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spring 2012

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Message from the Director

Peter Goodwin, Project Director

A significant component of all EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) awards address increasing the participation of Idaho’s under-represented minorities and under-served communities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Our state EPSCoR Committee gave very clear direction that they wanted objectives, outcomes, and demonstrate progress in this area – not just new committees and more meetings! These EPSCoR Committee discussions coincided with Dr. Rush and the staff at the State Board of Education noting that although there are several highly innovative programs within the State, there was little sharing of experiences or chances for synergy to develop among programs. A further challenge observed throughout the United States is the ‘Pilot’ disease: Funding can be obtained to run pilot programs in STEM education or reach under-served communities, but it is very difficult to sustain programs after the grants end. We need to find ways of leveraging STEM initiatives – working together – to be sustainable in the long term.

A big step was made on March 1, with the EPSCoR-sponsored Diversity Workshop held in Boise. More than 40 representatives from Idaho’s colleges and universities met to hear about each other’s programs and to brainstorm on how synergy can be developed across the entire State [see article in this newsletter]. The outcomes from this workshop (including State statistics, a catalogue of existing programs, and the number of students reached) will feed directly into the upcoming Idaho STEM Summit ‘Developing a Road Map of STEM Education in Idaho’ to be held on May 8-9, 2012. Dr. Melinda Hamilton (Idaho National Laboratory, and a member of the Idaho EPSCoR Committee) and Alison McClintick from the State Board of Education are leading the organization of the Summit.

Dr. Kimberley Adams and other speakers highlighted the workforce challenge at the National EPSCoR Conference in Coeur d’Alene last October. For example, in the aerospace industry close to 25% of the workforce is eligible for retirement and in major corporations such as Lockheed Martin, a disproportionate part of their workforce are within 15 years of retirement. The question becomes – can we educate sufficient STEM graduates to fill this gap? The 2010 census figure has highlighted the urgent need to engage all of our society in STEM fields. Currently, minorities comprise about 30% of the US workforce, and it is projected that by the year 2050 this could exceed 50%. The

proportion of under-represented minorities in science and engineering has been gradually growing to 17% at the Bachelor’s degree level and 13% at the Master’s level; however, the Ph.D. level has remained static at 7% since 2000 [www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd and Expanding Under-represented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Cross-roads, National Academies, 2011]. This problem is compounded by the fact that a significant number of scientists in the federal government will retire in the next decade. The math is simple – unless we can encourage all sectors of our society to participate in STEM fields in consistent numbers, the United States and Idaho will be faced with a significant shortfall in STEM-prepared students entering the workforce.

Engaging all under-represented minorities is a national imperative. It is no longer just a question of the great American value of fairness and equal opportunity, or the fact that multicultural research teams are more innovative and creative and tend to reach solutions more quickly than mono-cultural teams. It is also a question of ensuring we have sufficient numbers of scientists and engineers to drive the US economy and maintain the US as the world leader in innovation. These national trends are also reflected in Idaho, with a 68% growth in our minority populations in the past decade. The workshop on March 1 demonstrated how our Universities and Colleges are already anticipating the challenge and taking steps through intriguing programs such as STEM Central Station at Boise State University, the SNAAP grant at Idaho State University (Strengthening Native

Participants at the Diversity Workshop explore opportunities for STEM collaboration. See story on page 6.

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Message from the Director continued from page 1

North Idaho College and University of Idaho Collaboration for Increased Connectivity benefit Region

EPSCoR investments make new fiber connections and an Idaho Regional Optical Network (IRON) Point of Presence possible in the Education Corridor in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for improved academic collaboration and service to the North Idaho community.

Institutional collaboration between Northern Idaho College (NIC) and the University of Idaho (UI) is bridging broadband access gaps at two-year and four-year institutions that traditionally perform less research to foster greater opportunities for collaborative research and research-based education. These institutions serve sizable Native American, Hispanic, and rural first-generation college student populations.

Promoting “collaboration and cooperation,” the $1.2 million NSF EPSCoR Intra- and Inter-Campus Connectivity (C2) project was awarded to Idaho in September 2010, to provide and upgrade cyberinfrastructure connectivity on and between campuses. Since that time, the project has facilitated NIC’s Idaho Research Optical Network (IRON) Associate Membership and resulted in a new IRON “point of presence” (POP) at the existing NIC Molstead Library data center. This improved high-speed access to the internet leverages investments of all Idaho Education Corridor partners, including UI, NIC, Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC) and the City of Coeur d’Alene. This Education Corridor in downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was dedicated in a ground breaking ceremony in June 2011. It promises to provide vastly expanded education opportunities in North Idaho, including strong secondary school access to Idaho Education Network (IEN) video classes.

All Education Corridor partner institutions utilize IRON for daily and ongoing operational connections and benefit from the efficiency, innovation, quality, cost reduction and simplicity the network provides. The institutions of higher education successfully worked with the Lake City Development Corporation (LCDC) to utilize LCDC’s underground conduit as a means of establishing an “education corridor” between NIC and UI partners. The City of Coeur d’Alene has granted participating institutions access to underground conduit between the Education Corridor and the UI campus in Coeur d’Alene. As a result, IEN dual enrollment classes have improved capacity and reliability, and the fall 2012 NIC course schedule will include the first interactive videoconference (IVC) room in the Seiter Science/Math hall.

Networking staff at NIC, UI and LCSC collaborate with each other and the IRON consortium of research institutions to share expertise, location advantages, equipment capabilities and other unique or formerly independent resources. NIC staff are spearheading IVC engineering and joining all IEN technical meetings to develop best video class investment strategies and planning practices. Work is already underway to increase network bandwidth to 5 UI-operated classrooms inside the NIC Molstead Library Building. Students will have access to high speed wireless networking, and faculty will benefit

American Access to the Professoriate) and the Micron STEM Education Research Project at the University of Idaho. The discussions identified several key areas where collaboration and synergy is possible. We look forward to seeing the roadmap developed at the STEM Summit in May, and the future role EPSCoR can provide the State Board of Education

in creating a coordinated state-wide effort.

We appreciate the active role of Dr. Jacklin, Senator Noh and the entire Idaho EPSCoR Committee for their leadership in driving an outcome-oriented approach.

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from high speed video and computer connections. UI, NIC and LCSC have the ability to purchase even more bandwidth from IRON, and IRON will be able to offer services and interconnections to additional entities such as K-12 schools, hospitals, and government agencies.

This program also is transforming how research results are disseminated and communicated. Increased access to interactive visualization, environmental observation and modeling result databases, and data-sharing will lead to a high level of collaboration among institutions and will facilitate better communication among

institutions. EPSCoRC2 college coordinators are also involved in synergistic activities, including the Idaho IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence. The data management plan for Idaho’s main Research Infrastructure Improvement project is resulting in centralized archives of data related to climate and water resources research in Idaho that will be valuable resources for many local, regional, and national constituents, including academic institutions, state and federal agencies, stakeholders, K-12 schools, and the general public.

Participants of the Tri-State EPSCoR Cyberlearning Summit pause for a group picture before heading down to the Jemez river to collect water samples for data analysis.

First Cyberlearning Summit a Success!

A group of EPSCoR collaborators from New Mexico, Nevada, and Idaho joined together in Jemez Springs in January to discuss cyberlearning (CL) activities, programs, and materials that have been developed with support from the NSF EPSCoR Track 2 award that established the Western Tri-State Consortium.

One component of the Western Tri-State Consortium of NV, NM and ID is the utilization of cyberinfrastructure to integrate research with education. Consequently, each of the states has developed CL tools related to the theme of water resources and climate change. Participants from all three states convened in New Mexico to explore synergies that exist amongst the projects. During the two-day CL Summit, representatives of each state led demonstrations of the K-12 CL materials/programs that had been developed or expanded with NSF EPSCoR funding, including for example the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) in Idaho, Growing up Thinking Scientifically (GUTS) in New Mexico, and implementation of Climate Change Cyberlearning Curriculum Development (C4D) in Nevada.

In addition to learning about the programs, a goal of the summit was to identify components of the projects that were suitable for scaling up and dissemination to the other states. During the summit, it became clear that the programs developed individually were complementary and would likely provide even more effective learning opportunities for students by incorporating various aspects across different projects. As a result, CL leaders from each state contributed to a proposal to NSF’s “Cyberlearning: Transforming Education” program that would support development of a research program to consider how the various approaches used by each state and their

respective strengths could best be integrated and leveraged. Dr. Karla Eitel Bradley from the University of Idaho MOSS Program, served as Principal Investigator for the proposal.

Finally, the Summit also resulted in ideas for several cyberlearning sessions that will be offered at the upcoming 4th Annual Tri-State Meeting in Sun Valley, Idaho. *Article and photo provided by New Mexico EPSCoR staff

THE PEOPLE OF IDAHO EPSCoR

Leandra Aburusa-Lete

Leandra is the Student Support Coordinator for the College of Engineering at Boise State University. She also coordinates the e-Day and e-Camp programs funded by EPSCoR. Leandra has a B.S. in Human Resource Management from the University of Idaho and has worked for the College of Engineering since 1995. Leandra assists with job searching, resume and cover

letter writing, providing tours for prospective students, coordinating K-12 outreach events, and provides general support and assistance to all students.

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People continued from page 3

Greg Fizzell

Greg Fizzell is co-founder and program director of the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS). MOSS, which receives partial support from EPSCoR for its new junior and senior high-level and teacher programs, is a collaboration between the University of Idaho, the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute, and Ponderosa State Park. Greg received his B.S.

in Forestry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and his M.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Idaho. Greg began his career in the environment by working as a field forester and biologist in Illinois, Oregon and Washington. In addition to trees, he has also studied neotropical migrant birds in the forests and on the prairie of Illinois and has tracked Northern Goshawks in the pine forests of central Oregon.

Steve Martin

Steven Martin is the director of the Native American Student Center at the University of Idaho. Steven received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Oklahoma and his M.Ed. in Higher Education from South Dakota State University. He oversees the program, Helping Orient Indian Students and Teachers (HOIST) to Science and Mathematics, which

is an educational program partially supported by Idaho EPSCoR to encourage Native American youth to complete high school and to pursue science and technology related post-secondary studies.

OUTREACH AND EDUCATION

HOIST Expands Outreach Effort The University of Idaho’s Native American Student Center (NASC) staff is eagerly anticipating the June 2012 campus arrival of Helping Orient Indian Students and Teachers (HOIST) summer program student participants. The NASC-administered HOIST summer program welcomes up to twenty Native American high school students who have demonstrated potential in and expressed interest in pursuing science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields. This summer, the HOIST program will convene on Sunday, June 10, 2012, and will end Wednesday, July 25, 2012.

With the creation of a new HOIST program website, prospective HOIST student participants and their faculty recommenders can easily complete and securely submit their program application and recommender forms on-line at http://www.idahohoist.com/. With each successive HOIST program, the caliber of student participants has steadily increased. To reflect this positive trend, program expectations of HOIST students have also increased, and student applicants can expect to be interviewed by telephone regarding their desire to participate in the six-week summer program.

As in previous HOIST programs, this summer’s activities are devoted to improving Native American students’ comprehension and application of math and science concepts. To make these goals a

reality, NASC staff and HOIST teaching faculty have committed to promoting Indigenous science and incorporating cultural knowledge into math and English course curricula. Moreover, student participants’ “free time” will be structured to reinforce Indigenous science concepts. HOIST 2012 students can look forward to a planned visit to Seattle, WA, where they tour various museums within the city and draw connections between what they observe and what they have discussed in the classroom.. In keeping with a hands-on learning philosophy, HOIST students also will visit the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS), where they have the opportunity to participate in various MOSS restoration projects. As NASC Director, Steven Martin (Muscogee Creek), stated, “All HOIST 2012 program activities are intended to be science-relevant and to address and overcome any student hesitancy to pursue a STEM degree, or higher education for that matter.”

Past HOIST student participants can attest to the program’s efficacy in promoting higher education. Effie Hernandez, an enrolled member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Fort Hall, Idaho, is a first-generation, UI freshman majoring in Anthropology who participated in the HOIST 2010 program. She states, “HOIST prepared me to be more open-minded... taught me that [college] is what you make of it and don’t be scared to try something new.” This summer, Miss Hernandez will serve as a HOIST 2012 student mentor along with Leanna Dann (Western Shoshone), a HOIST 2011 participant and current UI freshman. Both young women will participate in welcoming prospective HOIST 2012 students on Friday, April 27th, when the NASC will host a “HOIST

STEM Day” campus visit for the first time.

The April 27th HOIST STEM Day will allow prospective HOIST 2012 students to tour the UI campus; speak with Native American STEM faculty, including Dr. Ed Galindo (Yaqui) and Dr. Aaron Thomas (Navajo); and attend workshops moderated by UI All Nations Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (ANLSAMP) undergraduate scholars. The HOIST STEM Day will provide students with a preview of HOIST 2012 student activities and expectations prior to the program application deadline of May 18, 2012.

Miss Hernandez best summarizes HOIST STEM Day and HOIST 2012 objectives, stating, “I hope to impart that you get to have this great opportunity to do all these great things, use it well... Only you can push yourself forward to success.”

HOIST students participate in summer STEM internships for six-weeks during the summer.

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E-CAMP/E-DAY: Gearing Up for busy Spring and Summer The College of Engineering at Boise State University, with support from Idaho EPSCoR, is gearing up to host their 4th annual e-Day and e-Camp activities. The e-Day program, which is titled “Discover Engineering,” takes place on April 14, 2012 and is a free one-day camp designed to explore engineering and technical careers. The goal of e-Day is to encourage students in the 7th – 10th grade, especially those from underrepresented minority (URM) groups, to pursue engineering and other STEM fields. Participants take part in STEM activities such as Edible Aquifer, Designer Bridges, and Amazing Robotics – increasing their excitement in STEM. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Boise State University student chapter, also provides mentoring for the visiting students.

The program, which is coordinated by Leandra Aburusa-Lete, Student Support Coordinator for the BSU College of Engineering, has shown tremendous progress since its beginning. Last year, a total of 60 students attended the event with 70% from URM groups, an increase of almost 20% from the previous year. Female participation also increased to 65%, an increase of about 15% from the previous year.

On June 3-5, BSU will host “e-Camp” which targets grades 8-9. Students engage in hands-on activities and projects involving self discovery, cooperative learning, critical thinking, and problem solving while living on campus in a college dormitory. Activities include a mini-design competition, robotics activity, rocket launch on the BSU football stadium, the Physics of Rock Climbing, and a final design-build competition. All food, housing and recreational activities are provided as well as free transportation to and from Treasure Valley high schools.

Leandra and the rest of the e-Camp and e-Day staff conduct extensive outreach to Idaho’s schools, sending program information to all 290 middle schools and high schools in the state of Idaho. Significant collaborations with middle school science teachers and counselors in Wilder, Homedale, Nampa, and Caldwell have continually increased the awareness of the programs. The programs also provide opportunities to contribute to the diversity of the STEM pipeline by informing and encouraging students to participate in a variety of other educational programs including BSU MOSAIC program for URM high school students, Department of Education TRIO Programs, College Assistant Migrant Program (CAMP), NSF Alliances for Minority Participation (AMP), and the NSF STEP Summer Bridge program at Boise State.

Adventure Learning Through Water and MOSS The McCall Outdoor Science School is the recipient of a new grant from the National Science Foundation – Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI). Project co-principal investigators include University of Idaho faculty, Drs. Karla Bradley Eitel, and Jan Eitel, with Brant Miller, serving as Principal Investigator. The project “CI-TEAM Demo: Adventure Learning through Water and MOSS” is engaging K-12 students throughout Idaho with meaningful inquiries into water resource issues through outdoor data-collection expeditions supported by an online learning environment.

Students collect authentic data related to an inquiry-based curriculum, and these data are shared within the online environment. Students, teachers, and content experts from throughout Idaho then communicate and work together in meaningful ways with data using the latest in low cost, high tech instrumentation. The McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) is serving as an informal science education provider, and cornerstone to the project mission, by serving as the base camp for water expeditions. Water expeditions are inquiry-driven and focus on various aspects of water resources inherent in the four seasons. MOSS also serves as the cyberlearning host for which online environment development is taking place. Seed funding through Idaho EPSCoR has provided the means to design initial web interface components (http://mossi.tfhsbruins.com/index/index/).

Many of the student groups participating in MOSS activities are from underrepresented groups. In addition, through the online environment many of the barriers to participation are eliminated for underrepresented students. The program is helping participating students secure invaluable skills through their participation in the online learning environment as well as helping them develop and exercise key 21st Century workforce skills.

COLLAbORATIONS

STEM Diversity Workshop Hosted in boise On March 1st, Idaho EPSCoR hosted a STEM Diversity Workshop in Boise, Idaho to explore innovative ways to strengthen the capacity of Idaho’s educational system. The Diversity Workshop was created as a mechanism to bring together key STEM leaders in an effort to discuss ways to promote underrepresented student inclusion in STEM education, and development of workforce collaboration efforts. Approximately 40 participants gathered to learn specific challenges facing Idaho, the current status of STEM programs in Idaho, and then to explore opportunities for collaboration.

Students work with BSU faculty in preparation for their rocket launch.

MOSS Participants traveling to and from research sites at Ponderosa State Park in McCall, Idaho.

continued on page 6

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Participants expressed a need for stronger statewide STEM coordination in Idaho, an examination of STEM teacher education, and a need to build the capacity of existing STEM programs in Idaho. Participants also discussed the need for greater outreach, including expanding STEM internships and mentoring opportunities for underrepresented students in Idaho.

The information gathered from the Diversity Workshop will also be used to assist in the development of a roadmap to promote STEM readiness for Idaho’s K-20 students during the upcoming Idaho STEM Summit set for May 8-9, 2012 in Boise, Idaho.

OTHER STORIES

Idaho EPSCoR Committee Member Wins Federal Grant to Expand Caviar Market Long-time Idaho EPSCoR committee member Leo Ray, owner of Fish Processors of Idaho, recently received a U.S. Department of Agriculture Value-added Producer Grant, designed to help farmers advertise new products and build economies in rural communities. For the past 40 years, Ray has raised fish such as rainbow trout, catfish and tilapia on farms in the Magic Valley. Nearly six years ago, he began harvesting white sturgeon caviar, which is considered a “value-added” product because it brings in revenue on top of mere fish-meat sales.

To produce eggs, sturgeon must be 10 to 15 years old. In the past, Ray produced only 300 pounds of caviar annually. Now that a significantly larger batch of sturgeon is finally old enough to produce the costly black eggs, Ray expects to increase his annual production to as much as 3,000 pounds annually. Ray’s USDA grant award will permit him to create a website, print informational flyers and attend national trade shows where he can entice distributors to bring his caviar to the masses.

Working with previous Idaho EPSCoR faculty lead, Dr. Ron Hardy, Ray hopes to build a national market for Idaho-raised sturgeon caviar by launching a $600,000 marketing campaign. Ray’s company already has caviar distributors in Seattle and New York. However, with anticipated growth in annual production, Ray is at the forefront of opening a new market. As Tobin Dixon, a specialist with USDA Rural Development, stated, “Bottom line: It’s often difficult for an [agricultural] producer to open up a new market... [the USDA grant]

sort of helps them over that hump.” All such USDA grant awardees must match any money they receive from the USDA.

As Dale Sherrow, owner of Seattle Caviar and distributor of Ray’s sturgeon caviar notes, “Leo produces a beautiful caviar... He knows his fish, he touches his fish, he’s got his boots on, he’s in the water...in the big scheme of things, 3,000 pounds is not a huge amount. He’s still going to be hands-on.” Idaho Statesman (February 2012), Twin Falls-area caviar maker to dive into big pond, retrieved from http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/02/20/2002024/idaho-fish-processor-to-dive-into.html#storylink=cpy

Thermal Imager for Landsat 8 Idaho EPSCoR faculty are playing a key role in demonstrating the need and benefit of NASA’s latest Landsat 8 satellite development. The Landsat 8 satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), incorporates a thermal infrared sensor (TIRS) to measure the Earth’s temperature with new technology that applies quantum physics to detect heat.

From project design to completion, the TIRS was built in an unprecedented 43 months, a full year ahead of the typical schedule for new space-borne instruments. Dr. Rick Allen was instrumental to ensuring TIRS would be included in the LDCM satellite as his Idaho EPSCoR-enabled, as well as other, research provided an impetus for TIRS funding. According to Dr. Allen, director of water resources research at the University of Idaho, in Kimberly, Idaho, “nearly 80 percent of the fresh water in the Western U.S. [is] being used to irrigate crops.” State water resource managers rely on the highly accurate measurements of Earth’s thermal energy obtained by NASA satellites to track how land and water are being used. More than 20 nations on six continents operate local receiving stations for Landsat data. “TIRS will become an invaluable tool for managing water consumption,” stated Dr. Allen.

Using Quantum Well Infrared Photo detectors (QWIPs), the TIRS detects long wavelengths of light emitted by the Earth that possess intensities that depend on Earth’s surface temperature. These Earth surface temperature-dependent light wavelengths, called thermal infrared, are well beyond the range of human vision, and while devices for thermal infrared night “vision” have long been available, QWIPs offers a lower-cost alternative to conventional infrared technology. Moreover, the QWIPs that the TIRS uses are sensitive to two thermal infrared wavelength bands, which help the TIRS separate the temperature of the Earth’s surface from that of the atmosphere.

The LDCM Landsat 8 is scheduled to launch in January 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In recognition of his research contribution, Dr. Allen will attend the rocket launch in January 2013 with the rest of the Landsat 8 Science Team. NASA (February 2012) NASA Landsat’s Thermal Infrared Sensor Arrives at Orbital, retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/news/tirs-arrives.html

First Annual CI Day held at the University of Idaho The University of Idaho recently hosted Cyberinfrastructure Days (CI) Days on March 29, 2012 from 1:00pm - 5:00pm in the Horizon Room at the Idaho Commons. As envisioned in Idaho’s NSF EPSCoR Intra- and Inter-Campus Connectivity (C2) proposal, the event was designed to promote education and outreach as well as provide an opportunity to explore CI issues together with faculty, students, staff,

STEM Workshop continued from page 5

An ounce of Leo Ray’s caviar retails for about $100. ASHLEY SMITH/TIMES-NEWS

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and the public. Participants were able to gain further understanding of CI including why it is important, and the infrastructure necessary for research to grow and flourish at the University of Idaho.

The event was organized by Greg Gollberg, Idaho EPSCoR CI Coordinator and Northwest Knowledge Network (NKN) Program Manager and Anna Roberts, EPSCoR Meetings/Conference Program Assistant. NKN is a data management system that provides storage, retrieval and protection services across the life cycle of data. NKN serves researchers, educators, and the public specializing in cross-disciplinary data and its application to issues of note in the state and northwest region. Other sponsors include the University of Idaho Library (UI-L) and Research Office (UI-ORED), Idaho National Laboratory (DoE-INL), Idaho INBRE – IdeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, and Regional Approaches to Climate Change – Pacific Northwest Agriculture (REACCH).

For more information on CI Days and future events visit the NKN website at: http://nkn.uidaho.edu.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Western Consortium Tri-State Meeting – Sun Valley, IDThe 4th Annual EPSCoR Western Consortium Tri-State Meeting will be held in Sun Valley, Idaho on Monday, April 02, 2012 - Thursday, April 05, 2012. This meeting provides an opportunity to meet with counterparts within our Consortium to: 1) advance understanding of climate change and its impacts on the western U.S. by leveraging research and education resources, data sharing, and data management, and 2) develop joint research, education, and outreach capacity in the broader region. To learn more visit the Idaho ESPCoR website at www.idahoepscor.org.

67th ACS Northwest Regional Meeting (NORM 2012) – boise Centre on the GroveRegistration is now open for the co-located meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Pacific Division and the Northwest Region of the American Chemical Society, hosted by Boise State University. The regional meeting, dubbed “science informing outcomes,” will be held June 24-27, 2012, at the Boise Centre on the Grove.

The organizers of the meeting are inviting students, researchers and teachers to organize symposia, present their work at an already established symposium, coordinate or participate in field trips, and encourage students to attend the meeting and present their work at a poster session where they will be judged by a panel of experts. Participants also will have the chance to hear the latest research from world-renowned experts on topics ranging from DNA origami to STEM education and infectious diseases. Other technical sessions will focus on biomedical research, ecology, education, energy, materials science, nanotechnology, psychology, public policy, science, and a variety of other topics.

Interested individuals should consult snakeriveracs.com/norm2012.html or for more details. Early registration is recommended, and

pricing structures render the meeting an affordable opportunity for students, faculty, and all others to attend and participate.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Idaho State University Students Attend Cyberinfrastructure Program at Clemson UniversityFour Idaho State University Geosciences students – 3 graduate students, Peter Olsoy (MS in GIScience), Adam Koster (MS in Geology), and Carlos Osorio Murillo (PhD in EAS), and one undergraduate student, Stephen Joy, were selected from among a large pool of candidates to participate in a new Cyberinfrastructure Student Engagement Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The program provides students hands-on experience with supercomputers, high performance computing, high throughput computing, parallel programming, campus-wide grids, and national supercomputer grids. These state-of-the-art computer systems are designed to support computational science research at the petascale through data modeling, mining, management, visualization, networking and cloud services.. The awards also include financial support for travel to Clemson University to participate in project activities with other students and attend the International Supercomputing conference in November of this year (http://sc12.supercomputing.org/). Congratulations to these outstanding students.

Idaho EPSCoR Welcomes New EmployeesThe Idaho EPSCoR Office recently welcomed two new employees to assist with program activities:

Anna Roberts, the new Meeting/Conference Program Assistant, takes the lead on planning/coordination for the many meetings, workshops, and conferences of all sizes led by Idaho EPSCoR throughout the State. Anna also is the point of contact for setting up videoconferences for EPSCoR activities. You may reach Anna at annar@uidaho.edu or 208-885-1295.

Kristen Seiler,Financial/Administrative Assistant, provides service for EPSCoR finance transactions including travel reimbursements and purchasing at UI, She also is the general administrative support contact for the Idaho EPSCoR Office. You may reach Kristen at seiler@uidaho.edu or 208-885-7102.

KUDOSRupesh Shrestha, an EPSCoR post-doc student in the Department of Geosciences at Idaho State University, recently received a “best paper” award from the American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing (ASPRS). The paper, “A slope-based method for matching elevation surfaces” can be downloaded at: http://bcal.geology.isu.edu/research-publications/publications

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Idaho EPSCoRPO Box 443029

Moscow, ID 83844-3029

*KBK865*

Discover EngineeringBoise State University, with support from Idaho EPSCoR, is gearing up to host their 4th annual e-Day and e-Camp activities.

Students work together to build a rocket during e-Camp activities

Story on page 5.