To ensure you receive your BNC Weekly Memo e-mails, please add bnc-all@ecn.purdue.edu to your address book. Current issue is at http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/Nanotechnology/mondaymemo.html [image: The BNC Monday Memo] BNC News *week of September 14, 2009 * ANNOUNCEMENTS *Semi-annual Preventive Maintenance Shutdown*: The Birck Nanotechnology Center building and process tools will be undergoing preventive maintenance and service during the week of October 5th, 2009. The *cleanroom will be closed* beginning 7:00 AM *Tuesday, October 6, 2009*, and is expected to reopen late Wednesday or early Thursday. In addition starting 7:00 AM on Thursday, October 7, 2009, no laboratory work involving exhausted hoods, biosafety cabinets or enclosures, vacuum systems, and/or gas systems can be performed. Laboratories are expected to reopen late Thursday evening or early Friday. Electrical measurements may be performed if they are not affected by significant temperature excursions in the room. The *metallization systems* require more extensive PM and cleaning so they will be taken off-line beginning *Monday, October 5th* and will be brought back on-line as the PMs are completed. The plasma etch systems, also requiring more extensive work, will be taken off-line on Tuesday and brought back on-line by Friday afternoon. As we work through this important PM activity, please continue to check Coral for tool status and availability. Additional shutdown specifics will be communicated once final details are arranged. — John R. Weaver <jrweaver@purdue.edu> *Copier/Printer Training sessions:* Tuesday, 09.15.09, 3:00PM, BRK 1222 and Friday, 09.18.09, 10:00AM, BRK 1222. If you're interested in training, please plan on attending one of these sessions. If the sessions are full, we can set up additional sessions. *Announcing the Friday Lunchtime Nano/Energy Journal Club (12 noon in 1001 BNC throughout the Fall semester)* If you have an interest in the science of nanoscale energy transport/conversion or in nanoscale approaches to energy conversion devices (thermoelectrics, photovoltaics, solid-state lighting, etc.), please join us on Fridays at lunchtime for informal "journal club"-style discussions. Students, faculty, research staff and postdoctoral researchers are welcome. When: 12-1:30, every Friday Where: 1001 BRK Lunch: Bring your own, or order ahead from Jimmy John's (have your order and $$ to Deborah Starewich, dstarewi@purdue.edu, *by Thursday at 3PM*) Format: one presenter will lead an informal critique/discussion of a recent paper or work in progress. The presenter will send a copy of the paper to Deborah a few days before the meeting, for distribution to the mailing list. Mailing list: *If you would like to participate*, please send your email address to Deborah<file:///Volumes/brkshare/Monday%20memos/dstarewi@purdue.edu> . Your commitment: If you are on the mailing list, and you have a Ph.D., you will be expected to lead a discussion at sometime in the near future! Graduate students are more than welcome to volunteer to lead a discussion as well. Timothy D. Sands <tsands@purdue.edu> *Meet and Greet* NCN/PRISM/NSAC student at the BNC for the 1st Annual NSAC/NCN/PRISM student cookout & carry-in! *ALL FACULTY, STUDENTS, & STAFF ARE WELCOME*: Friday, 10.09.09, 4-7PM, volleyball and food at the west end of building [outside]. [Flier<http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nanotechnology/NSAC-NCN-PRISM-Flier.pdf>] [RSVP<http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/events.php?center=7&year=2009&month=10&day=9&id=232> ] ------------------------------ *NSAC NEWS* *NSAC T-Shirts Available for Purchase!* Thanks to all who participated in the NSAC T-shirt design contest last spring! Adina Scott was our winner and her design is now available to order. The final T-shirt design is posted here<http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nanotechnology/resources/nsac/Tshirt_design_2009.pdf>. Please note that the T-shirt color is "Dark Heather" and is available in both men's and women's sizes. Color and size information is posted on the NSAC bulletin board located right outside the kitchen on the first floor of the Birck Nanotechnology Center. T-shirts will cost $12 each. To purchase T-shirts: 1. Fill out the order form<http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nanotechnology/resources/nsac/T-Shirt_order_form.pdf>indicating the shirt sizes you would like to order and their quantity. 2. Hand in your order form to either Caitlin Burger (BRK 2238) or Cara Smith (BRK 1092) by Wednesday, September 30th, 2009. Payment will not be accepted at this time. 3. NSAC will order the T-shirts. Once they have arrived, they will be available for pickup, at which time you will be able to pay for the order with CASH ONLY. ------------------------------ *TOURS/VISITORS* *visit nano.purdue.edu <http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nanotechnology/>and refer to "Featured Events" for the most up-to-date information * *Tuesday, 09.15.09, 3:00PM*: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering guests; tour guide to be determined *Wednesday, 09.16.09, 3:00PM*: Delegation from ECE NCKU Tiwan *Friday, 09.18.09, 9:00AM: *North Central Indiana School Study Council ------------------------------ *SEMINARS/WORKSHOPS* *visit nano.purdue.edu <http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nanotechnology/>and refer to "Featured Events" for the most up-to-date information * *Wednesday, 09.16.09, 5:30PM, PFEN 241: *SF Fellowship Application Workshop, by NSF Fellows Panel. Registration required: www.gradschool.purdue.edu/workshops The NSF Fellows Panel will consist of graduate students that authored successful NSF Fellowship applications in 2009-2010. The NSF Fellowship winner went through the same process last year as you are right now. The Fellows will share their experiences with you and be available to answer any questions you may have about the NSF Application and the process. *Thursday, 09.17.09, 4:30PM, ME 161: *"Spacetime Discontinuous Galerkin Models for the Dynamics of Materials," by Prof. Robert B. Haber, Mechanical Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Refreshments served in ME 254 at 4:00pm. *Thursday, 09.17.09, 7:00PM, Fowler Hall, STEW, PIONEERS IN ENERGY LECTURE*: "Liquid Transportation Fuels from Coal and Biomass: Technological Status, Costs and Environmental Impacts — Report on Findings of Panel on Alternative Liquid Fuels National Academy Study on America's Energy Future," by Dr. Michael Ladisch. *Friday, 09.18.09, 10:00AM-5:00PM, Indianapolis Museum of Art*: "Lugar Collegiate Energy Summit." [Agenda<http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/Nanotechnology/091409EnergySummit.pdf>] Register <http://www.lugar.senate.gov/energy/summit>. Senator Lugar is interested in building on college students’ interest in energy and sustainability issues by bringing them together and giving them the opportunity to learn from each other as well as experts in the energy field. Beyond the day of the conference, we would like to build a larger “Lugar Energy Team” made up of students and businesses who are working together to solve our nation’s energy challenges. Senator Lugar's office is prepared to serve as a resource and champion, highlighting their work and helping when possible. *Friday, 09.18.09, 2:00PM, MRGN 129*: "Technology Innovation to Commercial Translation: A case study for treatment of urethral stricture," by Dr. Parasuram (Bala) Balasubramanian, Entrepreneur-in-residence, Discovery Park. *Friday, 09.18.09, 3:00PM, BRK 1001*: "Computationally Efficient Bayesian Inference Using Polynomial Chaos Expansions," by Youssef Marzouk, Boeing Assistant Professor, Aeronautics & Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. *Refreshments will be served.* *Abstract*: Predictive simulation of complex engineering systems increasingly rests on the interplay of experimental observations with computational models. Key inputs, parameters, or structural aspects of models may be incomplete or unknown, and must be developed from indirect and limited observations. At the same time, quantified uncertainties are needed to qualify computational predictions in the support of design and decision-making. In this context, Bayesian statistics provides a foundation for inference from noisy and limited data. Computationally intensive forward models, however, can render a Bayesian approach prohibitive. Polynomial chaos expansions, typically used in the forward propagation of uncertainty, are an extremely useful tool in the inverse context as well. We introduce a stochastic spectral formulation that accelerates the Bayesian solution of inverse problems via rapid evaluation of a surrogate posterior distribution. The posterior is constructed by either stochastic collocation or stochastic Galerkin methods. Theoretical convergence results are verified with several numerical examples---in particular, parameter estimation in transport equations and in chemical kinetic systems. We also extend this approach to the inference of spatially distributed quantities in a hierarchical Bayesian setting, achieving dimensionality reduction via Karhunen-Loeve representations of Gaussian process priors. Finally, we discuss the utility of polynomial chaos expansions in optimal experimental design---choosing experimental conditions to maximize information gain in parameters or outputs of interest. A Bayesian formulation of the design problem fully accounts for uncertainty in the parameters and relevant observables. *Bio*: Prof. Marzouk is the Boeing Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests center on uncertainty quantification, inverse problems, and data assimilation in complex physical systems. His research also emphasizes application of these computational methodologies to reacting flow phenomena in energy conversion/ propulsion systems and to subsurface flow and transport processes. *Monday, 09.21.09, and Tuesday, 09.22.09, MRGN 121 RSVP to lml@purdue.edu: *4th Annual KIST [KOREA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY]-PU Global Research Laboratory (GRL) Symposium: "BioNanotechnology on a Global Stage" [Agenda<http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/Nanotechnology/091409KIST.pdf> ] *INCLUDES Monday, 09.21.09, 4:00PM, Fowler Hall, Reception follows:*"Transformation of Science into Products-Process, Examples and Trends in Serving Diverse Markets at the Interface of Biology and Nanotechnology," by Ken Bradley, ARCH Venture *INCLUDES: Tuesday, 09.22.09, 10:00AM,* *Fowler Hall, Reception follows:*"Bionanotechnology in 21st Century Healthcare," by Roderic I. Pettigrew, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) *SAVE THE DATE!* *Tuesday, 09.22.09, 7:00PM, Fowler Hall, STEW, PIONEERS IN ENERGY LECTURE*: "Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Limited Fossil Fuel Future," by Dr. Rakesh Agrawal. *CALL FOR PAPERS: deadline 09.30.09*: Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conf <http://www.scirp.org/conf/appeec2010/>. (APPEEC 2010) EI & ISTP Indexed. ======================================================================== Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC 2010) CALL FOR PAPERS Submission Deadline: Sept. 30, 2009 http://www.scirp.org/conf/appeec2010 Chengdu, China March 28-31, 2010 ========================================================================= This conference is sponsored by IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES), Sichuan University, Chongqing University, State Grid of China and Wuhan University. The proceedings will be published by IEEE, all papers accepted will be indexed by EI and ISTP. The technical areas to be covered: - Power Generation - Conventional and Renewable - Power Transmission and Distribution - Power System Management - Smart Grid For more information about this conference, please contact: appeec@scirp.org Journal Highlights Energy and Power Engineering(EPE) ISSN: 1949-243X (Print) 1949-3818 (Online) EPE free online access: http://www.scirp.org/journal/epe Journal of Electromagnetic Analysis and Applications (JEMAA) ISSN: 1942-0730 (Print) 1942-0749 (Online) JEMAA free online access: http://www.scirp.org/journal/jemaa ------------------------------ *FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES* **1. Selected funding opportunities: - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations: Round 4 – *deadline November 2*. http://www.grandchallenges.org/explorations The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for Round 4 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a US $100 million initiative to encourage unconventional global health solutions. Anyone can apply, regardless of education or experience level. Grant proposals are being accepted on the following topics: Create New Technologies for Contraception, Create New Ways to Protect Against Infectious Disease, Create New Ways to Induce and Measure Mucosal Immunity, Create Low-Cost Diagnostics for Priority Global Health Conditions. - 2010 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program (DP2). Application *Due Date(s): October 27, 2009*. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-09-011.html The NIH Director’s New Innovator (DP2) Award program was created in 2007 to support a small number of early stage investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research. The New Innovator Awards complement ongoing efforts by NIH and its Institutes and Centers to fund early stage investigators through R01 grants, which continue to be the major sources of NIH support for early stage. Awards will be for up to $300,000 in direct costs each year for five years. We anticipate that at least 33 awards will be made in fiscal year 2010. - State of Indiana Alternative Energy Projects Lt. Governor Becky Skillman has announced the opening of the Alternative Power and Energy (APE) grant program that will make $879,000 available to help offset the cost of installing a variety of alternative energy technologies. The program is designed to introduce alternative and renewable energy technologies to specific sectors of energy consumers. Hoosier businesses, not-for-profit organizations, municipalities and schools are all eligible to apply for these grants. Technologies included in the program are Solar Water Heating for domestic hot water or radiant heating, Solar Electricity, Wind Power, Micro-hydro electricity and Biomass electricity and heating. Alternative energy systems make use of non-fossil fuel resources to produce clean, home-grown electricity and thermal energy. The program is administered by the Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED). The grants are funded through the U.S. Department of Energy and the State Energy Program, but are not part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funding. Each grant is a maximum of $50,000 and will be awarded through a competitive system. Applicants are required to match the grant amount with private funding. Applications must be received by September 25, 2009. Grant awards will be announced in October. OED has offered a similar program each year since 2005. "In the last few years we have only been able to fund this program at less than half of this year's amount, " said Brandon Seitz, OED Director. "Increasing the number of grants and the size of each individual grant will mean more potential applicants will consider this program. " *Application guidelines and required forms are available online at www.Energy.IN.gov<http://www.energy.in.gov/> * 2. ARRA (stimulus) funding and limited submissions: - Information for Purdue researchers about ARRA funding opportunities and requirements may be found at http://www.purdue.edu/Research/vpr/recovery/index.shtml. New ARRA funding opportunities are posted on this site as they are issued by the sponsors. 3. Funding resources: The OVPR website includes a link entitled Funding Resources, which may be found at http://www.purdue.edu/Research/vpr/funding/funding_resources.shtml. This link includes two sections: “E-mail Alerts” and “Search Tools.” ------------------------------ *DISCOVERY PARK* *White Elephant Sale!* A white elephant sale is a sale of items (not clothing) that are hiding and unappreciated in the wrong home. These unappreciated items have been donated to and will be sold to raise money for United Way. If you would like to donate items, please contact Jackie<lanter@purdue.edu>, Mary <file:///Volumes/brkshare/Monday%20memos/schultm@purdue.edu>, or Nancy<blackn@purdue.edu>. [Flier <http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nanotechnology/091409DP1.pdf.>] ------------------------------ *PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS* Faculty, staff, and students who have fever or other influenza symptoms should seek medical care. PLEASE DO NOT REPORT TO WORK WHILE ILL. Birck Nanotechnology Center staff will be notified of an emergency situation by telephone in the order set out in the BNC’s Phone Tree (personnel should have a copy on hand in their offices and homes; contact Deborah Starewich, if you do not have the most recent copy; distributed on Thursday, 09.13.09). BNC faculty members will receive an e-mail message from Monica Allain or Tim Sands. Members of the Faculty (Professors and Research Professors) are responsible for contacting each of their group members, including graduate students, undergraduate researchers, postdoctoral fellows and research scientists. Specific instructions should be conveyed by phone if possible. All graduate students should register for the Purdue University e-mail alert system at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/mail.html. Additional information for pandemic and emergency preparation may be found at www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/faculty and http://www.purdue.edu/emergency_preparedness ------------------------------ *Submit items for memo of the week of September 21, 2009 by ****12 NOON**** on FRIDAY, 09.18.09*, to Deborah Starewich dstarewi@purdue.edu ------------------------------ *Other BNC info:* Purdue Home Page <http://www.purdue.edu/> BNC Home Page <http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/Nanotechnology/> BNC Users Forum <http://bncnano.freeforums.org/> *Links to Discovery Park Centers* Bindley Bioscience Center <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/bioscience/> e-Enterprise Center <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/E-Enterprise/> Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship<http://www.purdue.edu/dp/Entrepreneurship/> Discovery Learning Center <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/learningcenter/> Center for Advanced Manufacturing <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/cam/> Center for Environment <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/environment/> Oncological Sciences Center <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/oncological/> Cyber Center <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/cyber/> Energy Center <http://www.purdue.edu/dp/energy/> *Sign up to be:* Media Expert <http://news.uns.purdue.edu/newsweb.experts.html> Community Speaker <http://news.uns.purdue.edu/newsweb.experts.html>