Archive for February 14, 2020

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced its intent to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Connected Communities.”

The Connected Communities FOA would demonstrate and evaluate the capacity of energy-efficient buildings to interact with one another and the grid to provide greater degrees of demand flexibility at scale. It will also enable grid-interactive efficient building communities around the country to share research results and lessons learned on projects that increase grid reliability, resilience, security and energy integration well into the future.

EERE’s Building Technologies Office would manage the FOA. EERE anticipates awarding 4-6 projects for up to $7 million each in the form of cooperative agreements, or up to $42 million. At present, EERE would intend to issue the FOA in the summer of 2020 via the EERE Exchange. The full Notice of Intent can be viewed here.

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus Strategic Initiative Program invites you to a Brown-Bag Seminar:

“Resilience of Cities to Food Supply Shocks”

Dr. Alfonso Mejia

Monday, Feb. 17 from Noon – 1:30 p.m.

202 Hammond

Food supply shocks are becoming more frequent worldwide. Diversity has been shown to influence the resilience of countries to shocks. It is, however, unclear whether diversity buffers cities against shocks. Here, using a measure of the functional diversity of a city’s network of trading partners, we quantify the resistance of cities to food supply shocks. The measure is determined for all cities in the United States at the metropolitan level for the years 2012-2015. We find that the probability of a food supply shock declines for cities with greater functional diversity. Our results suggest that a city’s trade network influences its ability to avoid food supply shocks.

For more information about the seminar or the Penn State WEF-Nexus Initiative, contact Dr. Rachel Brennan, rab44@psu.edu.

The Graduate School is aware that some current Penn State graduate students have not been able to return to campus due to travel restrictions as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus (tentatively known as SARS-CoV-2). Because the end of this crisis cannot be predicted but is likely to extend well into the semester, the Graduate School provides the following guidance about Spring 2020 enrollment. Following these guidelines will minimize disruption to the student’s progress toward their degree and simplify their return to studies when the crisis is over.

Graduate Students enrolled only in SUBJ 600 Thesis Research or SUBJ 601 PhD Dissertation

There are two choices for graduate students enrolled only in SUBJ 600 Thesis Research or SUBJ 601 PhD dissertation who are unable to return to the US:

1. If the student’s research can be done remotely from China at a level consistent with their enrollment, they may stay enrolled.  Such students must remain in contact with their advisor.
   • Graduate students on F-1 and J-1 status that have been given permission to conduct research from outside the U.S.MUST have a written research plan from their faculty advisor or their program director.  This plan is needed to affirm the continued affiliation as a student with the University for immigration compliance purposes.  A copy should be sent to the student and DISSA-Adviser@psu.edu.
2. If the student’s research cannot be done remotely at a level consistent with their enrollment, after notifying the student, the program must immediately take the following steps:
   • Contact Graduate Enrollment Services (GES); GES will notify the Registrar’s Office to cancel the student from all classes and will approve a Leave of Absence for SP2020 for the student;
     • This will allow the student to reenroll seamlessly without submitting Resume Study application when he/she returns.
     • Having an approved Leave of Absence satisfies the continuous enrollment requirement for PhD students without requesting an exception.

1. • Terminate the student’s assistantship.   This will also terminate the student’s Student Health Insurance Plan (although this is of little consequence in this context as the SHIP does not cover students when in their home country).

1. • Notify graduate students on F-1 and J-1 immigration status who will not be enrolled for the Spring 2020 semester that they MUST work with the Directorate of International Student & Scholar Advising (DISSA) on managing their immigration status.  In most cases, I-20s / DS-2019s will be ended and the student will need to work with DISSA on requesting new I-20s or DS-2019 for returning to campus at a future date.

1. • If the student has not been on campus on or after January 13, GES may be able to process the student as a “No Show”, thereby refunding any tuition payments. The graduate program should contact GES as soon as possible to determine if this is possible.

1. • While it seems less and less likely at this point that students in China will be able to return to Penn State before the end of the semester, if that does happen, the graduate program should contact GES who will immediately reenroll the student for the spring semester as a late-add.   Students should also be reappointed to their assistantship and will be re-enrolled in the SHIP.

Graduate Students only enrolled in coursework other than SUBJ 600 Thesis Research or SUBJ 600 PhD Dissertation

If a graduate student is currently only enrolled in coursework other than SUBJ 600 Thesis Research or SUBJ 600 PhD Dissertation and unable to attend Spring 2020 classes due to coronavirus travel restrictions, the graduate program must:

1. Contact GES; GES will notify the Registrar’s Office to cancel the student from all classes and approve a Leave of Absence for SP2020 for the student;

1. • This will allow the student to reenroll seamlessly without submitting Resume Study application when he/she returns.
   • Having an approved Leave of Absence satisfies the continuous enrollment requirement for PhD students without requesting an exception.
2. Terminate the student’s assistantship (if applicable).   This will also terminate the student’s Student Health Insurance Plan (although this is of little consequence in this context as the SHIP does not cover students when in their home country).
3. Notify graduate students on F-1 and J-1 immigration status who will not be enrolled for the Spring 2020 semester that theyMUST work with the Directorate of International Student & Scholar Advising (DISSA) on managing their immigration status.  In most cases, I-20s / DS-2019s will be ended and the student will need to work with DISSA on requesting new I-20s or DS-2019 for returning to campus at a future date.
4. If the student has not been on campus on or after January 13, GES may be able to process the student as a “No Show”, thereby refunding any tuition payments. The graduate program should contact GES as soon as possible to determine if this is possible.