NIST Technicalendar March 28 to April 1, 2005 The NIST Technicalendar is issued each Friday. All items MUST be submitted electronically from this web page by 12:00 NOON each Wednesday unless otherwise stated in the NIST Technicalendar. The address for online weekly editions of the NIST Technicalendar and NIST Administrative Calendar is: http://www.nist.gov/tcal/.
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In this Issue: Meetings at NIST Meetings Elsewhere Announcements Talks by NIST Personnel NIST Web Site Announcements NIST Administrative Calendar (current)   NIST Vacancy Announcements (current)

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10:30 AM - Does the everyday world really obey quantum mechanics?

No Scheduled Events

8:30 AM - Workshop on Biometrics and E-Authentication Over Open Networks

10:30 AM - Cardiac Troponin I: Impact of Assay Performance on Clinical Decision Making
1:30 PM - Controlling Mass Transport in Microfluidic Channels: The Sheath Flow T-sensor

10:30 AM - Triggered Lightning from Natural Thunderclouds

3/28 -- MONDAY

10:30 AM - NIST COLLOQUIUM SERIES: Does the everyday world really obey quantum mechanics?
Quantum mechanics has been enormously successful in describing nature at the atomic level. Most physicists believe that it is in principle the "whole truth" about the world, even at the everyday level. Such a view leads to a severe problem: in certain circumstances. The most natural interpretation of the theory implies that no definite outcome of an experiment occurs until the act of "observation." For many decades this problem was regarded as "merely philosophical." It was thought to have no consequences testable in experiment, but this situation has now changed dramatically. Prof. Leggett will discuss the problem, some popular "resolutions" of it, the current experimental situation, and prospects for the future.
Anthony Leggett , 2003 Nobel Laureate in Physics, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).
Administration Bldg, Green Auditorium. (NIST Contact: Anita Sweigert, 301-975-4203, anita.sweigert@nist.gov)
Special Assistance Available


3/29 -- TUESDAY

No Scheduled Events

3/30 -- WEDNESDAY

8:30 AM - COMPUTER SECURITY DIVISION SEMINAR: Workshop on Biometrics and E-Authentication Over Open Networks
The objective of this two-day workshop is to determine how biometrics can be used for remote e-authentication over open networks by providing equivalent authentication assurance to conventional secret-based mechanisms defined in NIST Special Publication 800-63, Electronic Authentication Guideline for each of four authentication levels defined in Office of Management and Budget Memorandum (OMB M-04-04): E-Authentication Guidance for Federal Agencies (these documents are available at the Workshop Web site). The use of biometrics is allowed in the SP 800-63 as a technology to unlock conventional authentication tokens and to prevent repudiation of registration. NIST is exploring wider use of biometrics for remote e-authentication over open networks and may issue additional guidance to Federal agencies. Through expert talks, panel discussions and breakout sessions, the Workshop will address these essential questions: 1) How can Federal agencies and other organizations use biometrics to authenticate unsupervised remote claimants whose computers and workstations they do not manage or control? 2) How do we compare the authentication assurance provided by unsupervised biometric methods to the conventional methods now defined in SP 800-63? 3) In what way could biometrics be appropriately used for each of the four authentication levels? 4) What constraints and protections need to be in place to use biometrics in a secure solution? A preliminary program is posted on the Workshop Web site.****$110.00 registration fee ($55.00 for students)***
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Administration Building, Green Auditorium. (NIST Contact: Magdalena Benitez, 301-975-6182, magdalena.benitez@nist.gov) http://www.nist.gov/biom-eauth


3/31 -- THURSDAY

10:30 AM - CHEMICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY OFFICE SEMINAR: Cardiac Troponin I: Impact of Assay Performance on Clinical Decision Making
Robert Christenson , Professor of Medical and Research Technology, UMM.
Administration Bldg, Lecture Rm. A. (NIST Contact: Michael Welsh, 301-975-3100, michael.welsh@nist.gov)

1:30 PM - ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY DIVISION SEMINAR: Controlling Mass Transport in Microfluidic Channels: The Sheath Flow T-sensor
M. Munson , NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Candidate, Chicago, IL, msmunson@u.washington.edu.
227 Bldg, Rm. A202. (NIST Contact: David Ross, 301-975-2525, karen.startsman@nist.gov)


4/1 -- FRIDAY

10:30 AM - NIST COLLOQUIUM SERIES: Triggered Lightning from Natural Thunderclouds
Natural lightning is compared with rocket-triggered (artificially initiated) lightning. The photograph shows lightning artificially initiated from a natural thunderstorm via the launching of a small rocket trailing a grounded wire. The straight vertical luminous path above the launch tower is the exploded copper triggering wire, to the right of which are numerous, tortuous lightning strokes occurring tens of milliseconds apart and separated spatially by the wind. Some recent experiments will be discussed, including: the measurement of the electric and magnetic fields within 100 m of natural ground flashes; the division of triggered lightning current through the arresters of a distribution power line; and the production of x-rays and gamma-rays triggered and natural lightning.
Martin Uman , Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida.
Administration Bldg, Green Auditorium. (NIST Contact: Anita Sweigert, 301-975-4201, anita.sweigert@nist.gov)
Special Assistance Available


ADVANCE NOTICE

4/6/05 10:30 AM - NIST SEMINAR: NIST's Role as the Leader of the U.S. Measurement System: An Update
Wednesday, April 6, 2005, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon, Red Auditorium, Gaithersburg****VIDEO CONFERENCE BOULDER, 8:30 a.m.- 11:00 a.m, Auditorium**** On February 3, 2005, Acting Director Hratch Semerjian and Acting Deputy Director Rich Kayser briefed the staff on the new NIST effort to assess the long-term needs of the U.S. Measurement System (USMS) and to coordinate actions by NIST and others to address those needs. At this upcoming all-staff meeting, Rich Kayser and others will report on the status of USMS-related activities over the past two months, including, but not limited to, efforts to (a) organize industry workshops, (b) collect and analyze existing industry and technology roadmaps, (c) plan economic studies in support of the USMS effort, and (d) begin to reach out to important USMS customers and stakeholders to engage them in the USMS effort.
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Administration Building, Red Auditorium. (NIST Contact: Richard Kayser, 301-975-2300, richard.kayser@nist.gov)

4/14/05 10:30 AM - ELECTRON AND OPTICAL PHYSICS DIVISION SEMINAR: Uncertainty Principles and Signal Recovery from Highly Incomplete Information
We will talk about some recent research on recovering a finite, N dimensional signal from a very limited number of linear measurements. A typical result is the following: Say that an unknown signal f is sparse in that it only contains T nonzero components. Then even though f is "wideband" --- the Fourier transform of f is essentially flat --- we can recover f from a small number of samples (on the order of T log N) in the Fourier domain. The recovery is performed by solving a tractable convex program, and is stable in the presence of noise. The recovery framework can also be extended to signals that are sparse in a known orthonormal basis (e.g. piecewise-smooth signals and images which have sparse wavelet expansions). Underlying these results are novel uncertainty principles, which dictate how concentrated the same discrete signal can be in two different ortho-bases. We will also discuss how these ideas might be applied in the areas of data compression and tomographic imaging.
Justin Romberg , Caltech.
Physic Building, Room B145. (NIST Contact: Zachary Levine, 301-975-5453, zlevine@nist.gov)

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MEETINGS ELSEWHERE


3/28 -- MONDAY

11:00 AM - CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON/GEOPHYSICAL LAB. SEMINAR: NOVEL PHASES OF EARTH'S MANTLE MINERALS
A. Oganov , Lab. of Crystallography, Zurich.
Bldg, Rm. .
Abelson Bldg., GL-DTM Grounds, Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC. (NIST Contact: S. Scmidt, 202-478-8900, schmidt@gl.ciw.edu)



3/29 -- TUESDAY

No Scheduled Events

3/30 -- WEDNESDAY

No Scheduled Events

3/31 -- THURSDAY

No Scheduled Events

4/1 -- FRIDAY

No Scheduled Events

ADVANCE NOTICE

6/2/05 8:00 AM - WORKSHOP ON HIGH CONFIDENCE MEDICAL DEVICE SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS
The rapidly increasing software complexity of medical devices makes the development of high integrity software a crucial issue. Several Federal agencies, including FDA, NIST, NSF, NSA, and NCO/ITRD are interested in identifying the research needs required to improve the design, certification, and operation (by both health care professionals and consumers) of medical device software and systems that will result in better and more cost-effective medical care. They are holding a workshop to provide an open, working forum for leaders and visionaries concerned with medical devices from industry, research laboratories, academia, and government with the goal of developing a roadmap to overcome crucial medical device software and systems issues and challenges facing the design, manufacture, certification, and use of medical devices. They solicit input through position papers that can be used to help identify the research needs, challenges, and a roadmap for HCMDSS. The organizers will deliver a report to the Government that summarizes the workshop's findings. By submitting a position paper, you will have an opportunity to provide technical facts and information that potentially can help shape the future direction of HCMDSS. Due to the workshop's ambitious schedule, position papers are requested by Monday, April 4, 2005. The position papers will be used to select invitees to the workshop scheduled for June 2 and 3, 2005. Invitees will have the opportunity to provide further input to the HCMDSS roadmap.
Call for , position papers.
Bldg, Rm. .
Warwick Hotel, Philadelphia, PA. (NIST Contact: Paul E. Black, 301-975-4794, paul.black@nist.gov) http://www.cis.upenn.edu/hcmdss/

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TALKS BY NIST PERSONNEL

BURGESS, JR., D. : THE NIST "REAL FUELS" DETAILED CHEMICAL KINETIC COMBUSTION MODEL DATABASE.
Fourth Joint Meeting of U.S. Sections of the Combustion Institute/Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 3/22.

DELONGCHAMP, D. : CORRELATING STRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT TO PERFORMANCE ENCHANCEMENT IN ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR FILMS.
MRS Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 3/29.

CYGAN, Z. : MICROFLUIDIC PLATFORM FOR THE GENERATION OF POLYMER PARTICLES.
MRS Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 3/30.

GUO, S. (Co-Authors: C. M.Stafford M. Y.Chiang ) : THEORETICAL AND NUMERICAL STABILITY ANALYSIS OF MULTI-LAYER COATINGS DEPOSITED ON SOFT POLYMER SUBSTRATES.
Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 3/31.

STAFFORD, C. (Co-Authors: S.Guo M. Y.Chiang ) : NANOMETROLOGY OF MULTILAYER POLYMER THIN FILMS.
Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 3/31.

RODRIGUEZ, H. : CHALLENGES AND MEASUREMENTS FOR CELL-BASED SCREENING TECHNOLOGIES.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 4/1.

HUNT, F. : VISUALIZING FREQUENCY PATTERNS IN DNA.
2005 Infinite Possibilities Conference, Atlanta, GA, 4/1.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

VISITOR REGISTRATION FOR NIST EVENTS
Because of heightened security at the NIST Gaithersburg site, members of the public who wish to attend meetings, seminars, lectures, etc. must first register in advance. For more information please call or e-mail the "NIST contact" for the particular event you would like to attend.
NIST Contact: . ., ., .

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NIST WEB SITE ANNOUNCEMENTS

THE NIST VIRTUAL LIBRARY WEB SITE
You're invited to visit the NIST Virtual Library (NVL) Web site located at http://nvl.nist.gov. Use the databases, e-journals and subject guides. Read current and past articles in the Journal of Research, the Information Services Directions newsletter, and the NIST Technicalendar newsletter. The features available on the NVL are endless. Take a few minutes today to visit the NVL. We're open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
NIST Contact: . ., 301-975-3052, library@nist.gov

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For more information, contact Ms. Sharon Mingo, Editor, Stop 2500, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg MD 20899-2500; Telephone: 301-975-TCAL (3570); Fax: 301-926-4431; or Email: tcal@nist.gov.

All lectures and meetings are open unless otherwise stated.

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