Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 12 other international leaders officially launched the Equal Futures Partnership, a new multilateral initiative to break down barriers to women's political participation and economic opportunity.

For decades, entrepreneurs have used government data from Global Positioning Systems, weather monitoring stations, and other sources to power their products and services.

Brittany Wenger, 17, is the Google Science Fair 2012 Grand Prize Winner. She created a Global Neural Network Cloud Service for Breast Cancer detection, and attended the Equal Futures Partnership launch this week.

Today, on International Alzheimer's Action Day, we are recognizing the 5 million people who are living with Alzheimer’s disease and the 15 million families and friends who care for those individuals.

Today, four federal agencies announced $40 million in grants to university researchers across the country to advance the National Robotics Initiative, unveiled by President Obama at Carnegie Mellon University on June 24, 2011. The initiative, led by the National Science Foundation, is also supported by NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the United States Department of Agriculture. These agencies have also issued a new joint solicitation to fund an additional 25-40 awards.

Two years after the Obama Administration created Challenge.gov, the first online listing of incentive prizes offered or supported by Federal agencies, the innovative site has hit an impressive milestone: its 200th listing of a challenge in search of a solution by the American public.

The interactive web site for the PBS series “Design Squad Nation” took home an Emmy in June for “outstanding new approaches” in children’s daytime television. An extension into broadband media by the producers of the WGBH TV show, the website serves as a destination for creative ‘tweens and teens that encourages youth to “dream big,” be creative, solve problems and make things that help people.

Last night, the Senate advanced the cause of protecting Americans’ privacy and civil liberties by unanimously confirming four of the President’s five nominees to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB): Rachel Brand, Elisabeth Cook, Jim Dempsey, and Judge Patricia Wald.

President Obama is committed to raising America’s game in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. I recently spoke with Eric Schwarz, co-founder and CEO of Citizen Schools, and Leo Flanagan, principal of the Clarence Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, MA. Since 2006, Citizen Schools has partnered with the Edwards Middle School as an expanded learning time partner to lengthen the school day by three hours a day and bring in a hundreds of volunteers to teach apprenticeships.

Last Monday, at a Capitol Hill briefing co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Michael Bennet of Colorado, a panel of experts described some of the innovative learning technologies being brought to bear in public education and ways in which the Obama Administration’s proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Education (ARPA-ED) could speed the development and deployment of these valuable technologies.

Earlier this month, as part of the Education Data Initiative, a diverse set of educational technology experts and entrepreneurs joined staff from the White House and Department of Education to participate in an “Education Data Jam” at the George Washington School of Business. One of the goals of the half-day workshop was to brainstorm how open data might be used by entrepreneurs and innovators for new products, services, or apps that improve student outcomes or help families with college selection and affordability.

Today the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released its latest report, "Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth", which provides valuable insight on innovative ways to meet President Obama’s goal of maintaining and enhancing American leadership in cutting-edge wireless services — an important part of this Administration’s overall strategy to create jobs and increase growth.

Less than a year ago, the White House and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the launch of “Digital Promise,” a new national effort to accelerate innovation in education with technology. Yesterday, The Office of Science and Technology Policy joined superintendents from across the country in Digital Promise’s first Innovation Workshop, held in Washington D.C.

Today, the Obama Administration announced plans for a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Master Teacher Corps to recognize outstanding STEM educators across the country and improve our Nation’s STEM education as a whole.