{ "data": [ { "date": "December 5, 2024", "PostTitle": "The FY25 NITRD and AI Dashboards are now available", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nitrd.gov/nitrd-dashboard/", "PostDescription": "The NITRD Dashboard is a graphical interface for displaying NITRD budget data with drill-downs to NITRD Program Component Areas (PCAs) and major subject areas for federal IT R&D, by year and agency. It also illustrates federal agency NITRD budget crosscuts as reported in the NITRD Supplement to the President’s Budget.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/investments.png", "organization": "NITRD NCO", "topic": "research and development", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "November 14, 2024", "PostTitle": "Visit Booth #4606 at SC24", "ResourceLink": "https://sc24.supercomputing.org/", "PostDescription": "Members of the NITRD NCO will be attending and exhibiting at Super Computing 2024 (SC24) in Atlanta next month. We invite you and your team to stop by our booth (#4606) to meet our team, learn more about NITRD and pick up some NITRD swag. Members of any NITRD IWG, COP or FTAC are invited to visit our booth and receive a NITRD lapel pin.", "coverimage": "https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/fancy_images/USFEDNITRD/2024/10/10433922/newsletter-graphics-2_original.jpg", "organization": "NITRD NCO", "topic": "research and development", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "October 31, 2024", "PostTitle": "RFI: Frontiers in AI for Science, Security, and Technology (FASST) Initiative", "ResourceLink": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/09/12/2024-20676/notice-of-request-for-information-rfi-on-frontiers-in-ai-for-science-security-and-technology-fasst", "PostDescription": "The Department of Energy's Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) seeks public comment to inform how DOE and its 17 national laboratories can leverage existing assets to provide a national AI capability for the public interest. Responses to the RFI are requested by November 11, 2024.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOE.png", "organization": "Department of Energy", "topic": "artificial intelligence", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "October 17, 2024", "PostTitle": "A Solicitation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract Proposals", "ResourceLink": "https://sam.gov/opp/b6c0bad2a0924520a704bb1bca846615/view", "PostDescription": "The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are soliciting proposals from small business concerns that possess the research and development (R&D) expertise to conduct innovative research that will contribute toward NIH or CDC mission needs and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program objectives. Proposals are due by October 18, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NIH_logo.png", "organization": "National Institutes of Health; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", "topic": "research; development", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "October 17, 2024", "PostTitle": "DARPA Invites Proposals for AI Biotechnology Pitch Days Dec. 5-6", "ResourceLink": "https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2024-09-13", "PostDescription": "“AI BTO seeks to fund proposals that catalyze the formation of future research projects by clarifying the opportunity space and de-risking technical barriers to achieving high impact,” said BTO Director Dr. Michael Koeris. “To this end, the office is providing $4.5 million to support up to 45 revolutionary catalyst projects and will be finalizing research agreements day of. We look forward to reviewing the novel biotechnology approaches to further our national security mission.”", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DARPA-Logo.png", "organization": "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency", "topic": "biotechnology", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "October 3, 2024", "PostTitle": "Notice of Request for Information (RFI) on Frontiers in AI for Science, Security, and Technology (FASST) Initiative", "ResourceLink": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/09/12/2024-20676/notice-of-request-for-information-rfi-on-frontiers-in-ai-for-science-security-and-technology-fasst", "PostDescription": "The Department of Energy's Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) seeks public comment to inform how DOE and its 17 national laboratories can leverage existing assets to provide a national AI capability for the public interest. Responses to the RFI are requested by November 11, 2024.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOE.png", "organization": "Department of Energy", "topic": "artificial intelligence", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "October 3, 2024", "PostTitle": "Digital Twins 2024", "ResourceLink": "https://nibs.swoogo.com/emerging-technologies", "PostDescription": "December 9-11, 2024, National Harbor, MD. The event will showcase technological advances, applications and case studies, challenges and solutions, and future trends of digital twins. Connect with other thought leaders and practitioners to learn more about the transformative and integrative impact digital twins have on design, engineering, construction, operations management, and hazard mitigation. Building owners, government representatives, and members of the building trades are invited to attend to join the conversation.", "coverimage": "https://assets.swoogo.com/uploads/medium/4339291-66ce1b941bdff.png", "organization": "National Institute of Building Sciencesn", "topic": "digital twins", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "September 19, 2024", "PostTitle": "A Solicitation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract Proposals", "ResourceLink": "https://sam.gov/opp/b6c0bad2a0924520a704bb1bca846615/view", "PostDescription": "The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are soliciting proposals from small business concerns that possess the research and development (R&D) expertise to conduct innovative research that will contribute toward NIH or CDC mission needs and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program objectives. Proposals are due by October 18, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. ET.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NIH_logo.png", "organization": "National Institutes of Health; The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", "topic": "small business; research and development", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "September 19, 2024", "PostTitle": "Quantum Networking: Findings and Recommendations for Growing American Leadership", "ResourceLink": "https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/NQIAC-Report-Quantum-Networking.pdf", "PostDescription": "On September 6, 2024, the NQIAC published its second independent assessment of the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) program, focusing on quantum networking and the role that testbeds play in research and development of quantum networking technologies. The report identifies six findings and seven recommendations for growing American leadership in quantum networking, which are listed in a quantum.gov news post.", "coverimage": "https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Seal_06_3_final_hires_fin-300x300.png", "organization": "National Quantum Initiative", "topic": "quantum networking", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "September 5, 2024", "PostTitle": "DOE-NSF Workshop on Digital Twins for Manufacturing", "ResourceLink": "https://uconnuecs.cventevents.com/event/DigitalTwins24/summary", "PostDescription": "November 11-14, 2024, In-Person and Virtual, University of Connecticut. Join this workshop for an engaging event where industry leaders, researchers, and practitioners will come together to share insights and best practices in Digital Twin technology.", "coverimage": "https://images.cvent.com/5479c775ab564c74b80d23d54716ea47/pix/abfbc79889f848fdb684fced26d8c572!_!691901f598ca4e8bc10fe6ccd6008a1e.jpg", "organization": "Department of Energy; U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "digital twins", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "September 5, 2024", "PostTitle": "NSA Releases Copy of Internal Lecture Delivered by Computing Giant Rear Adm. Grace Hopper", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Press-Release-View/Article/3884041/nsa-releases-copy-of-internal-lecture-delivered-by-computing-giant-rear-adm-gra/", "PostDescription": "In one of the more unique public proactive transparency record releases for the National Security Agency (NSA) to date, NSA has released a digital copy of a lecture that then-Capt. Grace Hopper gave agency employees on August 19, 1982. The lecture, \"Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People,\" features Capt. Hopper discussing some of the potential future challenges of protecting information. She also provided valuable insight on leadership and her experiences breaking barriers in the fields of computer science and mathematics.", "coverimage": "https://media.defense.gov/2024/Aug/23/2003531704/1920/1080/0/240823-D-IM742-2024.PNG", "organization": "National Security Agency", "topic": "information security", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "August 22, 2024", "PostTitle": "The 2024 IMAG Multiscale Modeling Consortium Meeting", "ResourceLink": "https://www.imagwiki.nibib.nih.gov/current-imag-meeting/registration", "PostDescription": "The meeting aims to create a community of expertise from academia, industry, medicine, and government to promote, empower, and facilitate the understanding, collaboration, creation of tools and infrastructure for biomedical digital twins (BDT) through informational talks coupled with interactive team building exercises.", "coverimage": "https://www.imagwiki.nibib.nih.gov/sites/default/files/imag-logo-image-v1.png", "organization": "U.S. Department of Health & Human Services", "topic": "digital twins", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "August 8, 2024", "PostTitle": "U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce Partner to Advance Semiconductor Workforce Development", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-doc-partner-to-advance-semiconductor", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation and the CHIPS for America Research and Development Office within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly invest in a new initiative to train the future semiconductor workforce at all levels for myriad job types across industry and the nation. As a first step, NSF and DOC are jointly issuing a public Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from the community to inform the new initiative.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/media_hub/NSF-DOC-Announcement-newsHero.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation; National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "semiconductor; workforce", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "August 8, 2024", "PostTitle": "WPEC 2024: NIST Workshop on Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography 2024", "ResourceLink": "https://csrc.nist.gov/events/2024/wpec2024", "PostDescription": "The NIST Privacy Enhancing Cryptography project is organizing a virtual event: WPEC 2024, the NIST Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Cryptography 2024. Virtual attendance is free but requires registration. Talk proposals should be submitted using the provided submission form, taking into consideration the Call for Talks.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NIST-logo.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "cryptography", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "July 25, 2024", "PostTitle": "RFI on the Advancement of 6G Telecommunications Technology", "ResourceLink": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/23/2024-11277/advancement-of-6g-telecommunications-technology", "PostDescription": "The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is requesting comments on the current state of development of sixth generation (6G) wireless communications technology and to guide Executive Branch policies on necessary steps to facilitate the advancement of this technology. As potential requirements for 6G are being developed by industry, governmental, academic, and civil society stakeholders, NTIA hopes to hear from the public on the following questions to inform our own future engagement in support of 6G development and deployment. Comments are due on or before August 21, 2024.", "coverimage": "https://www.ntia.gov/themes/custom/ntia_uswds//img/NTIAlogo-official.svg", "organization": "National Telecommunications and Information Administration", "topic": "wireless; 6G", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "July 11, 2024", "PostTitle": "NSF Announces Groundbreaking Leadership-Class Computing Facility project", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-announces-groundbreaking-computing-facility", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation has begun construction on the Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF), a cutting-edge facility led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) that will revolutionize computational research and development.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/media_hub/network-cabling-racks-frontera.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "July 11, 2024", "PostTitle": "WPEC 2024: NIST Workshop on Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography 2024", "ResourceLink": "https://csrc.nist.gov/events/2024/wpec2024", "PostDescription": "The NIST Privacy Enhancing Cryptography project is organizing a virtual event: WPEC 2024, the NIST Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Cryptography 2024. The workshop will be held on September 24–26, 2024. Virtual attendance is free but requires registration. Talk proposals should be submitted using the provided submission form, taking in consideration the Call for Talks.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NIST-logo.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "computing", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "June 27, 2024", "PostTitle": "Smart Health Frontiers Symposium ", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/events/smart-health-frontiers-precision-medicine-through", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation is awarding $36 million to three projects selected for their potential to revolutionize computing and make significant impacts in reducing the carbon footprint of the lifecycle of computers. Funding for the projects comes from the NSF Expeditions in Computing (Expeditions) program, an ambitious initiative that supports transformative research poised to yield lasting impacts on society, the economy and technological advancement.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NSF-Logo.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "smart health; biomedical research", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "May 30, 2024", "PostTitle": "NSF invests $36M in computing projects that promise to maximize performance, reduce energy demands", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-invests-36m-computing-projects-promise", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation is awarding $36 million to three projects selected for their potential to revolutionize computing and make significant impacts in reducing the carbon footprint of the lifecycle of computers. Funding for the projects comes from the NSF Expeditions in Computing (Expeditions) program, an ambitious initiative that supports transformative research poised to yield lasting impacts on society, the economy and technological advancement.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/media_hub/Expeditions%20in%20Computing%20Awards_Graphics_WebHero.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing; engineering", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "May 30, 2024", "PostTitle": "Department of Energy Announces $160 Million for Research to Form Microelectronics Science Research Centers", "ResourceLink": "https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/department-energy-announces-160-million-research-form-microelectronics-science", "PostDescription": "On May 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $160 million to advance President Biden's vision to secure the future of American leadership in semiconductor innovation by implementing a key provision in the historic CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (42 U.S.C. §19331), Microelectronics Research for Energy Innovation. This funding will support the formation of Microelectronics Science Research Centers (MSRCs) focused on energy efficiency and extreme environments.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOE.png", "organization": "Department of Energy", "topic": "microelectronics; semiconductors", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "May 15, 2024", "PostTitle": "CHIPS for America Announces $285 million Funding Opportunity for a Digital Twin and Semiconductor CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute", "ResourceLink": "https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2024/05/chips-america-announces-285-million-funding-opportunity-digital-twin", "PostDescription": "The Biden-Harris Administration issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) seeking proposals from eligible applicants for activities to establish and operate a CHIPS Manufacturing USA institute focused on digital twins for the semiconductor industry.", "coverimage": "https://www.commerce.gov/themes/custom/commerce/assets/img/doc_logo.png", "organization": "Department of Commerce", "topic": "digital twins; semiconductor; CHIPS", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "May 3, 2024", "PostTitle": "NIH researchers develop AI tool with potential to more precisely match cancer drugs to patients", "ResourceLink": "https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/press-releases/2024/ai-tool-matches-cancer-drugs-to-patients", "PostDescription": "In a proof-of-concept study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that uses data from individual cells inside tumors to predict whether a person’s cancer will respond to a specific drug. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of NIH, published their work on April 18, 2024, in Nature Cancer, and suggest that such single-cell RNA sequencing data could one day be used to help doctors more precisely match cancer patients with drugs that will be effective for their cancer.", "coverimage": "https://www.cancer.gov/sites/g/files/xnrzdm211/files/styles/cgov_article/public/cgov_image/media_image/2024-04/PERCEPTION%20graphic%20FINAL.png", "organization": "National Institutes of Health", "topic": "artificial intelligence; health", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "May 3, 2024", "PostTitle": "USAF Test Pilot School and DARPA announce breakthrough in aerospace machine learning", "ResourceLink": "https://www.edwards.af.mil/News/AFMC-News/Article/3744975/usaf-test-pilot-school-and-darpa-announce-breakthrough-in-aerospace-machine-lea/", "PostDescription": "The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency were finalists for the 2023 Robert J. Collier Trophy, a formal acknowledgement of recent breakthroughs that have launched the machine-learning era within the aerospace industry. The teams worked together to test breakthrough executions in artificial intelligence algorithms using the X-62A VISTA aircraft as part of DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program.", "coverimage": "https://www.edwards.af.mil/Portals/50/220826-F-DB956-2158.JPG", "organization": "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency", "topic": "innovation; air combat", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "April 19, 2024", "PostTitle": "Strides in STEM: Honoring Women-Led Achievements at Our Centers of Excellence", "ResourceLink": "https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2024/03/25/strides-stem-honoring-women-led-achievements-our-coe", "PostDescription": "...Throughout March, we have reflected on the impressive contributions of women across S&T in blogs spotlighting our national laboratories and our women-owned business partners. The women in various positions across America’s colleges and universities are conducting cutting-edge research on topics from enhancing community resiliency to counterterrorism, emergency management, cybersecurity, aviation and maritime security. Here is a a sampling of the many innovative women we are collaborating with through the DHS Centers of Excellence (COEs), as well as through our association with the nation’s Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). Their achievements will help to foster future STEM leaders for generations to come...", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DHS.png", "organization": "Department of Homeland Security", "topic": "science; technology; STEM", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "April 19, 2024", "PostTitle": "New AI Tools Could Save Constellation Reactor Fleet Millions", "ResourceLink": "https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/new-ai-tools-could-save-constellation-reactor-fleet-millions", "PostDescription": "...Blue Wave AI Labs successfully deployed machine learning (ML) tools at two nuclear power plants operated by Constellation, saving the company millions of dollars per reactor each year.  The project was part of a $6 million effort supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help lower the operating costs of nuclear power plants using the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and ML technologies.  Reactor operators depend on sensors to measure power generation, fuel consumption, and the overall state of the reactor with respect to operating limits.  Over time, these sensors can become out of calibration and lose accuracy. During the next sensor calibration cycle, the plant operators were able to verify that sensors that were taken offline were giving incorrect readings due to miscalibration, as was predicted by Blue Wave’s tool. The company estimates that the AI tools combined have saved Constellation more than $1.6 million each year per reactor by reducing fuel costs...", "coverimage": "https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_article_width/public/2023-01/nuclear-milestone-header.png", "organization": "Department of Energy", "topic": "artificial intelligence; energy; technology", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "April 12, 2024", "PostTitle": "Pentagon Technology Officials Focus on Maintaining U.S. Edge", "ResourceLink": "https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3716413/pentagon-technology-officials-focus-on-maintaining-us-edge/", "PostDescription": "John Sherman, DOD's chief information officer said cyberthreats continue to emerge, as seen across Asia and Europe, and network protection across DOD and defense industry networks is paramount. To address the threat, he said DOD has remained \"laser focused\" on implementing a zero trust cybersecurity framework. Once implemented, the zero trust framework will move the DOD beyond traditional network security methods with capabilities designed to reduce exposure to cyberattacks, enable risk management and data sharing, and quickly contain and remediate adversary activities. DOD released its strategy to accelerate the adoption of advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to ensure U.S. warfighters maintain decision superiority on the battlefield for years to come.  The department aims to apply the CJADC2 approach across all warfighting domains to give warfighters the edge in deterring and, as necessary, defeating adversaries anywhere around the globe.", "coverimage": "https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/22/2003418511/825/780/0/240322-D-DB155-1001.JPG", "organization": "Department of Defense", "topic": "artificial intelligence; science; technology", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "April 12, 2024", "PostTitle": "ARPA-H Joins DARPA's AI Cyber Challenge to Safeguard Nation's Health Care Infrastructure from Cyberattacks", "ResourceLink": "https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2024-03-21", "PostDescription": "The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is joining forces with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to expand the Artificial Intelligence Cyber Challenge (AIxCC). Cyber and ransomware attacks on America's health care systems have increased significantly in recent years, often preventing patients from receiving care and compromising their personal information. By collaborating with DARPA on the AIxCC, ARPA-H aims to spur the development of AI-enabled technology to safeguard hospitals, pharmacies, and medical devices from cyberattacks. AIxCC is a two-year competition that asks competitors to design novel AI tools and capabilities to find and fix vulnerabilities in software used in critical infrastructure. This software runs everything from transportation to water and wastewater systems, emergency services, and energy sources. At the center of this infrastructure are the health care and public health sectors, which are uniquely sensitive to disruptions in these areas.", "coverimage": "https://www.darpa.mil/DDM_Gallery/AIxCC-ARPAH-v10_619x316.jpg", "organization": "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency", "topic": "artificial intelligence; automation; cybersecurity; machine learning", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "March 21, 2024", "PostTitle": "Navy Scientist Helped Develop GPS", "ResourceLink": "https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3700859/navy-scientist-helped-develop-gps/", "PostDescription": "Gladys West was among a small group of women who did computing for the U.S. military during the early days of the Cold War, including Defense Department work that eventually became the basis for the Global Positioning System. In the early 1960s, she participated in an award-winning, astronomical study that proved the regularity of Pluto's motion relative to Neptune. From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, West used complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal and other forces that distort Earth's shape. She programmed the IBM 7030 computer, also known as Stretch, to deliver increasingly refined calculations for an extremely accurate model of the Earth's shape, optimized for what ultimately became the GPS orbit used by satellites. Despite having helped to develop GPS, West told the Atlanta Black Star news website that she still prefers using a paper map when she drives.", "coverimage": "https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409223/825/780/0/850316-O-D0439-001Y.JPG", "organization": "Department of Defense", "topic": "science; technology; engineering", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "March 1, 2024", "PostTitle": "NSF and DOE support research to combat climate change with viruses that can help 'dial up' carbon capture in the sea", "ResourceLink": "https://news.osu.edu/viruses-that-can-help-dial-up-carbon-capture-in-the-sea/", "PostDescription": "Armed with a catalog of hundreds of thousands of DNA and RNA virus species in the world's oceans, scientists are now zeroing in on the viruses most likely to combat climate change by helping trap carbon dioxide in seawater. The researchers developed AI-based analytics to identify from thousands of viruses which few are “VIP” viruses to culture in the lab and work with as model systems for ocean geoengineering. or, using similar techniques, different viruses that may prevent methane's escape from thawing Arctic soil. By combining genomic sequencing data with artificial intelligence analysis, researchers have identified ocean-based viruses and assessed their genomes to find that they “steal” genes from other microbes or cells that process carbon in the sea. Having mined this massive trove of data via advances in computation, the team has now revealed which viruses have a role in carbon metabolism and are using this information in newly developed community metabolic models to help predict how using viruses to engineer the ocean microbiome toward better carbon capture would look. This is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.", "coverimage": "https://content.presspage.com/uploads/2170/e3bacd5e-4d47-4f14-8bd7-2eaed4136a59/1920_oceanviruses-getty.jpeg", "organization": "Ohio State University", "topic": "microbology", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "March 1, 2024", "PostTitle": "DHS S&T Tests Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology", "ResourceLink": "https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2024/02/27/feature-article-st-tests-cutting-edge-counter-drone-technology", "PostDescription": "To defend against the malicious use of drones, the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) evaluated innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) technologies, a.k.a. counter-drone technologies, during two live demonstrations. S&T partnered with the University of North Dakota (UND), which is part of the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Unmanned Air Systems. UND provided S&T its first analysis of the technologies demonstrated and their collateral effects. The second demonstration evaluated potential non-kinetic solutions capable of detecting, tracking, identifying, and countering swarms of small UAS that are being controlled remotely. It also assessed technologies available to detect and mitigate against drones that emit little or no radio frequency (RF) signals, noise, or emissions; these are known as “dark” drones. When used in unison for nefarious purposes, drone swarms could interfere with first responders attempting to respond to an incident at an event with national or international importance, or for a distributed assault on critical infrastructure.", "coverimage": "https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/styles/extra_large_800x800_/public/2024-02/24_0227_st_fa_cuas_drone_detection_system.JPG", "organization": "Department of Homeland Security", "topic": "science; technology", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "February 16, 2024", "PostTitle": "DOD Funds UC Davis to Establish Bird Flight Research Center to Inform the Design of Uncrewed Aerial Systems", "ResourceLink": "https://www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/news/uc-davis-establishes-bird-flight-research-center", "PostDescription": "[Funded by DOD] Motion capture technology uses multiple infrared cameras to track reflective markers on the moving subject. Due to the sparse placement of the markers on the bird's body, motion capture technology cannot be used to create detailed 3D models. Photogrammetry, uses specialized algorithms to combine multiple calibrated 2D camera images to create a 3D model, but the heavy data processing load requires such high-resolution imagery. UC Davis and the California Raptor Center, are launching the bird flight research center with a nearly $3 million grant from the Department of Defense. The new center will utilize motion capture and photogrammetry — which uses photography to determine the distance between objects — technologies to image birds in flight and create 3D models of the wing shapes to inform the design and capabilities of the next generation of uncrewed aerial systems, or UAS. This will inform the development of next-generation drones and other uncrewed aerial systems to deliver packages, detect and fight wildfires, and more.", "coverimage": "https://www.ucdavis.edu/sites/default/files/styles/sf_landscape_16x9/public/media/images/20240125-flight-facility-3974.jpg", "organization": "University of California, Davis", "topic": "science; technology", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "February 16, 2024", "PostTitle": "NSF Career award will support DNA computing research", "ResourceLink": "https://news.wsu.edu/news/2024/02/12/nsf-career-award-will-support-dna-computing-research/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF] Dominic Scalise, assistant professor in WSU's School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, has received a $500,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for his work in developing DNA-powered computing. Scalise is working to develop a robust, DNA computer that can be readily programmed to execute several tasks. DNA computers use DNA instead of electronics to process information. Because they run on DNA, the computers have the potential to integrate directly with materials where the metals and materials of traditional computing wouldn't work. The novel technology could someday revolutionize computing in fields such as intelligent medicine, robotics, or biosensing. Scalise aims to develop an easily programmable DNA computer that, like electronics-based computers, can do any task. His lab is also working to create a “power supply” for the computer — DNA reactions that can replenish chemical reactants and sustain the biochemical computers to run for extended periods.", "coverimage": "https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/news/uploads/sites/2797/2023/04/iStock-1463378537_wp-1024x676.jpg", "organization": "Washington State University, Pullman", "topic": "science; technology", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "February 1, 2024", "PostTitle": "Saving an endangered species: New AI method counts manatee clusters in real time", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/news/saving-endangered-species-new-ai-method-counts", "PostDescription": "Manatees are an endangered species and vulnerable to environmental changes and other risks. Accurately counting manatee clusters is challenging, but important for designing safety rules for boaters and divers. Aerial surveys are time-consuming and costly, and its accuracy depends on factors such as weather conditions and time of day. U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers at Florida Atlantic University are among the first to use a deep learning-based crowd counting approach to automatically tally the number of manatees in a region, using images captured from CCTV cameras. To determine manatee densities and calculate their numbers, researchers used generic images captured from surveillance videos at the water's surface. They then used a design matching the manatees' unique shape to transform the images into manatee-customized density maps. The results offer potential ways of aiding endangered species.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/media_hub/rn_algorithm_performance_graphic.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing; engineering", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "February 1, 2024", "PostTitle": "NSF/NIH/DOE-funded research found viral protein fragments may unlock mystery behind serious COVID-19 outcomes", "ResourceLink": "https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/viral-protein-fragments-behind-serious-covid-19-outcomes", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF, NIH, and DOE] There are many lingering mysteries from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as why does SARS-CoV-2 cause severe symptoms in some patients, while many other coronaviruses don't? And what causes strange symptoms to persist even after the infection has been cleared from a person’s system? Using an artificial intelligence system they developed, researchers scanned the entire collection of proteins produced by SARS-CoV-2 and then performed an exhaustive series of validation experiments. The scientists found that certain viral protein fragments, generated after the SARS-CoV-2 virus is broken down into pieces, can mimic a key component of the body's machinery for amplifying immune signals. Their discoveries suggest that some of the most serious COVID-19 outcomes can result from these fragments overstimulating the immune system. In addition to their AI analysis, the researchers used state-of-the-art methods for elucidating nanoscale biological structures and conducted cell- and animal-based experiments.", "coverimage": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/cms.ipressroom.com/173/files/20240/65b19faa2cfac24e933d8c32_world+is+temporarily+closed+marquee+crop/world+is+temporarily+closed+marquee+crop_hero.jpg", "organization": "University of California", "topic": "research; health; science", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 25, 2024", "PostTitle": "NOAA satellites helped save 350 lives in 2023", "ResourceLink": "https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-satellites-helped-save-350-lives-in-2023", "PostDescription": "NOAA's satellites were behind the rescue of 350 people from harrowing, life-threatening ordeals in the U.S. and its surrounding waters in 2023. NOAA's polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites are part of the global Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system, or COSPAS-SARSAT, which uses a network of U.S. and international spacecraft to detect and locate distress signals sent from 406MHz emergency beacons onboard aircraft, boats and handheld Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) anywhere in the world. When a NOAA satellite pinpoints the location of a distress signal in the U.S., the information is relayed to the SARSAT Mission Control Center at NOAA's Satellite Operations Facility. From there, the information is quickly sent to Rescue Coordination Centers, operated either by the U.S. Air Force for land rescues, or the U.S. Coast Guard (USGC) for maritime rescues. NOAA also supports rescues globally by relaying distress signal information to international COSPAS-SARSAT partners.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NOAA-logo.png", "organization": "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "topic": "satellite technology; emergency response", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 25, 2024", "PostTitle": "Supercomputers Shine New Light on Ocean Turbulence", "ResourceLink": "https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/supercomputers-shine-new-light-ocean-turbulence", "PostDescription": "Describing more accurately how heat moves through the ocean could help scientists develop better, more precise computer models of the climate. Scientists at the University of Cambridge and the University of Massachusetts Amherst used the Summit supercomputer at the DOE’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) to run a new model of ocean turbulence. The computer simulated a generic 10-meter cube of ocean water. To analyze changes down to the centimeter, the program simulates the cube of water on a digital grid. With the model, the scientists analyzed how turbulence influences heat moving through seawater. Previously, computers simply weren't powerful enough to handle the layers upon layers of complexity and capture the motion at the vast range of scales. To handle those limitations, past models collapsed all of the actions happening in different parts of the water into one average measurement. With the even-more-powerful Frontier supercomputer now available at OLCF, the scientists on this project are hoping to further expand their understanding of this complex topic.", "coverimage": "https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_article_width/public/2024-01/011824-blog-ocean-turbulence.jpg", "organization": "Department of Energy", "topic": "supercomputers; oceanography", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 18, 2024", "PostTitle": "Chasing the light: Sandia study finds new clues about warming in the Arctic", "ResourceLink": "https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/arctic_sunlight/", "PostDescription": "Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are pulling back the curtain on the reduction of sunlight reflectivity, or albedo, which is supercharging the Arctic's warming to gain a better understanding of the reduction in reflectivity in the Arctic. The scientists have tapped into data from GPS satellite radiometers, capturing the sunlight bouncing off the Arctic. This data dive could be the key to cracking the Arctic amplification code. The study represents one of the first comprehensive examinations of year-to-year effects in the Arctic region. Sandia's data analysis revealed a 20% to 35% decrease in total reflectivity over the Arctic summer. According to microwave sea-ice extent measurements collected during the same period, one-third of this loss of reflectivity is attributed to fully melted ice. The key discovery here is just how much the weathered ice - remaining sea ice, which can be thinner and may contain melt ponds - is reducing reflectivity. The GPS satellites are expected to continue providing data through 2040.", "coverimage": "https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Arctic-Albedo-photo-250x188.jpeg", "organization": "Sandia National Laboratories", "topic": "climate", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 18, 2024", "PostTitle": "Journey into the Immersive Frontier: Preliminary NIST Research on Cybersecurity and Privacy Standards for Immersive Technologies", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/cybersecurity-insights/journey-immersive-frontier-preliminary-nist-research-cybersecurity-and", "PostDescription": "Immersive technologies have the potential to transform the way we interact with each other and the world. In cybersecurity, digital technologies that bridge into new domains via novel interfaces, protocols, etc. can increase attack surface. These new technologies also have a distinctly human element and so will bring a host of human factors considerations related to cybersecurity. To function, these technologies rely on spatial and body-based data about individuals, which can create significant privacy risks. This includes integration of behavioral data about emotional/psychological states with biometric data used beyond identity verification. Immersive technologies can also create limitations for the application of traditional privacy principles. In the coming months, NIST will research the current state of immersive technologies, gathering insights and feedback on cybersecurity and privacy considerations from our stakeholder community.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/480_x_480_limit/public/images/2024/01/10/Immersive%20Tech%20Blog.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "cybersecurity; privacy; standards", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 18, 2024", "PostTitle": "Riding the Wind: How Applied Geometry and Artificial Intelligence Can Help Us Win the Renewable Energy Race", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/riding-wind-how-applied-geometry-and-artificial-intelligence-can-help-us-win", "PostDescription": "A turbine spinning in the wind may seem simple, but designing and measuring blades of a wind turbine, using a sequence of changing cross-sectional shapes, requires a lot of sophisticated geometry. Using the laws of physics, we can build computer models to predict how air flowing around the blades of a spinning turbine generates power. Modeling how these forces change when the surface changes is a subject of aerodynamics. Working alongside the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), NIST is developing new methods to describe and generate these complicated airfoil shapes to create next-generation designs and augment measurements in the field. The colleagues at NREL train the AI to tell the geometry model how to achieve new designs with requested aerodynamics based on the generated data. Helping design next-generation turbines is only the first step. We must also measure the hard-to-reach offshore turbines while in operation to make sure they are holding up to the test of time and can still provide power to those who need it.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2023/12/12/shutterstock_1757550275.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "energy; infrastructure; mathematics; statistics", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 18, 2024", "PostTitle": "This US-Indian Satellite Will Monitor Earth's Changing Frozen Regions", "ResourceLink": "https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/this-us-indian-satellite-will-monitor-earths-changing-frozen-regions", "PostDescription": "NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), the soon-to-launch radar satellite, will measure some key Earth vital signs, from the health of wetlands to ground deformation by volcanoes to the dynamics of land and sea ice. This will help researchers decipher how small-scale processes can cause monumental changes in the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland, as well as on mountain glaciers and sea ice around the world. It will provide the most comprehensive picture to date of motion and deformation of frozen surfaces in Earth’s ice- and snow-covered environments. The satellite will track changes in mountain glaciers, where melting has contributed about a third of the sea level rise seen since the 1960s. NISAR will also capture the movement and extent of sea ice in both hemispheres. Sea ice insulates the ocean from the air, reducing evaporation and heat loss to the atmosphere. It also reflects sunlight, keeping the planet cool through the albedo effect. NISAR will observe nearly all the planet’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days.", "coverimage": "https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/images/1b-East_Antarctica_ice_shelf_.2e16d0ba.fill-1096x616-c70.jpg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "climate; satellite", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 5, 2024", "PostTitle": "From Diamonds in Your Computer to Safer Medications, NIST Researchers Look at What’s Next for 2024 and Beyond", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/diamonds-your-computer-safer-medications-nist-researchers-look-whats-next-2024", "PostDescription": "Thoughts and predictions on questions looking to 2024 and beyond ... NIST's postdoctoral researchers are using advanced mathematical techniques to measure small parts of the antibody, known as domains, so we can better understand antibodies. William “Drew” Borders is working on a project that demonstrates how you can train a computer chip to work like a neural network in the brain to improve computers' energy usage. As the U.S. works to improve domestic production of computer chips, Trey Diulus is learning more about alternative materials to silicon for semiconductor devices, such as the transistors inside of cars or the drills on oil rigs. The lab is currently researching ways to treat diamonds using standard lab equipment that most universities and research facilities can access, instead of the current standard of purchasing expensive treated diamond samples from companies.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2023/12/18/Melinda_Kleczynski_november_2023.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "bioscience; electronics; health; information technology; materials; metrology; physics", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "January 5, 2024", "PostTitle": "As the Arctic Warms, Its Waters Are Emitting Carbon", "ResourceLink": "https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/as-the-arctic-warms-its-waters-are-emitting-carbon", "PostDescription": "Since the 1970s, the Arctic has warmed at least three times faster than anywhere else on Earth. It's been estimated that the cold waters of the Arctic absorb as much as 180 million metric tons of carbon per year. Scientists are using state-of-the-art computer modeling to study rivers that flow into a region of the Arctic Ocean. Scientists have thought of the southeastern Beaufort Sea as a weak-to-moderate CO2 sink. The team adapted a global ocean biogeochemical model called ECCO-Darwin, which was developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The model assimilates nearly all available ocean observations collected for more than two decades by sea- and satellite-based instruments. The scientists used the model to simulate the discharge of fresh water and the elements and compounds it carries from 2000 to 2019. Scientists are tracking large and seemingly small changes in the Arctic and beyond because our ocean waters remain a critical buffer against a changing climate.", "coverimage": "https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/images/1-Mackenzie_River_Delta.width-1320.jpg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "climate research", "year": "2024" }, { "date": "December 21, 2023", "PostTitle": "Using a fiber optic cable to study Arctic seafloor permafrost", "ResourceLink": "https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/arctic_permafrost/", "PostDescription": "The Arctic is remote, with often harsh conditions, and its climate is changing rapidly - warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are using an existing fiber optic cable off Oliktok Point on the North Slope of Alaska to study the conditions of the Arctic seafloor up to 20 miles from shore. Their goal is to determine the seismic structure of miles of Arctic seafloor. Using an emerging technique, they can spot areas of the seafloor where sound travels faster than on the rest of the seafloor, typically because of more ice. The scientists also used the cable to determine temperatures over the stretch of seafloor and monitored temperature changes over seasons. These data, unlike any collected before, were inserted into a computer model to infer the distribution of submarine permafrost. To study permafrost on the Arctic seafloor, the researchers used pulses of laser light shot down a submarine telecommunications fiber optic cable buried off the coast of Alaska, running north from Oliktok Point. Tiny imperfections in the cable caused light to bounce back to a sensor system. By capturing this light at two wavelengths, or colors, and comparing them, the researchers could determine the temperature of the cable every yard. This is called distributed temperature sensing.", "coverimage": "https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/arctic_pingo-250x188.jpg", "organization": "Sandia National Laboratories", "topic": "climate research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "December 14, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF advances technologies to improve quality of life for persons with disabilities", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-advances-technologies-improve-quality-life", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation is investing in research solutions to address challenges faced by persons with disabilities, including the development of assistive and rehabilitative technologies to enhance their quality of life and provide greater opportunities for gainful employment. With a $30 million investment, NSF has selected six multidisciplinary research teams to advance from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the NSF Convergence Accelerator's Track H: Enhancing Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. \"Ensuring accessibility and inclusivity for persons with disabilities are both societal and economic imperatives,\" said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). The NSF Convergence Accelerator track builds upon NSF's mission of accelerating convergence research. Funded solutions include improvements to text-to-speech, applications for the hearing impaired, restored limb functions for the physically impaired, increased transportation efficiency for the visually impaired and more.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NSF-Logo.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "engineering; society", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "December 14, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIST Offers Draft Guidance on Evaluating a Privacy Protection Technique for the AI Era", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2023/12/nist-offers-draft-guidance-evaluating-privacy-protection-technique-ai-era", "PostDescription": "Helping data-centric organizations to strike this balance between privacy and accuracy is the goal of a new publication from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that offers guidance on using a type of mathematical algorithm called differential privacy. Applying differential privacy allows the data to be publicly released without revealing the individuals within the dataset. Differential privacy is one of the more mature privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) used in data analytics, but a lack of standards can make it difficult to employ effectively — potentially creating a barrier for users. This work moves NIST toward fulfilling one of its tasks under the recent Executive Order on AI: to advance research into PETs such as differential privacy. NIST’s new guidance aims to help everyone from software developers to business owners to policy makers understand and think more consistently about claims made about differential privacy.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2023/12/08/pyramid-rev.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "information technology; artificial intelligence; cybersecurity; privacy", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "December 7, 2023", "PostTitle": "AI education and AI in education", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/ai-education-ai-education", "PostDescription": "Researchers have developed an online game to teach high school students university-level AI and computational thinking concepts. Another research team are teaching AI with activities facilitated by a virtual human AI avatar meant to engage young children and their families in learning about AI concepts. In 2019, an NSF-funded project led to the development of national guidelines for teaching and learning about AI in K-12 school settings. Prior to this, there were few to no curriculums in the U.S. dedicated to teaching pre-college students about the fundamental knowledge and skills related to AI. Now educators and curriculum developers can visit the AI for K-12 initiative website to find guidelines. One project that began with a desire to teach AI concepts to younger audiences through a gaming platform ended up having profound impacts. The game, ARIN-561, provides players with the opportunity to explore a strange new planet as a crash-landed astronaut. AI in education can create new ways to connect learners with their local environments, allow them to think critically about ecological problems, and aid them in coming up with realistic solutions.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-10/ARIN561-1.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "artificial intelligence; education; computing", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "November 30, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF and ARO fund project to defend your voice against deepfakes", "ResourceLink": "https://source.wustl.edu/2023/11/defending-your-voice-against-deepfakes/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF & ARO] Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence have spurred developments in realistic speech synthesis. This technology has led to the emergence of deepfakes, in which synthesized speech can be misused to deceive humans and machines for nefarious purposes. Ning Zhang, at Washington University in St. Louis, developed a tool called AntiFake, a novel defense mechanism designed to thwart unauthorized speech synthesis before it happens. Unlike traditional deepfake detection methods, which are used to evaluate and uncover synthetic audio as a post-attack mitigation tool, AntiFake takes a proactive stance. It employs adversarial techniques to prevent the synthesis of deceptive speech by making it more difficult for AI tools to read necessary characteristics from voice recordings. The code is freely available to users. Currently, AntiFake can protect short clips of speech, taking aim at the most common type of voice impersonation. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and Army Research Office.", "coverimage": "https://source.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AntiFake-workflow.jpg", "organization": "Washington University in St. Louis", "topic": "artificial intelligence; deepfakes", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "November 30, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIH's BRAIN Initiative funds an innovative design that achieves tenfold better resolution for functional MRI brain imaging", "ResourceLink": "https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/11/27/innovative-design-achieves-tenfold-better-resolution-for-functional-mri-brain-imaging", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NIH] An intense international effort to improve the resolution of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for studying the human brain has culminated in an ultra-high resolution 7 Tesla scanner that records up to 10 times more detail than current 7T scanners and over 50 times more detail than current 3T scanners. The NexGen 7T scanner is a new tool that allows us to look at the brain circuitry underlying different diseases of the brain with higher spatial resolution. This could lead to better ways of diagnosing brain disorders. The improved resolution could finally help connect the dots between observed changes due to Alzheimer's that occur in the brain — abnormal clumps of protein called beta amyloid and tau — and changes in memory. The breakthrough came about through an initial $13.4 million in funding from the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The initiative aims to develop new technologies that will produce a dynamic picture of the brain showing how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact across the brain and over time.", "coverimage": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/cms.ipressroom.com/401/files/202311/6563d1583d633249735a4dc8_scan_comparison_Fig1/scan_comparison_Fig1_b56db8bd-2a29-4632-9904-2534231ce012-prv.jpg", "organization": "University of California, Berkeley", "topic": "neuroscience; neurotechnology", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "November 17, 2023", "PostTitle": "Scientists use quantum biology, AI, and a supercomputer to sharpen genome editing tool", "ResourceLink": "https://www.ornl.gov/news/scientists-use-quantum-biology-ai-sharpen-genome-editing-tool", "PostDescription": "Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used their expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering to improve how CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools. They turned to quantum biology, a field bridging molecular biology and quantum chemistry that investigates the effects that electronic structure can have on the chemical properties and interactions of the molecules that form the building blocks of DNA and RNA. The scientists built an explainable artificial intelligence model called iterative random forest. They trained the model on a dataset of around 50,000 guide RNAs targeting the genome of E. coli bacteria while also taking into account quantum chemical properties. Using explainable AI gave scientists an understanding of the biological mechanisms that drove results, rather than a deep learning model rooted in a “black box” algorithm that lacks interpretability. The explainable AI model, with its thousands of features and iterative nature, was trained using the Summit supercomputer at ORNL.", "coverimage": "https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_style/public/2023-11/CRISPR%20Quantum%20AI_2_23-G07105-DOE-BER-BESSD-comms-graphic-pcg_1.jpg", "organization": "Oak Ridge National Laboratory", "topic": "quantum biology; artificial intelligence; bioengineering; supercomputing", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "November 9, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF 101: America's Seed Fund", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/nsf-101-americas-seed-fund", "PostDescription": "NSF grants funding to nearly 400 startups and small businesses across numerous technology areas annually to research and develop a proof-of-concept or prototype. Through the America's Seed Fund: Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer program, these companies can take their idea or their research discovery and create products or services for broader use. From artificial intelligence to energy, medical devices to semiconductors, NSF is funding budding companies to make a big impact. America's Seed Fund encourages technological innovation, transforming scientific and engineering discoveries into products and services with commercial pull and societal impact. The program reviews startups with technology solutions based on intellectual merit, societal benefit and commercial impact. Each startup can possibly receive up to $2 million to support translational research and development. Companies must first submit a written Project Pitch to see if their idea would be a good fit for the program. After receiving an official invitation, they can submit a Phase I proposal.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-05/NSF-101-Blog-Image.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "research; development; funding", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "November 9, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF/AFOSR/ONR/ARO supports research using language to give robots a better grasp of an open-ended world", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2023/using-language-give-robots-better-grasp-open-ended-world-1102", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF, AFOSR, ONR, and ARO] Inspired by humans' ability to handle unfamiliar objects, a group from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) designed Feature Fields for Robotic Manipulation (F3RM), a system that blends 2D images with foundation model features into 3D scenes to help robots identify and grasp nearby items. The method could assist robots with picking items in large fulfillment centers with inevitable clutter and unpredictability. In these warehouses, robots are often given a description of the inventory that they're required to identify. With F3RM’s advanced spatial and semantic perception abilities, a robot could become more effective at locating an object, placing it in a bin, and then sending it along for packaging. F3RM begins to understand its surroundings by taking pictures on a selfie stick. The mounted camera snaps 50 images at different poses, enabling it to build a neural radiance field (NeRF), a deep learning method that takes 2D images to construct a 3D scene. This collage of RGB photos creates a \"digital twin\" of its surroundings.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202310/MIT_-_F3RM_15.png", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "robotics", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "November 5, 2023", "PostTitle": "Latest Issue of NASA's First Woman Graphic Novel Series", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/calliefirst/", "PostDescription": "Fictional astronaut Callie Rodriguez continues exploring space as the first woman to walk on the Moon in a new issue of the First Woman graphic novel series. Now available digitally in English and Spanish, First Woman: Expanding Our Universe follows Callie and her crewmates as they work together to explore the unknown, make scientific discoveries, and accomplish their mission objectives. Through the First Woman series, NASA is inspiring the next generation of explorers – the Artemis Generation – as it works to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under the Artemis program. The website and immersive app allow audiences to explore a new virtual 3D environment, technologies, and objects related to lunar exploration. Fans also can explore updated First Woman content, including videos, interactive games, and other materials related to ongoing and future NASA missions.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/issuetab-issue1-contentimage.png", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "space; education", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "November 5, 2023", "PostTitle": "Lucy - NASA Science", "ResourceLink": "https://science.nasa.gov/mission/lucy/", "PostDescription": "The Lucy mission is named for a fossilized skeleton of a human ancestor, which was named for the Beatles song \"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.\" Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by two asteroids in the solar system's main asteroid belt, and by eight Trojan asteroids that share an orbit around the Sun with Jupiter. Meet Lucy as she prepares for the first ever journey to the Trojan asteroids, a population of primitive small bodies orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. Episode 1: Launch.", "coverimage": "https://smd-cms.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/f-wlmlawqaakyov.png", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "space; solar system", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 26, 2023", "PostTitle": "ORNL scientists close the cycle on recycling mixed plastics by using high-performance computing and neutron scattering", "ResourceLink": "https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-scientists-close-cycle-recycling-mixed-plastics", "PostDescription": "Little of the mixed consumer plastics thrown away or placed in recycle bins actually ends up being recycled. Nearly 90% is buried in landfills or incinerated at commercial facilities that generate greenhouse gases and airborne toxins. It's usually easier and less expensive to make new plastic products than reclaim, sort and recycle used ones. Conventional recycling of mixed plastics has previously meant manually or mechanically separating the plastics according to their constituent polymers. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory used carefully planned chemical design, neutron scattering and high-performance computing to help develop a new catalytic recycling process. The catalyst selectively and sequentially deconstructs multiple polymers in mixed plastics into pristine monomers - molecules that react with other monomer molecules to form a polymer. Small-angle neutron scattering at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source was used to help confirm the formation of deconstructed monomers from the waste plastics.", "coverimage": "https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_style/public/2023-10/23-G05683_MixedPlasticRecycling_proof2.png", "organization": "Oak Ridge National Laboratory", "topic": "materials; high-performance computing", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 26, 2023", "PostTitle": "ARO/AFOSR/NSF-funded researchers who demonstrate how to electronically alter the direction of electron flow in promising materials for quantum computing", "ResourceLink": "https://www.psu.edu/news/eberly-college-science/story/electrical-control-quantum-phenomenon-could-improve-future-electronic/", "PostDescription": "Little of the mixed consumer plastics thrown away or placed in recycle bins actually ends up being recycled. Nearly 90% is buried in landfills or incinerated at commercial facilities that generate greenhouse gases and airborne toxins. It's usually easier and less expensive to make new plastic products than reclaim, sort and recycle used ones. Conventional recycling of mixed plastics has previously meant manually or mechanically separating the plastics according to their constituent polymers. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory used carefully planned chemical design, neutron scattering and high-performance computing to help develop a new catalytic recycling process. The catalyst selectively and sequentially deconstructs multiple polymers in mixed plastics into pristine monomers - molecules that react with other monomer molecules to form a polymer. Small-angle neutron scattering at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source was used to help confirm the formation of deconstructed monomers from the waste plastics.", "coverimage": "https://psu-gatsby-files-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/4_3_1500w/public/2023/10/chang_qahinsulator_switch.jpg", "organization": "The Pennsylvania State University", "topic": "materials; research; quantum computing", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 19, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIH-funded AI tool can predict viral variants, ID most dangerous, help make vaccines ‘future-proof'", "ResourceLink": "https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/10/scientists-develop-ai-tool-that-predicts-virus-mutations", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NIH] A new artificial intelligence tool named EVEscape, developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Oxford can make predictions about new viral variants before they actually emerge. The tool has two elements: A model of evolutionary sequences that predicts changes that can occur to a virus, and detailed biological and structural information about the virus. Together, they allow EVEscape to make predictions about the variants most likely to occur as the virus evolves. The researchers are now using EVEscape to look ahead at SARS-CoV-2 and predict future variants of concern. The core of EVE is a generative model that learns to predict the functionality of proteins based on large-scale evolutionary data across species. The team turned the clock back to January 2020 and asked EVEscape to predict what would happen with SARS-CoV-2. EVEscape predicted which SARS-CoV-2 mutations would occur during the pandemic with accuracy similar to this of experimental approaches that test the virus' ability to bind to antibodies made by the immune system.", "coverimage": "https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/600-Evolving-virus-GIF-4-reversed.gif", "organization": "Harvard University", "topic": "artificial intelligence; biology; virology", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 19, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIH/NSF-supported research finds practicing mindfulness with an app may improve children's mental health", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2023/practicing-mindfulness-may-improve-childrens-mental-health-1011", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NIH and NSF] Many studies have found that practicing mindfulness has benefits for children. MIT researchers reported that children who used a mindfulness app at home for 40 days showed improvements in several aspects of mental health, including reductions in stress and negative emotions such as loneliness and fear. They also found that children who showed higher levels of mindfulness were more emotionally resilient to the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers explored whether a remote, app-based intervention could effectively increase mindfulness and improve mental health with training through an app created by Inner Explorer. For comparison purposes, two other groups were asked to use an app for listening to audiobooks. Children in the mindfulness group showed some improvements that the other groups didn't, including a more significant decrease in stress. They also found that parents in the mindfulness group reported that their children experienced more significant decreases in negative emotions such as anger and sadness.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202310/MIT-KidsMindfulness-01_0.jpg", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "research; mental health; brain and cognitive sciences", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 12, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF congratulates laureates of the 2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-congratulates-laureates-2023-nobel-prize-in-chemistry", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation congratulates Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov on their 2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry. The laureates discovered quantum dots and a method for reliably producing them at a high quality. Quantum dots are extremely small semiconductor particles (a few nanometers in diameter) that can have unique optical properties potentially applicable for a wide range of uses, including optical devices, solar cells, biomedical imaging and quantum computing. NSF is proud to have supported the research and early-career development of Bawendi and Brus. \"Today, quantum dots are manufactured into technologies, products and services that are part of our everyday lives - from illuminating computer monitors and television screens to helping doctors map biological tissue,\" says NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-10/QD_rainbow.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "chemistry; materials; engineering", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 12, 2023", "PostTitle": "Don't be a target: How to identify adversarial propaganda", "ResourceLink": "https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3550887/dont-be-a-target-how-to-identify-adversarial-propaganda/", "PostDescription": "Adversarial disinformation campaigns and influence operations are “gray zone” activities that use technology and tactics to disguise themselves, making it challenging to identify the source of the content. U.S. Army Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, commander, U.S. Cyber Command. Nakasone said that CYBERCOM's operations aim to disrupt adversary campaigns designed to harm America by going \"after troll farms and other different actors that are trying to create influence.\" Adversarial disinformation campaigns and influence operations can be identified by knowing where they start - with the Orderers of Disinformation. Orderers of Disinformation are strategic competitors and adversaries, who want to generate and spread a false narrative to distort facts pertaining to past and future events. They hire creators to develop legitimate looking news agencies and social media accounts to push the false narrative into the Information Environment. To spread the orderers' false narrative in the IE, creators use disinformation actors, such as bots, cyborgs, trolls, sockpuppets and amplifiers.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-10/QD_rainbow.jpg", "organization": "U.S Air Force material Command", "topic": "defense ecosystem; propaganda ecosystems", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 5, 2023", "PostTitle": "Staying Safe Online", "ResourceLink": "https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2023/10/03/staying-safe-online", "PostDescription": "S&T's goal is to be on the cutting-edge when it comes to ensuring our nation's cybersecurity. We do this in a number of ways—through collaborative efforts to support and advance the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's mission, by developing tools to identify potential vulnerabilities in our nation's critical infrastructure systems and networks, and by implementing solutions to improve cybersecurity-related risk analysis processes and assessment. To kick off Cybersecurity Awareness Month, some examples of the work underway are spotlighted. S&T's Cybersecurity Threats Technology Center is supporting research to enhance the cybersecurity and resilience of our critical infrastructure. This research expands our knowledge of future threats, studies approaches to mitigating those threats, and aims to reduce risks so that our partners can plan to safely integrate and transition emerging technologies in the near future. ", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DHS.png", "organization": "Department of Homeland Security", "topic": "science; technology; cybersecurity", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "October 5, 2023", "PostTitle": "Kicking off NIST's Cybersecurity Awareness Month Celebration & Our Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023 Blog Series", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/cybersecurity-insights/kicking-nists-cybersecurity-awareness-month-celebration-our", "PostDescription": "To kick-off our 2023 blog series NIST's David Temoshok walked us through his insights and ideas relative to enabling multi-factor authentication, along with sharing a bit about what he's up to these days at NIST. NIST's Special Publication 800-63-3 Digital Identity Guidelines provide foundational processes and technical guidance for the management of digital identities by federal agencies. It also explains how public access to federal online services, systems, and transactions need to be managed by federal agencies in secure, usable, and privacy-protecting ways. NIST's Digital Identity Guidelines present three levels of authentication assurance for access to the government's online services: low, moderate, and high.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2023/10/02/NSCAM%20Blog%20Series%20Banner%202023.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "cybersecurity", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "September 8, 2023", "PostTitle": "National Preparedness Month: Class Is in Session", "ResourceLink": "https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2023/09/05/national-preparedness-month-class-session", "PostDescription": "S&T is celebrating National Preparedness Month this year by offering a “back to school” toolkit. The Advanced Open/Obstructed Test Proctor Course for Evaluating Drone Capabilities and Remote Pilot Proficiency uses a suite of standardized test methods developed in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It consists of 24 hours of classroom and hands-on flight instruction to \"train the trainer,\" so newly certified proctors can take what they've learned back to their home agencies and subsequently certify their drone operators. The First Aid for Severe Trauma education program helps mitigate potential tragedy by empowering high school students with the training needed to treat bleeding emergencies until an ambulance can arrive. The Person-Borne Explosives Detection Canine Training Guideline is an interactive, HTML-based tool for handlers and trainers of explosive detection canines to upgrade their capabilities. S&T's Technologically Speaking podcast gives a deep dive into the science of homeland security in a matter of minutes so tune in for season three this fall.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DHS.png", "organization": "Department of Homeland Security", "topic": "science; technology; preparedness", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "September 1, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIST to Standardize Encryption Algorithms That Can Resist Attack by Quantum Computers", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2023/08/nist-standardize-encryption-algorithms-can-resist-attack-quantum-computers", "PostDescription": "NIST selected four algorithms to withstand attack by quantum computers and has begun the process of standardizing these algorithms so that organizations around the world can integrate them into their encryption infrastructure. NIST selected in July 2022: (1) CRYSTALS-Kyber, designed for general encryption purposes such as creating secure websites, is covered in FIPS 203. (2) CRYSTALS-Dilithium, designed to protect the digital signatures we use when signing documents remotely, is covered in FIPS 204. (3) SPHINCS+, also designed for digital signatures, is covered in FIPS 205. (4) FALCON, also designed for digital signatures, is slated to receive its own draft FIPS in 2024. Sensitive electronic information, such as email and bank transfers, is currently protected using public-key encryption techniques, which are based on math problems a conventional computer cannot readily solve. Quantum computers, still in their infancy, but sufficiently powerful to solve these problems, defeating the encryption. The new standards will provide tools to protect sensitive information from this new kind of threat.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2023/08/22/PQC_Algo_Pre-standardization-vid.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "information technology; cybersecurity; cryptography", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "September 1, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF's National Robotics Initiative, NASA and NOAA Support a New Framework for Oceanographic Research that Provides Potential for Broader Access to Deep Sea Scientific Exploration", "ResourceLink": "https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/new-framework-provides-broader-access-to-deep-sea-scientific-exploration/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF, NASA & NOAA] The Shared Autonomy for Remote Collaboration (SHARC) framework \"enables remote participants - scientists, citizen scientists, and the public - to conduct shipboard operations and control robotic manipulators\" – such as on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) – \"using only a basic internet connection and consumer-grade hardware, regardless of their prior piloting experience.\" The framework, developed by WHOI, MIT, and the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, enables real-time collaboration between multiple remote operators, who can issue goal-directed commands through simple speech and hand gestures while wearing virtual reality goggles in an intuitive three-dimensional workspace representation. The human-robot interaction that SHARC enables, delegates responsibilities between the robot and the human operator based on their complementary strengths. The robot, for instance, can handle kinematics, motion planning, obstacle avoidance, and other low-level tasks, while human operators take responsibility for high-level scene understanding, goal selection, and task-level planning.", "coverimage": "https://www.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/cover2.jpg", "organization": "Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution", "topic": "oceanography; robotics", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "September 1, 2023", "PostTitle": "FBI, Partners Dismantle Qakbot Infrastructure in Multinational Cyber Takedown", "ResourceLink": "https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-partners-dismantle-qakbot-infrastructure-in-multinational-cyber-takedown", "PostDescription": "The FBI and the Justice Department announced a multinational operation to disrupt and dismantle the malware and botnet known as Qakbot. The Qakbot malware infected victim computers primarily through spam emails that contained malicious attachments or links. After a user downloaded or clicked the content, Qakbot delivered additional malware—including ransomware—to their computer. The computer also became part of a botnet (a network of compromised computers) and could be controlled remotely by botnet users. All the while, a Qakbot victim was typically unaware that their computer had been infected. As part of the operation, the FBI gained lawful access to Qakbot's infrastructure and identified over 700,000 infected computers worldwide—including more than 200,000 in the U.S. To disrupt the botnet, the FBI redirected Qakbot traffic to Bureau-controlled servers that instructed infected computers to download an uninstaller file. This uninstaller—created to remove the Qakbot malware—untethered infected computers from the botnet and prevented the installation of any additional malware. [Really Cool Tactic!!]", "coverimage": "https://www.fbi.gov/image-repository/botnet-attack.jpg", "organization": "Federal Bureau of Investigation", "topic": "cybersecurity;", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "August 25, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF-funded researchers develop a dissolving cardiac device that monitors and treats heart disease", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/news/dissolving-cardiac-device-monitors-treats-heart", "PostDescription": "U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers at Northwestern and George Washington universities have developed a new device to monitor and treat heart disease and dysfunction in the days, weeks or months following such events. And, after the device is no longer needed, it harmlessly dissolves inside the body, bypassing the need for extraction. About the size of a postage stamp, the soft, flexible device uses an array of sensors and actuators to perform more complicated investigations than traditional devices, such as pacemakers, can accomplish. The transient electronic device can map electrical activity from numerous locations on the atria and then deliver electrical stimuli from many locations to stop atrial fibrillation as soon as it starts…", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-08/RN_flexibledevice.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "engineering", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "August 25, 2023", "PostTitle": "ARO/DOD/NSF sponsor a machine-learning system based on light that could yield more powerful, efficient large language models", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2023/system-could-yield-more-powerful-efficient-llms-0822", "PostDescription": "[Funded by ARO/DOD/NSF] A MIT-led team reports a system that could lead to machine-learning programs several orders of magnitude more powerful than the one behind ChatGPT. The system they developed could also use several orders of magnitude less energy than the state-of-the-art supercomputers behind the machine-learning models of today. With the new system, the team reports a greater than 100-fold improvement in energy efficiency and a 25-fold improvement in compute density, a measure of the power of a system, over state-of-the-art digital computers for machine learning. The technique “opens an avenue to large-scale optoelectronic processors to accelerate machine-learning tasks from data centers to decentralized edge devices.” In other words, cellphones and other small devices could become capable of running programs that can currently only be computed at large data centers. Using light rather than electrons to run DNN computations has the potential to break through the current bottlenecks. Computations using optics have the potential to use far less energy than those based on electronics…", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202307/OpticalNeuralNetworkGraphic.png", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "research; electronics; energy; machine learning", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "August 10, 2023", "PostTitle": "Using 35 Climate Models and Supercomputers, NASA's Study Reveals Compounding Climate Risks at Two Degrees of Warming", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/nasa-study-reveals-compounding-climate-risks-at-two-degrees-of-warming", "PostDescription": "If global temperatures keep rising and reach 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, people worldwide could face multiple impacts of climate change simultaneously. A 2-degree rise in global temperatures is considered a critical threshold. A NASA-led study analyzed the projected impacts of such warming to understand how different climate effects might combine. To investigate potentially compounding effects of rising temperatures, the study’s authors used specially processed set of predictions that were generated by 35 of the world’s leading climate models. Researchers at the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) then took the output from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) models and used advanced statistical techniques to “downscale” them, improving the resolution significantly. NEX uses supercomputers at NASA’s Ames Research Center to analyze vast amounts of data collected by aircraft and satellites or projections produced by climate models. The resulting NEX dataset supporting this research is available to the public.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/full_2045_-_no_date.png?itok=vsnOUjgc", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "supercomputers; climate research; Earth", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "August 11, 2023", "PostTitle": "ONR/NSF/ARO/DOE/NIH funds research on arrays of quantum rods could enhance TVs or virtual reality devices", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2023/arrays-quantum-rods-could-enhance-tv-virtual-reality-devices-0811", "PostDescription": "[Funded by ONR, NSF, ARO, DOE & NIH] Flat screen TVs that incorporate quantum dots are now commercially available, but it has been more difficult to create arrays of their elongated cousins, quantum rods, for commercial devices. Quantum rods can control both the polarization and color of light, to generate 3D images for virtual reality devices. Using scaffolds made of folded DNA, MIT engineers have come up with a new way to precisely assemble arrays of quantum rods. By depositing quantum rods onto a DNA scaffold in a highly controlled way, the researchers can regulate their orientation, which is a key factor in determining the polarization of light emitted by the array. This makes it easier to add depth and dimensionality to a virtual scene. Mark Bathe’s lab, at MIT, has developed computational methods that allow researchers to simply enter a target nanoscale shape they want to create, and the program will calculate the sequences of DNA that will self-assemble into the right shape.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202308/MIT_Quantum-Dot-Arrays-01-PRESS_0.jpg?itok=jtVv6YQB", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "quantum dots; photonics; biological engineering; DNA; nanotechnology", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "August 11, 2023", "PostTitle": "NASA Software Catalog Offers Free Programs for Earth Science, More", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-software-catalog-offers-free-programs-for-earth-science-more", "PostDescription": "Each year, NASA scientists, engineers, and developers create software packages to manage space missions, test spacecraft, and analyze the petabytes of data produced by agency research satellites. As the agency innovates for the benefit of humanity, many of these programs are now downloadable and free of charge through NASA’s Software Catalog. The 2023-2024 Software Catalog contains more than 1,000 programs, including dozens of new packages added this year. NASA scientists and software experts, who use satellite data and more to better understand Earth, will be available to answer questions about free agency resources at 12 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 16, during a Reddit “Ask me Anything.” Join or follow the discussion online using the /r/AskScience subreddit. The Software Catalog is a product of NASA’s Technology Transfer program, managed for the agency by STMD. NASA routinely makes improvements to the Software Catalog website.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/ksc-20200203-ph-kls01_0242large_0.jpg?itok=VuFflOgK", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "software; earth science", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "August 4, 2023", "PostTitle": "NOAA Researchers Use Drones for Non-Invasive Deployment of Tagging Rare Whales", "ResourceLink": "https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/short-term-tagging-rare-whale-takes-step-forward", "PostDescription": "On a recent NOAA Fisheries whale research cruise off New England, whale researcher Lisa Conger and her team tried a field technique: using a drone to tag whales. Conger's cruise was the first to try using a drone to deploy suction-cup tags onto North Atlantic right whales. The drone operator uses height to ensure there is enough impact to get the tag to stick. By using the drone, the vessel does not have to approach the animal as closely as it does when using traditional tagging. Ocean Alliance, a Gloucester, Massachusetts-based conservation organization, developed the drone-tagging technique. The organization has the only team to have deployed more than 70 tags on six species of whales using a drone—a feat that requires both precision flying and a deep understanding of whale behavior. Ocean Alliance is proud to use our unique skill sets and newly developed methodologies to aid NOAA Fisheries in the understanding and recovery of this critically endangered species.", "coverimage": "https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/styles/original/s3/2023-07/1500x1124-tagged-whale-nefsc.png", "organization": "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "topic": "marine research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 28, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF funds microrobots inspired by insects and these bugbots could achieve big things", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/bugbots-could-achieve-big-things", "PostDescription": "Sawyer Buckminster Fuller is director of the Autonomous Insect Robotics Laboratory, at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he and his students brainstorm and tinker to engineer autonomous robots that resemble bees, flies and gnats, among other bugbots. Scaling down robotics poses serious challenges, including finding or devising sensor and controller hardware teeny and lightweight enough for stable flight and navigation. With support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Fuller and his students came up with a breakthrough flight control and wind sensing system using accelerometers. The AIR Lab has gone from successful simulations to building a 100-milligram robofly for real-world experiments. Their bugbots even resemble the insects that inspired them, with black carbon-fiber bodies and flapping wings made of a clear, thin polyester material kept rigid by carbon-fiber \"veins.\" The RoboBee, another nature-inspired robot, was funded by NSF through the Expeditions in Computing program. A new RoboBee was shown to be able to swim and burst out of the water into the air to fly, making it the first microrobot to repeatedly move in and out of complex environments.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-04/robofly-expanded-pencil_credit_Sawyer_Fuller.jpeg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing; engineering", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 21, 2023", "PostTitle": "NOAA tracks ongoing marine heat waves in U.S. waters with satellites and other technology", "ResourceLink": "https://www.noaa.gov/news/ongoing-marine-heat-waves-in-us-waters-explained", "PostDescription": "NOAA scientists have tracked a steady climb in ocean temperatures since April 2023, which is causing unprecedented heat stress conditions in the Caribbean Basin, including waters surrounding Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico. Marine heat waves are usually defined as any time the ocean temperature is above the 90th percentile for a specific length of time. The National Weather Service's National Data Buoy Center collects and disseminates real-time quality-controlled marine observations using 1,300 weather observing stations. Global ocean surface temperatures are also monitored daily using blended satellite measurements. Temperatures around Southern Florida are the warmest on record (going back to 1981). The latest conditions can be seen on the NOAA PSL Map Room webpage. NOAA’s experimental marine heat wave forecasts indicate a 70-100% chance that extreme ocean temperatures will persist in the southern Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea through at least October 2023.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NOAA-logo.png", "organization": "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "topic": "weather; climate research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 21, 2023", "PostTitle": "Researchers Become “Beaver Believers” and Measure the Impacts of Rewilding with Satellite Data, Smartphone Applications, Geo-Spatial Products, Databases, and Ecological Models", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/researchers-become-beaver-believers-after-measuring-the-impacts-of-rewilding", "PostDescription": "A NASA-supported effort adds remote sensing data to the suite of tools used to predict which streams can support beavers. NASA's fleet of Earth-observing missions collect data across large areas of the world. Scientists are turning data from Earth science missions like Landsat and Sentinel into what people can understand and use. NASA Applied Sciences’ Ecological Conservation program area funds the beaver rewilding project. The project includes four parts: updating the existing Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool, creating two applications using Earth observations to measure beaver rewilding impacts, and a smartphone application for comparing photos of field sites. Mesic Resource Restoration Monitoring Aid uses historic data from the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey's Landsat missions, as well as machine learning, to estimate past and future surface water. Mesic Vegetation Persistence application uses Sentinel-2 and Landsat data to produce near-real time measures of mesic vegetation. Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool uses USDA & The Nature Conservancy's LANDFIRE data.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/ubernode_alt_horiz/public/thumbnails/image/nasa-beaverrewildingvideo-thumbnail.jpg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "climate research; Earth", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 17, 2023", "PostTitle": "NOAA Fisheries Scientists Identify More Efficient Means to Determine the Age of Fish Using AI and Near-Infrared Technology", "ResourceLink": "https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/scientists-identify-more-efficient-means-determine-age-fish-using-ai-and-near-infrared", "PostDescription": "Scientists used Fourier transform near infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) and artificial intelligence (AI), in combination, to more quickly produce reliable estimates of fish age. Rapid and reliable age estimation is crucial for effectively and efficiently managing fish stocks. This model provides estimates of pollock abundance, which resource managers then use to determine annual catch limits in commercial fisheries. Scientists count the growth rings under a microscope called otoliths that are small, calcified structures in the inner ear of a fish and have layers visible like tree rings. Almost 15,000 walleye pollock otoliths are aged annually for the stock assessment model. For several years, scientists have used FT-NIR spectroscopy to determine fish ages focusing light from a special near-infrared source on the otolith. More recently scientists are beginning to use AI models that were trained on data from a total of 8,617 walleye pollock otoliths. Using FT-NIR and AI analysis together, the process of ageing a fish is much more efficient. It takes just 30–50 seconds per otolith to estimate the age of the fish. This is more than 10 times faster than traditional methods.", "coverimage": "https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/styles/original/s3/2023-07/750x461-otolith-method-afsc.jpg", "organization": "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "topic": "artificial intelligence; marine research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 17, 2023", "PostTitle": "A new NASA-funded technique uses remote images to gauge the strength of ancient and active rivers BEYOND Earth", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2023/river-flows-beyond-earth-0710", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NASA] Besides Earth, rivers have flowed on Mars, where now are only dry tracks and craters, and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, that has rivers of liquid methane today. For other planets, measurements are largely based on images and elevation measurements collected by remote satellites. A new technique uses satellite observations to estimate the rate at which rivers move fluid and sediment downstream. Parker's mathematical equations, which predict a river's flow rate, were adapted to work only with width and slope inputs. The modified equations were tested on data from 491 rivers on Earth and found that the predictions were accurate. The technique gives a sense of what rivers on Mars that are now dead were like when they were actively flowing. Researchers applied the equations and found that rivers likely flowed for at least 100,000 years at Gale Crater and at least 1 million years at Jezero Crater on Mars. The team then took their approach to Titan, where the moon’s thick atmosphere and distance from Earth make it harder to explore, and there are far fewer available images.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202307/MIT_Rivers-from-Orbit-01_0.jpg", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "fluid dynamics; geology; research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 7, 2023", "PostTitle": "Generative AI Raises Competition Concerns", "ResourceLink": "https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2023/06/generative-ai-raises-competition-concerns", "PostDescription": "The FTC's Bureau of Competition is focused on ensuring open and fair competition, including at key inflection points as technologies develop. \"Generative AI\" empowers machines to generate new content rather than simply analyze or manipulate existing data. By using models trained on vast amounts of data, generative AI can generate content that is sometimes indistinguishable from content crafted directly by humans. Many generative AI models are developed using a multi-step process: a pre-training step, a fine-tuning step, and potential customization steps. The pre-training step creates a base model with broad competency in a specific domain, such as language or images. After pre-training, the model is fine-tuned for a specific application. The high cost of entry to creating a pre-trained base model may lead to a market where the highest quality pre-trained models are controlled by a small number of incumbents. Incumbents that control key inputs or adjacent markets, including the cloud computing market, may be able to use unfair methods of competition to entrench their current power.", "coverimage": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Seal_of_the_United_States_Federal_Trade_Commission.svg", "organization": "Federal Trade Commission", "topic": "generative AI; artificial intelligence", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 7, 2023", "PostTitle": "Stressed for a Bit? Then Don't Click It, Cybersecurity Experts Advise", "ResourceLink": "https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/stressed-bit-then-dont-click-it-cybersecurity-experts-advise", "PostDescription": "Workers feeling a specific form of stress are more likely than others to become the victims of a phishing attack, according to DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Scientists identified a specific form of stress that indicates who is more vulnerable to clicking on bogus content. The first step to defend ourselves is understanding the complex constellation of variables that make a person susceptible to phishing. In the study, people who reported a high level of work-related distress were significantly more likely to follow a phony phishing email’s link. Every one-point increase in self-reported distress increased the likelihood of responding to the simulated phishing email by 15 percent. Distress might stem from feeling their workload is too high, or they might be questioning whether they have adequate training or time to accomplish their work. One option to reduce the risk might be human-machine teaming. The work was funded by the Department of Homeland Security.", "coverimage": "https://www.pnnl.gov/sites/default/files/styles/hero_1600x1200/public/media/image/PhishingPsychologyIllustration.jpg", "organization": "Pacific Northwest National Laboratory", "topic": "cybersecurity", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "July 7, 2023", "PostTitle": "NASA's New Exhibit Showcases our Home Planet and Climate", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-exhibit-showcases-our-home-planet-and-climate ", "PostDescription": "NASA's new interactive exhibit shows Earth as NASA sees it from space. For six decades, NASA satellites, sensors, and scientists have collected data on Earth's land, water, air, and climate. At the Earth Information Center, the public can glimpse what this data has taught us about sea level rise, air quality, wildfires, greenhouse gases, ice cover, and agriculture. The Earth Information Center is both a physical space and a web-based experience drawing on research conducted by teams at NASA. In the exhibit, visitors find a 22-foot LED hyperwall that tells the story of our planet and dashboards with real-time data and imagery of our planet. The data visualizations reflect how the study of Earth system science works, combining scientific models, satellite observations, and ground measurements from teams across the agency and across the government. Visitors can track NASA's Earth science missions in real time, interact with a 3D globe, and zoom in to areas of interest. They can view satellite imagery of recent natural events and monitor carbon dioxide concentrations, ozone holes, and sea level.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/52990696392_5ac2a59aa5_o.jpg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "Earth; climate research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "June 30, 2023", "PostTitle": "NASA Wants to Identify Phytoplankton Species from Space with its New Satellite. Here's Why.", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-wants-to-identify-phytoplankton-species-from-space-heres-why", "PostDescription": "NASA is launching the PACE (short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem) satellite to give us a new view of phytoplankton that are a crucial part of ocean ecosystems and essential to life on Earth. Instruments will collect data on the colors of light reflecting off the ocean to see where different types of phytoplankton are thriving. The Ocean Color Instrument on PACE will be able to observe more than 100 different wavelengths, making it possible to identify phytoplankton by species for the first time from space. Some phytoplankton incorporate carbon into their shell-like outer coating and when they die, the shells sink and sequester the carbon in the ocean depths. Other phytoplankton species may capture carbon through photosynthesis, where it then remains on the ocean surface until the organisms decompose, releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Not all phytoplankton are beneficial for ecosystems. Some species can produce toxins that are dangerous for humans or other marine species. PACE should make it easier to monitor the conditions for the blooms. ", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/ubernode_alt_horiz/public/thumbnails/image/phytoplanktonsweden.jpeg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "Earth; Goddard Space Flight Center; water", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "June 30, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIST 'Toggle Switch' Can Help Quantum Computers Cut Through the Noise", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2023/06/nist-toggle-switch-can-help-quantum-computers-cut-through-noise", "PostDescription": "A team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology introduced a device that includes two superconducting quantum bits. The heart of this new strategy relies on a \"toggle switch\" device that connects the qubits to a circuit called a \"readout resonator\" that can read the output of the qubits' calculations. When the switch is toggled on to connect the two qubits, they can interact and perform calculations. Having a programmable toggle switch goes a long way toward reducing noise. The team's programmable toggle switch prevents circuit noise from creeping into the system through the readout resonator and prevents the qubits from having a conversation with each other when they are supposed to be quiet. The toggle switch can also turn on the measurement of both qubits at the same time. This ability to ask both qubits to reveal themselves as a couple is important for tracking down quantum computational errors. The toggle switch itself is made from a superconducting quantum interference device, or \"SQUID,\" which is very sensitive to magnetic fields passing through its loop.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/480_x_480_limit/public/images/2023/06/26/23ITL002_Cover_Ideas_Noh_2023_final_crop.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "electronics; superconducting electronics; physics; quantum information science", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "June 12, 2023", "PostTitle": "Developing Trustworthy AI to Inform Decisions When Every Moment Counts", "ResourceLink": "https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2023-06-06", "PostDescription": "...DARPA has selected performers for the In the Moment (ITM) program to create the foundation for trusted algorithmic decision-making in challenging domains. The first phase will look at triage for small military units in austere environments, and the second phase will scale up the complexity of decision-making by looking at triage for mass casualty events. ITM will produce a framework for developing algorithms that can express key attributes that are aligned with trusted humans. If the foundational ITM technology is successful, the framework will inform future operational systems that rely on trusted decision-making algorithms.", "coverimage": "https://www.darpa.mil/DDM_Gallery/Florida_Air_National_Guard_practiced_triage_619-316.jpg", "organization": "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency", "topic": "artificial intelligence", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "June 2, 2023", "PostTitle": "Diving into the decade: Ocean science to combat climate change", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/diving-decade-ocean-science-combat-climate-change", "PostDescription": "The United Nations designated 2021-2030 the Ocean Decade to advance \"the science we need for the ocean we want.\" The U.S. National Science Foundation is meeting this challenge with the Coastlines and People (CoPe) program that tackles our coasts and coastal communities' stressors and pressures outside of strictly engineering, biology or a single scientific discipline. NSF's Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate recognizes the need for new methods of funding and conducting science that enables and expedites societal impacts — including our relationship with the ocean. The Networked Blue Economy research track, part of the Convergence Accelerator program, focuses on producing products, processes, and resources to engage with the ocean more sustainably both as an environment and a resource. Backyard Buoys, a Convergence Accelerator project led by Jan Newton at the University of Washington, is empowering Indigenous and other coastal communities to collect and use ocean data to support their blue economy. This involves bringing together existing regional ocean observing networks, underserved Indigenous communities and a sensor company.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-02/383_DC8U0700.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "environment; climate research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "June 2, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF/NASA-funded study shows why protecting forests means reduced emissions at global scale", "ResourceLink": "https://news.nau.edu/goetz-forest-research/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF & NASA] A study, using 3D satellite imagery collected on the International Space Station, found that worldwide protected forests have an additional 9.65 billion metric tons of carbon stored in their aboveground biomass compared to ecologically similar unprotected areas. The researchers compared protected areas' efficacy in avoiding emissions to the atmosphere with unprotected areas' ability to do the same and tested the assumption that protected areas provide disproportionately more carbon storage and sequestration than non-protected areas. 3D satellite datasets have not been used before, so it mapping forest carbon accurately at this scale has not been done. A key finding was that the amount of aboveground biomass—the dry mass of woody matter in vegetation that stands above the ground—gained from protected areas is roughly equivalent to one year of annual global emissions from fossil fuels. These results are novel, providing the first, long-anticipated evidence that protected areas are effectively sequestering more CO2 from the atmosphere than otherwise similar but degraded areas that surround them.", "coverimage": "https://news.nau.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/DSCF0933-768x512.jpg", "organization": "Northern Arizona University", "topic": "environment", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "June 2, 2023", "PostTitle": "DARPA/DTRA/DOE fund scientists using AI to find a drug that could combat drug-resistant infections", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2023/using-ai-scientists-combat-drug-resistant-infections-0525", "PostDescription": "[Funded by DARPA, DTRA, & DOE] Pathogenic bacteria have become increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics, but few new antibiotics have been developed. Using an artificial intelligence algorithm, MIT and McMaster University researchers identified a new antibiotic that can kill bacteria responsible for many drug-resistant infections. The bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii can lead to pneumonia, meningitis, other serious infections, and is the leading cause of infections in wounded soldiers. The researchers identified the new drug from a library of nearly 7,000 potential drug compounds using a machine-learning model that they trained to evaluate whether a chemical compound will inhibit the growth of A. baumannii. Once the model was trained, the researchers used it to analyze a set of 6,680 compounds it had not seen before, which came from the Drug Repurposing Hub at the Broad Institute. Experimentally in the lab tests yielded nine antibiotics and one was very effective at killing A. baumannii but had no effect on other species of bacteria. This “narrow spectrum” killing ability minimizes the risk of bacteria rapidly spreading resistance against the drug.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202305/MIT_New-Antibiotic-01-PRESS_0.jpg", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "artificial intelligence; biological engineering", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "May 25, 2023", "PostTitle": "Artificial Intelligence - Office of Educational Technology", "ResourceLink": "https://tech.ed.gov/ai/", "PostDescription": "Educators seek technology-enhanced approaches that would be safe, effective, and scalable. They see opportunities to use AI-powered capabilities to increase the benefit from greater adaptivity and personalization in digital tools for learning. Educators are further exploring how AI can enable writing or improving lessons, as well as their process for finding, choosing, and adapting material for use in their lessons. There are new resources for educators: *The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology’s new policy report, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations, addresses the clear need for sharing knowledge, engaging educators, and refining technology plans and policies for artificial intelligence use in education. *Register for the June 13 webinar where experts will discuss “AI and the Future of Teaching and Learning.” *Check out the past listening sessions the Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology held, with support from Digital Promise, about AI.", "coverimage": "https://tech.ed.gov/files/2023/05/ai-header.png", "organization": "Department of Education", "topic": "artificial intelligence", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "May 18, 2023", "PostTitle": "NOAA'S Climate Resources and Tools", "ResourceLink": "https://www.noaa.gov/media-advisory/climate-media-resource-guide", "PostDescription": "NOAA has resources to prepare for and build resilience to climate change. Climate.gov, a Global Climate Dashboard, shows changes in temperature, sea level rise, ocean heat, snowfall, greenhouse gases over time. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information’s State of the Climate, with its Climate at a Glance tool, provides a monthly national and global recap of climate-related events. Heat.gov provides a go-to source for heat and health information as heat is a deadly weather-related hazard. Drought.gov has tools to view current and future drought at the state and county level. NOAA's National Ocean Service produces global sea level and national trends for high-tide flooding. NOAA's Digital Coast helps coastal communities prepare and adapt to impacts from sea level rise. Climate models are vital tools for understanding climate. Climate.gov and the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit provide case studies on how local communities and regions are building resilience and adapting to climate change. The Climate Explorer helps users access climate trends with over 500 digital tools including maps, data, videos, and updates on climate impacts.", "coverimage": "https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_width_1275/public/2022-03/PHOTO-Climate-Collage-Diagonal-Design-NOAA-Communications-With-NEW-Logo-2022.jpg", "organization": "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "topic": "climate research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "May 18, 2023", "PostTitle": "Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation for Small Manufacturers", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/manufacturing-innovation-blog/cybersecurity-risk-mitigation-small-manufacturers", "PostDescription": "Many small manufacturers have limited resources and lack the staff and tools to adequately address cybersecurity needs - leaving them particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks. To help manufacturers enhance their cybersecurity resiliency, NIST's National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) manufacturing team recently published a white paper that introduces security segmentation as a cost effective and efficient approach for smaller manufacturers to mitigate their risk and increase resilience. Security segmentation protects assets by grouping them based on both their communication and security requirements. Information technology and operational technology assets used in manufacturing environments require varying levels of cybersecurity protection. The three pillars for security segmentation include security zones, trusted communication, and security controls. In the NIST white paper Security Segmentation in a Small Manufacturing Environment, the NCCoE manufacturing team presents an approach that manufacturers can use in their own production environments. The paper walks through six steps using a sample manufacturing environment and shows each step's output.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2023/05/17/cyber-mitigation-blogFeaturedImage.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "cybersecurity", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "May 15, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF AI Institutes continue creating groundswell of innovation", "ResourceLink": "https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/nsf-ai-institutes-continue-creating-groundswell", "PostDescription": "The NSF-led National AI Research Institutes – or AI Institutes – program is the foundation's flagship program for use-inspired AI research. The program, a defining part of NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan’s tenure, launched with a cohort of seven Institutes in 2020, and 11 more were announced in 2021. In 2023, NSF announced seven new Institutes, bringing the total investment in these AI Institutes to $500 billion and a network of over 500 funded and collaborative institutions across the U.S. and around the world. The topical themes, or tracks, covered by the AI Institutes span critical pillars of our societal and economic development like agriculture and food security, health care, weather forecasting, education, trustworthy AI, supply chain management, and cybersecurity, among other fields. The AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (IFML) and the AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate and Coastal Oceanography, are examples of how NSF investments are transforming AI.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-04/MIT_new_center.jpeg.webp", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "biology; computing; environment; education; engineering; mathematics", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "May 15, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF/NOAA/DOE-Funded Atmospheric Research Provides Clear Evidence of Human-Caused Climate Change Signal Associated with CO2 Increases", "ResourceLink": "https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/atmospheric-research-provides-clear-evidence-of-human-caused-climate-change-signal-associated-with-co2-increases/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF, NOAA & DOE] The new research is the first to search for human-caused climate change patterns – also called “fingerprints” – in the middle and upper stratosphere and can be better studied now because of improved simulations and satellite data. Enhanced detectability occurs because the mid to upper stratosphere has a large cooling signal from human-caused CO2 increases, small noise levels of natural internal variability, and differing signal and noise patterns. Extending fingerprinting to the upper stratosphere with long temperature records and improved climate models means that it is now virtually impossible for natural causes to explain satellite-measured trends in the thermal structure of the Earth’s atmosphere. Earlier modeling found a very distinctive feature: an increase in CO2 levels led to more trapping of heat in the troposphere and less heat escaping higher up into the stratosphere This prediction of tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling in response to increasing CO2 has been confirmed many times by more complex models and verified by comparing model results with global-mean atmospheric temperature observations from weather balloons and satellites.", "coverimage": "https://www.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/clouds-1200x675.jpg", "organization": "Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution", "topic": "climate research; environment", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "May 1, 2023", "PostTitle": "DHS-funded VCU researchers fight cybercrime with new digital tools and technique", "ResourceLink": "https://www.news.vcu.edu/article/2023/04/vcu-researchers-fight-cybercrime-with-new-digital-tools-and-techniques", "PostDescription": "[DHS-funded] Irfan Ahmed is an associate professor of computer science and director of the Security and Forensics Engineering Lab within VCU Engineering's Department of Computer Science. In the SAFE Lab, he leads a pair of projects funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - aimed at keeping industrial systems safe from the bad guys, and showing how the same tools crafted for investigating cyberattacks can be used to probe other crimes. Ahmed's SAFE Lab focuses on protecting industrial control systems used in the operation of nuclear plants, dams, electricity delivery systems and a wide range of other critical infrastructure in the U.S. One of Ahmed's DHS-supported projects, called \"Digital Forensic Tools and Techniques for Investigating Control Logic Attacks in Industrial Control Systems,\" allows him to craft devices and techniques that cyberdetectives can use in their investigations. He noted that investigation capabilities are an under-researched area, as most emphasis has been on prevention and detection of cyberattacks. Ahmed's second DHS-funded project is called \"Data Science-integrated Experiential Digital Forensics Training based-on Real-world Case Studies of Cybercrime Artifacts.\"", "coverimage": "https://www.news.vcu.edu/image/4d06fb55-ea1f-4272-816c-05117577db99", "organization": "Virginia Commonwealth University", "topic": "cybersecurity", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "May 1, 2023", "PostTitle": "Developing Agile, Reliable Sensing Systems with Microbes", "ResourceLink": "https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2023-04-21", "PostDescription": "Current environmental monitoring approaches can rely on both distributed sensor networks - on the ground or in the water - and remote sensing platforms, like satellites, to collect information important for the protection of people and property. The Department of Defense (DOD) is interested in developing new, complementary sensors to monitor the environment with high spatial resolution, and reduced power and logistical burden, to further enhance monitoring capabilities and significantly reduce potential risk to personnel. Recent research has demonstrated that microbes, such as bacteria, fungi, or microalgae, offer promise for detecting different types of input signals, including both chemical (e.g., toxic or radioactive materials, heavy metal pollutants) and physical phenomena (e.g., light, electric current, magnetic fields). DARPA's new Tellus program will explore the development of an interactive, platform methodology for the rapid design of microbe-based sense-and-respond devices for monitoring DOD-relevant environments. Specifically, DARPA seeks to establish the range of chemical and physical signals that microbial devices can detect, environmental conditions they can tolerate, and types of output signals that can be generated. Tellus is focused on assessing sensor functionality across many different environments and conditions.", "coverimage": "https://www.darpa.mil/DDM_Gallery/tellus619.png", "organization": "Department of Defense", "topic": "bio-systems", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "April 21, 2023", "PostTitle": "We Need a Second Earth to Support Our Current Consumption. We Can Do Better if We Think 'Circular.'", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/we-need-second-earth-support-our-current-consumption-we-can-do-better-if-we", "PostDescription": "Each year, scientists calculate the date at which humanity’s demands for the Earth's resources exceed the Earth's capacity to regenerate what we need in a year. It's called Earth Overshoot Day. In 1971, it fell on Dec. 25. Disturbingly, by 2022, it fell on July 28. In short, we humans need 1.75 Earths to support our current rate of consumption! That is unsustainable, and we have to make changes and transition to a circular economy. Solar is the most rapidly growing clean energy technology. NIST research looks to \"circularize\" solar panels and other clean energy technologies, so that they do not themselves become environmental liabilities. The consequences of having such few post use standards for consumer products are evident in the current electronics waste crisis. Industrial ecology is a branch of science that aims to balance environmental considerations with industrial processes. NIST's current research on clean energy technologies integrates industrial ecology. Manufacturing related standards thus far have been developed independently for different products and lack a holistic product life cycle perspective...", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2023/04/13/nostal6ie_SS_1484695442_broken%20solar%20panel.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "environment; health; manufacturing", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "April 21, 2023", "PostTitle": "NASA Teams with US Forest Service to Tally America's Oldest Trees", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/esnt/2023/nasa-teams-with-us-forest-service-to-tally-america-s-oldest-trees", "PostDescription": "On Earth Day 2022 the Biden Administration called upon the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Land Management to define and map forests on federal lands. A year later, that work has yielded a first ever national inventory of mature and old growth forests. And with help from NASA, the public will soon be able view some of these forests like never before. NASA funded scientists are using a space-based instrument called GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation) to provide a detailed picture of these forests. The GEDI's laser imager (lidar) is on the International Space Station and able to peer through dense canopies to observe nearly all of Earth’s temperate and tropical forests. By recording the way the laser pulses are reflected by the ground and by plant material (stems, branches, and leaves) at different heights, GEDI makes detailed measurements of the three dimensional structure of the planet’s forests and fields. The Forest Service and NASA continue to work to gather aerial and satellite imagery and map mature and old growth at finer scales...", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/ubernode_alt_horiz/public/thumbnails/image/trees_3.jpg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "Earth", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "April 14, 2023", "PostTitle": "The National Quantum Strategy: Getting the Science Right", "ResourceLink": "https://www.quantum.gov/science/#SCIENCE-EVENTS", "PostDescription": "The first component of the national quantum strategy is getting the science right by understanding the applications and timelines by which QIS will benefit society, and the roadblocks we must overcome to get there. This involves establishing research infrastructure such as national QIS research centers, enhancing core programs that have funded research in QIS for decades, and other activities. The National Quantum Initiative Act calls for the NSF and DOE to establish new Centers focusing on QIS research and discovery. In alignment with this goal, NSF announced the Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes solicitation and first round of Awards. DOE announced the National QIS Research Centers funding opportunity FOA and Awards. These Centers bring together multidisciplinary teams to tackle some of the most complex and urgent problems in quantum information science and engineering...", "coverimage": "https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ARL_1_Rydberg_setup1-scaled.jpg", "organization": "National Quantum Coordination Office", "topic": "quantum information science; engineering", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "April 14, 2023", "PostTitle": "From GPS to Laser Pointers, Quantum Science Is All Around Us", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/gps-laser-pointers-quantum-science-all-around-us", "PostDescription": "If you’ve gotten around with GPS, had an MRI, or tormented your cat with a laser pointer, quantum science is a part of your life. When people talk about using quantum, it generally comes down to two things: * Quantum superposition is something that has two possible forms being in both of those forms to some extent at the same time. * Entanglement means you’ve got at least two things that are always connected together; they have no independent existence anymore. Something that happens to one always affects the other. It’s kind of romantic! Quantum computing emerged from the “coming together” of clever ideas and advancements in labs, a mix of quantum physics and information science. We can develop quantum computers, but what else can we do? We can also use superposition and entanglement for improved sensors and communications. We can make quantum sensors that measure things more precisely than classical physics allows. We can communicate information in quantum form that is resistant to eavesdropping. The challenge with these Quantum 2.0 things is making them practical.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2023/04/12/andrew%20wilson%20inlab%202023.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "information technology; physics", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "April 7, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF-funded climate simulation research shows ocean surface tipping point could accelerate climate change", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/ocean-surface-tipping-point-could-accelerate", "PostDescription": "Scientists have discovered that intense warming in the future could lessen oceans soaking up carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to help limit global warming, leading to even more severe warming. NSF-supported scientists analyzed a climate simulation configured to a worst-case emissions scenario and found that the oceans' ability to soak up CO2 would peak by 2100, becoming only half as efficient at absorbing the greenhouse gas by 2300. The decline is a result of the emergence of a surface layer of low-alkalinity water that hinders the ability of the oceans to absorb CO2. The findings reveal a previously unknown tipping point that if activated would release an important brake on global warming. Researchers recalculated pieces of a 450-year simulation until they hit on alkalinity as a key cause of the slowing, the effect begins with extreme climate change, which supercharges rainfall and slows ocean currents. That leaves the surface of the oceans covered in a warm layer of fresh water and this surface layer becomes more saturated with CO2, its alkalinity falls, and its ability to absorb CO2 falls with it.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-04/waves.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "biology; Earth; environment; marine research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "April 7, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF-funded research indicates sea-level rise poses particular risk for Asian megacities by using both a computer climate model of global climate and a statistical model", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/sea-level-rise-poses-particular-risk-asian", "PostDescription": "NSF-funded researchers examined the effects of natural sea-level fluctuations on the projected rise due to climate change and identified several Asian megacities that may face especially significant risks by 2100: Chennai, Kolkata, Yangon, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila. This study incorporated naturally occurring sea-level fluctuations caused by such events as El Niño or changes in the water cycle. By using both a computer model of global climate and a specialized statistical model, the scientists could determine the extent to which these natural fluctuations can amplify or reduce the impact of climate change on sea-level rise along certain coastlines. Simulations were conducted with the NSF-sponsored National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) based Community Earth System Model at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center. In a worst-case scenario, the combined effect of climate change and internal climate variability could result in local sea levels rising by more than 50% of what is due to climate change alone, thus posing significant risks of more severe flooding to coastal megacities and threatening millions of people.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-04/portManila_rn.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "Earth; environment; marine research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 31, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF/NASA/NIH/NIJ/NOAA/USGS launch Proto-OKN: A program to build an integrated data and knowledge infrastructure", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/nsf-5-other-us-agencies-launch-program-build", "PostDescription": "An open knowledge network is a publicly accessible, interconnected set of data repositories and associated knowledge graphs that will enable data-driven, artificial intelligence-based solutions for a broad set of societal challenges. In collaboration with five other U.S. government agencies, the U.S. National Science Foundation today launched the Building the Prototype Open Knowledge Network, or Proto-OKN, funding opportunity, a $20 million initiative that will build a prototype version of an integrated data and knowledge infrastructure called an open knowledge network. NASA, NIH, NIJ, NOAA, and USGS will support the program by working closely with NSF and awardees to ensure that the Proto-OKN supports each agency's data strategy while addressing use case challenges associated with agency data. NSF will fund projects to prototype scalable, cloud-based technical infrastructure to address challenges across healthcare, space, criminal justice, climate change and many other fields.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-03/protoOpenKnowledge_newshero.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "engineering; open knowledge network", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 31, 2023", "PostTitle": "NASA-funded researchers use open-source web tool and uncovers unprecedented declines in iconic kelp forests along Monterey Peninsula, with glimmers of hope in Oregon and Mexico", "ResourceLink": "https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/new-study-uncovers-unprecedented-declines-in-iconic-kelp-forests-along-monterey-peninsula/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NASA] A new study provides novel documentation of kelp forest decline along the west coast of the U.S. and Mexico in response to the 2014–2016 record-breaking marine heatwave, along with evidence of regional recovery. The study, a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of California Los Angeles, documents an unprecedented and sustained decline in canopy-forming kelps along the Monterey Peninsula, as well as reasons for hope with recovery in other regions such as Rogue Reef in Oregon and Bahía Tortugas in Mexico. Using Kelpwatch.org, an open-source web tool used to visualize and analyze nearly 40 years of kelp canopy dynamics data derived from satellite imagery, the study uncovers a north-to-south pattern in kelp decline and recovery from the marine heatwave. The team created Kelpwatch.org to advance state-of-the-art kelp forest monitoring and this study demonstrates how this tool can be used to track near-real-time changes in kelp forest canopy and proactively identify regions experiencing sustained declines fit for management action. ", "coverimage": "https://www.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/urchin-barren1-PatrickWebster16x9-1200x675.jpg", "organization": "Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution", "topic": "open source; Earth; environment", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 27, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIH funds cool sensor tech: DART VADAR harnesses the force of enzymes for better RNA drugs", "ResourceLink": "https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/dart-vadar-harnesses-the-force-of-enzymes-for-better-rna-drugs/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NIH] Researchers developed a novel RNA sense-and-respond circuit they call Detection and Amplification of RNA Triggers via ADAR, or DART VADAR, which allows researchers to easily design RNA circuits carrying protein-coding information that are only translated in the presence of a specific molecular marker of disease and/or cell type. This ability broadens the scope of conditions that can be addressed with RNA-based therapeutics. ADARs are enzymes that bind to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules and make a specific base edit, converting a mismatched adenosine (A) molecule into inosine (I). This change destabilizes the dsRNA structure and thought to be involved in cells' responses to viruses. The team engineered their sensor so A of the UAG sequence (which signals to \"stop\") would “mismatch” with cytosine (C) in the target strand, instead of U. This mismatch essentially frees up the A to be found and converted to I by ADAR, and the resulting UIG sequence is no longer a \"stop\" codon, allowing translation to occur. Thus, the green fluorescent protein is produced, signaling that the sensor has found and bound to its target. The team designed a DART VADAR sensor to detect the p53 mutant and introduced it into a line of human cells expressing either the normal or the mutant version of the gene. They found that the sensor did indeed register the presence of the aberrant genetic sequence with high specificity.", "coverimage": "https://wyss-prod.imgix.net/app/uploads/2023/03/17103631/shutterstock_1583571424.jpg", "organization": "Harvard University", "topic": "biomedical engineering; molecular bioengineering; biotechnology", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 27, 2023", "PostTitle": "DOD/NSF/DOE fund machine learning research to develop synthetic polymers that will mimic the body’s natural proteins", "ResourceLink": "https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/03/20/can-synthetic-polymers-replace-the-bodys-natural-proteins/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by DOD, NSF, and DOE] Most life on Earth is based on polymers of 20 amino acids that have evolved into hundreds of thousands of different, highly specialized proteins. Scientists have developed a way to mimic specific functions of natural proteins using only two, four or six different building blocks — ones currently used in plastics — and found that these alternative polymers work as well as the real protein and are a lot easier to synthesize. The design method is based on machine learning to synthesize polymers that mimic blood plasma. AI could pick the right number, type and arrangement of plastic building blocks, similar to those used in dental fillings, to mimic the desired function of a protein, and simple polymer chemistry could be used to make it. The researchers developed deep learning methods to match natural protein properties with plastic polymer properties in order to design an artificial polymer that functions similarly, but not identically, to the natural protein. The design platform suggests ways to more easily make biocompatible materials, from artificial tears or cartilage to coatings that can be used to deliver drugs.", "coverimage": "https://news.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/News-figure750px.jpg", "organization": "University of California, Berkeley", "topic": "artificial intelligence; chemistry; physics", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 17, 2023", "PostTitle": "Celebrating one year of TIP", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/celebrating-one-year-tip", "PostDescription": "The Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, or TIP, the agency's first new directorate in more than 30 years, was charged with the critical mission of advancing U.S. competitiveness through investments that accelerate the development of key technologies and address pressing societal and economic challenges. TIP is meeting this mission through advances in use-inspired research and innovation and the creation of new pathways for people of all backgrounds and perspectives to engage in the current and future science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce. As we mark the first anniversary of TIP, we want to look back at all that we have accomplished in a brief time, and contemplate how we can build on this foundation in the months ahead. A key focus for TIP has been fostering innovation and technology ecosystems throughout the nation, with the explicit goal of creating opportunities for everyone everywhere. In May, the Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines, program was launched to drive research and development in critical technology areas, nurture a diverse and inclusive workforce, and foster economic development around important societal challenges across the U.S. TIP also launched the Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity program, designed to build capacity among research institutions in regional innovation ecosystems, with the hope that they will go on to participate in an NSF Engine or similar program.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/_inline_image_full_width/s3/2023-03/TIP_OneYearImpact_Timeline_Opt2-web.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "innovation; technology; workforce; ecosystems", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 17, 2023", "PostTitle": "Brain-Inspired Computing Can Help Us Create Faster, More Energy-Efficient Devices - If We Win the Race", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/brain-inspired-computing-can-help-us-create-faster-more-energy-efficient", "PostDescription": "The human brain is an amazingly energy-efficient device. In computing terms, it can perform the equivalent of an exaflop - a billion-billion (1 followed by 18 zeros) mathematical operations per second — with just 20 watts of power. In comparison, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, the Oak Ridge Frontier, has recently demonstrated exaflop computing. But it needs a million times more power - 20 megawatts - to pull off this feat. Energy efficiency has emerged as the predominant factor keeping us from creating even more powerful computer chips. While ever-smaller electronic components have exponentially increased the computing power of our devices, those gains are slowing down. NIST colleagues are aiming to develop a new type of computer circuit that uses something called “race logic” to solve problems. In race logic, signals race against each other, and the timing between them matters. The winner of the race tells us something about the solution of the problem. During circuit operation, bits regularly flip their values, from 0 to 1 and vice versa and each bit flip consumes energy. Race logic reduces activity by encoding information in the timing of those bit flips on a wire. This approach allows a single bit flip on a wire to encode values larger than 0 or 1, making it an efficient encoding. An additional advantage of race logic is that signals that lose the race by moving through slower routes are stopped, further saving energy. By being in touch with the latest developments in brain science, next-generation computers can benefit from the recently uncovered secrets of biology.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2023/03/13/race_logic_graphic.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "computing; computational science; information technology", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 14, 2023", "PostTitle": "Coastal Change Likelihood Assessment Combines Data from USGS & NOAA into a Machine Learning Framework", "ResourceLink": "https://www.usgs.gov/centers/whcmsc/news/coastal-change-likelihood-assessment", "PostDescription": "Coastal communities, important habitats, and cultural and natural resources can be threatened by hazards associated with coastal change. Understanding where coastal change is most likely to occur and which types of hazards, event-driven (e.g., storms) and/or perpetual (e.g., sea level rise), are more likely to affect a specific location is essential to planning for future vulnerabilities to people and resources. To help provide this critical information, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with the National Park Service through the Natural Resource Preservation Program, developed the Coastal Change Likelihood (CCL) assessment. The CCL is a machine-learning framework that combines over 20 existing datasets from a variety of federal, state, and private organizations, including USGS and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA), to describe the landscape and six common hazards—erosion, storm frequency, relative sea level rise, tidal flooding, storm overwash probability, and wave power—that may affect the landscape to determine the likelihood of coastal change on a decadal scale. The assessment integrates data describing coastal characteristics, landscape composition, and the level of resistance to change, with data defining the drivers of change that impact the coast, such as waves and flooding.", "coverimage": "https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/half_width/public/media/images/CCL.png", "organization": "United States Geological Survey", "topic": "machine learning; resource management", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 14, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF-Funded Research Shows A Better Understanding of Gas Exchange Between the Atmosphere and Ocean Can Improve Global Climate Models", "ResourceLink": "https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/a-better-understanding-of-gas-exchange-can-improve-global-climate-models/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation] The injection of bubbles from waves breaking in turbulent and cold high-latitude regions of the high seas is an underappreciated way in which atmospheric gases are transported into the interior ocean. An improved mechanistic understanding of gas exchange in high latitudes is important for several reasons, including to better constrain climate models that are used to predict changes in the ocean inventory of key gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide. A new WHOI-led study combines new geochemical tracers and ocean circulation models to investigate the physics by which atmospheric gases get into the deep ocean. The new findings suggest that the dissolution of bubbles in the high-latitude ocean may be the dominant pathway by which all of the noble gases, oxygen, and nitrogen get into the deep ocean. If we can improve the way models represent physical processes such as gas exchange, we can have more confidence in future simulations with models as a way of predicting how things will change in a warmer world with more CO2. Understanding how the ocean takes up and releases gases to the atmosphere is a challenging but critically important step toward predicting their response to climate change. The results also shed light on the oceanic nitrogen cycle, which is both important for climate change issues, but also our fundamental understanding of how ocean food web is supported. Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation.", "coverimage": "https://www.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ctd-over-side-1200x676.jpg", "organization": "Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution", "topic": "physics; ecosystems; climate research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 3, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIST and University of Michigan Researchers Investigated How Digital Twins Could Protect Manufacturers From Cyberattacks", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2023/02/how-digital-twins-could-protect-manufacturers-cyberattacks", "PostDescription": "Detailed virtual copies of physical objects are called digital twins and cybersecurity may fit into the digital twin portfolio. Digital twins are closely tied to their physical counterparts, from which they extract data and run alongside in near real time. Cyberattacks can be incredibly subtle and thus difficult to detect. To keep pace with the growing cyber threat, NIST researchers and colleagues devised a cybersecurity framework that brings digital twin technology, machine learning, and human expertise to flag indicators of cyberattacks. The team built a digital twin to emulate the 3D printing process and provided it with information from the real printer. The programs analyzing both the real and digital printers were pattern-recognizing machine learning models trained on normal operating data, i.e., the models were adept at recognizing what the printer looked like under normal conditions. In the case of the 3D printer, the team checked its cybersecurity system’s work and found it was able to correctly sort the cyberattacks from normal anomalies by analyzing physical and emulated data.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2023/02/23/Digital-Twin-rev2.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "information technology; artificial intelligence; cybersecurity; manufacturing", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "March 3, 2023", "PostTitle": "Hackers could try to take over a military aircraft; DOE's Sandia researchers determined to find out can a cyber shuffle stop them?", "ResourceLink": "https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/moving_target/", "PostDescription": "A cybersecurity technique that shuffles network addresses like blackjack dealers shuffle playing cards could effectively befuddle hackers gambling for control of a military jet, commercial airliner or spacecraft. Research shows these defenses must be designed to counter increasingly sophisticated algorithms used to break them. Many aircraft, spacecraft and weapons systems have onboard computer networks known as military standard 1553 (MIL-STD-1553). Moving target defense is a technique that can effectively protect MIL-STD-1553 networks against a machine-learning algorithm. It offers is a complementary strategy where the moving target confuses the attacker and makes it more difficult to do damage. The moving target defense requires randomness, but the challenge with randomizing a small set of numbers (1553 only has 31) is that nothing in computer software is truly random. The researchers set up a test to gain insight into how cybersecurity engineers should design these defenses to withstand a machine-learning-based assault, called a threat-informed codesign.", "coverimage": "https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/CF61407-250x342.jpg", "organization": "Sandia National Laboratories", "topic": "cybersecurity", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "February 24, 2023", "PostTitle": "Curious about quantum?", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/curious-about-quantum", "PostDescription": "For years, NSF has invested in quantum education, research, discovery, innovation and a quantum-ready workforce. Breakthroughs in quantum promise tantalizing advances in computing, health care, energy, communications and industrial materials – and it will make us more secure as a society and a nation. The word \"quantum\" might sound mysterious, but it is commonly used to describe the world on the very small scales of atoms, electrons and molecules. We live and experience the \"classical realm,\" which is 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons at once. Under classical rules, such as laws of classical mechanics, objects made of those many electrons exist in a specific place at a specific time. But when we zoom down into the quantum realm, the laws of physics become peculiar, and certainty is replaced by probability. This is the mysterious world of \"quantum mechanics.\"", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-02/Quantum_SM_Header.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "quantum information science; chemistry; computing; engineering; mathematics; physics", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "February 24, 2023", "PostTitle": "NASA's Satellites Help with Turkey, Syria Earthquake Response", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-satellites-help-with-turkey-syria-earthquake-response", "PostDescription": "NASA has confirmed that groups in Turkey have been sent FINDER units. Finding Individuals for Disaster Emergency Response is a NASA spinoff technology that can detect people trapped under rubble. One of NASA's key capabilities is an expertise with synthetic aperture radar, or SAR. Viewing Earth in all weather conditions, day or night, SAR is used to measure how the ground moves and built landscape changes after this type of event. By making use of data from the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program, which acquires observations from commercial satellites to help with NASA's research goals, as well as from NOAA, scientists can spot areas that might be prone to increased landslide risks. Other satellites, such as Suomi-NPP and its nighttime lights observations can show the location of power outages. While not in use yet, NASA scientists are hoping to add a new tool to assess the aftermath of the quake. The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, or EMIT, instrument was launched to the International Space Station in July 2022.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/ubernode_alt_horiz/public/thumbnails/image/turkey_alos2_2023039_oli2_2022250_lrg.jpeg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "disaster emergency response; satellite", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "February 3, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF's NCSES releases report on diversity trends in STEM workforce and education", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/diversity-and-stem-2023", "PostDescription": "The NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics released Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2023. This report has the most complete analysis of diversity trends in STEM employment and education and shows that more women, as well as Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Alaska Native people worked in STEM jobs over the past decade. However, those groups and people with disabilities remain underrepresented in STEM when compared to their overall distribution in the U.S. population. The report is the first in this series to look beyond careers that require a bachelor's degree. For the first time, all groups whose work requires a high level of technical knowledge, regardless of their degree, are counted in the STEM statistics. Women make up much smaller proportions of the college-educated workforce in the computer and mathematical sciences, biological sciences, physical sciences and engineering compared to the social sciences. About 3% of the STEM workforce are people with disabilities this has remained unchanged from a decade ago.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-01/WMPD_hero.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "diversity; STEM; workforce; education", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "February 3, 2023", "PostTitle": "Phishing Resistance – Protecting the Keys to Your Kingdom", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/cybersecurity-insights/phishing-resistance-protecting-keys-your-kingdom", "PostDescription": "Phishing refers to a variety of attacks that are intended to convince you to forfeit sensitive data to an imposter. These attacks can take a number of different forms; from spear-phishing (which targets a specific individual within an organization), to whaling (which goes one step further and targets senior executives or leaders). How do you keep your keys from falling into the wrong hands? What constitutes a phishing resistant authenticator? NIST Special Publication DRAFT 800-63-B4 defines it as “the ability of the authentication protocol to detect and prevent disclosure of authentication secrets and valid authenticator outputs to an impostor relying party without reliance on the vigilance of the subscriber.” Phishing resistant authenticators should be paired with a comprehensive phishing prevention program that includes user awareness and training, email protection controls, data loss prevention tools, and network security capabilities.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202301/modified_FOVEA_desktop1.PNG", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "open source; software; cybersecurity; privacy; cloud computing; internet of things", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "January 27, 2023", "PostTitle": "Data in Demand: How the U.S. Navy's Bandwidth Can Boost Your Data Speed", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/data-demand-how-us-navys-bandwidth-can-boost-your-data-speed", "PostDescription": "It's hard to imagine (or remember) a world without Wi-Fi. Wireless communications — cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth — all of which require a radio-frequency spectrum to function. The radio-frequency spectrum is a spectrum of invisible light. Think of the spectrum as being like an invisible highway where our wireless communication travels. There is a limited amount of space. The radio-frequency spectrum is divided into bands of different frequencies. Why can't we just make more radio-frequency lanes? We don't have more radio-frequency spectrum to develop. It's a natural resource, and we have to share it. Since the need for wireless communication keeps growing, we need to make sure we can continue to share this spectrum. If the priority users like the Navy have a problem, or if commercial users can't use it, then sharing this spectrum won't work. That requires unbiased, reliable and accurate data. That's where the National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network (NASCTN) comes in. NASCTN is a multi-agency partnership, hosted at NIST. It provides testing, modeling and analysis of spectrum-sharing technologies. The NASCTN team includes staff from NIST, the Department of Defense, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2023/01/23/norfolk-prototype-sensor-012523.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "advanced communications; electronics; information technology; infrastructure", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "January 27, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF 101: High school students, undergraduate and post-baccalaureate scholar funding opportunities", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/nsf-101-high-school-students-undergraduate-post", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation supports multiple programs for high school, undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students to help fund research opportunities. High school students: * High School Student Research Assistantships (MPS-High) | * Research Assistantship for High School Students (RAHSS) | Undergraduate students: * Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Supplemental Awards | * Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program | Post-baccalaureate: * Computer and Information Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships (CSGrad4US) * Geoscience Research Experiences for Post-Baccalaureate Students (GEO-REPS) Supplemental Funding Opportunity * Research and Mentoring for Post-Baccalaureates in Biological Sciences (RaMP) * Post-Baccalaureate Research Experiences for LSAMP Students (PRELS) Supplemental Funding Opportunity.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2023-05/NSF-101-Blog-Image.png.webp", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "education", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "January 20, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF/USGS-Funded Study on Global Models Indicates Offshore and Coastal Risk Analyses May Misrepresent Wave Storms from Extreme Weather Like Bomb Cyclones", "ResourceLink": "https://www.ucf.edu/news/offshore-and-coastal-risk-analyses-may-misrepresent-wave-storms-from-extreme-weather-like-bomb-cyclones/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF/USGS] Extreme weather events, such as the storm waves generated by a cyclone may be underestimated in many models used to estimate coastal flooding. Models used to estimate the height of coastal storm waves can differ by several feet, leading to some areas being possibly under protected during extreme wave events. The first-of-its-kind study compared wave estimates from 12 global models with historical buoy observations across different ocean areas. The researchers found that to more accurately assess offshore and coastal risk and inform future mitigation and adaptation responses, decision and policy makers must account for differences between global wave models and take into account observation measurements based on today’s climate. This means considering different models and using additional, modern observational data to better constrain extreme wave estimates under current climate conditions. The additional data could include long-term observational records from satellite missions and more data from buoys.", "coverimage": "https://www.ucf.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/20/files/2023/01/waves_for_web.jpg", "organization": "University of Central Florida", "topic": "civil engineering; extreme weather", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "January 13, 2023", "PostTitle": "NSF/NASA/USAID-supported research using machine learning to help monitor climate-induced hazards", "ResourceLink": "https://news.osu.edu/using-machine-learning-to-help-monitor-climate-induced-hazards/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF, NASA, & USAID] Combining satellite technology with machine learning may allow scientists to better track and prepare for climate-induced natural hazards. Predicting the future is a pretty difficult task but using remote sensing and machine learning will help create a system to monitor climate-induced hazards. Using geodetic data gathered from various space agency satellites, researchers conducted case studies to test if remote sensing and deep machine learning analytics could accurately monitor abrupt floods, droughts and storm surges. The team determined if radar signals from Earth’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which were reflected over the ocean and received by GNSS receivers, could track hurricane evolution by measuring rising sea levels after landfall. The data was collected by NASA and the German GRACE mission. The satellites have been used to monitor changes in Earth’s mass over the past two decades, but only from a little more than 400 miles up. However, with deep machine learning analytics, the team was able to reduce this resolution to about 15 miles, effectively improving society’s ability to monitor natural hazards.", "coverimage": "https://content.presspage.com/uploads/2170/1920_gettyimages-181828075.jpg", "organization": "The Ohio State University", "topic": "machine learning; climate research", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "January 6, 2023", "PostTitle": "NIST, NOAA & Academic Institutions Collaborate to Give Ocean Color System a 'Refresh,' Allowing for More Precise and Accurate Measurements", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2023/01/ocean-color-system-gets-refresh-allowing-more-precise-and-accurate", "PostDescription": "To ensure satellite measurements are accurate, researchers rely on an ocean-color sensor called the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, the University of Miami and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have collaborated on an upgrade to the sensor, known as MOBY-Refresh. It will enable more precise and accurate measurements of sunlight's colors or wavelengths. The MOBY data then are delivered to the satellite teams, which use the data to adjust the satellite sensors’ calibration, thus improving the accuracy of the global data products. MOBY consists of two primary buoys: the optical buoy, which measures and records light, and the mooring buoy, which keeps the optical buoy in place. In parallel to MOBY-Refresh the team is developing similar instrumentation called MarONet, which will be used by an upcoming NASA satellite mission called PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem). NIST's role in this process will be to check for any changes in the optical system during transportation.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/480_x_480_limit/public/images/2023/01/03/Mooring_Buoy_MOBY.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "environment; climate research; environmental health; marine science; metrology; physics; standards", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "January 6, 2023", "PostTitle": "DOE-funded research uses models to show climate change could cause “disaster” in the world's oceans comparable to the complete melting of the ice sheets on land", "ResourceLink": "https://news.uci.edu/2023/01/04/climate-change-could-cause-disaster-in-the-worlds-oceans-say-uc-irvine-scientists/", "PostDescription": "[Funded by DOE] Climate-driven heating of seawater is causing a slowdown of deep circulation patterns in the Atlantic and Southern oceans and if this process continues, the ocean’s ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will be severely limited, further exacerbating global warming. University of California, Irvine researchers analyzed projections from three dozen climate models and found that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation will slow by as much as 42 percent by 2100. The simulations suggest that under worst-case warming, the SMOC could cease entirely by 2300. Projections from 36 Earth system models over a range of climate scenarios shows that unchecked global warming could lead to a shutdown of the ocean deep circulation. This would be a climate disaster similar in magnitude to complete melting of the ice sheets on land. The analysis also shows that reducing greenhouse gas emissions now can prevent this complete shutdown of the deep circulation in the future.", "coverimage": "https://news.uci.edu/files/2023/01/230103_moore_3678-768x564.jpg", "organization": "University of California Irvine", "topic": "environment; climate research; environmental health", "year": "2023" }, { "date": "December 30, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF Gave Duolingo its wings!", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/nsf-gave-duolingo-its-wings", "PostDescription": "The number of people learning a second language using Duolingo is more than in the entire U.S. public school system. At the core of Duolingo is artificial intelligence research, guiding each learner through individualized learning experiences - originally supported by NSF. Duolingo's CEO Luis von Ahn NSF-supported research centered on human computation systems, a method of improving computational models by collecting data as a byproduct of someone doing something else. The original goal of the NSF-driven research for Duolingo was to harness the knowledge of bilingual people to supplement translation software on internet sites. Funding continued during Duolingo's early development and growth, totaling over $1.5 million from 2009 to 2016. Not only was Duolingo created out of this period of research, but the team also developed new computational algorithms to better understand how connections are formed and how information self-organizes on social networks. The work also demonstrated that education is a good incentive for people to engage with problems that computers cannot solve alone.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-12/Many%20faces%20of%20Duo.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 30, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIST's Researchers Look Ahead to High-Tech Trends in 2023 and Beyond", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/nists-researchers-look-ahead-high-tech-trends-2023-and-beyond", "PostDescription": "As 2022 draws to a close, we asked NIST's senior researchers to look ahead to the new year and beyond. They research topics that impact all of us, from indoor air quality to cybersecurity. We asked our fellows, \"How will the technology you are working on today affect society in the years to come?\" Here are their thoughts and predictions. ... *Artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can write and talk like people are getting a lot of attention right now. NIST is working to help mitigate these risks with trustworthy AI. *Because of the important role forensic science plays in our society, we are assessing forensic science’s past to strengthen its future. We are working on a series of important studies of forensic science, including digital investigation techniques. *NIST recently published a comprehensive set of design principles that can be used to develop more trustworthy and secure systems that can withstand modern cyberthreats. These systems can help protect every aspect of society from the electric grid to medical devices. NIST's set of security engineering design principles can be used to \"build it right\" from the start, helping to keep our devices and vital technology safe and operational.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2022/12/22/john%20kitching%20working%20with%20chip%20121922.jpeg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "construction; cybersecurity; forensics; health; information technology; neutron research; physics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 30, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF 2022: Transformational developments that benefit society", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/nsf-2022-transformational-developments-benefit", "PostDescription": "In 2022, the U.S. National Science Foundation powered a diverse range of discoveries and innovations that will benefit humanity. The \"CHIPS and Science Act\" codified NSF's first new directorate in more than 30 years: Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, or TIP, to nurture public and private partnerships across the nation to accelerate innovation. Through TIP: * NSF and Intel launched a unique program to support research and workforce development in advance semiconductor design and manufacturing. * NSF announced the creation of five new I-Corps Hubs. These hubs increase the operational backbone of the National Innovation Network * NSF announced a new investment of over $37 million in Resilient and Intelligent Next-Generation Systems, a public-private partnership focused on the development of intelligent, resilient and reliable NextG networks. * NSF's Convergence Accelerator is tackling ocean-wide challenges related to the blue economy through a $30 million investment. ... The \"CHIPS and Science Act\" also outlines investments that help scale up pre-K-12 STEM education innovations and authorizes new funding for STEM education. NSF also continued to make advancements across all scientific and research disciplines. NSF grantee researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed an approach that increases computing speed by 12% by enabling computer memory hardware to be shared without compromising security.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-12/shutterstock_1888927237.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "astronomy; space; biology; chemistry; materials; computing; education; engineering; mathematics; nanoscience; physics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 20, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIST: The Twelve Days of Metric", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/twelve-days-metric", "PostDescription": "As we approach the end of 2022, we wanted to share with our readers a NISTified version of a classic seasonal song about a topic that is near and dear to NISTers (and many other scientists) year-round: the wonders of the metric system. So without further ado … The Twelve Days of Metric. On the twelfth day of metric, a NISTer gave to me … ... Eleven physics interns: NIST's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) provides the next generation of scientists an opportunity to see what it means to practice science. Ten silicon chips: Silicon is a type of material known as a semiconductor and is the most commonly used raw material for semiconductor chips. Nine volts through circuits: The volt is the metric unit for electric potential. Josephson junctions are devices made from two layers of superconducting materials.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2022/12/19/12%20days%20of%20metric%20graphic.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "manufacturing; metrology; nanotechnology; physics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 20, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF advances sustainable materials solutions and capabilities", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/nsf-advances-sustainable-materials-solutions", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation is accelerating convergence research across materials discovery and development as well as production and manufacturing to address challenges aligned to the manufacturing, reuse and recycling of critical materials and products. With a total investment of $11.5 million, 16 Phase 1 multidisciplinary teams have been selected for NSF's Convergence Accelerator program's Track I: Sustainable Materials for Global Challenges. \"The production and use of materials today is not sustainable for our planet and human health,\" said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. \"Creating environmentally – and economically – sustainable materials and products is critical to our future. The use-inspired solutions in which we are investing in today will advance the circular design of materials and manufacturing processes to reduce pollution and waste.\" The awardees include: * Building a Sustainable, Innovative Ecosystem for Microchip Manufacturing, * Designing for Circular Economies – Creating Impact from Local Plastic Waste Using Off-Grid Containerized 3D Printers & Practice Based Learning, * Energy-efficient MetaConductors for Convergence of Sustainable Electronics, or E-MC2 of Sustainable Electronics.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-12/Track-I-Award-Annoucement.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "materials; manufacturing", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 16, 2022", "PostTitle": "Latest International Water Satellite Packs an Engineering Punch", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/latest-international-water-satellite-packs-an-engineering-punch", "PostDescription": "The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite promises to provide measurements of fresh water and the ocean that will help researchers address some of the most pressing climate questions of our time. Making this possible is a scientific instrument called the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn). The instrument has been designed to capture very precise measurements of the height of water in Earth's freshwater bodies and the ocean. KaRIn will measure the height of water in the ocean, \"seeing\" features like currents and eddies that are less than 13 miles (20 kilometers) across – up to 10 times smaller than those detectable with other sea level satellites. It will also collect data on lakes and reservoirs larger than 15 acres and rivers wider than 330 across. The radar instrument uses the Ka-band frequency at the microwave end of the electromagnetic spectrum to penetrate cloud cover and the dark of night. As a result, it can take measurements regardless of weather or time of day.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/1-pia25595-swot-1041.jpg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "climate research; Earth; Jet Propulsion Laboratory", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 16, 2022", "PostTitle": "DOE National Laboratory Makes History by Achieving Fusion Ignition", "ResourceLink": "https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-national-laboratory-makes-history-achieving-fusion-ignition", "PostDescription": "The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) - a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power. On December 5, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. LLNL's experiment surpassed the fusion threshold by delivering 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output, demonstrating for the first time a most fundamental science basis for inertial fusion energy (IFE). Many advanced science and technology developments are still needed to achieve simple, affordable IFE to power homes and businesses, and DOE is currently restarting a broad-based, coordinated IFE program in the United States. ", "coverimage": "https://www.energy.gov/themes/particle/dist/app-drupal/assets/energy_crest.png", "organization": "Department of Energy", "topic": "fusion ignition", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 9, 2022", "PostTitle": "Hip-hopping into a career in computer science: NSF funding jumpstarted a global music-based computer science curriculum", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/hip-hopping-career-computer-science", "PostDescription": "When high school students think about producing hip-hop tracks, many of them also understand the importance of learning to code. That's because more than 1 million people in over 5,000 schools spanning all 50 U.S. States and 180 countries are using EarSketch. The NSF-seeded, web-based audio composition environment lets students make music with JavaScript or Python code. The EarSketch project investigates the hypothesis that adding a creative component to a computer science learning environment will improve students' computer science learning and attitudes toward computing. The EarSketch team is seeing positive outlooks in each of these categories among students of color and women who are underserved in the computational workforce. A single NSF award began funding EarSketch in 2011. Over the past decade, the program has received more than 10 NSF awards and has grown to serve more than 1 million users in over 5,000 schools across all 50 U.S. states and 180 countries.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/blog_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-12/AIartEngineer.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 9, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF funds research that finally reveals why the Southern Hemisphere is stormier than the Northern", "ResourceLink": "https://news.uchicago.edu/story/southern-hemisphere-stormier-northern-and-we-finally-know-why", "PostDescription": "A decade ago, scientists on a NASA-sponsored ocean expedition found massive populations of phytoplankton blooming beneath sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Now scientists using underwater instruments and a NASA satellite have found evidence of potentially significant blooms beneath the sea ice encircling Antarctica. New evidence shows there are just enough cracks, thin spots, and gaps to let sufficient daylight through the sea ice. In the wide and coarse views from most satellites, ice cover can appear uniform and sheet-like, reinforcing the idea that light would be too scarce and faint for plant-like life below. But viewed from and below the ocean surface -- and now with the laser eyes of NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) -- scientists see that Antarctic sea ice is actually riddled with fractures and openings. Sunlight slips through the cracks and provides the energy for notable under-ice blooms in the Southern Ocean. The team analyzed ice conditions with ICESat-2 data to develop a picture of where and how much light was penetrating through the cracks and openings in Antarctic sea ice.", "coverimage": "https://news.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/images/2022-12/topo-like-map-colored-by-land-ocean-from-the-USGS.jpg", "organization": "The University of Chicago", "topic": "climate research; geophysical sciences", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 2, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIST Finds a Sweet New Way to Print Microchip Patterns on Curvy Surfaces", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/11/nist-finds-sweet-new-way-print-microchip-patterns-curvy-surfaces", "PostDescription": "NIST scientist Gary Zabow buried microscopic magnetic dots in hardened chunks of sugar — hard candy, basically — and sending these sweet packages to colleagues in a biomedical lab. The sugar dissolves easily in water, freeing the magnetic dots for their studies without leaving any harmful plastics or chemicals behind. By chance, Zabow had left one of these sugar pieces, embedded with arrays of micromagnetic dots, in a beaker, and it did what sugar does with time and heat — it melted, coating the bottom of the beaker in a gooey mess. When he rinsed out the beaker, the microdots were gone. But they weren't really missing; instead of releasing into the water, they had been transferred onto the bottom of the glass where they were casting a rainbow reflection. The colors indicated that the arrays of microdots had retained their unique pattern. Once the water evaporates, the candy hardens and can be lifted away with the pattern embedded. Using this technique, called REFLEX (REflow-driven FLExible Xfer), microcircuit patterns could be transferred like a stencil to allow scientists or manufacturers to etch and fill the materials they need in the right places.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/480_x_480_limit/public/images/2022/11/23/hair_nist_falsecolor.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "bioscience; biomaterials; manufacturing; materials", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "December 2, 2022", "PostTitle": "NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite 2 Shows Phytoplankton May Be Abundant Under Antarctic Sea Ice", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/feature/esnt/2022/phytoplankton-may-be-abundant-under-antarctic-sea-ice-study-suggests", "PostDescription": "A decade ago, scientists on a NASA-sponsored ocean expedition found massive populations of phytoplankton blooming beneath sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Now scientists using underwater instruments and a NASA satellite have found evidence of potentially significant blooms beneath the sea ice encircling Antarctica. New evidence shows there are just enough cracks, thin spots, and gaps to let sufficient daylight through the sea ice. In the wide and coarse views from most satellites, ice cover can appear uniform and sheet-like, reinforcing the idea that light would be too scarce and faint for plant-like life below. But viewed from and below the ocean surface -- and now with the laser eyes of NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) -- scientists see that Antarctic sea ice is actually riddled with fractures and openings. Sunlight slips through the cracks and provides the energy for notable under-ice blooms in the Southern Ocean. The team analyzed ice conditions with ICESat-2 data to develop a picture of where and how much light was penetrating through the cracks and openings in Antarctic sea ice.", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/ubernode_alt_horiz/public/thumbnails/image/26990543179_e7fc7a6a25_o.jpg", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "Earth; Goddard Space Flight Center; ICESat-2", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 22, 2022", "PostTitle": "DOE/ARO/AROSR/NSF-funded research uses electricity to find materials that can learn", "ResourceLink": "https://www.anl.gov/article/shock-to-the-system-using-electricity-to-find-materials-that-can-learn", "PostDescription": "[Funded by DOE (Office of Basic Energy Sciences), US ARO, US AFOSR, and NSF] Scientists looking to create a new generation of supercomputers are looking for inspiration from the most complex and energy-efficient computer ever built: the human brain. Researchers are looking at different nonbiological materials whose properties could be tailored to show evidence of learning-like behaviors. These materials could form the basis for hardware that could be paired with new software algorithms to enable more potent, useful and energy-efficient artificial intelligence (AI). The first response, habituation, occurs when the material \"gets used to\" being slightly zapped. The scientists noticed that although the material's resistance increases after an initial jolt, it soon becomes accustomed to the electric stimulus. The other response shown by the material, sensitization, occurs when a larger dose of electricity is administered. The difference between habituation and sensitization can help scientists overcome a challenge in the development of AI called the stability-plasticity dilemma. Too much stability prevents AI from learning, but too much plasticity can lead to catastrophic forgetting.", "coverimage": "https://www.anl.gov/sites/www/files/styles/article_teaser_16x9/public/2022-11/16x9_learning%20materials-copy.jpg", "organization": "Argonne National Laboratory", "topic": "computer science; engineering; neuromorphic computing; materials science and engineering", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 22, 2022", "PostTitle": "Researchers 3D bioprint breast cancer tumors and treat them in new study", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/researchers-3d-bioprint-breast-cancer-tumors-treat", "PostDescription": "U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers at Penn State have successfully 3D bioprinted breast cancer tumors and treated them in a breakthrough study to better understand the disease that is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. The advancement will enable future study and development of anti-cancer therapies without the use of \"in vivo\" — or \"in animal\" — experimentation. The researchers used a relatively new technique called aspiration-assisted bioprinting to precisely locate tumors in three dimensions and create the tissue. The researchers then formed the tissue into a multi-scale vascularized breast tumor model with blood vessels, which they discovered responded to chemotherapy and cell-based immunotherapeutics. The researchers used human CAR-T cells that were engineered via gene editing to recognize and fight an aggressive form of breast cancer cells. After 72 hours of circulating the edited CAR-T cells through the tumor, the researchers found that the cells within the bioprinted tumor had generated a positive immune response and were fighting off the cancer cells.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-11/cancercells.png", "organization": "Argonne National Laboratory", "topic": "biology; chemistry; engineering", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 18, 2022", "PostTitle": "Winners Announced in First Phase of UK-US Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Prize Challenges", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/11/winners-announced-first-phase-uk-us-privacy-enhancing-technologies-prize", "PostDescription": "The United Kingdom and the United States governments have announced the 12 winners of the first phase of the U.K.-U.S. privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) prize challenges. Competing for cash prizes from a combined U.S.-U.K. prize pool of $1.6 million (£1.3 million), participants are developing solutions that will enable artificial intelligence models to be trained on sensitive data without organizations having to reveal, share or combine their raw data. Winning challenge solutions will be showcased at the second Summit for Democracy, which President Joe Biden plans to convene in the first half of 2023. The U.S. challenge is funded and administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2019/06/19/sdecoret_pi_hack_shutterstock_617737619_hr_2mb.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "health; information technology; artificial intelligence; cybersecurity; privacy", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 18, 2022", "PostTitle": "DARPA/US Army/USAF supported research ensuring AI works with the right dose of curiosity", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2022/ensuring-ai-works-with-right-dose-curiosity-1110", "PostDescription": "Funded by DARPA/ US ARO/ US AFRL/ US AF AI Accelerator] Curiosity drives artificial intelligence to explore the world, now in boundless use cases — autonomous navigation, robotic decision-making, optimizing health outcomes, and more. Machines, in some cases, use “reinforcement learning” to accomplish a goal, where an AI agent iteratively learns from being rewarded for good behavior and punished for bad. In the pursuit of making AI agents with just the right dose of curiosity, researchers from MIT’s Improbable AI Laboratory and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) created an algorithm that overcomes the problem of AI being too “curious” and getting distracted by a given task. Their algorithm automatically increases curiosity when it's needed and suppresses it if the agent gets enough supervision from the environment to know what to do. ... The research was supported, in part, by DARPA Machine Common Sense Program, the Army Research Office by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, and the United States Air Force Artificial Intelligence Accelerator.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202211/mit-curiosity-algorithm-00_0.png?itok=D5vMdbCP", "organization": "Advanced Research Projects Agency", "topic": "research; artificial intelligence; machine learning; human-computer interaction", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 10, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF-funded engineers discover new process for synthetic material growth, enabling soft robots that grow like plants", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/engineers-discover-new-process-synthetic-material", "PostDescription": "A NSF-funded team of University of Minnesota Twin Cities scientists and engineers has developed a first-of-its-kind, plant-inspired process that enables synthetic material growth. The new approach will allow researchers to build better soft robots that can navigate hard-to-reach places, complicated terrain and, potentially, areas within the human body. Soft-growing robots can create new material and \"grow\" as they move. Current soft-growing robots drag a trail of solid material behind them and use heat or pressure to transform that material into a more permanent structure. However, the trail of solid material becomes more difficult to pull around bends and turns, making it hard for the robots to navigate terrain with obstacles or winding paths. The researchers solved this problem by developing a new means of extrusion, a process where material is pushed through an opening to create a specific shape. That allows the robot to create its synthetic material from a liquid instead of a solid.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-11/plantrobot.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "biology; computing; engineering", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 10, 2022", "PostTitle": "$4.2 million NOAA grant for innovative ocean research using autonomous vehicles, AI-driven analytics, and state-of-the-art climate models to study stressors facing Dungeness crab, other marine life under climate change", "ResourceLink": "https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/oregon-state-and-partners-receive-42-million-study-stressors-facing-dungeness-crab-other-marine", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NOAA] NOAA awarded $4.2 million to OSU and its partners to investigate how multiple climate change-related stressors are impacting marine ecosystems off the Pacific coast. The researchers will focus on two key species: Dungeness crab, which plays a significant economic and cultural role in Indigenous and other coastal communities and is considered the most valuable single-species fishery in Oregon; and krill, which are tiny crustaceans that play a critical role in the ocean’s food web and serve as a bellwether for ocean health. Researchers will use existing and new ocean data, ocean and climate models, laboratory experiments and fisheries management evaluation techniques to learn more about the relationships between the different stressors and the potential cascading impacts that may result. They will use key pieces of innovative ocean research, including observations from undersea autonomous vehicles, AI-driven analytics of ocean food webs and state-of-the-art climate models. The project will also integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge.", "coverimage": "https://today.oregonstate.edu/sites/today.oregonstate.edu/files/styles/1200x564/public/24555102899_36496e9f9c_c.jpg", "organization": "Oregon State University", "topic": "fishery; marine research", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 4, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF-powered dashboards you should bookmark", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/nsf-powered-dashboards-you-should-bookmark", "PostDescription": "Data requires refining, processing, and an interface or dashboard, as an easy-to-consume method the public can access. Some of NSF-supported dashboards include: the Science & Engineering State Indicators, which compile information on the U.S. STEM enterprise. The USF Global Mosquito Observations Dashboard to monitor mosquito-borne diseases. The Alien Forest Pest Explorer combines information from multiple sources to show the impact of different forest insects and diseases. The Sankey diagram uses line widths to represent per capita energy flows each year from primary energy sources to final uses covering 200 years of evolving energy use in the U.S. The project is intended to provide a deeper understanding about the potential future of society and the Earth and help policymakers make informed decisions. Researchers from institutions around the world stitched together nearly 1.5 million location records to create Antmaps.org, the largest global map of insect diversity.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/2022-11/ScienceMatters_HeroImage_Listicle.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "biology; computing; environment", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "November 4, 2022", "PostTitle": "NOAA-Funded Research Uses Artificial Intelligence to Learn More about “Dark” Fishing Vessels' Activities at Sea", "ResourceLink": "https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/learning-more-about-dark-fishing-vessels-activities-sea", "PostDescription": "Fishing vessels can \"go dark\" by turning off Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders that broadcast their location to satellites and terrestrial receivers. What they do during those invisible hours has long been a mystery. Research funded by NOAA analyzes why vessels disable their AIS broadcasts and identified more than 55,000 examples, breaking them down by location, fishery, and home country. The team used a powerful machine learning technique to better understand why vessels intentionally disable their AIS devices. The machine learning models revealed that vessels frequently disabled their AIS devices adjacent to Exclusive Economic Zones and the high seas. AIS disabling was particularly common next to EEZs with contested boundaries and EEZs with rich fishing grounds and limited management oversight. These are both areas of concern for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The team found that another strong driver of AIS disabling was transshipment - at-sea transfer of catch and personnel between fishing vessels and refrigerated cargo vessels. It can serve as a way to launder illegally caught seafood.", "coverimage": "https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/styles/original/s3/2021-03/750x500-iuu-vessel-ole.jpg", "organization": "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "topic": "enforcement; environment; artificial intelligence", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "October 28, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF/AROSR/AFRL/ARO funds deep learning with light", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2022/optics-deep-learning-computations-1020", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NSF, US AFOSR, US AFRL, and US ARO] One reason latency occurs is because connected smart home devices don't have enough memory or power to store and run the enormous machine-learning models needed for the device to understand what a user is asking of it. MIT researchers have created a new method for computing directly on these devices, which drastically reduces this latency. Their technique shifts the memory-intensive steps of running a machine-learning model to a central server where components of the model are encoded onto light waves. The waves are transmitted to a connected device using fiber optics, which enables tons of data to be sent lightning-fast through a network. The receiver then employs a simple optical device that rapidly performs computations using the parts of a model carried by those light waves. The neural network architecture they developed, Netcast, is connected to a novel piece of hardware called a smart transceiver. The research is funded by National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Army Research Office.", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202210/MIT-delocalized-learning-01-press_0.jpg", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "research; electronics; photonics; artificial intelligence; machine learning; internet of things", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "October 28, 2022", "PostTitle": "Teaching Computers to Read 'Industry Lingo' - Technical vs. Natural Language Processing", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/teaching-computers-read-industry-lingo-technical-vs-natural-language-processing", "PostDescription": "Technical jargon, slang or industry lingo has largely developed as a shorthand method using a minimal amount of effort. People generally are very good at learning and translating context and intent with comparatively little additional information. Computers, however, are not. NIST researchers work in the area of technical language processing (TLP) - the act of using computers for capturing, understanding and translating jargon for other users. These can be direct actions like controlling a robot, but also computers to be able to communicate the ideas they capture back to another person. Natural language processing (NLP) takes communications by humans and transforms that information into something more suitable for computer use and analysis. This is performed by restructuring the communication into a form that allows it to be compared to “concepts” or ideas that the computer has previously learned. NLP focuses on the most common uses for words, but TLP focuses on the less common uses, or meanings that can change based on context. NIST is linking academic and industrial communities to help advance the development and use of TLP technologies.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2022/10/21/Blogpost-tlp.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "information technology; manufacturing", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "October 21, 2022", "PostTitle": "Newly identified protein drives breast cancer stemness and metastasis", "ResourceLink": "https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2022/10/newly-identified-protein-drives-breast-cancer-stemness-and-metastasis.html", "PostDescription": "[Funded by DOD, NIH, NSF] A Northwestern medicine study, enabled by machine learning, has identified a protein that drives breast cancer stemness and metastasis. Combining machine learning and experimental investigation, the team demonstrated that the protein membrane CD81 interacts with another previously identified tumor-initiating cell marker, called CD44, in promoting tumor cell cluster formation and lung metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Machine learning and deep learning have transformed protein structure modeling, greatly facilitating the molecular understanding and therapeutic development for TNBC and other metastatic disease. ... This research was supported by the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Science Foundation.", "coverimage": "https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2022/10/_news-images/ECEN-news-breast-cancer-17Oct2022.jpg", "organization": "Texas A&M University", "topic": "electrical and computer engineering; research", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "October 21, 2022", "PostTitle": "New tool helps researchers investigate clouds, rain and climate change", "ResourceLink": "https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2022/10/newly-identified-protein-drives-breast-cancer-stemness-and-metastasis.html", "PostDescription": "Climate scientists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University and NASA developed an easier way to compare cloud models with observations from weather instruments. The result is Earth Model Column Collaboratory (EMC2), an open-source research platform that pairs complex data with weather observations to create highly accurate climate models and forecast predictions. Results from current climate models don’t directly compare to those from radars, satellites and other sensors whose signals can’t directly detect key cloud parameters like liquid water content and number of drops. As an instrument simulator, EMC2 can convert the more detailed model-simulated cloud parameters to these weather instrument signals. Using an approach developed for NASA, Argonne scientists plan to use EMC2 in collaboration with DOE's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), a high-resolution model designed to examine the most detailed dynamics of climate-generating behavior.", "coverimage": "https://www.anl.gov/sites/www/files/styles/article_teaser_16x9/public/2022-10/16x9-Sunrise.jpg", "organization": "Argonne National Laboratory", "topic": "computational science; modeling and simulation; visualization; physics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "October 17, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIST's Superconducting Hardware Could Scale Up Brain-Inspired Computing", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/10/nists-superconducting-hardware-could-scale-brain-inspired-computing", "PostDescription": "Scientists have long looked to the brain as an inspiration for designing computing systems. Some researchers have recently gone even further by making computer hardware with a brainlike structure. These \"neuromorphic chips\" have already shown great promise, but they have used conventional digital electronics, limiting their complexity and speed. A team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated a solution to these communication challenges that may someday allow artificial neural systems to operate 100,000 times faster than the human brain. In neuromorphic chips, electronic components act as artificial neurons, routing spiking signals (short electrical pulses used to communicate) through a brainlike network. NIST researchers have achieved for the first time a circuit that behaves much like a biological synapse yet uses just single photons to transmit and receive signals. The work was funded in part by DARPA.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2022/10/06/artificial_neuron_rendering.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "electronics; superconducting electronics; physics; biological physics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "October 7, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIH/NSF/DOE-Funded Research Uses Artificial Intelligence to Speed the Search for Stable Proteins Used in Drug Development, Biofuels and Food Production", "ResourceLink": "https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=220874", "PostDescription": "[Funded by National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences Program, and Brookhaven National Laboratory] Harnessing the power of robotics and machine intelligence, researchers from Rutgers University and Princeton Engineering have found a way to design stable proteins in a fraction of the time it historically took for various applications including dietary supplements, diagnostics, cleaning products, and biofuel and food production. In the new system, engineers use a machine-learning model to identify chemical compounds most likely to stabilize desired proteins. The model helps narrow hundreds of thousands of possibilities to a few likely candidates. A robotic assembly platform then produces samples of the molecules for evaluation. Combining the robotic platform with the machine-learning model turns out results in as little as a few days. Because of its ability to churn through vast amounts of data, the machine-learning model often recommends candidate molecules that wouldn’t have occurred to scientists.", "coverimage": "https://www.bnl.gov/today/body_pics/2022/10/webb-ml-enzyme-hero-1000px.jpg", "organization": "Brookhaven National Laboratory", "topic": "artificial intelligence; photon sciences; drug development; biofuels; food production", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "September 29, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF's Convergence Accelerator releases 2022 Portfolio Guide", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/nsfs-convergence-accelerator-releases-2022-portfolio-guide", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation's Convergence Accelerator released its comprehensive 2022 Portfolio Guide, showcasing novel, use-inspired solutions from more than 45 NSF-funded multidisciplinary teams across six distinct convergence research track topics. The Convergence Accelerator track topics include Open Knowledge Networks, AI & the Future of Work, Quantum Technology, AI-Driven Data Sharing & Modeling, Networked Blue Economy, and Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems. \"NSF's Convergence Accelerator is a unique and fast-growing initiative that fosters multidisciplinary collaboration between diverse groups of talented researchers and experts,\" said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. \"In this way, the Convergence Accelerator furthers the mission of NSF's new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate, which aims to accelerate breakthrough technologies and solutions.\" ", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-09/2022PortfolioGuideAnnouncementGraphic.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "networking; quantum information science; artificial intelligence; communication systems", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "September 22, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIST: In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month - Historic Measures: How Standards and Technology Enabled the Inca Empire to Thrive", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/historic-measures-how-standards-and-technology-enabled-inca-empire-thrive", "PostDescription": "In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a reflection on the achievements of the Inca of the South American Andes, their data-recording device or \"khipu,\" and the khipu's role in engineering and administration. The khipu (or quipu) was a data recording device using knotted and colored strings made from cotton or camelid fiber. Khipus recorded statistical data for all matters like census, tributes, production, etc., and preserved narrative data including stories and poetry. The mysteries of the khipu still challenge anthropologists and scientists. There have only been two significant breakthroughs to date, both attributed to mathematical insights. In addition to the statistical khipus, there are narrative khipus that we can't yet understand. One might imagine that as the data for the existing khipus are digitized (knot location, type, color, etc.), machine learning algorithms might make possible the next breakthrough.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2022/09/19/terraces.JPG", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "metrology", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "September 22, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF: Thinking like a cyber-attacker to protect user data", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/thinking-cyber-attacker-protect-user-data", "PostDescription": "A component of computer processors that connects different parts of the chip can be exploited by malicious agents who seek to steal secret information from programs running on the computer. Modern computer processors contain many computing units, called cores, which share the same hardware resources. The on-chip interconnect is the component that enables these cores to communicate with each other. But when programs on multiple cores run simultaneously, there is a chance they can delay one another when they use the interconnect to send data across the chip at the same time. By monitoring and measuring these delays, a malicious agent could conduct what is known as a \"side-channel attack\" and reconstruct secret information that is stored in a program, such as a cryptographic key or password. In work funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, MIT researchers reverse-engineered the on-chip interconnect to study how this kind of attack would be possible. Drawing on their discoveries, they built an analytical model of how traffic flows between the cores on a processor, which they used to design and launch surprisingly effective side-channel attacks. Then they developed two mitigation strategies that enable a user to improve security without making any physical changes to the computer chip...", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-09/lock.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing; people & society", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "September 16, 2022", "PostTitle": "NSF-funded researchers develop dashboard to track invasive and vector mosquitoes and use AI for species recognition", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/researchers-develop-dashboard-track-invasive-and-vector-mosquitoes", "PostDescription": "Researchers at the University of South Florida, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, created the Global Mosquito Observations Dashboard to surveil mosquito-borne diseases with automated mosquito identification. The dashboard makes use of data from other apps that use citizen scientists to capture photos of mosquitoes. The team plans to train and test artificial intelligence algorithms for image recognition that will identify the mosquito species in the images. The algorithms for species recognition are especially accurate in detecting critical mosquito vectors. It will yield valuable tools for citizen-assisted surveillance to combat diseases...", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-11/mosquito.jpg.webp", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "computing; artificial intelligence", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "September 9, 2022", "PostTitle": "Faster in the Past: New seafloor images – the highest resolution of any taken off the West Antarctic Ice Sheet – upend understanding of Thwaites Glacier retreat", "ResourceLink": "https://www.usf.edu/marine-science/news/2022/faster-in-the-past-new-seafloor-images-the-highest-resolution-of-any-taken-off-the-west-antarctic-ice-sheet.aspx", "PostDescription": "[Funded by the National Science Foundation] A total loss of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica – about the size of Florida – and the surrounding icy basins could raise sea level from three to ten feet. For the first time, scientists mapped in high-resolution a critical area of the seafloor in front of the glacier that gives them a window into how fast Thwaites retreated and moved in the past. The stunning imagery shows geologic features that are new to science, and also provides a kind of crystal ball to see into Thwaites’ future. To understand Thwaites’ past retreat, the team analyzed the rib-like formations submerged 700 meters beneath the polar ocean and factored in the tidal cycle for the region, as predicted by computer models, to show that one rib must have been formed every single day. Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails, and we should expect to see big changes over small timescales in the future – even from one year to the next – once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed. To collect the imagery and supporting geophysical data, the team, launched a state-of-the-art orange robotic vehicle loaded with imaging sensors called ‘Rán’. Rán mapped an area of the seabed in front of the glacier about the size of Houston – in extreme conditions during an unusual summer notable for its lack of sea ice. This allowed scientists to access the glacier front for the first time in history. This was a pioneering study of the ocean floor, made possible by recent technological advancements in autonomous ocean mapping. ... The study was supported by the National Science Foundation ", "coverimage": "https://www.usf.edu/marine-science/news/images/the-rv-nathaniel-b-palmer-photographed-from-a-drone-at-thwaites-glacier.jpg", "organization": "University of South Florida", "topic": "climate research; green energy", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "September 2, 2022", "PostTitle": "Deciding Whether to Install Solar Panels on Your Home? A New NIST Web Tool Can Help", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/08/deciding-whether-install-solar-panels-your-home-new-nist-web-tool-can-help", "PostDescription": "An online software tool from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can help answer homeowners’ questions about adding solar panels to their homes and which type of solar panel might work best for them. The software is called [PV]2 — Present Value of PhotoVoltaics — and it analyzes the economic and environmental impacts of rooftop solar technology. The tool can assist homeowners and even installers when evaluating rooftop solar photovoltaic systems. Photovoltaics are semiconductor materials that convert sunlight to electricity. When users access [PV]2 on the web, they first encounter a landing page that introduces them to the online tool. The page includes links to a user guide that provides a quick tutorial on how the tool works. The tool performs the bulk of the calculations and analysis, so users only need to have on hand two pieces of information: an actual solar quote — a cost estimate from a solar installer — and an electric bill. [PV]2 uses the Economic Evaluation Engine (E3), an application programming interface (API) developed in conjunction with [PV]2 by experts in the Applied Economics Office at NIST...", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2022/08/25/PV2_HeaderGraphic_v2_995_x_600.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "building economics; energy; environment; sustainability", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "September 2, 2022", "PostTitle": "USAID/NIH-Funded Study Shows Novel Coronaviruses Are Riskiest for Spillover: Tool Helps Quantify Zoonotic Risk, Focus Priorities for Viral and Wildlife Surveillance", "ResourceLink": "https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/novel-coronaviruses-identified-riskiest-spillover", "PostDescription": "[Funded by NIH & USAID] Scientists from the University of California, Davis created network-based models to prioritize novel and known viruses for their risk of zoonotic transmission, which is when infectious diseases pass between animals and humans. Their study provides further evidence that coronaviruses are riskiest for spillover and should continue to be prioritized for enhanced surveillance and research. The machine learning models were designed by the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics at the UC Davis One Health Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine. The models found that novel viruses from the coronavirus family are expected to have a larger number of species as hosts. The scientists created a prioritization score for each virus to serve as a metric for the risk of zoonotic transmission. The model uses a data-driven, virus-host network to quantify the likelihood of humans as hosts for more than 500 viruses newly discovered between 2009 and 2019. This stemmed from wildlife surveillance research conducted in Africa, Asia and Latin America by a consortium of investigators. In additional to coronaviruses, the model also ranked several paramyxoviruses as high priorities for future work. Diseases associated with this family of viruses include measles, mumps and respiratory tract infections. The study was supported with funding from the Unites States Agency for International Development and the National Institutes of Health...", "coverimage": "https://www.ucdavis.edu/sites/default/files/styles/sf_landscape_16x9/public/media/images/Myanmar_Bumblebee%20Bat_Kjwe%20Min%20Gu%20Cave.jpg", "organization": "University of California, Davis", "topic": "health; climate research; virology", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 26, 2022", "PostTitle": "Computer Simulations Screen Materials To Remove CO2 From the Atmosphere, Imagine the Possibilities", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/08/remove-co2-atmosphere-imagine-possibilities", "PostDescription": "In an effort to reduce the risks from climate change, NIST scientists have set out to discover new materials that can draw planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere, a technique called “direct air capture.” Direct air capture materials already exist, but they either cost too much money or consume too much energy to be deployed on a global scale. NIST scientists are using computer simulations to rapidly screen hypothetical materials that have never been synthesized but that might have just the right physical properties to make this technology scalable. Carbon capture is a way to reverse some of those emissions and help the economy become carbon neutral more quickly. NIST scientists use computer simulations that calculate a potential capture material’s affinity for CO2 relative to other gases in the atmosphere. That allows them to predict how well the capture material will perform. The simulations also generate images that show how carbon capture works on a molecular scale. The computer simulations combine the rules of physics with statistical methods to predict which direction CO2 molecules would move when they come into contact with a capture material — whether they would be drawn into the voids, diffuse out into the surrounding air, or just bounce around randomly in a state of equilibrium...", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/480_x_480_limit/public/images/2022/08/23/PorousCrystallineMaterialConcept.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "chemistry; energy; environment; climate research; sustainability; materials; modeling and computational material science; mathematics; statistics; modeling and simulation", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 26, 2022", "PostTitle": "WPI Researchers Receive $347,843 U.S. Navy Award for System to Estimate Underwater Plumes in Real Time", "ResourceLink": "https://www.wpi.edu/news/wpi-researchers-receive-347843-us-navy-award-system-estimate-underwater-plumes-real-time", "PostDescription": "[Funded by US Navy] Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers Nikolaos Gatsonis and Michael Demetriou have been awarded $347,843 by the U.S. Navy to develop a computational model that will use data from a network of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to estimate in real time the concentration and source of a contaminant liquid or gas plume as it moves and diffuses through ocean waters. The estimator, once deployed on a system of AUVs, could help guide responses to chemical or biological threats, accidents, and environmental disasters. The three-year project builds on research that couples advanced computational methods for real-time estimation with vehicle guidance and control. The researchers previously developed a similar model, supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research and DARPA grants, that would enable unmanned aerial vehicles to collect data and estimate the concentration of gas plumes in the atmosphere...", "coverimage": "https://www.wpi.edu/sites/default/files/styles/1x_375x215/public/2022/08/16/MJB_1978%20Gatsonis%20Demetriou.JPG", "organization": "Worcester Polytechnic Institute", "topic": "research; robotics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 19, 2022", "PostTitle": "Marrying models with experiments to build more efficient solar cells", "ResourceLink": "https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/Penn-chemists-building-more-efficient-solar-cells", "PostDescription": "(Funding for this work came from the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research, with computational support from the Department of Defense and DOE.) Perovskite solar cells are a prime contender for the next generation of renewable energy. These synthetic materials are cheaper and require less energy to produce but fall behind many silicon-based cells in terms of their stability and efficiency. Researchers investigated a certain class of perovskites called 2D hybrid perovskites. Compared to perovskites made of 3D crystals, these tend to be more stable, built like molecular baklava with alternating layers of metal- and carbon-based molecules...", "coverimage": "https://penntoday.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/2022-08/rappe-andrew-solar-cells-teaser.jpg", "organization": "University of Pennsylvania", "topic": "climate research; green energy", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 19, 2022", "PostTitle": "Watch NIST’s ‘Atomic Television’ Live and in Color", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/08/watch-nists-atomic-television-live-and-color", "PostDescription": "Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have adapted their atom-based radio receiver to detect and display live color television and video games. Atom-based communications systems are of practical interest because they could be physically smaller and more tolerant of noisy environments than conventional electronics. Adding video capability could enhance radio systems in, for example, remote locations or emergency situations. NIST’s receiver uses atoms prepared in high-energy “Rydberg” states, which are unusually sensitive to electromagnetic fields, including radio signals. These sensors also enable signal power measurements linked to the international system of units (SI). ... This work was partially funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the NIST on a Chip program.", "coverimage": "https://cdnsecakmi.kaltura.com/p/684682/sp/68468200/thumbnail/entry_id/1_nyskb8gt/width/1280", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "advanced communications; quantum communications; wireless (RF); electronics; electromagnetics; sensors; physics; quantum information science", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 12, 2022", "PostTitle": "Four New NSF INCLUDES Alliances Announced", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/news/four-new-nsf-includes-alliances-announced", "PostDescription": "The U.S. National Science Foundation will establish four new NSF INCLUDES Alliances to enhance preparation, increase participation and ensure the inclusion of individuals from historically underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers.", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/news_hero_tablet_1200x468_/s3/2022-08/nsfwordgraph_news.jpg", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "education; diversity; inclusion", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 12, 2022", "PostTitle": "Making House Calls Guided by AI", "ResourceLink": "https://hms.harvard.edu/news/making-house-calls-guided-ai", "PostDescription": "(The National Institutes of Health) A new AI-enabled diagnostic tool facilitates postsurgical follow-up care at home for women recovering from caesarean sections in rural Rwanda, is the result of a multinational, multifaceted collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and community health workers from Harvard Medical School, MIT, Partners In Health, and Rwandan telemedicine tech firm Insightiv. The idea for a portable computer-aided diagnostic tool arose when the team’s early research showed that more than 10 percent of women giving birth in Rwanda develop postoperative surgical-site infection, with greatest risk for those who live further from a hospital, and that traveling to a clinic or hospital for routine surgical follow-up was physically and financially burdensome for many of these new mothers. The latest version of the still-developing tool is a smartphone app that guides community health workers through general well-being assessments and includes an image-based surgical-site infection diagnostic guide based on a machine learning algorithm. The tool can render an accurate diagnosis nine out of 10 times, on average, a higher accuracy than that of trained diagnosticians reviewing the images remotely. The project was named first-place winner of the National Institutes of Health Technology Accelerator Challenge for Maternal Health...", "coverimage": "https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/media/CHW%20captures%20wound%20image%20850.jpg", "organization": "Harvard Medical School", "topic": "artificial intelligence; research; care delivery; medicine", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 5, 2022", "PostTitle": "MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body", "ResourceLink": "https://news.mit.edu/2022/ultrasound-stickers-0728", "PostDescription": "(This research was funded, in part, by MIT, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT.) Ultrasound imaging is a safe and noninvasive window into the body's workings, providing clinicians with live images of a patient's internal organs. To capture these images, trained technicians manipulate ultrasound wands and probes to direct sound waves into the body. These waves reflect back out to produce high-resolution images of a patient's heart, lungs, and other deep organs. A new design by MIT engineers might make the ultrasound imaging technology as wearable and accessible as buying Band-Aids at the pharmacy. The researchers applied the stickers to volunteers and showed the devices produced live, high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach. For patients who require long periods of imaging, some hospitals offer probes affixed to robotic arms that can hold a transducer in place without tiring. The stickers maintained a strong adhesion and captured changes in underlying organs as volunteers performed various activities, including sitting, standing, jogging, and biking. The current design requires connecting the stickers to instruments that translate the reflected sound waves into images. If the devices can be made to operate wirelessly the ultrasound stickers could be made into wearable imaging products that patients could take home from a doctor's office or even buy at a pharmacy. The team is also developing software algorithms based on artificial intelligence that can better interpret and diagnose the stickers' images...", "coverimage": "https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/styles/news_article__image_gallery/public/images/202207/MIT-Ultrasound-sticker-01-PRESS_0.jpg", "organization": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "topic": "imaging; civil engineering; environmental engineering; mechanical engineering; medical devices; medicine; research; wearable sensors", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "August 5, 2022", "PostTitle": "Landing patterns", "ResourceLink": "https://ascr-discovery.org/2022/06/landing-patterns/", "PostDescription": "(U.S Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Nielsen has been interested in space from childhood, growing up near NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. For the past two decades, he, colleague Ashley Korzun and others have advanced simulation capability to understand how Mars spacecraft would handle entry, descent and landing – known collectively as EDL...", "coverimage": "https://ascr-discovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/AD_nasa2-2048x1152.png", "organization": "Department of Energy", "topic": "aeronautics; engineering", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 27, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIST's New Device Design Brings Unparalleled Confidence to Cell Measurements", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/07/new-device-design-brings-unparalleled-confidence-cell-measurements", "PostDescription": "Another, particularly demanding, challenge was finding a way to ensure that the emissions recorded at each of the two zones in the channel came from the same particle. That could only be done by controlling the particle’s position and velocity so exactly that the time of transit from one node to the other was precisely known, allowing the system to match the measurements at the first node ...", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/480_x_480_limit/public/images/2022/07/20/cyto%20chip%203.jpg", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "digital health; bioscience; cell biology; mathematics; statistics; metrology; physics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 20, 2022", "PostTitle": "'Science Happens Here' – share your NSF-powered stories", "ResourceLink": "https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/science-happens-here-share-your-nsf-powered-stories", "PostDescription": "Science happens all over the country and around the world, from big research vessels and telescopes to small labs and classrooms. With the launch of our “Science Happens Here” campaign, NSF is inviting YOU – our community – to join us in sharing stories of amazing science, engineering, innovation, STEM education, cutting-edge research facilities, future workforce and more that are ...", "coverimage": "https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/2022-07/Science_Happens_Here_Science_Matters_HERO_1200x468_updated.png", "organization": "U.S. National Science Foundation", "topic": "astronomy; biology; chemistry; materials; computing; Earth; environment; education; engineering; mathematics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 20, 2022", "PostTitle": "Nanomagnets Can Choose a Wine, and Could Slake AI’s Thirst for Energy", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/07/nanomagnets-can-choose-wine-and-could-slake-ais-thirst-energy", "PostDescription": "A new type of neural network aced a virtual wine-tasting test and promises a less energy-hungry version of artificial intelligence. By analyzing the different characteristics of wines, such as acidity, fruitiness and bitterness, a novel AI system successfully determined which type of wine it was. The AI system is based on magnetic devices known as \"magnetic tunnel junctions,\" and was designed and built by researchers at NIST, the University of Maryland and Western Digital.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2022/07/18/wine-ai-graphic-01.png?itok=DiJu07oR", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "information technology; artificial intelligence; nanotechnology; nanomagnetics; physics; magnetics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 15, 2022", "PostTitle": "NASA Reveals Webb Telescope's First Images of Unseen Universe", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-reveals-webb-telescope-s-first-images-of-unseen-universe", "PostDescription": "...NASA explores the unknown in space for the benefit of all, and Webb's first observations tell the story of the hidden universe through every phase of cosmic history – from neighboring planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe. Webb’s first observations were selected by a group of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. They reveal the capabilities of all four of Webb's state-of-the-art scientific instruments...", "coverimage": "https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/web_first_images_release.png?itok=g21NrdRw", "organization": "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "topic": "Goddard Space Flight Center; James Webb Space Telescope; solar system; universe", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 15, 2022", "PostTitle": "Statistics Unlock Secrets of Particles, Pandemics, and More", "ResourceLink": "https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=220674", "PostDescription": "...In collaboration with educational specialists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, a team of experimental particle physicists at New York University (NYU) and a Stony Brook University pediatric infectious disease expert shared their statistical and data expertise with a team of innovative teachers. The teachers, in turn, transformed what they learned into lesson plans for middle and high school students. This fall, the lessons may find their way into classrooms, helping students appreciate the value and challenges of working with complex data. This innovative program grew out of a grant proposal submitted by the NYU scientists to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a project related to particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Collaborating with teachers to show how these methods are relevant to other fields furthers another goal of the NSF grant...", "coverimage": "https://www.bnl.gov/today/body_pics/2022/07/educator-workshop-2022-1000px.jpg", "organization": "Brookhaven National Laboratory; Department of Energy", "topic": "ATLAS; COVID-19; education; high energy physics", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 8, 2022", "PostTitle": "Gecko Feet Are Coated in an Ultra-Thin Layer of Lipids That Help Them Stay Sticky", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/07/gecko-feet-are-coated-ultra-thin-layer-lipids-help-them-stay-sticky", "PostDescription": "Setae provide sticking power because they are flexible and assume the microscopic contours of whatever surface the gecko is climbing. Even smaller structures at the ends of the setae, called spatulae, make such close contact with the climbing surface that electrons in both materials interact, creating a type of attraction called van der Waals forces.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/480_x_480_limit/public/images/2022/05/24/frlizard_green_reptile_phelsuma-image-kycgduzd.jpeg.jpg?itok=A9B6AZoq", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "bioscience; biomaterials; materials; physics; biology; spectroscopy; information technology", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 8, 2022", "PostTitle": "NIST Announces First Four Quantum-Resistant Cryptographic Algorithms", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/07/nist-announces-first-four-quantum-resistant-cryptographic-algorithms", "PostDescription": "GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has chosen the first group of encryption tools that are designed to withstand the assault of a future quantum computer, which could potentially crack the security used to protect privacy in the digital systems we rely on every day — such as online banking and email software.", "coverimage": "https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/images/2022/04/05/Crypto-rev1.png", "organization": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "topic": "cybersecurity; privacy; quantum information science; information technology; cryptography", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "July 6, 2022", "PostTitle": "R&D WORKFORCE TRAINING: FEDERAL AGENCIES' STEM INTERNSHIPS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nitrd.gov/stem4all/", "PostDescription": "Government sponsored internships and training programs are competitive, and oh so exciting! What makes these training experiences so rewarding is that students actually get to work in STEM fields of interest – in other words, be a real scientist or engineer while also helping the nation, the planet, and the universe! This STEM Portal provides programs targeted to all levels of experience so there is something for everyone interested in technology careers and advanced training. It gives in one location a searchable database of opportunities at Federal agencies for internships, scholarships, and other training programs.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/STEM-Portal.png", "organization": "NITRD Program", "topic": "education; workforce", "year": "2022" }, { "date": "June 8, 2022", "PostTitle": "NITRD 30th Anniversary Symposium Recap", "ResourceLink": "https://www.nitrd.gov/nitrd-30th-anniversary-symposium-recap/", "PostDescription": "The NITRD 30th Anniversary Symposium was held in Washington D.C. at the National Spy Museum. The event provided an opportunity for the computing research community to come together and celebrate the impact that federal funding has had on computing technologies, innovations and the world at large. The day featured insightful remarks from key leaders in the community including Alondra Nelson (Deputy Assistant to the President Deputy Director for Science and Society White House Office of Science and Technology Policy), Barbara McQuiston (Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Research and Technology in the Department of Defense), Kamie Roberts (Director of the National Coordination Office for the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program), Sethuraman (“Panch“) Panchanathan (Director of the National Science Foundation), Erwin Gianchandani (NSF) and the Computing Community Consortium’s Chair Elizabeth Bradley.", "coverimage": "https://www.nitrd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/30th-summary-post.png", "organization": "Computing Community Consortium (CCC); NITRD National Coordination Office (NCO)", "topic": "networking; information technology", "year": "2022" } ] }