Water Systems and Land Use Interactions
Vermont EPSCoR Annual State Meeting Thursday, March 11, 2010
Hilton Hotel Burlington, Vermont
Funding made possible by NSF EPS #0701410
We welcome you to the 2010 Vermont National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VT NSF EPSCoR) Annual Conference: Water Systems and Land Use Interactions. Each year, VT EPSCoR hosts a state-wide meeting to highlight the accomplishments of our researchers and an opportunity to network.
This year, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Stuart Kauffman, as our keynote presenter. Dr. Kauffman, one of the world’s most eminent scientists — a founder of the field of complex systems science, pioneer of biocomplexity research, and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow — has recently joined the faculty at the University of Vermont.
We are also very pleased to welcome representatives from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Henry Blount and Thomas Russell.
The content and focus of the annual conferences vary from year to year. This year we will use Water Systems and Land Use Interactions as a cross-cutting theme
The northern pitcher plant “Sarracenia purpurea”supports an aquatic food web that is a model system for studying habitat loss. Photo and copyright Nicholas J. Gotelli.
that allows us to tie our current focus on the Complex Systems Modeling Group (CSYS) with our future directions in the Sustainable Energy Economy and Decision (SEED) group. We are pleased to have members of the CSYS group present their research on the datasets and their novel approaches and findings to problems associated with the Lake Champlain Watershed. Dr. Mary Watzin, CSYS group leader and recently appointed Dean of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (RSENR), will provide opening remarks and an overview of their work and the connection to the SEED initiative as presented by herself, Drs. Britt Holmen, Guiseppe “Joe” Petrucci, and Heather Darby.
Our Water Systems and Land use Interactions theme links to our Education Outreach Streams Project as it begins its third year of data collection of streams throughout Vermont by high school and undergraduate students. This will be followed by engaging panels of graduate students and private sector awardees, capped off with a poster session featuring all funded projects.
Finally, we are very pleased to welcome members of the new Northeast Cyberinfrastructure Consortium (NECC) from VT, NH, ME, DE and RI. This five state consortium recently formed and was awarded $14M in ARRA funding from NSF and NIH to address the “cyber-black-hole” of the Northeast. The NECC group will convene on Friday, March 12, for a one-day annual progress meeting.
I hope you will take advantage of the information, resources and networking opportunities presented in this format.
Judith Van Houten, PhD.State Director, VT EPSCoR
Water Systems and Land Use Interactions
Vermont EPSCoR Annual State Meeting Thursday, March 11, 2010 Hilton Hotel Burlington, Vermont
This is a representation of the network architecture of the self-organizing map. The self-organizing map
is an unsupervised artificial neural network. Courtesy of Andrea Pearce, CEE Doctoral Candidate
CONFERENCE AGENDA
Thursday, March 11Hilton Hotel, Burlington VT
8:15 – 9:15 a.m. Registration and Poster Set Up – Mezzanine Continental Breakfast
Lake Champlain Conference Room
9:15 – 9:30 a.m. Opening Remarks Lake Champlain Conference Room
Judith Van Houten, Vermont State EPSCoR Director Jane Knodell, Interim Provost Domenico Grasso, Vice President for Research
and Dean of the Graduate College Henry Blount. Office Head, NSF EPSCoRThomas Russell, Senior Staff Associate, NSF Office of
Integrative Affairs (OIA).
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Complex Systems Modeling of Lake and Watershed Dynamics
Mary Watzin, Dean UVM RSENR and CSYS Group LeaderMaggie Eppstein, CEMS, and CSYS Faculty MemberJoshua Bongard, CEMS and CSYS Faculty Member
10:30 – 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 – 11:45 a.m. Streams Project
Liza Ray, CoordinatorFaculty Leaders Declan McCabe (Saint Michael’s College)Robert Genter (Johnson State College)Sharon Boardman, Rice Memorial High School Science TeacherAngel A. Garcia, Jr., San Juan Puerto Rico
Overview of the Project Integration of the Streams Project with
future SEED research and Track-2 Panel and Presentation
11:45 – 12:30 p.m. Sustainable Energy Economy: Land Use Impacts on the Watershed
Overview, Britt Holmén, Associate Professor, CEE, CEMSHeather Darby, Extension Assistant ProfessorGiuseppe Petrucci, Associate Professor ChemistryMary Watzin, Dean, RSENR
Water Impacts and Connection to CSYS
12:30 – 1:45 p.m. Buffet Lunch - Green Mountain Ballroom Tables designated for NSF Program Visitors
1:45 – 3:00 p.m. Private Sector Symposium: Water, Energy and More
Session Chair: Mark Blanchard, Technology Development & Commercialization Advisor, Vermont Small Business Development Corporation
Jeffrey Sprenger, Microbrightfield, Inc., Working EPSCoR into your R&D Strategy
Ken Puzey, QuantaSpec Inc., Evaluation of FTIR Spectroscopy for Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Molecular Characterization
Anju Dahiya, General Systems Research, LLC, Algae Production for Oil Integrated with Industrial Wastewater Treatment
Bill Church, Green Mountain Antibodies, Inc., Antibodies and Immunoassays to Blue Green Algae
These four images represent four models of a mechanical pendulum, generated by an algorithum that automatically synthesizes models of complex systems. Provided by Dr. Joshua Bongard.
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Graduate Student Symposium: Complex Systems Modeling of Lake Champlain and its Watershed
Moderator, Dr. Donna Rizzo, CEMS Faculty Member, Complex Systems Modeling (CSYS) Group
Karim Chachikly, Estimating Total Suspended Sediment Loads from Simple Hydrologic Metrics
Bree Mathon, Using a complex systems tool to link geomorphic and habitat assessments in the Lake Champlain Basin
Andrea Pearce, Exploring controls on cyanotoxin production in Lake Champlain using a complex systems tool
Ted Hart, Temporal Dynamics of Lake Champlain Plankton Populations
Nilanjan Lodh, Geomorphology and Biodiversity Zhenyu Lu, Ensemble Methods for Cyanobacteria
Bloom Prediction Joel Nipper, Estimating Sediment and Solute Surface Wash-off in
a Small Mixed Land Use Watershed Eitan A. Pechenick, Structure Detection: Finding Hierarchies in
Enormous Networks Ganesh Oka, Multiscale Modeling Investigation of the
Interrelationship between Bacterial Growth Attached to Soil
Particles and Change in Permeability of Soil
5:00 – 5:15 p.m. Break – outside Green Mountain Ballroom Light hors d’oeuvres
5:15 – 6:15 p.m. Keynote Speech – Green Mountain Ballroom “Co-evolution to the Edge of Chaos”
Stuart Kauffman, Director for Biocomplexity and Informatics
University of Calgary, Finland Distinguished Professor at Tampere University of Technology, Sante Fe Institute faculty in residence, Founder BiosGroup, recently appointed faculty member and first William H. and Anne S. Macmillan Scholar in Residence at UVM
6:15 – 8:30 p.m. Dinner - Green Mountain Ballroom (served until 7:30)
Posters and Networking – Mezzanine w/dessert station
Emerging Science television shows on flat screens
Boston/New England Emmy Award Winner - 2009 National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA)
Award Winner - 2009
Friday March 12
North East Cyberinfrastructure Consortium Regional Meeting (NECC)
7:30 – 8:00 a.m. Registration and Breakfast
Adirondack Ballroom, Salon A
8:00 a.m. NECC Executive Committee opens meeting Adirondack Ballroom, Salon A
Judith Van Houten, Vermont State EPSCoR DirectorHenry Blount, Office Head, NSF EPSCoR
Friday March 12 continued
8:15 a.m. Committees meet in break-out sessions:
Executive Committee - Adirondack Ballroom, Salon A Judith Van Houten – VT, Kelvin Chu – VT, Scott Valcourt – NH, Vicki Nemeth – ME, Patricia Hand – ME, Garry Bozylinsky – RI, Zahir Shaikh – RI, Karl Steiner – DE
Technical Committee – Adirondack Ballroom, Salon CBruce Segee (Chair) – ME, Jeff Letourneau (Co-Chair) – ME, David Todd – VT, Jim Vincent – VT, Scott Valcourt – NH, Douglas Green – NH, Clinton Chichester – RI, David Porter – RI, Tyler Whittaker – RI, Douglas O’Neal – DE, Russell Merrill - DE
North East Bioinformatics Consortium with the Data Centers – Montpelier, Salon A Ben King – ME, Carolyn Mattingly – ME, Roy McMorran – ME, Cathy Wu – DE, Douglas O’Neal – DE, Bruce Kingham – DE, Jim Vincent – VT, Jason Moore – NH, Clinton Chichester – RI, Joanna Fueyo - RI
Cyber-enabled Research Training: Jamborees – Montpelier, Salon A
Watershed Project – Montpelier, Salon B Liza Ray – VT, Scott Valcourt – NH, Andrew Staroscik – RI,
Vicki Nemeth – ME, Karl Steiner – DE, Steve Borleske – DE, Amy Broadhurst - DE
11:30 a.m. Working Lunch
Groups reconvene as a whole for: State Reports Committee Reports Next Steps and Next Meeting
2:30 p.m. Adjourn
University of VermontDavis Center, BurlingtonMarch 17 & 18, 2010
The conference on Algae & Energy in the Northeast, co-hosted by the University of Vermont, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and VT EPSCoR will be held at the University of Vermont in Burlington on March 17 & 18, 2010. Foremost algae biofuel researchers and entrepreneurs have been invited to present the current state and projected future of algae as a biofuel feedstock. If you work within the energy, agriculture, academic, business, or government sectors, make your plans now to join us for this exciting event!
For conference info and to submit abstracts for concurrent poster sessions:Contact Dr. Anju Dahiya, [email protected]
For Sponsorship opportunities:Contact Netaka White, [email protected]
Algae & Energy in the NortheastAdvancing knowledge, research and innovation
COMING NEXT WEEK!
The component planes of a self-organizing map (an artificial neural network) show the organization
of each input variable separately on the output map. Courtesy of Andrea Pearce