2018 NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) Program Aspiring PI Workshop

University Of Missouri-Kansas City, Columbia MO

Investigators

Abstract

This project supports organization of, and travel grants to, the inaugural Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) Program Aspiring Principal Investigator (PI) Workshop that will be held in Kansas City, MO in September 2018. The workshop will be co-located with the 4th IEEE International Smart Cities Conference (ISC2), the flagship conference sponsored by Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Smart Cities Technical Community, which is the coalition of multiple technical societies within the IEEE. The S&CC Aspiring PI workshop will assemble a group of aspiring PIs with diverse backgrounds across disciplines and sectors, ranging from economists and sociologists to computer scientists and engineers to city and community stakeholders. The workshop will place particular emphasis on exploring the integrative research and community engagement aspects of the S&CC program goals. The workshop will include talks and panels by National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Directors as well as the current program awardees. The agenda will also include a session for small group discussions among aspiring PIs and panelists for mentoring on research concepts. The workshop will aid early- and mid-career researchers in developing a research agenda that effectively advances science, while aiding communities in improving safety, security, economic prosperity, wellbeing, and quality of life. The workshop will foster the growth of the S&CC community by emphasizing recruitment and participation of early- and mid-career faculty and underrepresented minorities (URMs). Recipients of travel grants will be selected based upon the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts of one to two-page position statements submitted in advance. The participation of early- and mid-career faculty and URMs will be strengthened by recruiting from multiple women in computing networks, Hispanic serving institutions, historically black colleges and universities, primarily undergraduate institutions, as well as city and community stakeholders interested in the S&CC program. The co-location of the S&CC Aspiring PI Workshop and IEEE ISC2 will have a strong synergistic impact. The conference will attract the interests of potential PIs and their collaborators. The workshop will also promote IEEE ISC2 to become an influential venue for current and future NSF S&CC PIs to disseminate their project results to an international audience. The outcomes of the workshop, including presentation materials and submission and acceptance information, will be shared following the workshop. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.