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OSTP Policy Statement on the 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Bill

WASHINGTON (White House) — “The passage of the bipartisan appropriations bill that is now headed to the President’s desk gives fresh momentum to the urgent science and technology priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration,” said Dr. Alondra Nelson, who is performing the duties of Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). “From the creation of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health (ARPA-H), a new agency to kindle bold research and innovation on cancer and other deadly diseases, to new funding for science at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that advances actionable information on climate change, this spending bill charts a hopeful course to the future.”

***Since 1978, BDPA co-hosts regional career fairs and national technology conferences.*** — BDPA photo

“As our nation emerges from a pandemic that illustrated the life-saving importance of investment in biomedical and public health innovation, we are grateful to see a strong commitment to build on that success,” said OSTP Deputy Director for Health and Life Sciences Dr. Carrie Wolinetz. “Not only does the omnibus include $1 billion in funding and related authorities to stand up President Biden’s proposed ARPA-H, but it provides significant investments in public health infrastructure and workforce, readying us to meet the social and scientific challenges of emerging variants and future biological threats. In addition, as we move forward with our Community Connected Health initiative, which marries telemedicine technology with community-based health delivery, we are delighted to see the critical extension of telehealth flexibilities included in the bill.”

“We are grateful to Congress for providing increases for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Survey, the US Department of Agriculture, and other science and technology agencies,” said OSTP Principal Deputy Director for Policy Kei Koizumi. “It is especially heartening to see NSF receive resources to establish a new directorate to support research for breakthrough technologies, for solutions to our challenges, for strengthening our global economic competitiveness, and to support a diverse and equitable STEM ecosystem across all of America.”

“With increases to the budgets of NOAA, NASA, and NSF, this omnibus will strengthen our efforts to confront the climate crisis with strong funding for climate research and mitigation,” said OSTP Deputy Director for Climate and Environment Dr. Jane Lubchenco. “The science that this bill will support will strengthen our resilience and better enable us to preserve the natural world so heavily impacted by the climate crisis.”

“Increases in funding for the Department of Energy’s game-changing research in clean energy technologies will increase the technology options for meeting our climate goals and increase our energy security” said OSTP Deputy Director for Energy Dr. Sally Benson. “The bill also marks a turning point, accelerating the development of fusion power by providing funding for the Milestone-Based Development Program that supports public-private partnerships to develop practical approaches for making electricity from fusion, the same process that powers the Sun.”

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Virtual Earth Day Tech Summit 2022
April 22-23, 2022

NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory Welcomes Dr. DaNa Carlis As New Deputy Director

BOULDER, CO — DaNa L. Carlis, Ph.D., joined GSL as the Deputy Director in September 2020. He comes to GSL from the NOAA Weather Program Office (WPO), where he established the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) Program. DaNa enjoys working between science, policy, and society to ensure better products and services for the American people. He is also passionate about leadership, diversity, and inclusion, and mentoring the next generation of scientists.

“I couldn’t be more grateful and excited to join GSL because of its focus on applied research and development, advanced technologies, and transitioning and improving research-to-operations with the National Weather Service (NWS). GSL aligns perfectly with my desire to provide better products and services to the American people. I’ve always wanted to do research that impacts people’s lives, and GSL is a premier NOAA research laboratory that provides innovative tools and services that lead to better decisions and ultimately save lives,” said Carlis. “As the GSL’s Deputy Director, I am committed to bringing strong leadership and listening skills along with a creative mind to continue to advance the GSL mission. In addition, I plan to continue to uphold GSL’s scientific prowess, which is displayed in our cutting-edge research portfolio that is widely recognized by the Weather Enterprise.”

DaNa attended Howard University in Washington, DC, and earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry (1999), and an M.S. (2002) and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science (2007) as a graduate student of the NOAA Center for Atmospheric Science and Meteorology (NCAS-M). In 2002, DaNa accepted a fellowship from the NOAA Office of Education Educational Partnership Program (EPP) as a member of the Graduate Sciences Program and completed his M.S thesis research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) conducting an analysis of SO2 cross-sections for the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation on the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii, titled “Numerical Simulations of Island-Scale Airflow and the Maui Vortex Under Summer Trade-wind Conditions.” DaNa was the second male to receive a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences since Howard’s inception in 1867.

DaNa credits NCAS-M and NOAA’s Educational Partnership Program/Minority-Serving Institution EPP/MSI Program for allowing him to pursue what he loves and providing a pathway to federal employment. DaNa has held positions at the NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) as a research meteorologist working on NOAA’s Global Forecast System (GFS) Model (2007-2014), and as a policy advisor to NOAA’s Chief Scientist and NOAA’s Assistant Secretary of Environmental Observations and Prediction (2014-2016). DaNa is a graduate of NOAA’s Leadership Competency Development Program (LCDP) Class IX where he learned a great leadership lesson that’s been his mantra for the last few years and that’s to work in an environment where he’s comfortably uncomfortable.

DaNa is originally from Tulsa, OK. In his spare time, he enjoys cheering for his favorite sports team, the Oklahoma Sooners, mentoring boys from underrepresented communities that come from single-parent households, and traveling the world with his family. In 2016, he wrote a children’s book titled “MIT: Meteorologist in Training” and he’s published peer-reviewed papers. DaNa is married to Dr. Lydia Carlis, and they have a daughter, Dia Dannielle, who is a senior at Georgia State University. — bt

^{— Source and photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)}
^{Cover photo (above): Dr. DaNa Carlis keynotes BDPA’s 2019 annual Regional Earth Day Tech Summit}
^{with Jr. Devs (coders and developers) and Regional High School Coding Competition (HSCC) finalists}

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**Tablets For Teens** | tabletsforteens.org

Teachers: Ready for a new school year with NOAA

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the new school year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) welcomes teachers and students back to school this fall. For those interested in bringing more science and data into our classrooms, the following lists exciting science and technical resource highlights featuring planet Earth.

Do more with data
NOAA is an incredible source for getting started with earth science data. In fact, we have an entire collection of data resources just for educators. If it’s your first time teaching with data, check out our classroom-ready data resources, which are all ready to go. Then dive into some of our best primary data sources from paleoclimatology to real-time ocean conditions.

Download the new NOAA Science on a Sphere Explorer mobile app and bring beautiful visualizations of global data into the palm of your hand. Use the National Data Buoy Center to monitor water quality across the ocean. See potential flooding impacts across most of the United States and its territories with the Sea Level Rise Viewer. Become a Climate Exploreroffsite link while looking over historical and projected climate data.

Investigate the International Year of the Salmon
Did you know that 2019 is the International Year of the Salmon? Bring salmon education into your classroom with lessons and activities from our West Coast Fisheries office. Discover salmon species that are managed by NOAA Fisheries, including the three populations that NOAA scientists consider highly at-risk of extinction.

Clue into clouds
Check out the newly updated NOAA cloud chart. Learn to identify the clouds you see overhead and delve into new information about understanding the weather. Then try analyzing your own weather with JetStream and reading a weather map with SciJinks.

Become citizen scientists
Connect your students to ongoing citizen science projects, opportunities for them to participate in Earth science research. Weather monitoring is a great way to connect students with NOAA. Students can report precipitation with mobile devices using the mPING app, and schools can sign up to join the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS)offsite link. If you are near a waterway, use the Marine Debris Toolkit for Educators to engage your students in research on global plastic pollution.

Educate young learners
NOAA can help you teach even the youngest students. Look through our elementary resource collection for lessons on earth, life, and physical science, as well as careers and the scientific process. Check out our partnerships with the Octonautsoffsite link: listen to our podcast about the show’s featured animals and watch our video about life on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Find out more about weather and safety with Owlie Skywarn.

Decorate your classroom with posters and imagery
If your classroom is in need of an updated look, NOAA has you covered with high-resolution posters and images that you can download and print for free. For larger formats, check out these posters featuring the oceanoffsite link, weather, and climate. Bookmark the NOAA Satellite Image of the Day gallery for new ways to see the Earth. Scroll through the thousands of images in the NOAA Flickr library, all in the public domain.

— Source and photos: NOAA

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Coders discuss models and forecasts with NOAA during annual Earth Day Tech Summit

WASHINGTON—BDPA’s annual Earth Day Tech Summit, #CyberEarth19, was presented in Washington, D.C. to Industry, BDPA Members, Student Members, parents, and regional high school coding competition (HSCC) team leaders (cover photo) during Earth Day weekend.

This year’s tech summit special guest was Dr. DaNa L. Carlis from the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Dr. Carlis is a meteorologist and mathematician serving as a Program Manager at NOAA’s Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ). During one of the event’s Industry Day sessions, Dr. Carlis highlighted missions of NOAA’s “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft with footage from recent flights. He also discussed the roles of drones and new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) systems to support meteorological research, capture weather forecasting data, and how supercomputers are used to advance weather modeling and simulations.

At OWAQ, Dr. Carlis manages the Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs) and Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS) programs. Dr. Carlis enjoys the fact that he’s able to work between science, policy, and society to ensure better products and services to the American people.

During the event’s training sessions, Dr. Carlis met with BDPA Student Members, gamers, and graphic designers from the Host Chapter’s bdpatoday and PTTV multimedia teams. National BDPA’s HSCC was launched in 1986. Local BDPA Chapters conduct training programs designed to share industry trends with parents and expose youth to emerging concepts of computers and technology to provide expertise for software and application development. BDPA Chapters also participate in regional coding and cyber competitions throughout the country to further prepare participating students. BDPA Chapters send one (1) team of 3 to 5 students to annual National BDPA Technology Conferences to compete against teams from other BDPA Chapters for scholarships and internships.

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Event/Photo gallery: https://bdpadc.org
Earth Day summit archives: https://www.pinterest.com/bdpatoday/boards/

-— Source: BDPADC

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STEM ‘Cheerleader’ finalists selected for NASA’s OPSPARC Challenge

WASHINGTON—Three students from Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C. have been selected as one of eight national high school Glog selection finalists in the NASA Goddard OPSARC Challenge making them the only team on the East Coast to place.

Students were asked to use their imagination and creativity to identify NASA spin-off technologies and increase awareness of the benefits NASA technologies contribute to our everyday lives by participating in NASA’s OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC). Items such as memory foam, invisible braces, firefighting equipment, artificial limbs, scratch-resistant lenses, aircraft anti-icing systems, shoe insoles, water filters/purification, cochlear implants, satellite television, and long-distance telecommunications were first developed for a NASA mission and then, re-worked to make everyday life easier.

These student finalists, Bria Snell, India Skinner, and Mikayla Sharrieff, also known as “S3“, are 11th grade scholars and varsity cheerleaders from the District’s Benjamin Banneker Academic High School who volunteer at the Inclusive Innovation Incubator (In3) in Washington, D.C. Their participation with In3 is an integral part of their high school’s program and mission to help cultivate globally aware students through active community service. In3 is a new technology incubator corporation located in the Shaw Community near Howard University and supported by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s technology inclusion initiative.

Aaron Saunders, CEO of In3 and In3’s Community Manager, Marissa Jennings founder of Socialgrlz‘ Teen Mobile App, and Travis Bolden of Hales Government Solutions, provided facilities, equipment, materials, and weekly coaching to assist the young innovators with implementation of their “H₂NO” to “H₂O” Glog entry project.

Public voting begins Monday, April 23, 2018 through April 30, 2018.

NASA Finalists and Voting → https://opsparc.gsfc.nasa.gov/finalists-grades-9-12/

Voting is open to anyone in the 50 U.S. states and territories. Winning teams are invited to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for two days of in-depth, behind the scene, hands-on workshops with scientists and astronauts. Additionally, each winning team receives an award stipend of $4,000, generously provided by the Foundation for Technology and Privacy Outreach to help offset expenses.

— Sources and photos: In3 and NASA

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NOAA retires storms named Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate

WASHINGTON — Due to the extensive damage caused in the United States and Caribbean last year, the World Meteorological Organization’s Region IV Hurricane Committee has officially retired these names. Storm names are retired if they were so deadly or destructive that the future use of the name would be insensitive – otherwise names are reused by NOAA’s National Hurricane Center on a six-year cycle.

The committee also selected the replacement names for Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate with Harold, Idalia, Margot and Nigel respectively that will first appear in the 2023 list of storm names.

Including these four additions, there have been 86 names retired from the Atlantic basin list since 1953, when storms began to be named. The 2005 hurricane season has the most retired names (five) for one season.

During #CYBEREARTH17, Dr. Dana Carlis (above) of NOAA shared new weather satellite capabilities with BDPA Members and Students during 2017’s Earth Day Tech Summit presentation. Photo © 2017 bdpatoday.

Adrian Gardner (above), Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) shares his agency’s mission, disaster recovery/continuity of operations (DR/COOP) initiatives, the role of “low-tech” during emergencies, and Agency success stories with small business executives and BDPA mission partners during last spring’s 2017 CYBEREARTH17 tech summit. Photo © 2017 bdpatoday

Summary of the newly retired storms

Hurricane Harvey became a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale before making landfall along the middle Texas coast on Aug. 25. The storm then stalled, with its center remaining over or near the Texas coast for four days, dropping historic rainfall amounts, of up to five feet, causing catastrophic flooding in parts of southeastern Texas. Harvey is the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history (after inflation), behind only Katrina in 2005. At least 68 people died from the direct effects of the storm in Texas, the largest number in that state since 1919.

GOES-16 captured this geocolor image of Hurricane Harvey making landfall on the Texas coast at approximately 10:00 pm CDT on August 25, 2017. Harvey’s maximum sustained winds were near 130 mph, making it a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. (NOAA)

Hurricane Irma was a long-lived hurricane that reached category 5 intensity on Sept. 5. The catastrophic hurricane made seven landfalls, four of which occurred as a category 5 hurricane across the northern Caribbean Islands. Irma made landfall as a category 4 hurricane in the Florida Keys on Sept. 10 and struck southwestern Florida as a category 3 the same day. Irma caused 44 direct deaths as a result of its strong winds, heavy rain and high surf. In the U.S., seven direct deaths were reported, and an additional 85 indirect deaths occurred, 80 of which were in Florida. Hundreds more were injured preparing for the storm, during it or in its aftermath.

Hurricane Maria ravaged the island of Dominica as a category 5 on Sept. 19, and later devastated Puerto Rico as a high-end category 4 hurricane. It also inflicted serious damage on some of the other islands of the northeastern Caribbean Sea. Maria is the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history, behind Harvey and Katrina. Maria caused 31 direct deaths with 34 missing in Dominica, and two direct deaths in Guadeloupe. In Puerto Rico, the death toll stands at 65, which includes an unknown number of indirect deaths.

Hurricane Nate crossed northeastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras as a tropical storm, then made landfall on the northern Gulf Coast as a category 1 hurricane. It brought rainfall that caused significant impacts in Central America, where media reports indicate that these caused 44 deaths in the region. An additional fatality in Panama was due to a “shipwreck,” bringing the death toll directly associated with Nate to 45. An additional nine people were missing in the region.

NOAA’s National Hurricane Center is a member of the World Meteorological Organization’s Region IV Hurricane Committee, and is responsible for issuing tropical cyclone forecasts and warnings for both the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins.

— Source and photos: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency

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Tech Association announces Earth Day Summit

WASHINGTON, D.C. (bdpatoday.com) — BDPA of Greater Washington, D.C. (BDPA-DC), an information and communications technology (ICT) local trade association, announces an Earth Day themed technology and cyber career summit for College, Community College, Vocational Technology, and High School students to partner with Industry.

Participating industry and government executives, information technology (IT) experts, and cybersecurity professionals serving as mentors or presenters are invited to present round-table workshops with regional mission-partners to new members, transitioning veterans, students, and general audiences to discuss emerging technologies, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and “Planet Earth.”

Now in its tenth successful year, BDPA-DC’s Advance Planning Briefing for Interns (APBi) series continues into 2017 with a Spring APBI, CyberEarth17, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park followed by a Summer APBI, 2017 Regional Innovation Summit, at Bowie State University. Regional Innovation summits are presented on campus every June with participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities or Minority Serving Institutions (HBCU/MSIs.)

Chartered in 1978, BDPA-DC continues ICT and cybersecurity awareness campaigns with Industry, Academia, and Government. #CyberEarth17, an all-in-one science, cyber, and technology career summit with young adults. Onsite registration and check-in begin April 21-22, 2017 at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park. Online registration is open for members and the general public by visiting BDPADC.org.

About BDPA, Washington, D.C.
BDPA’s mission in the District of Columbia and the National Capital Region (NCR) is to bridge cybersecurity (CS), information technology (IT) and telecommunications competency gaps in urban, under-represented, and underserved communities. Local chapter goals in the National Capital Region (NCR) include, but are not limited to, providing IT and CS educational programs, industry publications, and community outreach services for professionals, young adults, and youth in direct support of software development initiatives, cyberspace workforce development, and government relations. Visit BDPADC.org for strategic partnerships, programs, and new membership information.