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Local News

FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2008

RECRUITING RESEARCHERS for UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM

The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program is now recruiting partners for the 2008-2009 academic year. If you are interested in involving a student in an existing or new research project, we encourage you to complete our on-line application.

Program Features
  1. You will interview and select the students you wish to work with.
  2. UROP offers participant research skill building workshops
  3. Research sponsors can receive $500 per student to cover small research costs.
  4. UROP students can help you get projects started that are sitting on the back burner.
  5. Each student in the program is assigned a peer advisor, a junior/senior program alumnus. The peer advisor provides a valuable communication link between you and your students.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2008

GOOGLE EARTH CONFERENCE at UM OCTOBER 22-23, 2008

The purpose of this meeting is to explore scientific investigations that are enabled by global-scale reach and interactivity provided by Google Earth. These discussions will occur during a two-day meeting organized in collaboration between Google and the University of Michigan. Faculty, students, and members of the research community from all over the country will be attending. The meeting will be organized in working-groups that combine scientists and members of the Google community in an effort to explore new applications and areas for development.

For more information please visit the Conference Website

  • Registration Deadline: October 15

SEPTEMBER 19, 2008

CALL for PROPOSALS for GROCS 2009

In 250 words or less, tell us how you would collaborate with other students to transform learning. GROCS supports student-initiated team projects that explore new ways to create knowledge and rich social benefits through the use of emerging technologies. Teams must be interdisciplinary, the activity must include an academic component, and collaboration must be a significant and integral part of the project, either in its progress or its outcome.

Submit Project Abstracts by October 1, 2008 on the GROCS Website.

Selected Projects Will Receive:

  • $2,500 cash grant per student team member (up to 4 per each team). $2,000 will be provided in January; the balance upon completion of the Wrap and Community Participation Requirement (see below).
  • $1,000 per advisor (1), to be distributed in Winter Semester.
  • Equipped workspace in a collaborative environment at the Duderstadt Center.
  • Limited funding for additional project-specific equipment to be retained by the University.

Please read the Selection Criteria, Project Requirements and other important details in the full text of the CFP.

For more information: GROCS.info@umich.edu.

MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008

REPORT on "Survey of Investigator's Experinces in Human Research"

This unique survey of UM investigators was developed and implemented by the UM Institute for Social Research (ISR) in partnership with OHRCR. The overall goal of the survey is to obtain information from UM investigators to improve the UM Human Research Protection Program (HRPP).

Download a copy of the Survey

THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2008 AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT

  • The SI Faculty went 3 for 3 in their applications to the IMLS program submitted to the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarians Program!
PI: Elizabeth Yakel
Project Title: "Engaging Communities to Foster Internships for Preservation and Digital Curation"
PI: Paul Conway serving as the UM lead with University of Maryland
Project Title: "Digital Humanities Model Internship Program"
PI: Beth Yakel serving as the UM lead with UCLA
Project Title: "Building the Future of Archival Education and Research"

For more information and project descriptions please visit the IMLS News & Events website

News from Washington

Election 2008

Ongoing Election 2008 Analysis and Blogs

News from Washington
  • NSF RELEASES REPORT ON FOSTERING LEARNING IN THE NETWORKED WORLD

August 12, 2008

For a copy of this report go to http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08204/nsf08204.pdf?govDel=USNSF_124

  • STATES LOOK TO TRANSFORM THEIR ECONOMIES AND IMPROVE COLLEGE COMPLETION

By Peter Schmidt, The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 27, 2008

Economic uncertainty has long been a certainty in much of the Midwest. After all, the financial fortunes of its farm states can change, literally, with the weather. And the several states in the region that rely heavily on manufacturing have been losing factories and jobs for decades…Paradoxically, being in such a difficult economic environment seems to have worked to the benefit of many of the region's public colleges as the nation's economy took a downturn this year. That's because state officials throughout the Midwest have come to see public colleges as key players in the long-term transformation of their economies, and look to them to provide needed work-force training and spawn new industries.

  • NSF ANNOUNCES EXPEDITIONS IN COMPUTING AWARDS

NSF Press Release, August 18, 2008

The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) has established four new Expeditions in Computing. Each of these $10 million grants will allow teams of researchers and educators to pursue far-reaching research agendas that promise significant advances in the computing frontier and great benefit to society…CISE anticipates hosting an Expeditions competition annually, with three new awards anticipated each year. "Because of their exceptional promise, four projects were funded in this, the first year of the program," said Timothy Pinkston, CISE Expeditions program director at NSF. The deadline for preproposal submission to the second annual Expeditions competition is September 10, 2008.

Complete press release at: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112075&org=NSF&from=news

  • ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ 2-YEAR DECLINE FOR U.S. SCIENCE FUNDS

By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, August 25, 2008

The numbers will not surprise anyone who has closely tracked federal budget discussions about science and technology in recent years. But that won’t make the data released Friday by the National Science Foundation any more palatable for those concerned about the American research enterprise…But the extent of the downturn is stark, the NSF reports: For the second year in a row, federal funds for academic research in science and engineering failed to outpace inflation.

Complete article at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/25/r_d

Complete NSF report at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08320/?govDel=USNSF_178

  • NSF Announces Partnership with Industry, Academia to Further Explore Data-Intensive Computing

NSF News Release: July 30, 2008

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate announces a grant award to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to help establish an experimental computing cluster at the UIUC campus. The NSF Cluster Exploratory (CluE) initiative was first announced in April 2008 to provide NSF-funded researchers access to software and services running on a Google-IBM cluster. The UIUC award together with funding and equipment supplied by HP, Intel, Yahoo! and UIUC expands the CluE program to provide researchers access to an additional cluster for data-intensive computing research.

See the full article at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111984&govDel=USNSF_51

  • FEDERAL FUNDING FOSTERS INNOVATION

Science Progress, July 10, 2008

Cooperation is good—and when tech companies collaborate with government agencies, federal labs, and research universities, the results are the innovations that fuel U.S. economy. A report released yesterday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation analyzes the evolution of the innovation ecosystem in the United States over the last four decades and argues that in order to encourage innovation most effectively, policymakers must better understand where new ideas come from, especially if they want to address questions of international competitiveness.

Complete article at: http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/07/federal-funding-fosters-innovation/

Copy of the report: http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=158

  • A NEW FRONTIER FOR TITLE IX: SCIENCE

By John Tierney, The New York Times, July 15, 2008

Until recently, the impact of Title IX, the law forbidding sexual discrimination in education, has been limited mostly to sports. But now, under pressure from Congress, some federal agencies have quietly picked a new target: science. The National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy have set up programs to look for sexual discrimination at universities receiving federal grants. Investigators have been taking inventories of lab space and interviewing faculty members and students in physics and engineering departments at schools like Columbia, the University of Wisconsin, M.I.T. and the University of Maryland.

Complete article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15tier.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

  • HOUSE SUPPLEMENTAL BILL WELCOMED FOR R&D FUNDING BOOST

By Andrew Noyes, CongressDailyPM, June 23, 2008

Congressional science champions are giving cautious praise to the House-passed war supplemental bill for its inclusion of extra funding for key federal science and research programs. The compromise includes $400 million for federal research programs. This funding is provided on an emergency basis -- therefore it is considered a one-time appropriation that does not increase the spending baseline for future years. The measure would provide $150 million for the National Institutes of Health; $62.5 million for the Energy Department's Science Office; $62.5 million for the National Science Foundation ($22.5 million for NSF Research and Related Activities and $40 million for NSF Education and Human Resources); and $62.5 million for NASA. A Senate vote on the House version is possible this week, and Bush has indicated that he will probably sign it.

Complete article at: http://www.nationaljournal.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/congressdaily/cdp_20080623_4239.php

UPDATE: June 27, 2008 - Following House passage of the war supplemental, last night the Senate voted 92 to 6 in support of the legislation. The bill, which includes a total of $400 million for the NIH, the NSF, NASA and DOE’s Office of Science and environmental management for this fiscal year, moves on to the White House to be signed into law.

  • APPROPRIATIONS FOR FY09

Appropriators have begun writing their FY09 bills. While the news is good for research, it is just the start of a long process -- much can change between now and when final FY09 funding levels are agreed to. Below are the recommendations from the House and Senate Subcommittees.

  • House Labor, Health and Human Services (a draft Senate bill is expected on June 24) - $30.4 billion for the NIH ($1.2 billion over FY08)
  • House Energy and Water (a date for consideration of a Senate bill is TBA) - Approximately $4.86 billion for the DOE Office of Science ($844 million over FY08)
  • House Commerce, Justice and Science - $6.85 billion for the NSF ($789.1 million over FY08) & $17.8 billion for NASA (approximately $700 million over FY08)
  • Senate Commerce, Justice, Science - $6.9 billion for the NSF & $17.8 billion for NASA
  • HUMANITIES GROUPS SUPPORT FY09 NEH FUNDS, RAISE CONCERNS ABOUT PRESERVATION CUTS

The Association of American Universities, June 20, 2008

Several organizations with an interest in the humanities, including AAU and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, wrote to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior on June 19 to urge the panel to approve at least the level of funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recommended by the panel’s House counterpart. The House subcommittee has proposed increasing FY09 funding for the NEH to $160 million. This represents a $15.3 million increase over FY08 funding (and $15 million more than the President’s request). At the same time, the groups asked the Senate panel to reverse cuts approved by the House subcommittee in the preservation and access programs at NEH.

Copy of the letter: http://www.aau.edu/budget/Ltr_JointAssns_NEH09_6-19-08.pdf

  • U.S. EXPERTS BEMOAN NATION'S LOSS OF STATURE IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

By Keith B. Richburg, The Washington Post, May 29, 2008

Some of the nation's leading scientists, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s top science adviser, today sharply criticized the diminished role of science in the United States and the shortage of federal funding for research, even as science becomes increasingly important to combating problems such as climate change and the global food shortage. Speaking at a science summit that opens this week's first World Science Festival, the expert panel of scientists, and audience members, agreed that the United States is losing stature because of a perceived high-level disdain for science. Complete article at: [1]

Click here for more information about the first World Science Festival

  • ADVICE FROM THE TOP: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH HELPS USA COMPETE

By Del Jones, USA Today, May 19, 2008

The Bayh-Dole Act was enacted 27 years ago, but the ramifications persist to this day. The act lets universities patent and commercialize inventions that come from federally funded research. It has gradually turned universities into incubators for breakthroughs in technology and medicine. Stanford owns the patent on Google's Internet search technology, and last year, the university earned $48 million from 428 technologies licensed to companies. Texas Instruments was early to recognize the power of university research. The company has partnerships with Rice, Georgia Tech and the University of Illinois, among others, and with universities in India and China. CEO Rich Templeton, 49, spoke with USA TODAY management reporter Del Jones about the R&D coming from colleges. Complete article at: [2]

  • ADVICE FROM THE TOP: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH HELPS USA COMPETE

By Del Jones, USA Today, May 19, 2008

The Bayh-Dole Act was enacted 27 years ago, but the ramifications persist to this day. The act lets universities patent and commercialize inventions that come from federally funded research. It has gradually turned universities into incubators for breakthroughs in technology and medicine. Stanford owns the patent on Google's Internet search technology, and last year, the university earned $48 million from 428 technologies licensed to companies. Texas Instruments was early to recognize the power of university research. The company has partnerships with Rice, Georgia Tech and the University of Illinois, among others, and with universities in India and China. CEO Rich Templeton, 49, spoke with USA TODAY management reporter Del Jones about the R&D coming from colleges. Complete article at: [3]

Adamic and Ackerman Research in ACM TechNews Research by SI Faculty Lada Adamic and Mark Ackerman on Yahoo! Answers is highlighted in the April 28, 2008 addition of ACM TechNews. For a link to the copy of the entire article go to the TechNews section of the ACM website.

Call for Papers: Social Science Computer Review on e-Social Science Since the beginning of the new millennium, a world-wide effort has been underway to develop and deploy a new generation of advanced infrastructure which, it is argued, is essential to enable new advances in scientific research. This infrastructure, known as ‘the Grid’ or increasingly commonly as ‘e-Infrastructure’ (cyberinfrastructure in the US), comprises networked, interoperable, scalable computational tools and services that make it possible to locate, access, share, aggregate and manipulate digitised data seamlessly on a hitherto unrealisable scale.

The motivation for this special issue of the Social Science Computer Review is to document the state-of-the-art in e-Social Science. This embraces two distinct strands of work: one examines the impact of e-infrastructure on the social science research community’s capacity to meet its research challenges and the other traces the contribution that e-Social Science is making to solving the very real and significant obstacles to the wide adoption of e-infrastructure across all the sciences.

Our aim in this special issue is to improve mutual awareness, harmonize understanding, and instigate coordinated activities to accelerate research, development, and deployment of e-infrastructure to support the social science research community.

To this end, we invite contributions from members of the social science and e-infrastructure research communities with experience of – or interests in – exploring, developing, and applying new methods, practices, and tools that are facilitated by e-infrastructure in order to further social science research, and in studying the wider development of e-infrastructure-enabled research and its component technologies.

Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:

  • Case studies of e-Social Science research methods and applications
  • Accessing new sources and forms of social data through e-Social Science
  • Infrastructure and tools for e-Social Science
  • Middleware for data collection, sharing and integration
  • Standards for metadata, ontologies, annotation, curation, etc.
  • Usability issues in the design of research tools and middleware
  • Case studies of (e-)Research and (e-)Social Science research practices
  • The benefits and challenges of large scale collaborative research
  • Issues about the wider adoption and sustainability of e-Infrastructure
  • Evolution of the e-Infrastructure roadmap, from Grids to web 2.0
  • Interdisciplinary research in e-Social Science
  • International collaborations in e-Social Science
  • Socio-technical issues in the development of e-Research and e-infrastructure
  • Ethical issues and challenges in the collection, integration, sharing and analysis of social and personal data

Submission requirements and instructions

Submissions should be between 6000-8000 words in length.

All submissions will be subject to independent review by the members of the special issue editorial panel and a final decision will be made by the special issue editors.

Deadlines and submission instructions

Drafts of full papers are due on July 1st, 2008. They should be emailed to Rob Procter (rob.procter@manchester.ac.uk) to whom any queries should also be sent.

Increase in Graduate Research Fellowship Program in FY09: According to a report in the 3/14 issue of Science [4], NSF has requested a significant increase in funding for the Graduate Research Fellowship program in the FY 09 budget. This would be a rise from $88 M to $110 M, or approximately 700 new awards (which should raise the current 10% success rate for applicants). This increase is attributed to Richard Freeman’s data showing that the GRFs play a disproportionate role in encouraging undergraduates to pursue scientific careers. Specifically, in one survey of 1800 Harvard undergrads, 40% said they would opt for graduate school if given a “national fellowship,” in contrast to the 18% who would otherwise pursue graduate education. Freeman has also studied the signaling role of GRFs, where the awards per number of undergrad science and engineering degrees has dropped from a high of 5.4 awards per 1000 degrees at the program’s inception in the early 50s – to 2.2 awards per 1000 degrees recently. That is, as the availability of awards has gone down, students have made other choices (Freeman also points out that the value of the awards declined to around $15 K in the 1990s, but has recently been boosted to a more competitive level of $30 K). Here’s a link to Freeman’s most comprehensive analysis: [5] Of course, Congress has to improve this increase. However, it is the single biggest increase in NSF’s education budget – and the leadership on the House oversight committee for NSF hasn’t rejected the increase.

For information regarding this years winners go to [Awardee List]

For program information please go to [the NSF Graduate Fellows website]

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