In 2007, Professor David Kaplan started filming events inside a 17-mile tunnel containing the largest scientific experiment ever conducted by humankind: the Large Hadron Collider. A milestone in scientific collaboration involving more than 10,000 scientists from 100 countries, the Large Hadron Collider is the largest, most powerful, high-energy particle accelerator ever constructed and its operation led to the much celebrated confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson in 2012—and to a Nobel Prize for Peter Higgs. Kaplan has turned his footage into a documentary about the project, Particle Fever, an affecting portrait of scientists and a beautiful illustration of the value and validity of basic research. Funds from this grant provide support for outreach and promotion of Particle Fever, enabling the producers to build an online community using social media, host live events in the run-up to the official theatrical release, and promote the film in digital and print media.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is a multi-institutional center dedicated to training graduate students how to teach more effectively. Launched in 2003 as a collaborative effort between four universities, CIRTL has grown rapidly, now including 22 universities that will collectively graduate some 2,200 future faculty that will have participated in at least one CIRTL offering or training session. Funds from this grant support the construction of a new IT communications infrastructure, the CIRTL Network Commons (CNC), to replace the one that was developed when CIRLT membership was small and when capabilities for online information exchange and collaboration were much less well developed. Products to be supported by the CNC include university dashboards for access to information and tools, social tools to promote community among participants at the member 22 institutions, online community forums and learning community spaces, resource sharing tools, course management tools, cognitive tutors to help students learn complex thinking and problem solving skills, and CIRTL event management and registration tools. The CNC will also enable the collection and analysis of usage data to facilitate informed assessment of the impact and effectiveness of CIRTL’s programs.