Office of Science and Technology Policy

Latest Blog Posts

February 12, 2013 at 5:06 PM EST

STEM at State of the Union!

Among the esteemed guests who will be sitting with the First Lady during tonight’s State of the Union address, three are outstanding leaders in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). Through their accomplishments, these individuals personify a theme of longstanding importance to President Obama: the centrality of science, technology, and innovation to America’s ongoing global leadership.
February 11, 2013 at 9:23 AM EST

Consumer.Data.Gov is Live!

Today, the Obama Administration launched the Smart Disclosure Data Community at Consumer.Data.gov, an important step to empower Americans with the data and tools they need to make more informed choices in the marketplace.“Smart disclosure” is the act of making potentially useful data more readily available—both to consumers and innovators.
February 4, 2013 at 7:03 PM EST

Open Government Data Spurs Entrepreneurship and Jobs

Freely available data from the US Government is an important national resource, serving as fuel for entrepreneurship, innovation, scientific discovery, and other public benefits.Our goal, as Presidential Innovation Fellows working with open data, has been to find, unlock, and promote the next wave of government data—the next GPS—that innovators can use to kickstart entrepreneurship, fuel new tools and apps, and create jobs.
February 4, 2013 at 6:54 PM EST

Five Private-Sector Initiatives Launched at First White House Tech Inclusion Summit

Last week, more than two hundred people convened at the White House Tech Inclusion Summit—an unprecedented gathering of innovative thinkers from business, government, non-profits, and the tech world seeking to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to learn tech skills–particularly those from underserved and historically underrepresented communities, including women and girls.
January 29, 2013 at 10:56 AM EST

Celebrating Mentoring Month with Science and Engineering

January is National Mentoring Month—a time to recognize those who make a personal difference in the lives and futures of young people. In science and engineering fields, this means celebrating those who keep our next generation of innovators engaged and excited about science, technology, engineering, and math while helping them acquire the skills needed for the jobs of the future.
January 28, 2013 at 12:43 PM EST

Introducing Alpha.Data.gov

Thousands of Americans have connected with the Presidential Innovation Fellows to learn and share ideas about their work—and this Administration’s commitment—to unleash data from the vaults of the government as fuel for innovation. Based on that feedback, they created Alpha.data.gov--an online showcase that tells the story of Open Data.
January 25, 2013 at 12:24 PM EST

Help NASA Power the International Space Station

Last week, NASA launched the ISS Longeron Shadowing Optimization Challenge—a $30,000 competition that challenges citizen solvers to develop software algorithms that make solar panels on the International Space Station (ISS) more efficient. NASA is seeking solutions that reduce or eliminate the shadows the station casts upon itself at various points during its orbits of Earth. Ultimately, winning algorithms will help add power to the space station and expand the number and types of science experiments that can performed onboard.
January 22, 2013 at 1:39 PM EST

Roll Up Your Sleeves, Get Involved, and Get Civic-Hacking

This summer, citizens in cities across the Nation will join together to improve their communities and governments as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking. Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to unleash their can-do American spirit by collaboratively harnessing publicly-released data and code to create innovative solutions for problems that affect Americans.

FEATURED TOPICS

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING: On July 17, 2012, the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee, working within the framework of PCAST and co-chaired by Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical and Susan Hockfield of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, outlined recommendations for spurring investment and positioning the U.S. for long-term leadership in advanced manufacturing in a new report, Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing.

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US IGNITE: On June 14, 2012, the President signed an Executive Order to make broadband construction along Federal roadways and properties up to 90 percent cheaper and more efficient. Additionally, the White House announced that nearly 100 partners—including cities, national research institutions, and industry supporters—have formed a new public-private partnership called “US Ignite.” The US Ignite Partnership will create a new wave of services that take advantage of state-of-the-art broadband networks running up to 100 times faster than today’s Internet.

PRIZES TO SPUR INNOVATION: On April 10, 2012, OSTP released a comprehensive report detailing the use of prizes and competitions by agencies to spur innovation and solve grand challenges. Those efforts have expanded in recent months under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, which granted all Federal agencies authority to conduct prize competitions to spur innovation, solve tough problems, and advance their core missions.

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WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE FAIR:
On February 7th, 2012, President Obama hosted the second White House Science Fair celebrating the student winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions from across the country. The President announced key steps the Administration and its partners are taking to help more students excel in math and science, and earn degrees in these subjects.