List of Announcements (details below):
* VSE in the News
* Photo of the Week
* Mason 2017 Summer Research Fellowship Program for Graduate Students
* C2MW: Spring 2017 Classroom to Maker’s Week at Mason
* LATTICE 2017: Targeting Early-Career Women PhD Engineers
* Funding Opportunity:Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging Sci. & Eng.
Research (NSF)
* Funding Opportunity:Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation
(NSF)
* Funding Opportunity:Student Design Competition for Sustainability (EPA)
* Funding Opportunity:Strategic Technologies (DARPA)
* Funding Opportunity:NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology,
Engineering, & Math.
* Funding Opportunity:Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure
(NSF)
* Funding Opportunity:Energy-Efficient Computing … (NSF)
* Funding Opportunity:Cyber-Physical Systems (NSF)
* Bob Elder Receives Funding from Johns Hopkins Univ. & NAVSEA
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*VSE in the News*
Here is a list of news stories about VSE that have been posted:
Beyond Mason
* Campus Technology: Trade publication says Mason ranks No. 2 on list
of schools with most data analytics programs with 31.
<https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/12/05/report-universities-ramping-up-data-analytics-program-offerings-to-meet-workplace-demand.aspx>
On the News at Mason page (https://www2.gmu.edu/news)
* Attacking tumors from the inside <https://www2.gmu.edu/news/313281>.
Nitin Agrawal received a $300,000 grant from the National Science
Foundation to develop an anti-cancer therapy in which researchers
will induce the body to grow more T-cells.
On the Volgenau site (https://volgenau.gmu.edu/news/latest-news)
* Celebrate Technology event returns January 25, 2017
<https://volgenau.gmu.edu/news/313606>. Mason students and alumni
are invited to attend "Celebrate Technology" on January 25, 2017.
* Mason faculty to participate in Appalachia Advancing project
<https://volgenau.gmu.edu/news/313601>. Michael Hieb was part of a
national group of thought leaders convened at Shepherd University’s
Center for Regional Innovation to discuss the Appalachia Advancing
project.
* Mechanical Engineering department to seek ABET accreditation
<https://volgenau.gmu.edu/news/313276>. Department Chair Oscar
Barton shares thoughts on accreditation of Mechanical Engineering
bachelor’s program.
If you have suggestions for other stories, please submit them to Martha
Bushong, [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
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*Photo of the Week*
**
Dr. Laurence Bray (second from right) and engineering students in the
GMU-Inova Applied Neuroscience class work with faculty and clinicians in
both didactic and simulated clinical environment on the Inova Fairfax
Medical Campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell.
--------------------------------------------------------------
*Mason 2017 Summer Research Fellowship Program for Graduate Students*
URL: http://provost.gmu.edu/graduate-education/grad-ed/
Questions: Akitta Robertson, [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>or 703.993.8912
Deadline:Friday, January 20, 2017
Summer Research Fellowships provide financial support to graduate
students during the summer term, allowing students to devote significant
time to their dissertation or thesis research. The intent of the award
is to foster greater professional productivity and to assist in timely
degree completion.
Summer Research Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis.
Applicants must submit materials to the Office of the Provost by Friday,
January 20, 2017 (see Application Process). Recipients will be notified
by Friday, February 24, 2017.
Eligibility Criteria
* Applicants must be doctoral or master’s students enrolled full-time
during both fall 2016 and spring 2017 semesters.
* Applicants may not currently hold a fellowship that offers funding
through the summer.
* Applicants may not hold an assistantship or accept outside
employment during the award period.
* Doctoral students must have completed course requirements, passed
all required written and oral exams, and be registered for
dissertation credit in the spring 2017 semester.
* Master’s students must provide written verification of thesis
proposal acceptance by thesis chair/committee no later than May 6,
2017 (last day of classes).
Award
* Fellowship amount: $7,000 for doctoral students; $5,000 for master’s
students.
* Term of award: Summer 2017 (May 25 – August 24).
* Enrollment in summer coursework beyond dissertation or thesis
credits must be approved in advance by the Associate Provost for
Graduate Education.
* Student must submit a summary of the work produced at the conclusion
of the summer.
* Student’s thesis or dissertation chair must be willing to provide a
written evaluation of student’s work at the conclusion of the fellowship
--------------------------------------------------------------
*C2MW: Spring 2017 Classroom to Maker’s Week at Mason*
URL: http://makers.onmason.com/c2mw/
[This message was sent to me by Viviana Maggioni of the CEIE
Department.Faculty are encouraged to nominate students to this program.]
We are currently accepting applications for the Spring 2017 Classroom to
Maker’sWeek (C2MW).
Through this program, students will receive expert assistance, be
eligible for microgrants to fund development, receive materials and
supplies, and gain access to specialized equipment to realize their
entrepreneurial ideas.
Students can get accepted two different ways.
Have an idea? If you think this idea can benefit someone else, find a
market, or fill a gap in existing offerings, then take the next step!
We’ll pair you with talented students, faculty, and professionals to
help realize this idea. Apply to C2MW for an entrepreneurial idea here.
Want to share your skills? We want to pair talented students, faculty,
and professionals with folks that have a great idea already. We need
complementary skill sets from business, science, engineering,
humanities, art, policy, law, health and education. Tell us what you
bring to a potential team by applying to C2MW for your expertise here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmZhLj-YAMmB2Qae39JcZTmH4rp0pynLJ4WjqRj9IOeoL4iQ/viewform?c=0&w=1>.
The program is only offered in the Spring semester. For more
information, please feel free to contact us at [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
--------------------------------------------------------------
*LATTICE 2017: Targeting Early-Career Women PhD Engineers*
URL: www.advance.washington.edu/lattice
<http://www.advance.washington.edu/lattice>
Questions: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Deadline: January 13, 2017 (11:59pm Pacific Time)
LATTICE: Launching Academics on the Tenure Track: an Intentional
Community in Engineering is a national program, funded by the National
Science Foundation (HRD-1500310), to advance faculty diversity in
engineering. It includes a professional development intervention and a
research study to understand why the intervention works. LATTICE seeks
to positively impact early-career women in Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science (EECS) and early-career underrepresented minority women
across all fields of Engineering who are interested in faculty
careers.LATTICE participants will gain a stronger sense of career
self-efficacy and a stronger sense of belonging through a combination of
symposia, peer mentoring networks, and other support structures over a
two-year period. The long-term goal of LATTICE is to diversify the
national engineering faculty population.
LATTICE is now recruiting applicants for our 2017 national LATTICE
symposium, to be held May 18-21, 2017 outside of Seattle, WA. 2017
LATTICE participants will be early career women Ph.D. engineers from
electrical engineering and computer science who are interested in or are
pursuing faculty careers. Early career includes postdoctoral
researchers, assistant professors, assistant research professors, and
other pre-tenure level engineering positions.
--------------------------------------------------------------
*Funding Opportunity:Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging Sci. & Eng.
Research (NSF)*
Opportunity Title:Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging Science and
Engineering Research(CESER)
Sponsor:Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and
Engineering/NSF
Program URL: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505385
Synopsis:The overall goal of the Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging
Science and Engineering Research (CESER) program is to foster the
development of innovative cyberinfrastructure (CI) technologies and new
means of leveraging existing CI resources to catalyze emerging areas of
potentially transformative science and engineering research, including
NSF priority areas, national strategic initiatives, and international
collaborative research.
--------------------------------------------------------------
*Funding Opportunity:Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (NSF)*
Opportunity Title:Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SSE,
SSI, S2I2)
Sponsor:Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and
Engineering/NSF
Deadline Dates:07-Mar-2017, 19-Sep-2017, 07-Mar-2017
Program URL: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17526/nsf17526.htm
Synopsis:Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2) is a
bold and long-term investment that maintains a sustained focus on
realizing the Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and
Engineering, which envisions a highly reusable and interoperable
cyberinfrastructure architecture that integrates large-scale computing,
high-speed networks, massive data archives, instruments and major
facilities, observatories, experiments, and embedded sensors and
actuators, across the nation and the world, to help make great strides
towards revolutionizing virtually every science and engineering
discipline. The SI2 program focuses on supporting robust, reliable and
sustainable software that will support and advance sustained scientific
innovation and discovery. Thus, proposals are strongly encouraged to
describe their approach to quality software development through a
defined software engineering process that includes software testing, the
appropriate use of analysis tools and capabilities such as those made
available through the Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP,
https://continuousassurance.org/), and collaborations with resources
such as Software Carpentry (http://software-carpentry.org/) and the
Center for Trustworthy Scientific Cyberinfrastructure (CTSC,
http://trustedci.org/), in order to gain access to expertise where
needed, such as in software design and engineering, as well as in
cybersecurity.
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*Funding Opportunity:Student Design Competition for Sustainability (EPA)*
[There are several similar opportunities under this program.I mention
what I considered to be the two most relevant ones here.]
Opportunity Title: P3 Award: A National Student Design Competition for
Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet - Built
Environment
Sponsor:Environmental Protection Agency
Sponsor Number:EPA-G2017-P3-Q2
Deadline Date:03-Feb-2017
Program URL :
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=290505
Opportunity Title:P3 Award: A National Student Design Competition for
Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet - Water
Sponsor:Environmental Protection Agency
Sponsor Number:EPA-G2017-P3-Q4
Deadline Date:03-Feb-2017
Program URL :
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=290481
Synopsis:The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its
People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award Program, is seeking
applications proposing to research, develop, and design solutions to
real world challenges involving sustainability. The P3 competition
highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative
projects focused on sustainability. The P3 Award Program was developed
to foster progress toward sustainability by achieving the mutual goals
of improved quality of life, economic prosperity and protection of the
planet - people, prosperity, and the planet - the three pillars of
sustainability. The EPA offers the P3 competition in order to respond to
the technical needs of the world while moving towards the goal of
sustainability.
--------------------------------------------------------------
*Funding Opportunity:Strategic Technologies (DARPA)*
Sponsor:Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Sponsor Number:DARPA-BAA-16-18
Deadline Date:21-Mar-2017
Program URL: http://www.grants.gov/custom/viewOppDetails.jsp?oppId=280674
Synopsis:DARPA is seeking innovative ideas and disruptive technologies
that offer the potential for significant capability improvement across
the Strategic Technology Office focus areas. This includes technology
development related to Battle Management, Command and Control (BMC2),
Communications and Networks, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), Position, Navigation, and Timing
(PNT), Maritime, and Foundational Strategic Technologies and Systems.
Proposed research should investigate approaches that enable
revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. DARPA
anticipates funding a limited number of proposals under this BAA.
Specifically excluded are existing mature solutions and research that
results in evolutionary improvements to existing technologies.
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*Funding Opportunity:NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology,
Engineering, & Math.*
Opportunity Title:NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (S-STEM)
Sponsor:Directorate for Education and Human Resources/NSF
Deadline Date:29-Mar-2017
Program URL: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17527/nsf17527.htm
Synopsis:A well-educated science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) workforce is a significant contributor to maintaining
the competitiveness of the U.S. in the global economy. The National
Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program addresses the need for a
high quality STEM workforce in STEM disciplines supported by the program
and for the increased success of low-income academically talented
students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing associate,
baccalaureate, or graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM). Recognizing that financial aid alone cannot
increase retention and graduation in STEM, the program provides awards
to Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to fund scholarships and to
advance the adaptation, implementation, and study of effective
evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities that support
recruitment, retention, transfer (if appropriate), student success,
academic/career pathways, and graduation in STEM. The S-STEM program
encourages collaborations among different types of partners:
Partnerships among different types of institutions; collaborations of
STEM faculty and institutional, educational, and social science
researchers; and partnerships among institutions of higher education and
local business and industry, if appropriate.
--------------------------------------------------------------
*Funding Opportunity:Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure
(NSF)***
Sponsor:Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and
Engineering/NSF
Deadline Date:01-Mar-2017
Program URL: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17528/nsf17528.htm
Synopsis:Advancements in data-driven scientific research depend on
trustworthy and reliable cyberinfrastructure. Researchers rely on a
variety of networked technologies and software tools to achieve their
scientific goals. These may include local or remote instruments,
wireless sensors, software programs, operating systems, database
servers, high-performance computing, large-scale storage, and other
critical infrastructure connected by high-speed networking. This
complex, distributed, interconnected global cyberinfrastructure
ecosystem presents unique cybersecurity challenges. NSF-funded
scientific instruments, sensors and equipment are specialized,
highly-visible assets that present attractive targets for both
unintentional errors and malicious activity; untrustworthy software or a
loss of integrity of the data collected by a scientific instrument may
mean corrupt, skewed or incomplete results. Furthermore, often
data-driven research, e.g., in the medical field or in the social
sciences, requires access to private information, and exposure of such
data may cause financial, reputational and/or other damage. Therefore,
an increasing area of focus for NSF is the development and deployment of
hardware and software technologies and techniques to protect research
cyberinfrastructure across every stage of the scientific workflow.
--------------------------------------------------------------
*Funding Opportunity:Energy-Efficient Computing … (NSF)*
Opportunity Title: Energy-Efficient Computing: from Devices to
Architectures (E2CDA)
Sponsor: Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and
Engineering/NSF
Deadline Date:07-Mar-2017
Program URL:https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17531/nsf17531.htm
Synopsis:There is a consensus across the many industries touched by our
ubiquitous computing infrastructure that future performance improvements
across the board are now severely limited by the amount of energy it
takes to manipulate, store, and critically, transport data. While the
limits and tradeoffs for this performance-energy crisis vary across the
full range of application platforms, they have all reached a point at
which evolutionary approaches to addressing this challenge are no longer
adequate. Truly disruptive breakthroughs are now required, and not just
from any one segment of the technology stack. Rather, due to the
complexity of the challenges, revolutionary new approaches are needed at
each level in the hierarchy. Furthermore, simultaneous co-optimization
across all levels is essential for the creation of new, sustainable
computing platforms. These simultaneous technical and organizational
challenges have never been as complex or as critically important as they
are now. The urgency of solving the multi-disciplinary technical
challenges will require new methods of collaboration and organization
among researchers. Therefore, a comprehensive and collaborative approach
must be undertaken to maximize the potential for successfully
identifying and implementing revolutionary solutions to break through
the bottleneck of energy-constrained computational performance.
Programmers, system architects, circuit designers, chip processing
engineers, material scientists, and computational chemists must all
explore these new paths together to co-design an optimal solution path.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Semiconductor Research
Corporation (SRC) recognize this need, and agree to embark on a new
collaborative research program to support compelling research that is of
paramount importance to industry, academia and society at large. This
partnership will specifically support new research to minimize the
energy impacts of processing, storing, and moving data within future
computing systems, and will be synergistic with other research
activities that address other aspects of this overarching
energy-constrained computing performance challenge.
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*Funding Opportunity:Cyber-Physical Systems (NSF)***
Sponsor: Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and
Engineering/NSF
Deadline Date:06-Mar-2017
Program URL: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17529/nsf17529.htm
Synopsis: The goal of the CPS program is to develop the core system
science needed to engineer complex cyber-physical systems that people
can use or interact with and depend upon. Some of these may require
high-confidence or provable behaviors. The program aims to foster a
research community committed to advancing research and education in CPS
and to transitioning CPS science and technology into engineering
practice. By abstracting from the particulars of specific systems and
application domains, the CPS program seeks to reveal cross-cutting
fundamental scientific and engineering principles that underpin the
integration of cyber and physical elements across all application
sectors. To expedite and accelerate the realization of cyber-physical
systems in a wide range of applications, the CPS program also supports
the development of methods, tools, and hardware and software components
based upon these cross-cutting principles, along with validation of the
principles via prototypes and testbeds. The sponsor has also seen a
convergence of CPS technologies and research thrusts that underpin Smart
& Connected Communities (S&CC) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
These domains offer new and exciting challenges for foundational
research and provide opportunities for maturation at multiple time horizons.
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*Bob Elder Receives Funding from Johns Hopkins Univ. & NAVSEA*
Bob Elder of the C4I & Cyber Center received $100K from The Johns
Hopkins University / Applied Physics Laboratory and NAVSEA for his
project, “National C3 (NC3) Architecture Modernization.”
--
===============================================================
Stephen G. Nash
Senior Associate Dean
Volgenau School of Engineering
George Mason University
Nguyen Engineering Building, Room 2500
Mailstop 5C8
Fairfax, VA 22030
[log in to unmask]
Phone: (703) 993-1505
Fax: (703) 993-1633
https://volgenau.gmu.edu/profile/view/10248