ICELA, the International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics at Drexel University, exists to "increase the number and impact of women in academic leadership positions through two innovative programs: Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) and Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE)." ELAM, begun in 1995, is a one-year leadership program to expand the national pool of women qualified for positions of leadership in academic medicine, dentistry, and public health. Now with over 700 graduates, the ELAM program has made significant progress, with alumnae serving in leadership positions from department chair to president at over 180 U.S. and Canadian academic health centers. Notably, 9 of the 23 women deans of U.S. medical schools are ELAM alumnae. Using the ELAM model, ICELA began a ELATE in 2012, focusing on leadership development for senior women faculty in engineering, computer science, and related fields. Funds from this grant support a thorough evaluation of the outcomes and impact (both individual and institutional) of the ELATE classes finishing in June 2013, 2014, and 2015. Besides analyzing the data from the pre- and post-program surveys, the deliverables of the new project will include: 1) a system by which the fellows' institutional action projects will be categorized and tracked to determine whether the original aims for impact have been met; 2) a nationwide survey facilitated by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) of deans and provosts to ascertain views on the skills and practices necessary for effective leadership and mentoring; and 3) surveys of the deans who nominated the fellows to ascertain their views on the progress and outcomes of the program and to engage them about further development of institutional support for women leaders in CS&E.

According to the Computing Research Association, the percentage of women earning degrees in computer science peaked in 1984 at just over 37 percent, and has recently fallen to less than 12 percent. The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU wants to show what can be done about it. Courant has specifically designed a new program for this purpose called the G-STEM (Girl's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Summer Camp. Targeting high-aptitude girls in New York City area high schools, it features intensive classes, practical internships, one-on-one adult mentoring, positive peer support, and lots of follow-up activities. The goal is to strengthen the perseverance of young women interested in STEM careers as they transition from high school to college. Funds from this grant provide support for the G-STEM program for three years.

Funds from this grant support a project by award-winning producer Michael Schwarz to develop, produce, and air a three-hour PBS special on the intellectual, cultural, and technological history of Silicon Valley from its origins in the 1870s to today. The film will explore how and why Silicon Valley has, decade after decade for nearly 100 years, produced world-changing innovation-not just new products but whole new industries: vacuum tubes, radio, radar, integrated circuits, venture capital, PCs, printers, genetic engineering, software, networking hardware, the internet, social media, cloud computing, mobile. Guided by a distinguished group of scholars, historians of technology, and other experts, the program will examine how the Valley has managed to stay on the cutting edge of technology even as that edge has shifted and pivoted dramatically, and why its success has been so difficult to emulate. By casting a longer and more informed historical lens on Silicon Valley, the proposed show promises to stimulate a deeper understanding of how government, academia, and the private sector can collaborate successfully and also provide new insights on innovation and entrepreneurship, especially as applied to technology. In addition to the three-hour film for broadcast, funds from this grant support a public engagement and educational campaign targeted at middle and high school students, a website, a multiplatform digital media strategy including a social media campaign, short-form videos and interactive maps for web tablets and phones, and a strong publicity and promotion effort that should significantly expand both the audience for the show and discussion of the issues raised.

Shortly after the National Science Foundation began requiring all grant applications include a data management plan, a team based out of the California Digital Library developed and launched an online system to help researchers in the University of California system meet the new requirement. Named the "DMP Tool," the system contains information on funder data management requirements and on the data management resources available at participating universities, enabling researchers to quickly sketch a basic data management plan tailored to their particular proposal and institution. The system was a success. Within its first year, the DMP Tool was used to generate thousands of data management plans and has become an important resource for researchers. Because the DMP Tool was built under significant time constraints, however, the technical architecture that powers it was not developed with an eye towards expansion. As designed, the system is not prepared to accommodate the rapidly expanding number of funding agencies who have data management requirements, the increasing complexity of those requirements, or the quickly changing data management capabilities of member universities. The DMP Tool needs a core code re-write to build in the flexibility needed to meet rising demand. Funds from this grant provide support for a substantial rewriting of the DMP Tool software, with an eye toward flexibility and facilitating the effective use of the DMP Tool at a larger number of research institutions. The resulting website will better structure the metadata about research encoded in data management plans and offer broad analytics about research data management across funders, by capturing data management plans upstream of submission. Suitably rewritten, the DMP Tool has the opportunity to become the standard U.S. facilitator of data management plan creation.