Subscribe

Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

  • All Hands on Deck: Renewing the Call to Combat Human Trafficking

    Posted by Todd Park and Vivian Graubard on September 25, 2013 at 12:38 PM EDT

    One year ago today, President Obama announced the Administration’s commitment to lead the fight against human trafficking during a seminal speech at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. During his remarks, the President announced new initiatives from across the Administration to help redouble our efforts to combat trafficking both at home and abroad.   

    Over the past year, we’ve made great strides and increased our efforts in order to realize the President’s vision. However, we still have so much more to do.

    The President said in his remarks one year ago, “It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name – modern slavery.”

    In an effort to build on the work the Administration has done over the past year, and to renew the President’s call to action, today we are participating in a discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting on this issue and the Administration is announcing a series of new commitments to combat trafficking. Some of these new initiatives include:

    • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today is launching a national initiative to strengthen screening, increase training, and develop data-driven solutions for health care workers to better identify trafficking victims and provide appropriate assistance;
    • The Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council today are releasing a report  that summarizes existing research and evidence on the topic of child sex trafficking and recommends approaches for addressing these issues and guiding future studies in this field; 
    • The U.S. Department of State is hosting today in Cambodia the first in a series of anti-trafficking “TechCamps” to take place in locations around the world and designed to bring together expert technologists and civil society organizations that are working with victims on the ground to design low-cost, easy-to-implement tools to combat trafficking; and
    • Training programs are being introduced or expanded to strengthen awareness and response among law enforcement, industries including the travel industry and the global payment services industry, and government employees across various Federal agencies.

    read the rest
    Learn more about , Urban Policy

  • Building Equal Futures, Connecting Women and Girls to STEM Opportunities

    Posted by Katie Dowd and Kumar Garg on September 24, 2013 at 3:36 PM EDT

    Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the Equal Futures Partnership—a global collaboration aimed at advancing women’s and girls’ economic and political participation. The Partnership was launched on behalf of the United States by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Valerie Jarrett in September, 2012, in response to a call by President Obama challenging heads of state to break down barriers to the economic and political empowerment of women.

    For the United States, stepping up to this challenge has included important work to open doors to quality education and high-paying career opportunities for women and girls in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Since 2012, much progress has been made to advance women and girls in STEM and yesterday, new commitments were announced to advance the ball even further.

    Teaming up to help bring award-winning STEM education opportunities to girls across the country, Girls Inc. and Discovery Education are working together to provide girls access to Discovery Education’s STEM Camp – a dynamic series of STEM curricula built around the National Academy of Engineering's grand engineering challenges. This partnership will further Girls Inc.’s efforts to encourage girls’ participation and achievement in STEM fields. Additionally, this new effort will create opportunities for educators and mentors to participate in a series of Discovery Education professional development opportunities and receive training on best practices for implementing innovative STEM curricula.  

    read the rest
    Learn more about Education, Technology, Women

  • Expanding Access to Hands-On Science

    Posted by Tom Kalil on September 20, 2013 at 3:34 PM EDT

    OSTP_TeklaLabs_2013

    Dr. Lina Nilsson, Tekla Labs Cofounder. (Photo credit: Make Magazine)

    Recently, I interviewed Lina Nilsson, the co-founder of Tekla Labs, a non-profit organization committed to lowering the cost of biological research in developing countries and expanding access to hands-on science learning in schools and colleges.  Lina was recently named one of MIT Technology Review’s “35 Innovators under 35.”

    What motivated you to start Tekla Labs?

    After I finished my PhD, I traveled for a year across Asia and South America on a Bonderman Travel Fellowship, designed to allow recipients “to come to know the world in new ways.” It worked. While traveling, I visited different science labs. Some had very limited resources, which got me thinking about globally open access to physical tools and infrastructure. I see this as the new horizon for democratizing science, beyond open data and open knowledge movements (such as open access science journals).

    Furthermore, as a scientist, I am deeply motivated by enabling hands-on science teaching. To this end, Tekla Labs is beginning to work on collaborative projects with U.S. colleges and schools.

    read the rest
    Learn more about , Innovations, Technology

  • Mobilizing Cities to Support STEM

    Posted by Katie Dowd and Kumar Garg on September 18, 2013 at 5:47 PM EDT

    When students excel in math and science—when they see themselves as the builders, programmers, discoverers and inventors of our future—they help America compete for jobs and industries of the future.  To make that happen, it’s important to inspire more kids to get excited about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

    Recognizing that building awareness at the local level is critical to this effort, US2020, an independent initiative unveiled during this year’s White House Science Fair in support of the Administration’s Tech Inclusion efforts, has launched a competition that challenges cities across the country to use their convening power to bring together schools, non-profits, and private-sector and community leaders to spark mentoring movements within local communities.

    US2020 is a coalition of education nonprofits and U.S. technology companies that aims to make mentoring the new normal in the STEM professions, just as pro-bono work is common in the legal profession.  Specifically, participating companies are committing to have 20 percent of their STEM employees engage in at least 20 hours a year of mentoring or teaching by the year 2020, with the long-term goal of mobilizing 1 million STEM mentors annually by the year 2020.

    You can learn more here about the competition and the resources that US2020 aims to provide to participating cities.

    By providing mentors who can serve as positive role models, describe what it’s really like to work in science and technology, and help connect youth to internships and jobs, US2020 is just one promising outcome of this Administration’s call for an “all hands on deck” effort to spark kids’ imaginations so they see themselves as the inventors of our future.

    Learn more about White House initiatives in support of STEM education across the country, and get involved in building America’s future!

    Katie Dowd is Senior Advisor at OMB and Kumar Garg is Senior Advisor to the Deputy Director at OSTP

    Learn more about Technology

  • RFP-EZ 2.0: Expanding Opportunities for Small Businesses

    Posted by John Paul Farmer on September 18, 2013 at 3:35 PM EDT

    The RFP-EZ Marketplace is an online platform and built tools that make it easier for innovative small tech businesses to bid on government contracts, while also making it easier for federal agencies to identify the bids that offer the best value for taxpayers. RFP-EZ was launched by the U.S. Small Business Administration in January 2013 and was developed by the SBA and one of the inaugural Presidential Innovation Fellows teams.

    Before RFP-EZ was launched, most such Requests for Proposals contained highly specialized language that only seasoned government contractors understood.  By simplifying the language and streamlining the process, RFP-EZ has opened up the bidding process to hundreds of small businesses offering services at significantly lower prices.  RFP-EZ has yielded very promising results and is already saving taxpayer dollars, with prospects for even more savings going forward.

    Building on the early successes of the program, SBA recently announced that the new and improved RFP-EZ Marketplace is ready for business and another round of Federal procurement innovation is underway. The RFP-EZ Marketplace has been enhanced to include simplified bidding, simplified listings, and an expanded selection of opportunities such as web design, mobile application development, content management, and video production and transcription. Check out existing opportunities at https://rfpez.sba.gov/.

    Leveraging feedback we received from entrepreneurs and Federal contracting officers, the current class of Presidential Innovation Fellows will continue work to improve the platform, scale its initial results across the Federal Government, and add innovative new capabilities.

    If you’re interested in helping to move the ball forward on PIF projects, please get involved!  You can learn about current and future rounds of the PIF program at whitehouse.gov/innovationfellows, contribute code on GitHub, or visit Data.gov to help turn openly available government data into new products, services, and jobs.

    John Paul Farmer is a Senior Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

    Learn more about ,

  • Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Across the United States

    Posted by Ron Hewitt and Martha Benson on September 16, 2013 at 2:47 PM EDT

    Broadband access is essential to the Nation’s global competitiveness.  It drives job creation, promotes innovation, expands markets for American businesses, and supports improved education, health care, and public safety.  Today, however, too many areas still lack adequate access to this crucial resource.
     
    One way the Administration is working to bolster broadband deployment is by reducing barriers for companies to install broadband infrastructure on Federal properties and roads. The Federal Government owns or manages nearly 30 percent of all land in the United States, including 10,000 buildings nationwide. These properties can provide excellent pathways for deployment of broadband infrastructure. That’s why, last year, President Obama signed an Executive Order to make broadband construction projects along Federal roadways and properties cheaper and more efficient. 
     
    Today, we are announcing new steps to build on this progress, including the launch of several new tools and resources to help make it easier for companies to build out high-speed Internet, particularly in underserved communities, and the release of a progress report  on implementation of the President’s Executive Order. Both the tools and the report were developed by a Federal Working Group made up of 14 Federal agencies charged with managing Federal properties and roads. 
     
    Some of the tools and resources for broadband carriers released today, in response to recommendations from the Working Group, include:

    • An interactive mapping tool  that allows carriers and communities to view and identify opportunities to leverage Federal properties for the deployment of high-speed Internet networks. For example this map can help the wireless industry identify Federal rooftops where commercial antennas can be placed to support wireless networks. The national map includes data on broadband availability, environmental or historic information, property locations, and contact information so companies can easily obtain more information. The map was built with open government data, displayed in a new way to make it easier for carriers to take advantage of Federal assets in planning or expanding their networks. 

    Broadband Map of Federal Property

    This interactive map displays Federally owned buildings and lands, with point of contact information, where a commercial antenna installation might be sited. The map also contains several layers of data useful to broadband deployment. The map layers offers visibility into, for example, the location of National parks, protected wilderness areas, and lands of tribal significance. (Screenshot from 9/16/13)

    • A “Dig Once” guide,  which includes best practices and policies to help carriers time their broadband deployment activities to periods when streets are already under construction—an approach that can reduce network deployment costs along Federal roadways by up to 90 percent.

    • A new broadband inventory toolkit  that can serve as a one-stop shop for companies to access permitting forms, lease agreements, and other Federal broadband application documents from various agencies. This web page will make it easier for carriers to navigate the process for accessing Federal lands and properties, which can involve multiple Federal and state agencies that have their own processes for granting access to their assets.  In addition, the General Services Administration, as directed in the Executive Order, is working to implement common forms and templates across agencies, such as a single master application for deploying broadband on Federal properties, to provide multiple broadband service providers and public-safety entities with streamlined business documents for the deployment of wireline and wireless facilities on Federal property. Going forward, the Department of Agriculture is also working to develop an on-line electronic application form to further streamline the process.

    • In the coming weeks, we will also be launching an online broadband projects platform, located on the Department of Transportation’s Federal Infrastructure Projects Permitting Dashboard , which will allow agencies to identify and expedite key broadband projects and to publicly track their status.

    These are just a few examples of advances resulting from the Working Group’s efforts over the past year to identify challenges in deploying broadband infrastructure and develop solutions to improve the process. 
     
    While much work remains ahead, the Obama Administration is committed to continued collaboration across all levels of government and with the private sector and general public to help accelerate broadband deployment and drive meaningful community outcomes.  
     
    Ron Hewitt is the Director for the Office of Emergency Communications at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Martha Benson is the Public Buildings Service Assistant Commissioner at the General Services Administration’s Office of Real Property Asset Management. Ron Hewitt and Martha Benson are the Co-Chairs of the Broadband Deployment on Federal Property Working Group.
     

    Learn more about Technology