8 UNIVERSITY NASA's university project research is aimed at meeting the research needs of NASA program offices and field centers. It is supplemented by the Sustaining University Program, which supports multidisciplinary research and other university activities important to NASA's mission but broader in scope than most program office research efforts. All elements of the NASA university program are developed and administered so as to provide maximum benefit to NASA and at the same time strengthen the participating universities. SUSTAINING UNIVERSITY PROGRAM Sustaining University Program grants to universities allow considerable local control over the selection of specific research tasks. Grants for research are step funded. Other activities, including training, are full funded. Multidisciplinary Research The Sustaining University Program provides support for special research programs developed in response to problems vitally affecting the Nation's leadership in aeronautics and space. The multidisciplinary research grant program has made it possible for space science and engineering centers to be established at a number of universities. It has also promoted coordination between university research centers and NASA laboratories, by enabling faculty members to visit the NASA research centers and by permitting some university students to conduct research with the unique and specialized research equipment at the NASA laboratories. During this period, the Sustaining University Program had active multidisciplinary research grants at 55 universities, and awarded grant supplements at the following universities: University of Alabama, University of Denver, George Washington University, University of Houston, Louisiana State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, University of Virginia, Washington University (St. Louis), West Virginia University, and the University of Wisconsin. The grants provided research support for 600 faculty members and an equal number of students. The Sustaining University Program continued its efforts to identify research capabilities of value to the national space program at predominantly Negro colleges and universities near NASA field centers. Twelve such institutions were awarded research grants averaging about $20,000: Alabama A. & M. College, Alabama; Tuskegee Institute, Alabama; Oakwood College, Alabama; Talladega College, Alabama; Morgan State College, Maryland; Bowie State College, Maryland; Delaware State College, Delaware; Howard University, Washington, D.C.; Federal City College, Washington, D.C.; Prairie View A. & M. College, Texas; Bishop College, Texas; and the Texas Southern University, Texas. Administration and Management Research This program continued to provide support for research and graduate training in the administration and management of large, complex organizations at Syracuse University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Southern California, the University of New Mexico, Northwestern University (Graduate School of Management), Drexel Institute of Technology, and the National Academy of Public Administration. A new research program was initiated in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University. NASA provided support for 35 trainees at Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Southern California which have traineeships in public administration closely integrated with their research programs. Engineering Systems Design AR The third group of 25 trainees in engineering systems desig entered the program in September 1969. They were enrolled & Stanford University, Purdue University, Cornell University, the University of Kansas, and Georgia Institute of Technology and pos were in the process of selecting their projects. The first group of trainees (entered in September 1967) are in their last year and working on their design dissertations (218 Semiannual Report, p. 162). Special Training This category includes the Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, Summer Institutes for talented undergraduates, a post-M.D. effort, and a few predoctoral training grants directly related to the space program (21st Semiannual Report, p. 162). During the summer of 1969, 12 universities and nine NASA centers cooperated in offering research and study opportunities to about 280 faculty members in the research part of the Summer Faculty Fellowship Program. Four 11-week Summer Faculty Fel lowship Programs in Engineering Systems Design were conducted by six universities in cooperation with four NASA Centers. About 80 faculty members worked on projects such as a preliminary de sign of an orbiting space technology applications and research Isboratory, a metropolitan air transit system, an operational earth resources survey system, and a manned exploration vehicle. I addition, about 100 senior undergraduates received six weeks of specialized summer training in space science and technology st four universities. NASA continued to support training in aerospace medicine & Harvard University and Ohio State University, where a few select physicians received advanced training concerned with environme tal problems of man in space. Thirty new predoctoral students under six predoctoral training grants began their studies in specific areas related to the nationa space program. They will work toward the Ph. D. in aeronautics and lasers and optics at Stanford University, vibrations and noise at North Carolina State University and the Pennsylvania State University, communications sciences at the University of Souther California, and international studies in space science and technol ogy at the University of Miami. as Resident Research Associateship Program This program, administered for NASA by the National Research Council-National Academy of Sciences-National Academy of Engineering, is designed to allow postdoctoral and senior postdoctoral investigators to carry on advanced research at NASA field centers. Participants conducted research in fields such as astrophysics, airglow emission, high-energy physics, geomagnetism, instrumentation for direct atmospheric measurement, applied mathematics, electron microscope, comparative biochemistry, hypersonic aerodynamics, plasma flow, materials, and meteorites. Scientists in this program were distributed among NASA centers as follows: Additional structures for the University of Washington and the Lunar Science Institute were completed and occupied, bringing to 36 the number of completed buildings providing nearly 1 million gross square feet of space on university campuses. The space is enough to accommodate some 3,900 university scientists, engineers, and others engaged in research in aerospace science and technology. The remaining structure in this program at the University of Kansas is about 50 percent complete. Research Grants and Contracts The Office of University Affairs received 1,152 proposals and 615 were funded (21st Semiannual Report, p. 165). Special stepfunding efforts were being phased to completion, as the office applied $1 million to add step-funding to 25 additional grants. NASA now has nearly 40 percent of its active project grants on a stable funding basis. The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, in creating NASA, stipulated that it should “provide for the widest practicsble and appropriate dissemination of information concerning i activities and the results thereof." During the past decade the Agency has carried out this congressional mandate through varie continuing informational and educational programs. Informational Activities Public Affairs activities for 1969 actually began with the Apol 8 lunar flight in the preceding December. Heavy news media erage of that event and the rollout a week later of Apollo 9, addition to White House, Congressional, and TV appearances the Apollo 8 crew, plus parades for them in Washington, Ne York, Miami, Houston, and Chicago were the responsibility of the Office of Public Affairs. Media Services In addition to the manned launches of Apollo 9, 10, 11, and in 1969, Public Affairs supported 18 other major flight missions 150 |