Science for the nation by facilitating partnerships between government and
Join us to create positive change together.
Science for the nation by facilitating partnerships between government and
Join us to create positive change together.
About Partnership Hub: building A strong STEM workforce foR
Our Mission
At Partnership Hub, we will provide all services to the government to help achieve a mission goal. Equally, we will provide all services to students to help obtain government positions.
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Partnership Hub: Empowering Communities
Our Story
Introduction:
This proposal is to form a hub for Partnerships based at GMU to serve various government agencies, FFRDC's, and companies in the DMV. The Hub is meant to serve many communities in the DMV working in matters of national security and will be modeled after the partnerships that have been formed from scratch by the PI's that go back more than 15 years. The history of how these partnerships were formed will serve a, non-exhaustive, model for how collaborations can be formed for research and educational innovations.
History of Partnership with DTRA
The oldest and most successful partnership is the Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) that began as a partnership between the Division of Mathematical Sciences and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, DTRA. At the time, 2005, DTRA needed better algorithms to detect chemical and biological weapons. The information for chemical weapons to be operated on by algorithms was derived from stand-off detectors which, for example, detected spectral lines after a battle field had been illuminated with a laser. The second type of algorithms that DTRA needed was to detect biological weapons from DNA samples. Imagine one is out on the battlefield after an ordinance has exploded and one scoops up sand on drops into a DNA analysis device which then identifies the sequence of known pathogens. The key interaction that lead to this partnership occurred at a DHS-NSF workshop on detecting chemical explosives where the lead-PI met the DTRA scientists NW and CW. Most of the chem-bio scientists at DTRA were trained in chemistry and, thus, their backgrounds were commentary to the background of the average scientist in the Division of Mathematical Sciences DMS where the lead-PI was employed.
History of Partnershp with NGA
In about 2007 the partnership expanded to include the National Geospatial Intelligence NGA on the general topic of deriving information from large data sets. In about 2009 the topics of interest to NGA expanded to include developing models of Patterns of Life. The NGA topics are unchanged to this day. The participation of DTRA in ATD expired when the first 5-year MOU expired. All parties wanted the partnership to continue but the OGC at DTRA required a new MOU before funds could be sent over on year 6. Alas, this was the catalyst that lead to the DTRA participation in ATD.
Spinoff Interactions from ATD
ATD was formed from and lead to numerous interactions of various entities such as the CIA, NRO, DIA, DHS, NIH, DOE, State Dept, AFTAC, LLNL, LANL, FBI, and others. The exact topic that was interest to each entity can sometimes be sensitive and will not be listed here.
History of Partnership with DOE, AMPS
In about 2009 Barry Lee, a scientist who worked at PNNL at the time, mentioned to the lead PI after panel service that he was hired at PNNL to explore more mathematical structure to research conducted by the DOE for the electrical power grid. After a few years of false starts the activity finally came to fruition when Ali Gassmanian was hired by the DOE from FERC. The activity was named Algorithms for Modern Power Systems or AMPS which has been various successful and continues on course to this day. Interactions related to Power grid research will be managed by Barry Lee.
We expect that the partnership with the Department of Energy Office of Electricity will ultimately have many dimensions. Our main point of contact and partner will be Ghassemian, Alireza or just Ali. On 9-3-24 Ali and Jameson met in order to discuss ideas about how to make Phub as effective as possible for both the DOEOE and students from a variety of universities. Initially Phub will benefit students at all levels at GMU, ASU, and SMU but ultimately we expect to serve the entire nation. Many details will need to be worked out but the entire nation is the ultimate goal. At the 9-1-24 meeting the discussion centered on creating a seminar series at GMU and where the speakers would come from all possible parts of DOEOE always with an eye on DEI. The goal is a strong technical workforce from all parts of the nation. Likely speakers would be Ali, ............., From the talks we hope to introduce both students and faculty to problems of interest to the DOEOE. If there is interest from all parties of having a student or faculty member engage directly in DOEOE research programs then we will use the very broad expertise of the Phub PI’s to bring the interaction to fruition.
History of Internship Partnership with the DOE, MSGI
In about 2011 the lead PI along with Rosemary Renaut and Bruce Kitchens formed a partnership the Oakridge institute for form an internship program for graduate students in the mathematical sciences, MSGI. The program is to place graduate students in positions at the National Laboritories and
was very successful and continues to this day.
Seminar Series:
The Partnership Hub will hold monthly seminars at the GMU Fairfax campus with invited speakers from all parts of government in order to hear their needs and how we can be of service. As part of each invited presentation we would ask that the speakers outline career opportunities for students at all levels which will feed into the education and innovations of this proposal, see below. The Partnership Hub management team will learn about the invited speaker’s agency needs and explore how we can help. A list of invited speakers will be listed by initials only in order to obfuscate sensitive areas and the scientists involved.
Data Science:
In the last few years there has been a lot of developments around Data Science in higher education and Seshaiyer has helped to create and lead a variety of educational activities to engage the next generation workforce of students at all levels in research and innovations. In particular, he has been very successful in engaging women and underrepresented minorities as well as students from underserved rural regions and community college students. He has helped to build partnerships with 2-year and 4-year institutions across the country to engage students in high quality research on state-of-the-art approaches around data science, computing and applications. Students are the key to the nation's future national security needs. The proposed Partnership Hub would be to help connect university students both at the undergraduate level and graduate level to agencies that have a need for their skills for addressing key challenges in national security. The educational and innovations part of the Partnership Hub will be managed by Padhu Seshaiyer and Rosemary Renaut.
Hosting visitors:
The Partnership Hub will perform many functions needed by various branches of the government including hosting uncleared visitors. Often entities involved in national security need to consult with scientists who do not have the necessary security clearance for long-term visits at secure facilities. Generally speaking the national labs LLNL, LANL, Sandia, ORNL, PNNL do have such space available for non-cleared personnel but in the DMV one can frequently encounter agencies that do not have this type of uncleared space. GMU will host such uncleared scientists. The Phub will likely be reimbursed on an ala carte basis by the relevant agency.
Challenge problems for students:
The Phub will seek challenge problems from various agencies to be posted for students at all levels to try to solve the problems. In posting such challenge problems students can get a better idea of the types of technical problems that are of interest to various agencies. Students, if they choose, can present their results to the relevant agency where they can be evaluated. Such interactions often lead to the student getting an employment offer from the agency that defined the problem. This helps not only the student but the agency.
Phub and Special Topics series:
There are numerous topics that Phub will host such as,
Detecting nuclear weapons pre and post detonation
Pre detonation would be the detection of various forms of radiation, gamma rays, etc.
Post detonation would be the detection of seismic events caused by underground nuclear tests. AFTAC would be invited to present.
Challenges facing the electric power grid (Barry)
Spying and data science (Padhu)
Data science and AI (Padhu)
How to get and hold a security clearance. This topic will focus on informing students what it takes to get a clearance including what things in their past would matter and what things don’t matter. For example, this is an agency that in the past stated that if a student had downloaded copywrited music that this would disqualify them from getting a clearance. Different agencies have different standards concerning prior illegal drug use. For example, there is an agency that had previously stated that if 1 year had passed since one’s last cannibus use that the applicant would not be disquaified from being granted a clearance based on this topic. It is extremely important for students to know this information before applying.
Phub and various disciplines:
Phub’s purpose is to serve all disciplines equally. All 4 PI’s are employed in Mathematics departments but there will be no intentional bias toward mathematics. Though the PI’s reside in math departments they all 4 applied mathemations with very broad interests and experience.
Conclusion:
This proposal is taking the best of the above partnership experiences and form a Partnership Hub at GMU. The Hub will perform many functions including hosting workshops, seminars, topics of interest to the government and primarily in the realm of national security.
National security managed by Leland Jameson
ASU and SMU
The main location of the Phub will be at GMU due to the proximity to the national government. The PI’s at ASU and SMU are, however, equal partners. The ASU and SMU PI’s will be in charge of organizing the internship programs at their universities and their regions of the country. ASU for example be in charge of the western region of the country and the SMU PI would be in charge of the south and southwest. The boundaries between regions will be fluid and the 4PI’s will work together to handle the total workload and responsibilty for the entire nation. The PI’s will work with ORISE to manage the program.
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Our Programs
From providing education to supporting health care initiatives, Partnership Hub offers a range of programs to support communities in need. Learn more about our work.
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Our Impact
Find out how Partnership Hub has made a difference in the community and the lives of those we serve. We are committed to creating lasting change.
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