The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) will host a webinar to discuss the emerging challenges and opportunities of human-centered artificial intelligence. Fei-Fei Li, the Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, and Timothy Persons, the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Government Accountability Office will present and take questions from the audience.
The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) released the Principles of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics for the Intelligence Community and the related Artificial Intelligence Ethics Framework for the Intelligence Community. These principles and framework, which the director of national intelligence (DNI) recently approved, will guide the IC’s ethical development and use of AI.
The IC leads in developing and using technology crucial to our national security mission, and we cannot do so without recognizing and acting on its ethical implications,” said DNI John Ratcliffe. “These principles and their accompanying framework will help guide our mission leads and data scientists as they implement technology to solve intelligence problems.”
According to a recent statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Principles represent the IC’s commitment to ensuring its use and implementation of AI respect the law, protect privacy and civil liberties, are transparent and accountable, remain objective and equitable, appropriately incorporate human judgment, are secure and resilient by design, and incorporate the best practices of the science and technology communities.
IC data scientists, privacy and civil liberties officers and other key stakeholders collaboratively developed the AI Ethics Framework to ensure the IC incorporates the Principles of AI Ethics into both the design and use of the technology. The Framework provides public insight into the factors the IC considers when deciding whether and how to use this technology to counter national security threats.
Technology transfer of federally funded research is key focus for Arch Street. As a result we are a regular participant in the Technology Transfer Society to better understand the latest innovations in the commercialization space. The DC Chapter will be holding a presentation on the seminal tech transfer legislation: the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. This law has played a transformational role in promoting the commercialization of federally funded research. The event will be held on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 12 PM. To register see: The Bayh-Dole Act’s Catalytic Contributions to America’s Innovation System
Arch Street is pleased to announce that is has been engaged by an R&D consortium of minority-serving institutions (MSI’s) and affiliated partners. The MSI STEM R&D Consortium (MSRDC) includes a range of public and private schools of higher education engaged in federally-sponsored research and development. Membership not limited to MSI’s — any U.S. university or private company may join the Consortium as a research collaborator. There is no cost to join. The Consortium was formed in 2010 and performs research for a variety of federal agencies through a unique funding vehicle that provides flexibility and agility for R&D program managers. Agencies that currently utilize the Consortium to support their research mission include the Departments of Defense, State, Energy, Transportation and Homeland Security.
Arch Street will help MSRDC further expand research opportunities for the Consortium in the federal space at various agencies and programs.
According to a recent post by Dr. Michael Lauer, Deputy Director for Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) the total appropriation for NIH in FY 2019 was $39.2 billion. Of that amount, $29.466 billion was awarded to 55,012 new and renewed meritorious extramural grants (excludes research and development contracts). This investment was up $2.354 billion from FY 2018 (8.68% increase), with 2,369 more grants funded (4.50% increase). 2,738 organizations received these awards—ranging from academic universities, hospitals, small businesses, and others—throughout the U.S. and internationally.
For more information see: NIH Extramural Nexus
The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) of the National Academies of Science and Engineering will hold a webinar on the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. The Consortium was established in March by U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the White House, in partnership with industry and academic leadership, to provide COVID-19 researchers with access to the world’s most powerful high-performance computing resources. These resources allow researchers to run very large numbers of calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics, and molecular modeling to advance the pace of scientific discovery to accelerate treatments and ultimately a cure.
The HPC Consortium currently includes 38 compute capacity donating members (11 companies, 11 universities, seven DOE National Labs, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and seven NSF-sponsored supercomputing centers), and six affiliates contributing donated software, services, and expertise. As of May 15, 2020, there were 51 active COVID-19 research projects, representing 47 institutions and seven nations over a broad range of fields including the basic science involving the virus, therapeutic development, and patients. There are over 21 projects with experimental, clinical, or policy transition plans.
The webinar will feature Dr. Dario Gil, Director of IBM Research and co-chair of the Consortium, member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and nominee to the National Science Board; and Michael Rosenfield, Vice President for Data Centric Solutions at IBM Research, who has played a leadership role in the creation and operation of the Consortium, to discuss the formation of the Consortium and the way it matches researchers to supercomputing capabilities.
Related Reading:
“Inside the Global Race to Fight COVID-19 Using the World’s Fastest Supercomputers” Scientific American, Apr 6, 2020
“Let’s Create an Elite Scientific Body to Advise on Global Catastrophes,” Scientific American, Apr 30, 2020
COVID 19 High Performance Computing Consortium | National Academies
Learn more about the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) solicitation (NSF 20-525) in an upcoming webinar on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, …
CAREER Program Webinar – May 13th
The National Science Foundation will hold a webinar on April 29, 2020 at 1 p.m. E.T. to review proposal preparation for the Generation-4 Engineering Research Centers (ERC) program. For registration see: Guidance for NSF Engineering Research Center Gen-4 Proposal Preparation (NSF 20-553)
NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) are highly competitive, flagship centers of research excellence. According to the NSF, ERC’s “promote partnerships among researchers in different disciplines and between industry and universities. They focus their research programs on transformational engineered systems and produce technological innovations that strengthen the competitive position of industry.”
ERC’s also play an important educational role linking high school learning to world-class research. ERCs. form pre-college partnerships to bring engineering knowledge to the classroom and stimulate interest in engineering careers. This integration of research and education creates an innovation ecosystem to produce ERC graduates who become leaders in technological innovation, and the ability to assume leadership roles in industry, academe, and government. ERC’s have produced a steady stream of advances in technology, enhanced the translation of technology to marketable products with tens of billions of dollars in market value, according to the NSF.
NSF Workshop to be held on the role of wireless & mobile systems in the face of COVID-19
— Read on sites.google.com/tamu.edu/nets-covid/second-call-to-arms-workshop
