And the Winners Are...

Finally, there is a list of initial announcements for INSGC 2011-12 grant awards.  Your INSGC staff has been working on both the selection process, and the funding allocation process, to help identify a set of projects that are both of high quality and time sensitivity to make our first set of awards for this year.  As I indicated in a previous blog entry, this doesn't mean that this is all the awards of the year, or that we hated every other project.  This is our First Round of awards.  Our selection process has to speak to a representation of multiple consortium priorities and needs for our NASA portfolio, as well as a simple logistics issue--some of you need to get started right away.

If you ever hear people talk about football teams during draft time (and since the NFL Combine is held in Indianapolis, it's hard to get away from that), there's always a discussion of "draft to position" (pick the best one available within a previously defined area) and "best available athlete" (select an outstanding talent, even if you don't need someone in that area).  NASA's Education Outcomes and funding limitations mean that we sometimes draft to position more than I'd like--I remember one year when almost all of our graduate fellowship applicants were so outstanding, I thought I'd gotten confused with the faculty applicants.  We can't just fund PhD students, or astronomers, or people from a specific campus.  There's got to be variety and range across the various emphases of higher education, K-12 education, and informal education.

However, you should also see some important common threads in these awards.  Without question, our most significant commitment in terms of numbers is to undergraduate students.  (That's good--Space Grant is a Higher Education program, after all.)  Our initial scholarship awards to over 20 undergraduates are supplemented by the following projects which highlight undergraduate research:

• Bandla, Purdue WL: Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunity
• Edwards, Indiana U: Summer Scholars Institute
• Hrivnak / Kaitchuk, Ball State / VU: Undergraduate Astronomy Research
• MATE Team, Purdue WL: Undersea ROV Competition
• Rengstorf, Purdue Cal: Undergraduate Research Grants Program
• Sevener, Valparaiso:  Undergrad Research in High Temperature Materials
• Story, Purdue WL: Purdue Research Opportunities
• Takehara, Taylor:  TU Wind Turbines Model Testing

The following projects, while addressing faculty research interests, also have significant undergraduate components:

• Dick, Valparaiso:  Genetic components of circadian rhythms
• Ericson, IPFW: Metabolomics to improve health for long duration space flight
• Watters, Valparaiso: Filamentous fungi to convert waste into protein

I am also very pleased to see a continually increasing quality of K-12 projects, addressing both student experiences and teacher professional development activities.  The First Round awards for 2011-12 in these areas include:

• Abramowitz, Purdue Cal: Materials Camp for Teachers
• Groh, Purdue WL: Innovation to Reality (I2R) Afterschool STEM projects for Middle School
• Perry, IUPUI: Nanotechnology Summer Teacher Fellows Program

The following projects have combinations of research, undergraduate education, and K-12 outreach components that are somewhat like, and yet differently contributing to, other items in our portfolio.

• Barrington / Slavin, Ball State / Purdue Cal: Study of interacting spherical stellar systems
• Harvey, State Museum: Omniglobe software and content upgrades

 Not bad, for a start.

New Year's Day?

After our first week of real warm weather here in Indiana this spring, we at the INSGC Central Office are preparing for next year.  No, we're not talking about the return of snow and cold next December.  As you may recall, the new program year for INSGC, as established with our five-year award last July, begins on May 17.  Thus, we're in the process of sending out requests for end-of-year reporting for our 2010-11 projects, and making decisions for program awards for 2011-12.

NASA Headquarters is in the midst of providing its operating plan to Congress for the FY 2011 budget continuing resolution that was recently passed.  (I believe that this document is officially due later this spring.)  In addition, the Office of Education is reviewing its own activities and organizational requirements within that FY 2011 budget.  Thus, Space Grant Consortia nationwide are all waiting for notification of next year's base funds, as well as any augmentations that may be determined.  Not every Space Grant has the same "program anniversary," date, so even a check around the Big Ten or MAC conferences would indicate that other universities have already experienced, or not yet experienced, this end-of-year transition. All I know is that it's our turn now.

Despite this uncertainty, I am pleased to say that there are a number of extremely strong proposals that we are evaluating as our "first tier" funding priorities for 2011-12.  These funding priorities include summer programs and research activities, student internships at NASA Centers, INSGC Consortium priorities that are tied to summer activity, and outstanding scholarship and fellowship students.  One of the joys of INSGC is that we have a strong *portfolio* of projects that we support each year.  So, someone might ask us why this student didn't win a scholarship, or that project isn't being supported.  There are several factors that are involved, including (not in order of importance):

• Program and disciplinary variety and representation;
• Total cost and allocation of costs across budget categories;
• Representation of multiple INSGC Affiliates and affiliate types;
• Cost effectiveness and number of "persons touched" for project cost;
• Adherence to NASA priorities and constraints, including Office of Education Outcomes.

I believe you would agree that these are all important criteria, and in addition, I need to make sure that we manage our "debt" and "future projections" well.  (Some days, I feel like I'm turning into a Washington political economist.  Oh, that's right, Space Grant funds really do come directly from NASA, as part of the Federal Budget.)  I have been extremely proud of our ability to present and defend our selection of programs, and report on our outcomes and successes, over the past three years; it looks like we will be able to continue this pattern of success within the constraints of unknown amounts of money with unknown delivery for projects that can't wait.

So, bear with us.  We plan to provide a "first cut" of award announcements on Tuesday, May 17... the first day of our new program year.

BC

Partnerships: Standing By, Launching, and Reporting

There’s a lot of “standing by” and “hold” in the life of INSGC this week.  Of course, in NASA environments, “stand by” and “hold” are two versions of “wait”.  The launch of STS-134, with Purdue alumnus Drew Feustel, has been postponed, until at least May 16, to resolve mechanical issues.  Closer to home, there are still students “standing by” to find out about potential summer internships.  We’ve had several NASA centers communicating to our office hoping to place students in labs, only to find out that students have accepted other offers.  Unfortunately, INSGC and the Centers are all in a period of budget holds, due to delays imposed by continuing resolutions affecting both the amount and distribution of NASA funding.  (No, we still don’t know what our total INSGC budget will be for 2011-12.) 

But, in the midst of all of this “stand by” status, I am very excited to note a partnership that is moving forward quickly and with enthusiasm, on the eve of a major milestone in US space history.  We were just informed on Wednesday (Thursday was the 50th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s first suborbital flight) that a partnership of Indiana education partners and afterschool STEM providers has been awarded a NASA 2011 Summer of Innovation grant.  The award (to the Indiana Association of United Ways in Indianapolis) will help to provide summer and school-year programs to 2500 middle school students, and training for 150 educators.   I’m very excited, and pleased, and encouraged that this partnership has come together under the leadership of Sonny Kirkley’s organization, Wisdom Tools, and Debbie Zipes’ Indiana Afterschool Network, and the Indiana Youth Institute and Indiana Department of Education. 

Wait, you ask.  Where’s INSGC?  Aren’t they the lead?  And if not, why is Caldwell so happy?  As I said, I am pleased that a partnership has won the Summer of Innovation grant.  We’ve supported the partnership, but this time, we weren’t best placed to take the lead on the proposal.  We provided funds to help the Indiana Afterschool Network with Project LIFTOFF.  That’s the Indiana Space Grant’s role—to be a premiere source of coordination, information, and inspiration.  I’m very glad to see these other projects move forward.  There is much more out there to be done, if all of us are doing it, rather than just the INSGC office in West Lafayette doing it.  Sometimes, the INSGC role is substantial, or even primary (like the Yuri’s Night 50^th anniversary event at the Indiana State Museum and IMAX Theater).  Sometimes, we have a contribution at the beginning of something that becomes much larger, like the National Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement grants at Purdue Calumet and Taylor.  (Yes, both of those began with INSGC seed grant awards; these NSF initiatives represent a leverage of between 10 and 100 to 1 on the initial INSGC awards.)   

You can never tell when a small partnership will grow into something transformative.  All we can do is put in the best work we can, and stand by for further developments.  By the way, don’t wait to let me know if a Space Grant project turns into something big.  Trust me, the best way to ensure that we’ll keep having successful projects in the future is to let me know when prior projects develop transformative impact and success beyond the original award.  It’s not always a major research grant, or an NSF initiative to transform the way students learn science, technology, engineering, or math.  It might just be a couple of people.  But who knows.  Maybe you show up in a radio interview, or a tv program.  Maybe you're quoted in the local newspaper or monthly magazine.  Maybe one of those people becomes a NASA engineer or scientist or astronaut.  Maybe one of them becomes a serial entrepreneur that starts major technology companies.  And once again, a partnership would have led to a successful outcome.

A report from that other place…

Today is the second day of a conference on Earth, Air, Ocean, and Space: the Future of Exploration, at MIT in Cambridge, MA.  As some of you know, this is where I did my undergraduate studies, and it has been a great enjoyment to be able to talk with three of my former professors.  I also got to speak with my counterpart Director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, Prof. (and former astronaut) Jeff Hoffman, and interact with a number of researchers, students, and technology company representatives. 

Actually, one of the elements that is most amazing to me about this conference is not just the range of presentations and presenters, but the demonstrations of the range of exploration environments that people are currently experiencing.  Yesterday, one of the presentations was made by Astronaut Cady Coleman… from the Node 3 Cupola of the International Space Station.  Really.  She’s in space right now, and sent down a video discussing her experience of living and working in space.  (Her husband, Josh Simpson, is a glass artist whose work is used for the National Space Grant Distinguished Service Award.)

One of today’s remote presentations is from Dana Yoerger of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who is speaking to us about the history and future of autonomous and human-occupied undersea vehicles… from a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico studying the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  This presentation is live, and though we don’t get to see him, there are opportunities for questions and answers (the greatest barriers to advances in undersea vehicles are energy storage—battery technology—and sensor quality). 

I very much appreciate that this conference highlights a number of exploration disciplines and environments, all of which are relevant to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research.  Round-the-world sailing, deep sea exploration, undergraduate research design projects to find earth-like planets around other stars, and even the interaction between history and technology in the process of exploration over past human eras.  Of course, many people connect to NASA not through the range of STEM disciplines and applications, but through astronauts—and MIT has even more alumni astronauts than even Purdue.  (This remains an area of fierce competition between my past home and my current one.)   There was a panel of six of them as part of the conference.  (Yes, he is here, too.)

One of the significant issues that has been raised multiple times over this conference is the need for, and limited success of, our interactions as explorers with the public.  One comment yesterday was that, for most of the public, 95% of what they learn and know about STEM research and applications comes not from the classroom, but from other sources.  This suggests that much more of what we do in STEM needs to look outward, in ways that aren’t just talking to people like us.  This isn’t easy for many of us, and speaking personally, I like doing the research geek thing.  It’s hard for me to know how to, and what to, talk to a wide range of people about a range of STEM topics.  There is still a reminder, though, to at least try.  And why should we (I) do that?  

The current head of the Charles Stark Draper Lab just mentioned that the average age of the engineers who designed and built the Apollo missions was 27.  Space was an exciting thing for younger folks to get excited to do.  Kids want to know how to become an astronaut, thinking that the answer will be about a specific class, or major, or test score.  But that’s not the answer.  The responses from the astronaut panel highlighted the importance of picking an area and topic that one loves, and pursing that area with passion and enthusiasm.  Being a team player, and learning to work well with others to complete a mission, are absolutely essential.  Some of the astronauts knew they wanted to pursue that path by watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin; others were skilled test pilots.  Others didn’t even consider such a career until after graduate school.  But, in all cases, they emphasized how education, and inspiration, and mentorship helped them along the way. 

This conference is emphasizing projections of the next 50 years of exploration—of air, of space, of the deep oceans.  If imagine such a conference in 2061 for MIT’s bicentennial, or 2069 for Purdue’s, who’s going to be sitting on those panels?  Probably not people I work with now.  Most likely, it’s going to be someone who’s very young (or maybe not even born yet), who will get inspired and excited by the promise of exploring and learning things that were previously unimagined.  I have no idea, but I would like to hope that maybe one of them gets to say, “I remember this Purdue professor named Caldwell talked about how much he got excited about his research and interests in space flight team performance, and I learned how much I could enjoy being an explorer using science and engineering.”  As several professors on a panel just said, every research project is a journey, and each new opportunity to reflect and imagine is a potential exploration and transformation.  That’s a good reason to keep trying, and keep connecting, and keep exploring.

Back Home Again / Indiana Yuri's Night

Returning from my trip to South Africa late on Friday, April 8 didn't give me lots of time to turn around for the next INSGC activity--our annual Affiliates' meeting on April 12-13.  We have our Affiliates' meetings every year, in sites that rotate around Indiana, but April 12 was a special date that we had decided to share and experience at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.  So, after our initial partnership discussions and presentations at the Fairfield hotel across the street, we came over for a party.  Not just any party, though--Yuri's Night.  You see, April 12 is a landmark date in human history, and April 12, 2011 was an especially significant one--the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first human trip to orbit the earth in a spacecraft.  In addition, this was the 30th anniversary of STS-1, the first flight of the first Space Shuttle (Columbia) on April 12, 1981.  (I can clearly remember that day, as a first-year student at MIT, crowding in the lobby of Building 7, watching the launch on television, and believing that everything was possible.)  So, INSGC hosted a reception and movies at the IMAX Theater, and invited our Affiliates, partners, advisory board members, and dozens of teachers to attend to help us celebrate.  Thanks to Craig Mince of the IMAX Theater (and INSGC Affiliate Director), we got to enjoy encore presentations of "Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D" (which opens with a news report of Gagarin's flight) and "Hubble 3D" (which closes with the imagination of a young girl becoming a commander of a lunar base). 

Yuri's night celebrants at the Indiana State Museum

Thanks to Dr. Dawn Whitaker, we were even dressed for the event--yes, all of the INSGC staff (myself, Dr. Whitaker, Angie Verissimo, and student interns Isa Fritz and Ben Weiss) were outfitted in matching Yuri's night t-shirts that she had found at Think Geek. 

Doesn't Ben look good in his Yuri's Night t-shirt?

As I said, April 12 is a date that I remember in the history of space flight for its life-changing experiences  (well, my eldest was born on April 11, but that's a bit different), and we should really highlight those sorts of experiences.  The Affiliates who couldn't attend were actually celebrating Yuri's Night elsewhere in Indiana: the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrilville was hosting former astronaut Wendy Lawrence at another INSGC supported event organized by the Challenger Learning Center of Northwest Indiana.  "Reaching for the Stars" was the theme, and I can't imagine a better slogan for the day.  In much the same way that Gagarin and others helped fuel the dreams and opportunities for lives such as Capt. Lawrence and others, her presentation can change the lives of others who got to hear her presentation and even ask her a question.

In fact, some of the folks I got to meet at the event were also fantastic examples of how space flight (and Space Grant) can change lives.  Two of the students who presented posters at the event were people that I had met, or who had contacted me, through unexpected and unplanned interactions.  Patrick Cavanaugh came to the INSGC booth at the Indiana State Fair back in 2009; since then, he's been involved in computer engineering projects, received INSGC scholarship support, and is now looking towards graduate education.

Patrick explains his work on computer imaging to Dr. Whitaker.

Gabriela Campos was on track to have an "okay life," as she puts it.  Then, she heard about a summer program for students to get involved with STEM research, and was put in touch with INSGC.  She received some internship funding, and is now also excited and motivated and passionate about her work on MEMS sensors--she talked about the changes in her experiences leading her towards a "fantastic life".  Her enthusiasm is infectious, and wonderful--and an example of why we believe in INSGC. 

Gabriela answers a question about MEMS sensors for Dr. Lee and me.

I really want to thank everyone who attended, including Advisory Board members Chris Foster and Dr. Jordan Lee, and all of the Affiliate Directors and representatives and partners who worked hard with us on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Most of all, I am tremendously grateful to Dawn, and Angie, and Ben, and Isa, for all of their efforts to put together an event that we can be extremely proud to have hosted.  I know that a few teachers came up to me to thank me for having them at this event.  However, the thanks go to them, and to the teachers themselves. 

I am so pleased that INSGC could be involved in these events, and could help to bring excitement and history and imagination and passion to STEM engagement. 

Under African Skies

Please excuse the delays in updating the blog... it's been an extremely hectic month already for Indiana Space Grant. 

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend an international conference on Organizational Design and Management at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.  Apart from my own travel woes, this was a wonderful conference highlighting a range of research in Human Factors and Ergonomics (my own research discipline) from around the world. After the end of the conference, I managed to do two "touristy" things after the end of the conference, but since you already know me to be a STEM geek, you can guess that there will be something about space involved.

Well, you'd be right.  After the last conference session, several of the conference attenders gathered in the parking lot, and we were driven to the Pumba Game Reserve a few kilometers away for an afternoon / evening safari tour.   Perfect weather, too: mostly clear skies, winds about 15 km/hr, temperature about 24C.  (Yes, the rest of the world uses metric units.  We should get used to it.)  I took multiple pictures of the South African Big 5 (lion, elephant, cheetah, rhinoceros, water buffalo) and many antelope species in a large reserve, and even had dinner in a lodge that is not fenced off from the rest of the reserve.  (We were not visited by any of the local residents, but it was very cool to understand that we could have been.)  I did my dissertation research (group dynamics) on the organizational culture and human-environment interactions of park rangers, so even the part of the tour to listen to the rangers describe their experience of the reserve and the personalities of the animals was research-cool for me.   I don't normally do natural science research, but clearly the study of ecologies and population dynamics and biodiversity are important areas of managing a game reserve. 

But, after dinner, I got even more treats.  Nightfall came quickly (there is also a bit of getting used to the concept that the sun is always in the north, rather than the south), and to look up in the Eastern Cape region north of Port Elizabeth  was an experience I'd never had before, and already miss.  There were so many stars I'd never seen before!  Not only from the perspective of dark skies (it's hard to get a similar level of clarity and distance from light pollution anywhere in the eastern US), but also the moon phase (waxing crescent, not above the horizon so early in the evening).  Of course, there were also many stars and constellations I'd never seen before, such as Crux, Puppis, and the Southern Triangle.  The Milky Way was gorgeous, and even the familiar sight of Orion was new and different--Orion's belt high in the sky, as the constellation was setting early in the evening.  (Of course--we in the Northern Hemisphere see Orion poking his head above the horizon during this time of year... watching him duck his head below the horizon was a considerably reorienting experience.) 

Normally, I don't know all of this stuff.  But, I had one of the most wonderful apps on my iPhone that helped me appreciate all of this.  If you haven't seen it yet, find it and get it: Star Walk (available for iPhone, iPad, and even Android) is one of the best done tools for science education and reference I've seen.  It's not just that I could look at a list of constellations.  I could (once I allowed the iPhone to identify its position at roughly 33 deg S, 26 deg E) actually hold the iPhone up over my head, and it would show the star map and constellations right where I was looking!  It was so cool, I had several other people come up and look at it as well.  Way neat.

The next day, before leaving Grahamstown, I was able to visit the Galpin Observatory Museum, also home of the only Victorian Camera Obscura in the Southern Hemisphere.  Henry Galpin was an amateur scientist (particularly astronomy and optics) of note, and he was both interested in stargazing and clocks (his main profession was watchmaking and chronometry). 

So, without meaning to, I was able to link 19th Century astronomy to 21st Century astronomy, with the ability to see a very similar sky through new eyes.  The camera obscura itself allowed me to also connect past to present and future: originally, the camera might have been used to locate Mr. Galpin, Dr. Atherstone, or others in the community.  (We have apps for that now, too.) 

Yes, it would be a very long trip to go to Grahamstown just to see this exhibit.  But the point to me is, science technology and engineering are everywhere; mathematics is in everything; if you look and try to experience them, you can be enriched and educated and excited at any time. 

With South Africa behind me, the next experience was a lot closer to home...

A Long Week in the INSGC Offices...

... but all's well that ends well.

This has been the kind of week that can leave a Space Grant Director (or any professor) worn out.  For most of the week, the INSGC staff and I have been working on the annual progress report that we need to send to NASA to highlight and summarize our Space Grant program activity.  Between budget calculations, accounting of staff expenses, and documenting project activities (with suitable quotes about how Space Grant changes lives and careers), we've spent maybe 60 person-hours this week on this report.  That seems appropriate, though--until we complete a report that communicates what we need to NASA Headquarters (and allows them to answer questions from the Administrator, or Congress, or the Office of Management and Budget), we're not really eligible for our next funding allocation.

In addition to the Progress Report, it's internship allocation time at the NASA Centers.  It's an interesting period of offers and counteroffers, requests and deferrals.  (Of course, it's even more exciting because no one in NASA has definite information about their budgets for employing summer interns yet.)  After several phone calls and reviews of our lists of applicants, we've started making a few tentative commitments of support.  I know from prior feedback (and my own experience as a summer faculty fellow at NASA Johnson Space Center), that every internship has the opportunity to be a life-changing experience.  In fact, one of the quotes included in our Progress Report was about one such student, Michael Zwach.  You can see for yourself what Mike is up to; I am grateful for his kind words about INSGC, but the motivation and commitment and intensity is all his.

That might seem like enough.  Like the late night infomercial, though, you know the next line: "But wait, there's more!"  I am part of a team working on a very unique and non-standard proposal to look at how to engage people (kids, adults, scientists, engineers, artists, writers, librarians, and so many others) in the examination and expansion of human creativity.  INSGC can serve a very important role in such an activity, since creativity and imagination are words so often linked to NASA and discussions of the space program.  This is something not just for Purdue, or for Indiana, but everywhere there are people who combine "Wouldn't it be great if..." with "How do I make that happen?".

Actually, two examples of that are some of my biggest sources of enjoyment and enthusiasm this week.  Once again, the astronaut hometowns of Crown Point and Indianapolis will be represented on a Space Shuttle flight--in fact, STS-135, the last Space Shuttle flight.  But no, it's not Jerry Ross or Dave Wolf on the crew.  Elementary, Middle, and High School students from Crown Point and Indianapolis have committed to partnerships in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, or SSEP, on the final Shuttle mission.  (The SSEP is a wonderful project from the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.  I've already told you about how wonderful they are.)

I can't tell you how proud I am to be able to see Indiana's contributions to the space program, and to the inspiration and excitement it provides, to continue its legacy this way.  I invite you to follow the two sets of projects as they move forward towards launch--I know I will.

Avicenna Academy, Crown Point:  SSEP Blog--Avicenna's Stars Shoot for Space
George Washington Community School, Indianapolis: