NSF has an account for Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC), to support the development of very large research instruments. Typically, the goal of these instruments, which may cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and tens of millions of dollars annually to operate, is to find answers to some of the most fundamental questions in science today. For example, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) is designed to detect ripples in space-time caused by changes in very large masses (e.g., a star exploding). Such observations, if made successfully, would finally confirm Einstein’s prediction of the existence of gravitational waves. LIGO has a construction cost of about $300M and […]

The CCC-sponsored robotics initiative kicks off next week with the first of four workshops covering the impact, applications and emerging technologies of robotics. Robotics research and development have already transformed our lives in many ways: they perform nearly all the welding and painting on the cars we drive; they enable telerobotic surgery resulting in more reliable outcomes and faster recovery times; they perform millions of scientific experiments and observations in chemistry, biology and medical labs.  Increasingly robotics is also providing improved control and functionality in people’s daily lives: some new model cars can park themselves or provide advanced distance-keeping cruise control and collision warnings; millions of autonomous vacuum cleaners are […]