Special News Section
Stony Brook and Brookhaven Unveil World's Fastest Academic Supercomputer
"New York Blue,” a new IBM Blue Gene/L massively parallel supercomputer that is one of the five fastest in the world was unveiled on June 15 at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Supported by a $26 million allocation from New York State, New York Blue is the centerpiece of the New York Center for Computational Sciences , a cooperative initiative led by Stony Brook and BNL that will foster research collaborations at previously inaccessible levels of magnitude and complexity among research institutions, universities and companies throughout New York State and around the world.
"Supercomputing power – the ability to perform massive numbers of calculations at high speed – is essential for our research into alternative energy sources and many other critical uses," said President Kenny at the unveiling. "New York Blue will be a critical engine of discovery and a common platform for collaboration." For example, supercomputing power will:
- Allow detailed analysis of the chemical interactions in fuel cells that will lead to more energy efficient and commercially viable products
- Enable the modeling and development of new engineered nanoscale materials for applications from energy to biomedicine to environmental preservation and remediation, by calculating the forces and character of the physical and topological interactions of the molecules in catalysts, and
- Advance proteomics – the study of the behavior of the many thousands of proteins governing the processes of life, whose synthesis is triggered by gene sequences – by facilitating the understanding of the functionality of their folding patterns, essential for the development of new "post-genomic" drugs.
New York Blue will link together a total of 36,864 700MHz PowerPC processors, supported by 18.4 terabytes, or almost 200 million megabytes, of memory, with a peak performance of 103.22 teraflops – more than 100 trillion calculations per second. Combined with a 91.7 teraflops Blue Gene installed earlier in the year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute near Albany, these installations make New York State the home of the world’s largest academic supercomputing infrastructure.
Blue Gene is also the world's most energy efficient computer. It offers more performance per watt than any other system design and needs only a fraction of the energy required for cooling most computer systems.
If you are interested in making use of New York Blue
for a research project, you will need to establish an account.
When New York Blue has completed validation and configuration, the account
creation mechanism at the site below will be enabled.
http://www.newyorkblue.bnl.gov/comp/getting_an_account.html
In the meantime, you may wish to visit New York Blue’s homepage-
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Essential Policy and Procedure Updates
NSF Announces New Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide
The Guide consolidates two previous standalone NSF policy documents: the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and the Grant Policy Manual (GPM) and combines them into a single electronic policy framework. The Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide will be effective for proposals submitted on or after June 1, 2007. This document supersedes all prior versions of the GPG and GPM and can be accessed at:
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf07140.
The new guide increases ease of access to the policies and procedures that govern the entire grant lifecycle and eliminates duplicative and sometimes truncated coverage between the GPG and GPM.
The Guide has two parts:
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Part I - NSF’s proposal preparation and submission guidelines – the NSF Grant Proposal Guide and the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide (to be incorporated at a later date).
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Part II - Documents to guide, manage and monitor the administration of awards The Grant Policy Manual has been renamed the Award & Administration Guide (AAG).
Each Part contains a by-Chapter summary of significant changes to assist the user in navigating through the changes.
The Guide will be available in HTML format, as originally described, by the end of this month. The document currently is available as a fully Web-linked and searchable PDF version which gives users the ability to print either Parts of the Guide or the document in its entirety. If you have any questions regarding the new NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide, please contact the Policy Office on 703-292-8243 or by e-mail to policy@nsf.gov .
Updated NSF Grants.gov Application Guide
NSF has announced publication of an updated Grants.gov Application
Guide (June 1, 2007). The Guide has been updated for consistency with
the re-issuance of the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG). NSF application
packages posted to Grants.gov will continue to utilize PureEdge forms
as the transition by Grants.gov from PureEdge to Adobe forms remains
in progress. Upon completion of the transition process, the NSF Grants.gov
Application Guide will be updated and reissued with instructions for
Adobe forms. The updated Guide can be accessed at:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/grantsgovguide607.pdf
Updates to SBU's Human Subject Protection Program (HSPP)
Our Human Subject Protection Program (HSPP) has many active participants, including Principal Investigators and their study teams, staff of the Office of Research Compliance (ORC), and the membership of our Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). Our combined efforts continue to help ensure that our HSPP is solid and effective in keeping safe those individuals who volunteer to participate in our research activities at SBU.
The ORC and the IRBs are constantly evaluating the program to assess the need for clarifications of current SBU policies and procedures, promulgation of new policies and procedures, and dissemination of new federal guidance and regulations. The following is a summary of such actions that have been taken or proposed over the past year, including some clarifications of unchanged policies and procedures, since our last update in December 2006.
June 2007 Important Updates to SBU's Human Subject
Protections Program (HSPP):
http://www.sunysb.edu/research/humans/2007humsub.html
As always, it is extremely important that you review this information with all members of your study team.
--Contributed by Judy Matuk, Assistant Vice President for Research Compliance
Reminder Regarding NSF Annual Technical Reports
NSF annual technical reports are due 90 days prior to each year’s anniversary date. Projects coming to term that receive a no-cost extension will still require an annual progress report 90 days before the end of the committed project period and then a final technical report at the end of the no-cost extension period. Questions or concerns should be addressed to your Sponsored Programs Coordinator.
Grants.gov Extends Transition Time for Agencies
Although originally targeting the end of FY2007 to have all agencies transitioned to the new Adobe-based forms, Grants.gov has extended the time provided to agencies to fully transition to the new format into 2008. The additional time allows Grants.gov to complete their development and testing of the new forms and provides agencies with greater flexibility in how they approach the transition.
NIH’s transition to the Adobe forms remains on hold while we wait for Grants.gov to finalize the SF424 (R&R) form set. We do not expect to be positioned to post new application packages with the Adobe-based forms this summer. So, just keep using the current Grants.gov forms until you hear otherwise from us. We’ll continue to keep you posted on our progress through our electronic submission listservs. Once our transition plans are finalized, formal announcements also will be posted in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts and in the NIH Extramural Nexus.
Information on the Use of Designated Fonts in NSF Proposals
An important change contained in the new NSF guidelines is the
use of designated fonts in proposals submitted to NSF. Proposers
are reminded that the proposal must be clear, readily legible, and
conform to the following requirements:
A. Use of only the approved typefaces identified
below, a black font color, and a font size of 10 points or larger
must be used:
* For Windows users: Arial, Helvetica, Palatino Linotype,
or Georgia
* For Macintosh users: Arial, Helvetica, Palatino,
or Georgia
* For TeX users: Computer Modern
A Symbol font may be used to insert Greek letters
or special characters; however, the font size requirement still
applies;
B. No more than 6 lines within a vertical space of
1 inch; and
C. Margins, in all directions, must be at least an
inch.
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Funding Opportunities
DoD FY 2008 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP)
The Department of Defense (DoD) announces the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), a part of the University Research Initiative (URI). DURIP is designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher education to conduct research and to educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense, by providing funds for the acquisition of research equipment.
The DoD is interested primarily in the research and related science and engineering education that the equipment would facilitate. For this reason, the proposal must adequately describe the goals of the research and research-related education, so that judgments can be made on relevance to DoD goals. In some cases, proposed instrumentation and associated research may be relevant to more than one of the participating agencies.
Through this DURIP competition, the DoD intends to award approximately $40 million for FY 2008, subject to the availability of funds. These funds will be awarded via grants made by ARO, ONR, and AFOSR. Grants will be for the purchase of research equipment costing $50,000 or more, for items that typically cannot be purchased within the budgets of single-investigator awards. An individual award may not exceed $1,000,000 in DoD funding. In FY 2007, 201 awards totaling $41.2 million were made. Awards ranged from approximately $50,000 to $950,000 averaging $205,000; very few awards exceeded $500,000.
Proposals are due 4:00PM Eastern Daylight Time, 21 August 2007. Program details and application can be found at: http://www.afosr.af.mil/pdfs/afosr_baa_2007_9_2.pdf
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: Fellowships to Assist Research and Artistic Creation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation offers fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions and irrespective of race, color, or creed. The foundation provides fellowships for advanced professionals in all fields (natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, creative arts) except the performing arts. The foundation selects its fellows on the basis of two separate competitions, one for the United States and Canada, the other for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The foundation understands advanced professionals to be those who as writers, scholars, or scientists have a significant record of publication, or as artists, playwrights, filmmakers, photographers, composers, or the like, have a significant record of exhibition or performance of their work.
The foundation only supports individuals. The amounts of the grants will be adjusted to the needs of the fellows, considering their other resources and the purpose and scope of their plans. Appointments are ordinarily made for one year, and in no instance for a period shorter than six consecutive months.
The new deadline for submitting applications for 2008 US/Canada competition is September 15, 2007. The application forms and further information is available at: http://www.gf.org
Upcoming Funding Opportunities
For a complete list of upcoming deadlines, please go to -
http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/fndopp/deadlcal.html
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News and Events
Events
Stony Brook Southampton Writers Conference, July 18-29
The Writers Conference Provides a forum for authors of all genres
to study and discuss the craft of writing through workshops, lectures,
readings, and small-group discussions. The conference will feature
many distinguished authors and teachers including Billy Collins, Frank
McCourt, Matthew Klam and Joyce Carol Oates, among others. For more
information and a schedule of events please visit:
www.stonybrook.edu/writers/
12th Stony Brook Film Festival, July 19-28
With ten days of new independent features, documentaries and shorts
screened in the Main Theatre of the Staller Center, the festival is a
cinephile's delight. For more information and a schedule of films and
showtimes please visit:
www.stonybrookfilmfestival.com
Principal Investigator Award Interface (PIAI) Training Session, August 30th
The Research Foundation has successfully completed upgrading the current version of the Oracle Business System from 11.0.3 to the new 11i version. This was necessary since Oracle no longer supports the version used by the RF. The new version was implemented on May 1, 2007. Oracle is now viewed primarily as a transaction processing system for the administrative departments that handle your financial transactions.
As PIAI is considered a superior and more user friendly information interface for inquiry only access, we are offering training to Project Directors and their assistants to familiarize them with this application. The 90-minute PIAI training session will take place on Thursday, August 30th at 9:00 a.m. in the OVPR Conference Room, W5510 Melville Library.
To register please send an email to Marie Bilbao in the Office of Grants Management at marie.bilbao@stonybrook.edu
Stony Brook Human Evolution Symposium: "Tracking the Earliest Bipeds", September 25
Convened by Richard Leakey, the 4th Annual Human Evolution Symposium
is a full-day event featuring many of the foremost scholars in the
field. The 2007 Symposium focuses on the early hominids that changed
the way paleoanthropologists thought about evolution. For more information
please visit:
www.stonybrook.edu/sb/humanevolution/
Celebratory 20th Anniversary Humanities Institute Conference: "Cosmopolitanism and Globalization: Memory-Spaces-Cities-Images", October 10-13
The conference seeks to "interrogate the usefulness of cosmopolitanism
as a concept for understanding and contributing to our
current historical, cultural and political movement." For more
information, a list of participants and a schedule please visit:
www.stonybrook.edu/humanities/conferences.shtml
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News
Software Incubator Tenant Wins SBIR Grant
Intrigma Inc., the first winner of Stony Brook’s DARE student entrepreneurship competition in 2005 and a tenant in the Stony Brook Software Incubator, has been awarded a $100,000 National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. SBIR grants are normally awarded to corporations with a high-risk/high-return potential and a vision of significant societal impact.
The company's scheduling software, Intrigma Scheduling Studio (ISS), aims to ease the strain on hospitals that have staff shortages. Shortages of this type have become very common in recent years as the demands on hospitals grow at a much faster rate than available qualified staff. ISS features an advanced algorithm for generating schedules; the SBIR grant will enable research on how the software can deal with automated rule relaxation, improving the quality of the generated schedules. "In many facilities, a medical staff member spends thirty or forty hours every week constructing highly constrained schedules," explains Dan Ports, lead developer at Intrigma. "We want to alleviate this problem by integrating more sophisticated metaheuristics into our scheduling engine, resulting in better schedules with a minimum of user input."
Tal Eidelberg, Intrigma's CEO and former Stony Brook Computer Science Master's student, says that the company's close relationship with Stony Brook University played a crucial role in the company's development: "Intrigma from the get-go was a Stony Brook brainchild. Our initial affiliations, ranging from employees and board members to research advisers and investors, are all individuals connected to SBU in one way or another." Eidelberg says that the time is right for startups on Long Island: "We are extremely fortunate and excited to be in business at this time on Long Island given the larger University-based projects that are currently in gear such as the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology initiative and the angel investor network that Stony Brook is spearheading." Winning the Phase I NSF grant allows Intrigma to apply for a Phase II award of up to $500,000.
New Acting Assistant Director for Life Sciences in the OTLIR
Jennifer Hsieh has been promoted to Acting Assistant Director for
Life Sciences in the Office of Technology Licensing & Industry Relations
(OTLIR). Prior to joining OTLIR last October, Jennifer was a
Project Manager in the Office of Technology and
Intellectual Property at the University of Chicago and, prior to that,
a Licensing Associate at the Technology Transfer Office in the University
of Kansas Medical Center. Jennifer began her career as a Scientific
Specialist in the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Covington & Burling
in Washington, DC. Jennifer can be reached at 632-1361 or by email at
shsieh@notes.cc.sunysb.edu.
--Contributed by Chester Bisbee, Director,
OTLIR
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For More Information
Gail S. Habicht is Vice President for Research. She can be reached at (631) 632-7932. An abundance of specific information for the research community is available on our Website, where past issues of this bulletin can also be found.
Office of the Vice President for Research -
http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/
Research News and Monday Memo archive - http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/monmemo/mmarchive.html
All Past issue of Research News and Monday Memo are keyword searchable. The index can be accessed at - http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/sitemap.html.
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