Abiodun Ilumoka: Well, it is 2 o'clock pm. And welcome to the National Science Foundation. Expand, Aip
Abiodun Ilumoka: Webinar.
Abiodun Ilumoka: It's our pleasure to host you here this afternoon.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We will give you hopefully lots of information about the program and be able to take your question
Abiodun Ilumoka: next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Okay, this is the agenda for this afternoon
Abiodun Ilumoka: we'll have opening remarks from leadership in the science directorate.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and then we will launch into the presentation.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We'll have a brief presentation on partnership opportunities, and then we'll take your questions next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Okay, over to you, Wendy.
Wendy Nilsen: Abby, thank you so much. I'm really thrilled to be here. I'm Wendy Nelson. I'm the deputy division director. As you can see, we have a very long name, but it's the division of information systems and different information and intelligence systems
Wendy Nilsen: in the size directorate. And I just want to say that I'm really thrilled to be here. This is an amazing program. Our expand AI is an amazing program. And it really builds on some of the ideals that Msf. Has grown on. We have been looking. We haven't been investing heavily in AI, and I know you'll hear more about our AI Institutes.
Wendy Nilsen: but we've been investing heavily. And we've created a network that is very strong and very broad. But we realize that Msis or minority serving institutions are really an untapped resource in this area, and that we have that provides us many, many opportunities to broaden the perspectives, broaden the voice and broaden the talent pool.
Wendy Nilsen: And so we with the expand AI program has been a brilliant way, I think, to achieve these goals, and I look forward to hearing more during the webinar. But please understand, this is a program we're exceedingly proud of and very grateful to the team that's leading this, who's done a lot for the community on it.
Wendy Nilsen: So, Abby, I'll turn back to you.
Nicholas Wagner: Abby, you gotta drum. You're off.
Wendy Nilsen: I did.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Sorry I forgot to mention. Please type your questions into Q. And A. We will take questions at the end
Abiodun Ilumoka: of the webinar toward the end of the webinar.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So please type them in and thank you very much. Wendy.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Next area AI Institutes.
Abiodun Ilumoka: please.
Erion Plaku: Sure
Erion Plaku: next slide. Yeah, good afternoon. My name is Arian Plaku. I'm a program director in the same directorate as Wendy size and the same Division Iis, and at Nsf. I co-lead the Overall AI Institute's program, together with my colleague, Jim Dunden. I'm also actively involved with the expand AI program. So it's a great pleasure being here. And I'm looking forward to interacting with you during the question and answer session.
Erion Plaku: Now, I'm going to take a moment and briefly introduce the national Artificial Intelligence AI Research Institute's program, or as briefly known as the AI Institute's Program.
Erion Plaku: This represents a cornerstone Federal Government commitment to fostering long-term, fundamental and use inspired research in AI with a focus on societal challenges and enhancing national competitiveness. In AI.
Erion Plaku: This program is a multi-sector effort led by the National Science Foundation, but also in partnership with several Federal agencies, including Usda Nifa. Department of Defense Department of Homeland Security and Department of Education. We have also partnered with nonprofit organizations, particularly Simons Foundation and the industry as well. Amazon, Google, Intel, Ibm. Accenture and capital one.
Erion Plaku: Each AI Institute is funded at 20 million dollars for a duration of 5 years. So roughly 4 million dollars per year, and the objective of each AI Institute is to advance foundational use inspired AI research, but at the same time also to provide innovation in AI education and workforce development and to build new partnerships, including partnerships with Msis.
Erion Plaku: as you can see from the picture at the center, these AI Institutes. They are spread all over the United States, and we do have a virtual organization able, which is supposed, which helps all these AI Institutes come together in order to form an ecosystem towards the various themes that these AI Institutes have
Erion Plaku: so avo provides a lot of information about all the individual AI Institutes, but at the same time also about the overall AI Institutes, how they are functioning together to achieve goals that are larger than their initial efforts. Next slide, please.
Erion Plaku: So currently, we have 27 active AI Institutes. We started in 2,020, and the 1st cohort included 7 AI Institutes. 5 were funded from the National Science Foundation, and 2 were funded from Nifa.
Erion Plaku: and the year after the second cohort included 9 Institutes in 2023 we had 7 and 2024. We have 2 AI Institutes funded by Nsf. And Simons Foundation. As you can see here in the picture. We have many Logos, I believe. Here we have all the Logos of all the 27 AI Institutes.
Erion Plaku: But there is a story behind each of these Logos in terms of the research that they do, and also the educational efforts that they provide. So please visit Avo for more information on each of these AI Institutes.
Erion Plaku: Next slide
Erion Plaku: back to you, Abby.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Thank you, Arian, for that context for the rest of the presentation.
Abiodun Ilumoka: just a quick intro. My name is Abby Ilamoka. I'm a program director in the stem education directorate or Edu for short.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I am also co-lead of the Expand AI program.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and my task this afternoon is to give you an overview of the expand AI program, just a very quick overview. So program goals.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Well, AI is the most disruptive technology of today.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And the idea is, it is important that everyone, everyone, at every every level of academic
Abiodun Ilumoka: career, be involved in some shape or form
Abiodun Ilumoka: in in AI, in how to use it.
Abiodun Ilumoka: how to deploy it.
Abiodun Ilumoka: how to be responsible when it comes to the use of AI.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And so the idea behind the expand AI program is to diversify participation in AI research, education and workforce development.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And to do this in 2 using 2 approaches, because we understand that minority serving institutions are all very different.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Want to make sure that this technology reaches the minority serving institutions in this country, and there are about 2,000.
Abiodun Ilumoka: But we recognize that some have very little capacity, 0 capacity in some cases. So we offer a track called capacity building pilot or capacity building for short.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and we also recognize that some Msis have significant capacity already in the AI domain.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And so we offer a second track called the Partnerships Track.
Abiodun Ilumoka: in which they will find AI Institutes to partner with, so that they can scale up their research.
Abiodun Ilumoka: education, and infrastructure whatever is needed.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So Nsf. Has put this in motion, or put this in place by making sure that any barriers to success
Abiodun Ilumoka: our Lord.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So, for example, we have a two-stage submission process. 1st concept outlines are submitted
Abiodun Ilumoka: 2 pages long
Abiodun Ilumoka: will work relatively relative to a proposal
Abiodun Ilumoka: and feedback, is given fairly soon within a month.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Regarding the concept outline. If it aligns well with the goals of the expand AI program, you will be invited to submit. If not, you will be given an opportunity to revise your concept outline.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We also have flexible submission windows.
Abiodun Ilumoka: You can submit essentially whenever you are ready. There are no single date deadlines next slide, please
Abiodun Ilumoka: a little bit of history here, and you can read it on your own. I won't spend too much time, but the program is about 2 years old. Not about. It is just over 2 years old.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and we do our best to get information out. We have monthly office hours every 3rd Monday of the month between 3 and 4 PM.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And we occasionally have live webinars like this to also answer questions, live next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So once again there are 2 tracks, 2 approaches.
Abiodun Ilumoka: One is for those who have little or no capacity. If you are unsure, whether your capacity fits into the cap or the partner track.
Abiodun Ilumoka: you're welcome to put that concept outline together, and we will respond and let you know.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And of course the partner track is for those with significant capacity who have found an AI Institute to partner with.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We have as our guest the this afternoon 2 AI Institute's leadership
Abiodun Ilumoka: personnel, who will speak to you about exploring partnerships next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: A little history on the funding 32,000,018 cap. 9. Partners have been awarded to date across how many States is it? Probably a dozen or more States, as you see here in the map, and they cover the whole spectrum. AI research, AI education and workforce development.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Award topics vary. So we're not limited to the traditional Nsf
Abiodun Ilumoka: supported stem disciplines. So all of the stem disciplines obviously, but also non-stem disciplines. So the humanities and the social sciences
Abiodun Ilumoka: are supported. The medical fields are supported.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And so this slide gives you an idea of the range of topics that we have
Abiodun Ilumoka: given awards in next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I already explained the two-step process you send in a concept outline.
Abiodun Ilumoka: you get some feedback, and it's either
Abiodun Ilumoka: well aligned with the goals of the program, in which case you're invited to submit a full proposal.
Abiodun Ilumoka: or we recommend that you revise it and send it back in, so that it is better aligned
Abiodun Ilumoka: when the full proposal comes in that is, either paneled or ad hoc, reviewed
Abiodun Ilumoka: in the usual Nsf way, and if it is found to be competitive, it will result in an award.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Program budget roughly the same. So 10 to 17 million average about, I would say, 15,000,015 to 25 awards.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Each cap is 400,000 over 2 years.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Each partner
Abiodun Ilumoka: is between 3 and 700,000 a year for up to 4 years. So that's 2.8 million, Max for the partner.
Abiodun Ilumoka: 400,000, Max for the cap
Abiodun Ilumoka: next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Okay, so just back up one slide subrata. All yours.
Subrata Acharya: Thank you, Abby.
Subrata Acharya: Welcome everybody. A quick introduction. I am the lead for the size, research expansion programs with the size, Msi and excellence in research programs with Hpcus.
Subrata Acharya: And I'm delighted to be here with my colleagues, and I will now focus on explaining and detailing about the eligibility for the concept outline and proposals both for the capacity building and partner next slide.
Subrata Acharya: So if you are an institution who would like to participate in the program, this is very important for the institutional sponsored program offices and pis and investigators to note
Subrata Acharya: which? What are the organization that can submit. So these are all detailed in the solicitation. But please keep in mind some of these action items as you prepare your concept outline
Subrata Acharya: organization may submit one proposal per submission window, and when I say submission window, that's what Abby was mentioning about anytime. It is like, you know, throughout the year
Subrata Acharya: your organization must have to wait for a determination before submitting a new proposal in the next window.
Subrata Acharya: And this is something which we reiterate, and we get a lot of questions on
Subrata Acharya: you need to understand that declined proposals require a new invitation to submit, and
Subrata Acharya: you would be getting ample amount of feedback and office hour sessions, you know, to address those and revise and resubmit
Subrata Acharya: an organization that has received an invitation to submit a full proposal must wait for that proposal to be submitted and resolved before submitting
Subrata Acharya: a concept outline on the same topic area next slide.
Subrata Acharya: And this one actually highlights what we always try to address and what Wendy was mentioning that you know this is the Expand AI program. It's geared towards proposers and institutions who are from minority serving institutions as detailed in the Us. Department of Education National Center for Education statistics
Subrata Acharya: as noted over here. The details of it are also in the solicitation, 23, dash 506.
Subrata Acharya: And here are the institutions which are eligible to submit? There's any questions on the eligibility. Feel free to put your question in the Q. And a. Be happy to address them next slide.
Subrata Acharya: who, as a pi is eligible, the principal investigator must hold a full-time faculty appointment or be a senior administrator to be eligible, submit to the program.
Subrata Acharya: In case of the partner pathway, a copi must be identified to represent the partnership with an AI Institute.
Subrata Acharya: and that is the important thing to highlight in order for you to establish the partnership for advanced
Subrata Acharya: Msi. Who can then partner with the Pi from the Partner Institute, AI. Partner to build that partnership at the Host Institution.
Subrata Acharya: Opi must be verified by the Institute director in the Institution Integration Plan as being among the senior personnel of the Institute, and, as Arian mentioned.
Subrata Acharya: we have folks from partner institutions who can discuss in detail on their experiences next slide.
Subrata Acharya: There's additional information which is already detailed in the solicitation. But I would like to highlight only eligible organization that have received an official program officer concurrency email are invited to submit a full proposal.
Subrata Acharya: and once you receive the invitation, you must submit the documentation and receive official response in order for you to submit to the next upcoming deadline
Subrata Acharya: with regards to the institution of the organization, we submit one proposal per the submission window. I did discuss this as I was going through in the earlier slide.
Subrata Acharya: Just keep in mind that in order for you to receive an invitation to submit a full proposal, you have to wait for that confirmation and concurrence.
Subrata Acharya: and once it is submitted, and currently being reviewed, you have to wait until its resolution or response before you submit similar concept outline next slide.
Subrata Acharya: Right now I'll invite my colleague, Alfred Harrow, to come and talk about crafting quality concept outlines. Al, take it over.
Alfred Hero: Thank you, Sobrato.
Alfred Hero: I'm Al Hero. I'm in the Ccf. Division, the Computing Communications Foundations Division. That's different from Iis. But in the size directorate.
Alfred Hero: And I'm going to talk about some of the best practices for crafting a good concept outline that will enable you to both receive feedback on your concept and potentially move you to the next stage of being invited to submit a full proposal next slide, please.
Alfred Hero: So we, the the outlines are 2 pages.
Alfred Hero: They're reviewed on an ongoing basis, so you can submit anytime.
Alfred Hero: The
Alfred Hero: the the concept outlines are required for both tracks.
Alfred Hero: They have to be
Alfred Hero: tailored to each track
Alfred Hero: in a particular way that I'll I'll mention in a minute.
Alfred Hero: and they must be sent as a Pdf. Attachment to an email to the expand AI program at this email address, which is illustrated here
Alfred Hero: in order to guarantee that we have an expedient process, you are required to format your subject line so that it's very clear that you're submitting a concept outline. And you can add the particular program or track cap of partner to that
Alfred Hero: next slide, please.
Alfred Hero: So a concept outlined to be responsive
Alfred Hero: will
Alfred Hero: will react to the solicitation in such a way that the program officers who review your concept outline can determine that you have a high potential for a successful writing, a successful proposal, and at that point you'll receive an official invitation. Submit a proposal. If you get the program officer concurrency email as hubrata just mentioned.
Alfred Hero: So you'll have 12 months to submit the full proposal. Once you've been invited. If the concept outline is not responsive, is determined not to have the
Alfred Hero: components that give the program directors a sense that you will have a successful proposal, then we will provide feedback, in addition to, of course, notifying you that it is not responsive, and that will
Alfred Hero: disallow you from to submit a full proposal until you revise and resubmit your new concept outline. If you wish to do so after the start of the next submission window. The
Alfred Hero: concept outlines need to be substantially revised. You can't simply submit some minor
Alfred Hero: modification of your concept outline and expect that that will receive a positive response. So this will be enhanced. Your revision will be enhanced if you contact the program officers after you have received the invitation or the non invitation to discuss why your concept outline was not responsive.
Alfred Hero: and so you will not be eligible to apply for expand Ia funding. If you do not receive an invitation, any proposal that you do submit will be wasted work because it will be rejected without review. That's rwr. Our Nsf. Mnemonic for rejection without review. Next slide, please.
Alfred Hero: So a concept outline needs to to follow a particular format, a title, name of pi copis msi status goals, and so forth. I'm not going to go through these in any detail. These slides are going to be available for you to look at. So we'll just go on to the next.
Alfred Hero: Some hints for competitive capcois don't focus on individual researcher projects because the whole purpose of the cap programs to expand capacity at your institution. So it's not just an ordinary research proposal. It should be a single Msi preferences that you build capacity at your Msi.
Alfred Hero: There should be an emphasis on research infrastructure, institution-wide, not just in a single researcher's lab as the 1st point is pointing to, and it should be focused on a broad range of research projects.
Alfred Hero: Growth in AI capacity, of course, is the most important component that you need to address, and of course, sufficient details of your research projects, your I research projects and ideas or curriculum development, as it may be, will be required. So please go into the next one. Now, competitive partners. Concept outlines, on the other hand.
Alfred Hero: are submitted when you believe that you have achieved a sufficient capacity to partner with an existing institute. So you need to identify an AI Institute. You need to form connections with that AI Institute.
Alfred Hero: and you have to then write your partner, CEO, such that it's very clear what those connections are, and what the research efforts are, how they will be divided across your Msi. And the AI Institute. You have partnered with
Alfred Hero: a convincing joint strategy for collaborative work needs to be outlined, and the benefits to your Msi. Have to be clearly articulated, because this is all about expanding beyond your existing capacity through a partnership with the AI Institute.
Alfred Hero: Now an Institute. That's not already a core member of the AI Institute is eligible. If you're already a core member of an AI Institute, you cannot partner with that Institute, you could partner with another institute, but not with the AI Institute with which you are currently affiliated.
Alfred Hero: So next slide
Alfred Hero: and now I'll introduce Nick to talk about the full proposal preparation, and some.
Nicholas Wagner: Hi, everyone! I'm Nicholas Wagner. I am a triple, a science and technology policy fellow. At Nsf.
Nicholas Wagner: I am in the same division as Arian. I'm in size information Systems Division and I help with both. Expand AI as well as the AI Institutes programs.
Nicholas Wagner: So I'll talk a little bit about the full proposal preparation, submission process.
Nicholas Wagner: So I'm just going to foot. Stop a bit on what was said earlier that you must have an invitation after submitting a concept outline before you can submit a full proposal, we do have these recurring proposal submission windows. So for your purposes. This will essentially be each quarter of the next year
Nicholas Wagner: will be a different proposal. Submission window. So if you have a proposal submitted in the say, the 1st quarter is adjudicated. You submit another concept outline that we invite you to submit. You could theoretically do that in the next proposal, submission window in the second quarter or in the the following 3rd quarter of the year.
Nicholas Wagner: So another thing important to note is that the submission system will shut down. If you're waiting to the last minute it will shut down at 5 pm. Your local time, not Eastern time. That is a thing that you should keep in mind.
Nicholas Wagner: And it will reopen for new submissions the morning of the next window. So for the next 3 proposal submission windows. Those happen to be basically the immediately. The the day following the previous proposal, submission window.
Nicholas Wagner: with the exception of the final submission window, which will be ending in October of next year.
Nicholas Wagner: an organization may submit one proposal per submission window, and you must wait for determination from Nsf. Either an award from Nsf. A decline or return of that review on that pending proposal before you can submit a new proposal in the next window.
Nicholas Wagner: so you'll have to wait on that
Nicholas Wagner: declined proposals require a new invitation to submit. So you'll have to submit a new concept outline and get that approved, or an invitation to submit through that process and significant revision on that proposal, while if you get a return without review, you can submit again, using the same concept outline. Assuming that you're still within the one year from when the original invitation was extended, following your concept outline submission.
Nicholas Wagner: and if you received an invitation to submit a full proposal, you must wait for the proposal to be submitted and resolved before submitting another concept outline as well.
Nicholas Wagner: So we there are no just a common question. There are no limits or restrictions on the number of proposals per pi or co-pi. You you do have to wait for this adjudication to go through.
Nicholas Wagner: Like I mentioned the proposal. Submission windows that are upcoming are essentially starting in January of next year, through March of next year or early March.
Nicholas Wagner: the day after, in March, through June, and then June through October you can submit a concept outline at any time. These are these, some proposal. Submission windows are just for the actual proposals.
Nicholas Wagner: But the
Nicholas Wagner: the once you have a proposal submitted. You have to wait for that adjudication.
Nicholas Wagner: The proposals are pretty similar between the 2 tracks. It's relatively straightforward, like Al mentioned. You can. You'll be able to read these slides on your own later. Some key differences between the 2 tracks. So in the cap track you'll be spending more time in these bolted sections in the bottom left talking about the need, and
Nicholas Wagner: for the the cap award, and how you're going to use it to build towards some future state that you're envisioning, whereas in the partner track you'll spend more time talking about the capacity that merits you getting this partner award, and how you plan to collaborate with an institute, to meaningfully advance that capacity and sort of how you plan to do that.
Nicholas Wagner: And in all these you're gonna be following the the
Nicholas Wagner: Nsf guidance on proposal, submission and preparation.
Nicholas Wagner: Again, I won't go through all of the the sections mentioned here. A lot of these are pretty standard for any Nsf full proposals that you'd be submitting. One thing to note is in the other supplementary documents you will need of up to 3 pages. Note of institutional need and support, you know, from your Institute leader institutional leadership, I should say, and then, if you're doing a partner track, you will have to have a plan spelled out for how you would integrate with the AI Institute
Nicholas Wagner: and that is just like I mentioned for the partner tracks only, and make sure to attach the email from the program officer saying you were invited to submit.
Nicholas Wagner: And these are just the brief overview of the guidelines. Please look at the full solicitation for more.
Nicholas Wagner: and the submission of the full proposals can be done through either research.gov or grants.gov. The instructions for both are in the hyperlinks here.
Nicholas Wagner: I'm going to turn it over now to Abby to talk a bit about the capacity building track proposals over to you, Abby.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Okay, thank you. Nick.
Abiodun Ilumoka: capacity building pilot track proposals. We awarded 11 in Fy 24.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We're expecting roughly 10 to 15 for Fy. 25.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And once again, please stress the required research, infrastructure plans to leverage any established research groups, research strengths already available at the institution.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Don't forget faculty, development, faculty training.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and any research experiences that emphasize diversification of investigators.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Next slide please
Abiodun Ilumoka: a couple of hints here, attributes of competitive cap proposals, things to emphasize in your proposal the benefits to the Msi. A strong institutional need and support statement, telling us exactly what the status is of AI research and instructional capacity on the campus. Be honest about this, because we will look it up.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We want to know exactly where you stand in terms of your current AI capacity.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We'd like you to articulate a strong case
Abiodun Ilumoka: for the need for capacity building. Next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: A couple more examples of activity that you might put in a cap, proposal
Abiodun Ilumoka: establishment, or and significant enhancement of research, either foundational or use inspired
Abiodun Ilumoka: design of new curricula, academic pathways for teaching and learning in AI.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Significant increase in participation by investigators and their students. So those are the kinds of things we expect you to emphasize in a capacity building project
Abiodun Ilumoka: next slide, please.
Abiodun Ilumoka: At this point I'm going to hand over to Arian to basically finish off the presentation. All yours.
Erion Plaku: Alright, thank you, Abby.
Erion Plaku: So the partner track, as we heard, is dedicated
Erion Plaku: for Msis to enhance their impact in AI research education and workforce development through high value. Partnerships with one or more AI Institutes. The focus of partner projects should be on shared complementary goals that benefit both the Msi and the AI Institute. So this is a key factor that your proposal should emphasize this collaboration with the AI Institutes
Erion Plaku: know that you do not require. We do not require a cap in order for you to submit a partner proposal, but you must have that capacity already built in order to be able to have a meaningful partnership.
Erion Plaku: so the criteria that are there for a partner. Proposals are that it must involve a partnership with one or more AI Institutes, and it should establish a significantly new collaboration. So this collaboration should have clear potential to build on the Msi's current AI capabilities.
Erion Plaku: tapping into their unique resources talents and perspectives. So the partner track seeks to create an environment where Msis can grow in the AI landscape while also contributing to the national AI ecosystem
Erion Plaku: next slide, please.
Erion Plaku: So, as you can see in this table, we have currently made 9 partner awards. This collection showcases a diverse range of projects that cover various themes, all with the potential to create mutually beneficial outcomes for both the Msi and the partner AI Institutes, paving the way for shared knowledge and resources.
Erion Plaku: Next slide.
Erion Plaku: If you are applying for a partner track, you must clearly demonstrate the readiness to utilize external expertise and financial resources effectively.
Erion Plaku: The goal is to focus on medium and long-term plans. This includes advancing the Msi's AI approaches creating relevant use cases and enhancing educational or workforce development initiatives. Additionally, proposals should outline how the Msi. Can expand and scale these efforts through formal, mutually beneficial partnerships.
Erion Plaku: A key component of any partner proposal is a compelling partnership roadmap that outlines collaborations around the unifying theme or focus. This roadmap should clearly articulate the vision for the partnership and the steps needed to achieve those shared goals. Next slide, please.
Erion Plaku: An effective roadmap is essential for guiding and communicating the goals of the collaboration. This roadmap should be depicted visually. You can use a diagram logic model table or whatever you like.
Erion Plaku: high level overview. But you should also have a narrative that explains the roadmap in detail, and there are certain key areas that the roadmap should cover, for example, enhancement of existing projects describing how the collaboration will elevate or expand upon projects that are already in place.
Erion Plaku: or perhaps it can focus on new projects that are made possible through this partnership with the Institute
Erion Plaku: community building activities and engagement efforts, like various workshops that can foster common interests shared objectives and long term growth in the partnership
Erion Plaku: the roadmap should also highlight scaling of programs, including strategies and potential for expanding early stage programs aiming for sustainable growth.
Erion Plaku: And importantly, it must have an evaluation plan to measure both growth and mutual benefits for all activities, ensuring that the roadmap delivers on its goals effectively together. These elements provide a comprehensive framework for successful impactful partnership. Next slide.
Erion Plaku: And we do have some resources for you. The Avo website is the main one, where you can look at the existing AI Institutes in order to find possible collaborations. And when you're considering collaborations, keep in mind that the sub award can be granted either to the lead organization of an AI Institute or to any of its awardee organizations.
Erion Plaku: So I'll stop in here, and next we are going to have representatives from 2 AI Institutes that are going to share their experience on how they build these partnerships with Msis. And first, st we are going to start with Telos Yusu Wang, go ahead.
Yusu Wang: Alright! Just give me one second to share my slides.
Yusu Wang: Can everyone hear me.
Erion Plaku: Yes, we can hear, and we can see the slides.
Yusu Wang: Excellent, all right. So I'm Yusu Wang, some director for Telos, which stands for the Institute of Learning enabled optimization at scale. So we're one institute focusing on AI and optimization. So let me 1st tell you a bit about the Institute itself.
Yusu Wang: So our mission is really to co advance the co-evolve AI and optimization. Okay, become a nexus of learning optimization and the leading edge of a practice for 3 very high stake areas, chip design networks and robotics.
Yusu Wang: So we have some of the brightest minds in these areas from Ucsd. Mit National University, Upenn, Ut. Austin, Yale, and the San Diego State University together to achieve these goals
Yusu Wang: and to do to achieve our mission. We do so through several virtual cycles, from foundational research to news domains, from research to education to translation to industry leading edge.
Yusu Wang: Okay, so I want to see. First, st tell you a few things about our research focus. And I'm going to come to our expand AI partnership.
Yusu Wang: So as I said, that, our ultimate goal is to code once AI and optimization. So now in this modern era, AI and optimization actually has a very complex and intertwined relationship. On one hand, AI can really help to accelerate optimization and decision making in practice. On the other hand.
Yusu Wang: optimization to solve is actually perhaps the key component of modern AI across all learning models. Okay, so that affects all aspects from your training, from your the robustness of your models about how your model generalized. Okay, so it affects all these aspects. Okay.
Yusu Wang: so our Institute hope to co advance leverage this interaction between AI and optimization code once, both through 5 foundational pillars, I will not get into detail, but we aim to through this 5 foundational pillars. We aim to push the frontier of AI develop innovative AI methods that are scalable, robust, adaptable, and also ready for the real world.
Yusu Wang: Complexity and constraints, especially those coming from our core use domains, the chip design networks and robotics. All these fields has been at the foundation of the technology progress in the past several decades. And also they are full of optimization challenges.
Yusu Wang: And if you're interested in our research, I mean, you can also check out our webpage or our Google Scholar Page.
Yusu Wang: Now, at the same time, we also have a very robust and active collaboration with the cutting edge industry including intel qualcomm, in fact is partially sponsored by Intel as well. We have our collaboration already. Give us multiple joint publications.
Yusu Wang: We also have a diverse range of educational and outreach activities, including focusing on the education workforce development in AI for non-traditional learners. And we also have different programs, initiatives to engage and outreach to the broader scientific community again, feel free to check out our webpage for more details.
Yusu Wang: Okay, so let me now tell you a bit about our Sdsu Telos partnership.
Yusu Wang: expand AI partnership where the goal is to expand the AI capacity in the San Diego region. Okay, now, this is led by San Diego State University the pi is from Sdsu.
Yusu Wang: Now Sdsu is both Hsi and also Aa and Apisi. So San Diego in recent years has really become a national hub in AI and San Diego State University, Sdsu. Being the largest campus in Cal. State University system, and also with their focus focus on accessible undergraduate education.
Yusu Wang: engaging the community. So they are really, uniquely positioned to address the workforce need
Yusu Wang: of a diverse student population in the San Diego area. Okay, so
Yusu Wang: this is so here are the pis and the Co-pi, some from San Diego City University and the Telos team members.
Yusu Wang: So here the collaboration. As already mentioned, this is really happening. Collaboration happens on all fronts from research, education, outreach and also infrastructure development. So this is the roadmap. I will not get into details here. But let me just emphasize that this partnership, this collaboration, is really mutually beneficial. Okay.
Yusu Wang: we not only want to scale up the AI capacity at Sdsu, addressing the surging demand from their students.
Yusu Wang: we, this partnership also strengthen and expand telos research, especially in distributed optimization. Trust A Versi AI, and also to build up a real test bed for testing AI systems. Okay? In addition.
Yusu Wang: this also helped Helos to reach out to a diverse and untapped talent pool in the AI workforce. Okay? And this.
Yusu Wang: in general help to build Foster this constructive foundation of diverse AI community in the San Diego region. Okay?
Yusu Wang: All right. So now, we'd love to talk to you. If you're interested, feel free to reach out to us both through our website. We do have expand the AI interest form that Google form that you can fill in on our website if you're interested or directly sending sending email to myself, to the steelers at Ucsd or to our managing Director Angela, or to any fact team member that you feel more connected to. Okay. We'll be happy to
Yusu Wang: have more discussions and conversations with you. In fact, this is actually crucial in order to develop a mutually beneficial partnership. So overall what I want to say is that we hope that in the long run through this Nsf expand AI, we would like to build a long term relationship with you, and with the scientific community
Yusu Wang: that was to enhance AI both from research to education to the practical impact.
Yusu Wang: That's all that I have to present.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Thank you.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Steve.
Steve Brown: We'll bring up the slide there, for
Steve Brown: there we go.
Steve Brown: I'm Steve Brown. I'm associate director of Aphis AI Institute for next generation food systems. And we were in the 1st group of AI Institutes funded and we were funded by Usda Nifa.
Steve Brown: And currently we're one of 5 ag AI Institutes.
Steve Brown: So in this presentation I'll introduce not only aphis.
Steve Brown: but also the other 4 institutes that are ag focused as well, because many of you are in the agricultural domain, and may want to seek out partnerships based on the capabilities of the other 4 as well. Next slide
Steve Brown: of the 5 Ag AI Institutes. Each of us has a different focus area, and ours is a building, a healthier society and a more sustainable planet. And how we do this is through AI as the connective tissue between the entire food systems, elements that would be going from molecular breeding to breed more healthy crops, more climate, resilient crops
Steve Brown: all the way to through ag production, food processing, for example, pathogen detection in processing and then finally in nutrition. What is in your food? What is the nutritional dark matter in food. So we're looking at AI to disrupt the space and help agriculture move
Steve Brown: greatly more forward than it has in the past.
Steve Brown: Our subawardees include Berkeley, Illinois, Cornell, Usda's Western Human Nutrition Center, and the extension arm of the Uc. System called Ucanr agriculture and natural resources. As you can see on the map. There
Steve Brown: we put a dot on the various partners that we have worked with along the way. These include letters of collaboration with universities, letters of support with universities and expand AI program. The dot right there in Southern New Mexico is New Mexico State University, who has our expand AI partnership award
Steve Brown: over in Europe. You can see that we've established some relationships with food and agricultural universities and companies. Next slide.
Steve Brown: you can go to our website, aphis dot uc Davis Edu, and you can take a look at all the projects that we've worked on in the food system
Steve Brown: along the way. We have continued, many of them, and through today. And we're in our 5th year of funding from Usda Nifa.
Steve Brown: A lot of them are very exciting and feel free to take your time and read through them.
Steve Brown: I won't go through them right now, but they do span the entire food system
Steve Brown: as we do have relationships with different universities.
Steve Brown: with letters of collaboration support and now expand AI partnership.
Steve Brown: We try to match up the expertise of our Institute researchers with those that are seeking letters of support as well as New Mexico State University's partnership relationship.
Steve Brown: So next slide
Steve Brown: and a little bit more about the Institute of Aphis itself, we have funded 65 teams over these past years, and we've leveraged 35 million dollars in funded projects along the way.
Steve Brown: This would be additional grants that have been leveraged, thanks to the the aphis research dollars that have supported new focus areas within
Steve Brown: are us at Uc. Davis as well as Berkeley, Illinois, and Cornell, and so forth.
Steve Brown: That's our paper count that needs to be updated. We've had a lot recently and then supported faculty and Phd. Trainees. There's quite the grad student ecosystem that the Institute has supported.
Steve Brown: We've also had a significant community outreach program in various ways, including career fellowship programs, hackathons and workshops as well as just large speaking engagements. We've been prominently featured even just last week at the National Ag Robotics Conference. That featured us as we announced the next year's competition for the Farm robotics challenge.
Steve Brown: And then you can see a couple of the other numbers there.
Steve Brown: I'll note, as far as our relationship with New Mexico State University that
Steve Brown: how it started was
Steve Brown: just as Telos noted. There
Steve Brown: you have expertise within the AI Institute. It's sought out by the potential partner.
Steve Brown: And
Steve Brown: you find the researchers that are doing that work that overlaps. And you see, you know what are the marriages here? And then, secondly, what is the bandwidth? That's possible.
Steve Brown: So from that we had 2 of our researchers specifically sought out from New Mexico State University. They happen to be Mason Earls, and Isaiah Caseka Mason is Ag data. Isaiah is water and soil measurement systems.
Steve Brown: This married well with New Mexico State University's areas of interest as well as we have applied into our grant proposal. With them
Steve Brown: the education workforce outreach expertise. And we're providing some help with what we call our AI Bridge program, where we educate students and also the workforce and faculty in building AI machine learning systems next slide.
Steve Brown: Okay? And that is it for yeah, that is it for aphis. And I'll hand it back over to, I believe Abby.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Yes, thank you very much, Steve, and you, Sue, and a big thank you to my Nsf colleagues as well. That is the end of the presentation. This final slide gives you some important information on submission windows, upcoming office hours, November and December. They will continue next year, but these are the dates for November and December.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And of course, contact information.
Abiodun Ilumoka: For
Abiodun Ilumoka: questions and and so forth.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So at this point we are ready to take your questions. Many of them are already there in the Q. And a. So we'll
Abiodun Ilumoka: sort of work through the Q. And A we.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Our preference is that you type your question into the Q&A, and we'll
Abiodun Ilumoka: be sure to get to
Abiodun Ilumoka: to them.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Okay? So at this point I'm gonna hand over to Nick.
Abiodun Ilumoka: who is monitoring Q. And a. And we'll all chime in
Abiodun Ilumoka: with answers.
Nicholas Wagner: One of the very most straightforward questions is, where can the attendees find the slides? Those will be sent in an email, I think a link to the recording and the slides right.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Yes, at the end of the webinar at some point over the next day or 2, I believe
Abiodun Ilumoka: all registrants will receive a link
Abiodun Ilumoka: to the recording of the webinar, and you'll be able to
Abiodun Ilumoka: re-watch it if you want, and you should also receive the slides themselves.
Abiodun Ilumoka: if you don't, then, please let me know.
Nicholas Wagner: Let me see here, I'm gonna go somewhat back in in time. Here. One of the very 1st questions that was asked was, how many partners can be partner proposals, I believe, can be submitted by an institute.
Nicholas Wagner: and students have more than one.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Okay, that's a great question. Thank you.
Abiodun Ilumoka: An institution, an institution, an Msi. The question is, how many partner proposals
Abiodun Ilumoka: can be submitted.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and the answer is in theory unlimited.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We recognize that Msis can be pretty big in terms of
Abiodun Ilumoka: numbers of faculty and students and areas areas of disciplinary areas and areas of research.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And so we do not limit
Abiodun Ilumoka: the number of partner proposals that can be submitted as long as the proposals are in distinct areas
Abiodun Ilumoka: areas that do not overlap.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Then the Msi is is welcome to submit a partner proposal
Abiodun Ilumoka: in partnership with the AI Institute that they have identified.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Does anyone else want to chime in on that? Maybe Nick.
Erion Plaku: Just from the other direction. Also for the Institutes. They are not limited in partnering just with one Msi. So if you see, for example, that Delos, or
Erion Plaku: Aphis, or other AI Institutes, they have already some partnerships with existing Msis. That doesn't mean that they cannot partner with you. So there's no limit, also on in terms of the AI Institute. So if you find an AI Institute that you think that you can partner with them, please go ahead and see if you can form that partnership regardless of previous partnerships, that those AI Institutes may have with other msis.
Abiodun Ilumoka: There's a question that I had answered I had asked for clarification on, and this is the one
Abiodun Ilumoka: that says, is it possible to submit 2 caps
Abiodun Ilumoka: with different research areas.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So that was the 1st part, the second part will it affect?
Abiodun Ilumoka: It's if we submit a partner
Abiodun Ilumoka: on different area of research and cap on another area of research.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So the answer to the 1st part, is it possible to submit 2 caps
Abiodun Ilumoka: from the same Msi with different research areas.
Abiodun Ilumoka: the capacity building track is really an institutional change track. It's it's it's a track in which you're you're trying to change
Abiodun Ilumoka: the status of the institution when it comes to capacity for AI,
Abiodun Ilumoka: and so we expect that whatever proposal comes in is not focused on the individual research area of a pi or a department or a unit on campus.
Abiodun Ilumoka: The cap should work across disciplines on campus and try to build capacity in multiple areas. So I hope that answers that 1st part, the second part, will it affect it if we submit a partner on a different area of research and a cap on another area?
Abiodun Ilumoka: The answer is, no.
Abiodun Ilumoka: If, after you have successfully
Abiodun Ilumoka: had funding for cap and and executed the project successfully.
Abiodun Ilumoka: you come back for a partner
Abiodun Ilumoka: award
Abiodun Ilumoka: in an area that was not mentioned in the in the cap.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Then that's fine. You you can choose to do a partner project
Abiodun Ilumoka: in in a more specific area of research that aligns with the particular institute that you've selected.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And yeah.
Nicholas Wagner: Okay, thanks, Abby.
Nicholas Wagner: There was one question that was just submitted, and it kind of touched on another question that was asked earlier about the typical timeline for feedback on concept outlines.
Nicholas Wagner: I was just gonna add that typically you will receive feedback within a few weeks if it's taking longer than that. Please reach out to me directly, and I'll make sure that it wasn't like lost somewhere, or there wasn't some unusual sort of administrative error. If it's taking longer, it might be because we're following up on due diligence. Maybe if it's it's like a partner proposal with the Institute.
Nicholas Wagner: but typically it is a few weeks.
Nicholas Wagner: It's about one.
Nicholas Wagner: There's a flip side sort of question to the partnership
Nicholas Wagner: question that was asked. Instead of, can a single institute have multiple partners. Someone is asking if it is possible for
Nicholas Wagner: a single Msi to partner with multiple institutes.
Nicholas Wagner: This is in a partner proposal.
Nicholas Wagner: So I believe they're asking within a single proposal. Could they partner with multiple institutes.
Erion Plaku: Yes, they can. The limit. The lower limit is one. The upper limit is right. Now we have
Erion Plaku: 27 AI Institutes, so they can partner with all of them. But it's going to be challenging in the sense that the more partnerships you create you have to show that this have to be beneficial for all the institutes that are involved, and also for the Msi. So yes, you can.
Erion Plaku: But the proposal writing and the concept outline should clearly identify why these partnerships are beneficial to the eye institutes and to the Msi. So it's a little bit more of a challenge on how to do it right. But yes, in some cases that makes sense. And you should pursue multiple partnerships with the existing AI Institutes.
Nicholas Wagner: Yes, there's a related question sub question to that which is, what will be the budget split between the Msi and the AI Institute.
Erion Plaku: This is up to the proposal writers to to decide on how they're going to do. The budget splits, and Sf. Does not take a position on that. It's whatever makes sense in the context of the research and the educational workforce development activities that are being proposed.
Nicholas Wagner: Take care! Out.
Abiodun Ilumoka: But I would add to that that we expect that the majority of the funds
Abiodun Ilumoka: will benefit the Msi.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Not so much the AI Institute. So we're not looking for a 50 50 split.
Nicholas Wagner: Yes. Good point.
Nicholas Wagner: Okay.
Nicholas Wagner: Another straightforward question about the submission window.
Nicholas Wagner: So someone was asking, I think, when the last one closed, I believe, we answered, that in the presentation. And then someone's asking about when the next available proposal is assuming your concept outline has been
Nicholas Wagner: reviewed by us if we extended the invitation. That will be January 6.th So the proposal window just closed on October 18th of the last one of 2024.
Nicholas Wagner: So over the next this quarter. There will be no proposal submission window, but it'll open in the beginning of the New Year.
Nicholas Wagner: Yes, and I believe this answers the anonymous attendees question as well.
Nicholas Wagner: Oh, no, this is actually a different question.
Nicholas Wagner: If a pi at a university, or say an Msi has submitted an extended, expanding a proposal and gotten declined. Does that then limit or just prevent another pi from the same Msi from submitting to the program? Presumably within? They mean within the same submission window.
Nicholas Wagner: Abby, do you want to answer this one.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I can take that. The answer is no. As long as you wait for a decision to be made.
Abiodun Ilumoka: On the 1st proposal submitted from the institution.
Abiodun Ilumoka: once you wait for that decision to be public.
Abiodun Ilumoka: then you
Abiodun Ilumoka: have the opportunity to submit
Abiodun Ilumoka: another proposal from the same institution. In other words while the decision is pending, you may not submit.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Once a decision is taken.
Abiodun Ilumoka: then you may submit.
Abiodun Ilumoka: How do you find out? Well, you could talk to folks on your campus. If you're comfortable doing that, if not, you can contact us, and we'll let you know.
Nicholas Wagner: Yes, and and this is what the qualifier that you still have to do the concept outline submission.
Nicholas Wagner: So
Nicholas Wagner: you'll have to do that still
Nicholas Wagner: cool.
Nicholas Wagner: Another somewhat tricky question. If you submit a
Nicholas Wagner: concepts outline.
Nicholas Wagner: and in the 1st submission say, like, you have a certain set of Pis and Co. Pis.
Nicholas Wagner: Can you add a copi in the
Nicholas Wagner: like. The full proposal.
Nicholas Wagner: I believe, is what the question is asking. This is Nirmala Sandra. Dana's question
Nicholas Wagner: question.
Alfred Hero: I think that question was modified to
Alfred Hero: basically ask if a concept outline
Alfred Hero: was a second concept outline that responded to a
Alfred Hero: a
Alfred Hero: declined 1st concept outline was submitted if it could incorporate
Alfred Hero: a
Alfred Hero: new copi.
Alfred Hero: So there was a clarification of of her question further down that I've already answered
Alfred Hero: in the affirmative.
Abiodun Ilumoka: The answer is
Abiodun Ilumoka: no.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So yes, between Ceos 1st time, rejected CEO. Second time. If you modified the CEO and change the team.
Abiodun Ilumoka: the project team. That's fine, because we expect that in revising the CEO
Abiodun Ilumoka: you may revise aspects of the project which may require changing the composition of the team.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So that's perfectly okay.
Nicholas Wagner: How about in between the CEO and the full proposal? Can they add personnel to the proposal that weren't in the Co.
Abiodun Ilumoka: In between the Co. And the full proposal
Abiodun Ilumoka: as long as it does not substantially change the nature of the project.
Abiodun Ilumoka: because when we invite you to submit based on a seal.
Abiodun Ilumoka: The idea is that the proposal you will eventually submit
Abiodun Ilumoka: will reflect the ideas shared in the CEO.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Now, does that restrict the Pi team composition
Abiodun Ilumoka: strictly. Not as long as the project itself has not changed. I would say, yes, you have some.
Abiodun Ilumoka: You have a little bit of liberty there to to change composition, because folks leave institutions and folks
Abiodun Ilumoka: are hired, and you have 12 a 12 month window. There's a lot that can happen in 12 months.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Well, yeah, thank you for that question. This is, these are all great questions.
Nicholas Wagner: Yeah. But after that
Nicholas Wagner: there's a question here about the partner track. But I believe this is a similar type of question as well for the cap track.
Nicholas Wagner: We listed a set of technical aims spanning several topics in our slide deck.
Nicholas Wagner: but could it be focused on just one or 2 of those topics, for example, workforce development, or, say, like just technical innovation and the technical domain? Or does it have to cover everything?
Nicholas Wagner: Move Ariane. You wanted to answer this.
Erion Plaku: Yeah, sure. So
Erion Plaku: they can choose whichever aims and thrust they want to develop in the full proposals. There's not a requirement that they cover all aims or all thrusts that they had initially. But as Abby made the point early on, if the
Erion Plaku: concept outline is substantially different from the full proposal. Then there is a mismatch that is going to be caught by the reviewers because the proposal is not going to be as probably as well evaluated. But technically, if they think that it's best to focus on one or 2 thrusts, then yes, they can do that. It's perfectly fine, but it's even better if they make this decision at the concept outline
Erion Plaku: process so that they can get the feedback early on. Now, if they came in the concept outline with 4 or 5 different thrusts, and then, in the full proposal, they
Erion Plaku: decided to just go with one or 2 thrusts. It is their right to do so, but it may be reflected in the review process that perhaps the proposal is not as well developed.
Nicholas Wagner: Thank you. Yes, there are definitely awards that have been made for
Nicholas Wagner: proposals that do not attempt to do all everything all at once. So.
Alfred Hero: Nick, I'd like to expand on an answer to a question by Manaz Roshanay.
Alfred Hero: and it's a question that's very similar to another question. It's does an adjunct professor.
Alfred Hero: is it? Is it L? Is he or she eligible to be a pi
Alfred Hero: and
Alfred Hero: Have you done correctly? Put into the chat, or the Q. And a. That the guy must hold a full time a faculty appointment, or be a senior administrator. Eligible institution, which is what the solicitation specifies.
Alfred Hero: Your administration, your office of sponsored
Alfred Hero: projects
Alfred Hero: will be. The
Alfred Hero: the organization that determines whether you are eligible, whether you qualify as a full-time faculty member, as an adjunct professor. Some universities
Alfred Hero: consider their full-time adjunct professors as full-time faculty appointments, and some may not. So you need to contact
Alfred Hero: your administration in order to clarify that, but in terms of
Alfred Hero: the criteria that the solicitation puts out that Nsf. Is going to make their adjudication on. It's a full-time faculty appointment is what your university will
Alfred Hero: certify when they submit your support. Your proposal. So before you, you put in the effort, you should contact your administration to determine whether they will indeed certify you as a full-time faculty member.
Nicholas Wagner: Thanks, Al.
Nicholas Wagner: we have another pretty straightforward question. I'm not sure if this has been answered already. But just to reiterate, someone asked, if you've been awarded a cap. Can we apply for a partner? Yes, there are no limits to the solicitation on how many awards you can have per institution. You just have to follow the submission process that we outlined.
Erion Plaku: Actually, that's a desired outcome, that if you receive the cap and then you took the time to build the capacity, then the next stage would be to see if you are able to move to the partner track and create some meaningful partnerships with one or more AI Institutes. So it's a desired outcome of the cap investment. If you are able to move to the partner track.
Nicholas Wagner: Thank you.
Nicholas Wagner: Antonio Delgado asks, is there any incentive for AI Institutes to work with community colleges that are Msis and offer 4 year degrees.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I can take that.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Thank you for that question.
Abiodun Ilumoka: The eligibility conditions
Abiodun Ilumoka: for institutions
Abiodun Ilumoka: is spelt out in the solicitation
Abiodun Ilumoka: under 7 categories of eligible institutions, and I want to point you to
Abiodun Ilumoka: Category number 2,
Abiodun Ilumoka: which says that Hispanic serving institutions, I believe that's the category that you might be referring to
Abiodun Ilumoka: accredited institutions of higher education, that award bachelor level degrees that have a 25% or greater full-time equivalent enrollment of Hispanic undergraduate students. And so
Abiodun Ilumoka: I would recommend that you go through that list of 7 options
Abiodun Ilumoka: and see which one best
Abiodun Ilumoka: suits your institution as a community college.
Abiodun Ilumoka: If you are a Hispanic serving institution.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and you award bachelor level degrees. You have 25% or greater full-time equivalent of Hispanic undergraduates. Then yes, you are eligible.
Nicholas Wagner: Thank you, Abby. Yeah. As for I think the little wording was incentive. I don't think there's any
Nicholas Wagner: Say like parent that is offered for part of the Community college. But the eligibility was, as Abby laid out.
Nicholas Wagner: We covered this related question about whether Co proposal has to include new program or curricular development, or, if it can, has to include research component. We mentioned that
Nicholas Wagner: you can do one or the other, or both. If you feel like any particular set is most optimal for your institution.
Nicholas Wagner: We were also asked if there was anything that needs to be provided by the AI Institute at the Concept outline stage. If you're submitting a partner, Co.
Nicholas Wagner: my understanding is that you will need that senior member of the Institute to be listed as a co-pi
Nicholas Wagner: on the concept outline.
Nicholas Wagner: I'm at that stage.
Nicholas Wagner: So they should be aware, and with and
Nicholas Wagner: co-signing, that this partnership is something that they would like to propose
Nicholas Wagner: anything else to add. Abby or Ariel.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I think. Yes, you're correct. You need to list your point of contact senior personnel at the AI Institute. But in addition to listing, we expect that behind that you've had
Abiodun Ilumoka: those conversations that are necessary
Abiodun Ilumoka: to determine whether or not a partnership makes sense. So make sure that you have had those conversations. There is a good indication from the AI Institute that the
Abiodun Ilumoka: interests align well.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and they have the capacity, I think, as either you Sue or Steve mentioned
Abiodun Ilumoka: the capacity bandwidth, whatever you want to call it.
Abiodun Ilumoka: to undertake that partnership.
Abiodun Ilumoka: At that time
Abiodun Ilumoka: the AI Institutes are pretty
Abiodun Ilumoka: pretty large beasts, as I say, and they are quite busy.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Hubs of activity.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And sometimes it's simply making sure that they have the capacity
Abiodun Ilumoka: to do to undertake the partnership.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So yeah.
Abiodun Ilumoka: make sure that those conversations have happened, because we generally will check up on that as well.
Nicholas Wagner: Thank you, Nathany.
Nicholas Wagner: This question on successful rates of full proposal so far.
Nicholas Wagner: I don't know if I could give a number off the top of my head, but due to the.
Erion Plaku: We cannot provide those. We cannot provide that information in terms of funding rates.
Nicholas Wagner: Yes.
Erion Plaku: But we encourage,
Erion Plaku: submitters to to submit this to this program. It's a new program that is expanding in terms of the awards. And we are looking forward to receiving your your proposal. So we strongly encourage submissions.
Nicholas Wagner: Right now.
Nicholas Wagner: There's another question on eligibility for partnership track proposals. Or is there any ability to partner outside of AI Institutes?
Nicholas Wagner: Someone says the solicitation is a little bit vague, and like we say, Nsf funded institutions.
Erion Plaku: No, for the partnership track. It has to be an AI Institute, so it can be either the lead organization or any of the sub awardees when the award was made. But other than those you are not allowed to partner with with anybody else in the context of this program.
Nicholas Wagner: It'd be pretty straightforward. Anything else.
Nicholas Wagner: How soon can revised Co. Be submitted?
Nicholas Wagner: Assuming you get the determination on a Co. Saying that we are not inviting a proposal, and we want you to resubmit. You can submit essentially as soon as you get that notification. There's no cooling off period or waiting period. On submitting a Revised Co.
Erion Plaku: However, taking a few days to reflect on the on the comments and revising the CEO, might be beneficial.
Nicholas Wagner: Yes, that is a good point.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Yeah. And we suggest also that if you wanted to talk to one of the program officers about the feedback that you received on the seal. You should do that as well.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Carefully consider that feedback in in revising the seal.
Nicholas Wagner: And we transfer a funded partner proposal. If the Pi changes institution.
Alfred Hero: I can say, I can answer that. I think that it depends on
Alfred Hero: whether the pi is changing to another. Msi, that is generally
Alfred Hero: permissible. If the pi is changing to another institution which is not among the
Alfred Hero: the approved
Alfred Hero: Msi Hsi institutions within the solicitation, then that would not be possible.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I wanted to see if there are questions for Steve and you sue our our guests any questions specifically
Abiodun Ilumoka: on partnerships, partnering.
Abiodun Ilumoka: exploring partnerships, finding an AI Institute with which you can partner any
Abiodun Ilumoka: specific questions for.
Erion Plaku: I maybe I can ask a question to to either one of them. So how long was the process from when you started the initial conversations with an Msi. To actually submitting a concept outline.
Erion Plaku: And how involved was that process.
Steve Brown: I'll go ahead and take that first.st Aaron. And I did want to note before I answer this, that if anybody wants to go and try to do your marriage brokering online. Go to ainstitutes.org. And you can search
Steve Brown: each institute based on different keywords. And that may help you land on a researcher more quickly than otherwise. So, anyway, with the answer, Aaron, I would say it was about 8 months from start to finish, and the perhaps it was a little bit longer path for Usda Nifa.
Steve Brown: but it it started with
Steve Brown: the initial reach out that says, Here's our expertise. Here's your Institute's expertise that we think matches. What's the bandwidth? And we started from there. And we we matched bandwidth. And they said, Yeah, we can do this, and we went from there.
Steve Brown: You soup.
Yusu Wang: Yeah, yeah, I think it really depends, I think, depends on the team like whether
Yusu Wang: how? Well have they before having any prior connections, bonding, collaboration, and so on. So with this expanded AI that I just presented with Sdsu, I would say slightly on the, you know, reasonably more smooth line in the sense that the team clicked immediately, and there are a lot of good ideas. So everything was developed a bit.
Yusu Wang: not very slowly, but we're also having a couple of others currently under planning. And so, for example, one of them, we got encouraged to submit. But then it take because we want to do it right. I mean, in both case, I want to emphasize that. Actually, Telos, at least some team members. Telos, are very closely involved in this process.
Yusu Wang: So in in the second case, I mean it, take a little longer to develop. And then in another case our concept paper was declined. But then we revise that to have more conversations to address the comments, and so on. So it really depends. I mean, yeah.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Thank you any additional questions either for
Abiodun Ilumoka: guests from Tylos and aphis, or for Nsf. The expand AI folks
Abiodun Ilumoka: any additional questions. We still have a good
Abiodun Ilumoka: 15 min just under 50
Abiodun Ilumoka: still, go.
Nicholas Wagner: There was a question that was submitted, and I'm wondering if there, there's 2 questions. I wonder if they're kind of connected together.
Nicholas Wagner: It's on whether, if you're proposing a partner proposal, you have to.
Nicholas Wagner: I think this is saying you have to do. You have to extend the research themes identified in a earlier cap proposal.
Nicholas Wagner: If you're proposing a a new partner proposal.
Nicholas Wagner: I believe the answer is, no, these were both.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I thought we answered that, but the answer is, no after you've had your cap, we assume that you've been able to build capacity in some way, shape or form, at at the Msi.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Now, at that point, theoretically speaking, you, the Pi, or anyone else who benefited from the capacity building effort can decide. Well, now, I have a reasonable amount of capacity, and I want to look to partnership with an AI Institute so it could be any other individual on the campus, on any in any field.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So yeah, there is no necessary. There's not necessarily a connection
Abiodun Ilumoka: between the Cap projects proposed and the partner projects that come later.
Nicholas Wagner: That's all the questions we have so far.
Nicholas Wagner: like, Abby said. We do have some time left for
Nicholas Wagner: more questions to be asked.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Any additional thoughts from Steve, and you sue
Abiodun Ilumoka: any advice or
Steve Brown: Yeah, Abby, one thing I wanted to note is, our Institute hosted this last month
Steve Brown: what we call the 1890 slash Msi. Days at Uc. Davis, and although 1890 is a term specific for ag universities.
Steve Brown: the concept of bringing together minority serving institutes to start to identify who the contacts are. The researchers at each university is a valuable one, and I know that we really benefited, and I think the attendees benefited from that as well. So you know, down the road. I would encourage anybody on the webinar to seek out any type of in-person opportunities to visit
Steve Brown: the potential partner. You know it could be a an open house day and expo day, or something. So that's worth it.
Steve Brown: Thank you. Bye.
Yusu Wang: Can just add to that, I think
Yusu Wang: also to all of the potential institutions who want to apply for this and feel free to reach out to any of this AI Institutes. Because I mean also, like Abby said earlier, each of the Msf AI Institute. It's very diverse. It's huge. And they're different expertise, different interests, a different experience that they already have. So maybe you may have a vague concept that you know you want to
Yusu Wang: either increase the capacity, build the partnership in some way, but don't have a very concrete, very clear idea. But then talk to those AI and state very often they can inject new ideas potentially to expand based on what you have in mind. So I mean, we would be happy to share our experience, and in various form from research to outreach with you as well. Yeah.
Erion Plaku: Thank you, Abby. I have a question. Let's say somebody is interested in expand AI, and they want to serve as as a reviewer for the expand. AI. So what should they be doing in order to let you know that they are interested in serving as a reviewer for the expand AI program.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Well, that's a great question, Nick. Yes, thanks for the reminder. We are always recruiting reviewers for panels.
Abiodun Ilumoka: As a matter of fact, we are recruiting right now. So
Abiodun Ilumoka: it's it's a wonderful way to get to know the program a little more closely.
Abiodun Ilumoka: And so if you have some availability to review on a relatively small panel. Our panels are not big.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Please shoot an email to expand AI program@nsf.gov.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and we will put you in the database of reviewers, so that as panels come up we can call on you.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Sometimes. We also need ad hoc reviewers. So in that case, too, we'll we'll be aware that you're available.
Abiodun Ilumoka: But yeah, it's a great way to learn about the program.
Abiodun Ilumoka: It does force you to read the solicitation very closely.
Abiodun Ilumoka: if not more closely than when you write the proposal. Pretty
Abiodun Ilumoka: pretty detailed. Read of the solicitation is necessary in order to do a good job.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Does that answer the question, Arian.
Abiodun Ilumoka: yeah.
Erion Plaku: Yes, thank you.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I was gonna check with Steve that those days that those open houses you have are those advertised on the Ivo site, or.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Oh, okay.
Abiodun Ilumoka: folks find out.
Steve Brown: Yeah. So if any event is occurring, we encourage that institute to let avo know about it, and we'll put it into the events blurbs on the website as well as our Linkedin feed.
Steve Brown: So if anybody wants to get quick notifications, they can go to
Steve Brown: our Linkedin, and you can search it through Linkedin, and get connected through our our feeds that way.
Nicholas Wagner: And I'll just flash up on the screen here. I think the AI Institutes URL again on this slide.
Nicholas Wagner: So if you're curious about learning more about the institutes. You can go to this link.
Nicholas Wagner: And again, these slides will be emailed out after within the
Nicholas Wagner: when the recording is finished.
Nicholas Wagner: So you can click on hyperlink. Then.
Erion Plaku: Also, Steve, do you wanna take a minute and maybe say something about the expand AI workshop that happened at sales, so that attendees are aware of this, and the materials that may come out in April as part of that workshop.
Steve Brown: Certainly the sale workshop for Expand AI was a joint. It was a combination meeting with sale, which is a summit for AI Institutes leadership that occurs annually for the AI Institutes.
Steve Brown: So the expand. AI,
Steve Brown: let's see, Monday, yeah. Monday was expand. AI workshop. It was part of the whole workshops for sale, and it. It drew a registration from Abby. Correct me, I think about a hundred people 100 attendees for that.
Steve Brown: and they they learned a lot. They communicated a lot, exchanged a lot of ideas. They interface with AI Institutes. So, coming coming from that, there's going to be some, some write-ups, I understand
Steve Brown: from what you know, the
Steve Brown: the cumulative information that was discussed will be distributed.
Nicholas Wagner: We had a question come in about sort of collaboration among Msis
Nicholas Wagner: there was a question about whether a small group of Msis could collaborate on a project, say, like an online AI curriculum
Nicholas Wagner: and have that be a possible expand. AI projects.
Nicholas Wagner: What do you all say?
Abiodun Ilumoka: Let me answer that it's it's not particularly encouraged
Abiodun Ilumoka: for groups of Msis to come in together.
Abiodun Ilumoka: funding
Abiodun Ilumoka: under one project. No.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and the reason for that is simple. Each Msi is unique.
Abiodun Ilumoka: There are no 2 msis that have the exact same
Abiodun Ilumoka: needs, same population of students or faculty.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We we want to make sure that when you come to us requesting funding
Abiodun Ilumoka: to grow
Abiodun Ilumoka: capacity
Abiodun Ilumoka: or to establish capacity at your Msi, it is totally focused on your Msi, and not 2 or 3 other institutions.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So we strongly recommend that Msis come in on their own
Abiodun Ilumoka: and not partner with another Msi.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Now, it doesn't mean that you can't have partnerships with other nonprofits. For example, in coming to us as an Msi.
Abiodun Ilumoka: That that is totally permissible. You can. You can find partners that would help
Abiodun Ilumoka: boost the kinds of activities that you plan.
Abiodun Ilumoka: But we do not encourage Msis to to come together to work in tandem. No.
Nicholas Wagner: Thank you, Abby.
Nicholas Wagner: We have one more question command on sort of reporting, and how it works for a partner award.
Nicholas Wagner: The solicitation states that a partner award will be a continuing award rather than a standard award. How is this going to be implemented in terms of the project reporting requirement.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Sorry I missed that, could I? And I don't see it I was. I was busy reading.
Nicholas Wagner: No Ming Tang is asking.
Nicholas Wagner: How do? How does reporting work for the partner awards like, I, I assume reporting to Nsf
Nicholas Wagner: what sort of the requirements are there.
Abiodun Ilumoka: For reporting. It's it's the usual you. You write an annual report once a year, at the end of each year.
Abiodun Ilumoka: telling us what was accomplished. Primarily there is a template for putting together the annual report every year.
Abiodun Ilumoka: regardless of whether it's continuing or standard. You still need to submit an annual report.
Abiodun Ilumoka: so I hope that answers the question.
Erion Plaku: Yeah. The difference between standard and continuing is in terms of how they receive the funds, but does not change the reporting requirements.
Nicholas Wagner: Okay, we have time for one more question.
Nicholas Wagner: I'm hoping
Nicholas Wagner: someone wants to get in at the last minute.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Any final questions, anything come to mind that we have not covered.
Nicholas Wagner: A follow up to the collaboration of Msis. Is it not recommended
Nicholas Wagner: to not have a sub award to support AI curriculum.
Nicholas Wagner: slash education for transfer students and another partner who is also an Msi.
Nicholas Wagner: This bit of a specific case here.
Nicholas Wagner: So I assume in this scenario there's another Msi that is transferring students to the primary awardee. They're asking whether that is not encouraged.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I think that has to be done on a case by case basis. Thank you for that question, Aiken.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We would. We would need to look at your situation carefully. So you have some sort of articulation agreement with another Msi in which their students feed into your programs. This is the situation you're referring to.
Abiodun Ilumoka: I think that we should. We should discuss. So if you
Abiodun Ilumoka: contact me or Nick or someone on the team, we can set up a time, and we can talk a little bit more
Abiodun Ilumoka: about this situation.
Nicholas Wagner: Yeah, we are glad to discuss the particulars.
Nicholas Wagner: And and another question that came at the last, any restrictions on the Pi team for 2 different proposals.
Nicholas Wagner: I'm not exactly sure if this means if you can have the same Pi team for 2 different proposals, if that's what they're asking.
Erion Plaku: There are no restrictions the the other restrictions apply in terms of when they can submit proposals. The
Erion Plaku: the fact that they must have approved concept outlines before they can submit proposals. But there are no restrictions in compositions
Erion Plaku: of teams for for the proposals.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Okay, well, it is 3, 30.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So I'm going to say a big thank you 1st to Steve and Yusu for spending time with us this afternoon and sharing insights
Abiodun Ilumoka: very, very helpful.
Abiodun Ilumoka: We appreciate it, and I'm sure you will have many
Abiodun Ilumoka: follow up inquiries as a result. So get ready.
Abiodun Ilumoka: and I want to thank my Nsf colleagues here for their
Abiodun Ilumoka: participation and
Abiodun Ilumoka: question question answering expert question answering for relatively new programs. Sometimes for us, too, there, there is a learning curve.
Abiodun Ilumoka: So thank you for all of those questions. It's helped us, and do get in touch. If you have additional ones, or if you want to review for the program.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Yeah.
Abiodun Ilumoka: enjoy.
Erion Plaku: Thank you. Everyone.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.
Yusu Wang: Thank you.
Nicholas Wagner: Bye.
Abiodun Ilumoka: Mechanic.
Nicholas Wagner: Have a good one.