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This Other Transaction Solicitation (OTS) Call (70RSAT18R00000002) - Land Border Biometric Exit Facial Recognition Verification Technologies - is issued against Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Science & Technology (S&T), Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP), 5-Year Innovation Other Transaction Solicitation (OTS), HSHQDC-16-R-B0005 (current issue). The OTS describes the overarching program details whereas the call describes the specific problem set. The implementation of a biometric exit system at U.S. Ports of Entry (POEs) along land borders remains a challenge for several reasons including, but not limited to: environmental conditions, speed of travel, and lack of infrastructure. At land-based POEs, infrastructure is a key inhibitor to track the exit of travelers using biographic or biometric data. In addition, the need for uninhibited vehicle traffic flow at land borders is perhaps the greatest challenge for land-border POEs. To avoid having travelers in vehicles stop at border crossings, which could create significant traffic delays, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is working to implement a face biometric entry-exit system in a way that poses the least impact on travel and trade. This call is looking for innovative solutions to capture facial recognition quality photos from travelers in order to facilitate identity checks without requiring occupants to leave the vehicle.

The Program is pleased to announce that it is seeking proposals for funding to support forensic and biometric research and its application. The requested proposals should focus on DFBA activities and needs of the Program's other customers (AFMES, DC3, JPAC-CIL). Forensic research proposals should focus on the creation of new and improved field or laboratory functional capabilities that result in faster, more robust, more informative, less costly, or less labor-intensive recognition, identification, collection, preservation, and/or analysis of forensic evidence. Biometric research proposals should contribute to biometric applications or operations, including military functions such as combat identification (friend, foe, or neutral), offensive operations (intelligence support to targeting), force protection (physical access control), detention operations, civil-military operations (track target members of a population), personnel recovery and identification, and recognition and recovery of human remains. Proposals that will assist the DoD in achieving these goals are solicited, particularly proposals involving the development of equipment that is portable, sustainable, and useful in an expeditionary or field environment. The expeditionary and field environments require systems that are lightweight, portable, inexpensive, fast, and capable of operating in extreme environments of temperature, dust, humidity, etc. The systems must also be capable of secure data communications.

PECASE: Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious recent CAREER awardees. Selection for this award is based on two important criteria: 1) innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology that is relevant to the mission of NSF, and 2) community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, education, or community outreach. These awards foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of the participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the Nation's future. Individuals cannot apply for PECASE.

The NSF 2026 Idea Machine is a competition to help set the U.S. agenda for fundamental research in science and engineering. Participants can earn prizes and receive public recognition by suggesting the pressing research questions that need to be answered in the coming decade, the next set of "Big Ideas" for future investment by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It's an opportunity for researchers, the public and other interested stakeholders to contribute to NSF's mission to support basic research and enable new discoveries that drive the U.S. economy, enhance national security and advance knowledge to sustain the country's global leadership in science and engineering.

The Epilepsy Foundation has announced its seventh annual epilepsy "Shark Tank" competition for the most innovative ideas in epilepsy and seizure treatment and care. Selected finalists will receive international recognition and compete for grants totaling $150,000 to support the development and commercialization of important new products, technologies, or therapeutic concepts. As many as six finalists will be selected to present at the 2018 Epilepsy Pipeline Conference (San Francisco, February 22-23, 2018). Each presenter will have five minutes to present the concept, followed by five minutes of questioning. The event will feature live voting among audience members and a panel of judges (Sharks) representative of industry, advocacy, investors, and the research and medical communities. The winning project(s) deemed to be the most innovative will be announced at the conclusion of the competition. To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate an ability to move the proposed plan to completion, showing how the prize can accelerate any step along the path to market. Inventors who submitted ideas in previous Shark Tank competitions are encouraged to re-submit their ideas if substantial progress has been made.

To honor a physicist whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to physics and who has contributed substantially to the professional development of undergraduate physics students. The prize consists of a $5,000 stipend to the prize recipient and a separate $5,000 unrestricted grant for the research to the prize recipient's institution. An additional allowance will be provided for travel expenses to the APS meeting at which the prize ceremony will take place and a certificate citing the contributions by the recipient. The prize is presented annually. The prize was established in 1984 by a grant from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, a private foundation for the advancement of science and technology. The prize will be given to a physics faculty member at an undergraduate institution. The recipient will have been recognized as contributing substantially to physics research and providing inspirational guidance and encouragement of undergraduate students participating in this research. A nominee must be from the faculty of a predominantly undergraduate institution in the United States. The nominee's department may offer a program leading to a master's degree but shall not have a doctoral program in physics. Nominations are active for three years.

A grand challenge in computing is the creation of machines that can proactively interpret and learn from data in real time, solve unfamiliar problems using what they have learned, and operate with the energy efficiency of the human brain. While complex machine-learning algorithms and advanced electronic hardware (henceforth referred to as 'hardware') that can support large-scale learning have been realized in recent years and support applications such as speech recognition and computer vision, emerging computing challenges require real-time learning, prediction, and automated decision-making in diverse domains such as autonomous vehicles, military applications, healthcare informatics and business analytics.

) multiplex biosensing platforms that exceed the performance of current state-of-the-art devices; 2) novel transduction principles, mechanisms and sensor designs suitable for measurement in practical matrix and sample-preparation-free approaches, including error-free detection of pathogens and toxins in food matrices, waterborne pathogens, parasites, toxins, biomarkers in body fluids, neuron chemicals, and others that improve human condition; 3) biosensors that enable measurement of biomolecular interactions in their native states, transmembrane transport, intracellular transport and reactions, and other biological phenomena; 4) biosensing performance optimization for specific health applications such as point-of-care testing and personalized health monitoring; and 5) miniaturization of biosensors for lab-on-a-chip and cell/organ-on-a-chip applications to enable measurement of biological properties and functions of cell/tissues in vitro. The Biosensors Program does not encourage proposals addressing surface functionalization and modulation of bio-recognition molecules, development of basic chemical mechanisms for biosensing applications, circuit design for signal processing and amplification, computational modeling, and microfluidics for sample separation and filtration.

NSF has long supported transformative research in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The resulting innovations offer new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, and health and wellness, intended to be shared across all segments of society. Broad acceptance and adoption of large-scale deployments of AI systems rely critically on their trustworthiness which, in turn, depends on the ability to assess and demonstrate the fairness (including broad accessibility and utility), transparency, explainability, and accountability of such systems. For example, the behavior of algorithms for face recognition, speech, and language, especially when integrated into decision support systems applied across different segments of society, would benefit from new foundational research in fairness of AI systems. NSF and Amazon are partnering to jointly support computational research focused on fairness in AI, with the goal of contributing to trustworthy AI systems that are readily accepted and deployed to tackle grand challenges facing society. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to transparency, explainability, accountability, potential adverse biases and effects, mitigation strategies, algorithmic advances, fairness objectives, validation of fairness, and advances in broad accessibility and utility. Funded projects will enable broadened acceptance of AI systems, helping the U.S. further capitalize on the potential of AI technologies. Although Amazon provides partial funding for this program, it will not play a role in the selection of proposals for award.

Hardware and/or software technologies to obtain the following kinds of information from a human face through cameras or other devices. Any types of measurement hardware including devices employing infrared, sonic, voice recognition or other technologies should be in the scope.

The Epilepsy Foundation has announced its seventh annual epilepsy "Shark Tank" competition for the most innovative ideas in epilepsy and seizure treatment and care. Some examples of novel ideas include a system to detect seizures with the capacity to provide early warning to the patient or family; a treatment that stops a seizure from progressing; a system that helps patients manage their daily treatment; a device that prevents physical injury that patients may experience when in seizure; or an entirely new product concept with the promise to dramatically improve the lives of people with epilepsy. Selected finalists will receive international recognition and compete for grants totaling $150,000 to support the development and commercialization of important new products, technologies, or therapeutic concepts. As many as six finalists will be selected to present at the 2018 Epilepsy Pipeline Conference (San Francisco, February 22-23, 2018). Each presenter will have five minutes to present the concept, followed by five minutes of questioning. The Shark Tank event will feature live voting among audience members and a panel of judges (Sharks) representative of industry, advocacy, investors, and the research and medical communities. The winning project, or projects, deemed to be the most innovative will be announced at the conclusion of the competition. To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate an ability to move the proposed plan to completion, showing how the prize can accelerate any step along the path to market. Inventors who submitted ideas for previous Shark Tank competitions are encouraged to re-submit their ideas if substantial progress has been made.

Computing systems have undergone a fundamental transformation from the single-core processor-devices of the turn of the century to today's ubiquitous and networked devices with multicore/many-core processors along with warehouse-scale computing via the cloud. At the same time, semiconductor technology is facing fundamental physical limits and single-processor performance has plateaued. This means that the ability to achieve performance improvements through improved processor technologies alone has ended. In recognition of this obstacle, the recent National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) encourages collaborative efforts to develop, "over the next 15 years, a viable path forward for future high-performance computing (HPC) systems even after the limits of current semiconductor technology are reached (the 'post-Moore's Law era')."

CAREER:The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply. PECASE: Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious recent CAREER awardees. Selection for this award is based on two important criteria: 1) innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology that is relevant to the mission of NSF, and 2) community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, education, or community outreach. These awards foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of the participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the Nation's future. Individuals cannot apply for PECASE. These awards are initiated by the participating federal agencies. At NSF, up to twenty nominees for this award are selected each year from among the PECASE-eligible CAREER awardees most likely to become the leaders of academic research and education in the twenty-first century. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy makes the final selection and announcement of the awardees.

The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. For example, practices in academic departments that result in the inequitable allocation of service or teaching assignments may impede research productivity, delay advancement, and create a culture of differential treatment and rewards. Similarly, policies and procedures that do not mitigate implicit bias in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions could lead to women and racial and ethnic minorities being evaluated less favorably, perpetuating historical under-participation in STEM academic careers and contributing to an academic climate that is not inclusive. All NSF ADVANCE proposals are expected to use intersectional approaches in the design of systemic change strategies in recognition that gender, race and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity. The solicitation includes four funding tracks: Institutional Transformation (IT), Adaptation, Partnership, and Catalyst, in support of the NSF ADVANCE program goal to broaden the implementation of systemic strategies that promote equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession.