Summer Update

So it's been a while since my last post. Like most TT engineering faculty, I've spend that last few weeks working on my NSF CAREER proposal. My place makes a huge deal about getting this grant specifically. You get three attempts before tenure. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, but I remember last year I saw the breakdown and out of all the CAREER grants that were funded (which historically is close to 15% funding rate, except this year thanks to the sequester, we're probably looking at closer to 10%) only 20 percent or so of PIs get it on their first attempt. Which makes me feel a bit better about not getting mine funded last year. The general consensus is that you don't apply for this proposal in your first year and I know quite a few people who didn't apply in their second year, especially now that the Engineering Directorate offers the BRIGE award and the requirement there is that this has to be your first NSF award as a PI. So, I was working on my CAREER award, and also another big proposal that is due in August. Fingers crossed. Other than that, things are going pretty well. I got some new meds that, at least for now, have gotten my depression back under control and I'm a productive member of society again.

Results keep trickling in, new ideas and directions are presenting themselves, and patent disclosures are getting filed. One of my new aims is to build up an extensive IP portfolio that I can use to approach companies to give them more incentive to fund my research. So far, the tech transfer folks at my uni have been pretty receptive and supportive. Although, as full disclosure, the companies I am talking with right now all want to see the publications that show the data more than the IP. So gotta get rolling on that...