Facebook icon Twitter icon Forward icon

April 17, 2015

CONGRESS AND THE BUDGET

FAST TRACK FOR GOP's COMPETES BILL

Bypassing subcommittees, a Republican-sponsored COMPETES reauthorization goes before the full House Science, Space, and Technology Committee April 22, a week after its introduction by Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.). The 189-page bill would fund the National Science Foundation's Engineering and CISE directorates at more than the Obama administration's request, while cutting social sciences and Education and Human Resources. The two-year authorization keeps 2017 levels the same as 2016.

The Numbers:

ADMINISTRATION REQUEST.......................House GOP BILL

NSF...........$7,723 billion.................................:$7.597 billion

    CISE........ $954 million................................$1.050 billion

    ENG..........$949 million...............................$1,034 billion

    EHR..........$962 million.................................$866 million

NIST............$1.12 billion...................................$934 million

DOE SC......$5.3 billion...................................$5.3 billion

A GOP press release quotes Smith as saying, "American researchers are falling behind in critical areas such as supercomputing and particle physics, and we risk losing our lead in nanotechnology, the health sciences, advanced nuclear reactor technology and other crucial areas." Besides basic energy research, he stresses "biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, engineering and mathematics" at NSF. At Energy, basic science increases are offset by cuts to DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Going after misconduct and flawed research, the bill instructs NSF to make public within 30 days any proven cases of research misconduct, "including the name of the principal investigator," and tells the  National Research Council to assess research and data reproducibility and replicability in interdisciplinary research.

The bill encourages "alternative research funding models," including prizes and crowdsourcing.

'APPALLING': That's the verdict of Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), ranking Democrat on the science panel, on Smith's proposal. "This bill is an America Competes bill in name only." Her staff's 6-page critique says it "arbitrarily provides increases to the natural sciences and engineering at the expense of the social, behavioral, and economic sciences (SBE), geosciences, prestigious fellowships for American graduate students, EPSCoR, international collaboration, and STEM education." The memo cites cuts totaling $50 million for NSF's Graduate Research Fellowships, EPSCoR, and Major Research Instrumentation.

Besides EERE, Democrats note deep cuts to ARPA-E's funding request as well as cuts to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. The bill also "does not fund the new manufacturing institutes requested by the administration." It also lacks "anything substantive and meaningful on broadening participation in STEM to women and underrepresented minorities."

ESEA CLEARS SENATE PANEL WITH STEM PROVISION: ; The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions  Committee approved, 22-0, an overhaul of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known more recently as No Child Left Behind. By a 12-8 vote, the panel included an amendment championed by the STEM Coalition, to which ASEE belongs, that provides formula-based funding to states for STEM programs. States would have to increase access to high-quality courses for underrepresented groups, implement evidence-based instruction, and provide professional development to teachers. Other money could go toward "a wide range of STEM activities from in-depth teacher training, to engineering design competitions, to improving the diversity of the STEM workforce," according to a fact sheet. The Coalition says the measure could become law this year.

A THREAT TO UNIVERSITY I.P.: That's what two university presidents say lurks in pending legislation, the Innovation Act, billed as a crackdown on patent trolls -- companies that acquire patents for the purpose of threatening others with lawsuits for alleged infringement. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Robert Brown of Boston University and James Clements of Clemson focus on two provisions: One would require those who lose a patent-infringement case to pay the legal fees of the prevailing party. This would deter universities from enforcing their patent rights, the authors say. The other provision could embroil universities in suits brought by their licensees. If the licensees lost, universities would share liability.

DATA POINTS

RECENT DECLINE IN R&D AT FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH CENTERS

Source: National Science Foundation

 

UPTICK IN GRAD STUDENTS FROM OVERSEAS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Source: National Science Foundation

THE ADMINISTRATION AND RESEARCH AGENCIES

WATERMAN AWARD WINNER: The National Science Foundation  has named Andrea Alù, a faculty fellow in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, as this year's recipient. He's "a leading innovator in metamaterials, or artificial materials with properties and wave interactions not found in nature, and plasmonics, the study of how light interacts with the surface of nanoscale objects," NSF says.

PIRE AWAY: Full proposals are due May 15 for NSF's Partnerships for International Research and Education  (PIRE). Read more

PUBLIC POLICY AND HIGHER ED

INCREASE IN MINORITY PH.D. COMPLETION: Seven-year Ph.D. completion rates for minority students at institutions surveyed rose by 5 percent from 1996 to 2005, according to a study by the Council of Graduate Schools. The Chronicle of Higher Education concludes: "That means that something the universities are doing is working. But what, and how, remains unclear." The seven-year completion rate for students in engineering was 48% and the seven-year attrition rate was 36%.

7-YEAR COMPLETION RATE BY FIELD OF STUDY

A LEG UP FOR WHITE MALES: They're "much more likely than female or minority students to hear back from faculty members when they send emails asking to meet to talk about the professors’ work and the students’ prospects for doctoral study," the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, citing the findings of researchers from Penn, Columbia, and NYU. Lead researcher Katherine Milkman says this is evidence "that white males have a leg up over other students seeking mentoring at a critical early-career juncture in the fields of business, education, human services, engineering and computer science, life sciences, natural/physical sciences and math, social sciences, and marginally in the humanities,”

AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN IN STEM -- challenges and successes -- is the subject of a panel discussion May 5 on Capitol Hill led by Georgia Tech engineering dean Gary May.

NEW ENGINEERING SCHOOL, NEW DEAN: Jenna Carpenter, currently a professor, associate dean, and director of the Office for Women in Science and Engineering at Louisiana Tech University’s College of Engineering and Science, will be the founding dean of Campbell University’s proposed School of Engineering launching in 2016,

ASEE AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

NEWEST CHAPTER of ASEE's Student Division: With the support of Interim Dean Chilukuri K. Mohan, an ASEE student chapter has been formed at Syracuse University. The chapter, ASEE @ SU, was shaped under the guidance of student chapter faculty advisor Mark Glauser. PhD Research Assistant Carli Flynn will serve as the chapter’s first president.