NSF invests in reviewer development to advance innovation
10/12/2021
NSF invests in reviewer development to advance innovation
October 6, 2021
The U.S. National Science Foundation’s merit review process helps the agency identify high-quality proposals that merit NSF funding. This winter, the NSF Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) is expanding a pilot that trains experts who participate in NSF merit...
Read more on NSF.gov
NSF Statement on 2021 Nobel Laureates in Science
10/12/2021
NSF NEWS
NSF Statement on 2021 Nobel Laureates in Science
10/12/2021 09:00 AM EDT
This past week, the Nobel Assembly and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2021 Nobel Prize recipients. Among the prize recipients in physiology or medicine, physics, and economic sciences are researchers who have been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
"We extend our congratulations to all the recipients of this year's Nobel Prizes for their bold thinking and transformative discoveries," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "For 70 years, NSF's investments in exploratory research have expanded the frontiers of knowledge and technology and supported both foundational, curiosity-driven, discovery-oriented research and use-inspired, solutions-oriented work. The impact of our support is reflected by the 253 NSF-funded Nobel Prize winners. As we adapt to the nation's changing needs, NSF will always remain dedicated to our core mission of investing in the whole range of fundamental science and engineering and STEM education. As stewards of the public trust, we can help secure that future by supporting tomorrow's Nobel laureates today."
Below are this year's winners and a summary of their achievements as well as a description of the research NSF helped to support.
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
David Julius, University of California, San Francisco, and Ardem Patapoutian, Scripps Research of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, "for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch."
Understanding how organisms sense and respond to stimuli – specifically heat – is critical in harnessing these responses and mitigating them when needed, such as in the case of chronic pain. Gaining this knowledge requires fundamental research across different organisms that can lead to translational impacts in biotechnology and biomedicine. NSF is proud to have recognized the importance and potential power of David Julius' research with a Presidential Young Investigators award in 1990.
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics
Syukuro Manabe, Princeton University, and Klaus Hasselmann, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming," and Giorgio Parisi, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales."
Making sense of systems that function from randomness and disorder is not only a challenge, but also essential for understanding some of the most important phenomena of the world. Manabe developed the first-of-its-kind general circulation climate model that combined both oceanic and atmospheric processes that paved the way for the critical work of limiting the impact of human-caused climate change. NSF is proud to have supported Manabe's research on large-scale atmospheric circulation in the early 1980s through awards at Princeton University.
The 2021 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
David Card, University of California, Berkeley, “for his empirical contributions to labor economics;” and Joshua D. Angrist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Guido W. Imbens, Stanford University “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships”
Understanding the complex — and oftentimes counterintuitive — cause and effect relationships between changing aspects of our society and economy is a critical need for policy makers and other leaders. The collective discoveries of Card, Angrist and Imbens, along with contributions by Card’s colleague Alan Krueger who died in 2019, showed how cause and effect can be accurately determined when it is not feasible or ethical to conduct a controlled experiment. They used “natural experiments” — large-scale situations arising in real life — to precisely understand how one thing causes another, such as how income affects health, how wages affect unemployment and how investments in schools affect the future earnings of students. Their methods have been widely adopted and applied by researchers studying a range of important social and economic issues. NSF is proud to have supported all three winners and their groundbreaking work
Learn more about the history of NSF-supported Nobel laureates at nsf.gov.
See the full statement on nsf.gov.
For more National Science Foundation news, visit our news site.
NSF Merit Review Survey 2021
10/12/2021
M
Merit Review Survey October 12, 2021, View as a webpage
Dear colleagues,
Next week, recent NSF applicants and reviewers will be emailed a survey link to provide feedback on their experience with the merit review process. Eligible individuals will be those who have submitted and/or reviewed proposals between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2020. Results from this survey will help NSF understand critical elements of the merit review process, including perceptions of fairness, quality, satisfaction, and burden for individual directorates and NSF as a whole. In the past, survey findings led to improvements, such as revisions to reviewer training to enhance the quality of reviews used to make funding decisions.
If you have submitted or reviewed a proposal within the past two years, check your inbox on October 19 for your personal link to the survey. Your feedback is a crucial to the ongoing improvement of the merit review process. If you do not see the email in your inbox, check you spam folder. Please reach out to MeritReviewSurvey@nsf.gov with questions.
This survey is sponsored by the Office of Integrative Activities, and survey invitations will come from Insight Policy Research, an independent contractor conducting the survey. PI and reviewer participation is voluntary and confidential. This survey should take no more than 20 minutes.
Thank you!
Additional Resources
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Concise, factual summaries describing NSF at a Glance, By the Numbers, or other science topics, please visit this page.
What’s hot in science? Check out NSF research news for the day of Oct 07, 2021
10/12/2021
Thu, 07 Oct 2021
Are there disinfection byproducts in that cup of tea?
Surpassed only by water, tea is the second most consumed beverage worldwide
Surpassed only by water, tea is the second most consumed beverage worldwide. When boiled tap water is used to brew tea, residual chlorine in the water can react with tea compounds to form disinfection byproducts, or DBPs.
Now, ...
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Thu, 07 Oct 2021
Climate change may erode frogs' ability to withstand salt pollution
Spring in the Northeast US is now earlier
Climate change may erode frogs' ability to withstand road salt pollution, according to U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers at Binghamton University.
Driven by ...
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NSF Statement on 2021 Nobel Laureates in Science
10/12/2021
NSF Statement on 2021 Nobel Laureates in Science
10/12/2021 09:00 AM EDT
This past week, the Nobel Assembly and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2021 Nobel Prize recipients. Among the prize recipients in physiology or medicine, physics, and economic sciences are researchers who have been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
"We extend our congratulations to all the recipients of this year's Nobel Prizes for their bold thinking and transformative discoveries," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "For 70 years, NSF's ...More at https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=303657&WT.mc_id=USNSF_58&WT.mc_ev=click
This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.
Macrosystems Biology and NEON-Enabled Science (MSB-NES)
10/12/2021
Macrosystems Biology and NEON-Enabled Science (MSB-NES)
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Document Number: nsf22504
Public Comment:
This is an NSF Program Announcements and Information - Biology item.
NSF Invests in Designing Materials for the Future
10/12/2021
NSF Invests in Designing Materials for the Future
10/12/2021 11:51 AM EDT
The Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program is the primary means by which NSF actively contributes to the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) for Global Competitiveness. Since MGI’s inception in 2011, NSF and numerous other federal agencies have worked together through the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee for MGI to galvanize and support the diverse relevant research communities towards the goal of building a ...More at https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=303655&WT.mc_id=USNSF_61&WT.mc_ev=click
This is an NSF News - Math/Physical Sciences item.
National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes Accelerating: Research, Transforming Society, and Growing the American Workforce
10/13/2021
National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes Accelerating: Research, Transforming Society, and Growing the American Workforce
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This is an NSF Program Announcements and Information - Math/Physical Sciences item.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program
10/13/2021
Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program
Solicitation: NSF 20-559
Due Date: November 12, 2021
Institutional Limit: See Limit Summary
Limit Summary:
HBCU-UP Proposals:
An eligible institution can submit only one Implementation Project or ACE Implementation Project proposal per year. An institution may have only one active Implementation Project or ACE Implementation Project award. However, a new proposal can be submitted by an institution with an active project if that project is due to expire before new awards will be made. Also, an institution can be awarded, at most, three Implementation Projects and one ACE Implementation Project over time.
An eligible institution can submit only one Broadening Participation Research Center proposal and can have only one active center. The lead institution of the center proposal must have been awarded three rounds of an Implementation or ACE Implementation Project and must demonstrate the capacity to conduct broadening participation research.
An eligible institution can submit no more than two Broadening Participation Research proposals per year.
An eligible institution can submit no more than two Targeted Infusion Project proposals per year and can only have one active Targeted Infusion Project for any given department or unit.
An eligible institution can submit no more than two Research Initiation Award proposals per year.
Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowships
10/13/2021
Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowships
Solicitation: NSF 22-501
Due Date: January 06, 2022
Institutional Limit: See Limit Summary
Limit Summary:
Only individuals may submit proposals.
National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes
10/13/2021
Solicitation: NSF 22-502
Due Date: January 14, 2022
Institutional Limit: 2
Limit Summary:
An organization may submit no more than two preliminary proposals to this solicitation as lead institution. An organization may submit up to two full proposals that correspond to preliminary proposals reviewed under this solicitation. In the event that an organization exceeds these limits, preliminary proposals will be accepted based on earliest date and time of preliminary proposal submission, i.e., the first two preliminary proposals will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review. A full proposal that does not correspond to a preliminary proposal reviewed in this program will be returned without review.
ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions
10/13/2021
ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions
Solicitation: NSF 20-554
Due Date: November 03, 2021
Institutional Limit: See Limit Summary
Limit Summary:
Eligible IHEs can submit one proposal to IT-Preliminary, Adaptation, OR Catalyst. IHEs can also be a partner on one or more Partnership proposals.
Eligible Non-profit, non-academic organizations can submit one proposal to the Adaptation competition and be a partner on one or more Partnership proposals.
IHEs and non-profit, non-academic organizations may be partners on multiple ADVANCE Partnership proposals in the same competition but can be the lead organization only on one Partnership proposal in the same competition.
Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences
10/13/2021
Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Solicitation: NSF 22-503
Due Date: January 07, 2022
Institutional Limit: See Limit Summary
Limit Summary:
There are no restrictions or limits.
Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards
10/13/2021
Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards
Solicitation: NSF 21-628
Due Date: November 30, 2021
Institutional Limit: 2
Limit Summary:
No more than two proposals across both tracks may be submitted by any Lead institution.
What’s hot in science? Check out NSF research news for the day of Oct. 12, 2021
10/13/2021
Keep up with today’s research news from the U.S. National Science Foundation. This is a daily look at noteworthy scientific findings from researchers around the country.
Tue, 12 Oct 2021
Study finds increasing potential for toxic algal blooms in a warming Alaskan Arctic
Warming Arctic presents potential new threats to humans and marine wildlife
Changes in the northern Alaskan Arctic Ocean have reached a point at which a previously rare phenomenon -- widespread blooms of toxic algae -- could become more commonplace, potentially threatening a wide range of marine wildlife and the people who rely on local marine ...
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Tue, 12 Oct 2021
Scientists develop collagen scaffold materials for craniofacial bone and tissue repair
Researchers study the efficacy of bioengineered bone reconstruction materials
Repairing bone fractures and tissue injuries of the face and skull is challenging due to cell structure and bone shape. As a result, treating craniomaxillofacial trauma often involves biomaterials. ...
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Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates in Biological Sciences (RaMP)
10/13/2021
Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates in Biological Sciences (RaMP)
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Document Number: nsf22506
Public Comment:
This is an NSF Program Announcements and Information - Biology item.
Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards
10/13/2021
Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards
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This is an NSF Program Announcements and Information - Geosciences item.
Human Networks and Data Science (HNDS)
10/13/2021
Human Networks and Data Science (HNDS)
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This is an NSF Program Announcements and Information - Social/Behavioral Sciences item.
Check out the latest from NSF’s Science Matters blog
10/14/2021
SCIENCE MATTERS
sciencematters@nsf.gov
Check out the latest from NSF’s Science Matters blog.
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021
3 things learned from IceCube's first 10 years
Neutrinos are tiny, nearly massless elementary particles that rarely interact with normal matter. Billions pass through a square centimeter of Earth every second, but they are difficult to detect and study. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was built to study cosmic neutrinos and use them as an astronomical messenger: to tell researchers about the violent, chaotic environments in which they were created.
The ice-encased detector has given researchers new ways of looking at the cosmos. Here are three things scientists have learned from IceCube's first decade of science and a peek at what physicists hope to learn in the future.
What’s hot in science? Check out NSF research news for the day of Oct. 13, 2021
10/14/2021
Keep up with today’s research news from the U.S. National Science Foundation. This is a daily look at noteworthy scientific findings from researchers around the country.
Wed, 13 Oct 2021
Machine learning uncovers 'genes of importance' in agriculture
Approach using evolutionary principles identifies genes that enable plants to grow with less fertilize
Machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence used to detect patterns in data, can pinpoint "genes of importance" that help crops grow with less fertilizer, according to a U.S. ...
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Wed, 13 Oct 2021
The red planet's small size complicates its habitability
Mars' mass may explain its lack of water
U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers at ...
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Principles and Practice of Scalable Systems (PPoSS)
10/14/2021
Principles and Practice of Scalable Systems (PPoSS
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Document Number: nsf22507
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This is an NSF Program Announcements and Information - Computer/Information Sciences item.
CISE Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI)
10/14/2021
CISE Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI)
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This is an NSF Program Announcements and Information - Computer/Information Sciences item.
NSF Invests in Designing Materials for the Future
10/14/2021
NSF Invests in Designing Materials for the Future
10/13/2021 03:32 AM EDT
The Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program is the primary means by which NSF actively contributes to the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) for Global Competitiveness. Since MGI’s inception in 2011, NSF and numerous other federal agencies have worked together through the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee for MGI to galvanize and support the diverse relevant research communities towards the goal of building a ...More at https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=303675&WT.mc_id=USNSF_61&WT.mc_ev=click
This is an NSF News - Math/Physical Sciences item.
NSF CISE Newsletter: October 2021
10/14/2021
COMPUTER & INFORMATION
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Fast Links and Funding Opportunities
Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
Deadline: October 18-22, 2021
Reviewer signups also welcome.
Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE): Core Programs.
Deadlines:
Small projects - Anytime
Medium projects and OAC Core Projects - December 01-22, 2021
Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI)
Deadline: December 8, 2021
A Message from CISE Leadership
Dear CISE community,
First, I want to congratulate the winners of the 2021 Golden Goose Award for their work on automotive security! In 2010 and 2011, NSF-funded faculty members, Tadayoshi “Yoshi” Kohno and Stefan Savage worked with lead senior Ph.D. students, Stephen Checkoway and Karl Koscher and other researchers from the University of California San Diego and University of Washington to publish papers in which they demonstrated that internet-connected vehicles could have critical engine and braking functions overridden by a remote attacker using different wireless and digital techniques. Ten years later, this work is being recognized for its impact in how automakers and regulators are approaching automotive security. If you’re not familiar with it, the Golden Goose Award was created to recognize the impacts and benefits of federally-funded scientific research.
Next, I would like to congratulate the recent awardees of our NSF-funded projects, Harnessing the Data Revolution Institutes (HDRI) and CIVIC Innovation Challenge.
Last month, NSF announced a $75 million investment to establish five new HDRIs that bring together researchers from different fields to advance solutions in areas like medicine, autonomous driving, remote sensing -- just to name a few. We are excited to see how these investments continue to contribute to our Nation’s leadership in cutting-edge science and engineering.
Also last month, NSF, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced the Civic Innovation Challenge Stage 2 awardees. Seventeen teams are receiving up to $1 million to implement research-based pilot projects that address their community challenges over a one-year period. We are very proud of the winning teams and everyone who participated in this program. If you are interested in contributing your ideas, please visit the CIVIC Ideas Festival.
Before ending this letter, I want to share a good opportunity for all proposers and reviewers to provide feedback on our merit review process. In mid-October, NSF will be sending the 2021 Merit Review Survey to proposers and reviewers who have submitted and/or reviewed proposals between October 1, 2018, and September 30, 2020. I encourage you to participate -- your feedback is vital to our ongoing efforts to assess the merit review process.
Best,
Margaret Martonosi
NSF Assistant Director for CISE
Career Opportunities
CISE is looking to fill the following vacancies:
Division Director in the Computing and Communication Foundations Division. Deadline: October 20, 2021
Division Director in the Information and Intelligence Systems Division. Deadline: October 20, 2021
Interdisciplinary Program Director in the Computer and Network Systems Division – NeTS cluster. Deadline: October 25, 2021
Interdisciplinary Program Director in the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Deadline: November 5, 2021
Deputy Office Director in the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure. Deadline: December 4, 2021
Program Director in the Computing and Communication Foundations Division. Deadline: Open until filled
Multiple Program Director positions in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division. Deadline: Open until filled
Interdisciplinary Program Director in the Computer and Network Systems Division – all clusters. Deadline: Open until filled
News & Announcements
Data Science Corps Awards aim to develop workforce-ready data scientists
Photo Credit : NSF
NSF strives to engage the research community in the pursuit of fundamental research in data science and engineering, development of a cohesive, federated, national-scale approach to research data infrastructure, and the development of a 21st-century data-capable workforce.
Release of a blueprint for a National Strategic Computing Reserve that would mobilize computing resources in times of national crisis.
Photo Credit : NSF
This paper articulates a blueprint for a National Strategic Computing Reserve (NSCR) that could be accessed during any emergency.
For unvaccinated, reinfection by SARS-CoV-2 is likely, study finds
Photo Credit : NSF
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much uncertainty about how long immunity lasts after an unvaccinated person is infected with SARS-CoV-2. Now a team of scientists led by faculty at the Yale School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte have an answer: Strong protection following natural infection is short-lived.
Christopher Kanan earns NSF CAREER Award to develop brain-inspired artificial intelligence systems
Photo Credit : Rochester Institute of Technology
The National Science Foundation is giving a Rochester Institute of Technology professor an esteemed award to help him expand the capabilities of artificial intelligence systems using new brain-inspired methods.
CISE-funded project entitled, “2021: The Fast and the Curious,” awarded Golden Goose Award
Photo Credit : goldengooseaward.org
Led by Tadayoshi “Yoshi” Kohno and Stefan Savage along with lead senior PhD students Stephen Checkoway and Karl Koscher, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington proved that internet-connected vehicles could have their critical functions (including the engine, lights, and brakes) overridden by a remote attacker via a range of digital pathways. Their trailblazing work, published in a pair of landmark papers in 2010 and 2011, led to a revolution in how automakers, the federal government, and other stakeholders approached automotive security.
Get more NSF News
Events
October 15, 2021
Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) Program Webinar
November 8, 2021
Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science Virtual Office Hours
Program Spotlight
Harnessing the Data Revolution
In 2016, NSF unveiled a set of “Big Ideas,” 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering. The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering leadership by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research.
The Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea includes a $75 million investment to establish five new institutes to support convergence between science and engineering research communities, bringing together expertise in data science foundations, systems, applications and cyberinfrastructure. Together, these institutes will enable breakthroughs through collaborative, co-designed programs to formulate innovative data-intensive approaches for addressing critical national challenges.
A summary of each HDR institute award is provided below:
NSF Institute for a New Frontier of Biological Information Powered by Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning — Led by The Ohio State University, the institute will establish a new field of Imageomics, in which biologists utilize machine learning algorithms to analyze vast stores of existing image data, such as publicly funded digital collections from national centers, field stations, museums and individual laboratories.
NSF Institute for Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery — Led by the University of Washington, the institute aims to construct the knowledge essential for real-time applications of artificial intelligence in three fields of science: high energy physics, multi-messenger astrophysics and systems neuroscience.
NSF Institute for Harnessing Data and Model Revolution in the Polar Regions — Led by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the institute will serve as a research hub where experts in data science, Arctic and Antarctic science and cyberinfrastructure — from academia, government and private sectors — come together to address national priorities and challenges related to climate change, sea level rise and the rapidly changing Arctic.
NSF Institute for Data Driven Dynamical Design — Led by Colorado School of Mines, the institute aims to address the challenge of predicting dynamical processes in materials, including ion and molecular transport, catalytic pathways, and phase transformations in metamaterials, with a focus on discovering fundamentally new mechanisms and pathways.
NSF Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment, I-GUIDE — Led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the institute will create an integrative geospatial discovery environment that harnesses geospatial data to understand interconnected interactions across diverse socioeconomic-environmental systems — with a goal of enhancing community resilience and environmental sustainability.
For more information, view the Harnessing Data Revolution webpage here.
SciComm Corner: How CISE is Impacting Your Community
NSF Civic Innovation Challenge
For this month's SciComm Corner, we have decided to highlight three awardees of the Civic Innovation Challenge. The Civic Innovation Challenge is a multi-agency, federal government research and action competition that aims to fund ready-to-implement, research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact on community-identified priorities.
Privacy Enhanced Data-Driven Health Monitoring for Smart and Connected Senior Communities
Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
This project led by Emory University aims to build a multidisciplinary team, including academic researchers with complementary expertise (big data, privacy and security, machine learning, human-computer interaction, sociology, and mobile health) and community stakeholders (seniors, community service providers, healthcare providers, and government agencies), to develop and deploying a health monitoring system for senior communities.
In addition, the project includes a set of community engagement activities in order to develop a research agenda that can empower the senior communities to improve their health and well-being, and enable data-driven medical research that improves population health at large.
Improving Service Delivery for the Homeless with Analytics and Process Modeling
Source: Marcos Gasparutti/Flickr
A team of researchers at Bentley University is laying the groundwork for developing predictive models to improve social agencies work processes that benefit underserved populations – in particular the homeless population in Boston, Massachusetts. The planned integrative research of this project includes predictive modeling to assess the needs of the homeless guests to improve their match to the right services, and process modeling to improve triage work at homeless shelters. The project aims to improve data quality and completeness, and work processes at a homeless shelter.
Building Safe and Secure Communities through Real-Time Edge Video Analytics
Source: Adrian Levesque, Martins Innus and Adam Koniak, Center for Computational Research IBC Digital
With the new wave of growth in urban areas, ensuring public safety is an essential precursor toward “smart” cities and communities. This project, conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is developing a novel “intelligent” policing technology as a transformative solution to efficiently enhance law enforcement, while minimizing unnecessary interactions and maintaining resident privacy. This technology offers a network of smart cameras that do not require continuous monitoring, but instead are trained to generate alerts on the spot in real-time. Additionally, because these cameras are designed to identify behaviors and not identities, they can reduce biases, minimize false alarms, and protect personal privacy. By demonstrating the use of powerful emerging edge computing technologies, this project will highlight the applicability and adaptability of such technologies to tackle many community challenges and broader smart cities and cyber-physical systems (CPS) applications, including smart transportation and pedestrian safety.
Faces of CISE: Dr. Vishal Patel
Dr. Vishal Patel
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
Vishal M. Patel is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Johns Hopkins University, and recipient of NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, which recognizes early stage scholars with high levels of promise and excellence. Through the CAREER award, Dr. Patel and his team plan to develop data-driven, learning-based approaches for restoration and understanding of images degraded by atmospheric turbulence.
Leading to his CAREER award, Dr. Patel received multiple CISE awards including a 2016 Communication and Information Foundations grant for a project on visual recognition methods and techniques, a 2019 Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace award for research on biometrics systems and attacks, and a 2019 Robust Intelligence grant for work on domain shifts in machine learning – among several others. His awards trajectory is one of many examples of how CISE invests in scientist development pathways to build a strong and diverse computing and information science and engineering workforce.
“The NSF funds have allowed me to work on some exciting projects involving real-world applications and support graduate students. My research accomplishments would not have been possible without the NSF's support,” Patel said.
Prior to joining Hopkins, he was an A. Walter Tyson Assistant Professor in the Department of ECE at Rutgers University and a member of the research faculty at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2010.
Dr. Patel is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence Journal, Pattern Recognition Journal, and serves on the Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP) Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He served on the Information Forensics and Security (IFS) TC from January 2017 to December 2019. He also serves as the vice president of conferences for the IEEE Biometrics Council.
CISE Units
Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS)
CNS invents new computing and networking technologies, while ensuring their security and privacy, and finds new ways to make use of current technologies.
Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF)
CCF advances computing and communication theory, algorithms for computer and computational sciences and architecture and the design of computers and software.
Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)
IIS studies the interrelated roles of people, computers and information to increase the ability to understand data, as well as mimic the hallmarks of intelligence in computational systems.
Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC)
OAC supports and coordinates the development, acquisition and provision of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools and services essential to the advancement and transformation of Science and engineering.
Tribal Colleges and Universities Program
10/15/2021
Tribal Colleges and Universities Program
Solicitation: NSF 21-595
Due Date: December 01, 2021
Institutional Limit: See Limit Summary
Limit Summary:
Eligible institutions may submit only one TEA Center proposal per year but may receive and administer concurrent awards. Preparing for TCUP Implementation (Pre-TI) awards are designed to support TCUP development activities for TCUP-eligible institutions that have received no prior TCUP support, no TCUP support within the previous five years, or are embarking on a significantly novel STEM strategic plan. No other restrictions apply.
