Clinton signs bill to establish bioimaging, bioengineering institute

President Clinton has signed into law the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Establishment Act under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The general purpose of the Institute is the conduct and support of research, training, the dissemination of health information, and other programs with respect to biomedical imaging, biomedical engineering, and associated technologies and modalities with biomedical applications.

The NIH Task Force of the Bioengineering Division, Basic Engineering Group, of ASME's Council on Engineering, submitted ASME's statement on the NIH fiscal year 2001 Budget Request to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education early last year. The statement supports the establishment of a separate institute for bioengineering at NIH, and is available for review online at www.asme.org/gric/00-15.html.

Report provides global ratings in 8th-grade science and math

The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics recently released preliminary results of a new study, the TIMSS-Repeat study, on eighth-grade science and math achievement.

According to the report, "Pursuing Excellence," American eighth-graders performed slightly above the international average of 38 nations in both science and math.

In the 1995 study, U.S. eighth-graders tested above the international average in science but below the average in math, compared with students in 41 participating countries.

The TIMSS-Repeat data shows that in science, U.S. eighth-graders outperformed their peers in 18 nations. They performed similarly to their peers in five nations, and they scored lower in science than students in 14 countries.

In math, the TIMSS-Repeat results show that U.S. eighth-graders performed better than their peers in 17 nations and performed similarly to students in six nations. But students in 14 countries surpassed their scores. Twenty-six nations participated in both the 1995 and 1999 studies. The report can be accessed at http://nces.ed.gov/timss.

Competition process for ATP program is streamlined for 2001

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the Department of Commerce's Technology Administration, recently announced a new, streamlined proposal submission and review procedure for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) for 2001. The ATP provides cost-shared funding to industry for high-risk research and development projects with the potential to spark broad-based economic benefits.

Two significant changes to this year's competition include the elimination of any deadline — the ATP will evaluate proposals as they come in — and a new process that allows companies to submit proposals in stages.

The new rolling submission process will allow ATP staff to begin evaluating proposals soon after they are submitted. One advantage of the new procedure is that a proposal rejected early in the year because of some deficiency can be revised and resubmitted to the same competition without waiting for the next year's competition.

The program expects to have approximately $60.7 million available in fiscal year 2001 for first-year funding of new projects that can run as long as five years.

Details about 2001 ATP are available online at www.atp.nist.gov.

Massachusetts is first state to offer engineering in every grade

Education leaders have made Massachusetts the first state in the nation to require engineering instruction in every grade. The State Board of Education hopes that including engineering in the new statewide science curriculum will produce higher math and science scores and more engineers at a time when they are sorely needed.

The concept was developed by Tufts University engineering school dean Ioannais Miaoulis, working with a team of engineers and educators. An ASME member, Miaoulis has worked with his colleagues for more than a decade to get schools and policy-makers to embrace the notion that grade-appropriate engineering lessons can be taught to students.

If the program is successful, Miaoulis hopes to partner with universities around the country to develop similar programs at public schools in other states.

Additional information is available online at www.tufts.edu/communications/stories/122100EngineeringProgramPassed.htm.

— Kathryn Holmes
ASME Government Relations

back to columns