The fact that this course will be accepted worldwide in colleges is something that will be a point of attraction.

The purpose of teaching this course to high school students is mainly to ‘burst the bubble’ which surrounds critical degrees related to science and especially engineering. It is a subject that many students consider but many have no idea what the field really creates.

In this course, students look closely and examine the field and get a chance to explore it more to see if they want to pursue a career in it in the future. Students can think of this course as a chance to explore a field that is widely in demand in today’s world.

With insight into what college courses are actually like, this addition in their curriculum will democratize the learning of the field.

The program will be led by some top-notch universities including the University of Maryland, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, and Virginia Tech. All of these institutes will partner together to collaborate, disseminate, and evaluate the curriculum that will be devised.

The course’s main center of attention will be engineering principles and like any other high school and college course, will demand a student project at the end of the term.

The NSF is currently targeting all urban as well as suburban and rural highs schools to make sure no stone is left unturned and this pilot is able to reach to a vast majority of students. The program will be diverse, as it will cater to all students regardless of race and ethnic background. The figures indicate that this pilot will cover approximately 1400 students from 40 different schools.

To ensure that the plan of credit transfer to undergraduate colleges shall not face any hindrances, the pilot will of course follow the course of College Board and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

The authorities are pretty affirmative about this addition and eagerly looking forward to it. However, the response by students shall be determined in the future once the addition is made.

Indications suggest that a chance to learn something related to a successful field will help students take their future plans more seriously.

An insight into what happens in a serious field will give them a chance to rethink and reassure their choices in order to select a suitable field and career for themselves. 

The National Science Foundation is all set to spend a good amount of money on this pilot; they are proud of this decision and are looking forward to a positive response from the students. 

The course: Engineering Principles and Design, will surely be an addition that will be considered as a highlighted part of high school curriculum history.

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Our teeth are covered with an outer layer, called the enamel. This protective shell covering each tooth is an important to keep bacteria from getting through to the tooth and causing decay.

In the recent NSF funded study, published in the journal Nature, research scientists working at Northwestern University have isolated impurities which both contribute to the enamel’s strength but also make it material more soluble.

“Enamel has evolved to be hard and wear-resistant enough to withstand the forces associated with chewing for decades,” said lead researcher Derk Joester. “However, enamel has very limited potential to regenerate.”

This lack of regeneration, it is what makes research into protecting and maintaining the enamel on our teeth so important.  The new information gained from the study will help scientists better understand how the tooth decay occurs and even the role that genetics play in development of enamel. This will help us understand why for some their enamel layer is poor or, in some rare cases, altogether missing.

The results from this study, it is hoped, will also lead to advances in materials and procedures to help dental professionals provide better care to us all.

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As technology continues to evolve, including things like autonomous vehicles and drones, and become wide-spread, the need for higher bandwidth cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity will become increasingly important. Part of that solution is the emerging roll-out of 5G services. To aid in this push towards the future of wireless, Machine learning will play a key role.

Recognizing this need, National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced that it will provide funding to Intel for research and development in this arena.

“The wireless networks of the future need to support much higher requirements than what current wireless networks can deliver, and they also need to be secure and energy-efficient,” said Margaret Martonosi, assistant director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. “That is why NSF and Intel have contributed $9 million to advance research activities addressing some of the most challenging issues in the development of future wireless systems.”

This is just the most recent development in the relationship between the NSF and Intel. The two have been working together and funding tech and engineering research for many years now.

“This fundamental, broad-based research on wireless-specific machine learning techniques enables new wireless architectures and systems for future applications.”

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This science is the evolution of robotics aimed at creating a symbiosis between man and machine and paves the way for, among other things, more realistic and useful prosthetic for amputees and the disabled, and a safer working environment where robots and humans work side-by-side.

The range of award recipients include everything from robots with programmable “skins” that allow them to alter their shapes to miniature robots made from muscle cells grown on an elastic filament.

“Configurable, strong, mobile robots could safely explore environments too hostile for humans, such as disaster zones and the deep ocean,” said Dawn Tilbury, NSF’s assistant director for Engineering. “They could allow unprecedented extension of human perception and action to places we’ve only dreamed about, opening up vast reservoirs of knowledge and potential for innovation.”

Unlike traditional rigid machines used in factories today, which can often create a safety hazard if not managed properly, the soft robots are able to change their shape to match their environment. As such, these robots can contour to delicate surfaces instead of damaging them.

Soft robots can safely share space with a human coworker, or help a person up out of a chair for example. Because the rules for controlling the movement of soft robots are largely unknown, this area of research requires the exploration of entirely new concepts and designs for what these devices are and can do.

“Soft robotics promise enormous advantages over traditional rigid robots, such as safer working environments and greater — literal — flexibility,” Tilbury said. “Robots are permeating nearly every sector of our economy and society, changing how we work, live and play. Successfully adapting to this evolving landscape requires creating technology that adapts to us, humans. Meeting this future need requires re-engineering systems, from bottom to top and from nose to tail.”

Building on a long history of NSF investments in fundamental robotics research, the new awards announced this week will focus on:

• Designing soft systems for transferring power and information.
• Creating new active soft materials and structures.
• Creating representations that can model and predict large deformations of flexible structures.
• Formulating new theories of movement and manipulation of flexible structures.

Ten $2 million awards (over the course of four years) was awarded to the following teams:

1. Magneto-electroactive Soft, Continuum, Compliant, Configurable (MESo-C3) Robots for Medical Applications Across Scales, Jake Abbott, University of Utah
2. Muscle-like Cellular Architectures and Compliant, Distributed Sensing and Control for Soft Robots, Aaron Dollar, Yale University
3. An integrated approach towards computational design, fabrication and understanding of bio-hybrid soft architectures capable of adaptive behavior, Mattia Gazzola, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
4. Programming Thermobiochemomechanical (TBCM) Multiplex Robot Gels, David Gracias, Johns Hopkins University
5. Strong Soft Robots — Multiscale Burrowing and Inverse Design, Timothy Kowalewski, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
6. Programmable Skins for Moldable and Morphogenetic Soft Robots, Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, Yale University
7. Soft, Strong and Safe Configurable Robots for Diverse Manipulation Tasks, Daniela Rus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8. An End-To-End Framework For Soft Robot Design And Control Based On High-Performance Electrohydraulic Transducers, Robert Shepherd, Cornell University
9. Design Principles for Soft Robots Based on Boundary Constrained Granular Swarms, Matthew Spenko, Illinois Institute of Technology
10. Textile Robotics: Integrative Design, Modeling, Manufacture, and Control of Soft Human-Interactive Apparel, Conor Walsh, Harvard University

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According to a press release, the money will be utilized to create 4 new centers by the tribal enterprise advancement. The main goal of these centers is to equip individuals with the resources to make their community thrive by building upon the existing science and engineer expertise present at TCUs.

These science and engineering professionals will be given further employment opportunities in the national and state government agencies. This will provide them with the resources they need to make changes in the standard of life and financial well-being of other indigenous communities.

Federal funding is nothing new for the TCUs. Since the 1970s they have invested heavily in the STEM capacity of such colleges and universities. However, with this new award, many things are set to change for the good of the community.

“We anticipate these new centers will produce greater innovation and economic expansion within the communities served by the TCUP institutions,” said Jody Chase, program director in NSF’s Education and Human Resources Directorate.

New centers awarded to these colleges and universities are:

• The Aaniiih Nakoda Nic’ –Mni (Water) Center
• Tribal Enterprise Advancement Center For Community Marine Research
• United Tribes Technical College’s Intertribal Research and Resource Center
• Navajo Technical University’s Advanced Manufacturing Center

All these centers will have a specific function and their work will promote the life of native communities everywhere. The main focus area is that of research and development in all these centers.

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