FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Building it big in Texas: Community college program trains biotech workforce
A multi-faceted training program funded by the National Science Foundation prepares students from a variety of backgrounds for careers in biotechnology
November 20, 2013
Biotechnology companies such as Genentech, Ambion and Life Technologies rely on specially trained workers to keep their research and development (R&D) labs and their manufacturing processes running smoothly. Biotechnicians may grow cells for use in drug development, analyze DNA or monitor biofuel production. The unique equipment and techniques used in the biotech field has often required companies to provide on-the-job training to new employees.
However, an innovative center at the City College of San Francisco in California called Bio-Link has created a network of community college partners throughout the country that tailor their biotechnician training programs to the needs of local biotech industry. Students successfully completing these two-year programs can walk into a job ready to perform essential techniques and operate state-of-the-art equipment.
This approach is key to the success of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, now in its 20th year. The program funds community colleges, giving them a leadership role in strengthening the skills of STEM technicians. The community colleges work in partnership with universities, secondary schools, business and industry and government agencies to design and carry out model workforce development initiatives in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and aerospace, in addition to biotechnology.
Starting from scratch
Bio-Link first received funding from NSF in 1998 to create a structure to enhance and expand biotechnology technician programs throughout the nation. Principal investigator Elaine Johnson and her colleagues reached out to every community college in the country to find out whether they had a biotech program or were interested in starting one.
Although Texas's Austin Community College (ACC) didn't have a program, "We knew someone was in Austin with strong leadership skills and we could see a future in Texas for biotech," says Johnson, who sought input from her network to find the right person to develop the Texas program. That person was Linnea Fletcher. Fletcher started the biotechnology department at ACC and in 1999 became a key partner in the Bio-Link network.
The program offers a range of degrees and certificates for students from high school to college and beyond. Through a series of strategic partnerships with local biotech companies, school districts, the Texas state government and national biotech consortia, Fletcher has built a dynamic program that addresses student and teacher development as well as industry needs.
Because the education structure in Texas encourages collaboration, "Linnea is in a state where she can make a difference both locally and nationally," says Johnson, who notes that the foundation Fletcher laid "continues to be very important for all of us."
Fletcher's task at the outset was to develop a program that would become a model biotech training program. Initially, she designed and implemented a professional development program for high school teachers. With few resources to buy equipment, Fletcher ran some of the courses out of a friend's lab at the University of Texas at night. But grants from both NSF and the Texas Education Agency allowed her to enlist the help of area teachers and expand the program.
Together this group formed an advisory committee made up of academic and industry representatives that reviewed the course curriculum and made suggestions for keeping it current. They also initiated a summer institute so that undergraduates working toward education degrees could connect with novice and veteran teachers to improve both teaching and laboratory skills.
These original program components remain integral to ACC's biotech program, which now offers an associate's degree in biotechnology, a post-baccalaureate degree for students with bachelor's or advanced degrees and a certificate in biomanufacturing. Next fall, Fletcher will add an entry-level certificate that high school students can earn. Over the past 10 years, about 225 students have graduated from the program and roughly 10,000 students have taken the high school advanced biotech course.
Strengthening the workforce
As the ACC biotech program has grown, Fletcher has cultivated her relationships with local industry representatives as well as school districts. Through these connections, she has created a vibrant internship program that complements classroom and laboratory learning.
"This is a wonderful gateway into working with a company," says Michael Douglas, executive director of the Texas Life-Sciences Collaboration Center. He notes that companies benefit, too, because the internship offers an opportunity to see the students in action. In the three years since ACC Biotech began offering internships, all 20 of the students who participated were hired.
A skilled biotech workforce also becomes a drawing card for the state as it tries to recruit businesses from other geographic areas. Douglas says that recently a company from California committed to relocating in the Austin area because of the readily available pool of trained biotechnicians.
Two years ago, to expand its role within the business community, ACC Biotech established a contract research organization (CRO). Local companies can take advantage of ACC's specialized equipment and faculty expertise to fulfill their R&D needs.
"This is a win-win situation for everyone," says Sulatha Dawarakanath who directs the effort. With increased exposure among local firms, Dawarakanath says the CRO "has taken off." The CRO also offers students an additional opportunity for hands-on experience and interaction with industry.
Expanding the network
The ever-growing community of practice spawned by the ACC program allowed Fletcher to reach out to the state's six other community colleges. All of the biotech programs now follow the same skill standards and assessments and share curricula and equipment through their own network.
The next step is to "make these community colleges hubs for mentoring high school teachers," Fletcher says. Through a Texas Higher Education Coordinating grant, Fletcher and her colleagues are developing a Biotech Mentoring Network for that purpose. The mentoring component is crucial because three years ago, the state changed the status of the introduction to biotechnology course from an elective to one of the core courses students can take for science credit.
In the ACC mentor model, new teachers are paired with two mentors: One who has just finished the professional development program and a second who is several years removed from the training program. During the three-year collaboration the teachers share equipment, approaches to teaching and ways to master biotech lab techniques.
One teacher who has worked closely with the ACC program since its start is Jennifer Lazare. Now an ACC adjunct faculty member, Lazare first connected with the biotech program through a summer institute while in graduate school. For the last decade she's taught a dual-credit, advanced biotech course at Anderson High School in Austin.
Recently, with a Texas Education Agency grant Lazare and Angela Wheeler, a former high school teacher and now adjunct in the ACC Biotech program, developed an online Advanced Biotechnology Teacher certification system. The site provides training information as well as biotech lesson plans and other resources to teachers around the state. Lazare points out that her ACC connections provide access to many resources that enhance her approach to teaching, such as workshops, conferences and curriculum development opportunities.
Making a difference
Developing a robust, local biotech workforce has helped make the ACC Biotech program a highly regarded program. But Fletcher also likes to consider how the program makes a difference in her students' lives.
"For many of them, this is more than just biotech. You see that you can make a real difference in their lives and that you're giving them more than just a job. That's what gives you energy."
-- Susan Reiss, National Science Foundation
Showing posts with label TECHNOLOGY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TECHNOLOGY. Show all posts
Monday, November 25, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
LANL WARTIME DIVISION LEADER WILLIAM "DEEK" PARSONS FOCUS OF NEXT 7OTH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE
FROM: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Little Boy weaponeer William “Deak” Parsons, wartime Los Alamos division leader, focus of next 70th anniversary lecture
Former Laboratory historian Roger Meade to talk about life, career, contributions to Lab, the nation by “The Last Commodore”
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Aug. 8, 2013—Los Alamos National Laboratory historian emeritus Roger Meade talks about William S. “Deak” Parsons, one of wartime Los Alamos’ first division leaders and the contributions he made as an ordnance engineer to the success of the Lab — including his role as the Little Boy weaponeer — at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 14, at the Bradbury Science Museum. The talk is part of Los Alamos’ 70th anniversary lecture series.
Meade said Los Alamos’ first director, J. Robert Oppenheimer, described Parson’s work by saying, “I believe it is impossible to overestimate the value which Capt. Parsons has been to the project to which he is engaged, nor the loss we should have incurred without his services.”
Parsons, the leading military ordnance expert at the beginning of World War II, came to the Lab to oversee the engineering of Fat Man and Little Boy to be combat weapons. Parsons also served as one of the first two associate directors of the Laboratory. Meade also will discuss Parsons’ experience arming Little Boy aboard the Enola Gay.
Parsons also was instrumental in the first post-war atomic bomb test, as well as Operation Crossroads and the 1948 Sandstone tests. He served on the Department of Defense’s Military Liaison Committee and was Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. Parsons died in 1953.
Meade retired from the Lab in 2007 after working for 25 years as the Laboratory archivist historian. He is the co-author of “Critical Assembly,” a technical history of the Laboratory’s World War II years, and is presently working on a book-length study of atmospheric weapons testing.
Little Boy weaponeer William “Deak” Parsons, wartime Los Alamos division leader, focus of next 70th anniversary lecture
Former Laboratory historian Roger Meade to talk about life, career, contributions to Lab, the nation by “The Last Commodore”
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Aug. 8, 2013—Los Alamos National Laboratory historian emeritus Roger Meade talks about William S. “Deak” Parsons, one of wartime Los Alamos’ first division leaders and the contributions he made as an ordnance engineer to the success of the Lab — including his role as the Little Boy weaponeer — at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 14, at the Bradbury Science Museum. The talk is part of Los Alamos’ 70th anniversary lecture series.
Meade said Los Alamos’ first director, J. Robert Oppenheimer, described Parson’s work by saying, “I believe it is impossible to overestimate the value which Capt. Parsons has been to the project to which he is engaged, nor the loss we should have incurred without his services.”
Parsons, the leading military ordnance expert at the beginning of World War II, came to the Lab to oversee the engineering of Fat Man and Little Boy to be combat weapons. Parsons also served as one of the first two associate directors of the Laboratory. Meade also will discuss Parsons’ experience arming Little Boy aboard the Enola Gay.
Parsons also was instrumental in the first post-war atomic bomb test, as well as Operation Crossroads and the 1948 Sandstone tests. He served on the Department of Defense’s Military Liaison Committee and was Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. Parsons died in 1953.
Meade retired from the Lab in 2007 after working for 25 years as the Laboratory archivist historian. He is the co-author of “Critical Assembly,” a technical history of the Laboratory’s World War II years, and is presently working on a book-length study of atmospheric weapons testing.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
RESEARCHERS DEVELOP IMPROVED BOOTS FOR MOUNTAIN MILITARY MISSIONS
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Face of Defense: Researchers Develop Better Mountain Combat Boot
By Bob Reinert
U.S. Army Garrison Natick
NATICK, Mass., June 21, 2013 - What it all comes down to is keeping soldiers' minds on their missions in Afghanistan, rather than on their feet.
That's how Ben Cooper views the development of the Hot Weather Mountain Combat Boot, at the U.S. Army's Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center here.
Development of the new boot began in early 2011, and Cooper thought it was so important that he got permission to continue working on the boot after leaving the Footwear Performance Laboratory to become a senior materials engineer for the Air Force, still located at Natick.
"Ben was so involved in the early phases of this and had been really running this project superbly, I thought that it was a good idea that he was able to continue on this project," said Bob Hall, the current Army footwear engineer for the boot.
"Obviously, in these fiscal times, being able to join together and work toward a common goal for the warfighter and for our country, I think, is the most important thing," Cooper said. "My supervisors have been very supportive about me taking time to help out and support the Army with this effort, and we're all happy to do it.
"The Air Force has been a team player in this," he continued. "It's a sister service -- one team, one fight."
Cooper and Hall are working with Program Executive Office Soldier and Product Manager Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment to unveil phase two of the boot. Phase one -- a lighter, more breathable version of the popular Mountain Combat Boot -- has been issued to every soldier deploying to Afghanistan for the past year. As many as 200,000 pairs of the boots have been fielded with great success.
"[For] the amount of boots that are out there, we've had very, very few complaints," Hall said.
"Soldiers will give you honest feedback," Cooper said. "We haven't heard bad things. In this business, silence is a great thing."
Cooper pointed out that nothing like the HWMCB existed before soldiers in Afghanistan began asking for it two years ago.
"We were trying to develop and identify the salient characteristics of a Hot Weather Mountain Combat Boot," Cooper said. "Since it was a new item, it's not commercially available. We evaluated three different material solutions at that time from three different manufacturers."
Using soldier feedback from phase one, which included requests for more breathability, Cooper and Hall confidently strode into phase two.
"We cherry-picked the very best features on each of the boots, and we provided that feedback to industry," Cooper said. "They responded and provided new solutions, updated solutions."
Three new styles are now being evaluated at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., by units from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo. Each boot is nearly a half-pound lighter than the original mountain boot.
"Due to Afghanistan's unique climate and environment, they needed a boot that not only would provide them ankle stability and traction and durability, but they also needed greater breathability," Cooper said. "It's a balancing act. We were constantly walking that fine line. I think that we have worked with industry tirelessly on trying to make sure that we accomplish exactly what the warfighter wants and needs."
Industry made the boots more breathable by including moisture-wicking linings, perforating the leather, and inserting textiles wherever possible between the leather and rubber, without compromising stability.
"It took some creative approaches to be able to do that," Cooper said. "If you're kicking rocks, and you're crawling, and you're in the prone position, you need to be able to not have this thing rip."
Cooper will travel to Fort Irwin at the end of June with Chris King, of the Operational Forces Interface Group at Natick, to collect data from soldiers on the 285 pairs of boots that had been issued to them.
"We're going to go meet them as soon as they get out of the box at NTC," Cooper said. "I think the phase one boots were fairly well received. We would expect to find more positive feedback. We're hopeful that we're going in the right direction."
The goal is a technical specification for a boot that could be supplied by any manufacturer. When it's achieved, it will be because of the collaborative atmosphere at Natick, Cooper said.
"I can walk down the hall and speak with the foremost expert in [fire-resistant] clothing and apparel," he said. "I can walk down the other end of the hall and talk to the foremost expert in cold-weather equipment, in mountaineering gear, in footwear.
"I think that's just part of the culture that is here, and I'm proud to be a part of that," Cooper continued. "We were able to leverage all the resources that we have available to us."
Face of Defense: Researchers Develop Better Mountain Combat Boot
By Bob Reinert
U.S. Army Garrison Natick
NATICK, Mass., June 21, 2013 - What it all comes down to is keeping soldiers' minds on their missions in Afghanistan, rather than on their feet.
That's how Ben Cooper views the development of the Hot Weather Mountain Combat Boot, at the U.S. Army's Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center here.
Development of the new boot began in early 2011, and Cooper thought it was so important that he got permission to continue working on the boot after leaving the Footwear Performance Laboratory to become a senior materials engineer for the Air Force, still located at Natick.
"Ben was so involved in the early phases of this and had been really running this project superbly, I thought that it was a good idea that he was able to continue on this project," said Bob Hall, the current Army footwear engineer for the boot.
"Obviously, in these fiscal times, being able to join together and work toward a common goal for the warfighter and for our country, I think, is the most important thing," Cooper said. "My supervisors have been very supportive about me taking time to help out and support the Army with this effort, and we're all happy to do it.
"The Air Force has been a team player in this," he continued. "It's a sister service -- one team, one fight."
Cooper and Hall are working with Program Executive Office Soldier and Product Manager Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment to unveil phase two of the boot. Phase one -- a lighter, more breathable version of the popular Mountain Combat Boot -- has been issued to every soldier deploying to Afghanistan for the past year. As many as 200,000 pairs of the boots have been fielded with great success.
"[For] the amount of boots that are out there, we've had very, very few complaints," Hall said.
"Soldiers will give you honest feedback," Cooper said. "We haven't heard bad things. In this business, silence is a great thing."
Cooper pointed out that nothing like the HWMCB existed before soldiers in Afghanistan began asking for it two years ago.
"We were trying to develop and identify the salient characteristics of a Hot Weather Mountain Combat Boot," Cooper said. "Since it was a new item, it's not commercially available. We evaluated three different material solutions at that time from three different manufacturers."
Using soldier feedback from phase one, which included requests for more breathability, Cooper and Hall confidently strode into phase two.
"We cherry-picked the very best features on each of the boots, and we provided that feedback to industry," Cooper said. "They responded and provided new solutions, updated solutions."
Three new styles are now being evaluated at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., by units from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo. Each boot is nearly a half-pound lighter than the original mountain boot.
"Due to Afghanistan's unique climate and environment, they needed a boot that not only would provide them ankle stability and traction and durability, but they also needed greater breathability," Cooper said. "It's a balancing act. We were constantly walking that fine line. I think that we have worked with industry tirelessly on trying to make sure that we accomplish exactly what the warfighter wants and needs."
Industry made the boots more breathable by including moisture-wicking linings, perforating the leather, and inserting textiles wherever possible between the leather and rubber, without compromising stability.
"It took some creative approaches to be able to do that," Cooper said. "If you're kicking rocks, and you're crawling, and you're in the prone position, you need to be able to not have this thing rip."
Cooper will travel to Fort Irwin at the end of June with Chris King, of the Operational Forces Interface Group at Natick, to collect data from soldiers on the 285 pairs of boots that had been issued to them.
"We're going to go meet them as soon as they get out of the box at NTC," Cooper said. "I think the phase one boots were fairly well received. We would expect to find more positive feedback. We're hopeful that we're going in the right direction."
The goal is a technical specification for a boot that could be supplied by any manufacturer. When it's achieved, it will be because of the collaborative atmosphere at Natick, Cooper said.
"I can walk down the hall and speak with the foremost expert in [fire-resistant] clothing and apparel," he said. "I can walk down the other end of the hall and talk to the foremost expert in cold-weather equipment, in mountaineering gear, in footwear.
"I think that's just part of the culture that is here, and I'm proud to be a part of that," Cooper continued. "We were able to leverage all the resources that we have available to us."
Sunday, June 23, 2013
FOE, FRIEND AND FRACTICIDE: THE BATTLEFIELD IDENTITY PROBLEM
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Most Complex Bold Quest Yet Focuses on 'Friend or Foe' ID
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2013 - Representatives from every U.S. military service and 10 other nations are wrapping up the final days of a coalition capability demonstration designed to increase combat effectiveness and interoperability while minimizing the risk of fratricide.
Bold Quest 13-1, which officially kicked off June 10 and concludes tomorrow, includes more than 1,300 participants from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as Germany, France, Italy and Norway, John Miller, joint operational manager for the exercise, told reporters today. In addition, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom have sent observers.
About half of the participants are at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., Miller explained during a teleconference from the exercise hub. Another roughly 700 service members are participating from bases along the U.S. East Coast and as far west as Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.
Bold Quest 13-1 is the 11th in the Bold Quest series, created in 2003 to provide realistic conditions for the services and international partners to test their combat identification systems and the techniques and procedures they use to engage them, Miller explained.
"That is really the essence of the whole effort: to create this complex operational environment that requires more than any one individual [entity] could do on their own," he said.
During 10 days of exercises and data collection, participants are putting to the test not only their different technologies, but also their tactics, techniques and procedures to ensure they're interoperable.
The premise, Miller explained, is that coalition members that operate together need to develop and test their capabilities together before they employ them in combat.
"Our assumption is that the user is going to use these systems in a coalition fight, which involves the U.S. services and [coalition] nations," he said, "so demonstrating that interoperability is key."
During Bold Quest, every service and participating nation brings its own technologies and objectives to the exercise. Bold Quest 13-1, for example, represents the first time the United States is using the demonstration to assess how new "identification friend or foe," or IFF, systems developed independently by the services work in a joint and combined environment.
Historically, Bold Quest has focused on ground-to-ground and air-to-ground initiatives, Miller said.
"The initiative brought to Bold Quest reflected current operations," he said, particularly real-world requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bold Quest 13-1 represents a new step in the exercise's 10-year evolution. Focused for the first time on the air-to-air and surface-to-air combat domains, it is helping to address gaps that could impact future operations, Miller said.
Eighteen months in the planning, Bold Quest 13-1 is the most ambitious every conducted. "There has been no event in our series history more complex than this one," Miller said.
That's largely because the entire exercise is live. With no virtual or simulation play, it is relying on ground assets, aircraft and, for the first time, two Navy ships to gather and share combat identification information. U.S Fleet Forces, recognizing the importance of the takeaways, is contributing USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and USS San Jacinto, a Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruiser, to the exercise, Miller said.
After 10 days of intensive flights and data-collection efforts to conclude tomorrow, evaluators will provided a detailed quantitative assessment.
The results could have an immediate impact on warfighters. For example, a new combat identification server demonstrated during Bold Quest 11 proved so effective that it was deployed to Afghanistan within months of the demonstration. The system collects and maintains the locations of U.S. and coalition forces in a single server that aircrews can access as they provide close-air support.
With the benefits of Bold Quest 13-1 yet to be fully determined, Miller said, the demonstration has had a tremendous training benefit for the participants.
"Bold Quest is not designed as a training exercise," he emphasized. "But because we set the conditions to be as operationally representative as we can, there is a natural opportunity [for participants] to actually train to do the things they would normally do in their warfighting mission." It's an opportunity, he noted, that many have not had in some time because of pressing operational demands and, more recently, budgetary constraints.
The pace of Bold Quest demonstrations is picking up, with the next one slated for September at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center in Indiana. Two more demonstrations are scheduled for the early months of fiscal year 2014.
Miller said enthusiasm for the exercise, particularly during a period of tough budget choices, reflects the effectiveness of Bold Quest in proving out technologies that will directly warfighting operations.
"This is about as good as it gets when you have participants here, working together as well as they are, committed to doing what they are doing and overcoming all the challenges," he said.
Most Complex Bold Quest Yet Focuses on 'Friend or Foe' ID
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2013 - Representatives from every U.S. military service and 10 other nations are wrapping up the final days of a coalition capability demonstration designed to increase combat effectiveness and interoperability while minimizing the risk of fratricide.
Bold Quest 13-1, which officially kicked off June 10 and concludes tomorrow, includes more than 1,300 participants from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as Germany, France, Italy and Norway, John Miller, joint operational manager for the exercise, told reporters today. In addition, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom have sent observers.
About half of the participants are at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., Miller explained during a teleconference from the exercise hub. Another roughly 700 service members are participating from bases along the U.S. East Coast and as far west as Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.
Bold Quest 13-1 is the 11th in the Bold Quest series, created in 2003 to provide realistic conditions for the services and international partners to test their combat identification systems and the techniques and procedures they use to engage them, Miller explained.
"That is really the essence of the whole effort: to create this complex operational environment that requires more than any one individual [entity] could do on their own," he said.
During 10 days of exercises and data collection, participants are putting to the test not only their different technologies, but also their tactics, techniques and procedures to ensure they're interoperable.
The premise, Miller explained, is that coalition members that operate together need to develop and test their capabilities together before they employ them in combat.
"Our assumption is that the user is going to use these systems in a coalition fight, which involves the U.S. services and [coalition] nations," he said, "so demonstrating that interoperability is key."
During Bold Quest, every service and participating nation brings its own technologies and objectives to the exercise. Bold Quest 13-1, for example, represents the first time the United States is using the demonstration to assess how new "identification friend or foe," or IFF, systems developed independently by the services work in a joint and combined environment.
Historically, Bold Quest has focused on ground-to-ground and air-to-ground initiatives, Miller said.
"The initiative brought to Bold Quest reflected current operations," he said, particularly real-world requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bold Quest 13-1 represents a new step in the exercise's 10-year evolution. Focused for the first time on the air-to-air and surface-to-air combat domains, it is helping to address gaps that could impact future operations, Miller said.
Eighteen months in the planning, Bold Quest 13-1 is the most ambitious every conducted. "There has been no event in our series history more complex than this one," Miller said.
That's largely because the entire exercise is live. With no virtual or simulation play, it is relying on ground assets, aircraft and, for the first time, two Navy ships to gather and share combat identification information. U.S Fleet Forces, recognizing the importance of the takeaways, is contributing USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and USS San Jacinto, a Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruiser, to the exercise, Miller said.
After 10 days of intensive flights and data-collection efforts to conclude tomorrow, evaluators will provided a detailed quantitative assessment.
The results could have an immediate impact on warfighters. For example, a new combat identification server demonstrated during Bold Quest 11 proved so effective that it was deployed to Afghanistan within months of the demonstration. The system collects and maintains the locations of U.S. and coalition forces in a single server that aircrews can access as they provide close-air support.
With the benefits of Bold Quest 13-1 yet to be fully determined, Miller said, the demonstration has had a tremendous training benefit for the participants.
"Bold Quest is not designed as a training exercise," he emphasized. "But because we set the conditions to be as operationally representative as we can, there is a natural opportunity [for participants] to actually train to do the things they would normally do in their warfighting mission." It's an opportunity, he noted, that many have not had in some time because of pressing operational demands and, more recently, budgetary constraints.
The pace of Bold Quest demonstrations is picking up, with the next one slated for September at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center in Indiana. Two more demonstrations are scheduled for the early months of fiscal year 2014.
Miller said enthusiasm for the exercise, particularly during a period of tough budget choices, reflects the effectiveness of Bold Quest in proving out technologies that will directly warfighting operations.
"This is about as good as it gets when you have participants here, working together as well as they are, committed to doing what they are doing and overcoming all the challenges," he said.
Friday, May 3, 2013
CFTC COMMISSIONER BART CHILTON'S STATEMENT ON REGULATING "CHETAH" TRADERS
"Meltdown Moments"
Statement of Commissioner Bart Chilton at the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee
April 30, 2013
Good morning. I want to thank you all for being here, particularly those of you who have been working so hard on this committee, especially Commissioner O’Malia.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but it seems like there’s some new glitch—some new meltdown moment in markets—for us to talk about every time we get together. This time we need only go back a week to just last Tuesday and the Hack Attack. This Hack Attack shows that despite the benefits of electronic trading and social media, putting the two ingredients together can make for a very sorry soup. As many times as these glitches recur, we need not blindly accept that the whiz bang machinery will always work as well as it should. On the contrary, we should open our eyes to the fact that technology has placed us, at times, in a perilous position with regard to financial markets.
It’s worrisome that markets could move so fast based on a hoax. It’s likely that high frequency traders made money on the way down and the way up but there undoubtedly were folks who got caught, lost money and then couldn’t get back in.
This only serves to underscore the importance of better regulation of cheetah traders. While I don’t believe we should be out to make these cats extinct, we need the regulatory tools to keep them in their cages when they go feral.
I want to be brief because I want your take on these topics, so I’ll stop there. Thanks again.
Statement of Commissioner Bart Chilton at the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee
April 30, 2013
Good morning. I want to thank you all for being here, particularly those of you who have been working so hard on this committee, especially Commissioner O’Malia.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but it seems like there’s some new glitch—some new meltdown moment in markets—for us to talk about every time we get together. This time we need only go back a week to just last Tuesday and the Hack Attack. This Hack Attack shows that despite the benefits of electronic trading and social media, putting the two ingredients together can make for a very sorry soup. As many times as these glitches recur, we need not blindly accept that the whiz bang machinery will always work as well as it should. On the contrary, we should open our eyes to the fact that technology has placed us, at times, in a perilous position with regard to financial markets.
It’s worrisome that markets could move so fast based on a hoax. It’s likely that high frequency traders made money on the way down and the way up but there undoubtedly were folks who got caught, lost money and then couldn’t get back in.
This only serves to underscore the importance of better regulation of cheetah traders. While I don’t believe we should be out to make these cats extinct, we need the regulatory tools to keep them in their cages when they go feral.
I want to be brief because I want your take on these topics, so I’ll stop there. Thanks again.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
U.S.-JAPAN MEET ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COOPERATION
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S.-Japan Joint High-Level Committee Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
April 30, 2013
Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ichita Yamamoto, Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, and Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology convened the twelfth Joint High-Level U.S.-Japan Committee (JHLC) meeting in Washington, DC, on April 30. Drawing on over twenty-five years of science cooperation under the U.S.-Japan Science and Technology Agreement, the JHLC provides a regular opportunity to exchange views on some of the most important science and technology endeavors in our countries, and to prioritize future collaboration.
The JHLC brought together representatives from a wide range of government agencies in both countries to discuss three key topics: research and researcher exchanges; risk communication and scientific analysis for policy decision-making; and leveraging science and technology for economic growth. Among the experts making presentations, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and Japan’s Cabinet Office discussed lessons learned in emergency management following Hurricane Sandy and the Great East Japan Earthquake. During the meeting, the U.S. Department of Energy and Japan’s MEXT signed an Implementing Arrangement on cooperation in research and development in energy and related fields.
At the JHLC, the United States and Japan reaffirmed the importance of human resource development and international research exchanges, and agreed to continue to enhance research cooperation and exchanges in science and technology. Both sides also endorsed several priority areas for continued research cooperation, including initiatives to enhance energy and natural resource research, develop supercomputing software, increase the use of big data to support disaster prevention and mitigation, and continue to work together to develop critical and advanced materials.
The JHLC participants also reaffirmed the benefit of industry-academia collaboration for innovation, and decided to explore possible cooperation through programs such as MEXT’s Center of Innovation Science and Technology based Radical Innovation (COI STREAM), MEXT’s Entrepreneurship Program, and the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps).
The United States and Japan also agreed to continue to advance robust collaboration in science and technology-related fields, including exchanging views on possible future partnerships to promote the use of scientific knowledge in policy decision-making and exploring mechanisms to address common challenges in the Asia region.
Following the morning government-to-government meeting, the U.S. Department of State and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted an Open Forum to extend the U.S.-Japan discussion to include participants from universities, think tanks, and the private sector. JHLC Open Forum participants noted the important societal benefits that accrue from cross-sectoral exchanges and emphasized the importance of continuing these kinds of dialogues.
U.S.-Japan Joint High-Level Committee Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
April 30, 2013
Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ichita Yamamoto, Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, and Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology convened the twelfth Joint High-Level U.S.-Japan Committee (JHLC) meeting in Washington, DC, on April 30. Drawing on over twenty-five years of science cooperation under the U.S.-Japan Science and Technology Agreement, the JHLC provides a regular opportunity to exchange views on some of the most important science and technology endeavors in our countries, and to prioritize future collaboration.
The JHLC brought together representatives from a wide range of government agencies in both countries to discuss three key topics: research and researcher exchanges; risk communication and scientific analysis for policy decision-making; and leveraging science and technology for economic growth. Among the experts making presentations, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and Japan’s Cabinet Office discussed lessons learned in emergency management following Hurricane Sandy and the Great East Japan Earthquake. During the meeting, the U.S. Department of Energy and Japan’s MEXT signed an Implementing Arrangement on cooperation in research and development in energy and related fields.
At the JHLC, the United States and Japan reaffirmed the importance of human resource development and international research exchanges, and agreed to continue to enhance research cooperation and exchanges in science and technology. Both sides also endorsed several priority areas for continued research cooperation, including initiatives to enhance energy and natural resource research, develop supercomputing software, increase the use of big data to support disaster prevention and mitigation, and continue to work together to develop critical and advanced materials.
The JHLC participants also reaffirmed the benefit of industry-academia collaboration for innovation, and decided to explore possible cooperation through programs such as MEXT’s Center of Innovation Science and Technology based Radical Innovation (COI STREAM), MEXT’s Entrepreneurship Program, and the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps).
The United States and Japan also agreed to continue to advance robust collaboration in science and technology-related fields, including exchanging views on possible future partnerships to promote the use of scientific knowledge in policy decision-making and exploring mechanisms to address common challenges in the Asia region.
Following the morning government-to-government meeting, the U.S. Department of State and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted an Open Forum to extend the U.S.-Japan discussion to include participants from universities, think tanks, and the private sector. JHLC Open Forum participants noted the important societal benefits that accrue from cross-sectoral exchanges and emphasized the importance of continuing these kinds of dialogues.
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