Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2022-21

2022 Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI) Summer Research Program

Undergraduate research provides students a unique opportunity to learn necessary and important skills to research and innovate towards taking a leadership role in the society. As a student-centered research institution, NJIT is committed to providing opportunities for research participation to all undergraduate students. This year, the URI Summer Research Program hosts about 150 undergraduate students from provost summer research fellowship, NSF REU sites, NSF iCorps and other research grants. The 2022 URI Summer Research Program events include:

• June 2, 2022: 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Room 116 Central King Building: Lab Safety Training

           Mitchell Gayer

• June 15, 2022: 11:00 – 1:00 PM, Ballroom A, Campus Center: Graduate Programs

            Sotorios Ziavras

• June 28, 2022: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Virtual via WebEx: Research Ethics  

          J. Britt Holbtook

• July 7, 2022: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM, Agile Strategies Lab (Central King Building): Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship      

           Atam Dhawan, William Lutz and Sanjiv Chokshi

• July 27-28, 2022: 8.30 AM – 4.30 PM, Ballrooms A & B, Campus Center: 2022 URI International Summer Research Symposium

Special thanks to all faculty advisors for supervising the undergraduate student researchers in their laboratories. Most of the Provost Research Fellowship recipient undergraduate students will host high school students who are accepted in the 2022 NJIT High School Summer Research Internship (HSSRI) internship program. If any faculty advising undergraduate or high school student has not yet contacted Kathleen O-Neill, Assistant Director, Research Operations in the Office of Research, please contact Kathleen immediately at ko86@njit.edu

NSF: Mathematical Sciences Research Experiences for Undergraduates Sites (DMS REU Sites); Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Initiation Initiative (CRII); Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI); Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure Incubators and Conferences for STEM Education Research with a Focus on Education Equity; Disaster Resilience Research Grants (DRRG); NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) Program; Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC); Partnership for Prototyping of CMOS+X Systems

NIH: BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19); NINDS Interdisciplinary Team Science Grant (RM1 Clinical Trial Optional); NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awards (R01); NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards (DP5 Clinical Trial Optional); NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program (DP1); NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program (DP2)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Defense Manufacturing Communities Support Program; DoD Vision, Investigator- Initiated Research Award; FY22 DEFENSE ESTABLISHED PROGRAM TO STIMULATE COMPETITIVE RESEARCH (DEPSCoR) – RESEARCH COLLABORATION (RC); DoD Multiple Sclerosis, Investigator-Initiated Research Award; Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Young Investigator Program

Department of Transportation: UTC Program Competition 2022-2026 Grants

Department of Agriculture: Higher Education Challenge Grants Program; FY 2022 Scientific Cooperation Research Program; Conservation Innovation Grants New Jersey State Program

Department of Labor: Growth Opportunities

Department of Commerce/EDA:  2022 Build to Scale Program; Ocean Exploration Fiscal Year 2023 Funding Opportunity; FY2021 to FY2023 NOAA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

EPA: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM

Department of Energy: Basic Energy Sciences - Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (BES-RENEW); Carbon Management

NASA: ROSES 2022: NASA Innovation Corps Pilot; ROSES 2022: Space Weather Centers of Excellence; ROSES 2022: Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Networks

National Endowment of Humanities: Public Humanities Projects; Summer Stipends

Private Foundations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Grant Challenges Partnership Network

HHS Establishes Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health: The Health and Human Services Department Thursday announced the formal launch of its Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H. ARPA-H will function as an independent entity within the National Institutions of Health, and will lead “high-risk, high-reward” biomedical and health investments, according to a notice set to publish Friday in the Federal Register.   Dr. Adam H. Russell, chief scientist at the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, was appointed ARPA-H’s deputy director Thursday by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in a separate announcement. The proposed mission of ARPA-H could be to make pivotal investments in break-through technologies and broadly applicable platforms, capabilities, resources, and solutions that have the potential to transform important areas of medicine and health for the benefit of all patients and that cannot readily be accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity. ARPA-H will:

• Speed application and implementation of health breakthroughs to serve all patients
• Foster breakthroughs across various levels — from the molecular to the societal 
• Build capabilities and platforms to revolutionize prevention, treatment, and cures in a range of diseases
• Support “use-driven” ideas focused on solving practical problems that advance equity and rapidly transform breakthroughs into tangible solutions for all patients.
• Focus on multiple time-limited projects with different approaches to achieve a quantifiable goal.
• Use a stage-gate process, with defined metrics, and inject accountability through meeting these metrics.
• Overcome market failures through critical solutions or incentives
• Use the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a model to establish a culture of championing innovative ideas in health and medicine.

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Federal Advisory Group Report Focuses On Diversifying AI Research and Development: The National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force released a fresh report on Wednesday that lays out a plan to develop a standardized cyberinfrastructure across the artificial intelligence research field in the hopes of fostering responsible AI applications. Equitable access to computational research data is a primary feature of the group’s report. Co-chairs of NAIRR discussed how researchers affiliated with wealthy private companies or universities with steady endowments have disproportionate access to the computational power and data to conduct advanced research. The interim report––the first of a two-report series––is composed of recommendations for federal agencies to reference when studying new AI technologies. Using the NAIRR’s proprietary user access portals, researchers would be able to have access to a diverse amount of computing resources, as well as connect users to the cloud and high performance computing servers. More information is posted on the NextGov website. 

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Energy Issues $40 Million to Provide STEM Training for Historically Underrepresented Groups: The Energy Department Wednesday announced $40 million in funding toward research opportunities to historically underrepresented groups in science, technology, education and math, or STEM, fields. The funding will be used by historically black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions and other select institutions in an effort to “diversify American leadership in the physical and climate sciences” through a variety of internships, training programs and mentorship opportunities, according to the Energy Department. The RENEW initiative aims to provide hands-on training opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty at institutions underrepresented by the nation’s science and tech ecosystem. It makes use, in part, of the Energy Department’s national labs, user facilities and other research infrastructure. Energy expects the funding to improve the talent pool for a variety of mission-critical positions at the department, including those in physics, physical sciences, chemistry, materials science, computer science, applied mathematics and environmental science. More information is posted on the NextGov website. 

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Energy Department Provides $53 Million in Funding for Climate Change Tech: The Department of Energy added to recent investments in clean energy Thursday, announcing $53 million in funding for small businesses pursuing cutting-edge technologies to address climate change. The funding is spread across 259 projects in 38 states and range from cybersecurity solutions, nanotechnology, renewable energy, energy storage, carbon capture, security and resilience and fusion energy. Energy’s push to provide investments in clean energy is part of President Joe Biden’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050. The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs will administer the funding. Historically, Energy awardees of similar grants have reported more than $1.7 billion in sales, according to the department. More information is posted on the NextGov website. 

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