LTU STEM Center (Update: Crain's Detroit Business Magazine)

August 25, 2013 8:00 AM

$20M gift to LTU a STEM-winder Alumni donors to help boost $55M complex

By Chad Halcom

ANTHONY BARCHOCK

Stephen Brown, vice president for university advancement at Lawrence Technological University (left), and university President Virinder K. Moudgil say hundreds of alumni have donated to the new complex on its Southfield campus.

The largest alumni cash gift in the history of Lawrence Technological University gives new legs to its plans for a $55 million complex — and accelerates the 81-year-old school's work on that project and efforts to attract more students to engineering and science careers.

About half of the $20 million gift, announced last week, will go toward building the revised A. Alfred Taubman Engineering, Life Sciences and Architecture Complex with a newly added Dr. Richard E. Marburger STEM Center.

The Southfield-based engineering, design and management university is working with its architect to see how the new center adjusts the building's layout and project cost, said university President Virinder Moudgil.

The $20 million gift comes from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, the university said.

The proposed Marburger center expands on programs Lawrence Tech offers to attract middle and high school students into careers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics — commonly known as STEM. Marburger was the fourth president of Lawrence Tech, from 1977 to 1993.

And, Moudgil said, some of that STEM program expansion could begin as early as the winter semester — before any construction starts on the Taubman complex in 2014.

"A year from now, we'll put the shovel in the ground, and the first phase will be complete in 2015," Moudgil said. "But the beauty of this gift is, we don't have to wait for that. The process of the education can start almost right away. And as people learn and inquire about participating in it, we can start offering more instruction."

The new gift — all donors to the complex have been undisclosed since retail pioneer Taubman's original $11 million seed gift for it in 2011 — will go toward equipment and training space in robotics, software engineering, modeling, medical simulations, computer-assisted molecular modeling and other specialty equipment systems in the STEM center.

It also puts the university at between $30 million and $35 million raised for the complex. Hundreds of alumni have contributed, including about a dozen "significant" gifts since Taubman's first pledge, said Moudgil and Stephen Brown, vice president of university advancement.

A large portion of the new gift is earmarked to fund need-based scholarships at LTU and does not count toward the STEM center or cost of the building.

The university hopes to fund all three phases of construction through philanthropy, Brown said, but more than 55 percent of the major donor gifts to date are either estate or planned gifts. Shovels break ground next summer, and the new cash gift comes in installments over three years.

"If the groundbreaking were tomorrow, we'd have a problem. We still have work to do, but donor efforts are continuing," said Brown, who hopes to have at least $15 million in cash in hand from fundraising once construction starts.

The architect on the project is Thom Mayne, founder of the architectural and design firm Morphosis, which has offices in New York City and Culver City, Calif.

Lawrence Tech is also $96 million along toward a new stretch goal of $100 million in its capital campaign, launched six years ago. In addition to the $55 million, 125,000-square-foot complex, the campaign is raising $35 million worth of endowments and scholarships, plus $10 million for academics and program innovation.

"We have many pending asks that we still need to close. The building cost is to be fully funded through philanthropy," Moudgil said. "And it will add some to our operating costs, but we expect that to be offset by a larger number of students. We are not going to raise tuition simply to have this development."

This spring, Lawrence Tech unveiled preliminary plans for the 125,000-square-foot STEM center. Moudgil said plans probably will see some changes over the next few months.

The STEM center was one of many proposals the development staff had solicited to alumni, and the latest donor took an interest in that during discussions this year, Brown said.

The university, which has 4,500 students, probably will add "a few hundred" more students after the first phase of construction wraps up in 2015 and eventually should grow to about 6,000 when the expansion is complete, Moudgil said.

The university last month also received an in-kind software grant from Plano, Texas-based Siemens PLM Software, with an estimated $40 million commercial value, to aid in product design.

LTU’s Biggest Gift Ever, $20M, Will Create STEM Center

August 19, 2013 7:32 PM

Lawrence Technological University’s Southfield campus

SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) – Lawrence Technological University has received a $20 million gift to support its “Proud Heritage, Bold Future” capital campaign. It is the largest cash gift in the 4,500-student private university’s 81-year history.

The gift will be used to help fund the planned Richard E. Marburger STEM Center, which will support existing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs at LTU and introduce new programs.

Marburger was the university’s fourth president from 1977 to 1993 and remains active on campus as he approaches his 50th anniversary of service to the university.

The donor, meanwhile, wishes to be anonymous.

“This is a transformational contribution that provides Lawrence Tech an unprecedented opportunity to advance several long-term goals at the same time,” said LTU President Virinder Moudgil. “The university has plans in place for exciting new educational initiatives and can now move ahead to enhance its leadership position in delivering cutting-edge education in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

Educational areas to be supported by the proposed Marburger STEM Center include robotics; software engineering; modeling, simulation and visualization; nanotechnology; medical simulations and informatics; computer-assisted molecular modeling; synthetic biology; “green” chemistry; and design thinking.

The Marburger STEM Center will also support academic programming in sustainable design, energy systems, architectural engineering, game art and game design, media communication, transportation and industrial design, digital humanities, digital marketing, and mathematics.

A new cross-disciplinary learning environment will increase training and instructional resources for the LTU faculty. New faculty members would lead the integration of technologies and experiential learning into curricula and research.

A significant portion of the gift will also fund need-based scholarships at LTU in order to improve accessibility to higher education.

The gift is also a major step toward reaching LTU’s capital campaign goal of $100 million, which has raised $76 million over the previous six years. The three main targets for the capital campaign are:
• Facilities and infrastructure, $55 million.
• Endowment and scholarships, $35 million.
• Academics and program innovation, $10 million.

“This remarkable gift allows Lawrence Tech to accelerate its progress in becoming a national leader in STEM education and improving the educational experiences and outcomes for our students,” Moudgil said. “Continuously improving the University’s quality and service is paramount. We are extremely grateful.”

This spring Lawrence Tech unveiled preliminary plans for the 125,000-square-foot A. Alfred Taubman Engineering, Life Sciences, and Architecture Complex that is expected to cost $55 million. Construction is expected to start next year and a portion of the gift will help provide new learning facilities in that building.

In July, LTU received the largest in-kind software grant in its history with a commercial value of $40 million from Siemens PLM Software. The in-kind grant gives LTU students access to the same technology that companies around the world use every day to develop innovative products that are engineered for manufacturability in a wide variety of industries including automotive, aerospace, defense, machinery, medical, high-tech, electronics and many more.

Lawrence Technological University, http://www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design,Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 7 percent of universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student clubs and organizations and a growing roster of NAIA varsity sports.

Governor Snyder Recommends Regional "Prosperity" plans (From: The Desk of Barbara Bolin)

“Gov. Rick Snyder is hoping to boost regional economies across Michigan by enticing local agencies to come up with more cohesive plans for their future.

The state has set aside $2.5 million for a voluntary program in which regions can apply for money to create "prosperity" plans. They can qualify for different amounts of funding depending on the extent to which they share administrative services or even consolidate various planning and workforce development boards along with economic development districts.”

“To qualify for funding in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, Rustem said, state-designated planning regions and Metropolitan Planning Organizations must bring together representatives of transportation, economic development, workforce development, adult education and higher education so they get on the same page on a regional vision instead of operating in silos.”

The link to read the whole article is http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/08/gov_snyder_pushing_for_regiona.html

I believe this is a topic for serious consideration by the STEM Partnership as we reconstitute our Board and push for more collaboration across the state.

Obama Visit to Chattanooga, LIVE today @ 1:30 - Manufacturing & Jobs (STEM & RTTT Investments)

President Obama to discuss jobs during Chattanooga visit

Tuesday President Obama will make a rare trip to East Tennessee.

He'll be in Chattanooga to discuss boosting U.S. manufacturing and high-wage jobs.

The President plans to visit an Amazon facility that packs and ships products. It's part of a larger message about the economy that he's spreading nationwide.

10News Reporter Jim Matheny stopped by the Amazon facility Tuesday morning as they got ready for the event.

The President is expected to speak sometime around 1:30 Tuesday afternoon.

The White House says his speech will focus on jump-starting job growth.

This is the first in a series of speeches about the middle class that the President plans to have over the next few weeks.

Stay with 10News and wbir.com throughout the day for more on his visit to East Tennessee.  A live stream of his visit will begin at 1:30 p.m. on wbir.com.

President Obama To Visit Chattanooga Tuesday

Posted: Jul 30, 2013 7:54 AM EDTUpdated: Jul 30, 2013 7:54 AM EDT

 

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - President Barack Obama will be in Chattanooga Tuesday, and hopes to propose a "grand bargain for middle-class jobs."

Obama planned to make his remarks from an Amazon fulfillment center in Chattanooga, one of more than a dozen warehouses operated by the world's largest online retailer, which announced Monday that it would increase hiring. The company said it would add 7,000 new jobs, including 5,000 more at U.S. distribution centers that currently employ about 20,000 workers who pack and ship customer orders. Amazon.com Inc. has been spending heavily on order fulfillment to help its business grow.

"As part of his efforts to focus Washington on the middle class, today in Tennessee the president will call on Washington to work on a grand bargain focused on middle-class jobs by pairing reform of the business tax code with a significant investment in middle-class jobs," Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said.

Obama planned to tour the packing floor of the Chattanooga warehouse, which opened in September 2011. It is one of the company's largest and newest facilities, with more than 1 million square feet - the size of more than 28 football fields full of merchandise.

The plant was the source of tax controversy when it opened; Amazon originally was granted an indefinite waiver on collecting sales tax in a deal to bring two distribution centers to Tennessee. The state's retailers were outraged that they were put at a competitive disadvantage, and Amazon has agreed to start collecting Tennessee sales tax next year.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Campaign for Liberty said they plan to protest against Internet Sales Tax, also known the Marketplace Fairness Act, which was written by U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander and supported by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam.

The White House said Obama wasn't visiting Amazon because of the company's position on taxes, but because it's an example of a successful American business growing and creating more jobs.

Obama proposed last year to overhaul corporate taxes by lowering rates from the current 35 percent to 28 percent, with an even lower effective tax rate of 25 percent for manufacturers. The U.S. has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, but many businesses avoid the full cost by taking advantage of deductions, credits and exemptions that Obama wants to eliminate.

Obama wants to do away with corporate tax benefits like oil and natural gas industry subsidies, special breaks for the purchase of private jets and certain corporate tax shelters. He also wants to impose a minimum tax on foreign earnings, a move opposed by multinational corporations and perhaps the most contentious provision in the president's plan.

While Republicans have called for a corporate tax overhaul, it was unclear whether they would sign on to Obama's offering. The president has made little progress toward getting Republicans to sign on to a "grand bargain" of tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit.

When Obama unveiled the corporate tax plan last year, congressional Republicans called for even deeper cuts for the business world. His campaign rival, Mitt Romney, wanted a 25 percent corporate tax rate.

Tennessee GOP will skip visit by President 

Obama in Chattanooga

President heads to Amazon center in Chattanooga

Jul. 30, 2013 4:49 AM   |  

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President Barack Obama is scheduled to be at the Amazon distribution center in Chattanooga today. / Susan Walsh / File / Associated Press

Written by

Michael Cass

The Tennessean

• FILED UNDER

• News
• News Government & Politics
• Bill Haslam

When President Barack Obama comes to Tennessee today to celebrate a business success story, don’t expect the state’s top officials to give him a big, bipartisan hug.

Each of the Volunteer State’s top three statewide elected officials is a Republican, and each is walking a political tightrope as the Democratic president prepares to head to the Amazon distribution center in Chattanooga. But none of them will appear with him.

Gov. Bill Haslam needs the Obama administration’s help with a proposal to buy private insurance for poor Tennesseans who don’t qualify for TennCare, the state’s expanded version of Medicaid. But he will have to sell that plan to state Republicans who don’t care for Obama all that much, a job that will require additional finesse. Beyond that, he might not want to get too close to the president if he’s nurturing any national ambitions of his own a year away from seeking a second term as governor.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former governor, has a reputation for bipartisanship but is trying to bat away attacks from his right flank as he, too, runs for re-election in a year.

Tennessee’s other senator, the recently re-elected Bob Corker, has the least to lose right now and, as a former Chattanooga mayor, the most obvious connection to the Amazon event. But even though he playedgolf with Obama earlier this year, Corker also might have decided to stay away for political reasons.

Haslam’s public schedule, released two days after the White House announced the Chattanooga trip last week, shows him making five appearances in other parts of Tennessee today.

“The governor won’t be there,” spokesman Dave Smith said in an email, adding that Haslam learned of the president’s trip on Wednesday. “He had a full day planned in the Upper Cumberland region (today), and he plans on keeping those appointments.”

Haslam does not have any other public events scheduled in the state for the rest of the week.

An Alexander newsrelease said the senator is scheduled to co-host “a roundtable focused on expanding school choice for parents” today in Washington. That event also will feature U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican and tea party favorite with whom Alexander clearly doesn’t mind being seen these days. He co-hosted a similar event with Paul on Monday in Nashville.

Alexander criticized Obama in a written statement.

“First, I’d like to hear the president explain to Tennessee employers how they’re going to add new jobs and at the same time pay all the additional costs imposed by the president’s health-care law. And second, I hope he’ll reassure Tennesseans that his new labor secretary and National Labor Relations Board appointees won’t do anything to undermine our right-to-work law, which has helped Tennessee attract more than 100,000 auto jobs over the past 30 years.”

A Corker spokeswoman said the senator, who was Chattanooga’s mayor from 2001 to 2005, will be in Washington, too.

“It’s the last week of this work session and a very busy day,” Laura Herzog wrote. “Sen. Corker has a banking committee hearing, a foreign relations business meeting, and nominations hearings and votes are possible.”

In a statement with a softer edge than Alexander’s, Corker said: “Chattanooga is one of those great cities in the world, so it’s easy to see why any president would want to visit. In addition to our outstanding Amazon facility, I hope the president’s trip will also highlight other things that make Chattanooga a great place to live and work: a vibrant downtown and riverfront, the fastest Internet connection in the U.S., and the world’s first and only LEED Platinum certified car factory — VW Chattanooga — which has created more than 5,000 jobs in the region.”

Corker played golf with Obama at Andrews Air Force Base in May. He also went to dinner with the president and 11 other Republican senators in March, The Washington Post reported.

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, the Republican who represents Chattanooga in the House of Representatives, doesn’t plan on attending the Amazon event, either. He put out a statement last week lambasting the president’s policies.

'Great things happening'

While the Tennessee Republican Party’s senior statesmen won’t be in the Scenic City today, the state party’s anti-Obama message will. The party said it has bought time on Chattanooga broadcast and cable TV stations to air an advertisement “about the great things happening here in Tennessee because of Republican principles in action.”

“We hope the president uses this opportunity to see what real leadership looks like and takes those lessons back to Washington,” Chairman Chris Devaney, who planned to be in Chattanooga on Monday and today, said in a news release.

In an email, party spokesman Brent Leatherwood called the TV ad purchase “significant” for a non-election year and said the party also is “coupling the television ad buy with a heavy online buy — utilizing social media outlets, Google Ads, etc. — to appropriately welcome the president to Chattanooga.” He did not provide specific amounts.

Meanwhile, Obama will get some Democratic support from Nashville. Haley Davidson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, confirmed that Cooper would travel to Chattanooga for the Amazon event. Cooper and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis are the only Democrats in the state’s 11-member congressional delegation.

Amazon said Monday it plans to add 7,000 jobs nationwide, including an undisclosed number at Murfreesboro and Chattanooga warehouses. The White House said Obama would go to Chattanooga to give “the first in a series of policy speeches on his better bargain for the middle class.”

“Tuesday’s speech will focus on manufacturing and high-wage jobs for durable economic growth, and the president will discuss proposals he has laid out to jump-start private sector job growth and make America more competitive, and will also talk about new ideas to create American jobs,” the White House said.

Contact Michael Cass at 615-259-8838 ormcass@tennessean.com. Ask him a question on Twitter: @tnmetro.

U.S. STEM FUNDING (Update: Reminded of Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited quote "Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking.")

Congressional Panels Dump on STEM Reshuffling Plan

by Jeffrey Mervis on 19 July 2013, 1:35 PM

STEMming the tide. The House science committee, led by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), is one of several panels weighing in against the proposed realignment of STEM education programs.

Fuhgettaboutit.

That's the response this month from several congressional panels to the Obama administration's plan to radically realign the federal government's $3 billion annual investment in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. The latest—and sharpest—criticism came yesterday from the Senate Appropriations Committee as it approved a 2014 spending bill covering NASA, the Commerce Department, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The administration's plan, unveiled in April as part of its 2014 budget request to Congress would cut in half the 226 STEM education programs now being funded at 13 federal agencies. White House officials say that their goal is to both eliminate redundant and ineffective programs and give authority to the Department of Education, NSF, and the Smithsonian Institution to lead federal efforts in four key areas: K-12 education, undergraduate and graduate training, and informal science education.

But so far Congress isn't buying those arguments. Its spending and authorizing committees seem to agree with most STEM educators that the White House hasn't explained why the reshuffling is needed and that the proposal scraps many effective programs. Educators have also complained that White House budget officials are ignoring the unique expertise and tools that exist within so-called mission agencies like NASA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). And they say that the White House failed to seek their input about the best way to improve STEM programs.

The Senate spending panel basically trashed the idea in report language approved yesterday as part of a $52 billion Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) bill that funds several federal agencies. "While the committee maintains its support for greater efficiencies and consolidation … [it] has concerns that the proposal has not been thoroughly vetted with the education community or congressional authorizing committees and lacks thorough guidance and input from Federal agencies affected by the proposal."

The congressional panel questioned both the basis for the reshuffling and the idea of creating lead agencies. "The administration has yet to provide a viable plan ensuring that the new lead STEM institutions … can support the unique fellowship, training, and outreach programs now managed by other agencies. Conversely, what is proposed as a consolidation … is really the elimination of many proven and successful programs with no evaluation on why they were deemed duplicative or ineffective."

Responsibility for STEM education is spread across many congressional committees, each of which exercises oversight of a handful of federal agencies. In the past few weeks, half a dozen panels have addressed the administration's plans for STEM education. And while the CJS language may be the harshest, none of the committees has embraced the reorganization.

A bill approved yesterday by the House of Representatives science committee to reauthorize NASA programs, for example, rejects the two key elements of what the administration has proposed—stripping the agency of most of its STEM education agencies and putting the rest under one roof. "The administration may not implement any proposed STEM education and outreach-related changes proposed [for NASA] in the president's 2014 budget request," the bill flatly declares. "Funds devoted to education and public outreach should be maintained in the [science, aeronautics, exploration, and mission] directorates, and the consolidation of those activities within the Education Directorate is prohibited."

Likewise, the House version of the CJS spending bill would restore money for STEM education activities at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and put the kibosh on a realignment of undergraduate STEM education programs at NSF. "The committee supports the concept of improving efficiency and effectiveness, through streamlining and better coordination, but does not believe that this particular restructuring proposal achieves that goal," the legislators explain in a report this week accompanying the spending bill. The report also notes that "the ideas presented in the budget request lack any substantive implementation plan and have little support within the STEM education community."

The chair of the House panel that crafted the language, Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), has long felt that the federal government does a poor job of spreading the word about what works in STEM education. And he doesn't think that the administration's new strategy adequately addresses that problem, either. Wolf said the White House has broken its promise to provide a "coordinated and robust strategy for dissemination" and replaced it with a "limited initiative at the Smithsonian Institution that would be funded by eliminating many of the programs whose content was to be disseminated and which would not capture all potential inputs from across the government."

Senate appropriators were equally dismissive of the reorganization. Last week, they approved a massive spending bill covering NIH's parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and several other departments that would put the brakes on the administration's plan to dismantle NIH's Office of Science Education and a related grants program supporting informal health science education. "The Committee is not convinced that the quality of these programs would be maintained if they were moved to other Federal agencies," states a report accompanying the spending bill.

The bill also rejects the administration's plans to beef up STEM education at the Education Department. Instead of endorsing a request for $414 million worth of programs under the new umbrella "STEM Innovation," the panel allocates $55 million for STEM innovation networks under an existing program and less than the White House requested for a handful of programs aimed at improving STEM teaching and bolstering online learning. The House has not yet taken up an NIH spending bill.

The proposed STEM reorganization fared best in the two congressional spending panels that fund the Department of Energy (DOE). The House version of the so-called energy and water appropriations bill, approved by the full body on 10 July, states that the spending panel "is still evaluating" the plan. At the same time, it instructs DOE officials to meet with NSF to figure out how to fund a graduate fellowship program in the computer sciences that was put on the chopping block. The Senate counterpart to the bill, which has not gone to the floor, makes no mention of the proposed reorganization.

A U.S. Makeover for STEM Education: What It Means for NSF and the Education Department

by Jeffrey Mervis on 18 April 2013, 2:00 PM

A proposed reshuffling of federal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education programs in the United States would move the Department of Education (ED) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the head of the class. Their new status would be a major change for the federal government, which now spends nearly $3 billion on 226 STEM education programs run by a dozen agencies.

Many of those programs were created to address a specific problem or at the behest of Congress to serve a specific constituency. However, the resulting fragmentation has hampered efforts to coordinate and assess the impact of the government's investment. The proposed realignment, part of the president's 2014 budget request to Congress, would slice the overall number of programs in half by slashing the education activities of mission agencies such as NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.

The reorganization unveiled last week surprised science educators, legislators, and even other federal officials. While the upcoming debate in Congress is likely to focus on whether some of the programs targeted for elimination should be preserved, the broader issue is the wisdom of creating two executive branch heavyweights in STEM education. Under the proposal, ED would oversee federally funded activities to improve elementary and secondary school science education, while NSF would lead the way in undergraduate and graduate STEM education. (The Smithsonian Institution was given the green light, and $25 million, to expand its activities in informal, or nonclassroom, science education.) The realignment is designed to tap into ED's extensive ties to, and experience working with, local schools as well as NSF's expertise in funding high-quality STEM education activities.

The administration has targeted 78 programs for elimination, and an additional 49 would be consolidated. But it has also proposed 13 new programs, and its 2014 budget request of $3.1 billion for all STEM education activities would be 7% higher than what was spent in 2012. (Figures for 2013 are not yet available).

Yesterday, presidential science adviser John Holdren told the House of Representatives science committee that the reorganization would also "leave intact" programs aimed at attracting underrepresented groups into STEM fields. "There has been a very serious effect to preserve the programs that most leverage the unique assets of the mission agencies, including programs that reach women and other underrepresented groups in STEM," Holdren explained during a hearing on the administration's overall 2014 request for research.

To learn more about the proposed reorganization, ScienceInsider spoke last week with top officials at each agency. Joan Ferrini-Mundy is head of NSF's education directorate, and James Lightbourne oversees graduate education within the directorate. ScienceInsider also exchanged e-mails with Camsie McAdams, ED's senior adviser on STEM education. These interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

At NSF:

Q: What does it mean to be a lead agency?

J.F-M.: Being the lead means we have a responsibility to make sure that there is an anchor program in place that takes into account the particular interests and mission of other programs that fall into this category across government. So what we are doing is serving as a focal investment mechanism for the government. These ideas are in place in the budget, but the implementation has yet to be worked out.

Q: Is the additional $89 million that NSF would receive under the president's request devoted to expanding existing NSF programs in the two priority areas?

J.F-M.: The expectation is that we put in place these programs at the graduate and undergraduate level that will be coherent and bigger, to make sure we will be serving a government-wide purpose. The idea is to reach more students and teachers more effectively.

Q: A lot of programs are tied to the mission of a particular agency and make use of tools such as ships or nuclear reactors. How will NSF be successful without access to those facilities?

J.F-M.: Part of the model will be to see what's possible with other agencies regarding the use of those special facilities. It may be that a good place for us to start is with NSF's own centers and facilities. That's another place where we want to be sure that it's part of what is available to them.

J.L.: We've been experimenting with this in the past few years in the Graduate Research Fellowship [GRF] program. The idea is that the fellows will have opportunities through industry or other agencies. A good example is with DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]. Two years ago they had identified a couple of GRFs who wanted to do an internship at DARPA. Both the students and DARPA benefited.

You're right. We don't have the facilities and expertise to develop those programs. So it's important to work with other agencies.

Q: Since each agency has been assigned a priority area, what NSF programs in K-12 or informal science will be moving to ED or the Smithsonian Institution?

J.F-M.: This budget request contains no significant decrease for programs in those areas. Our intention is to continue with what we've been doing; these are research and development programs that provide the tested, evidence-based models and materials that can be used by others. So they are still crucial pieces of our portfolio.

Q: Doesn't that run counter to the idea of designating a lead agency?

J.F-M.: The details will take shape over the coming months. But there is a strong focus on engagement. The place where that will begin is with engagement of the public at different levels through what the Department of Education and the Smithsonian now do. These agencies are working very closely together, and there are a lot of questions that we will tackle in the coming months.

We've been talking about them within the limits of what we can do prebudget. Now that the budget is out, these conversations will become much more open.

Q: Is it a new role for NSF to take on the missions of other agencies?

J.F-M.: I wouldn't say we're trying to accomplish the missions of other agencies. We're trying to make sure that we have strong programs in place that select and give learning opportunities to students who will be able to succeed in science across a wide range of fields.

At ED:

Q: Will ED be increasing its roster of STEM specialists or will it rely on NSF and the mission agencies to carry out its new role in STEM K-12?

C.M.: In the 2014 budget, ED has proposed an Office of STEM and anticipates hiring additional staff to manage any new programmatic initiatives. But the specific structure is still to be designed. We are relying on strong partnerships with NSF and the mission science agencies and will increase capacity at ED to help manage those relationships and run the new initiatives.

Q: How much more money is ED getting as the leader for STEM K-12?

C.M.: The reorganization resulted in approximately $180 million in redirected funds, split between NSF, Smithsonian, and ED. ED's overall increase reflects a portion of those redirected funds plus proposed new investments in ED's STEM Innovation initiatives (STEM Innovation Networks, STEM Teacher Pathways, STEM Master Teacher Corps, and the STEM Virtual Learning Network).

Q: Is ED ending any programs or activities that now fall under the priority areas to be headed by NSF and SI?

C.M.: ED does not anticipate holding another Teacher Incentive Fund-STEM program in FY '14. The reorganization protects the investments across all agencies that serve underrepresented groups, including ED's investments for minority-serving institutions. We are actively working together with NSF to coordinate our approach on undergraduate STEM education. The delineation of these additional agency roles does not imply that NSF will discontinue its important work on K-12, or that ED would not continue its role in postsecondary STEM education.

Q: Where will the STEM Innovation Networks (STEM-INs) program be housed within the department? What's the projected size of a typical grant? Will the networks be linked in any way to the Effective Teaching and Learning: STEM program?

C.M.: We are determining the appropriate placement for the STEM-INs program pending further discussion and pending appropriation of programmatic funds. The size and term and number of awards are still being developed. We are considering ways to preference the Effective Teaching and Learning: STEM program as a way to increase the impact of both STEM-INs and the ETL:STEM funding, but again, these are design considerations that will be developed through a policy process.

One of the goals of STEM-INs is to prepare students for college-level work, and a postsecondary institution would be a required partner in the STEM-INs partnership structure. Their role is not just to provide alignment to college curricula and expectations for postsecondary study, but also potentially to be a research partner, as the evaluation design component of STEM-INs is critical. We are working very closely with our colleagues at NSF and the other agencies to make sure we have a coherent, targeted approach that serves more teachers, more students, more effectively.