News

The Inaugural Policy and Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) meeting was held on May 25th, 2017. Forty-four stakeholders from around the state and region attended the very interactive session.

Heavier precipitation in the northeast began in 1996, research concludes
Science Daily
Journal Reference: Huanping Huang, Jonathan M. Winter, Erich C. Osterberg, Radley M. Horton, Brian Beckage. Total and extreme precipitation changes over the Northeastern United States. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2017; DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-16- ...

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Declan McCabe, Ph.D., Professor of Biology at Saint Michael's College, and Center for Workforce Development and Diversity (CWDD), led a training and round table discussion with Early Childhood Educators on May 6, 2017 at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont.

Approximately 10 educators attended the event, during which time Dr. McCabe organized a roundtable discussion on simple techniques for gathering macroinvertebrates from the Shelburne Farms Pond. Dr. McCabe built a wiki for the Pond and added it to the VT EPSCoR Mobile Device App developed and supported with funding from VT EPSCoR.

Following the discussion, the group went to the onsite pond and applied the techniques to take samples. Participants learned new techniques, equipment ideas, and gained new knowledge of invertebrates. The specimens gathered were entered into a database for the Shelburne Farms Pond for future reference. Many of the bugs found were not part of the mobile app previously, Dr. McCabe explained, "...simply because we rarely sample ponds". He also provided training on how to add invertebrates to the wiki.

Last Friday, May 12, Majorwise, an online job platform for students, took first prize at LaunchVT, an annual business pitch competition for local startups; just three months earlier, Majorwise cofounders Max Robbins and Peter Silverman came out on top at the LaunchVT Collegiate competition. The quartet of Mads Almassalkhi, Jeff Frolik, Andrew Giroux and Paul Hines, of Packetized Energy, took second prize.

Silverman, a University of Vermont junior, remembered feeling "really nervous" before it was his team's turn to present their pitch. "[I] sweated through a t-shirt, which was really gross," he said. The competition was held at Main Street Landing Center.

Hines, who is a UVM electrical engineering professor, admitted that "it was a little nerve racking," especially since he was the last to present. "It worked out OK, " he chuckled.

Adirondack Almanack (press release) (blog)
Wetlands: A Great Duckweed Migration
Adirondack Almanack (press release) (blog)
Declan McCabe teaches biology at Saint Michael's College. His work with student researchers on insect communities in the Champlain Basin is funded by Vermont EPSCoR's Grant NSF EPS Award #1556770 from the National Science Foundation.

Basement Medicine
Student research in the sciences flourishes at JSC
Basement Medicine
Bacchus works with Vermont EPSCoR to look at developing resiliency in Vermont to climate change. Over the years, she has had a combination of Johnson State College and Lyndon State College students work with her, and she is expecting a student from ...

VT EPSCoR member an scientist Alan Betts, PhD was an invited presenter at the Nature Museum in Chester, Vermont on April 12, 2017. His talk, titled "The Climate Challenge Deepens: Are We On Track?" was presented to more than 50 people gathered to learn about how climate change is impacting the natural world in Vermont.

Dr. Betts previously spoke at the Nature Museum in 2013. His most recent presentation received an enthusiastic response, with audience questions continuing right up to the scheduled end time of 9:00 PM.

Members of VT EPSCoR's CWDD program attended the J.J. Flynn Elementary School Maker Faire in Burlington, Vermont on March 20, 2017.

The Vermont/Puerto Rico Student Exchange enabled teachers and students from three Puerto Rico high schools (Robinson, Juan Ponce de Leon and Specialty School of Fine Arts Ernesto Ramos Antonini) and one Vermont high school (Hartford) to participate in the Exchange.

Janet Murray, Director Professional Development & Education Core at the Vermont Genetics Network, Mike Winslow, Center for Workforce Development and Diversity Coordinator at Saint Michael's College, and Lillian Gamache, Assistant Vermont State EPSCoR Director & Project Coordinator, visited with numerous legislators at the Vermont Statehouse on March 30, 2017.

They spoke with House Representatives and Senators from many different counties. A few included Windsor, Franklin, Chittenden; towns from Charlotte, Essex, Brattleboro, Ferrisburgh.

The meeting was part of an annual event held at the Vermont Statehouse. Topics discussed included Vermont EPSCoR's role in workforce development, private sector support, and research opportunities for middle school, high school, and undergraduate students.

The busy morning was an informative exchange between legislators, Janet, Mike and Lil!

Dr. Christopher Koliba, BREE Social Systems Leader, was an invited presenter at the Vermont State House as part of a "Leadership Briefing Session" organized by the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) on February 2, 2017.

On Thursday, March 30, at 7 p.m., members of Lee University, the String Theory Youth Initiative (STYI), along with violinist Robyn Bollinger, will connect with young musicians in Burlington, Vermont, using LoLa (Low Latency Audio Visual Streaming). STYI musicians will perform with students from the Vermont Youth Orchestra. This event, which will take place at the Chattanooga Public Library (fourth floor), will conclude with a performance featuring cellist Emily Taubl along with Ms. Bollinger. This event is in collaboration with the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival.

The LoLa technology referred to ONLY runs over Internet2 - technology supported by VT EPSCoR and the University of Vermont.

Burlington, through the Fletcher Free Library and Big Heavy World, is one of a dozen hotspots of LoLa activity in the entire world.

Another successful symposium.

LaunchVT announced the seven finalists for the 2017 Pitch Competition on Tuesday. The finalists will be paired with coaches for the competition on May 12 and the chance to win over $75,000 in cash and prizes.

Four start-up companies that grew out of the research of University of Vermont faculty and graduate students, two technologies developed by UVM faculty that have commercial potential, and a start-up launched by staff at the UVM Medical Center will be on display at the invitation-only National Innovation Summit & Showcase, the world's largest showcase of industry-vetted emerging-technologies ready for commercialization.

The event will be held May 14 through 17 at the Gaylord Hotel and Conference Center in Washington, DC.

The seven invitees place UVM and the UVM Medical Center in the top 10 percent of all universities, federal labs, government research centers and companies submitting applications for the event.

Time Travel in a Peat Bog
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Research led by the University of Vermont's Brian Beckage has chronicled tree movement over the last 40 years in the Green Mountains. In his study blocks, fir trees at lower elevations have declined, while seeds that fell above the species' historic ...

Several Vermont companies will attend the National Innovation Summit & Showcase Conference in Washington, DC. The list of Vermont companies in attendance at this high-profile showcase include multiple organizations that received seed funding from UVM and Vermont EPSCoR.

Presentations awardees who will be in attendance include WISER Systems, Greenscale Technologies, and Packetized Energy. Vermont companies accepted to showcase their work at the conference include ThinkMD and VitalVR. Two graduate student technology commercialization projects from UVM's College of Engineering and Mathematical Science faculty will also get to showcase their work: "Environmental responsive fibers for concrete" (a SPARKvt awardee) and "GPR for underground infrastructure" (a US Ignite/SmartCities and SPARKvt awardee). This many placements in the showcase places UVM in the top 10% of all universities, federal labs, government research centers, and companies submitting.

The 2017 National Innovation Summit & Showcase Conference will take place from May 15th through May 17th in Washington, DC. For more information about this conference, visit www.nationalinnovationsummit.com.

On behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of Education, welcome to Stimuli, a summary of college and university research administered by NASA's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR.

LaunchVT is a competition for Vermont entrepreneurs to gain financial and mentoring support as they attempt to move their businesses forward. On the cusp of this year's application deadline, Executive Director Katie Taylor discusses the criteria used to select finalists.

A group of four cub scouts and their parents met with VT EPSCoR member Declan McCabe, PhD to earn their science badges. The four scouts are part of Cub Scout Pack 678 of South Burlington and met with Dr. McCabe on February 14th.

The visit allowed the children to meet a scientist, visit a lab, and run an experiment. They experienced what it is like to test an hypothesis, make electrical circuits, and react chemicals to make a product. The scouts mixed chemicals to form "ooblek", which they made by reacting glue with borax.

In addition to their experience with the scientific process, the scouts each left with a bag of the ooblek they had created.