SSTI Digest

Data center technology processing passed the milestone of consuming 1% of world energy in 2010 and is projected to increase to 6% by 2030, according to a 2020 Science magazine study  by Eric Masanet, Arman Shehabi, Nuoa Lei, Sarah Smith, and Jonathan Koomey. The authors suggest that governments may need to take on a more considered approach to expanding data centers to meet the growing demand. State and local economic developers offering incentives to recruit data centers may want to take particular note. The non-captured costs, or externalities, of information processing hubs are mounting as the pace of human-induced climate change increases.     According to The MIT Press Reader, the cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. At 200 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, all existing data centers combined  devour more energy than even some nation-states. Electricity use and associated carbon emissions are just two external concerns. A Washington Post article reports a large data center can gobble up anywhere between one million and five million gallons of water daily—as much as a town of 10,000 to 50,000…

Institutions of higher education spent $97.8 billion on research and development (R&D) activities in fiscal year (FY) 2022, an increase of nearly 9% over the prior year’s $89.8 billion. Over the past decade of available data, from FY 2013-2022, higher education R&D expenditures have increased 46%, from $67.1 to $97.8 billion. However, when adjusted for inflation, the growth is more modest at 17%. This edition of Useful Stats explores the most recent Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey release of 2022 data. Specifically, this article uses data from the past ten years of HERD in current and inflation-adjusted dollars, alongside a breakdown of HERD by the source of funds.   HERD over the past decade Over the past decade, higher education R&D expenditures have increased by an average of 4% per year. HERD expenditures have increased every year since FY 2013, while the most recent years, from FY 2021-2022, had the most significant increase at 9%. However, when adjusted for inflation, HERD expenditures increased an average of 2% per year, and saw decreases from FY 2013-2014 (-2%) and 2020-2021 (-1%). Figure…

Setting aside multibillion fraud and the large black market economy, cryptomining inflicts pain to society in quieter ways as well, research found. In a nutshell, cryptocurrencies contribute more negative externalities that impact individual wallets and global warming, stemming from the intensive electricity requirements to complete each unregulated transaction. Taking a single cryptocurrency as an example, the annual global electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining was approximately 95.58 terawatt-hours in May 2023, according to Techopedia. Energy-sage reports that as of February 2023, the US national average electricity rate is 23 cents per kilowatt-hours, which (using an energy calculator) would translate to bitcoin mining using an average of $21.9 billion in energy every year. Not all those energy costs are borne by Bitcoin, the research revealed. A column by Vox EU aimed to find the impact of this technology processing on local economies, as this reality has not only led to a race among firms who run large cryptomines but has also resulted in externalities foisting extra costs onto the surrounding economies. The column noted that most cryptocurrencies turn…

Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director Laurie E. Locascio recently revealed in public comments that approximately $3 billion in funding for the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program will be used to drive U.S. leadership in advanced packaging. Advanced packaging is a cutting-edge design and manufacturing method that places multiple chips with a variety of functions in a densely interconnected two- or three-dimensional “package.” This design paradigm, according to a press release from NIST,  “can help the sector achieve the ever denser, smaller dimensions that the most advanced semiconductors require.” But NIST also notes that “currently, the United States is limited in both conventional and advanced packaging capacity.”  NAPMP will be dedicated to activities that include an advanced packaging piloting facility for validating and transitioning new technologies to U.S. manufacturers; workforce training programs to ensure that new processes and tools are capably staffed; and funding for projects that focus on:   materials and substrates,…

Restrictions placed on registering for high-wage-potential academic majors have had an increasingly disproportionate adverse effect on students from underrepresented minority groups (URM: Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native), according to research from the Bookings Institution. The Brookings researchers arrived at their conclusions after assigning a measurement (wage-premium) of how much more—or less—a student might expect to earn depending on the major they complete. Then, they examined the wage-premium gap between URM and non-URM students. In the 1990s, that gap was less than 1%. However, the gap tripled between 2009 and 2019. They concluded that this gap showed that "URM college graduates' college majors alone may be widening the wage gap between URM and non-URM graduates by about 2.5% or about 10% of the average wage gap between the two groups." These gaps exist among graduates from such high-wage-potential majors as computer science, business, economics, engineering, and nursing students earn higher wages than graduates from different majors. The increasing demand for high-wage-potential college majors has made restrictions on college…

Reminder! The TBED Community of Practice webinar is coming up next week!  Interactive Webinar: Lessons Learned in TBED Grant Management—December 5, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. ET. Congratulations on winning federal funding! Are you ready to manage it? A first federal award can be a significant challenge for organizations. Even experienced groups can hit snags when working with new agencies that may use different rules or definitions. Please join SSTI's TBED Community of Practice for a conversation about lessons organizations have learned in dealing with the many requirements around federal awards. This webinar will be an interactive session, so whether you're new to federal grant management or an old pro, please come ready to ask questions and share your perspective, unexpected hiccups, and tricks of the trade. Speakers: Erin Burcham (Verge) Kris Khalil (New Orleans BioInnovation Center) Register HERE!

Jobs held by degree holders in Science and Engineering (S&E) fields make important contributions to our nation’s economic growth and global competitiveness, fueling innovative capacity through research, development, and other technologically advanced work activities, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). This edition of Useful Stats will explore NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and National Science Board (NSB) education data, specifically data on S&E associate and bachelor’s degrees, and the S&E workforce supplied by the educational systems. S&E is a subfield within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), alongside other S&E-related and STEM “middle-skill” occupations. S&E is inclusive of occupations like biological, agricultural, and environmental life scientists; computer and mathematical scientists; physical scientists; social scientists; and engineers. To read more on the distinctions between S&E and STEM, please refer to NSF’s website. To ensure that the U.S. can continue to maintain and expand its robust S&E talent pipelines, an emphasis on education is key.…

The U.S. has a STEM workforce problem, and finding diverse talent to fill existing and projected vacancies has proven to be particularly challenging. "Only about 20% of Latina/o students and 18% of Black students enroll in STEM majors, according to research published in 2019 in Educational Research. The research team, led by Catherine Riegle-Crumb at the University of Texas at Austin, also found that Latina/o and Black students switch majors at a rate of about 37% and 40%, respectively, and 20% of Latina/o STEM majors and 26% of Black STEM majors leave school without a degree. However, some encouraging research from the STEM PUSH (Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher-Education) Network shows that pre-college STEM programs can effectively improve the odds of underrepresented minority students attaining and maintaining STEM careers. STEM PUSH is an Alliance/awardee of NSF's Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES National Network. NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) catalyzes the STEM enterprise to work collaboratively for inclusive change, resulting in a STEM workforce that…

A group of associations representing private investment funds, including the National Venture Capital Association, jointly filed a lawsuit in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The suit seeks to overturn the agency’s recent rule that among other things requires fee, audit, and performance disclosures from private fund managers. The opening brief, which became available last week, argues that the rule should be vacated because it overrides Congress’s deliberate exclusion of private funds from this type of oversight, that the costs to funds and investors of implementing the rule outweigh the potential benefits, and a host of procedural missteps during the rulemaking process. For its part, the SEC has defended the rule as being necessary to address insufficient transparency and exposure to conflicts of interest that threaten regular investors as pension and retirement funds increasingly participate in private investment vehicles.

All across the U.S., states are experiencing a crisis-level shortage of affordable housing. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that nationally, there is a need for more than 7 million affordable housing units, while between 4.3 million and 5 million new homes are needed, according to Zillow and Realtor.com, respectively. Experiments occurring across the country on 3D printed homes offer an intriguing approach to help address the issue. In Maine, more than 84,000 homes are needed by the end of the decade, according to a recent study (State of Maine Housing). State officials are hopeful that a bio-based 3D-printed home will play a role in easing Maine’s housing shortage and the urgency of affordability. The BioHome3D, a 600-square-foot modular dwelling unveiled in November 2022 by the University of Maine (UMaine) Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC), is made entirely of bio-based materials that consist of wood flour (a waste product from sawmills) mixed with a binder made from corn, to create the 3D-printed floors, walls, and roof. The prototype, printed in four modules, then moved to a designated site, features a bedroom, bathroom,…

The challenge of attracting and retaining skilled manufacturing talent consistently ranks as a top concern in the industry. Recent findings from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) show that more than 70% of industry leaders cite workforce issues as their primary challenge for the past year, outpacing supply chain disruptions and rising raw material costs. To better understand this challenge, the Manufacturing Institute has released a new report exploring how location influences manufacturing companies’ talent development efforts. The study surveyed over 100 manufacturing firms, asking about strategies for attracting and recruiting new workers in rural versus urban settings to identify key workforce challenges for rural and urban manufacturing firms and to uncover solutions they have implemented to address their immediate and long-term workforce needs. 

The semiconductor industry's workforce is expected to grow from approximately 345,000 jobs today to about 460,000 by the decade's end, and of these new jobs, roughly 67,000 are at risk of being unfilled, according to a report from the Semiconductor Industry Association and Oxford Economics (SIA-OE report). The SIA-OE report makes three recommendations for addressing this shortage: Strengthen support for regional partnerships and programs to grow the pipeline for skilled technicians. Grow the domestic STEM pipeline for engineers and computer scientists. Retain and attract more international advanced degree students. Regional partnerships and programs Thirty-nine percent of the anticipated unfilled jobs will be at the technician level. These workers are people who have obtained certificates or two-year degrees, which are offered at regional institutions. The report notes that “expanding certification boot camps, apprenticeships, and other training programs at community and technical colleges located near new and expanding semiconductor fabs (manufacturing plants) would be an effective means to help close the workforce gap for technicians.” …