News

The awardees of the 2013 VT EPSCoR Pilot awards have been announced.

Vermont EPSCoR requested proposals for pilot projects that were aligned with the VT EPSCoR research on adaptation to climate change in the Lake Champlain Basin with insights through complex systems computation (RACC).

The maximum amount of each Pilot Project grant was $10,000.

Regime shifts are massive, sometimes irreversible, changes in feedback processes that occur when complex systems pass tipping points. Regime shifts are ubiquitous in nature and may have severe consequences for human wellbeing. Examples of regime shifts include eutrophication in lakes, desertification, and fisheries collapses. Theoretical evidence suggests that statistical anomalies may be detectable leading indicators of regime shifts in time series, making it possible to foresee and potentially avert unwanted change. I review conditions where regime shifts can be foreseen by early warning statistics and provide evidence of the efficacy of these statistics based on a whole-ecosystem regime shift experiment.

Dr. Mark Borsuk, from the Dartmouth School of Engineering spoke about his work with Bayesian network modeling to study the interaction between society and the environment, particularly regarding water pollution.

vtdigger.org
Agricultural alchemy: Manure + brewery waste could yield biofuel
vtdigger.org
Matt Cota, executive director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the association a $51,000 grant to research biofuel technology using algae during a news conference at the Nordic Dairy ...

Research examines transforming farm waste into fuel
BurlingtonFreePress.com
Anju Dahiya, president and chief science and technology officer of Burlington-based General Systems Research LLC, is leading a research project backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine whether waste from dairy farms and breweries can ...

In this the program, Vermont Edition surveyed just a few of the tech projects being created by Vermont app developers. David Bradbury of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies talked about apps that connect people to the great outdoors, and to their own health data. VCET was recently named one of the 11 best tech incubators in the world by UBI.

Governor's Institutes of Vermont held their Mathematical Sciences Institute at UVM on June 16-21, 2013. Attendees were able to:

Learn about real-world applications of math
Interact with professional mathematicians from the academic and business worlds
Learn about the academic and career pathways open to people who enjoy mathematics

A two-day RACC Integrated Assessment Modeling (IAM) retreat took place at the Essex
Resort on August 22-23, 2013. Over 20 RACC researchers participated in the retreat to
discuss a variety of issues pertaining to the development of IAM.

Dr. Asim Zia, IAM Science Leader, facilitated and led the discussion on both days. On
the first day of the retreat, Dr. Judith Van Houten, State Director, VT EPSCoR, laid out
the scientific and policy rationale for the RACC team to work collaboratively on the IAM
development. Later, all three teams on the RACC project – lake ecology team (Q1),
watershed modeling team (Q2) and social/policy modeling team (Q3) presented the
current state of their respective data collection and modeling efforts. In particular, the
three research teams were requested to provide detailed information about the inputs
and outputs for the specific models that are being developed by each team.

VT EPSCoR has proposed two Mobile Application Projects to Computer Science students at the University of Vermont. Dr. Patrick Clemins, in partnership with Dr. Christian Skalka, who is teaching CS295, presented an outline of 2 mobile phone applications for students to produce during the semester long course. These projects will complement the innovation and workforce development efforts of VT EPSCoR and enhance communications outreach.

VCET named a top global business incubation program
vtdigger.org
Burlington, Vt. – The Stockholm-based University Business Incubator Index (UBI) has ranked the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET) as the 11th best university and college-orientated business incubator in the world, and ranked VCET as 5th in ...

The Membership Committee of the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering (VASE), has elected Dr. Nicholas Gotelli to full membership. This is the highest recognition for contributions to science and engineering in the State of Vermont.

Study shows projected climate change in West Africa not likely to worsen ...
MIT News
The study used a combined epidemiological and hydrological model of malaria transmission developed earlier by Eltahir and former graduate student Arne Bomblies, now an assistant professor at the University of Vermont. The model uses detailed ...

and more »

Building resilience is a multistep process. When disasters like Tropical Storm Irene devastate a community, governments and towns work together as part of the recovery process. It is fairly easy to reach consensus on reducing vulnerability to disasters that are fresh in our memory. There is debate, but out of that a common view can emerge. For example, it’s clear that rebuilding in floodplains makes no sense.

The 2013 Vermont EPSCoR & Vermont Genetics Network (VGN) Grant Writing Workshop was held Saturday September 7th, 2013 at the Burlington Sheraton. This year's keynote presenter was Dr. Robert Porter, Director of Research Development at the University of Tennessee.

Sessions included:

NIH (R01, R021 and R15) awards
NSF RUI and standard grant awards
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)
A panel of successful applicants for NSF and NIH fellowship awards

Another successful grant writing workshop held at the Burlington Sheraton on September 7th 2013.

We wrestle our wheels around the deepest potholes.

We hold our breath as we veer too close for comfort to a roadside ditch — or when a car up ahead is kicking up the dust, or when a tire spins deeper into mud.

And yet, who hasn’t idled, admiring views that paved roads have passed by?

Vermonters’ love-hate relationship with dirt and gravel roads must now more fully embrace phosphorus, the mineral nutrient most closely associated with algae overgrowth in Lake Champlain, researchers say.

Seven Days
Can Local Farmers Keep Feeding Burlington in an Uncertain Climate?
Seven Days
Pittsford-based climatologist Alan Betts says he's seen a significant change in the northern hemisphere's atmosphere in the past five years or so. “We're going to have to expect and plan for extremes,” he says. “We're not going to go back to the ...

The VT EPSCoR Hartford High School Team met with Senator Patrick Leahy by the green in Norwich VT after installing their iButton temperature sensors in nearby streams.

Mountaintimes
VINS presents climate change documentary
Mountaintimes
It features footage of the storm's impacts and interviews with scientists, farmers, business owners, and homeowners, as well as climate activist Bill McKibben and Vermont State Climatologist Lesley-Anne Dupigny-Giroux. With support from the National ...