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At least 217 records · Page 12

The Algae Foundation® and Algae Technology Educational Consortium

Abstract The Algae Foundation established in February 2013 has developed a diverse portfolio of algal‐based education and workforce development programs covering education levels from kindergarten through college, aquaculture extension, and free online courses. The Algae Foundation created the Algae Technology Educational Consortium (ATEC) with five major foci including community college certificate program in algae cultivation; community college curriculum adopted for algal biotechnology degree programs; Algal Massive Open Online Courses (Algal MOOCs); Algae Academy, a kindergarten to 12th grade STEM curriculum initiative; and aquaculture extension education through the Algae Cultivation Extension Short courses (ACES). The results include the education and training of over 102,000 students, aquaculturists, entrepreneurs, and bioeconomy‐based professionals aged 8–75 years in all 50 U.S. states and 66 countries. ATEC has completed agreements with 21 community colleges and universities located in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. The first ATEC‐sponsored certificate degree program graduation was in May 2018. The Algae MOOC #1 has had over 15,752 students enrolled. ATEC initiated the Algae Academy in spring 2016 in Carlsbad, CA, and expanded to serving over 34,000 students in 46 states during the academic year 2019–2020. ACES has enrolled over 1,550 students from 66 countries.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Ellicott City Disasters II - Building a Real-Time Predictive Flood Model for Improving Early Warning Systems in Ellicott City, Maryland

As flood events in the United States grow in frequency and intensity, the uses of applied remote sensing analyses are increasingly necessary for effective flood monitoring and warning systems. The NASA DEVELOP Ellicott City Disasters III project investigated the use of machine learning for applications in flood risk detection to support the improvement of early warning systems in Ellicott City, Maryland. To strengthen the efforts of the Howard County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in building a more robust flood monitoring system, this term built on the predictive capability of the long-short term memory (LSTM) model created by the second term of this DEVELOP project to create a Sequentially Trained Real-time EstimAted Model (STREAM). Enhancements to the model included the integration of both real-time and predicted weather products from the National Weather Service to increase predictive capacity. These weather products were supplemented by stream gauge data from the OEM as well as real-time radar products. The resultant flood risk model was trained to evaluate input variables and predict stage height in Ellicott City in real time. The model, upgraded to predict stage height up to 8 hours in advance, was incorporated into an online dashboard in a user-friendly interface. The project demonstrated the potential for integration of open data and NASA Earth observations into a flood risk forecasting tool capable of informing real-time decision-making.

Erika Munshi↗

Ellicott City Disasters III: Building a Real-Time Statistical Flood Model for Improving Early Warning Systems in Ellicott City, Maryland

As flood events in the United States grow in frequency and intensity, the uses of applied remote sensing analyses are increasingly necessary for effective flood monitoring and warning systems. The NASA DEVELOP Ellicott City Disasters III project investigated the use of machine learning for applications in flood risk detection to support the improvement of early warning systems in Ellicott City, Maryland. To strengthen the efforts of the Howard County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in building a more robust flood monitoring system, this term built on the predictive capability of the long-short term memory (LSTM) model created by the second term of this DEVELOP project to create a Sequentially Trained Real-time EstimAted Model (STREAM). Enhancements to the model included the integration of both real-time and predicted weather products from the National Weather Service to increase predictive capacity. These weather products were supplemented by stream gauge data from the OEM as well as real-time radar products. The resultant flood risk model was trained to evaluate input variables and predict stage height in Ellicott City in real time. The model, upgraded to predict stage height up to 8 hours in advance, was incorporated into an online dashboard in a user-friendly interface. The project demonstrated the potential for integration of open data and NASA Earth observations into a flood risk forecasting tool capable of informing real-time decision-making.

Erika Munshi↗

PDB ‐101: Educational resources supporting molecular explorations through biology and medicine

Abstract The Protein Data Bank (PDB) archive is a rich source of information in the form of atomic‐level three‐dimensional (3D) structures of biomolecules experimentally determined using macromolecular crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and electron microscopy (3DEM). Originally established in 1971 as a resource for protein crystallographers to freely exchange data, today PDB data drive research and education across scientific disciplines. In 2011, the online portal PDB‐101 was launched to support teachers, students, and the general public in PDB archive exploration ( pdb101.rcsb.org ). Maintained by the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics PDB, PDB‐101 aims to help train the next generation of PDB users and to promote the overall importance of structural biology and protein science to nonexperts. Regularly published features include the highly popular Molecule of the Month series, 3D model activities, molecular animation videos, and educational curricula. Materials are organized into various categories (Health and Disease, Molecules of Life, Biotech and Nanotech, and Structures and Structure Determination) and searchable by keyword. A biennial health focus frames new resource creation and provides topics for annual video challenges for high school students. Web analytics document that PDB‐101 materials relating to fundamental topics (e.g., hemoglobin, catalase) are highly accessed year‐on‐year. In addition, PDB‐101 materials created in response to topical health matters (e.g., Zika, measles, coronavirus) are well received. PDB‐101 shows how learning about the diverse shapes and functions of PDB structures promotes understanding of all aspects of biology, from the central dogma of biology to health and disease to biological energy.

Zardecki, Christine↗

Efficient learning of accurate surrogates for simulations of complex systems

Machine learning methods are increasingly deployed to construct surrogate models for complex physical systems at a reduced computational cost. However, the predictive capability of these surrogates degrades in the presence of noisy, sparse or dynamic data. Here, we introduce an online learning method empowered by optimizer-driven sampling that has two advantages over current approaches: it ensures that all local extrema (including endpoints) of the model response surface are included in the training data, and it employs a continuous validation and update process in which surrogates undergo retraining when their performance falls below a validity threshold. We find, using benchmark functions, that optimizer-directed sampling generally outperforms traditional sampling methods in terms of accuracy around local extrema even when the scoring metric is biased towards assessing overall accuracy. Finally, the application to dense nuclear matter demonstrates that highly accurate surrogates for a nuclear equation-of-state model can be reliably autogenerated from expensive calculations using few model evaluations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Efficient Learning of Accurate Surrogates for Simulations of Complex Systems

Machine learning methods are increasingly deployed to construct surrogate models for complex physical systems at a reduced computational cost. However, the predictive capability of these surrogates degrades in the presence of noisy, sparse, or dynamic data. We introduce an online learning method empowered by optimizer-driven sampling that has two advantages over current approaches: it ensures that all local extrema (including endpoints) of the model response surface are included in the training data and it employs a continuous validation and update process in which surrogates undergo retraining when their performance falls below a validity threshold. We find, using benchmark functions, that optimizer-directed sampling generally outperforms traditional sampling methods in terms of accuracy around local extrema even when the scoring metric is biased towards assessing overall accuracy. Finally, the application to dense nuclear matter demonstrates that highly accurate surrogates for a nuclear equation of state model can be reliably auto-generated from expensive calculations using few model evaluations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The oculometer - A new approach to flight management research.

For the first time researchers have an operational, nonintrusive instrument for determining a pilot's eye-point-of-regard without encumbering the pilot or introducing other artifacts into the simulation of flight experience. The instrument (the oculometer developed for NASA by Honeywell, Inc.) produces data in a form appropriate for online monitoring and rapid analysis using state-of-the-art display and computer technology. The type and accuracy of data obtained and the potential use of the oculometer as a research and training tool will be discussed.

Spady, A. A., Jr.↗

Integrating Learning and Physics based Computation for Fast Online Transient Analysis

In this work, a novel method that integrates learning and physics based computation is developed for greatly accelerating the simulation of full power system transient trajectories. To solve the dynamic algebraic equations, the method replaces the time-consuming dynamic computation for generator dynamics with trained predictors, while retaining the time-efficient algebraic computation of solving AC-power flow (PF) for power systems. In particular, a predictor is trained for each generator, and the system trajectories are computed by alternating steps of calling the predictors and solving AC-PF. The proposed method also allows fully parallelizable training strategies and a flexible trade-off between training time and testing accuracy. Comprehensive evaluations of the proposed method for transient/dynamic contingency analysis of the New York/New England 16-machine 68-bus power systems demonstrate excellent performance and significant acceleration of computation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

CRCNS US-France Research Proposal: Collaborative Research: Encoding reward expectation in Drosophilia

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been a valuable model for investigating the genetic and neural bases that underlie learning and memory. Early and most current studies use basic behavior conditioning protocols to study learning in controlled laboratory settings. More recently, the ability to transgenically manipulate many of the brain neurons in the fruit fly with exquisite specificity, and the recent knowledge of the synaptic ‘connectome’ of the fruit fly brain, makes these animals almost unique as a comprehensive model for studies of learning, memory and motivated behavior. In fact, the connectome has revealed many types of new connections that had until now been overlooked. Within this context, the thesis of this proposal is that studies of learning and memory will be greatly enhanced by using more sophisticated means for evaluating memory representations, such as have been developed in vertebrates, and combining those studies with information from the connectome guided by computational modelling. We propose to push beyond the boundaries of existing conditioning protocols for fruit flies to investigate more complex memory representations. In particular, we will investigate the function of reinforcement pathways in relation to the absence of expected reinforcement. More specifically, we propose a series of experiments designed to investigate the memory representations in fruit flies when an expected consequence of a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) fails to occur. Although studies have evaluated how this failure can establish extinction memory for the CS, our studies will go beyond studying extinction. Specifically, we predict that in Drosophila when a CS is associated with a failed expectation of an appetitive food reinforcement it will acquire aversive value, and vice versa for a failed expectation of an aversive reinforcer. We combine these studies with manipulations of reinforcement pathways in the CNS inspired from the connectome, iteratively knitted in with established computational models. Intellectual Merit: The concept of reinforcement expectation and incentive contrast have been influential in the development of studies of associative learning in mammals. These questions are particularly challenging to answer in vertebrates because they require exquisite cellular, temporal, and genetic specificity of experimental manipulations. The recent development of work with identified neurons and their connectomes makes the larval and adult fly brains ripe as models for pushing our understanding of neural bases for these higher- order conditioning phenomena. Broader Impacts: Public health: These analyses and the conceptual framework of prediction error processing underlying them have a profound impact on our understanding of reinforcement-related behavior in humans, including monetary rewards and the mnemonic consequences of traumatic experiences, and for pathologies of the dopamine reinforcement system. Educational: This project will provide interdisciplinary training for postdoctoral researchers, Ph.D. and undergraduate students. The PIs will act as co-supervisors or mentors of students working in the different labs via face-to-face and internet-based technologies. We will also work with ASU’s award-winning Ask- A-Biologist program. This is an online science program designed to enrich the learning experiences of students of all ages and to provide classroom material for use by K-12 teachers. We will develop an extension of a game developed under a prior NSF award, and the new game will include modules to teach K-12 students about how insects learn. We will also integrate into the AAB site a program developed by a collaborator (B Gerber) at the Leibniz Institut für Neurobiologie, Magdeburg, and now in use in schools in Germany, to teach K-12 students how to train animals using the fruit fly larval learning paradigm. Underrepresented groups: All PIs will work with their university offices of Academic Diversity and Equal Opportunity for reaching underrepresented students.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Leveraging design of experiments to build chemometric models for the quantification of uranium (VI) and HNO3 by Raman spectroscopy

Partial least squares regression (PLSR) and support vector regression (SVR) models were optimized for the quantification of U(VI) (10–320 g L −1 ) and HNO 3 (0.6–6 M) by Raman spectroscopy with optimized calibration sets chosen by optimal design of experiments. The designed approach effectively minimized the number of samples in the calibration set for PLSR and SVR by selecting sample concentrations with a quadratic process model, despite complex confounding and covarying spectral features in the spectra. The top PLS2 model resulted in percent root mean square errors of prediction for U(VI), HNO 3 , and NO 3 − of 3.7%, 3.6%, and 2.9%, respectively. PLS1 models performed similarly despite modeling an analyte with a majority linear response (i.e., uranyl symmetric stretch) and another with more covarying vibrational modes (i.e., HNO 3 ). Partial least squares (PLS) model loadings and regression coefficients were evaluated to better understand the relationship between weaker Raman bands and covarying spectral features. Support vector machine models outperformed PLS1 models, resulting in percent root mean square error of prediction values for U(VI) and HNO 3 of 1.5% and 3.1%, respectively. The optimal nonlinear SVR model was trained using a similar number of samples (11) compared with the PLSR model, even though PLS is a linear modeling approach. The generic D-optimal design presented in this work provides a robust statistical framework for selecting training set samples in disparate two-factor systems. This approach reinforces Raman spectroscopy for the quantification of species relevant to the nuclear fuel cycle and provides a robust chemometric modeling approach to bolster online monitoring in challenging process environments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Safety-assured, real-time neural active fault management for resilient microgrids integration

Federated-learning-based active fault management (AFM) is devised to achieve real-time safety assurance for microgrids and the main grid during faults. AFM was originally formulated as a distributed optimization problem. Here, federated learning is used to train each microgrid's network with training data achieved from distributed optimization. The main contribution of this work is to replace the optimization-based AFM control algorithm with a learning-based AFM control algorithm. The replacement transfers computation from online to offline. With this replacement, the control algorithm can meet real-time requirements for a system with dozens of microgrids. By contrast, distributed-optimization-based fault management can output reference values fast enough for a system with several microgrids. More microgrids, however, lead to more computation time with optimization-based method. Distributed-optimization-based fault management would fail real-time requirements for a system with dozens of microgrids. Controller hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulations demonstrate that learning-based AFM can output reference values within 10 ms irrespective of the number of microgrids.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Machine Learning for Scalable and Optimal Load Shedding Under Power System Contingency

Prompt and effective corrective actions in response to unexpected contingencies are crucial for improving power system resilience and preventing cascading blackouts. The optimal load shedding (OLS) accounting for network limits has the potential to address the diverse system-wide impacts of contingency scenarios as compared to traditional local schemes. However, due to the fast cascading propagation of initial contingencies, real-time OLS solutions are challenging to attain in large systems with high computation and communication needs. In this paper, we propose a decentralized design that leverages offline training of a neural network (NN) model for individual load centers to autonomously construct the OLS solutions from locally available measurements. Our learning-for-OLS approach can greatly reduce the computation and communication needs during online emergency responses, thus preventing the cascading propagation of contingencies for enhanced power grid resilience. Numerical studies on both the IEEE 118-bus system and a synthetic Texas 2000-bus system have demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of our scalable OLS learning design for timely power system emergency operations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Access NASA Satellite Global Precipitation Data Visualization on YouTube

Since the satellite era began, NASA has collected a large volume of Earth science observations for research and applications around the world. The collected and archived satellite data at 12 NASA data centers can also be used for STEM education and activities such as disaster events, climate change, etc. However, accessing satellite data can be a daunting task for non-professional users such as teachers and students because of unfamiliarity of terminology, disciplines, data formats, data structures, computing resources, processing software, programming languages, etc. Over the years, many efforts including tools, training classes, and tutorials have been developed to improve satellite data access for users, but barriers still exist for non-professionals. In this presentation, we will present our latest activity that uses a very popular online video sharing Web site, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/), for accessing visualizations of our global precipitation datasets at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC). With YouTube, users can access and visualize a large volume of satellite data without the necessity to learn new software or download data. The dataset in this activity is a one-month animation for the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG). IMERG provides precipitation on a near-global (60 deg. N-S) coverage at half-hourly time interval, providing more details on precipitation processes and development compared to the 3-hourly TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA, 3B42) product. When the retro-processing of IMERG during the TRMM era is finished in 2018, the entire video will contain more than 330,000 files and will last ~3.6 hours. Future plans include development of flyover videos for orbital data for an entire satellite mission or project. All videos, including the one-month animation, will be uploaded and available at the GES DISC site on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/NASAGESDISC).

precipitation↗

A Persistent Simulation Environment for Autonomous Systems

The age of Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (AUAS) is creating new challenges for the accreditation and certification requiring new standards, policies and procedures that sanction whether a UAS is safe to fly. Establishing a basis for certification of autonomous systems via research into trust and trustworthiness is the focus of Autonomy Teaming and TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability (ATTRACTOR), a new NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solution (CAS) project. Simulation Environments to test and evaluate AUAS decision making may be a low-cost solution to help certify that various AUAS systems are trustworthy enough to be allowed to fly in current general and commercial aviation airspace. NASA is working to build a peer-to-peer persistent simulation (P3 Sim) environment. The P3 Sim will be a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) environment were AUAS avatars can interact with a complex dynamic environment and each other. The focus of the effort is to provide AUAS researchers a low-cost intuitive testing environment that will aid training for and assessment of decisions made by autonomous systems such as AUAS. This presentation focuses on the design approach and challenges faced in development of the P3 Sim Environment is support of investigating trustworthiness of autonomous systems.

Kelley, Benjamin N.↗

Global-Local Policy Search and its Application in Grid-Interactive Building Control

As the buildings sector represents over 70% of the total U.S. electricity consumption, it offers a great amount of untapped demand-side resources to tackle many critical grid-side problems and improve the overall energy system's efficiency. To help make buildings grid-interactive, this paper proposes a global-local policy search method to train a reinforcement learning (RL) based controller which optimizes building operation during both normal hours and demand response (DR) events. Experiments on a simulated five-zone commercial building demonstrate that by adding a local fine-tuning stage to the evolution strategy policy training process, the control costs can be further reduced by 7.55% in unseen testing scenarios. Baseline comparison also indicates that the learned RL controller outperforms a pragmatic linear model predictive controller (MPC), while not requiring intensive online computation.

demand response↗

End-to-end online performance data capture and analysis for scientific workflows

With the increased prevalence of employing workflows for scientific computing and a push towards exascale computing, it has become paramount that we are able to analyze characteristics of scientific applications to better understand their impact on the underlying infrastructure and vice-versa. Such analysis can help drive the design, development, and optimization of these next generation systems and solutions. Here, we present the architecture, integrated with existing well-established and newly developed tools, to collect online performance statistics of workflow executions from various, heterogeneous sources and publish them in a distributed database (Elasticsearch). Using this architecture, we are able to correlate online workflow performance data, with data from the underlying infrastructure, and present them in a useful and intuitive way via an online dashboard. We have validated our approach by executing two classes of real-world workflows, both under normal and anomalous conditions. The first is an I/O-intensive genome analysis workflow; the second, a CPU- and memory-intensive material science workflow. Based on the data collected in Elasticsearch, we are able to demonstrate that we can correctly identify anomalies that we injected. The resulting end-to-end data collection of workflow performance data is an important resource of training data for automated machine learning analysis.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

ARC+(Registered Trademark) and ARC PC Welding Simulators: Teach Welders with Virtual Interactive 3D Technologies

123 Certification Inc., a Montreal based company, has developed an innovative hands-on welding simulator solution to help build the welding workforce in the most simple way. The solution lies in virtual reality technology, which has been fully tested since the early 90's. President and founder of 123 Certification Inc., Mr. Claude Choquet Ing. Msc. IWE. acts as a bridge between the welding and the programming world. Working in these fields for more than 20 years. he has filed 12 patents world-wide for a gesture control platform with leading edge hardware related to simulation. In the summer of 2006. Mr Choquet was proud to be invited to the annual IIW International Weld ing Congress in Quebec City to launch the ARC+ welding simulator. A 100% virtual reality system and web based training center was developed to simulate multi process. multi-materiaL multi-position and multi pass welding. The simulator is intended to train welding students and apprentices in schools or industries. The welding simulator is composed of a real welding e[eetrode holder (SMAW-GTAW) and gun (GMAW-FCAW). a head mounted display (HMD), a 6 degrees of freedom tracking system for interaction between the user's hands and head. as well as external audio speakers. Both guns and HMD are interacting online and simultaneously. The welding simulation is based on the law of physics and empirical results from detailed analysis of a series of welding tests based on industrial applications tested over the last 20 years. The simulation runs in real-time, using a local logic network to determine the quality and shape of the created weld. These results are based on the orientation distance. and speed of the welding torch and depth of penetration. The welding process and resulting weld bc.1d are displayed in a virtual environment with screenplay interactive training modules. For review. weld quality and recorded process values can be displayed and diagnosed after welding. To help in the le.tming process, a learning curve for each student and each Virtual Welding Class'" can be plotted, for an instructor's review or a required third party evaluation.

Choquet, Claude↗

Myco-Ed: Mycological curriculum for education and discovery

Fungi are important and hyperdiverse organisms, yet chronically understudied. Most fungal clades have no reference genomes, impeding our understanding of their ecosystem functions and use as solutions in health and biotechnology. Also, opportunities for training in fungal biology and genomics are lacking, creating a bottleneck that hinders the recruitment and cultivation of a talented future mycological workforce. To address these issues, we developed Myco-Ed, an educational program offering training and scientific contributions through genome sequencing and analysis. Myco-Ed empowers students to pursue careers in fungal biology while improving fungal resources. Myco-Ed has been piloted at 12 institutions (15 classrooms) ranging from online e-Campuses to R1 universities, resulting in hundreds of fungal observations and many new high-quality reference genomes.

Branco, Sara↗