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Sally Ride
Astronaut Sally Ride Honored at Kennedy Center, Will Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom (DCist)
Less than a year after her death, Sally Ride, the first American woman to go to space, was honored as the pioneer she was at the Kennedy Center Monday evening. Before famous friends of Ride's spoke of her legacy, NASA administrator Charles Bolden told the full house that the late astronaut will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the nation. In a statement, President Obama said Ride will be remembered "not just as a national hero, but as a role model to generations of young women." 
People
Before Tumblr, Founder Made Mom Proud. He Quit School. (New York Times)
When David Karp was 14, he was clearly a bright teenager. Quiet, somewhat reclusive, bored with his classes at the Bronx High School of Science. He spent most of his free time in his bedroom, glued to his computer. But instead of trying to pry him away from his machine or coaxing him outside to get some fresh air, his mother, Barbara Ackerman, had another solution: she suggested that he drop out of high school to be home-schooled.. Now 26 years old, Mr. Karp never finished high school or enrolled in college. Instead, he played a significant role in several technology start-ups before founding Tumblr, the popular blogging service that agreed to be sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion this week.
Fraction calculator invented by 12-year-old now Amazon’s Free App of the Day (Geek Wire)
It started with some frustration over math homework at the dining room table, but now, the ideas of 12-year-old Isabel Hughes are front-and-center on Amazon’s App Store. Earlier this year, we wrote about the cool story of how Isabel and her father, Aidan, teamed up to develop best-selling calculator apps sold across several platforms. Today marks a milestone for the father-daughter superteam: The Amazon Appstore has chosen Fraction Calculator Plus to be its Free App of the Day today in both Europe and the U.S. The app is also now the top-rated app on the entire Kindle Fire platform.
Maker Movement
Chris O'Brien: Why Maker Faire may be Silicon Valley's most important export [video] (LA Times)
This weekend I attended the eighth annual Maker Faire with my son in San Mateo, Calif. The Maker Faire and the Maker Movement have gotten so large, it's easy to take them for granted. In fact, after going four straight years, I almost skipped this year until my son begged me to go. I'm glad he talked me into it.. There was no one, jaw-dropping thing that struck me this year. Rather, what hit me was how much I see and hear about these things when I'm not at the Maker Faire. The greatest marvel this year may be the broader impact the event is having around the country, and indeed, around the world.
STEM Competitions
Teen Develops Computer Algorithm to Diagnose Leukemia (Mashable)
Brittany Wenger isn't your average high-school senior: She taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia. The 18-year-old student from Sarasota, Fla. built a custom, cloud-based "artificial neural network" to find patterns in genetic expression profiles to diagnose patients with an aggressive form of cancer called mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL). Simply put, this means Wenger taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia by creating a diagnostic tool for doctors to use.. Wenger was recognized at last week's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix for her work..
Regional Winners in the 2012-2013 eCYBERMISSION Competition (Business Wire)
Sixteen student teams have been named regional winners in the eleventh annual eCYBERMISSION competition. Sponsored by the U.S. Army, one of several [STEM] initiatives offered by the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) and administered by the National Science Teachers Association, the online collaborative learning competition is designed to cultivate student interest in STEM by encouraging students in grades six through nine to develop solutions to real-world challenges in their local communities.
EdTech
Khan Academy Receives Financial Support to Focus on Common Core (Education Week)
Fueled by a $2.2 million grant, Khan Academy will develop online content and tools over the next two years to help teachers and students meet the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. The popular producer of free online content already has a large volume of practice materials and videos that are "mapped" to the common-core math standards, a press release says, but with the grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, it will build new diagnostic tools to help better identify gaps in student learning.
EdX Expands xConsortium to Asia and Doubles in Size (The EdTech Times)
EdX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative composed of the leading global institutions of the xConsortium, today announced another doubling of its university membership with the addition of its first Asian institutions and further expansion in the Ivy League. The xConsortium is gaining 15 prestigious higher education institutions, bringing its total to 27, including Tsinghua University and Peking University in China, The University of Hong Kong...
Teach Your Kids Tech Basics With Electronic Building Blocks (Mashable)
For parents looking for educational toys, a hardware startup developed electronic buildings blocks and a companion augmented reality app that make for an interactive learning experience. Founded by Tarun Pondicherry and Josh Chan, LightUp magnetic building blocks that can teach anyone about how electronics work.
Higher Education
U. of Virginia Teams Up With ‘Crowdfunding’ Site to Finance Research (The Chronicle)
The University of Virginia announced this week the creation of a university “crowdfunding” portal designed to enable alumni and other donors to support research projects. The university is one of the first to start such a fund-raising effort through a partnership with a crowdfunding start-up company. UVa is teaming up with Useed, a company focused on promoting fund raising in higher education by soliciting donations for university research projects or student-proposed entrepreneurial projects.
Trio of gifts adds up to $40M for University of Denver (Denver Business Journal)
Three donors have given the University of Denver a combined $40 million, with $27 million coming from former chancellor Daniel Ritchie. The donations will allow DU to add an engineering and computer science building, which will house a new interdisciplinary [STEM] initiative. The new building also will be home to the new Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging. Ritchie's gift is the largest in the history of the university..
Government
DOD schools, Corps of Engineers partner to advance STEM education (US Army)
The Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Defense Education Activity chose an elementary school here to announce a new partnership meant to advance [STEM] education [at DoDEA elementary and secondary schools around the world.] Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, and Marilee Fitzgerland, director, Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, visited with students at the Ashurst Elementary School on Marine Corps Base Quantico, May 20, and also signed the agreement that signifies the new partnership.
Research
Jacobs Supports STEM Research Project on Sports Safety (Herald Online)
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced today that, together with Texas Medical Center’s National Center for Human Performance (TNCHP), it is participating in a research study designed to evaluate and enhance safety factors affecting youth athletes. The Jacobs-sponsored study was conducted through a Jacobs Space Act Agreement with the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC), and involved the evaluation of various means for reducing the momentum transferred by a soccer ball to the head of a youth soccer player. Students from Rice University and The Kinkaid School were involved in the study as part of a [STEM] internship program.
STEM Innovation
Intel Fuels a Rebellion Around Your Data (MIT Technology Review)
 Intel is a $53-billion-a-year company that enjoys a near monopoly on the computer chips that go into PCs. But when it comes to the data underlying big companies like Facebook and Google, it says it wants to “return power to the people.” Intel Labs, the company’s R&D arm, is launching an initiative around what it calls the “data economy”—how consumers might capture more of the value of their personal information, like digital records of their location or work history. To make this possible, Intel is funding hackathons to urge developers to explore novel uses of personal data.
Healthcare shift spurs innovation (Healthcare IT News)
Growth opportunities are emerging in new more efficient and innovative business models as the Affordable Care Act produces a dramatic shift in the healthcare delivery and payment, according to financial executives participating in a recent panel. The investment experts also said they anticipate merger and acquisition activity (M&A) to pick up later this year. The briefing was sponsored by the Nashville Health Care Council, which made the event available via phone to reporters. |
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 STEMconnector®
 US News STEM Solutions Conference to Host Pitch Contest
 A unique opportunity has arrived for communications directors, organization heads, or anyone who is registered for the National Conference and looking to develop the ability to pitch their organization’s mission clearly and directly. Ten attendees will be hand selected for the chance to impress the judges—and the audience—with their 3-minute “elevator” pitch during the “Fever Pitch” session. A panel of experts will choose the top three presentations, and the session will conclude with a discussion of key elements and lessons of the pitch.
Ohio fifth grader captures first place in Raytheon’s ‘Build it Better’ challenge
 This week, Raytheon’s MathMovesU announced the winners of the Build it Better contest, a competition encouraging students to put on their engineering caps, pick anything (big or small) from school life and describe how it could be redesigned for a better school experience. Students from across the United States submitted videos and diagrams explaining their project ideas. Ten finalists were selected from the group and posted to Facebook for public voting. The three winning teams reflect the creativity, ingenuity and innovation that came across in all of the projects!.. The second place project came from three high-schoolers from New Jersey – Lanre Danmola, Jordan Donald and Charlie Dowd from Columbia High School. As students preparing for their AP tests, they know well that every second in the classroom is valuable learning time, and so they came up with a time-saving device for their teachers: a “one-swipe whiteboard eraser.” Finally, the first prize of the contest went to fifth-grader Jonathon Crawford from Tri-Village Elementary School in Ohio. Jonathon came up with a clever way to alleviate long lunch lines – an iPad app!
National Center for Women in Information Technology Summit (Livestream)
 Are MOOCs democratizing higher ed? What’s the role of encouragement in increasing intelligence and performance? How can we improve K-12 computer science education? What can men do to advocate for women in tech? Hear from practitioners and researchers at Khan Academy, Google, Stanford, Udacity, Amazon, the National Science Foundation and code.org. Watch the NCWIT Summit livestream May 20-22 at NCWIT.org/livestream or follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #NCWITSummit.
Awards Surge to $4.5 Million for STEM Scholars at State Science Day
 More than 1,267 [STEM] students in grades 5–12 exhibited their projects at the 65th annual State Science Day on Saturday, May 11 hosted by The Ohio State University in the French Field House, Columbus. The STEM scholars—from 279 cities and 301 schools in 71 counties—competed for more than $4.5 million in scholarships and awards. Ohio Wesleyan University was the largest scholarship donor. The Ohio Academy of Science, American Electric Power, The Ohio Environmental Education Fund, Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane, Inc., and Battelle, sponsored State Science Day. The Ohio State University Office of Extended Education coordinated the event locally. |
