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Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

  • President’s Science School Visit Catalyzes Positive Reaction

    Posted by Susan Yoder on February 22, 2011 at 6:08 PM EDT

    Last week I was honored to have President Obama visit my science classroom at Parkville Middle School in Baltimore County, Maryland.  It was quite a thrill for my students and me to have the President view their projects and highlight our program as a way to illustrate his goals for education.

    Parkville’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)-focused magnet program strives to provide hands-on, real world experiences to our students in order to apply math and science concepts.  We believe that through rigorous and creative instruction students become better prepared to go out into the world and more attuned to where their particular interests lie.  By experiencing each discipline offered through our magnet program in the 6th grade, students can make informed decisions about their future coursework in the 7th and 8th grades.  Through this approach, students choose their specialties, and as the President mentioned in his speech, engineering is Parkville’s most popular discipline.  This may surprise many Americans, as our Nation is falling behind other countries in terms of awarding advanced science and engineering degrees.  However, we here at Parkville see firsthand the value of exposing students to STEM at an early stage, which gives them the platform to succeed in those fields.  We are not only preparing them for jobs and careers in the 21st century, but we are also aiming to provide them with a lifelong passion for learning and discovery—which is essential for our country to innovate and compete.  

    Our students have the potential to lead our Nation back to the top in terms of competitiveness and innovation, but it is the responsibility of educators and parents to open the doors of success and help them step through.  Investing in STEM education in particular is important to ensure our country can succeed in the 21st century, and that starts in classrooms at Parkville and around the Nation.  Our students don’t just learn about STEM concepts; they apply them by designing their own roller coasters to demonstrate the laws of physics and taking water samples from nearby Chesapeake Bay tributaries to practice environmental science.   We provide a challenging, fulfilling, and creative environment for our students.

    I love my career. I wake up every day excited to go to school and teach our students.  Every teacher at Parkville is committed to providing our students the best education.  We can do that thanks to the support of our administrators and the flexibility they provide us, enabling the use of innovative teaching methods.  President Obama’s proposals for investing in our students and teachers, such as Race to the Top and his goal to train 100,000 new STEM teachers over the next 10 years, carry this concept forward.  We must encourage individuals with a strong foundation in STEM to become teachers.  The President’s proposals recognize the importance of changing how we support teachers and how we view teaching as a valuable and worthwhile profession that is essential to our Nation’s success.

    All students deserve a challenging education as well as teachers that are knowledgeable and passionate about their fields. I appreciate President Obama’s recent visit, and his commitment to meeting these challenges—not only in Maryland but across the Nation.

    Susan Yoder is the Science 8 Gifted and Talented Environmental Science teacher and Science Department Chair at Parkville Middle School in Parkville, Maryland

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  • Lorain County Community College is Winning the Future for High-Growth Entrepreneurs

    Posted by Doug Rand on February 22, 2011 at 10:36 AM EDT

    Ed. Note: Watch the White House Winning the Future Forum on Small Business live starting at 11:35AM EST.  The President will give opening remarks at 11:35, CEA Chairman Austan Goolsbee will hold a special live discussion at 1:00, and the President will close with remarks on what he heard at 1:55.

    Northeast Ohio has staked its future on high-growth entrepreneurship.  That’s why today, President Obama is bringing five Cabinet secretaries and his top economic advisors to Cleveland for a White House Winning the Future Forum on Small Business.  In special sessions on high-growth entrepreneurship, access to capital, workforce development, boosting exports, and cleantech innovation, they’ll hear entrepreneurs from across the region address the real challenges and opportunities facing small and growing businesses every day. 

    One of these companies is ABSMaterials, based in Wooster, Ohio.  It developed and patented super-absorbent material called “Osorb” that soaks up organic contaminants like a sponge.  This innovative, reusable technology can help clean up oil spills, polluted waterways, and contaminated drinking water.  In just the last two years, ABSMaterials has brought this technology from a novel idea to a revenue-generating product.  The company has raised $3.5 million from private investors, and is creating jobs.

    The growth of ABSMaterials did not happen in a vacuum.  Northeast Ohio has spent well over a decade growing the kind of entrepreneurial ecosystem that allows innovative startups to thrive.  Some of the growth capital for ABSMaterials came from JumpStart, a regional economic development network that’s been so successful, it recently announced that it will be scaling the model across the country—a major private-sector commitment to U.S. entrepreneurship in response to the President’s Startup America call to action.

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  • Using Science to Accelerate Progress on Global Health

    Posted by Hillary Chen and Bobby Rosen on February 16, 2011 at 10:19 AM EDT

    Speaking at the National Institutes of Health yesterday, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Raj Shah delivered a compelling vision of global development: that we can accelerate progress on global health by harnessing science, technology, and innovation. 

    This vision builds on the science and technology theme in President Obama’s State of the Union Address and his 2012 Budget released Monday, both of which prioritize investments in innovation for domestic growth and security.

    The Administrator’s commitment to science, technology, and innovation as key drivers of development is also consistent with the President’s Global Development Policy, which emphasizes broad-based economic growth, democratic governance, game-changing innovations, and sustainable systems for meeting basic human needs. 

    There is a long history of innovation driving progress in developing and developed countries alike.  Consider the impacts of the steam engine, electricity, antibiotics, and more recently the Internet and cell phones, on human wellbeing and economic development.  Specifically in global health, previous U.S. Government investments in innovation have led to high-impact results: new vaccines and vaccine delivery devices, oral rehydration therapy, and distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets have all led to dramatic improvements in quality of life for people around the world.  And in addition to the human benefits, it’s important to note that these innovations have increased the efficiency of our investments by bringing greater results for each dollar spent.

    Administrator Shah described how innovation delivers more than just new technologies; it can bring new ways of doing business.  For example, the President’s Global Health Initiative is freeing up resources by integrating parallel systems of care—such as coupling HIV/AIDS treatment with maternal and child health services—to simultaneously cut costs and improve access to care.  Building on this approach, USAID is focusing on recent and emerging scientific, technical, and operational breakthroughs to bend the curve of global health progress in a number of areas: vaccine development and delivery, maternal and child health, malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and health systems. 

    It was no coincidence that Administrator Shah chose to bring his message to NIH staff.  Many of the breakthroughs USAID will rely on to improve global health will involve past or ongoing research by the NIH and other Federal science agencies. USAID’s CAPRISA 004 microbicide announcement, for example, involved an NIH-supported research facility.  Administrator Shah’s address—the first-ever given by a sitting USAID Administrator to NIH staff at-large—reinforced the importance and opportunity of connecting Federal research with real-time global development challenges and using America’s unique strengths in science, technology, and innovation to accelerate progress toward practical solutions around the world. 

    USAID’s commitment to science, technology, and innovation as a cost-effective path to accelerate progress in global health is supported by history and leverages one of the core strengths of the United States.  Kudos to Administrator Shah and his staff at USAID for their leadership on this issue.

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  • “R&D Dashboard” Makes Federal R&D Data Transparent and Accessible

    Posted by Kei Koizumi on February 10, 2011 at 6:40 PM EDT

    OSTP is happy to announce the launch of the beta version of a new online tool that allows the public to track U.S. progress in innovation. The R&D Dashboard is a new website that helps users document and demonstrate the impacts of Federal investments in research and development (R&D).

    The R&D Dashboard beta website provides a look at U.S. Federal Investments in R&D from two agencies over a decade—the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation(NSF)—from 2000 to 2009. These two science agencies play a significant role in funding basic research in the United States; more than 80 percent of the Federal government’s support of university-based research, for example, comes from these two agencies. The R&D Dashboard will expand in a future iteration to include more varieties of Federal R&D investments and information on their outputs.

    How does the Dashboard work? In short, it presents data on Federal R&D awards to research institutions and links those inputs to outputs—specifically publications, patent applications, and patents produced by researchers funded by those investments. Adding to its usefulness, the site can sort investments at the state, congressional district, and research-institution levels. And because the site can deduce from scientific abstracts and other available documents what scientific topics are covered by particular outputs such as publications or patents, users can focus on particular topic areas of interest to them within institutional, congressional district, or state levels.

    This means that you can now start to see some of the ways Federal R&D investments in NIH and NSF have contributed to your community, your university, or your state; you can see which research institutions in your state have been successful in winning NSF or NIH awards; you can see, for the first time, the topics or scientific fields Federal agencies are supporting with their awards, with research abstracts just a click away; you can see the patents or patent applications resulting from Federal R&D awards by company, by topic area, and by location, with patent details just a click away; and you can see the research papers resulting from Federal R&D awards, again by topic area and location.

    In fact, with this new R&D Dashboard, we can see the answers to all sorts of questions: Which institutions in my state are performing Federally funded research? In what fields of science does my community excel? Are companies or universities in my community taking advantage of federally funded research to apply for patents to build new companies? Where are the ‘hot spots’ for robotics, for example, or optical lasers, or advanced textiles resulting from federally funded research? How are Federal research grants contributing to the scientific literature in my field of science? The R&D Dashboard, by linking Federal R&D investments to outputs and linking both to specific places in the United States, enables you to see the answers to questions that are relevant to you.

    This R&D Dashboard is brought to you under the auspices of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, through a hard-working team led by NSF staff in cooperation with the interagency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) National Coordination Office, and researchers funded by NSF's Science of Science & Innovation Policy program.The Dashboard utilizes publicly available data from Federal agencies, initially including the NSF), the NIH, and the Department of Commerce’s Patent and Trademark Office. It fulfills a key promise in the President’s 2011 Budget—and in OSTP’s Open Government Plan—to  improve the transparency and usability of Federal R&D data.

    So please check out the R&D Dashboard, play with its cool visualizations, map the impacts of Federal R&D investments in your community or in your area of interest, and provide us comments on how we can improve the Dashboard. This is a beta site, so we welcome feedback to improve how the R&D Dashboard works and to maximize the value it can provide to the public.

    Kei Koizumi is Assistant Director for Federal Research and Development at the Office of Science and Technology Policy

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  • Happy, Healthy Text4baby Turns One

    Posted by Phil Larson on February 8, 2011 at 5:57 PM EDT

    If you are pregnant or a new mom and haven’t heard of text4baby, it’s time you got to know a happy and healthy public-private partnership that is celebrating its first birthday this month.

    Launched on February 4, 2010, by U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, text4baby is a free text messaging service that delivers timely health information three times a week during pregnancy and through a baby’s first year.  Women can sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411.  In the year since its launch, 135,000 subscribers have signed up for the service and millions of text messages have been sent. More than 300 outreach partners, including national, state, business, academic, non-profit, and other groups, are helping to promote the service.

    Text4baby puts valuable health information directly into the hands of moms and moms-to-be all around the Nation.  With the help of this free and simple service, subscribers can learn new things specific to their stage of pregnancy or age of their baby, learn about medical and nutritional services they may not realize are available to them, and get reminders to make those prenatal appointments.

    As you can see in previous posts, text4baby has grown up fast and has a goal of reaching one million moms. It was also recognized by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as a winner of the Department’s new HHSInnovates award.

    Text4baby is a great example of the Federal government working as a convener to put together a broad, public-private partnership that includes government, corporations, academic institutions, professional associations, tribal agencies, and non-profit organizations. Together they offered up a novel service that provides a convenient, free tool empowering people to learn what they need to know and take charge of their health.

    For more information, visit text4baby.org.

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  • Celebrating Science, Technology, and Innovation: Nominate a Colleague Today!

    Posted by Mira Atanassova on February 8, 2011 at 1:03 PM EDT

    Recognize the contributions of your colleagues by submitting a nomination for the 2011 National Medal of Science or National Medal of Technology and Innovation.  Anyone can submit a nomination for these prestigious awards; please see the nomination information below. 

    The National Medal of Science, established in 1959, is the Nation’s highest honor for scientists and engineers. The Medal is given to individuals deserving of special recognition by reason of outstanding contributions to knowledge, or the total impact of their work, in the chemical, physical, biological, mathematical, engineering, or behavioral sciences. It is administered by the National Science Foundation and, to date, has been awarded to 468 individuals. An independent twelve-member presidentially appointed committee of scientists and engineers reviews nominations and makes its recommendations to the President, who selects the laureates. Nominations and three letters of support must be submitted via FastLane by March 31, 2011.

    The National Medal of Technology and Innovation, first awarded in 1985, is the Nation’s highest honor for technological achievement. The Medal is given to individuals, teams, companies, or divisions for their outstanding contributions to the Nation’s economic, environmental, and social well-being through the development and commercialization of technology products, processes, and concepts; technological innovation; and strengthening of the Nation’s technological workforce. An independent committee representing both private and public sectors evaluates the merits of all candidates nominated through an open, competitive solicitation process. The committee forwards its recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce, who makes recommendations to the President for final decision. Nominations and six letters of support must be submitted via electronic mail by March 31, 2011.

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