Education
Report highlights latest data on women, minorities in science, engineering
March 7, 2013 10:36 am | News | CommentsWomen, persons with disabilities and three racial and ethnic groups—African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians—continue to be underrepresented in science and engineering (S&E) according to a new report released by the National Science Foundation. Data in the report demonstrate that women earn a smaller proportion of degrees in many S&E fields of study, although their participation has risen during the last 20 years in most S&E fields.
IBM, NY to create new technical education programs
February 26, 2013 3:22 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsIBM and New York are teaming up to create 10 new technical education programs, one each at public schools in different regions of the state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and IBM say Tuesday the goal is to train students for skilled jobs in technology, manufacturing, health care, and finance to support economic growth and development.
UW, PNNL tackle big data with joint computing institute
January 10, 2013 7:43 am | News | CommentsThe deluge of data coming from today's countless electronic devices will be harnessed to take on the most pressing problems facing science and society at a new computational institute in Seattle. The Northwest Institute for Advanced Computing is being formed by the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Truchard contributes $10M to UT engineering school
January 4, 2013 1:00 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe co-founder, president and CEO of National Instruments Corp. has contributed $10 million to the University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering to help fund a new teaching laboratory.
Alan Alda asks scientists to explain: What's time?
December 11, 2012 8:38 am | by Frank Eltman, Associated Press | News | CommentsProfessor and actor Alan Alda has a homework assignment for scientists: Explain the following question in terms a sixth-grader could understand: "What is time?" Alda, a visiting professor at New York’s Stony Brook University school of journalism, has made the assignment an international contest to focus attention on the need to better communicate science principles and eliminate misinformation about science.
Characteristics of U.S. science, engineering doctorates detailed in report
December 10, 2012 12:32 pm | News | CommentsThe National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) released a report titled Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2010 that unveils important trends in U.S. doctoral education. The report calls attention to the changing characteristics of U.S. doctorate recipients over time.
Texas teen takes home $100K national science prize
December 5, 2012 10:33 am | by Jessica Gresko, Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Siemens Foundation announced the winners of its annual science competition for high school students during a ceremony in Washington on Tuesday. The winner was a high school student from Texas who earned a scholarship for a developing a computer algorithm that helps robots navigate around obstacles, an algorithm that could be used in applications like driverless cars.
Report: Research universities essential for U.S. prosperity, security
June 15, 2012 7:41 am | News | CommentsAmerica's research universities are essential for U.S. prosperity and security, but in danger of serious decline unless the federal government, states, and industry take action to ensure adequate, stable funding in the next decade, according to a report issued by the National Research Council.
New test gauges risk intelligence
April 10, 2012 2:31 pm | News | CommentsInnovation often requires risky decisions, but tests for personality, intelligence, and memory don’t measure the ability of a person to make effective decisions in risky situations. A team of psychologists in Germany and Michigan have built a test that fills this gap, and it is now available online.
U.S. students need new way of learning science
April 5, 2012 6:32 am | by Andy Henion, Michigan State University | News | CommentsAmerican students need a dramatically new approach to improve how they learn science, says a noted group of scientists and educators led by Michigan State University professor William Schmidt. After six years of work, the group has proposed a solution, the 8+1 Science concept.
Seat of creativity may not be the right brain alone
March 5, 2012 3:05 pm | by Robert Perkins | News | CommentsResearchers who recently used functionalized magnetic resonance imaging to pin down the exact source of creativity in the brain have found that the left hemisphere of the brain, thought to be the logic and math portion, actually plays a critical role in creative thinking.
New computers respond to emotions
March 2, 2012 7:36 am | News | CommentsEmotion-sensing computer software that models and responds to students' cognitive and emotional states has been developed by a professor at the University of Notre Dame. The new technology, which matches the interaction of human tutors, not only offers learning possibilities for students, but also redefines human-computer interaction.
Patent activities still not widely used in tenure evaluations
February 23, 2012 3:39 am | News | CommentsShould patent and commercialization activities by faculty count toward tenure and promotion? A large percentage of universities still do not include commercialization considerations for tenure and promotion, even six years after Texas A&M University created a stir by adding commercialization considerations as a sixth factor in tenure evaluations.
A nanolab for the classroom
January 20, 2012 7:31 am | News | CommentsProfessor Albert van den Berg, a professor at the University of Twente in The Netherlands and a 2009 Spinoza Prize winner, has developed a lab-on-a-chip teaching kit intended to bring both nanotechnology and biotechnology to the classroom. The first kits of being tested at the university and at a secondary school.
S & T report: Asian countries rapidly closing rank with U.S.
January 18, 2012 2:39 pm | News | CommentsIn supporting science and technology (S&T), no country outranks the United States. But the margin is closing quickly as Asian nations invest heavily in knowledge-based economies, according to a new report from the National Science Board.
An Early Start on Innovation
December 15, 2011 4:28 am | by Lindsay Hock | Articles | CommentsCorporations inspire the next generation of researchers to embrace science and innovation.
Study: Scientists are doing their most creative work later in life
December 7, 2011 3:16 pm | News | CommentsNew research from Northwestern University and Ohio State University shows that the average age at which Nobel laureates in chemistry, physics and physiology or medicine do their prize-winning work is increasing. The trend may have less to do with longer life spans than with how researchers are trained.
Women making slow, sure strides in science, math
October 24, 2011 6:48 am | by Martha Irvine, AP National Writer | News | CommentsScience, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the so-called STEM jobs—have been slower than other disciplines to integrate women at the highest levels. With two-thirds of all undergraduate degrees and 60% of master's degrees now going to women, many believe it's only a matter of time before that trend influences the upper echelons of the STEM fields.
Study: Gates project spared 100K Indians from HIV
October 11, 2011 5:40 am | by Margie Mason, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsA new study suggests that an estimated 100,000 people in India may have escaped HIV infection over five years thanks to one of the world's biggest prevention programs. Though the true impact of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Avahan project is uncertain, its an encouraging sign that targeting high-risk groups remains vital even as more donors focus on treatment.
Study: Women's quest for romance conflicts with scientific pursuits
August 18, 2011 10:42 am | News | CommentsFour new studies by researchers at the University at Buffalo have found that when a woman's goal is to be romantically desirable, she distances herself from academic majors and activities related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
NSF funds national center for synthesis
August 3, 2011 5:21 am | News | CommentsSsynthesis centers are designed to bring together and meld research from many disciplines of science. The latest iteration will appear at the University of Maryland as the result of a $27.5 million award. The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center will be home to research on such issues as water availability, sustainable food production, and the interaction between human activities and ecosystem health.
The big picture: proteins in 3-D
May 9, 2011 6:57 am | by Miles O'Brien | News | CommentsFor decades chemistry professor James Hinton has used nuclear magnetic resonance to look at protein structure and function. But communicating his protein discoveries to students was difficult. With help from the Arkansas Bioscience Institute, Hinton worked with Virtalis in the UK to create an immersive 3-D virtual reality experience for studying proteins. The results have been dramatic.
Report: MIT makes strides with women scientists
March 22, 2011 4:38 am | by Mark Pratt, Associated Press | News | CommentsTwo reports released in 1999 and 2002 found MIT to be an often unwelcoming place for women. Since then, the school has succeeded in boosting the number of women on its science and engineering faculties from 46, or about 7% of the total in 1995, to 112, or about 17% in 2011.
Crunching the Numbers: A Conceptual Cost Estimating System for LEED Facilities
February 21, 2008 5:52 am | by Bruce Haxton, AIA, LEED AP, Senior Project Manager/Design Architect, MHTN Architects, Inc. Glen Beckstead, ASPE, Chief Cost Estimator, MHTN Architects, Inc. | Articles | CommentsEver since a sustainable design team first discussed the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC's) LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification system with their first potential "green" client, the question that has been on every client's lips has been, "How much will it cost?"
It’s Not a Tropical Paradise
December 7, 2007 7:03 am | Articles | CommentsBy the time you read this, the Dec. 3-14 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia, will be closing, if not already completed.
