Synergistic Activities on NSF Proposals

The new 2019 NSF proposal guidelines effective February 25, 2019, have a change in how synergistic activities are reported. The change is described as follows.

“Chapter II.C.2.f(i)(d), Synergistic Activities, has been revised to specify that a list should include up to five distinct examples that demonstrate the broader impact of the individual’s professional and scholarly activities that focuses on the integration and transfer of knowledge as well as its creation.”

The complete language is as follows.
“A list of up to five examples that demonstrate the broader impact of the individual’s professional and scholarly activities that focuses on the integration and transfer of knowledge as well as its creation. Examples could include, among others: innovations in teaching and training (e.g., development of curricular materials and pedagogical methods); contributions to the science of learning; development and/or refinement of research tools; computation methodologies and algorithms for problem-solving; development of databases to support research and education; broadening the participation of groups underrepresented in STEM; and service to the scientific and engineering community outside of the individual’s immediate organization.”

Well, for submission to an NSF grant due February 28, 2019, I revised my synergistic activities as follows. I want to know if this does or does not follow the guidelines. What would you change? I am having issues with the language of “list”, and “distinct”. Who can one contact at NSF for clarification? This does not seem to be a question for the program manager.

  1. Conducted four workshops on engineering education internationally during a 2018 Fulbright Specialist program at Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia.  The four topics were flipped classrooms, the scholarship of teaching and learning, massive open online courses, and improving student performance through learning strategies.
  2. Guest Editor, ASEE Advances in Engineering Education, Flipped Classrooms in STEM, 2016.  This special issue consisted of eight papers that showed how to implement and assess flipped classrooms in a variety of settings.
  3. Developed, revised, assessed and refined holistic and customized web-based resources on Numerical Methods (http://nm.mathforcollege.com) and corresponding MOOCs on Numerical Methods and Introduction to Matrix Algebra.  The OCW receives 1,000,000+ annual page views, 2,000,000+ annual views of YouTube videos on NumericalMethodsGuy channel, 100,000+ annual views on Numerical Methods Guy blog.
  4. Developed a unique textbook (adopted by 70 universities worldwide) and accompanying software PROMAL for undergraduates on the topic of Mechanics of Composite Materials published in 1997 (first edition) and 2005 (second edition) by CRC Press. This includes continued development of PROMAL – instructional software package for Mechanics of Composite Materials since 1985. More than 80 universities and many self-study students all over the world use PROMAL. The textbook has been translated to Persian and Turkish.
  5. Designed open source software MCTestAnalysis for analyzing and refining multiple-choice tests based on the analytical framework developed by Jorion, et al (2016) used for the validity of concept inventories. The open source software includes results such as item difficulty, item discrimination, Cronbach alpha, model estimation, item characteristic curves, tetrachoric, and scree plots.

Matrix Algebra: LU Decomposition Method

Many university STEM major programs have reduced the credit hours for a course in Matrix Algebra or have simply dropped the course from their curriculum.   The content of Matrix Algebra in many cases is taught just in time where needed.  This approach can leave a student with many conceptual holes in the required knowledge of matrix algebra. In this series of blogs, we bring to you ten topics that are of immediate and intermediate interest for Matrix Algebra. Here is the seventh topic where we talk about solving a set of simultaneous linear equations using the LU decomposition method.  First, the LU decomposition method is discussed along with its motivation.  The LU decomposition method to find the inverse of a square matrix is discussed. Get all the resources in form of textbook content, lecture videos, multiple choice test, problem set, and PowerPoint presentation. LU Decomposition Method
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Matrix Algebra: Gaussian Elimination Method

Many university STEM major programs have reduced the credit hours for a course in Matrix Algebra or have simply dropped the course from their curriculum.   The content of Matrix Algebra in many cases is taught just in time where needed.  This approach can leave a student with many conceptual holes in the required knowledge of matrix algebra. In this series of blogs, we bring to you ten topics that are of immediate and intermediate interest for Matrix Algebra. Here is the sixth topic where we talk about solving a set of simultaneous linear equations using Gaussian elimination method – both Naive and partial pivoting methods are discussed. How to find determinants by using the forward elimination step of Gaussian elimination is also discussed.  Get all the resources in form of textbook content, lecture videos, multiple choice test, problem set, and PowerPoint presentation. Gaussian Elimination Method
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Matrix Algebra: System of Equations

Many university STEM major programs have reduced the credit hours for a course in Matrix Algebra or have simply dropped the course from their curriculum.   The content of Matrix Algebra in many cases is taught just in time where needed.  This approach can leave a student with many conceptual holes in the required knowledge of matrix algebra. In this series of blogs, we bring to you ten topics that are of immediate and intermediate interest for Matrix Algebra. Here is the fifth topic where we talk about setting up simultaneous linear equations in matrix form, consistent and inconsistent system of equations, the rank of a matrix, conditions when unique, infinite number or no solutions exist, and finding the inverse of a square matrix.  Get all the resources in form of textbook content, lecture videos, multiple choice test, problem set, and PowerPoint presentation. System of Equations
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Adaptive learning improves the flipped classroom

A two-year exploratory study conducted at the University of South Florida, and evaluated and assessed by the University of Pittsburgh, studied the effect of using adaptive lessons in improving pre-class learning in a flipped classroom.

Read the whole article here: https://www.smartsparrow.com/demos/numerical-methods/ 

This material is based upon work supported partially by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1609637. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Matrix Algebra: Unary Operations

Many university STEM major programs have reduced the credit hours for a course in Matrix Algebra or have simply dropped the course from their curriculum.   The content of Matrix Algebra in many cases is taught just in time where needed.  This approach can leave a student with many conceptual holes in the required knowledge of matrix algebra. In this series of blogs, we bring to you ten topics that are of immediate and intermediate interest for Matrix Algebra. Here is the fourth topic where we talk about unary operations on a matrix including transpose, symmetry, determinant, and trace of a matrix.  Methods of finding determinants along with some fundamental theorems of determinants are discussed.  Get all the resources in form of textbook content, lecture videos, multiple choice test, problem set, and PowerPoint presentation. Unary Operations
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Matrix Algebra: Vectors

Many university STEM major programs have reduced the credit hours for a course in Matrix Algebra or have simply dropped the course from their curriculum.   The content of Matrix Algebra in many cases is taught just in time where needed.  This approach can leave a student with many conceptual holes in the required knowledge of matrix algebra.

In this series of blogs, we bring to you ten topics that are of immediate and intermediate interest for Matrix Algebra.

Here is the second topic where we talk about vectors, binary operations on vectors, set up the concept of linear combination and linear independence of vector.  Learn how vectors are used to set up simultaneous linear equations.  Get all the resources in form of textbook content, lecture videos, multiple choice test, problem set, and PowerPoint presentation.

Vectors

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Matrix Algebra: Binary Operations

Many university STEM major programs have reduced the credit hours for a course in Matrix Algebra or have simply dropped the course from their curriculum.   The content of Matrix Algebra in many cases is taught just in time where needed.  This approach can leave a student with many conceptual holes in the required knowledge of matrix algebra.

In this series of blogs, we bring to you ten topics that are of immediate and intermediate interest for Matrix Algebra.

Here is the third topic where we talk about binary operations of matrices – subtraction, addition, and multiplication.  Linear combination of matrices and rules of binary operations are discussed. Get all the resources in form of textbook content, lecture videos, multiple choice test, problem set, and PowerPoint presentation.

Binary Operations

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Matrix Algebra: Introduction

Many university STEM major programs have reduced the credit hours for a course in Matrix Algebra or have simply dropped the course from their curriculum.   The content of Matrix Algebra in many cases is taught just in time where needed.  This approach can leave a student with many conceptual holes in the required knowledge of matrix algebra.

In this series of blogs, we bring to you ten topics that are of immediate and intermediate interest for Matrix Algebra.

Here is the first topic where we define a matrix, vector, submatrix, square matrix, triangular matrix (upper and lower), diagonal matrix, identity matrix, and diagonally dominant matrix.  Get the information in form of textbook content, lecture videos, multiple choice test, problem set and PowerPoint presentation.

Introduction 

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Reporting results from prior NSF support when PIs on a proposal were PIs on a recent grant

Most NSF proposals limit you to 15 pages for proposal description, and most of us mortals have a hard time fully communicating our idea within the limit.  So one would like to minimize reporting prior NSF support that is not related to the proposal or count the same prior results description toward several investigators if they have previously worked together on an NSF grant.

The clarification brought here is for reporting results from prior NSF support. Read the requirements here — https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappg18_1/pappg_2.jsp#IIC2diii

“The purpose of this section is to assist reviewers in assessing the quality of prior work conducted with prior or current NSF funding. If any PI or co-PI identified on the proposal has received prior NSF support including:

    • an award with an end date in the past five years; or
  • any current funding, including any no-cost extensions,

information on the award is required for each PI and co-PI, regardless of whether the support was directly related to the proposal or not. In cases where the PI or any co-PI has received more than one award (excluding amendments to existing awards), they need only report on the one award that is most closely related to the proposal. Support means salary support, as well as any other funding awarded by NSF, including research, Graduate Research Fellowship, Major Research Instrumentation, conference, equipment, travel, and center awards, etc.”

For a proposal recently submitted, I was working with four Co-PIs — let’s call them B, C, D, and E. I will call myself A.

We had worked on a directly related NSF grant in 2013–16 period for which A was the PI, and B and C were Co-PIs. On talking to a NSF official, writing prior-support results description for this grant would only count toward the reporting by one of the three investigators, A, B, or C. So let’s consider it to be counted toward Co-PI B. If PI A or Co-PI C have had other NSF grants as a PI or Co-PI which are current or have been active within the past five years, you will need to report one each for A and C (you cannot game the system if PI A or Co-PI C does not have another grant to report on, while Co-PI B does; each PI or Co-PI has to write prior support description on one grant each, unless a PI or Co-PI has none to report – for an award with an end date in the past five years or any current funding, including any no-cost extensions).

As per the NSF official, you cannot count the same prior-support description for more than one PI/Co-PI.

I got additional advice from my fellow investigator  — if you have an unrelated grant that you need to report under prior support guidelines, do so at the end of the proposal description under the heading of “Other Non-Related Prior NSF-Supported Projects”. Otherwise, it will unnecessarily distract the reviewer.