WhiteHouse.gov Blog Feed: Office of Science and Technology Policy

Introducing: Project Open Data

Todd Park and Steven VanRoekel — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:46:32 +0000

Technology evolves rapidly, and it can be challenging for policy and its implementation to evolve at the same pace. Last week, President Obama launched the Administration’s new Open Data Policy and Executive Order aimed at ensuring that data released by the government will be as accessible and useful as possible. To make sure this tech-focused policy can keep up with the speed of innovation, we created Project Open Data.

Project Open Data is an online, public repository intended to foster collaboration and promote the continual improvement of the Open Data Policy. We wanted to foster a culture change in government where we embrace collaboration and where anyone can help us make open data work better. The project is published on GitHub, an open source platform that allows communities of developers to collaboratively share and enhance code. The resources and plug-and-play tools in Project Open Data can help accelerate the adoption of open data practices. For example, one tool instantly converts spreadsheets and databases into APIs for easier consumption by developers. The idea is that anyone, from Federal agencies to state and local governments to private citizens, can freely use and adapt these open source tools—and that’s exactly what’s happening.

Within the first 24 hours after Project Open Data was published, more than two dozen contributions (or “pull requests” in GitHub speak) were submitted by the public. The submissions included everything from fixing broken links, to providing policy suggestions, to contributing new code and tools. One pull request even included new code that translates geographic data from locked formats into open data that is freely available for use by anyone.

These steps may seem small, but they represent a big shift. Behind these actions is recognition of the simple fact that, as a community, we can do more together than we can alone. Project Open Data leverages the ingenuity of innovators everywhere as partners to help the country realize the full benefit of open data.

We are excited to test this new model of policy refinement and implementation. We invite you to add your own contributions to Project Open Data, and hope you will participate in helping to transform our government for the 21^st century.

Here’s how Project Open Data works:

Contributing: Project Open Data is a collaborative, open source project. Both Federal employees and members of the public are strongly encouraged to improve the project by contributing. Fortunately, contributing is very easy. Simply click the “Improve this content” button at the top of every page, make your edit, and hit “submit.” Your changes will appear once they are approved. Additional instructions can be found here.
Owners: Project Open Data is managed by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). As the Federal CIO and CTO, we both plan to be actively involved in this exciting project and are looking forward to merging many more “pull requests” along the way. Members of our teams will also be involved in maintaining the project.
Approving changes: In GitHub speak, Project Open Data is actually a collection of different little-p “projects” housed in individual repositories, or “repos.” Each individual project repo will be managed as an open source project – i.e., users can make pull requests (suggest changes). A repo manager will adjudicate the pull requests (accept, modify, or reject) in a public log on a standard release cycle. Changes to relevant policy areas will be reviewed and approved by relevant policy officials. We will document and carry out these conversations within Project Open Data through issues and comments.
Timing: White House owners will have regular “stand ups” to review the pull requests and ensure suggestions are addressed in a reasonable time frame. Changes that are relatively minor (e.g., typos, minor edits) should be approved fairly quickly, while more substantial changes may take longer to review and approve with necessary White House stakeholders.

Todd Park is the US Chief Technology Officer

Steven VanRoekel is the US Chief Information Officer.

Audacious Goals in Eye Research

Cristin Dorgelo — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:26:37 +0000

Winners of the National Eye Institute Audacious Goals Challenge. (Photo by the National Institutes of Health)

The National Eye Institute (NEI) launched the Audacious Goals Initiative last year to drive innovation in vision research for the next decade and beyond.

To encourage the broadest possible range of ideas and participants in this Initiative, the NEI held a prize competition to identify “Audacious Goals in Vision Research and Blindness Rehabilitation,” open to submissions from August through November 2012. The winners were invited to present their ideas in February at an NEI Audacious Goals Development Meeting—a gathering of more than 200 researchers and experts working to develop a set of bold goals that will guide vision research priorities for the NEI and other organizations going forward.

NEI’s approach makes good sense. Well-designed incentive prizes can harness the diverse expertise and perspectives of people who are not typically involved in a particular field. That’s why, with more than 250 prizes offered by more than 50 Federal agencies so far on Challenge.gov, incentive prizes are now a standard tool in every Federal agency’s toolbox to spur innovation and solve tough problems.

In addition, Grand Challenges like the audacious goals NEI plans to set forth are important elements of President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation. In fact, just last month, the President called on companies, research universities, foundations, and philanthropists to join with him in identifying and pursuing Grand Challenges of the 21st century.

Below, Dr. Paul Sieving, director of the NEI at the National Institutes of Health, answers questions about the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative.

What is an audacious goal?

An audacious goal—in the context of vision research—is a bold, innovative idea that would fundamentally change vision research or vision care. We challenged vision researchers and the greater community of scientists, clinicians, and engineers to think about what may be possible, rather than what can be done now or what the next set of experiments in one lab might be. These ideas should have a broad impact, address the NEI mission, and be considered reachable in about 10 years. They also may require collaboration with researchers from multiple disciplines.

Why did you decide to use a competition to award cash prizes for audacious ideas?

The authority to offer prizes and challenges granted to Federal Agencies in the America COMPETES Act provides us with a new tool, not only to stimulate vision researchers to think differently, but to reach out to individuals in disciplines that do not typically participate in our planning and research. The challenge allowed us to attract ideas from new people with new perspectives.

How successful was your challenge in attracting audacious ideas from new sources? And, tell us about the winners.

NEI received 476 entries in our prize competition. Almost half of the submissions came from people who had never received NIH research funding.The winning ideas came from across the country: California, Oregon, Utah, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Michigan, New York, Washington, and Massachusetts. About half of the winners were clinicians. The other half were research scientists.The winning entries fell into six themes that we used to organize the discussions at the Audacious Goals Meeting:

Aging and mechanisms of disease development and progression;
Molecular therapy at the gene level;
Systems approaches to disease analysis;
Analysis and imaging of eye tissue;
Regenerative therapies for eye disease; and
Vision restoration by advanced means, such as prosthetics or optogenetics.

What process did you use to select the winning ideas?

Eighty-one clinicians and scientists with expertise in relevant disciplines evaluated the submissions according to the competition’s specific criteria, narrowing the submissions down to 81 entries, which then were sent for evaluation by a Federal judging panel. That panel met in January and selected our ten winners. The selection criteria during the judging process included relevance to the NEI mission, audaciousness, feasibility, scope, and potential for transformative impact.

What were the benefits of this program for NEI? Would you recommend this approach to other NIH Institutes and Federal agency program managers?

Without question, I recommend other Federal agencies consider prize competitions as a means to attract new people with new perspectives. As a tool to expand our strategic planning process, the NEI challenge was instrumental in alerting the vision research community that the NEI was taking a fresh approach to planning for the future. The buzz that surrounded the challenge was very effective in attracting input from leading researchers, engineers, philanthropists, patient advocates, and venture capitalists, many of whom had not previously received NIH funding. The competition allowed us to reach out to everyone in the Nation—even those not engaged in vision research. And offering a prize was a novel way to solicit new ideas, all for the benefit of spurring innovation and propelling vision research into the future.

When will you announce the final audacious goals that were defined and selected through this initiative? What’s next after that?

The NEI, in consultation with our National Advisory Eye Council, is currently considering the presentations of proposed goals as well as other output that stemmed from the discussions at the Audacious Goals Development Meeting. We expect to announce a final goal or set of goals in late spring or early summer 2013. At that point, we will begin to chart how the NEI will encourage and support our research community to achieve these audacious goals.

In the meantime, you can watch this video to learn more about audacious goals in eye research:

Cristin Dorgelo is the Assistant Director for Grand Challenges at OSTP

RFP-EZ Delivers Savings for Taxpayers, New Opportunities for Small Business

Karen G. Mills and Todd Park — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:17 +0000

America’s small information technology firms are some of the most innovative in the world. They are nimble, creative and can get the job done. And thanks to a new online government platform, it is getting easier for them to address some of the Federal Government’s most pressing IT needs. It’s a win-win: Small technology companies get easier access to the Federal Government’s nearly $77 billion information technology supply chain, providing a potentially critical revenue stream as they build their operations. And government agencies get to work with innovative small firms with solutions that can help make government agencies more efficient and streamlined.

The catalyst for these connections is an exciting new pilot project called RFP-EZ. And the results we are seeing from this program highlight what is possible when you unleash the power of American entrepreneurs.

RFP-EZ is a new and easy way for companies to learn about and compete for government contracts – in particular, small companies that lack the experience or administrative support generally needed to take full advantage of the Government’s Request for Proposals (RFP) process, the means by which many government contract offerings are presented to the business community. The RFP-EZ platform was developed jointly by Federal innovators working in the SBA and private-sector entrepreneurs serving temporary stints in the Federal Government through the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, launched by the U.S Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer team last year. Sharing their private- and public-sector insights, the team developed RFP-EZ as a simplified platform aimed at opening up the Government marketplace to a wider range of companies and saving taxpayer money.

Applying agile development principles, the Fellows team designed RFP-EZ over a six-month period, publishing the platform’s code openly on GitHub. The team then launched the pilot by posting five relatively simple website development and database contract offerings, four of which were also announced via the standard government portal, FedBizOps. On a per-project basis, bids received through RFP-EZ were consistently lower than those received through FedBizOps—19% to 41% lower, and over 30% lower on average. Bids made through RFP-EZ also showed less overall variation. In addition, during the pilot period, RFP-EZ attracted more than 270 businesses that until now had never approached the world of Federal contracting.

According to Office of Management and Budget’s IT Dashboard, the Federal Government will spend more than $1.4 billion on Web Infrastructure and Web Content Management Systems in FY 2014. Based on 2011 and 2012 results, we can expect about half of these projects to be under the $150,000 “Simplified Acquisition Threshold” that would make them eligible for contracting through RFP-EZ. As we refine and expand the use of RFP-EZ, we are confident that its success will grow, delivering better value for taxpayers and opening new opportunities for small businesses.

Leveraging feedback we received from entrepreneurs and Federal contracting officers, the next class of Presidential Innovation Fellows will begin work on version 2.0 of RFP-EZ, which will focus on improving the platform, scaling its initial results across the Federal Government, and adding innovative new capabilities. If your business would like to participate, we encourage you to get started by setting up a profile on RFP-EZ today. To all the businesses that submitted proposals through RFP-EZ and everyone who has given us feedback on the project, thank you for helping to bring this new capability to life – and we very much look forward to the path ahead.

Karen G. Mills is Administrator of the Small Business Administration

Todd Park is US Chief Technology Officer

Hanging out with “We the Geeks”

Cristin Dorgelo — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:35:44 +0000

This live event has concluded. Watch the first "We the Geeks" Hangout below or on YouTube and stay tuned for upcoming Hangouts. You can join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #WeTheGeeks.

On May 16th, the White House is kicking off “We the Geeks,” a new series of Google+ Hangouts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the United States. Topics such as commercial space exploration, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, turning science fiction to science fact, and others will be discussed with Administration officials and key private sector contributors.

The first "We the Geeks" Hangout will focus on Grand Challenges, ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. Grand Challenges are an important element of President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation. On April 2nd, the President called on companies, research universities, foundations, and philanthropists to join with him in identifying and pursuing the Grand Challenges of the 21st century.

An example of a past Grand Challenge was the sequencing of the entire human genome that, according to one recent study, has contributed to the U.S. economy more than $140 for every $1 invested by the Federal government. President Obama just announced the BRAIN Initiative, a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury. The Department of Energy is leading the way in Clean Energy Grand Challenges with SunShot, an initiative to make solar energy as cheap as coal, and EV Everywhere, an initiative announced by President Obama to make electric vehicles as affordable and convenient to own as today’s gasoline-powered vehicles.

The Obama Administration supports the identification and pursuit of Grand Challenges because the approach can:

help solve important economic and societal problems;
serve as a “North Star” for high-impact, multi-disciplinary collaborations among government, industry, universities, non-profits, and philanthropists;
create a foundation for industries and jobs of the future;
capture public imagination and increase support for public policies that foster science, technology, and innovation; and
inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

In addition to Federal investments, there are a growing number of companies, foundations, philanthropists, and research universities that are interested in pursuing Grand Challenges. During this Thursday’s "We the Geeks" Hangout, I'll join White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation Tom Kalil and an extraordinary panel of innovators from around the country to discuss the elements of an "all hands on deck" effort to pursue Grand Challenges. Participants include:

Matt Grob, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., to discuss the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE and other bold research initiatives at Qualcomm
Rob High, IBM Fellow, Vice President, and Chief Technology Officer, IBM Watson Solutions, to discuss what’s next for Watson and the field of cognitive computing
Kathryn Latham, recent graduate from Duke University with a degree in engineering and participant in the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars Program
Sebastian Thrun, a research professor at Stanford, a Google Fellow, and a co-founder of Udacity, to discuss Google’s self-driving car and Google X

So tune in Thursday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m. EDT on WhiteHouse.gov and on the White House Google+ page, as we begin a new series of future-focused Hangouts from the White House.

Cristin Dorgelo is Assistant Director for Grand Challenges at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Recap: A Big Day for Open Data

Nick Sinai and Haley Van Dyck — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:50:30 +0000

Yesterday, President Obama visited Austin, Texas, to kick off his Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour. At Capital Factory, a local start-up incubator, he met with technology entrepreneurs and innovative companies that are helping grow our economy and create jobs by building new products and services.

One of those companies, Stormpulse, uses freely available government weather data to help businesses protect themselves and their assets from potentially hazardous weather. Stormpulse CEO Matt Wensing has said that “open government data is one of the giants on whose shoulders we stand. Easier access to government data means growing companies like ours can offer significant value to citizens and enterprises.”

President Barack Obama watches CEO Matt Wensing demonstrate Stormpulse during a tour of Capital Factory in Austin, Texas, May 9, 2013. Capital Factory founder Josh Baer and Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, watch at right. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Indeed, earlier in the day, in a major step to provide innovative companies like Stormpulse with increased access to government data, the President signed a groundbreaking Executive Order and published a new open data policy requiring that going forward, data generated by the government be made available in open, machine-readable formats, while appropriately safeguarding privacy, confidentiality, and security.

In remarks yesterday at another innovative Austin-based company, Applied Materials, President Obama said:

“And today I’m announcing that we’re making even more government data available, and we’re making it easier for people to find and to use. And that’s going to help launch more start-ups. It’s going to help launch more businesses…It’s going to help more entrepreneurs come up with products and services that we haven’t even imagined yet. This kind of innovation and ingenuity has the potential to transform the way we do almost everything.”

Many innovators, entrepreneurs, and open government leaders across the country have embraced these historic steps. Below are selected statements of support:

Scott Chacon, Evangelist, GitHub: “Communities have been using GitHub for years to create software code, and it's amazing to see those practices, practices that embody a culture of openness, egalitarianism, and transparency being applied to the creation of White House’s Open Data policy as well. Technology is increasingly allowing us to blur the line between government and the public, bringing us to a tipping point where it is easier to work together than alone. If this is just the start, I can't wait to see where putting this kind of collaborative cultural technology in the hands of the already vibrant open government community is going to take us next.”

Ron Conway, Special Adviser to SV Angel: "The President has taken an historic step in making government more open and accessible to the people, just as the Founders intended. As tech entrepreneurs improve our lives through transformative innovations, open government data will be an important tool in their success."

David Eaves, Public Policy Entrepreneur, Open Government Activist, and Negotiation Expert: “The new "open data by default" executive order shows not only the White House's continued commitment to being a world leader in open data, but an effort to foster a 21st century government that is both more efficient and a more effective servant to the private, public and non-profit sectors. Two things leave me particularly excited. The executive order positions both the United States government to be leaner and its economy to be more productive thanks to the reduced transaction costs of sharing open data. The emphasis on health, energy and safety data could improve lives and save money if entrepreneurs enable citizens to access this important information at key decision making moments.”

Hudson Hollister, Executive Director of the Data Transparency Coalition: "Open data, as the White House has defined it, will transform our government - by automating reporting processes; by bringing appropriators and managers granular spending and performance knowledge; and by enabling analytics to detect waste and fraud. Open data will also boost our economy - by providing actionable intelligence for investors; by streamlining compliance to energize private-sector productivity; and by creating untold opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators to build the platforms and apps that will do all these things. Our members are eager to help implement the ambitious road map the Open Data Policy has laid out."

Carl Malamud, President, PublicResource.Org: “This memorandum is the most significant advance in information policies by the federal government since the passage of the Freedom of Information Act."

Sean Moulton, Director of Open Government Policy at the Center for Effective Government: “President Obama's executive order reaffirms the administration's commitment to transparency and lays a framework for agencies to improve public access to, and use of, government data. For too long, valuable public information has been locked away in file cabinets and poorly designed IT systems. Today's policy points a new way forward and takes concrete steps to make public information open by default. Properly implemented, this policy will allow Americans to know more about their government's activities and critical issues that affect their lives, including public health, safety, and the environment. Access to this information is crucial to our democracy and the government's effectiveness. It allows Americans to actively engage in policymaking in a thoughtful, informed manner and to hold public officials accountable for decisions that impact us all.”

Beth Noveck, Founder and CEO, GovLab (and former US Deputy CTO):“The President's steadfast commitment to open government makes clear that the public's information must be accessible and reusable. Open data enables people to help government solve problems. We're on our way to tackling the hardest problem of all: rebuilding trust and partnership between government and citizens.”

Tim O’Reilly, Founder of O’Reilly Media (via Twitter): “Open data is to the 21st century as the highway system was to the 20th. POTUS recognizes this with an executive order…”

Kevin Richards, Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs, TechAmerica: “Access to the monumental amount of government data will fuel untold numbers of new innovative ideas in this country. By making open data the default policy of the entire federal government instead of discretionary, President Obama has handed the U.S. technology industry a key to expand our global leadership in this era of Big Data.”

Yaron Samid, Founder & CEO, BillGuard: “BillGuard is a national transaction monitoring and resolution network fueled by private and public sector consumer complaint data. Today's groundbreaking executive order to open government data will put millions of hard earned dollars back in the pockets of American citizens. We're grateful and proud of this forward-thinking administration and inspired by all the innovation that will come from today's order. Data drives innovation. Innovation drives economies.”

Jennifer Toney, CEO, WeMakeItSafer: “WeMakeItSafer builds web applications to help bridge the safety-information gap between manufacturers and their end-user customers. Since launching about two years ago and growing almost purely by word of mouth, our web apps have been used by a million people, preventing an estimated 3,000 injuries. We would not have been able to accomplish this without the availability of government data related to product safety and recalls. We are thrilled that President Obama continues to make open data a priority and, with his recent Executive Order, we know that we will be able to more efficiently add new features and applications to better serve US consumers and companies in the future.”

John Wonderlich, Policy Director, Sunlight Foundation: “We're thrilled that the President (and some very dedicated staff) have been listening, and are aggressively pursuing a strong vision for what open data should mean. Changing the default to open takes more than political commitments and enthusiastic rhetoric, and today's new policies mark a new aggressive move to pursue that idea.”

Nick Sinai is US Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Haley Van Dyck is Senior Advisor to the US Chief Information Officer at the White House Office of Management and Budget

A Strategy for the Arctic, Informed by Sound Science

John P. Holdren and Brendan P. Kelly — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:19:52 +0000

Today, the Obama Administration released the first-ever National Strategy for the Arctic Region—an approach to protecting national security, promoting environmental stewardship, supporting native cultures, providing for appropriate economic development, and strengthening international cooperation in the Arctic region. The Strategy, which was developed by an interagency team of Administration experts with significant input from the State of Alaska and Alaska Native organizations, articulates several key objectives for Federal activity in the Arctic over the next decade—including increased scientific understanding of the region.

The Strategy is guided by the Nation’s interest in safeguarding peace and stability in the Arctic; ensuring that resource management decisions are based on the best available information; strengthening and forging public-private and international partnerships; and coordinating Arctic-based efforts with Alaska Natives. It also serves to focus our national efforts in the Arctic at a time when the region is undergoing rapid environmental change.

Fast-melting ice on land and at sea has important implications for natural Arctic environments, human well-being, national security, transportation, and economic development. For instance, in addition to contributing to further global warming, diminishing sea-ice changes the distribution of species found in regional ocean waters, which in turn can have profound effects on local economies. Waning sea-ice also changes ocean circulation patterns and navigation pathways, with significant impacts for commercial and military navigation.

Addressing these and other threats will require close collaboration with international and regional partners, as well as the continued collection and synthesis of the best available scientific information about the region.

That’s why the Strategy calls for focused attention on better understanding the role of land ice in changing sea levels; the role of sea-ice in the global climate; and the effects of warming permafrost on infrastructure and climate. It also recognizes that scientists stand to benefit from the knowledge and insights of indigenous communities living and working in the Arctic region.

Coupled with improved maps and charts of the Arctic region (vast areas of the Arctic Ocean remain unexplored), this strengthened understanding will foster more informed decisions about how to protect the Arctic environment, conserve its natural resources, and manage its productive and sustainable development.

Much of this scientific work is being coordinated by the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee—a team of experts representing 14 Federal agencies and departments who earlier this year released a new 5-year Arctic research plan that will support many of the science-related components of the new Strategy.

Read the press release
Read the Strategy

John P. Holdren is Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of OSTP

Brendan P. Kelly is Assistant Director for Polar Science at OSTP

Games Win Big in Education Grants Competition

Mark DeLoura and Edward Metz — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:56:17 +0000

In Filament Games’ "Reach For The Sun," students grow a sunflower from a seed into a full plant by “doing” photosynthesis. (Image by Filament Games)

“I’m calling for investments in educational technology that will help create… educational software that’s as compelling as the best video game. I want you guys to be stuck on a video game that’s teaching you something other than just blowing something up.” - President Obama, March 2011

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced the final winners of this year’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract awards—funds that are reserved for entrepreneurial small businesses using cutting-edge R&D to develop commercially viable technologies to solve tough problems. And there’s something that may surprise you about the winning contracts: More than half—or 12 in all—are for games and game-related projects, more than in any previous year. That says a lot about the increasingly creative field of educational games, and the growing base of evidence indicating that games can be an important and effective component of our strategy to prepare a highly skilled 21^st century American workforce.

The SBIR program at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Department of Education’s research division, provides up to $1.05 million to small businesses for the R&D of commercially viable education technology products. The program holds an annual competition and awards funds in several phases: Phase I awards, up to $150,000 for 6 months, allow for the development of a prototype and research to demonstrate its functionality and feasibility; and Phase II awards, up to $900,000 for 2 years, are for full-scale development of the product, iterative research to refine it, and a pilot study to demonstrate its usability, feasibility, and promise. A small number of Fast Track awards are made each year for funds to cover work in both Phase I and Phase II.

This year’s prominent success of games-related proposals reflects three factors. First, the IES SBIR program has gained a reputation for recognizing and supporting—and so increasingly, attracting—bold innovators such as Filament Games (winner of the National STEM Video Game Challenge in 2011), Sokikom (winner of several industry awards and recent recipient of $1M in angel funding), and Triad Interactive Media (winner of a 2013 SIIA CODiE award). Second, educators are increasingly learning to use games to motivate students in new ways, creating increased demand for new ideas and products in this sector. Third, the recent meteoric rise in popularity of mobile devices has enabled game-playing anywhere and at any time, providing an expanded market of players interested in purchasing education titles.

This year’s SBIR games winners share several themes:

Most include an adaptive component that auto-adjusts the game difficulty to the competency level of the player.
Several use story-based narratives to engage students.
Most include rewards and competition to drive game play.
Most include a teaching component that supports the implementation of the game as a supplement to or replacement for standard instructional practice.
Several include teacher dashboards, where formative assessment results are provided to the teacher in real-time to inform them of player status for further instruction and remediation.

The winning 2013 IES SBIR awards for games this year are:

Phase I

World Explorador, CurriculaWorks, Lynn Krause
Readorium Rising Reader: Smart Nonfiction Comprehension Software for Students in Grades 3-5., Mtelegence, Harriet Isecke
Transmedia: Augmented Reality Game for Essential Transfer of Science, Second Avenue Software, Victoria Van Voorhis
Science4U: Game-Based K2 STEM Education for Teachers and Students, vKiz, Inc., Catherine Christophe

Phase II

Hall of Heroes: An Interactive Social Tutoring System to Improve and Measure Social Goals for Students in Preparation for Transition to Middle School, 3C Institute for Social Development, Melissa DeRosier (video)
Go Games: Meeting Common Core Standards with Tablet-Enhanced Multiplayer Role Play Games, Filament Games, Beth Quinn (video)
Empires: The First Socially-Networked Story-Based Math Game, Imagine Education, Scott Laidlaw (video)
Teachley: MathFacts – Design and Development of Intervention Software for Promoting Single-Digit Operational Fluency, Teachley, LLC, Kara Carpenter (video)
Numbershire II: Development of a Second Grade Game-Based Integrated Learning System to Target Whole Numbers and Operations in Base Ten and Operations in Algebraic Thinking, Thought Cycle, LLC, Marshall Gause (video)

Fast Track (Phase I & II)

Dynamic E-Learning to Improve Postsecondary Transition Outcomes for Secondary Students with High Functioning Autism, 3C Institute for Social Development, Debra Childress
Mission US: An Interactive Solution for Middle School History Learning, Electric Funstuff, David Langendoen
SciSkillQuest: A Standards-Based Game to Develop Students’ Scientific Skills, Academic Mindsets, and Learning Strategies in Science, Mindset Works, Inc., Lisa Sorich Blackwell

Information about other awards can be found here.

Congratulations to all the winners and we can’t wait to see what’s coming next!

Mark DeLoura is Senior Advisor for Digital Media at OSTP

Edward Metz is a developmental psychologist and Director of the Institute of Education Sciences’ Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

Open Data for Climate and Health Insights

Tom Armstrong — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:28:54 +0000

Today, in conjunction with a series of landmark steps announced by the Obama Administration to unleash troves of useful data from the vaults of government, the interagency US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) launched a new online tool that promises to accelerate research relating to climate change and human health—the Metadata Access Tool for Climate and Health, or “MATCH.”

The Administration announcements made today include an Executive Order signed by the President declaring that information is a valuable national resource and strategic asset, and a new government-wide Open Data Policy requiring that, going forward, data generated by the government shall be made available in open, machine-readable formats. The move will make troves of previously inaccessible or unmanageable data more readily available to entrepreneurs, researchers, and others who can use open data as fuel for innovation, businesses and new services and tools.

MATCH is one such tool, driven by open data, which could open the door for new scientific insights in the public health and climate science communities. It is a publicly accessible digital platform for searching and integrating metadata—standardized contextual information—extracted from more than 9,000 health, environment, and climate-science datasets held by six Federal agencies.

Screenshot of the Metadata Access Tool for Climate and Health (MATCH), the US Global Change Research Program's online tool for researchers that offers centralized access to metadata ‐ standardized contextual information ‐ about thousands of government-held datasets related to health, the environment, and climate-science.

The public health community has long recognized that environmental factors, including climate change, can have both direct and indirect impacts on human health. Increasingly severe heat waves, for example, have already wrought serious negative impacts on the elderly and other sensitive populations in parts of the United States and other regions of the world.

As climate change continues to boost the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, floods, and droughts—and as temperature shifts and related phenomena alter the endemic ranges of disease-carrying mosquitoes and other vectors—it has become more important to understand how these phenomena could affect—and in some cases already are affecting—the occurrence and severity of respiratory illness, allergies, infectious diseases, heat stroke, and other conditions that affect millions of people across the United States and in other nations.

MATCH will help researchers and public health officials integrate the latest information from across environmental and health disciplines in order to inform more effective responses to climate and health threats. For instance, using MATCH, a scientist can search metadata records to pinpoint environmental datasets about flooding frequency in a certain region of the United States and health datasets about outbreaks of waterborne diseases in the same location in order to investigate correlations between the two—a synthesis that could produce actionable insights for public health professionals, regional planners, and policy-makers.

MATCH is a product of interagency collaboration coordinated by USGCRP, involving the CDC, EPA, NASA, NIH, NOAA, and USGS, and based on input from members of the academic community, and professional groups such as the American Public Health Association and American Meteorological Society. Many of the metadata records now retrievable through MATCH—and their corresponding datasets—were previously in difficult-to-access agency archives or stored in non-interoperable formats.

MATCH is an important addition to the growing stores of datasets and data-processing tools being made available in open and machine-readable formats by the Obama Administration and whose expansion will accelerate under the Executive Order and Open Data Policy released today.

That policy—which is dedicated to making the government more transparent and digital data more widely available to the public, entrepreneurs, and innovators, while protecting confidentiality and security—promises to help scientists and researchers generate insights and products that protect health and improve lives.

You can access MATCH here.
You can learn more about climate and health here.
You can learn more about the Administration's open data efforts here.

Tom Armstrong is Executive Director of the US Global Change Research Program

Seeking Outstanding “Open Science” Champions of Change

Anjelika Deogirikar and Michael Stebbins — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:55:33 +0000

On June 20, the White House will host a Champions of Change event to highlight outstanding individuals, organizations, or research projects promoting and using open scientific data and publications to accelerate progress and improve our world. The White House Champions of Change program highlights individuals, businesses, and organizations whose extraordinary stories and accomplishments positively impact our communities.

Access to scientific research can help fuel entrepreneurship, innovation, and scientific breakthroughs. Freely available data generates new ideas, builds new businesses, and generates economic growth that impacts the lives of Americans every day.

That’s why, in February 2013, OSTP Director John P. Holdren issued a memo to the heads of Federal agencies that aims to increase public access to the results of federally-funded research—including scientific data and publications.

Open sharing of research results is a proven strategy for driving positive change. For example, the rapid and open sharing of genomic data from the Human Genome Project revolutionized biomedical research, spurred major growth in the biotechnology industry, and provided $140 in economic returns for every dollar of public investment. And, the Federal Government’s liberation of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite data led to an explosion of geospatial information systems and the creation of many companies, smartphone apps, and car navigation systems.

We are asking for your help to identify “Open Science” Champions of Change—outstanding individuals, organizations, or research projects promoting and using open scientific data for the benefit of society. For example, a Champion’s work may involve:

Providing free access to data or publications generated from scientific research; or
Leading research that uses publically available scientific data.

Anyone can nominate an “Open Science” candidate for consideration by May 14, 2013 (under “Theme of Service,” choose “Open Science”). In the “Reason for Nominating” section of the nomination form, please also include information about any upcoming open-science-related announcements or new steps that the individual or organization you are nominating has planned, which could potentially be launched at the Champions of Change event.

Anjelika Deogirikar is a Student Volunteer at OSTP

Michael Stebbins is Assistant Director for Biotechnology at OSTP

White House Champions of Change: Seeking Immigrant Innovators and Entrepreneurs

Doug Rand — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:10:28 +0000

This article is cross-posted on the Champions of Change blog

The White House Champions of Change program highlights the stories of people across the country who are strengthening their communities and moving America forward.

In just a few weeks, the White House Office of Public Engagement will host a Champions of Change event focused on immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs – the best and brightest from around the world who are helping create American jobs, grow our economy, and make our Nation more competitive.

The facts are clear: Immigrants make America more prosperous and entrepreneurial. Immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business in the United States as the native-born, and more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies – from GE and Ford to Google and Yahoo! – were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.

Moreover, immigrants generate extraordinary innovation as scientists and engineers. Immigrants represent 50 percent of PhDs working in math and computer science and 57 percent of PhDs working in engineering. By some estimates, immigration was responsible for one third of the explosive growth in patenting in past decades, and these innovations contributed to increasing U.S. GDP by 2.4 percent.

We are asking for your help to identify immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs who may be “Champions of Change.” For example, a champion could be the founder of a growing U.S. company, or a graduate student working on breakthrough research at a U.S. university.

Nominate an immigrant innovator or entrepreneur as a Champion of Change. (Under “Theme of Service,” choose “Immigrant Innovators and Entrepreneurs.”)

Please submit nominations no later than 6pm ET on Sunday, May 12.

We also encourage you to learn more about President Obama’s plan to fix our broken immigration system and share your own immigration story.

Doug Rand is a Senior Policy Advisor at OSTP

Full Speed Ahead for Open Ag Data

Todd Park and Tom Vilsack — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:24:13 +0000

This article is cross-posted on the USDA blog

Participants in the G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture, including US Chief Technology Todd Park, listen to opening remarks by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Apr. 29, 2013. (USDA photo by Bob Nichols)

Last week, hundreds of innovators gathered at the World Bank IFC Center to brainstorm about how Open Data can be harnessed to help meet the challenge of sustainably feeding nine billion people by 2050. The group included delegates from the G-8 group of nations, US Government officials, private sector partners, Open Data advocates, technology experts, and nonprofit leaders – all participants in the first-of-its-kind G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture.

The foundation for such collaboration was set by President Obama’s first ever global development policy which emphasizes broad-based economic growth, innovation, and partnership; and the President’s leadership on food security through the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative and Feed the Future. Then, at the 2012 G-8 Camp David Summit, the G-8 nations, African partners, the private sector and civil society launched the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and committed to host a conference focused on sharing relevant data to help advance agriculture and ensure food security for people around the world. At the end of the year, the White House hosted a Global Development Data Jam—the first high-level U.S. Government event to feature the potential of Open Data to address global challenges.

Last week’s G-8 “Open Ag Data” conference hosted by the USDA, built on this important groundwork by focusing on ways to ensure that Open Data about agriculture are not only available, but also put to good use. It also highlighted some excellent work that’s already underway and making positive change in the Open Ag Data arena, including:

MFarm has built a mobile application that allows farmers to receive accurate, real-time crop-price information from five major markets in Kenya, via daily text message, six days per week. The service helps farmers to make informed decisions on what to plant when, how to price produce, and where to sell to the largest profit. MFarm is currently refining their service and will soon begin integrating USAID data into their product to help deliver more accurate price information to users.
INSEAD has introduced Toto Agriculture, a smartphone interface fueled by USAID data that provides village-specific agricultural data. Users can use this free application to access localized information on soil, pests, climate, and planting tips in over 100 languages.
iPlant: A community driven collaborative of researchers, educators, and students working to enrich all plant sciences through the development of the cyberinfrastructure essential for modern biology. The collaborative can sequence the genome of an individual cow in 3 hours, taking the time of sequencing from months down to hours.

But this is just the beginning. At last week’s conference, USDA, USAID, and a number of other entities—both domestic and international—unleashed a host of new datasets, tools, and platforms—with more to come in the weeks and months ahead. For our part, the U.S. Government:

Launched The Food, Agriculture, and Rural “data community” on Data.gov, which offers more than 300 datasets (and growing!) that relate to the social, economic, and environmental aspects of agriculture. For example, the new community offers Quick Stats—a comprehensive tool for accessing agricultural data profiles by subject area or commodity, such as crops and plants, or livestock. Over the next few months, USDA will make these data available in a robust Application Programming Interface (API) to enable easier sharing of data by third party applications and services.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation released an open evaluation data catalog that contains household survey metadata from food security programs in Armenia, El Salvador, Ghana, and the Philippines, and more data is coming soon.
Launched USAID.gov/Developer, a page that curates APIs and datasets specifically for developers looking to scrub in and work with open global development data. APIs include the U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants, or Greenbook, which encompasses all international aid funding allocations. This data will help developers and researchers more dynamically parse these data, that goes all the way back to the Marshall Plan.

We can’t wait to see what entrepreneurs, nonprofits, researchers, scientists and others around the world do with these new resources, and what exciting innovations emerge. We’re also excited to strengthen our partnership with other countries and the private sector to further liberate data and improve global food security.

The G-8 Open Data for Agriculture Conference was a great start. We look forward to seeing the Open Ag Data movement continue—leveraging data, collaboration, and innovation to accelerate progress toward our food security goals.

There are steps you can take right now to get involved in the Open Ag Data movement:

Visit the new Food, Agriculture, and Rural data community on Data.gov
Join the conversation about Open Agriculture Data using the hashtag #OpenAgData on Twitter
Check out USAID’s new Developer Resource Page
Read a blog and watch a video from the G-8 Open Agriculture Data conference.

Todd Park is the US Chief Technology Officer

Tom Vilsack is the US Secretary of Agriculture

Green Button: Enabling Energy Innovation

Monisha Shah and Nick Sinai — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:12:40 +0000

This article is cross-posted from the Council on Environmental Quality blog

Last year, in response to the Obama Administration’s call to action, 35 utilities and energy providers committed to provide 36 million homes and businesses with their own energy usage information in the consensus, industry-standard Green Button format.

Not only are utilities implementing Green Button Download My Data across the country for homes and businesses to securely download their information, but utilities in California and the Mid-Atlantic are beginning to implement Green Button Connect My Data functionality— making it easier for their customers to securely transfer their own energy usage data to authorized third parties, based on affirmative (opt-in) customer consent and control. These efforts will provide more than 11 million customers with an easy and secure way to automatically and routinely participate in energy saving opportunities.

Adopting the Green Button standard will enable households and businesses to more easily use web and smartphone apps to pick the best rate plan for them; take advantage of customized energy efficiency tips; utilize easy-to-use tools to size and finance rooftop solar panels; and download virtual energy audit software that can cut costs for building owners and help get retrofits started sooner.

Today, we’re excited to see Green Button enable energy innovation through new announcements for the industry-led Green Button Initiative:

Ecova will take advantage of the Connect My Data platform to save commercial building owners money by offering more targeted energy saving opportunities.
Solar City is integrating Connect My Data into its sales consultations to help customers assess solar's potential to reduce home energy consumption and monthly electricity bills
MyEnergy is now able to convert your utility bill into electronic Green Button data for you – almost anywhere in the country.
WeatherBug-Earth Networks is integrating Connect My Data with its real-time hyper-local weather data to improve load management and save consumers money
EnerNOC is using Green Button data to quality check their real-time sensor data, and separately, has published a open data set of anonymized energy consumption data from 100 buildings in the Green Button format
Bidgely is using Connect My Data to offer appliance-level energy consumption insights to consumers
ChargePoint will use Green Button to report energy consumption data to utilities from electric vehicle charging stations
Wegowise is now using Green Button data to drive multi-family and commercial building energy efficiency
With support from the Department of Energy, the Pike Powers Laboratory and Center for Commercialization has launched a Green Button app testing center and the Pecan Street Research Institute will also make the largest open set of disaggregated and anonymized consumer energy use data available in the Green Button format.

Green Button is also adding value in the public sector. In Washington, DC, for example, the local government is working with the utility company Pepco to acquire details on energy usage in local government buildings, in order to identify opportunities to conserve energy, save money, and meet local sustainability goals. The Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program also just launched a new version of the Home Energy Yardstick tool that incorporates a Green Button feature. The Yardstick helps people compare their home’s actual energy performance to other homes.

As energy innovation continues to show promise for growing our economy, protecting privacy remains a priority for the Administration. To that end, DOE is helping to facilitate a multi-stakeholder process with utilities, privacy advocates, and others to develop a code of conduct that will help clarify for consumers and providers how energy usage data should be protected and when it can be shared.

Green Button is part of a comprehensive grid-modernization strategy, and recent estimates indicate that the Administration’s early smart grid investments have generated significant economic benefits for the American public. Investing in a modern grid – and continuing smart partnerships through the Green Button initiative - are important components of our strategy to cut energy waste in half by 2020 - and build a stronger, more resilient, and more competitive economy.

Monisha Shah is Deputy Associate Director for Energy and Climate Change at the White House Council on Environmental Quality

Nick Sinai is Deputy US Chief Technology Officer at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

The Science of Digital Fabrication

Tom Kalil and Philip Rubin — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:42:40 +0000

One of President Obama’s top priorities is advanced manufacturing—the use of cutting-edge technologies to spur innovation in product development or manufacturing processes. As he said during his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama wants to make America “a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.” That’s why his FY14 budget includes $2.9 billion for advanced manufacturing R&D, including $1 billion to launch a network of up to 15 manufacturing innovation institutes.

To advance this Presidential priority, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has been working closely with experts in industry and academia to identify advanced manufacturing technologies that could help create the industries and jobs of the future.

On March 7, 2013, OSTP and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Bits and Atoms co-hosted a workshop at MIT on the science of digital fabrication— which could one day allow individuals to design and produce tangible objects on demand, wherever and whenever they need them. The purpose of the workshop was to gather representatives from academic institutions, businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to document the state of the art today, and survey the roadmap for its future development.

Neil Gershenfeld, an MIT researcher, has said that we are on the cusp of a revolution in manufacturing that will be driven by an ability to “turn data into things and things into data.” These new capacities, he says, could ultimately be as important as the development of digital computing and communications. Workshop presentations made by a highly interdisciplinary community of researchers made clear that 3D printers are just the tip of the advanced manufacturing iceberg, noting increasing potential for the creation of:

Manufacturing processes for digital fabrication at different length-scales, from molecules to buildings;
3-D “assemblers” that can build functional structures in the same way that complex proteins are assembled from amino acids;
Programmable strands of DNA that can serve as the “glue” for assembling materials and devices at the nanoscale; and
New software tools that can dramatically reduce the time required to design, build, and test complex manufactured products.

OSTP looks forward to working with the research community to help realize these exciting visions of the future of digital fabrication.

Learn more about the Nation’s Advanced Manufacturing efforts here.

Tom Kalil is Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation at OSTP

Philip Rubin is Principal Assistant Director for Science and Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at OSTP

First Lady Michelle Obama Announces a New Program to Help Transitioning Servicemembers Get IT Jobs

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:26:50 +0000

This article is posted in full on the Joining Forces website

First Lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks at the White House Forum on Military Credentialing and Licensing, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building South Court Auditorium, April 29, 2013. The First Lady announces the IT Training and Certification Partnership, a new public-private partnership that will enable thousands of service members to earn industry-recognized information technology (IT) certifications before they transition from military service. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

In the ongoing effort to help our service members and veterans transition from active duty service to the civilian job market, the White House today invited leaders from the private sector, the military services, industry trade associations, unions, educational institutions, state legislatures, veteran service organizations, and state licensing boards for a forum on military credentialing and licensing.

At the event, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the IT Training and Certification Partnership, a new public-private program that addresses an issue that can prevent our troops from gaining employment in the private sector: Active military personnel typically do not have the industry-recognized certifications that reflect the IT skills and expertise they gained through their military service.

Read the full article here.

Read a fact sheet about the new IT Training and Certification Partnership.
Read a guest blog by a Service Member who participated in the pilot partnership.

President Obama Celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:57:34 +0000

President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the National Academy of Sciences on its 150th anniversary, in Washington, D.C., April 29, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In March of 1863, President Lincoln and Congress established the National Academy of Sciences as an independent and nonprofit institution charged with providing the government with the scientific advice that it needed. Today President Obama joined the current members of that body to celebrate the advances in science, engineering, infrastructure, innovation, education and environmental protection that can be attributed to the 150 years of work by the brilliant and committed scientists who have been elected and volunteered to serve their country.

While the National Academy of Sciences was created during the Civil War to help the Union understand the challenges new iron-clad battleships would create for the Navy,President Obama praised President Lincoln's wisdom in looking forward and recognizing that finding a way to harness the highest caliber scientific advice for the government would serve a whole range of long-term goals for the nation. And he highlighted the Academy's legacy of answering big questions and solving tough problems for the benefit of the nation.

Read the full article here.

Read the President's remarks here.

Guest Blog: How IT Training for Troops Got Me on the Job Track

Dan Wojciechowski — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:22:30 +0000

Dan Wojciechowski is a Washington National Guard Major who recently completed the IT Training and Certification Program pilot. The pilot provided him with the necessary licenses for a new position at Costco Corporate Headquarters, where he will start as an Information Security Analyst in June, 2013.

Today, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at the White House Forum on Military Credentialing and Licensing, where she announced the IT Training and Certification Program. This program will offer Service members an opportunity to receive industry-recognized information technology (IT) certifications as they transition from military service. That announcement had special meaning for me. Last year I had the great honor of being asked to participate in the pilot for the IT Training and Certification Program as part of the President's Military Credentialing and Licensing Task Force, with the goal of finding ways to smooth Service members’ transition to working in the private sector. Today’s announcements by the First Lady showed that the work the Task Force has done is definitely going to make a difference for a growing number of Service members.

I know the potential of this kind of program from personal experience. I was part of the pilot program at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State, and it has already paid significant dividends for me. Through the pilot program I have now acquired several certifications that have been huge enablers for my transition into a civilian career. Basically, the training and certification processes helped align my military experience as a signal officer in the Washington Army National Guard with the business needs of employers who are looking for people with IT skills. With those certification credentials following my name on my resume, I got a solid job at Costco Wholesale, working as an Information Security Analyst.

There are two things that make this program great. First, the program works directly with industry partners to clearly identify the skills and credentials they’re looking for when hiring new talent. Second, it allows Service members to pick up several desirable certifications in a relatively short period of time; it’s a near-term solution to a near-term problem.

This initiative has enormous potential for service members transitioning to civilian life. I know this pilot is focused on IT but this model can help Soldiers transition into any industry that requires civilian credentials. I highly encourage the Services to scale this program so that other Service men and women can get the help they need to secure rewarding civilian jobs, and I am encouraged to see the beginnings of efforts like this for other kinds of jobs, like in the medical professions, as the First Lady announced today. This seems to me a great example of government and private businesses working together for a really good cause that can help Service members, businesses, and the national economy. I would highly recommend and encourage anyone who is eligible and making plans to transition from the military to civilian life to participate to the maximum extent that they can.

Read a fact sheet about the IT Training and Certification Program here.

Standing Watch against Space Weather

Tamara Dickinson — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:17:11 +0000

Just as there is weather on Earth, there is weather in space. And though we cannot directly see or feel it when we step outside, it has the potential impact our daily lives.

“Space weather” originates on the Sun, can release the energy-equivalent of 100 hurricanes in just minutes, and can produce wind gusts that exceed one million mph. Every 11 years, the Sun undergoes a period of heightened activity called the "solar maximum”—a period that is occurring right now—that can bring especially powerful solar eruptions and hurl energetic particles into space, sometimes toward the Earth. Though the likelihood that these solar storms will thrust particles in our planet’s general direction is very low—when they do, they can damage satellites, harm astronauts in space, make GPS information erratic or undependable, and in some cases even cause electricity blackouts on the Earth.

That’s why the Federal Government works to maintain a range of sophisticated instruments on the ground and in space, which collect data on space weather phenomena spewing particles outward from the Sun. And, that’s why today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a new report, Space Weather Observing Systems: Current Capabilities and Requirements for the Next Decade—an assessment of our Nation’s capacity to monitor and forecast potentially harmful space weather aimed at ensuring these critical capabilities continue to be supported and maintained.

The report finds that Federal agencies have deployed an effective mix of space-based and ground-based systems that are needed to support both operational space-weather services and scientific research. The report also highlights the role of space weather models in complementing current space- and ground-based observing systems. Such models can be used by scientists to predict how changes in the Sun, and resulting space weather, may impact technology on Earth and in space.

While there is no space-weather channel on TV (yet!), anyone can access official US Government space weather forecasts and alerts on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Space Weather Prediction Center’s web site. Those interested in learning about the softer and aesthetic side of space weather can check out NASA’s research data and image gallery of auroras—amazing curtains of colored lights that occasionally brighten the night sky when energetic particles are released from the Sun.

The report released today can be read here.

Tamara Dickinson is a Senior Policy Analyst at OSTP.

Scientists Share Skills to Crack Cancer Cell Secrets

Robbie Barbero — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:33:47 +0000

In its November 2012 report, “Transformation and Opportunity: The Future of the U.S. Research Enterprise,” the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) encouraged the Federal Government to adopt policies that enable researchers to collaborate more efficiently. The recommendation recognized that interdisciplinary collaboration can increase productivity and innovation by ensuring that the best expertise and widest range of capacities are brought to bear on the toughest problems.

Across the Federal Government, agencies are stepping up to do just that. In one recent example, the Physical Sciences – Oncology Centers Network (PS-OC), a program run by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), assembled an interdisciplinary group of physicists, engineers, mathematicians, chemists, computational scientists, and biologists from 20 laboratories across the country to investigate the biophysical progression of malignant tumor cells.

Using identical cells and chemicals, and under carefully standardized and well-documented conditions, 95 researchers, including 46 graduate students and post-doctoral scholars, used nearly 20 distinct laboratory techniques to perform coordinated molecular and biophysical studies on tumor cells to accomplish what no scientist could have done alone: track what happens to a cell as it gains the capacity to spread to other parts of the body—a key transition that makes cancer much more difficult to treat and is the main cause of cancer-related mortality.

As part of the NCI’s PS-OC Network, the researchers were able to leverage their particular expertise, coordinate their studies, and effectively share their data with one another. For example, data from one lab’s atomic force microscopy test suggested that metastatic cancer cells feel “soft,” while data from another lab’s traction force microscopy tests suggested that those cells are much “stronger.” When metastatic cells migrate, it is thought that their “soft” properties allow them to squeeze through narrow channels to gain access to the bloodstream and migrate to organs distant from the primary tumor. However, their greater “strength” may allow cancer cells to adhere to, migrate on, and remodel their surrounding extracellular matrix during metastasis. Due to the multitude of techniques and standardized cell lines, protocols, and reagents used in this study such findings could be validated by multiple laboratories quickly.

Taken together, those kinds of observations of physical properties of cells could potentially be used in clinical applications to help to identify cells that are more metastatic or that are more responsive to specific types of therapy. Their collaborative study was published on April 26, 2013 in the journal Scientific Reports.

But that’s just one example of many. The National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy also fund projects that encourage interdisciplinary teams of scientists to solve big challenges by working together.

We at OSTP are excited to see government researchers reaching across disciplines and teaming up together and with university and private-sector partners to innovate on the cutting edge of science.

Robbie Barbero is an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at OSTP.

Leveraging Open Data, Building Apps for Public Safety

Posted by Tom Power and Brian Forde — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:36:53 +0000

One of the core goals of the President’s Safety Data Initiative is to empower first responders and the public with information to make the safest and smartest decisions when they need it. In support of this goal, there has been a proliferation of innovative public safety apps—a number of which have been highlighted at the OSTP-supported Safety Datapalooza—using open data from local governments and Federal agencies.

The Red Cross Hurricane and Earthquake apps, for example, put lifesaving information in the hands of people who live in or are visiting hurricane- and earthquake-prone areas, giving instant access to local information on what to do before, during, and after hurricanes or earthquakes. And the PulsePoint app empowers citizens trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to provide life‐saving assistance to heart attack victims by notifying those trained citizens when someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency. The app also directs citizen rescuers to the location of the closest publicly accessible Automated External Defibrillator.

To make this growing number of public safety apps more available and useful, organizations supporting the first responder community have begun to aggregate and promote them. Yesterday, for example, saw the launch of a new public safety application community, “AppComm,”created by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International.

Separately, in support of the President’s call to improve public safety and emergency preparedness, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) had its latest board meeting on Tuesday.

An independent authority within the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, FirstNet was established to design and deploy a nationwide interoperable wireless broadband network for the Nation’s first responders. At the group’s Tuesday meeting, FirstNet Chairman Sam Ginn—who has promoted the idea of one-stop first-responder app stores—announced the appointment of Bill D’Agostino, Jr., as FirstNet’s General Manager. We congratulate Bill on his new role and look forward to FirstNet’s exploration of new ways to harness and expand the community of application developers to create new, easy-to-use, public safety applications.

Tom Power is U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications at OSTP

Brian Forde is Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Mobile and Data Innovation at OSTP

White House Announces Girl emPower as Equal Futures Challenge Notable App

Sarah Hurwitz and Brian Forde — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:06:28 +0000

This article is cross-posted on the Council on Women and Girls blog.

At the UN General Assembly in September 2011, President Obama issued the following challenge:

“This week, the United States signed a new Declaration on Women’s Participation. Next year, we should each announce the steps we are taking to break down economic and political barriers that stand in the way of women and girls. That is what our commitment to human progress demands.”

In response, the United States is working with countries around the world as part of a new international effort – the Equal Futures Partnership – to politically and economically empower women in each of our countries. As part of this effort, the White House launched the Equal Futures App Challenge to spur the creation of apps that inspire girls to become leaders in our democracy. Check out this video message about the challenge from President Obama:

After a rigorous round of review from our panel of distinguished judges – including Jack Dorsey, Creator and Co-Founder of Twitter, and Academy Award-winning actor and advocate, Geena Davis – we’re thrilled to announce our notable app: Girl emPower, created by Laura Phelps and Andrew Cavanagh.

This free iPad app includes the following features designed to inspire girls to serve as leaders in our government:

A map highlighting women members of Congress all across the country that allows users to immediately learn about their biographies, read their latest tweets about the issues they’re focusing on, review their websites, and more.
Inspiring videos of distinguished women leaders talking about their diverse career paths.
A collection of fun facts about how our government works and a quiz game that allows users to test their knowledge of what they’ve learned.

This app is ready to download – spread the word and help us inspire the civic leaders of tomorrow!

Sarah Hurwitz is Senior Advisor to the White House Council on Women and Girls

Brian Forde is Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Mobile and Data Innovation

Big Data is a Big Deal for Biomedical Research

Tom Kalil and Eric Green — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:25:57 +0000

In March 2012, the Obama Administration launched a $200 million Big Data Research and Development Initiative. By improving our ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data, the initiative promises to help accelerate the pace of discovery in science and engineering, strengthen our national security, transform teaching and learning, and improve health outcomes while lowering costs.

Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health announced that the President’s FY14 budget proposal will provide at least $40 million to launch a new Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) program, significantly expanding NIH’s participation in the Administration’s initiative. This program will:

Facilitate the broad use and sharing of large, complex biomedical data sets through the development of policies, resources and standards;
Develop and disseminate new analytical methods and software;
Enhance training of data scientists, computer engineers, and bioinformaticians; and
Establish Centers of Excellence to develop generalizable approaches that address important problems in biomedical analytics, computational biology, and medical informatics.

The case for this investment is clear. Biomedical researchers, health care professionals and patients are generating huge amounts of data from an array of devices such as genomic sequencing machines, high-resolution medical imagers, electronic health records, and smart phone applications that monitor patient health. The ability to visualize, manipulate, and mine Big Data provides opportunities to enhance our understanding of disease onset and progression, identify new therapeutic avenues, and speed the translation of new discoveries into improved health and health care.

In addition to the BD2K program, NIH is supporting a variety of other initiatives to accelerate the pace of discovery through the use of Big Data. For example:

The Human Connectome Project and the BRAIN Initiative (announced by President Obama earlier this month) are efforts to map neural pathways that underlie human brain function. These will set the stage to discover abnormal brain circuits that contribute to neurological and psychiatric disorders.
The Cancer Genome Atlas project applies large-scale genome sequencing to accelerate our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer
PhysioNet offers online access to large collections of complex physiologic signals, such as cardiac rhythms and gait dynamics, and related open-source data analysis software to catalyze research advances in the underlying mechanisms of health, disease, and aging.

As Big Data challenges in biomedical research are shared with other areas of scientific research, BD2K will also require effective collaboration and coordination with other government agencies tackling similar challenges, including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, as well as privately funded efforts. Big Data can accelerate the translation of data to bedside applications that advance the detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. With proper investments and coordination with other government agencies and private sector stakeholders, NIH can help realize the health benefits of the Big Data revolution.

Tom Kalil is Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation at OSTP

Eric Green is Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute

Seeking Stellar “Citizen Scientists” as White House Champions of Change

Joan M. Frye — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:46:04 +0000

Every day, across the country, ordinary Americans known as “citizen scientists” make critical contributions to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by collecting, analyzing, and sharing a wide range of data—from weather phenomena, to sightings of migrating birds, to the timing of flower blooms at different latitudes. Now, the White House is preparing to honor some of the Nation’s most effective contributors to these important but sometimes-overlooked public servants.

Public participation in scientific research, also known as citizen science, is not a new phenomenon. In fact, before the establishment of discipline-specific training programs in the 18th and 19th centuries, most scientific research was carried out by amateurs. Many of our country’s most prominent scientists got their first taste of science by participating in citizen-science projects, and even today—despite the ascendance of a professional scientific corps—society has much to gain by including non-experts in the scientific enterprise. Among other benefits, public engagement in science can help citizens critically consider science-related public policy questions, make more informed decisions regarding the pros and cons of new technologies, and provide knowledgeable input about how tax dollars should be spent.

Today, advances such as Internet-based social media platforms and other information technology resources are increasingly allowing individuals to share information over large distances, enabling like-minded citizens to participate in research projects at unprecedented levels. Many practicing scientists today are discovering that citizen scientists play an indispensable role, by helping to collect and analyze data at unparalleled rates and over wide geographical distances.

To recognize the substantial contributions and achievements of citizen scientists across the Nation, the White House will host a Champions of Change event on Citizen Science on June 4, 2013. The White House Champions of Change program highlights the stories and examples of ordinary citizens who are doing extraordinary things for their communities, their country, and their fellow citizens. This event will focus on individuals or organizations that have demonstrated exemplary leadership in engaging the broader, non-expert community in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) research. Of particular interest are efforts by individuals or organizations to include women, the economically disadvantaged, persons with disabilities, and racial and ethnic minorities underrepresented in STEM.

Do you know a citizen science leader who is using citizen science to help catalyze positive change in his or her community? Members of the public are invited to nominate candidates for consideration.

Click here to nominate a Citizen Science Champion of Change before April 30, 2013 (under “Theme of Service,” choose “Citizen Science").

Joan M. Frye is a Senior Policy Analyst at OSTP

Young Scientists and Innovators Amaze President Obama at the White House Science Fair

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:33:40 +0000

This article is cross-posted on the White House blog.

President Barack Obama talks with Evan Jackson, 10, Alec Jackson, 8, and Caleb Robinson, 8, from McDonough, Ga., while looking at exhibits at the White House Science Fair in the State Dining Room, April 22, 2013. The sports-loving grade-schoolers created a new product concept to keep athletes cool and helps players maintain safe body temperatures on the field. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

President Obama today celebrated the remarkable achievements of student science fair winners and extraordinary kid innovators from across the nation in the third White House Science Fair. The Fair brought 100 students from more than 40 states to an all-day, hands-on celebration of the power and potential of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

As the President said in 2009, when he announced the first-ever White House Science Fair, “If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you've produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.”

Read the full article here.

Watch videos from the White House Science Fair

Check out the first-ever White House "Vine" with LeVar and Bill Nye

Watch a "vine" of the President riding a bike-powered project

Read the President's remarks

Read a Fact Sheet about the Science Fair

Learn more about the student presenters and attendees of the White House Science Fair

Statement on the Launch of Antares

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:28:24 +0000

Following today's launch of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket, John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, issued the following statement:

"Today's successful test flight of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket from the spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, demonstrates an additional private space-launch capability for the United States and lays the groundwork for the first Antares cargo mission to the International Space Station later this year. The growing potential of America's commercial space industry and NASA's use of public-private partnerships are central to President Obama's strategy to ensure U.S. leadership in space exploration while pushing the bounds of scientific discovery and innovation in the 21st century. With NASA focusing on the challenging and exciting task of sending humans deeper into space than ever before, private companies will be crucial in taking the baton for American cargo and crew launches into low-Earth orbit. I congratulate Orbital Sciences and the NASA teams at Wallops, and look forward to more groundbreaking missions in the months and years ahead."

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Taking the Pulse of Our Planet: New Strategy for Earth Observations

Peter Colohan — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:04:51 +0000

Ever wonder where the Weather Channel gets its data? Where the satellite images for Google Earth come from? These data and much more come from a complex array of satellites, ocean buoys, stream gauges, human surveys, and other platforms for collecting what the scientific community calls Earth observations. These data are used every day to protect life and property and answer key questions about our planet.

Today, the Obama Administration’s National Science and Technology Council released a National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations—a framework for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nation’s Earth-observation enterprise. Currently, 11 Federal departments and agencies engage in Earth observation activities, collecting volumes of important data about the Earth on an ongoing basis, using an array of sophisticated tools and systems. The new Strategy outlines a process for evaluating and prioritizing Earth-observation investments according to their value to society in critical areas such as agriculture, global change, disasters, water resources, and weather.

Each year, the U.S. Government invests significant resources in Earth-observations systems to collect data about Earth’s land, oceans, ecosystems, and atmosphere. Together, these systems take the pulse of our planet, providing critical Earth-system data that scientists and analysts can then turn into usable information about climate and weather, disaster events, land-use changes, ecosystem health, natural resources, and more. Ultimately, information and services derived from Earth-observation data—including some as ubiquitous as weather forecasts and GPS-navigation—are used by policy makers, resource managers, business leaders, first-responders, and citizens to make important day-to-day decisions.

But as the Nation’s Earth-observation capacity has grown, so has the complexity of the Earth-observation endeavor. The demand for data, the complexity of the tools required to collect those data, and the sheer amount of data being collected, all are increasing. The National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations aims to help Federal agencies face these challenges by better-organizing existing Earth-observation systems and information, and coordinating plans for future projects. In support of the Obama Administration’s Open Data Initiatives, this Strategy also provides specific guidance on how agencies can make these Earth observations more open and accessible to the public.

Going forward, the Strategy will be used as a basis to inform a broad National Plan for Civil Earth Observations—a blueprint for future investments in US Earth-observing systems, including agency roles and responsibilities, and creative solutions to challenges related to maintaining the Nation’s Earth-observing systems. It will also reinforce the United States’ ongoing commitment to work with international partners through the multi-national Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

The Strategy released today provides an evidence-based framework for routine assessment and planning across the entire family of Federal agencies engaged in Earth observations. It will help agencies compare notes, prioritize activities, and improve the quality of data about the planet—with the ultimate goal of meeting society’s most pressing data and information needs.

Read the Strategy here.

Learn more about global Earth-observation efforts here.

Peter Colohan is a Senior Policy Analyst at OSTP

Unleashing the Power of Big Data

Tom Kalil and Fen Zhao — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:04:45 +0000

Last year, the Obama Administration announced the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative—a major step toward addressing the challenge and opportunity of “Big Data.” Big Data are data sets so large, complex, or rapidly-generated that they can’t be processed by traditional information and communication technologies. At its launch, the Big Data Initiative featured more than $200 million in new commitments from six Federal departments and agencies aiming to make the most of the explosion of Big Data and the tools needed to analyze it.

Every day, decision makers, resource manager, engineers, first-responders, scientists, and citizens are faced with a multitude of constantly flowing data streams coming from many sources, in many formats. Making sense of these volumes of Big Data requires cutting-edge tools and technologies that can analyze and extract useful knowledge from vast and diverse streams of information. Wrapping our arms around Big Data could lead to an array of important societal benefits—from empowering consumers with the full landscape of information they need to make optimal energy decisions; to enabling civil engineers to monitor and identify at-risk infrastructure; to informing more accurate predictions of natural disasters; and more.

As we enter the second year of the Big Data Initiative, the Obama Administration is encouraging multiple stakeholders, including federal agencies, private industry, academia, state and local government, non-profits, and foundations to develop and participate in Big Data initiatives across the country. Of particular interest are partnerships designed to advance core Big Data technologies; harness the power of Big Data to advance national goals such as economic growth, education, health, and clean energy; use competitions and challenges; and foster regional innovation.

The National Science Foundation has issued a request for information encouraging stakeholders to identify Big Data projects they would be willing to support to achieve these goals. And, later this year, OSTP, NSF, and other partner agencies in the Networking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program plan to convene an event that highlights high-impact collaborations and identifies areas for expanded collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Tom Kalil is Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation at OSTP

Fen Zhao is an AAAS Fellow at OSTP

Innovative Solutions to Fight Illegal Robocalls

Cristin Dorgelo — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:48:38 +0000

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the winners of its Robocall Challenge, the agency’s first public prize competition, which resulted in a tie between two promising solutions that can help block illegal robocalls.

As many Americans know, advances in technology—amidst their numerous benefits to citizens—have had the undesirable side effect of making it cheap and easy to blast out millions of illegal pre-recorded telemarketing calls, or “robocalls.” The FTC has worked to combat this problem using all of the standard tools at its disposal– including strategic targeting, aggressive law enforcement, and coordination with experts to seek a technological solution. However, phones continue to ring with illegal robocalls. In fact, the FTC receives about 200,000 complaints each month regarding these harassing calls.

That’s why, on October 18, the FTC held a Robocall Summit in which it laid out the robocall problem and the full landscape of partial and potential solutions. At the summit, the FTC announced the Robocall Challenge, with a $50,000 prize for the individual or small group that could come up with the best technical proposal to help consumers block illegal robocalls. Organizations with 10 or more employees competed on a separate track for the large-organization non-monetary award (bragging rights only). The challenge criteria were straightforward: does it work? (50%); is it easy to use? (25%); and can it be implemented? (25%).

By the entry deadline this past January, the FTC received almost 800 diverse and creative submissions. On one end of the spectrum of submissions, consumers sent in practical tips about what they’re doing today to reduce robocalls.

On the other end of the submission spectrum, the FTC received insightful long-term proposals about policy, regulatory, and technical changes. In an effort to ensure these ambitious ideas could feed the expanding public conversation about illegal robocalls, the FTC created an opportunity for challenge participants to file a public version of their submissions.

Meanwhile, the Challenge winners designed products that can help consumers in the near term. The Robocall Challenge judges – FTC CTO Steve Bellovin, FCC CTO Henning Schulzrinne, and All Things D’s Kara Swisher – found a tie for the Best Overall Solution monetary award. The $50,000 will be split evenly between computer engineer Serdar Danis and freelance software developer Aaron Foss. Two Google engineers, Daniel Klein and Dean Jackson, won the large organization award.

The three winning solutions are variations of software filters that can block illegal robocalls using a combination of blacklists (lists of disallowed callers), whitelists (lists of allowed callers), captcha-like screening (simple steps callers can make to prove they are not machines), and other analytics. Each solution has its own methods for deployment and dealing with difficult marketplace realities such as telephony infrastructure challenges and caller ID spoofing.

We look forward to seeing the winning solutions made available to consumers soon, as demand for such products continues to increase. The FTC’s first prize competition was an effective approach to stimulate the marketplace for innovative ideas to meet this growing demand.

Prizes like the Robocall Challenge are now a standard tool for open innovation in every Federal agency’s toolbox. Federal agencies, in partnership with our private-sector and philanthropic partners, are using prize competitions to spur innovation, solve tough problems, and advance their missions. In fact, since its launch in 2010, Challenge.gov has featured more than 250 prizes offered by over 50 Federal departments and agencies.

Cristin Dorgelo is Assistant Director for Grand Challenges at OSTP

Obama Administration Releases Plan to Promote Ocean Economy and Resilience

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:20:36 +0000

Today, the Obama Administration released its final plan for translating the National Ocean Policy into on-the-ground actions to benefit the American people. With significant public input from a wide spectrum of individuals and interests, the final Implementation Plan focuses on improving coordination to speed Federal permitting decisions; better manage the ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources that drive so much of our economy; develop and disseminate sound scientific information that local communities, industries, and decision-makers can use; and collaborate more effectively with State, Tribal, and local partners, marine industries, and other stakeholders. Without creating any new regulations or authorities, the plan will ensure the many Federal agencies involved in ocean management work together to reduce duplication and red tape and use taxpayer dollars more efficiently.

“Science is the foundation upon which sound management of ocean and coastal resources is based,” said OSTP Director John P. Holdren, who co-chairs the National Ocean Council with Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. “The President’s National Ocean Policy and the new implementation plan will help advance relevant science and its application to decision-making to strengthen the economies of our coastal regions while increasing their resilience and sustaining their resources."

Read the Press Release
Read the Implementation Plan
Read what others are saying about the Implementation Plan
Learn more about the National Ocean Council

DOE Vehicle Data Challenge Fuels Innovation

Cristin Dorgelo and Ian Kalin — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:51:42 +0000

Last week, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the winners of the Apps for Vehicles Challenge. The competition challenged developers and entrepreneurs to demonstrate how the open data available about most vehicles can be used to improve vehicle safety, fuel efficiency, and comfort. DOE awarded New York-based Dash the Judges’ Prize and Michigan-based MyCarma the Popular Choice prize. Green Button Gamer, based in Massachusetts, won the Safety Innovation award and Fuel Economy Coach from Georgia received the Fuel Efficiency Innovation award.

Many people don’t think about data when they are filling up their gas tanks. But the majority of American cars have onboard data-systems that can help people in new and undiscovered ways. That’s why the Energy Department launched the Apps for Vehicles Challenge during the first-ever Energy Datapalooza last year—to spur innovators to create new technologies that improve safety and fuel efficiency.

These vehicle data systems exist because of a 1996 regulation and subsequent industry standard on emissions from vehicles. Today, when a car is inspected for compliance with those standards, mechanics simply plug in a reader to a digital port that is usually hidden under the steering wheel.

But what’s especially exciting for innovators is that those onboard diagnostics ports actually contain much more information than simply emissions data, including information about brake positions, fuel tank levels, and steering wheel positions—all of which could potentially be used to fuel new consumer applications, products, features, and services.

In just a few short months, the finalists for the Apps for Vehicles Challenge demonstrated what could be done by empowering people with access to data from their own vehicles. For example, they created new tools to measure individualized fuel consumption, expose underlying details beyond the generalized “check engine light,” recommend personalized route optimization options, offer financial advice on the purchase of a new car, or send text messages through an opt-in service when teenage family members drive over the speed limit.

These examples also demonstrate the importance of rigorous privacy protection in any transportation apps. For applications submitted in the Apps for Vehicles Challenge, personal data can only be accessed if an individual chooses to allow third-party providers to access their data.

Prizes like the Apps for Vehicles Challenge are now a standard tool for open innovation in every Federal agency’s toolbox. Federal agencies, in partnership with our private-sector and philanthropic partners, are using prize competitions to spur innovation, solve tough problems, and advance their missions. In fact, since its launch in 2010, Challenge.gov has featured more than 250 prizes offered by over 50 Federal departments and agencies. For future updates on data-driven competitions and events, please follow @ProjectOpenData on Twitter.

Cristin Dorgelo is Assistant Director for Grand Challenges at OSTP

Ian Kalin is the Presidential Innovation Fellow at the Department of Energy

Working Together to Combat Human Trafficking

Valerie Jarrett and Todd Park — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:58:49 +0000

This article is cross-posted on the White House blog

Yesterday, we hosted the first-ever White House Forum to Combat Human Trafficking. The event brought together leaders from government, the private sector, advocates and survivors, faith leaders, law enforcement, and academia to talk about what we can do, together, to end human trafficking.

We took time to honor the stories and lives of brave survivors. We noted the great progress we’ve made against this grave injustice at the national and grassroots levels. We honored the recipients of the first Presidential award for those who have led the way in fighting human trafficking. And we put our heads together to come up with more solutions that we can get to work on right away. Because even one life devastated by trafficking is one too many. That’s why President Obama’s administration is working with partners around the country and the world to eradicate human trafficking.

Last year, President Obama delivered a speech on the fight to end human trafficking at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York. There, the President said: “It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric.”

The President called on everyone to step up the fight against trafficking. And we have. Since last year, we have renewed sanctions on some of the worst perpetrators of human trafficking. We have released for public comment the Victims Services Strategic Action Plan. We have partnered with organizations and groups that help women and children escape their abusers. And we have expanded our interagency task force to include enforcement partners such as the FBI and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, along with many other Federal agencies.

Now, we are seeing the fruits of our labor. More nations around the world are passing and enforcing anti-trafficking laws. Here in the United States, we are charging a record number of predators with human trafficking violations. We are joining together with faith-based and neighborhood organizations to maximize resources and outcomes.

And we’re particularly excited about the cutting-edge technology that’s being developed to end trafficking.

At yesterday’s forum, we highlighted new technology that is being used to help victims, connect them to services, and expose traffickers. We saw exciting demonstrations of some of these tools focused on reaching victims where they are – online and on their phones -- including the Polaris Project’s new texting capability for their National Human Trafficking Hotline, a new victim outreach tool from FAIR Girls, and Thorn’s new technology-based tool that helps law enforcement better identify child sex trafficking victims in online environments.

We also heard from a panel of law enforcement officers and leaders from Palantir Technologies and J.P. Morgan Chase about how we can bring private sector innovation and technology to fight child sex trafficking.

Just today, the President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships released their report and recommendations to the President on how we can better combat trafficking. You can read more about their recommendations here.

This week’s events remind us that this is a battle we can win, when all of these voices speak as one. Together, we will continue the fight to end human trafficking.

Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. Todd Park is the United States Chief Technology Officer.