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The Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is pleased to announce that the 2012 NSF CMMI Research and Innovation Conference will take place in Boston, MA from July 9-12, 2012. The theme of the conference is "Engineering Transformation through Partnerships". The goal of the conference is to highlight the innovative and transformative research presently funded in CMMI; to provide researchers the opportunity to network and form collaborations; and to learn about new and upcoming funding opportunities within CMMI, across NSF, and within partner agencies. This conference will be held along with the 2012 George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Annual Meeting.

At past conferences, all active awardees were expected to attend; however, the division has revised its policy concerning conference attendance. Each program director will determine which of the portfolio of active awards from his or her program(s) are required to attend the conference to present a poster of their CMMI-funded research. Grantees will be notified if required to attend the conference no later than February 15, 2012. Grantees not contacted by their program are not required to attend/present a poster of the NSF-funded research, but are welcome to do so. Researchers with active awards in more than one CMMI program must follow the instructions of each of their cognizant program directors.

Furthermore, in the past, posters were presented only in traditional paper form. In order to facilitate further knowledge sharing, CMMI with the assistance of NEES has developed an online poster display submission and viewing system. Grantees will be required to upload their poster into this system upon registration for the conference. Grantees will also have the opportunity and are encouraged strongly to upload high-quality images, videos, and even audio files describing their research to the poster system. More information on this system and the conference will be forthcoming.

Grantees and prospective attendees should periodically check the NSF CMMI Research and Innovation Conference website (http://www.cmmigranteeconference.org/) for more information, which will be posted as it comes available.

Regards,

Dr. Steven H. McKnight
Division Director, ENG/CMMI