VISITING COMMITTEE ON ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (VCAT or Committee)

MINUTES OF THE FEBRUARY 6, 2019 WEBINAR MEETING

GAITHERSBURG, MD

ATTENDANCE:

Visiting Committee 

Members Attending

Adler, Allen*

Alexander, Jay*

Brooks, Rodney*

Colwell, Rita*

Fischer, George*

Ishak, Waguih*

Jackson, Dana (Keoki)*

Khan, Mehmood*

Prafullchandra, Hemma*

Sizer, Theodore (Tod)*

Vasko, David*

Wasserman, Gail*

Designated Federal Officer 

Shaw, Stephanie 

NIST Leadership Board 

Boehm, Jason 

Brockett, Del

Copan, Walter

Dowell, Marla*

Kimball, Kevin

Mackey, Elizabeth*

Olthoff, James*

Vaughn, Skip *

NIST Staff 

Evans, Heather

Espinal Laura*

Goldstein, Barbara

Hanna, Nancy*

Ivy, Nahla*

Jillavenkatesa, Ajit

Kerney-Willis, Tricia*

Luce, Emily 

Schlenoff, Craig*

Shyam-Sunder, Sivaraj

Strouse, Gregory

Teske, Michael

Zielinski, Paul

Others

Fiez, Terri* - Vice Chancellor 

 for Research at the 

 University of Colorado 

 Boulder

Locascio, Laurie* - Vice 

 President for Research at

 the University of Maryland

Millar-Nicholson, Leslie* –

 Technology Licensing 

 Director at Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology 

*Participated Remotely
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Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Call to Order - Dr. Rita Colwell, VCAT Chair

Dr. Colwell called the virtual meeting to order at 1:03 p.m. Roll call was conducted. Dr. Colwell welcomed the 

three new VCAT Members, Dr. Mehmood Khan, Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, and Dr. Eric Kaler; however, Dr. Khan was 

the only new member able to join the virtual meeting. Dr. Colwell turned the meeting over to Dr. Walter G. 

Copan for an update on NIST Restart Activities Post-Shutdown.

Update on NIST Restart Activities Post-Shutdown – Dr. Walter Copan, Under 

Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director

Dr. Copan began his update by also welcoming the three new members. Then he briefed the VCAT members 

on the start-up procedures and meetings held to get NIST back up and running, which included the processing 

of over seven thousand timecards in just over 2 days to get all NIST employees and associates paid. Dr. 

Copan described the critical functions that NIST continued to provide during the lapse including: operation of

the national time services, the dissemination of the new cybersecurity vulnerabilities, the NIST public safety 

communication research and development program, and the national voluntary laboratory accreditation 

program. The Baldrige Quest conference is expected to proceed on schedule. He also mentioned the 

construction on Building 245, the Radiation Physics Laboratory, continued because the funding for the 

contracts for the construction had already been obligated.

Dr. Copan also highlighted some of the impacts of the shutdown on NIST’s programs. NIST is currently 

assessing the full impacts of the shutdown and it is expected that it will have consequences on morale, 

productivity, performance, and workforce for months to come. Some immediate impacts include: 

• Standards Reference Materials used to calibrate equipment and scientific instruments used for 

research in hospitals and other locations that were unable to be shipped across the US and other parts 

of the world.

• Calibration services for industry, academia, and government as well as database distribution were 

provided at substantially reduced levels.

• The NCNR facility was placed in a safe and secure shutdown mode. Over 2500 external researchers 

use the facility annually and over 100 major experimental programs were cancelled resulting in 

approximately 10 percent of the planned research efforts for 2019 being cancelled. The cold neutron 

facility is back in operation and programs are being rescheduled but impacts will last over the next six 

months. The review of the neutron science and collaborators, the American Physical Society and the 

American Institute of Physics will take place at the next scheduled VCAT meeting in June. 

• The Center of Nano Scale Science and Technology were unable to support research and development

operations are users are now being accommodated in a revised schedule. 

• Multiple workshops and conferences had to be canceled including a major stakeholder engagement 

workshop for the development of the NIST privacy framework, which will impact the already tight

timeline in the development of the framework

• In cyber security, NIST work evaluating cryptographic modules, network resilience, and security was

put on hold during the lapse in appropriations including the work on post quantum cryptographic 

algorithm development and the identification selection of the second set of candidates was delayed by 

one month. 
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Dr. Copan updated the VCAT on the status of the Return on Investment Initiative (ROI). NIST’s ROI initiative 

for Unleashing American Innovation continued to receive stakeholder feedback and the deadline for submission 

was extended to February 5,2019. NIST received significant and valuable input and high support of the ROI 

initiative. Dr. Copan thanked the Technology Subcommittee for their partnership and support and look forward 

to their review and recommendations of this initiative.

Dr. Copan provided a brief update on progress with the establishment of the Quantum Economic Developing 

Consortium. The Consortium now contains over 50 corporate members. SRI International, NIST’s partner in 

the creation of the consortia held a meeting in Boulder, CO with all the members of the consortia to discuss 

planned actions and to coordinate on future announcements. 

Dr. Copan stated that the FY2020 budget is scheduled to be released March 18, 2019. A stakeholder briefing 

will be held shortly after and NIST will keep the VCAT abreast of the scheduling of this briefing. Dr. Copan is 

recommending a doubling of the NIST budget.

VCAT Subcommittee on Technology Transfer – Report Out on Proposed 

Recommendations Regarding the ROI Green Paper – Mr. David Vasko, Member 

VCAT Subcommittee on Technology Transfer

Mr. Vasko provided a read out to the entire VCAT on the report created by the Subcommittee on the Return on 

Investment (ROI) Initiative for Unleashing American Innovation. The report can be viewed at 

https://www.nist.gov/document/finalsubcommitteeroireportpdf. The VCAT discussed the report in depth. A vote 

was taken by the VCAT on whether to accept the recommendations and report of the Subcommittee. The 

motion passed, and the report was adopted by unanimous consent.

VCAT Annual Report – Discussion and Drafting of Recommendations – Dr. Rita 

Colwell, Chair VCAT

Dr. Colwell opened the working session on discussion of the draft 2018 Annual Report by asking for input from 

VCAT members on specific recommendations for the report. The VCAT report is due 30 days after release of 

the budget which is anticipated to be March 18, 2019. Members will continue to edit the report via email, with 

final approval expected in March, after the VCAT has the opportunity to comment on the President’s FY2020 

budget proposal.

Administrative Business & Adjourn

Dr. Colwell and Dr. Copan thanked everyone for participating in the virtual meeting and mentioned the next 

VCAT meeting is scheduled for June 4th and 5th, 2019 in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

There were no public comments offered.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:08 p.m.

I hereby certify that to the best of my knowledge; the forgoing minutes are accurate and complete.

Stephanie Shaw, Designated Federal Officer, NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology

Dr. Rita Colwell, Chair, NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology