The Smart Lighting ERC (Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center) focuses on developing solid-state lighting systems with advanced functionality, with an "emphasis" on industry outreach to facilitate commercialization.[ citation needed ]
In the words of Director Robert F. Karlicek Jr, the Smart Lighting ERC seeks to contribute to the creation of "smart lighting systems that think." [1] A primary goal of Gen-3 ERCs is the global commercialization of academic research. [2]
The center is an NSF Gen-3 ERC formed in 2008, [3] and is a partnership between the lead university Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, (RPI) two core partner universities—Boston University (BU) and the University of New Mexico (UNM)—and three other outreach universities—Howard University, Morgan State University (MSU), and the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT). [4]
Funding comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF), New York Empire State Development's Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR), and industrial partners. [1]
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a state-federal partnership to develop and deploy national-scale cyberinfrastructure that advances research, science and engineering based in the United States. NCSA operates as a unit of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and provides high-performance computing resources to researchers across the country. Support for NCSA comes from the National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, business and industry partners, and other federal agencies.
The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1985 to 1995 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States. The program created several nationwide backbone computer networks in support of these initiatives. It was created to link researchers to the NSF-funded supercomputing centers. Later, with additional public funding and also with private industry partnerships, the network developed into a major part of the Internet backbone.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about $9.9 billion, the NSF funds approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.
The Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC) is a collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists across 100 research institutions focused primarily on conducting research on earthquakes in Southern California and elsewhere by gathering data, conducting theoretical studies, and performing computer simulations; integrate information into a comprehensive, physics-based understanding of earthquake phenomena; and communicate that understanding to end-users and society at large as useful knowledge for reducing earthquake risk and improving community resilience.
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) is a facility at Florida State University, the University of Florida, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, that performs magnetic field research in physics, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, geochemistry, biochemistry. It is the only such facility in the US, and is among twelve high magnetic facilities worldwide. The lab is supported by the National Science Foundation and the state of Florida, and works in collaboration with private industry.
The National Science Board (NSB) of the United States establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the president and the Congress. The NSB also serves as an independent policy advisory body to the president and Congress on science and engineering research and education issues. The board has a statutory obligation to "...render to the President and to the Congress reports on specific, individual policy matters related to science and engineering and education in science engineering, as Congress or the President determines the need for such reports,". All board members are presidential appointees. NSF's director serves as an ex officio 25th member and is appointed by the president and confirmed by the US Senate.
The NSF Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems was formed in 2000 in Michigan — through the collaboration of the University of Michigan (UM), Michigan State University (MSU), and Michigan Technological University.
The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) is a high performance computing and networking center founded in 1986 and one of the original five NSF Supercomputing Centers. PSC is a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
NASA's Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program was established in 1993 as part of an agency-wide strategy to provide the highest achievable levels of safety and cost-effectiveness for mission critical software. NASA's IV&V Program was founded under the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) as a direct result of recommendations made by the National Research Council (NRC) and the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Since then, NASA's IV&V Program has experienced growth in personnel, projects, capabilities, and accomplishments. NASA IV&V efforts have contributed to NASA's improved safety record since the program's inception. Today, Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) is an Agency-level function, delegated from OSMA to Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and managed by NASA IV&V. NASA's IV&V Program's primary business, software IV&V, is sponsored by OSMA as a software assurance technology. Having been reassigned as GSFC, NASA IV&V is Code 180.
Stephen South Wolff is one of the many fathers of the Internet. He is mainly credited with turning the Internet from a government project into something that proved to have scholarly and commercial interest for the rest of the world. Dr. Wolff realized before most the potential in the Internet and began selling the idea that the Internet could have a profound effect on both the commercial and academic world.
Banu Onaral is the H.H. Sun Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) is a technology-based economic development agency funded by the state of Utah. The organization works to develop ideas and research into marketable products and successful companies through its competitive grant and entrepreneur support programs. USTAR facilitates the diversification of the state’s tech economy, increases private follow-on investment, and supports the creation of technology-based start-up firms, higher-paying jobs and additional business activity leading to a statewide expansion of Utah’s tax base.
Subra Suresh is an Indian-born American engineer, materials scientist, and academic leader. He is currently Professor at Large at Brown University and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was Dean of the School of Engineering at MIT from 2007 to 2010 before being appointed as Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) by Barack Obama, where he served from 2010 to 2013. He was the president of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) from 2013 to 2017. Between 2018 and 2022, he was the fourth President of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where he was also the inaugural Distinguished University Professor.
Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) are university based research centers supported by the MRSEC Program of the Division of Materials Research at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The centers support interdisciplinary research on materials science. MRSECs are a significant component of NSF's center-based research portfolio. MRSECs were established by NSF in 1994 but their roots go back to the post-Sputnik era. These centers required significant changes in the conduct of materials research and education.
The Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) is an Engineering Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation, develops devices to restore the body's capabilities for sensation and movement. The center is based at the University of Washington. Its core partner organizations are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and San Diego State University.
Engineering Research Centers (ERC) are university-led institutions developed through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Engineering. While ERCs are initially funded by the NSF, they are expected to be self-sustaining within 10 years of being founded. The Engineering Research Centers program was originally developed in 1984 with the mission of removing disparity between academic and industrial engineering applications. In this way, engineering students would, theoretically, be better prepared to enter the engineering workforce. As a result, the United States would gain a competitive advantage over other countries. There have been three generations of Engineering Research Centers. Each of these generations has been specifically designed to meet the dynamic engineering demands of the United States. Due to the limited amount of funding available for ERCs, the program is competitive; out of 143 proposals submitted in 2008, only 5 were awarded centers. Commercialization of academic research is one of the primary goals of NSF ERCs.
Sethuraman Panchanathan is an Indian–American computer scientist and academic administrator, and, since June 2020, the 15th Director of National Science Foundation.
The Center for Biofilm Engineering (CBE) is an interdisciplinary research, education, and technology transfer institution located on the central campus of Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. The center was founded in April 1990 as the Center for Interfacial Microbial Process Engineering with a grant from the Engineering Research Centers (ERC) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The CBE integrates faculty from multiple university departments to lead multidisciplinary research teams—including graduate and undergraduate students—to advance fundamental biofilm knowledge, develop beneficial uses for microbial biofilms, and find solutions to industrially relevant biofilm problems. The center tackles biofilm issues including chronic wounds, bioremediation, and microbial corrosion through cross-disciplinary research and education among engineers, microbiologists and industry.
Anne Hiltner was an American polymer scientist who founded the Center for Applied Polymer Research (CAPRI) and was later instrumental in the founding of the Center for Layer Polymeric Systems (CLiPS), a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center at Case Western Reserve University. She served as Director of the Center for Layered Polymeric Systems from its founding in 2006 until her death in 2010.
Deborah J. Jackson is an American physicist and Program Manager at the National Science Foundation, and a Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists. She was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University. She is an expert on "electromagnetic phenomena" with a research and development career that spans the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum from materials studies using hard x-ray wavelengths, to nonlinear optics and spectroscopy in the near-infrared, to the fielding of radio frequency instrumentation on deep space missions such as Cassini and Mars Observer.