• The Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering have announced their second annual contest aimed at encouraging undergraduate and graduate students to create health-related mobile applications. The contest has a total of $18,000 in prizes. The team that designs the best app will receive a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to demonstrate their app during the plenary session of Health Datapalooza to be held June 5-6, 2012, in Washington, D.C. Additional eligibility criteria and terms are described here.
  • The Michigan Public Service Commission (MI PSC) has opened an investigation into the deployment of smart meters by electric utilities. Noting that consumers and municipalities have expressed concern about smart meters, the MI PSC has ordered all regulated electric utilities to submit information to the MI PSC by March 16, 2012, on a number of issues, including (1) the utility’s existing plans for deployment of smart meters in its service territory, (2) any scientific information known to the utility that bears on the safety of smart meters, and (3) an explanation of the steps that the utility intends to take to safeguard the privacy of the information gathered. Comments are due April 16, 2012. The MI PSC order can be found here.
  • Applications for the Department of Energy (DOE) “Smart Grid Data Access” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) are due March 1, 2012. DOE will provide up to $8 million to promote partnerships between utilities and third-party technology innovators for the development and implementation of applications that provide access to electricity consumption data. More information is available here.