NSF Annual Report
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NSF Annual Report 2007-2008 Submitted to the National Science Foundation April 30, 2008 1 NSF Annual Progress Report for 2007-2008 As outlined in the terms of grant DMS-0635449, the following is the Annual Progress Report for the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI), for the period August 15, 2007 – July 31, 2008. Past activities that concluded during this period and future activities of SAMSI are also discussed. 0. Executive Summary A. Outline of Activities and Initiatives for 2007-2008 and the Future................................. B. Financial Overview .......................................................................................................... C. Directorate’s Summary of Challenges and Responses..................................................... D. Synopsis of Research, Human Resource Development, and Education.......................... E. Evaluation by the SAMSI Governing Board.................................................................... Annual Report Table of Contents.......................................................................................... A. Outline of Activities and Initiatives 1. 2007-2008 Programs and Activities • Summer Program on Geometry and Statistics of Shape Spaces (July 7-13, 2007) o Tutorials (7/8/07-7/9/07) o Opening Workshop (7/10/07-7/12/07) • Risk Analysis, Extreme Events and Decision Theory (Fall 2007, Spring 2008) o Opening Workshop and Tutorials (9/16/07-9/19/07) o Workshop on Risk: Perception, Policy and Practice (10/3/07-10/04/07) o Workshop on Extremes: Events, Models and Mathematical Theory (1/22- 24/08) o Transition Workshop (5/21/08) • Random Media (Fall 2007, Spring 2008) o Opening Workshop and Tutorials (9/23/07-9/26/07) o Interface Problems Workshop (11/15/07-11/16/07) o Waves and Imaging Workshop (1/31/08-2/1/08) o Transition Workshop (5/1/08-5/2/08) • Environmental Sensor Networks (Spring 2008) o Opening Workshop (1/13/08-1/16/08) o Transition workshop (10/20/08-10/21/08) • Summer Program on Meta-analysis: Synthesis and Appraisal of Multiple Sources of Empirical Evidence (June 2-13, 2008) o Tutorials (6/2/08-6/4/08) o Opening Workshop (6/5/08-6/6/08) 2 Education and Outreach • 2-Day Workshop for Undergraduates (11/9/07-11/10/07) • Infinite Possibilities Workshop (11/2/07-11/3/07) • 2-Day Workshop for Undergraduates (2/29/08-3/1/08)) • Interdisciplinary Workshop for Undergraduates (5/19/08-5/23/08) • The Industrial Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Workshop for Graduate Students (7/21/08-7/29/08) • Graduate Courses at SAMSI o Decision Theory and Risk Analysis, Fall 2007 o Numerical Methods for Free Boundary and Moving Interfaces, Fall 2007 o Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring, Fall 2008 o Extremes and Cases Studies in Risk Analysis, Spring 2008 Planning and Brainstorming Meetings • Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation Workshop (11/1/07) 2. 2008-2009 Programs and Activities Schedule • Algebraic Methods in Systems Biology and Statistics (Fall 2008, Spring 2009) o Opening Workshop and Tutorials (9/14/08-9/17/08) o Mid-Program Workshops: TBD o Transition Workshop (mid-June, 2009) • Sequential Monte Carlo Methods (Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Summer, 2009 ) o Opening Workshop and Tutorials (9/7/08-9/10/08) o Mid-Program Workshop: TBD o Workshop on Multi-Sensor Multi-Target Tracking and Data Fusion (4/09) o Transition Workshop (10/5/09-10/6/09) • Summer Program in 2009: TBD Education and Outreach • 2-Day Workshop for Undergraduates (10/31/08-11/1/08) • Blackwell-Tapia Conference (11/14/08-11/15/08) • 2-Day Workshop for Undergraduates (2/27/09-2/28/09) • Interdisciplinary Workshop for Undergraduates (5/18/09-5/22/09) • The Industrial Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Workshop for Graduate Students (7/21/09-7/29/09) • Graduate Courses at SAMSI o Sequential Monte Carlo Methods, Fall 2008 o Algebraic Methods in Systems Biology and Statistics, Fall 2007 3. Tentative Programs for 2009-2010 • Stochastic Dynamics • Space-time Analysis for Environmental Mapping, Epidemiology and Climate Change 3 4. Developments and Initiatives • The plan for expansion of space, through an addition to the NISS building, was completed and construction is under way. • An NAC Scientific Advisory Board is being created to provide input into the initiation and development of interdisciplinary SAMSI programs. • The new Kenan K-12 Mentor program was initiated. • Michael Minion joined the SAMSI Directorate, replacing Chris Jones • A new administrative structure was implemented o An Assistant Director position was created to manage activities; Denise Auger was appointed to the position. o Rita Fortune was appointed as the financial Administrative Assistant. o Sue McDonald was appointed as the Administrative Assistant for program development. o A part-time Communications Specialist is being added. • Additional research collaborations with other institutes were initiated to enhance the overall impact of mathematics and statistics: o Activities with the National Center for Atmospheric Research have continued, including two joint postdoctoral appointments. o SAMSI in planning a variety of activities with the Canadian National Program on Complex Data Structures, involving their proposed new institute (the National Institute for Complex Data Structures). o Agreement was reached with the Virtual Center for collaboration of visitors between the US and China to potentially provide airfares for Chinese visitors to SAMSI. 4 C. Directorate’s Summary of Challenges and Responses As we proceed through the first year of the 5-year renewal grant, SAMSI has continued to be successful in achieving its’ goals. The scientific programs have been of high caliber, and have led to significant new and ongoing research collaborations between, statistics, applied mathematics, and disciplinary sciences. There has been significant human resource development, through the postdoctoral and graduate programs and through involvement of senior researchers in new interdisciplinary areas. Many students across the country have been shown the SAMSI vision through educational outreach programs and courses. We feel that these successes are amply demonstrated throughout the report; some highlights are given in section D of the Executive Summary. This section discusses the challenges that arose this year and the Directorate’s response to these challenges. Building Addition: Our biggest challenge at SAMSI over the past two years has been a lack of space. Offices (meant for one person) sometimes were occupied by three. Furthermore, there was simply no room for local scientists to reside at SAMSI, which meant that their participation was mostly limited to the formal working group meetings, as opposed to the informal interactions and mentoring that can happen when resident. Meeting space has also been a severe problem. Our largest current meeting room holds only 35 people, which precluded holding many workshops on site. There was also a shortage of meeting space for the Research Working Groups; these groups now have many external members, who connect to the working group meetings over our web-based system. We currently have only one room that is properly equipped for these web-based meetings, making scheduling of all the working group meetings a logistics nightmare. With the renewal of SAMSI, we were able to proceed with the plan to address this major problem by fast-tracking the planning and preparation for the long-awaited addition to the NISS/SAMSI building. NISS, which is undertaking the building addition, and especially NISS Director Alan Karr – who was the key figure in this planning and implementation – are owed a great debt of gratitude by SAMSI. Groundbreaking took place on November 2, 2007, and construction began in February of 2008. The addition will be complete in early Fall 2008, hopefully in time for the influx of people for the 2008-2009 programs. The 11,782 square foot addition will effectively double SAMSI’s office space, allowing more visitors and stronger engagement by program participants from the Research Triangle universities. The addition will also contain space to be shared by SAMSI and NISS, including a break room and accompanying rooftop terrace and a 50-seat lecture room. The lecture room will change dramatically the scale and nature of SAMSI events held on-site. Not only does it double the number of in-person participants, but also it will provide state-of-the art electronic capabilities that enable even more remote participation in SAMSI workshops and working group meetings. An ongoing photographic log of the construction process is available on the NISS web site, at http://www.niss.org/photogallery/construction2008/construction08-home.html. 5 Figure 1: The "official" groundbreakers. Left to right: SAMSI Governing Board Chair Daniel Solomon, incoming NISS Board Chair James Landwehr, NISS Building Committee chair Jon Kettenring, NISS and SAMSI Associate Director Nell Sedransk, SAMSI Director James Berger and NISS Director Alan Karr. Figure 2: Elevations for the addition to the NISS/SAMSI building. 6 National Leadership and Involvement: SAMSI programs continue to have primarily national leadership. Of course, these programs still have significant participation of local scientists; indeed, one of the major strengths of SAMSI is its’ ability to draw to its programs stellar local talent in applied mathematics, statistics, and disciplinary sciences. The Education and Outreach program was broadened in terms of national scope, in several ways. First, the Education and Outreach