Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2023-03

National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Chapter at NJIT Forum on

Sustainable Societies: Future Trends in Technology Innovation Partnerships

and

NJIT 2022 Research Institutes, Centers and Laboratory Showcase

March 30, 2023; 9.00 AM – 3.00 PM

Ballroom A/B and Gallery, Campus Center, NJIT

Abstract:

Recent changes in the world have been largely driven by technology innovations and partnerships creating new pathways for economic growth addressing grand challenges and impacting the way we live. It is evident that the vast knowledge-base and unprecedented investments in basic and applied research needs to be synergistically augmented by advancements in translational research, market validation and acceptance as well as smart manufacturing, and distribution management strategies where needed. Such synergies to bring global solutions to societal challenges essentially require technology innovation partnerships among research, industry, business, infrastructure, as well as government and non-government stakeholder communities.

The U.S. as the technology innovation leader in the world continues to focus on creating resources and synergies for developing sustainable societies towards healthier and prosperous communities with better quality of life.

The NJIT Research Showcase will feature:

1. Distinguished Keynote Talk by Graciela Narcho, Deputy Assistant Director of the NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships,
2. Distinguished Panel Discussion on Future Trends in Technology Innovation Partnerships, and
3. e-Poster sessions of research institutes, centers and specialized laboratories from leading universities in the region. The showcase will provide an open forum to discuss pathways for developing synergistic technology innovation partnerships among stakeholders to address global grand challenges in the areas of sustainable environment and climate change, preventive, personalized and precision healthcare, and data revolution with trustworthy information systems and secured cyberspace. 

Program Agenda

8.30 AM – 9.00 AM:       Registration, Breakfast and Electronic PPT Poster Set-up

9.00 AM – 10.00 AM:     NJIT-Rutgers-Princeton-Rowan Research Institutes, Centers and Laboratories Showcase: Electronic Poster Preview Session

10.00 AM – 11.00 AM:  Keynote Presentation: Technology and Innovation Partnerships Strategic Funding Initiatives at National Science Foundation

Distinguished Speaker: Graciela (Gracie) Narcho, Deputy Assistant Director of the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships

11.00 AM – 12.00 PM:   NJIT-Rutgers-Princeton-Rowan Research Institutes, Centers and Laboratories Showcase: Networking and Electronic Poster Session-1

12.00 PM – 12.30 PM:    Lunch and Networking

12.30 PM – 2.00 PM:      Distinguished Panel Discussion: Future Trends in Technology Innovation Partnerships

2.00 PM – 3.00 PM:        NJIT-Rutgers-Princeton-Rowan Research Institutes, Centers and Laboratories Showcase: Networking and Electronic Poster Session-2

 Distinguished Keynote Speaker: Biographical Sketches

Graciela (Gracie) Narcho: Graciela (Gracie) Narcho is the U.S. National Science Foundation's deputy assistant director of the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, or TIP. Narcho has been with NSF for nearly three decades, serving in a broad range of roles spanning the development of the TIP Directorate, grants and agreements oversight, program management, and diversity and inclusion efforts.

Narcho is known as a change agent for positive human capital reforms, business practice innovations, and NSF policy development. Together with colleagues across NSF, Narcho has helped develop and launch several NSF initiatives, including the industry-government partnerships for the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, the Global Environment for Networking Innovation, or GENI, the Computing Community Consortium, or CCC, and Computer and Information Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships, or CSGrad4US. As an NSF grants official, Narcho developed the funding arrangement for the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, the first NSF congressionally mandated, endowed, non-governmental, nonprofit foundation; and negotiated the first jointly-developed and funded government-industry Engineering Research Center.

In recent years, Narcho co-led the NSF partnerships working group, streamlining processes and procedures for NSF partnerships with industry, nonprofits, other federal agencies and international funding organizations. Narcho has also served in senior leadership roles within two NSF Directorates. In Computer and Information Science and Engineering, or CISE, she led the largest transformation of the workforce structure and responsibilities in CISE history, resulting in a more flexible workforce. As deputy division director and acting division director for the then-Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships within the NSF Directorate for Engineering, Narcho led policy development and programs that accelerate federally funded research into market opportunities. Under Narcho's leadership, NSF initiated a new pre-submission pitch process for small businesses, providing more immediate feedback to early-stage startups.

Narcho received her bachelor's degree in economics from Tufts University and a master's in public administration from George Washington University, with a concentration in procurement and contracting. 

NSF: Incorporating Human Behavior in Epidemiological Models (IHBEM); Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Organizational Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (STEM Ed OPRF); Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Individual Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (STEM Ed IPRF); Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Core Research (FW-HTF)Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP)Addressing Systems Challenges through Engineering Teams (ASCENT)

NIH: Programs for Inclusion and Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE) (R25); BRAIN Initiative: Transformative Brain Non-invasive Imaging Technology Development (UG3/UH3); Tools and resources to understand the vascular pathophysiology of in vivo neuroimaging findings in TBI-related dementia and/or VCID (U24)

Department of Energy: Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce for High Energy Physics (RENEW-HEP); Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Resources for Fusion Energy Sciences

National Endowment of Humanities: Awards for Faculty

White House Sets Definition for Open Science to ‘Galvanize’ Federal Efforts: The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Wednesday announced a series of actions to advance open science policies across the federal government in 2023, including crafting an official definition of open science for use across agencies.  The new definition, released by OSTP and the National Science and Technology Council, defines open science as “the principle and practice of making research products and processes available to all, while respecting diverse cultures, maintaining security and privacy, and fostering collaborations, reproducibility and equity.”  The White House said in an announcement that the new unified definition “will galvanize federal efforts, promote interagency collaboration and drive progress.”

As part of its focus on promoting open science policies across government, the White House and OSTP are also continuing to advance efforts to make federally-funded research free and accessible for public use. OSTP previously released a memo in August 2022 directing federal agencies to “update their public access policies” by Dec. 31, 2025, “to make publications and their supporting data resulting from federally funded research publicly accessible without an embargo on their free and public release.” Under the new policy, all federal agencies will be required to publicly release their findings, and agencies cannot impose the previously available 12-month embargo on the public release of their research.  The new guidance supersedes a 2013 OSTP memo that only directed agencies “with over $100 million in annual conduct of research and development expenditures to develop a plan to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the federal government,” and also allowed covered agencies to impose up to a year-long embargo on public access to their research. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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US and UK Hold First Comprehensive Dialogue on Technology and Data: The United States and the United Kingdom held their inaugural meeting for the U.S-U.K. Comprehensive Dialogue on Technology and Data on Thursday. The dialogue, which was first announced in October last year, focused on three areas: data; critical and emerging technologies; and secure and resilient digital infrastructure. Each nation was represented by two leading officials, namely: the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Analysis, Grant Harris; U.S. Department of State’s Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy, Nathaniel Fick; U.K. Department of Digital Culture, Media and Sport’s Director General for Digital and Media Policy, Susannah Storey; and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s Director of Technology & Analysis Directorate, Chris Jones. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Scientists Weigh in on the Ethics of Next-Generation AI: Artificial intelligence is a science that seems to have reached critical mass, with lots of new announcements and advancements hitting the news on a regular basis. Perhaps the biggest AI story over the past year was the release of the ChatGPT AI, which promises to revolutionize not only how AI is trained and operates, but also how this incredibly powerful science can be made available to anyone by simply asking it questions in plain language. I reviewed ChatGPT when it debuted, and found that it not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded my highest expectations, doing everything I asked of it, from programming in C++ to creating a cute bedtime story.

I also had some fun over the holidays with the image generation component of the AI—a program called DALL-E—and directed it to generate both cute and powerful images using nothing but my words and imagination. Both ChatGPT and DALL-E are free to experiment with, so give them a try if you have not yet done so. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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NSF launches prize challenge to develop innovative learning technologies for K-12 students: The U.S. National Science Foundation today launched a $6 million prize challenge to develop innovative learning technologies for K-12 students, made possible through a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and the Walton Family Foundation. The three-phase, one-year challenge, known as the Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning, or VITAL, Prize Challenge, will encourage interdisciplinary teams from the science and engineering research and startup or small-business communities to advance innovative concepts into prototypes for potentially game-changing learning technologies. Teams applying to the VITAL Prize Challenge will submit concept papers to one of three K-12 technology translation tracks, depending on the anticipated application, end user, and area of impact: Rapid and Continuous Learning Assessment; Mathematical Literacy to Promote a Future STEM Workforce; or Other Innovations in Translational Learning Technologies. More details can be found in the VITAL Dear Colleague Letter or on the VITAL Prize Challenge webpage.

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NSF and NobleReach Emerge partner on new effort to speed biotechnology development and translation: A new $5 million partnership between the U.S. National Science Foundation and NobleReach Emerge (formerly known as IQT Emerge) seeks to identify and accelerate the translation of NSF-funded research into biotechnologies and bio-inspired designs with commercial and societal impacts.  "Some estimates predict the biotechnology market will be worth around $3.44 trillion by 2030 — and already there are countless examples of NSF-funded research resulting in breakthrough products," said Simon Malcomber, acting assistant director for Biological Sciences at NSF. NobleReach Emerge will help researchers assess the potential paths to product development and the research team’s business fundamentals. Working with a team of experienced advisors at NobleReach Emerge, this tailored needs assessment will in turn be used to hire uniquely matched embedded entrepreneurs to help the research team address critical areas including product development, go-to-market strategy, pitch deck creation, and techno-economic analyses. For more information, please visit NSF website.

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