Simons Award for Graduate Students in Theoretical Computer Science

The Simons Foundation Division for Mathematics and the Physical Sciences invites applications for the Simons Award for Graduate Students in Theoretical Computer Science program. These awards will be made to graduate students with an outstanding track record of research accomplishments.

To be eligible the applicant must be a graduate student who has completed two, three or four years at a U.S. or Canadian institution of higher education. A track record of outstanding results in theoretical computer science is the key criterion.

There is a limit of two applications per university. Please coordinate with the department chair. There are no citizenship requirements.

A Simons Award for Graduate Students is awarded for a period of two years for up to $24,000 per year. An awardee must be a graduate student for the duration of the award. Each award will provide support for the following:

  • Student Discretionary Funds: up to $8,500 per year for the awardee to use at his/her discretion (e.g., travel to summer research locations or to conferences, equipment, books, personal computer).
  • Summer Support: up to $9,000 per year for up to three months of summer salary support for awardee.
  • Department Funds: $2,500 per year to the awardee’s department to enhance the research atmosphere of the department; these funds should be expended at the discretion of the student’s advisor.
  • Overhead: $4,000 to the institution for administrative expenses.

Click here to apply.   The deadline to apply is February 7, 2013. Please coordinate submission of the proposal with the appropriate officials in accordance with institution/university policies. Please see the Application Instructions for further information.

Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship

The Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, is a 10-week summer internship program that provides opportunities to minority and female students who are pursuing degrees in science, technology (IT), engineering, or mathematics (STEM majors). Candidates who are selected will have the opportunity to work on focused research projects consistent with the mission of the Office of Fossil Energy.

During the 10 weeks, students will work at one of several locations. At the conclusion of the internship, students will attend a “Technical Forum” where they will present their research project and tour several technical sites located nearby (the location of the technical forum changes every year).

  • Apply here
  • Applications accepted from November 16, 2012 through January 18, 2013
  • Internship runs from June 3, 2013 to August 9, 2013

To qualify for the program, students must:

  • Be 18 years of age;
  • Be a citizen of the United States;
  • Be currently enrolled full-time in an accredited college or university (sophomore year or higher); and
  • Have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Students will be paid:

  • A weekly stipend of $750 for Master’s students;
  • A weekly stipend of $850 for Doctoral and Post-Doctoral students;
  • Approved travel costs to and from the host site; and
  • Approved travel costs to the Technical Forum for presentations and awards.

East Asia & Pacific Summer Institutes Program for U.S. Graduate Students in Science and Engineering

EAPSI Program provides U.S. graduate students in science and engineering (U.S. citizens and permanent residents) with an opportunity to spend 8 weeks (10 weeks for Japan) during the summer conducting research at one of the seven host locations in East Asia and Pacific: Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) provides EAPSI Fellows with a $5,000 stipend and roundtrip airplane ticket to the host location. Our foreign counterparts provide in-country living expenses and accommodations (arrangements vary by host location).

Proposal submission deadline for Summer 2013 has been extended till Thursday, December 6, 2012.

For more information, please read the Program Solicitation, host location-specific Handbooks, and How to Apply Guide available at www.nsf.gov/eapsi

One letter of recommendation (from current advisor) is required.

Institute for Broadening Participation (IBP)- Fellowship opportunities

The mission of the Institute for Broadening Participation is to increase diversity in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. We design and implement strategies to increase access to STEM education, funding, and careers, with special emphasis on diverse underrepresented groups. We believe that diversifying the STEM workforce is the best way to ensure our nation’s economic vitality and solve global challenges.

For more on graduate IBP programs, see http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/Grad.asp

Graduate fellowships, mentoring and professional development opportunities

25 Master graduate fellowship programs

26 Doctoral graduate fellowship programs

To sign up for funding see, http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/Form.asp

Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Scholarship

The Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program has been established by the Department of Defense (DoD) to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The program aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working at DoD laboratories. Learn More >

Application deadline: December 14, 2012

To apply online, https://smart.asee.org/apply

Graduate applicants can be either currently enrolled in a regionally accredited U.S. college or university or awaiting notification of admission to such. If awaiting admission, you must be accepted for entrance in the fall 2013 term.  For more on eligibility, https://smart.asee.org/about/eligibility.

Participants in the SMART Scholarship for Service Program receive:

  • Full tuition and education related fees (does not include items such as meal plans, housing, or parking)
  • Stipend paid at a rate of $25,000 – $38,000 depending on degree pursuing (may be prorated depending on award length)
  • Paid summer internships
  • Health Insurance allowance up to $1,200 per calendar year
  • Book allowance of $1,000 per academic year
  • Mentoring
  • Employment placement after graduation

PVS Tutorial Offered

Associate Professor Ali Ebnenasir (CS) and PhD student Amer Tahat (CS) will be conducting tutorials on the Prototype Verification System (PVS) at 4:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 19, in Rekhi 101. Space is limited, so arrive early.

The PVS is one of the premier theorem provers developed at the Stanford Research Institute. This tutorial provides a basic understanding of PVS along with elementary techniques for the verification of computing systems in theorem proving. PVS has been used in the verification of numerous real-world applications such as Aircraft Transportation and Navigation Systems, Nuclear Plants Safety Systems and Spacecraft Autonomy and AI Planning.

This tutorial will be offered for faculty researchers and graduate students with generous technical support from the Formal Methods group at NASA Langley and the PVS group at SRI. Prerequisites include preliminary knowledge of propositional and predicate logics.

For more information, see Research.

If you have any questions, contact Ebnenasir at 487-4372 or aebnenas@mtu.edu .

Published in Tech Today

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship is a highly competitive, portable fellowship that is awarded to U.S. citizens and nationals who intend to pursue a doctoral degree in one of fifteen supported disciplines. NDSEG confers high honors upon its recipients, and allows them to attend whichever U.S. institution they choose.

NDSEG Fellowships last for three years and pay for full tuition and all mandatory fees, a monthly stipend, and up to $1,000 a year in medical insurance.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is committed to increasing the number and quality of our nation’s scientists and engineers, and towards this end, has awarded approximately 3,200 NDSEG fellowships since the program’s inception 22 years ago.

The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research(AFOSR), the Army Research Office (ARO), the High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCM), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), under the direction of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E).

Application deadline: December 14, 2012

For more information and to apply online, go to http://ndseg.asee.org/

Tech Celebrates World Usability Day

Thursday was Usability Day around the world, and this was the fifth year Michigan Tech was involved. The event celebrates usability, when technologies or procedures make sense to us and when we can learn–and remember–how to use them, make few errors and feel satisfied with our experiences.

We caught up with a couple of projects taking place at Tech.

The Human Interface Design Enterprise was showing off their driver simulator in Rekhi Hall.

It was one of a couple of major projects the group has taken on, according to Margo Woller-Carter, a PhD student in applied cognitive science and human factors.

“We are using a Uconnect system from Chrysler to test for driver distraction,” she said. “We designed this driver simulator to use with it, and we will also be doing some eye-tracking for them.” Uconnect was a multimedia system on steroids: entertainment, phone, navigation, voice command, controls, and wifi: perfect for testing for distractions. The Enterprise was in the second year of a three-year contract with Chrysler.

And on this day, there was plenty of distraction going on: radio playing, Uconnect with lots of buttons to play with, a road ahead on the computer screen, and many people walking in and out of the room. Students took turns behind the wheel of the 60 mph simulation. Some did a little off-roading and even off-globing.

Woller-Carter said they also have some work with the HVAC folks at Chrysler, including a smartphone app for adjusting temperature from anywhere in the car.

One key to all their app work is to keep them user friendly. “There are so many bad apps today,” said second-year computer engineering major Andrew Timmerman. He, too, took a turn on the simulator, exploring some of the features of the Uconnect: estimated time to complete the required number of laps at 60, various gauge settings, including temperature, etc.

The eye-tracking will be an interesting undertaking, the assembled students thought. Eye-tracking is a method employed in usability studies where sensors record where humans’ eyes are focused. Currently, eye-tracking uses six sensor points on the face and it loses accuracy when you move your head. That has important ramifications when you are analyzing distractions.

The HIDE plan might include adding more sensor points to prevent data loss, Woller-Carter said.

“Or we might just come up with a whole new system,” she said.

She also said it was important for the two teams (design and evaluation) to see the whole design process, to not just design or test.

Read more in Tech Today
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor

NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) Program

NASA announces a call for graduate fellowship proposals to the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) program for the 2013-2014 academic year. This call for fellowship proposals solicits applications from accredited U.S. universities on behalf of individuals pursuing Master of Science (MS) or Doctoral (PhD) degrees in Earth and space sciences, or related disciplines. The purpose of NESSF is to ensure continued training of a highly qualified workforce in disciplines needed to achieve NASA’s scientific goals. Awards resulting from the competitive selection will be made in the form of training grants to the respective universities.

The deadline for NEW applications is February 1, 2013, and the deadline for RENEWAL applications is March 15, 2013.

The NESSF call for proposals and submission instructions are located at the NESSF 13 solicitation index page at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ – click on “Solicitations” then click on “Open Solicitations” then select the “NESSF 13” announcement. Also refer to “Proposal Submission Instructions” and “Frequently Asked Questions” listed under “Other Documents” on the NESSF 13 solicitation index page.

All proposals must be submitted in electronic format only through the NASA NSPIRES system. The advisor has an active role in the submission of the fellowship proposal. To use the NSPIRES system, the advisor, the student, and the university must all register. Extended instructions on how to submit an electronic proposal package are posted on the NESSF 13 solicitation index page listed above. You can register in NSPIRES at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/.

For further information contact Claire Macaulay, Program Administrator for NESSF Earth Science Research, Telephone: (202) 358-0151, E-mail: claire.i.macaulay@nasa.gov or Dolores Holland, Program Administrator for NESSF Heliophysics Research, Planetary Science Research, and Astrophysics Research, Telephone: (202) 358-0734, E-mail: hq-nessf-Space@nasa.gov.

ASA 2013 Graduate Student Research Award

Are you working on remarkable research on issues pertaining to aging? If so, submit your research paper to the American Society on Aging to be considered for the graduate student research award!  The winner will gain the recognition of peers and thousands of professionals in the field.

The graduate student research award is given to spur academic and clinical interest in the field of aging, and rewards the best unpublished graduate research paper on a completed project relevant to aging and applicable to practice. Membership in ASA is not a requirement, but is a consideration.

Applicants must be enrolled in a graduate-degree program or have completed their studies less than one year before submission, and be sponsored by a faculty member. The winner will receive a $500 honorarium, an opportunity to present their paper at the 2013 Aging in America conference (March 12-16 in Chicago), complimentary one-year student ASA membership and registration for the Aging in America conference.

The deadline to submit research papers has been extended to November 30. Call 415-974-9600 if you have any questions, or click here for more information.