experience with statistical analysis, machine
learning, and computational infrastructure," says a report
from the National Academies. They'll also need cross-disciplinary
skills, "including the ability to make modeling decisions while
balancing trade-offs between optimization and approximation, all while
being attentive to useful metrics and system robustness."
SOLICITING YOUR OPINION:
The
National Academy of Engineering plans a colloquium in November on
Understanding the Engineering Education-Workforce Continuum. It is
seeking feedback from stakeholders that will help shape topics to be
addressed. The NAE wants to hear from, among others, professional
society leadership; faculty;
engineers working in industry;
employers and managers of engineers; students; administrators; and
career counselors. See the questionnaire.
Address questions to
naeworkforce@gmail.com.
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PUBLIC
POLICY AND HIGHER
ED
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TOP SCIENCE POLICY ISSUES FOR CONGRESS is
an interactive website
created
by the American Geophysical Union that "allows members and the public
to learn about the most pressing science policy issues facing their
state, handing them the knowledge they need to effectively discuss
issues surrounding drought, extreme weather, energy, water resources,
space science, and many more."
EXXON-MOBIL continues its
promotion of engineering careers with a fun video, 15
Signs You Were Born to Be an Engineer.
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ASEE
& COMMUNITY NEWS
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transforming undergraduate education in engineering -
phase ii - In
the next phase of this ASEE-NSF project, students will share their
views on the strengths and weaknesses of the current curricula
structure and teaching methodologies. They will be asked how the
culture of engineering education could better adjust to the strengths
of individual engineering students and how the engineering educaiton
experience can be transformed into an exciting program of study that
will draw in and motivate students -- thereby reducing the need for
massive recruitment initiatives and retention programs. ASEE seeks help
in identifying students to participate. Please send nominations
to Tengiz Sysykov at t.sydykov@asee.org.
The deadline has been extended to Oct. 17, 2014 --
one week from today.
VIDEO INTERVIEWS:
Leaders at NSF and the Navy Discuss the Future of
Engineering
Watch interviews with NSF Assistant Director for
Engineering Pramod Khargonekar, left, who talks
about exciting
NSF projects and opportunities for ASEE members, and Rear Admiral David Johnson, who discusses
the
importance of technology to the U.S. Navy and where naval research is
headed. The videos are part of
ASEE’s Advanced
Research Monitor Interview Series.
THE DEADLINE IS RAPIDLY
APPROACHING to
submit abstracts for the 2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in
Seattle. Abstracts will be accepted only through October 19, 2014. See
the Call
for Papers for more information. Applications for workshops and
distinguished lectures may be submitted until November 2, 2014.
YES, wepan: The
Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) is holding its 2015 Change Leader Forum
- Roadmap to Inclusion: Engineering Excellence for the 21st Century
next June 9-11 in Broomfield Col., outside Denver. The deadline for
proposals is Nov. 26, 2014.
PATHWAYS
TO INNOVATION: Engineering deans
are invited to join the Pathways to Innovation program, run by the
Epicenter at Stanford. It's designed "to
help
institutions transform the experience of their undergraduate
engineering
students and fully incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship into a
range of
courses as well as strengthen co- and extra-curricular offerings."
Teams receive "access to models for
integrating entrepreneurship into engineering curriculum, custom
online
resources, guidance from a community of engineering
and entrepreneurship
faculty, and membership in a national network of schools with similar
goals'' See the call
for proposals. For more information, contact Liz Nilsen at lnilsen@nciia.org
THE SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL HISPANIC
ENGINEERS (shpe) Deans’ Summit will take
place in Detroit, Michigan on Friday morning, November 7 as a part of
the
annual SHPE National Conference. The Summit will focus on the
challenge
of building a diverse pipeline of engineering students.
Leaders
from SHPE, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE),
and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) will present their
current efforts
and needs for support in this area. The goal is to develop
recommendations and
actions to strengthen the ties between these organizations, academia
and
industry.
ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The
Seventh International Conference
on Engineering Education for Sustainable Development
(EESD15) "will
explore current and future ways of thinking in the emerging field" and
the groundbreaking worth since 2002. It will be held June 9-12, 2015 at
the University of British
Columbia’s (UBC) Point Grey campus. 7 of EESD and
will celebrate the ground-breaking work accomplishing in EESD since
2002.
The conference will be held from June 9-12, 2015 at the University of
British
Columbia’s (UBC) Point Grey campus in Vancouver. See the conference
themes. Abstracts are due October
13.
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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