SSTI Digest

In celebration of National Manufacturing Day, the Obama Administration announced it will release a new competition to award more than $100 million to launch a new Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IMI) focused on Integrated Photonics. The proposed Integrated Photonics Institute will assist in developing an end-to-end photonics ‘ecosystem’ in the U.S. and support research and development efforts across the country on domestic foundry access, integrated design tools, automated packaging, assembly and test, and workforce development in the research area related to photonics. Administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the formal request for proposal (RFP) should be released in early November. The Department of Defense (DOD) will require a 1:1 match in private funds by the awardee – an over $200 million commitment from federal and private resources – making it the largest investment in an Institute for Manufacturing Innovation to date, according to the White House Fact Sheet. The Obama administration cites the complexity of this technology, its importance to national security, and its revolutionary potential as the reasons for this…

Each year, the first Friday in October marks Manufacturing Day, a quasi-holiday where manufacturers nationwide open their doors to host open houses, tours, workshops, and other events to educate the public on the current state of American manufacturing. Although the phrase “American manufacturing” may conjure up images of oversized equipment or Rust Belt decay, the industry is, by many accounts, thriving.  In dollar terms, U.S. manufacturing output is at record levels, worth more than $2 trillion, fueled by international demand for goods such as aircraft, electrical equipment, engines, metal products, and chemicals, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. And, for the first time in over a decade, both manufacturing output and employment are growing. This year, more than 1,600 manufacturers nationwide held activities in honor of the third-annual Manufacturing Day, an event organized by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with private sector partners. “Manufacturing Day provides manufacturers with the opportunity to address the…

After decades of seeing their suburbs thrive while their cores decayed, cities across the United States  are receiving a long overdue influx of talent and capital in what Alan Ehrenhalt describes as the “great inversion.” While a large proportion of wealth and population in many regions still lives in the suburbs, trends are shifting, and it’s not just anecdotal. Although the transformation of blighted buildings, the development of new rentals, and the appearance of boutiques and cafes littering sidewalks garners the most attention, there is a quantitative component as well. According to the Brookings Institution, core cities of the nation’s 51 largest metropolitan areas grew faster than their suburbs between July 2010-2011. And, among Millennials, those aged 18-36 years who make up a quarter of the country’s population, 62 percent indicate they prefer to live in mixed-use communities found in urban centers where they can be closer to the amenities the city has to offer, according to a Nielsen survey. Many cities, especially in their cores, are beginning to transform in ways besides their built environment, creating substantial, yet not…

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced four new Regional Innovation Clusters that will be included among its portfolio of high-performing regional networks. Awardee clusters will receive $500,000-$550,000 for mentoring, counseling, pitch development and other small business support programs.  The new members of SBA’s cluster portfolio include Milwaukee’s Water Technology Cluster, Southeastern New Mexico’s Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Cluster, a Retail, Supply Chain and Food Processing Cluster spanning the Ozarks region and a Marine Industries Cluster in several Gulf Coast states. The four awardees will join SBA’s current portfolio of seven regional clusters from around the country. The geographic scope of these clusters varies considerably, with one defense-focused cluster based entirely in San Diego County, and another Advanced Power Cluster with participants in 30 states. In addition to offering funding for cluster development, SBA has aggressively tracked the development of these clusters and the impact of various initiatives. A July 2014 report on the third year of the cluster program observed that all seven participants…

Although black women may show more interest in STEM majors than white women as they enter college, they are less likely to earn a degree in those fields according to new research in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. In “Ethnic Variation in Gender-STEM Stereotypes and STEM Participation: An Intersectional Approach,” the authors analyze data from more than 1.7 million college freshmen between 1990 and 1999, finding that both black women and black men initially say they planned to major in STEM fields at higher rates than their white counterparts. Although black women were twice as likely to declare a major in a STEM field, more white women graduate with STEM degrees, prompting the authors to suggest that black women may face “unique barriers” in their pursuit, such as race-based stereotypes.  The Chronicle of Higher Education, which summarizes the article, notes that more research is needed to identify precisely which “unique barriers” create obstacles for black women hoping to obtain degrees in STEM-related fields. Read the article…

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will award $450 million in job-driven training grants to nearly 270 community colleges across the country via the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) competitive grant program, which is co-administered by the DOL and Department of Education. The awards are to support community college-industry partnerships that will expand and improve education and career training programs offered at community colleges across the country. The intent of the program is to align community college degree programs with the needs of regional industry and help job seekers get the skills they need for in-demand jobs in industries such as information technology, cyber security, health care, energy, and advanced manufacturing. This round of TAACCCT grants will allow the 270 awardees to partner with more than 400 employers from across the county. Read the press release…

On September 28, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 850 into law, which establishes a pilot-program that will allow 15 of the state’s community colleges to launch low-cost bachelor’s degree programs in vocational fields of high demand by state industries. This bill makes California the 22nd state to offer state residents the opportunity to earn a low-cost bachelor’s degree at a local community college. Community colleges from across the state will compete for one of the 15 spots in the pilot program. The community college will need to propose one bachelor’s degree program that trains students for high-demand jobs that are not already offered through the University of California or California State University (CSU) systems. The programs will be a mixture of both traditional classroom and online courses. All 15 of the pilot degree programs will launch before the 2017-18 academic year with some launching as soon as fall of 2015. The pilot program is set to end in 2024. The program is intended to address two problems plaguing the California: The growing demand by industry for workers who hold a bachelor’s degree; and, The sky-…

New partnerships are needed between the IT community, government and institutions of higher learning to help bridge the American skills gap, according to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). In a letter to the president, PCAST notes that online solutions could provide people without secondary degrees with the training needed to fill high-demand IT jobs. Recognizing this need for accessible, lifelong learning resources, the Markle Foundation launched Rework America, a new $50 million effort to create online high-tech job training and entrepreneurship initiative. PCAST reports that the infusion of technology into the workplace has changed the nature of the skills needed to thrive in the new economy. A certain degree of savviness with information technology is necessary and must be kept up to date through access to training resources. In addition, there are many tech-related jobs in the economy that should not require a traditional secondary degree, but need to be filled by people with appropriate training provided by community colleges, vocational programs, certification-based training and the growing number of web-based educational…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced its first round of investments totaling $46 million under the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The $46 million will support more than 100 investigator-led research projects in 15 states and several countries to support the development of new tools and technologies to understand neural circuit function and capture a dynamic view of the brain in action. A “moon-shot” joint program between the several federal agencies including  NIH and National Science Foundation launched by the Obama administration (See related Digest article), the majority of the 1st round funding funding for the BRIAN initiative will be awarded to support research in five technical areas: Classifying the myriad cell types in the brain; Producing tools and techniques for analyzing brain cells and circuits; Creating next-generation human brain imaging technology; Developing methods for large-scale recordings of brain activity; and, Integrating experiments with theories and models to understand the functions of specific brain circuits. The BRAIN Initiative’s website provides a…

Within the past month, two of America’s major research universities – the University of California system (first in total R&D expenditures, according to the NSF) and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (eleventh in total R&D expenditures) announced new funds to increase the rate at which their students, faculties, and researchers are able to commercialize their ideas into new businesses. While the UC system announced the establishment of a $250 million venture fund, Minnesota announced that it was scrapping a plan for a $70 million investment fund and was pursuing programs that provide early stage seed funding instead. Universities are likely to continue to play a role in providing financial assistance as a means of commercializing university technologies; however, as can be seen in the Minnesota case and in several others throughout the country, a traditional venture capital fund is not the only method to do so. Seeded with money from the University of California endowment, the $250 million venture capital fund within the UC system will be one of the largest in the nation of its kind. The new funding entity, called UC Ventures, will focus…

Building stronger connections between universities and businesses in key industries could help generate new jobs, startups and technologies, according to an S&T roadmap released by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC). ISTC notes that the division between the state’s research universities and companies has limited Illinois’ competitiveness, despite its high overall level of innovative activity. In order to address the issue, the group recommends focusing on six high potential areas, as well as expanding statewide efforts to create university-industry partnerships, such as the Illinois Corporate-Startup Challenge. ISTC, with partners Elsevier, Ocean Tomo and Dr. C. Scott Dempwolf from the University of Maryland, approached the roadmap from both sides of the collaboration equation, examining the strength of research activities at the state’s universities and the cluster potential of local industries. The report includes a useful breakdown of the methodology, which specifically focused on identifying clusters with significant opportunity for academic-industry partnership. Their analysis produced a list of six high-potential technology…

Federal funding for basic research performed at universities and colleges decreased 0.3% between FY11 and FY12, according to a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Infobrief. In FY12, basic research at universities and colleges accounted for 11.4% of total R&D obligations, and is estimated to increase to 11.8 percent of total R&D obligations in FY13, and to 12.5 percent in FY14. Although colleges and universities accounted for just over one in $10 committed to total R&D, they received more than half of the $31 billion allocated to basic research. An SSTI Digest article earlier this month discussed federal commitments to research and development over the past decade. Almost all (98.3 percent) of the $15.4 federal basic research obligations to universities and colleges in FY12 was provided by five federal departments and agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) committed $9.2 billion (58.6 percent); NSF committed $3.8 billion (24.0 percent); the Department of Defense (DOD) committed $1.2 billion (7.6 percent); the Department of Energy (DOE) committed $0.7 billion (4.5 percent); and, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)…