Jacob Hoover Vigly

Jan 25 snowstorm timelapse. Total measured 16.0". Pawtucket, RI.
#riwx

So what's to come? My best guess: using AI to make or sign off on NSF funding decisions.

Or at least that's what Musk, Vought, DOGE, etc. want, unless some swift action among scientists, the public, and Congress happens.

If you haven't already, recommend checking out #SaveNSF action toolkit here:

Bar chart showing 651 NSF-funded research projects, with total terminated days in dark grey or red, completed days in light grey or red. Red highlights projects listed by Ted Cruz as "neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda".

For #TidyTuesday this week, we're looking at data on terminations of NSF grants 📊

🎨 Using colour to highlight one category
📈 Transparency to highlight the important data
✍️ Annotations instead of a legend for transparency

#RStats #ggplot2 #DataViz

A waffle chart showing 1,041 NSF research grants terminated since April 18, 2025, where each single square represents a project. STEM Education and Social Sciences were most affected, with colors indicating remaining time before projects' expected completion date. Many long term projects were terminated with more than 2 years before the (expected) completion date.

#TidyTuesday week 18.
Data: NSF Grant Terminations Under the Trump Administration.

Code: github.com/rajodm/TidyT...

#dataviz #rstats #ggplot2

GitHub - genlm/genlm-control: Controlled text generation with programmable constraints. Controlled text generation with programmable constraints. - genlm/genlm-control

- Cast controlled generation as an inference problem, with the LM as a prior and verifiers and scorers as likelihood
- Use Sequential Monte Carlo to sample from the resulting posterior

Library w/ tutorials for setting up your own controlled generation inference problems: github.com/genlm/genlm-...

#ICLR2025 Oral

How can we control LMs using diverse signals such as static analyses, test cases, and simulations?

In our paper “Syntactic and Semantic Control of Large Language Models via Sequential Monte Carlo” (w/ @benlipkin.bsky.social,
@alexlew.bsky.social, @xtimv.bsky.social) we:

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

New preprint on controlled generation from LMs!

I'll be presenting at NENLP tomorrow 12:50-2:00pm

Longer thread coming soon :)

now there’s a niche joke

I just realized that if the ‘gumbelmax trick’ (look it up) is defined by using argmax on Gumbels, and identical ‘expmin trick’ uses argmin on Exponentials, then using argmax on Betas (precisely equivalent to the previous two), gives what really should be called the ‘betamax trick’ 📹

If you're an NSF PI like me, you might be wondering: Will my grant be suspended or terminated next week?

A few key things to know: First off, remember that NSF is **congressionally mandated** to evaluate broader impacts. And laws like CHIPS and Science supersede EOs.

But also... 🧵 thread

Now the only way out is through.

excerpt from article: The NSF spokesperson did not respond to a query about concerns that Trump’s executive orders are at odds with the agency’s responsibilities, as codified in law. ... Nature has seen the criteria for flagging grants, which call for programme officers to look for “broadening participation” language, foreign assistance, climate science, domestic energy, and “discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI”. ... “We already reviewed all of these,” says one NSF employee, referring to the fact that grant proposals go through extensive vetting before being funded.“It's really frightening and ridiculous.” Another shares those concerns but says that faced with Trump’s orders, “NSF is doing an honest job, as painful as it can be.”

NSF (by congressional mandate) requires applicants to design projects with Broadening Participation goals. Now scientists with these grants may be punished for essentially doing the work they proposed to do in order to get the grants.

Exclusive: how NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s orders The US National Science Foundation has unfrozen grant funding, but it continues to scrutinize research projects, sowing turmoil.

Very bad for science, and scientists.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00365-z

National Science Foundation restores payments after five-day pause, but worries over science funding persist The NSF said on Sunday that its payment system was back on line, after it froze out researchers and sparked financial worries.

NSF froze payments to researchers.

State AGs said it was unconstitutional for exec branch to pause congressionally mandated funds.

Judge issued restraining order.

Payments resumed.

But some inconsistencies in what the NSF has said (thread):
www.statnews.com/2025/02/02/n...

The best thing that scientists can do right this moment is organize with each other. Form networks, do coordinated communications: comms to the public, comms to media outlets, comms to Congress. That's the most urgent need.

#philsci #scicomm #neuroskyence #evodevo #publichealth

if you assemble it just right you might end up with two measuring cups