Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2023-26

Accelerate American Solar Innovation

Apply Now: $50K Cash Prize for 20 Winners Through the Ready! Contest

https://americanmadechallenges.org/challenges/solarprize/

The U.S. Department of Energy just announced the launch of the American-Made Solar Prize Round 7. This year, there’s a $4 million prize pool up for anyone with a creative solution for making solar more affordable, accessible, and efficient. Through three contests—Ready! Set! and Go!—competitors will receive increasing financial support and resources, with the goal of preparing their technology for commercialization.

Register for the information session on July 11 and follow the prize on HeroX for upcoming dates and deadlines.

NSF: Assessing and Predicting Technology Outcomes (APTO); Engineering of Biomedical Systems; Cyberinfrastructure Technology Acceleration Pathway (CITAP); Partnerships for Innovation (PFI)

NIH: BRAIN Initiative: Development and Validation of Novel Tools to Probe Cell-Specific and Circuit-Specific Processes in the Brain (R01)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Biological Technologies; CENTER OF EXCELLENCE (COE): Extreme Neuromorphic Materials and Computing

Department of Energy: Fiscal Year 2024 Distinguished Early Career Program; Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy Technologies With Untapped Potential 2023 (SCALEUP 2023)

National Endowment of Humanities: Humanities Connections; Climate Smart Humanities Organizations

Schumer says 'don't count Congress out' when it comes to regulating AI: Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Congress must play a central role in regulating artificial intelligence during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank on Wednesday, advocating for lawmakers to pursue a policy framework that addresses the safety concerns of consumers and industry while also “encouraging — not stifling — innovation.” According to Schumer, lawmakers must prioritize a regulatory approach that positions continued AI innovation as “our North Star,” while also recognizing that “if people don't think innovation can be done safely, that will slow AI's development and prevent us from moving forward.” Schumer said this entails balancing the potential harms of AI — which he said include “job displacement, misinformation, a new age of weaponry [and] the risk of being unable to manage this technology altogether” — with the impact that overly burdensome regulations can have on the broader tech sector. He noted, for instance, the inherent challenges in promoting transparency around how AI tools work, since lawmakers have to weigh concerns about the type of data being used and produced by these emerging technologies with the need to protect companies’ intellectual property.  But Schumer expressed optimism that lawmakers will be able to effectively address these issues on a bipartisan basis. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Microsoft looks to speed up materials science research with quantum-compatible system: As advances in quantum computing stand to impact a slew of technical industries, a new system unveiled by Microsoft aims to simplify researchers’ inquiries into materials science and the discovery of new molecules. Announced on Wednesday, the new Microsoft Azure Quantum Elements system is designed to support and mimic aspects of future quantum computing technologies, helping scientists comb through configurations of atoms that can form and build molecules that could become new materials or substances useful to society. This application for materials science research comes from a quantum computing system’s ability to rapidly process a high volume of data and perform complex calculations.  Microsoft’s new system aims to harness this ability and simplify the painstaking task of testing atom combinations that contribute to a useful molecule, a notoriously daunting task classical computing cannot handle. Predictions on when a viable quantum computer will be ready range anywhere from seven to 10 years, but the Microsoft product wants to prepare researchers for that future. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Tech panel champions near-term quantum efforts in must-pass defense bill: The House Armed Services Committee signed off on a series of tech-centric markups to the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act during a Wednesday hearing, notably including a provision that would fund the first quantum pilot program focusing on developing quantum-applied technologies that are near completion.

The proposed changes, drafted by the Armed Services’ Cyber, Information Technologies and Innovation subcommittee, were unanimously approved in a voice vote during the first markup hearing of the week.

Chief among the accepted suggestions was a new pilot program to help advance near-term quantum computing applied technologies. The Department of Defense and a new federally-funded research center would work with quantum technology industry partners to oversee the program’s projects. These entities together would need to create and submit a plan for the pilot’s operating methodology and then provide annual reports on the scope of work conducted within the pilot program. Qualifying near-term quantum applications must have a deadline of under a year, and include algorithms, supportive or enabling-technologies, annealing and gate systems — two different quantum computing models — and all qubit modalities. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

Question:       Can I generate budgets for multiple years from the Year-1 budget in Streamlyne?

Answer:         Yes! You only need to input the Year-1 budget and then click on the “generate all periods” button. Stremalyne will create budget sheets for the remaining periods. You can then go to “summary” under the budget tab to review budget sheets for all periods. You can also change specific budget items that you allocated in Year-1 but you do not want to continue them in the following periods.

More FAQs on Streamlyne: Please visit http://www.njit.edu/research/streamlyne/