|
Author Archives: Luanne Johnson
Workshop on Vertical Farming
We are happy to announce an NSF funded workshop on the Challenges in Vertical Farming,
Sep 26, 2012 at the University of Maryland Conference Center. Here is some motivation:
——-
By the year 2050, we expect human population to increase to 9 billion and to be
further concentrated in urban centers. An estimated billion hectares of new land
will be needed to grow enough food to feed the earth. At present, however, over
80% of the land suitable for raising crops is already in use. Further, if trends in
climate change persist, the amount of land available for farming will decrease.
Since crops consume 87% of all water used globally, an increase in water usage
is not possible. Finally, while the need is for 50% higher yield by the year 2050
to maintain the status quo, we expect agricultural productivity to decline significantly
across the world, especially in densely populated areas. There is an urgent need for
high-yield agriculture that decreases the use of water and carbon based inputs per
unit of product, while simultaneously reducing vulnerability of crops to natural
environmental conditions. Vertical Farming (using controlled environments for
urban agriculture) will reduce transportation energy required from the distant
outdoor farms. Recent implementations have shown high yields in the production
of vegetables in controlled environments. Water usage has been significantly
reduced compared to traditional outdoor farming, and crops are shielded from
adverse climate, and, from pests and diseases. In addition, Vertical Farming has
the potential to provide fresher and healthier produce to the local consumer.
Since no one community or technology holds the magic key, the opportunity for
is to collectively enumerate and prioritize the challenges that must be addressed to
bring high yield, resource efficient agriculture to fruition. The greatest contribution
from this workshop could be a roadmap for governmental agencies and researchers
to follow as they weigh their priorities in the coming years. Obviously the needs will
vary depending on the locale addressed– we expect that the needs for developing
countries will be different than those that are less resource constrained.
The goal of our workshop is to capture the state of the art in agriculture in controlled
environments, to define a research agenda for the future and to establish a working
group at the nexus of Agriculture, Engineering, Economics and Architecture. The
output of the workshop will be a report that could serve as the basis of research agenda
by agencies such as the NSF, USDA and USAID.
——
We have assembled a group of experts from around the world to address various aspects — horticulture,
lighting, irrigation, automation, architecture, economics and outreach– of vertical farming. More
information including the list of speakers, registration for attendance (in person or via live webcast) is
available at:
http://challengesinverticalfarming.org
Please feel free to forward this notice to those interested in participating in the workshop.
Organizers:
1. SANJIV SINGH (CARNEGIE MELLON)
2. DICKSON DESPOMMIER (COLUMBIA)
3. GENE GIACOMELLI (UNIV OF ARIZONA)
4. MARC VAN IERSEL (UNIV OF GEORGIA)
5. JOEY NORIKANE (FRAUNHOFER)
6. GEORGE KANTOR (CARNEGIE MELLON)
7. NIKOLAUS CORRELL (UNIV OF COLORADO)
8. MICHAEL HOADLEY
EU Newsbrief: New EU Strategy for International Science Cooperation
The European Commission has set out a new strategy for developing international cooperation in research and innovation with a particular focus on global challenges such as climate change, food security and fighting diseases.The new strategy will be mainly implemented through Horizon 2020, the EU’s funding program for research and innovation from 2014, as well as through joint initiatives with EU Member States. Multi-annual programs will be established for cooperating with key partner countries, including the United States. The strategy also calls for improving the policy dialogue with the EU’s partners, and sets out to improve information gathering as part of a proposed Research and Innovation Observatory.The European Union Ambassador to the United States, João Vale de Almeida, stressed that the new strategy is particularly important for science cooperation between the EU and the United States. “Our economic, research and innovation relationship is of vital importance and this strategy will further strengthen transatlantic cooperation,” he said. “We have some of the best researchers in the world on both sides of the Atlantic and it makes perfect sense to bring them together to tackle the common challenges that we face.”
Changes in Graduate Appt Tuition and Fee Remissions
The Coalition of Graduate Employees union (CGE) has negotiated changes to their collective bargaining agreement for 2012-16. It is expected that CGE members will vote to ratified the contract; however, the final vote will not take place until sometime in September 2012, which is after payroll runs. The University has entered into an agreement with CGE to move forward with fee remission and minimum salary levels, as retroactive increases are very difficult to administer.
OSU will remit a flat amount of $430 towards student fees. This is in addition to their tuition remission. This extra $430 will be charged to the dept. as part of the IGF Grad Fee Remission deduction. If this is the first term for the grad student, in addition to the $430, OSU will remit their matriculation fee of $300and in addition for a Non Resident Alien, they would also qualify for the International Orientation fee of $50.
Because not every graduate employee qualifies for these latter two fee remittances, they will run on a new, separate deduction code, IGM, Grad Matric/NRA Fee Remissions. This remittance will occur towards the end of the term but as it is brand new with Fall term, we are still working on the timing.
To offset the cost of the tuition remission, CGE agreed to rescind the quarterly payment of $300 for eligible graduate appointments during the academic year The earn code GDR is ended effective immediately. Thus you will see perhaps a reduction in payroll charged but an increase in OPE. Please share with your finance staff as well.
Thank-you
Steve Nash | Payroll Manager | Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97339-1086 | Phone: 541-737-9491 | Fax: 541-737-9490
Request for Proposals: Year Two of the Hybrid Course Development Pilot Program for Corvallis and Cascades Campus
Universities nationally have seen positive outcomes in student learning and success through the use of hybrid courses. A hybrid course by definition includes both regularly scheduled, on-site classroom meetings and significant online components that replace at least 40% of regularly scheduled class meeting time. This RFP is designed to explore the use of hybrid course structure to more fully meet the educational learning outcomes for both undergraduates and graduate students in 4XX/5XX courses.
The Graduate School is offering compensation and course development support to OSU faculty for the redesign of established classroom4xx/5xx-level “slash” courses into hybrid courses. Faculty participants will receive $3000 paid either as overload pay or professional development funding, will participate in a faculty learning community–facilitated by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)–on effective practices in hybrid course design, and will receive individual support from the CTL instructional designer as well as the Ecampus Program Development and Training Team. Details are provided below.
The new hybrid courses will serve on-site students, and they will adhere to the regular on-site (not Ecampus) tuition structure. It is anticipated that the new hybrid sections will replace the existing fully classroom-based section (for example, the new hybrid CH 427/527 would replace the existing classroom-based CH 427/527). Participation is limited to 6 faculty participants for the Winter 2013 term.
Graduate faculty approved to teach graduate courses and who have taught at least 2 years at OSU are eligible to participate. Faculty should submit hybrid course development proposals with a supporting message from the respective academic unit head.
Funding
The Graduate School will allocate $3000 per course to each participating faculty member who develops a hybrid course, paid either as overload pay or as professional development funds and as allowed by university policy. Overload pay will be subject to taxes and withholding. If multiple instructors work as a team to develop the hybrid course, the $3,000 stipend will be equally split among them.
These funds are in support of:
1 – Participation in the CTL faculty learning community focused on hybrid course development, approximately a 30-hour commitment. This group will have a blend of online activities and approximately five, two-hour face-to-face meetings on the Corvallis campus during the Winter 2013 term.
AND
2 – Providing course content and working with the CTL instructional designer and members of the Ecampus Program Development and Training Team to redesign and produce a new hybrid course.
The CTL, in collaboration with Ecampus, will provide basic course development and production support (instructional design and best practices, including accessibility and copyright; project management; media development; Blackboard course development, training, and on-going support). Training and support is available for all participants in Blackboard, multimedia, pedagogy for hybrid courses, and video production. Resources in Technology Across the Curriculum and Media Services will also be available to support the technology in the classroom component of hybrid courses.
Please note this program is explicitly for faculty who would like to redesign an existing classroom course as a hybrid during Winter 2013, not faculty who already intend to teach the course as a hybrid during Winter 2013.
Timeline
An initial meeting between the instructor and the instructional designer will occur in December, followed by hybrid course development—including participation in faculty learning community—during the Winter 2013 term. The hybrid course must be offered for the first time by Winter 2014.
Requirements
Instructor must fully participate in the “Hybrid Course Development” faculty learning community, including completion of all online activities and attendance at all scheduled face-to-face meetings. The meetings will be on Tuesdays from 2:00 to 3:50 pm in Milam 215 on Jan. 15 and 29, Feb. 12 and 26, and March 12.
Online portions of each hybrid course will be designed and delivered through the Blackboard course management system. Multimedia components may be included in course design as needed to meet specified learning objectives.
Instructors will work with the CTL instructional designer to redesign the hybrid course according to best practices in blended learning and OSU accreditation standards.
- Course can be readily redesigned for hybrid delivery without excessive development cost.
- Academic unit accepts responsibility for the curriculum and quality of instruction.
- Hybrid course will be offered at least once per year.
- Hybrid course will be available to all OSU students who meet prerequisites.
- Separate learning outcomes must be clearly stated for undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in the course.
- Instructor must demonstrate basic skills in computer use.
- For syllabus and online components of the hybrid course, instructor will follow OSU course quality standards as described in
o Ecampus Course Quality Standards –Sections 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0
o “Best Practices in Designing a Course” (see particularly 0.2, 0.2.1 and 0.2.2 under Course Planning and Design)
o OSU Curricular Policies and Procedures
and other research-based best practices for blended and online courses such as those of the 2011-2013 Quality Matters Rubric Standards.
- Any online content requiring Ecampus staff development time for graphics, animation or multimedia work must be delivered to Ecampus staff at least 6 weeks in advance of the term in which the course will be offered. Faculty should consult with Ecampus as soon as possible about any multimedia development to allow sufficient production time.
New hybrid courses must include both regularly scheduled, on-site classroom meetings for both undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in the class and significant online components that replace at least 40% of regularly scheduled class meeting time for students. So, for example, hybrid delivery of a 3-credit course that normally meets for two 80-minute periods each week might involve meeting face-to-face for one undergraduate weekly meeting and one graduate student weekly meeting each blended with online activities, assignments and assessments that require student engagement at a level equivalent to a full 3-credit course for each cohort.
Proposal Guidelines
Applicants are asked to submit a narrative proposal of 2 to 3 pages, which includes the following information in this order:
1. Course designator, title and credits.
2. Instructor’s contact information and rank.
3. Degree, program(s), or certificate to which this course would apply and the role/importance of this course to the program(s); and/or description of audience or express need for this course.
4. Is there currently a fully online (Ecampus) version of the course?
5. Typical enrollment in each section of the course, and total number of sections of the course offered per year.
6. Proposed terms to be taught as a hybrid course.
7. Instructor’s experience with Blackboard and online technologies. Both instructors without online teaching experience and veteran online instructors are encouraged to apply.
8. Instructor’s (or department chair’s) rationale for converting this specific course to hybrid delivery.
9. One paragraph of preliminary ideas for course design, learning materials and online resources upon which the course will be based.
10. One paragraph describing why instructor is interested in participation in this program.
11. Indication of academic unit’s approval for hybrid course development and ongoing offerings of hybrid course. This approval can be by separate email from head of academic unit.
12. Attach a current course syllabus to the proposal.
To Find Out More about Hybrid Courses and This Program
The Center for Teaching and Learning will offer an hour-long workshop about the hybrid pilot program–including tips for successful proposal preparation–and effective practices for hybrid course design on Thu., Oct. 11, 1:00 pm, in Milam 215. To register, go tohttp://calendar.oregonstate.edu/event/71815/. Additionally, the CTL has many resources about hybrid teaching and learning athttp://oregonstate.edu/ctl/hybrid-course-initiative.
Submission of Proposals
Submit proposals for the hybrid course development pilot program by email by Friday, Oct. 19, to:
Cub Kahn, Instructional Designer
Center for Teaching and Learning
323 Waldo Hall
Announcement of Award
Decisions will be announced by Nov. 5, 2012.
Upon acceptance, an MOU will be drawn up with the academic unit for course production, use of course and materials, control and credit, distribution of supporting funds, and course delivery. Funds will be sent to the academic unit by budget transfer upon satisfactory completion of hybrid course development and all program requirements.
Please address questions to Cub.Kahn@oregonstate.edu or call 7-2803.
Research Funding Opportunity: Michelson Prize & Grants
Grand Challenges Explorations, Round 10
Funding Opportunity
Sponsor: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Grand Challenges Explorations, Round 10
Amount: Up to $100,000
Deadline: Applications accepted until November 7, 2012 at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will accept grant proposals until November 7, 2012 for Grand Challenges Explorations Round 10, an initiative to encourage bold and innovative research on new global health solutions.
The topics for this round of the Grand Challenges Explorations in Global Health are:
- New Approaches in Model Systems, Diagnostics, and Drugs for Specific Neglected Tropical Diseases
- Labor Saving Innovations for Women Smallholder Farmers
- New Approaches for the Interrogation of Anti-malarial Compounds
- Aid is Working. Tell the World (Part 2)
Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million.
The Grand Challenges Explorations initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page applications and no preliminary data required. Applications are submitted online, and winning grants are chosen approximately five months from the submission deadline.
The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline, from student to tenured professor, and from any organization – colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies.
Following are some tips provided by the Gates Foundation for grant seekers wishing to submit proposals:
- Proposals must represent an innovative approach responsive to the topic. There are other avenues of funding for the equally important research that is within currently accepted paradigms. Such work will not be funded under Grand Challenges Explorations.
- Proposals will be reviewed by a panel with broad expertise and a track record in identifying innovations – these reviewers may not be deep domain experts in your field. Ideas should be described in clear language without the use of jargon unique to a particular field.
- Proof-of-concept for ideas need not be completed in Phase I. However, credible evidence supporting the validity of an idea, sufficient proof to warrant expanded support, and next steps for the project should be provided.
- Grant seekers must select only one of the topics under which to submit and may submit only one proposal. Submit your best idea. You may submit multiple ideas in partnership with collaborators, but an individual PI may lead the submission of only one proposal each round of Grand Challenges.
- You must select a topic prior to submitting a proposal. View the detailed topic descriptions and determine which topic best suits your idea. You may change your topic and edit your proposal any time before the application deadline.
A full description of the Grand Challenges Explorations initiative and application instructions is available at:
http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Pages/ApplicationInstructions.aspx.
If you have questions, contact Martha Coleman, Director of Principal Gifts for Foundation Relations at OSU Foundation by phone at 541-737-6961 or via email at Martha.coleman@oregonstate.edu.
2012 Pauling Symposium – Saturday, October 6, 2012 at UW
The 2012 Pauling Symposium & Banquet will be held on Saturday, October 6, 2012 on the campus of The University of Washington. The 2012 Medalist is Professor Robert J. Cava, Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University.
There is no charge or need to RSVP for the symposium. Attached is a flyer which contains contact information for the banquet ($).
Link to the event website: http://depts.washington.edu/chem/newsevents/pauling2012.html
While I will be addressing Professor Cava on Friday evening, I am unable to attend the symposium and banquet on Saturday. Please reply (not to all) if you are interested in having me book a van and recruit a driver.
2012 Pauling Symposium and Banquet
The 47th Annual Pauling Medal Award
Saturday, October 6, 2012
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Symposium
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Mary Gates Hall 389, Auditorium
1:00 pm – Welcoming Remarks
1:15 pm – Ram Seshadri, Professor, Materials Department, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara
“Solid state chemistry and reactivity of noble metal oxides: Pauling electronegativities and gold chemistry”
2:05 pm –Mas Subramanian, Milton Harris Professor of Material Science, Department of Chemistry, Oregon State University
“Beyond the Nature of the Chemical Bond: How close are we to ‘Functional Materials by Design’?”
2:50 pm – Break
3:20 pm – Susan Kauzlarich, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis
“Adding 3+ rare earths to transition metal Zintl phases and their resulting magnetic and thermoelectric properties”
4:05 pm – Introduction of Roberrt J. Cava
4:10 pm –Robert J. Cava, 2012 Pauling Award Winner, Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University
“A Molecule in a Metal – Dimer Formation in ThCr2Si2-type Pnictides”
Determining how crystal structure and chemical bonding influence the properties of solids is at the heart of collaborative research programs between solid state chemists and materials physicists. In some important electronic materials – the high temperature copper oxide superconductors and “colossal magnetoresistance” manganese oxides for example – stoichiometry, structure, bonding, and properties are coupled to yield an almost baffling complexity of chemistry-physics relationships, while in others, such as many classical intermetallic superconductors, bonding and structure play a much less profound role. In this talk I will describe some of our recent work on superconductor-related ThCr2Si2-type solid solution phases as examples of the kinds of insights that structural and chemical studies can contribute to understanding the electronic properties of materials.
5:00 pm – Final Remarks
Public Reception following the Symposium
Mary Gates 135, Commons
Banquet and Medal Presentation
Reservations/Tickets Required
6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Kane Hall 225, Walker-Ames Room
Symposium Chair:
Professor Jim Mayer, University of Washington
For more information, contact:
Diana Knight
206-543-1611
Behind the Screens
Popular Mechanics’ prediction took considerably more than 10 years to come true, but today’s flat-panel screens have gone well beyond that early vision. Some of them are nearly as big as a living room wall. They bring us unimaginably sharp detail, from the spots on butterfly wings to the grimace on a linebacker’s face.
This technology — whether hooked up to your cable feed, DVD player, wi-fi or computer — is also becoming integral to daily life. It increasingly provides the platforms on which we shop, share photos, read books, keep up with friends, play games, manage finances and work. In 2011, the global flat-panel screen industry shipped more than $120 billion worth of products, enough to cover nearly 16,000 football fields.
However, our love of flashy high-res has a dark side. Manufacturing the semiconductors behind these electronic systems produces waste, lots of it. “The electronics and solar industries build devices where the materials input is very high relative to what ends up in the product. There’s tremendous amounts of waste and very high energy input,” says Doug Keszler, Oregon State University chemist.
Keszler and a team of scientists and engineers at Oregon State and the University of Oregon are leading a national consortium bent on greening the flat-panel display industry. In their future, windows, mirrors, walls and counters could display messages and harvest solar energy. “We’re trying to turn this industry into a truly zero-waste proposition while improving performance,” says Keszler, a principal scientist in the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry (CSMC). “We’d like to do electronics the size of a wall. The question is: How do you do that efficiently without producing even more waste?”
Startups Provide Jobs
The CSMC has already produced significant results: a metal-insulator-metal diode (a kind of electronic switch) that outperforms the fastest silicon-based semiconductors; water-based manufacturing techniques that reduce waste and improve productivity; high-resolution fabrication processes that forge thinner electronic components. With research roots going back more than a decade at OSU and UO, the center has spun off two startup companies, generated more than a dozen U.S. patents and developed an educational partnership to inspire more Oregon high school students to attend college. It also helps graduates to create their own careers. In cooperation with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, CSMC students join business leaders in the chemical and electronics industries to identify commercial opportunities stemming from research.
“About two-thirds of all Ph.D. graduates in the physical sciences now find their first job in a startup company,” says Keszler. “There is very little education to prepare students for that career path. We train them to recognize market value in their research, so they can work effectively with entrepreneurs and business development people.”
Two startups have already hired the center’s graduates. Amorphyx (www.amorphyx.com) is commercializing a new electronics manufacturing process that limits the production of unwanted industrial byproducts. Moreover, it trims a six-part process to two steps, offering the possibility of tripling production capacity in an existing facility.
In collaboration with another spinoff, Inpria (www.inpria.com), the center has broken a barrier in high-resolution circuitry, going below the 20-nanometer scale and enabling computer chips to accommodate more functions at higher speeds.
These achievements reflect gains reported by Oregon State engineer John Wager, physicist Janet Tate, graduate student Randy Hoffman and other researchers as early as 2003. They noted that transparent thin-film transistors made of zinc oxide could lead to new kinds of liquid-crystal displays, the dominant type of flat-panel screen. In 2006, HP licensed the technology and has been developing applications in collaboration with OSU.
At UO in 2003, researchers in Darren Johnson’s chemistry lab discovered a solution-based process for making nanoclusters, leading to the possibility that new semiconductors could be made without hazardous chemicals. Jason Gatlin, the UO graduate student who discovered the process, instigated a new UO-OSU collaboration when he shared his findings at a conference sponsored by the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of science and seeing things no one has ever seen before,” says Keszler. “There’s a lot of joy in the intellectual exchanges in such a diverse group.”
To attract more young scientists to their journey, CSMC students will begin working with Hermiston High School teacher Lisa Frye and her chemistry classes this fall. They will provide support, advanced instruction and resources to inspire high-school students to consider careers in science.
“What we’re after over the next 10 years,” says Keszler, “is to put the (industrial) ecosystem together that allows you to print electronics on flexible glass. They will be high performance, durable, and include applications such as solar collectors.”
We’ve come a long way from the futuristic idea of hanging TV screens like paintings on the walls of our homes.
SRP Recognizes Carlos Monzano
Hello everyone – Please join me in congratulating Carlos Monzano, graduate student in Dr. Staci Simonich’s laboratory for being recognized by NIEHS on the SRP webpage for receiving the highly prestigious 2012 Student Paper Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS), which he presented during the 244th ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia. Carlos received the award for his research developing different gas chromatography (GC) techniques to separate and identify mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The announcement is located on the SRP homepage (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/srp/index.cfm) and the rest of the story is on the news page (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/srp/news/index.cfm).
Congratulations to Carlos and Staci!