Grants

NSF

Groups are a mathematical formalization of the notion of symmetry, which can also be used to model a wide variety of other phenomena, including the passage of time and the homogeneity of space. The ubiquity of this concept is central to its connection with dynamics, the study of systems that evolve in time and space. These processes can be either deterministic, as in the movement of planets, or stochastic, as in the throwing of dice. The main purpose of this proposal is to study the interplay between dynamics and groups (group actions and dynamics) using the methods of logic, with a particular emphasis on the tools of descriptive set theory. Descriptive set theory precisely studies how complicated it is to define certain subsets, equivalences, and related objects. In particular, it can show whether certain simple classifications of objects exist or are impossible. The principal investigator will focus on understanding the complexity of random walks and their Poisson Boundaries, the possible symmetries and joinings of dynamical systems, and the theory of Borel equivalence relations. Poisson Boundaries capture the notion of asymptotic indistinguishability for random walks. They also classify the space of an important set of functions on groups (the bounded harmonic functions). When the boundary is trivial, this implies that in the long term all random walks look similar. One goal of this project is to make progress in understanding when this triviality occurs. Joinings represent a broad notion of symmetry, more general than morphisms or factor maps, that topological dynamical systems can have. Understanding the joinings of a topological dynamical system to itself provides a rich perspective on the various symmetries that the system can possess. Borel equivalence relations are a formal way to precisely describe whether classification problems are easy or difficult. This project aims to further impact their study, as well as to initiate the exploration of linear algebraic analogues of Borel equivalence relations. Graduate students will be involved in this project. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Deseret Arts Foundation

Deseret Arts Foundation is an active grantmaking foundation based in N Salt Lake, UT. Focus: arts. Contact the foundation directly for current funding opportunities.

Desert Cancer Foundation

Desert Cancer Foundation is an active grantmaking foundation based in Palm Desert, CA. Focus: health. Contact the foundation directly for current funding opportunities.

Desert Community Foundation

Desert Community Foundation is an active grantmaking foundation based in Palm Desert, CA. Focus: philanthropy. Contact the foundation directly for current funding opportunities.

Wildlife Conservation Board

The Desert Conservation Program includes the following actions: Protect, preserve, and restore the natural, cultural, and physical resources of the portions of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts region in California through the acquisition, restoration, and management of lands.Promote the protection and restoration of the biological diversity of the region. Provide for resilience in the region to climate change.Protect and improve air quality and water resources within the region.Undertake efforts to enhance public use and enjoyment of lands owned by the public. The Wildlife Conservation Board accepts pre-applications for acquisition, restoration, and management projects on a continuous basis. Eligible projects include, but are not limited to: Acquisition of land, especially parcels that are part of a wildlife movement corridor, contain water sources, have sacred or culturally significant tribal sites, protect listed species, or provide public accessRestoration of riparian and upland vegetationInvasive plant removal and control.Seed collection, processing, and propagationScientific studies, especially those that help aid in the recovery of listed species.

Wildlife Conservation Board

The Desert Conservation Program includes the following actions: Protect, preserve, and restore the natural, cultural, and physical resources of the portions of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts region in California through the acquisition, restoration, and management of lands.Promote the protection and restoration of the biological diversity of the region. Provide for resilience in the region to climate change.Protect and improve air quality and water resources within the region.Undertake efforts to enhance public use and enjoyment of lands owned by the public. The Wildlife Conservation Board accepts pre-applications for acquisition, restoration, and management projects on a continuous basis. Eligible projects include, but are not limited to: Acquisition of land, especially parcels that are part of a wildlife movement corridor, contain water sources, have sacred or culturally significant tribal sites, protect listed species, or provide public accessRestoration of riparian and upland vegetationInvasive plant removal and control.Seed collection, processing, and propagationScientific studies, especially those that help aid in the recovery of listed species.

Desert Healthcare Foundation

Desert Healthcare Foundation is an active grantmaking foundation based in Palm Springs, CA. Focus: health. Contact the foundation directly for current funding opportunities.

Desert Scholarship Foundation

Desert Scholarship Foundation is an active grantmaking foundation based in Palm Desert, CA. Focus: education. Contact the foundation directly for current funding opportunities.

Tasveer

Desi Girls Comedy Project will be a four-week virtual workshop series with one session per week + one-on-one mentoring to nurture participants' confidence and skills, culminating in a live comedy showcase presented within COVID-19 health guidelines. Virtual workshops and events, spearheaded by the queer South Asian comedy troupe Kutti Gang and including local guest artists from Seattle, will focus first on serving South Asian women in Seattle and will be available for free online. This project will be completed by December of 2021

Tasveer

The Desi Improv Festival will include an improv workshop and a main improv event. The project is designed to introduce participants to the art of improvisation through engaging scenes, games and exercises in a fun, supportive environment. Research shows that improv is a powerful tool for team building and community engagement. By focusing on collaboration, creativity and spontaneous thinking, this workshop aims to break down communication barriers and foster acceptance and understanding. Participants will develop skills in adaptability, active listening and effective communication. Ultimately, this workshop will empower participants to feel more confident, connected, and better equipped to navigate diverse environments.

Tasveer

Tasveer will organize a free nine-day literary and storytelling festival focusing on South Asian culture in January 2019. It will feature presentations and workshops on writing fiction, comedy, screenplays, graphic novels, and other ways of telling a story. The events will take place at Seattle Art Museum Located at 1300 1st Ave and Northwest Film Forum located at 1515 12th Ave.

Prometheus Dance Inc.

Desiderare Project

OD - NIH Office of the Director

SUMMARY This project seeks to support Research Software Engineer (RSE) Katherine Acevedo’s efforts to develop open science tools to better measure and train cognition. Acevedo is currently the Director of Development at the Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-Being and in this role supports a range of NIA-funded projects aimed at developing both assessment and interventional materials to advance the understanding cognitive aging, identifying early-stage behavioral biomarkers of ADRD, and promoting cognitive reserve. This work is demonstrated in the following funded projects: U19AG066567 (CoI: Seitz), R01 AG076157 (PIs: Green, Jaeggi & Seitz), R21AG069428 (PIs: Jaeggi & Seitz), R01MH111742 (PIs: Jaeggi & Seitz), R01AG077725 (PIs: Koener & Seitz), R01AG063952 (Green, Jaeggi, & Seitz), R61/R33AG073668 (Jaeggi & Seitz), R01EY031226 (PIs: Seitz & Green), and R21/R33AG074497 (Anguera, Jaeggi, & Seitz). Acevedo leads development of the Portable Adaptive Rapid Testing (PART) software application that supports these projects. The PART system is available on the Apple and Google Play stores, and currently has over 100 measures that address hearing, vision, cognitive control and executive functions, and decision making. It includes measures that are typically used in basic research, but it also includes standard neuropsychological measures and those that are used for clinical research studies. PART contributes a number of novel measures that don’t exist in platforms (such as NIH Toolbox, TabCat, or Mobile Toolbox), particularly measures of central auditory and visual processes. Further, a unique strength of the PART platform is its high degree of configurability, which facilitates the development of new tasks, refinement of existing tasks, adapting tasks to diverse populations, and also allows testing how variants of task structure impact psychometric properties of common tasks. PART is rapidly emerging as a key tool to support open science and Acevedo has been designing systems to promote the ability of researchers and students to more easily, flexibly, develop their own studies, and even tasks in PART. As such PART plays a unique role in cognitive tool sharing as most other cognitive assessment or intervention systems have limited customizability, whereas with PART is one can change the look, feel, language, and many task parameters in order to reach diverse population that have different cognitive needs. Securing dedicated funding for the Acevedo will provide critical support to focus development efforts on advancing the software architecture of the BGC’s apps to promote platform sharing and to promote open science.

OPM

Design a recreational complex

NSF

Origami is the art of folding paper into intricate forms. Structures composed of origami patterns have been used for decades in the space industry as they are very compact when folded and can unfold into intricate shapes. More recently, Origami structure have been used to produce inexpensive mechanical metamaterials. Mechanical metamaterials are novel materials that present mechanical properties that are not common to usual materials. However, the design possibilities offered by origami structures remain presently mostly unexplored. This project will develop models and numerical methods to compute new origami patterns and study their deformation. The tools developed in this project will enable engineers to design new origami patterns with new properties and therefore create new metamaterials and foldable structures. Possible applications include designing structures that unfold into a target shape or designing micro-structures to obtain a desired macroscopic property. This project will contribute to the study of the direct and inverse problems of designing origami structures. In the direct problem, one chooses a given periodic folding pattern and derives Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) describing the kinematics and energy of the limit surface. One then wants to study and approximate the solutions of PDE constrained optimization problems where the PDEs are nonlinear and can change type (between elliptic and hyperbolic) and degenerate. This project will use careful regularizations and nonconforming finite element discretizations in order to approximate the solutions of these difficult problems. The inverse problem consists in determining a crease pattern that will allow to fold from a flat state into a given target surface. Determining if a given pattern is flat foldable is known to be NP-hard. This project proposes to represent possible fold lines by damage in an elastic sheet and then to adapt the method of Ambrosio and Tortorelli to approximate minimizers of the Mumford--Shah functional. This will produce folding patterns on an initially flat surface which will be able to fold into the target surface. As paper deforms isometrically, this project intends to explore the approximation of nonzero Gauss curvature target surfaces to determine if notable properties emerge. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

OPM

Design and construct a public safety communication system

DECD

Design and construction of 700 linear feet of new road work and streetscape improvements in the downtown Village District

DESPP

Design and construction of a new firehouse

DEEP

Design and construction of a new playground at Clintonville Elementary School and drainage improvements

DEEP

Design and construction of a new recreational area on Long Hill Road

DEEP

Design and construction of a secondary access road at the Simsbury Farms and Recreation Complex

DEEP

Design and construction of additional improvements to the Morris Transfer station as well as close the existing landfill

DECD

Design and construction of an additional firehouse in the southern section of town

DOT

Design and construction of drainage improvements on Bujac Road