NSF Briefing on Sustainability Programs

1. NSF Briefing on Sustainability Programs Presentation at INFOCOM 2010 Monday, March 17, 2010 Krishna Kant Program Director National Science Foundation (NSF) CISE/CNS/CSR kkant@nsf.gov

2. NSB-NSF 2009 Study on Sustainability • Finding 1: … A comprehensive coordinated Federal strategy is required … • Finding 2: … Private and Federal support … of R&D is inadequate. • Finding 3: … The U.S. energy economy … does not adequately value the environment ... • Finding 4: Human capital development in the sustainable energy sector is vital. • Finding 5: … Limited international engagement and collaboration inhibits progress … • Finding 6: … Strong public consensus and support … are needed to achieve a national transformation … • … & corresponding recommendations

3. NSF Environment Advisory Committee Report • Increase support of interdisciplinary environmental research and coupled human and natural systems. • Lead in developing sensor networks that monitor environmental variables & human activities with environmental consequences. • Redouble efforts promoting environmental education & public engagement. • Help policymakers utilize knowledge of environmental/socio-economic systems, complexities & tipping points. • Encourage a greater role for "citizen scientists.”

4. caveats abound; the form of the function more important than the precise values Search done by exact match from public NSF Awards DB (DHF, 1/13/10) 2009 is incomplete Total NSF “Climate Change over the Polar Ocean”, McGill University, $37,000 Award #670A765 Douglas H. Fisher (NSF)

5. Computing and Environment • Growing ecological footprint of IT • Power/energy consumption & challenges (Moore’s law, cost). • Electronic junk, toxic chemicals, water usage, … • Direct reduction • Low power design, intelligent energy management, … • Science of power management (energy complexity) • Enhancing life-times, modular design, improved manufacturing, … • IT as a helper in reducing footprint • Reduce energy use via smarter control • Remote access (telework, tele-surgery, …) • Instrumentation, monitoring & modeling (climate, species, …) • Drive policy & actions

6. CISE Funding for Environment FY10: Climate Research Initiative (CRI) ($10.0M) Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) – total of $50.0M Science and Engineering Beyond Moore’s Law (SEBML) 15.0 million). http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2011/index.jsp

7. Constraint Reasoning & Optimization Conservation and Biodiversity Resource Economics, Environmental Sciences & Engr. Balancing Environmental & Socioeconomic Needs Data & Machine Learning Dynamical Models Transformative Synthesis Expeditions in Computing (CISE) Computational SustainabilityLead PI: Carla Gomes, Cornell University Goal for Sustainability To inject computational thinkinginto Sustainability, • establishing computational sustainability as a new field • bringing new insights to sustainability challenges • preparing a new generation to grapple with long-term sustainability Renewable Energy Vision: Computer scientists can — and should —play a key role in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the way we manage and allocate our natural resources, while enriching and transforming Computer Science.

8. Climate Research Initiative • Starting in FY10 • Expected to continue & strengthened • Umbrella program w/ 5 solicitations • Earth System modeling (EaSM) • Dimensions of Biodiversity • Water Sustainability and Climate (WSC) • Ocean Acidification • Climate Change Education, Phase I • Direct CISE participation in EaSM, but CISE researchers should consider others as well.

9. Earth System Modeling • Goals • Comprehensive, reliable global and regional predictions at decadal scale. • Quantify impacts of climate change on ecological, agricultural & human systems, and vice-versa. • Effective up & down-scaling of available observational/model data. • Translate model results/uncertainties into adaptation actions. • Solicitation • $45-$50M, LoI: May 24, 2010, Deadline: June 25, 2010 • http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10554/nsf10554.htm • Proposal types • Type 1: Up to $300K/yr for community and capability building. • Type 2: Larger. Intended for Pis already involved in climate research.

10. CISE Relevant Areas in EaSM • Innovative ways of dealing with complexity and uncertainty • Instrumentation & networking for data collection. • Uncertainties in understanding, representation and calibration of various processes • Effective management of massive amounts of data, including file/storage systems. • Exascale computing architecture, algorithms, middleware, etc. • Integration of numerous processes operating at different temporal & spatial granularities • Multi-level modeling, abstraction methods, symbolic modeling, … • Uneven fidelity, granularity and availability of initialization and validation data over time & space. • Provenance tracking, robustness and repeatability of results

11. Dimensions of Biodiversity • Topic Areas • Integrated roles of genetic, taxonomic & functional biodiversity in community/ecosystem resilience, sustainability, or productivity; • Taxonomic and functional diversity influence ecological response to anthropogenic disturbances, including rapid climate change; • CISE Relevant Areas • Computational methods or technology (e.g., informatics, instrumentation, imaging, analysis) specific to integrative biodiversity studies. • Solicitation • $20M in FY2010, LoI: May 7, Full prop: June 8, 2010 • http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10548/nsf10548.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_179

12. Water Sustainability and Climate • Goals: • Potential changes in water budgets in response to climate change, and human activity, and its impact. • Theoretical frameworks/models incorporating linkages/feedbacks among various processes that allow adaptive management of water resources. • Determining how built water systems can be made reliable, resilient and sustainable. • CISE Relevant Areas: • Advances in modeling to handle complexity & uncertainty • Tools and infrastructure for informed decisions on adaptation and mitigation • Solicitation: $16M in FY2010, Proposals due April 15. • http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503452&org=GEO&from=home

13. Ocean Acidification • Goals • Understand chemistry and physical chemistry of ocean acidification. • Understand how processes at the organismal level impact the structure and function of ecosystems, e.g. through life histories, food webs, biogeochemical cycling, and other interactions; • Understand how earth system history impacts effects of ocean acidification on present day ocean. • CISE Relevant areas • Instrumentation & possibly underwater communication • Data collection, fusion and processing. • Solicitation: • $15M in FY2010, LoI March 29, Full proposal: April 26 • http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503477&org=GEO&from=home

14. Climate Change Education • Goals • Preparing a new generation of climate scientists, engineers, and technicians to provide innovative and creative approaches to understanding global climate change and to mitigate its impact; • Preparing today's U.S. citizens to understand global climate change and its implications in ways that can lead to informed, evidence-based responses and solutions. • Focus • Best theoretical approaches for teaching such a complex topic, and practical means to reach intended learner audience(s).  • Should be organized around either geographic regions w/ similar climate change impacts, or major themes (e.g., sea-level rise). • Solicitation • http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10542/nsf10542.htm • Total $20M in FY10&11m LoI due April 23, Full proposals: May 24

15. Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) • Understanding & predicting change in natural, social, and built environment through: • Short/long term observations and observational networks; • Advanced computation, data analysis, modeling, simulation and intelligent decision-making; • Research at the climate-energy-society nexus; • Innovative strategies for energy production, distribution & use; • Societal factors (e.g., vulnerability, resilience, adaptation, etc.) • Emphasis Areas • Smart adaptation and mitigation, • Earth-friendly and energy-efficient technologies, • Workforce development for economic, energy & environmental sustainability.

16. FY 2011 NSF Budget Request ($M) Request to congress: not approved budget http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2011/index.jsp

17. Conclusions • Significant upcoming funding opportunities related to Climate Change, Energy and other Sustainability issues. • CISE researchers have a significant role to play. • Start building inter-disciplinary alliances to contribute to this exciting and crucial area of research

18. For more info, please contact:Krishna Kant kkant@nsf.gov (CNS)John Cozzens jcozzens@nsf.gov (CCF)Doug Fisher dhfisher@nsf.gov (IIS)

19. Computing in the Clouds (CiC) • FY10 program using Microsoft Azure cluster • Will accept: • Supplements & EAGERs – due June 15 • New submissions: LoI: April 15, Proposals:June 15 • Contact points: • Chita Das das@nsf.gov (CCF) • Krishna Kant kkant@nsf.gov (CNS) • Frank Olkenfolken@nsf.gov (IIS) • Manish Parashar mparashar@nsf.gov (OCI)