grand challenges

Honors College launches new YouTube series addressing global challenges

Colleen Rich — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 18:43:41 +0000

Honors College launches new YouTube series addressing global challenges Colleen Rich Mon, 03/27/2023 - 14:43

Hakeem Oluseyi and ��AV President Gregory Washington spent an hour exploring how fusion energy might transform the way we live, and how the Artemis moon project is a stepping stone to technological advances that will help us on Earth, to a rapt group of Mason Honors College students.

Visiting Robinson Professor Hakeem Oluseyi (right) was the first guest on the "Our Future, Transformed" YouTube series, hosted by President Washington (left). Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

“We do what appears to be impossible, but don’t be intimidated by it,” Oluseyi told the students about work in the sciences. “It’s just like everything else. It’s a step at a time. Know that you can do it and that hard work actually pays off.”

And the students couldn’t get enough, as they peppered the famous astrophysicist and Visiting Robinson Professor with even more questions after the formal presentation.

Watch the video

“These opportunities help light a fire with us as students,” Rosy Sultana, a senior computer science major, said of listening to a world-class expert unpack complex topics.

Sultana was part of an audience of Honors College students participating in the recording of two episodes of a six-part YouTube series titled “Our Future, Transformed: Mason Spotlights the World’s Grand Challenges.”

The six-part video series will feature faculty experts speaking about some of the most debated and significant topics of the day. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

“It’s just been an amazing opportunity to be able to hear from someone who is an expert in their field,” S Fagiano, a senior physics and math major, said, “to get more information and to be able to ask our weird questions about weirdly specific things that we might not have time to cover in class.”

Hosted by Washington, the series will feature faculty experts speaking about the key issues, implications, and solutions facing some of the most debated and significant topics of the day, including water policies in the West, police reform, problems at our Southern border, and getting more women into STEM fields.

The conversations are envisioned as a showcase for Mason’s multidisciplinary intellectual community and another example of how Mason creates and offers an environment for student engagement and dialogue with experts who can prepare them to tackle the world’s grand challenges.

“We need all of you to take up the mantle and to embrace these challenges and to go forth and to do great things with them. That is a big part of our future and our shared future,” Washington told the students.

The first two conversations, recorded in the Showcase space in Research Hall on the Fairfax Campus, featured Oluseyi, who also teaches in the College of Science, who used his time to address the subjects of fusion energy and the new space race, respectively. Full versions of the episodes, which will be published monthly, are available on Mason’s YouTube channel. Shorter versions will be distributed across social media channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

“It illustrates that Mason is always on the frontier of expanding our knowledge and that you have opportunities here,” said Abigail Walsh, a junior forensic science major. “We’re giving you the tools to go forth and do the research. Whatever you want to do, Mason is going to give you the resources to do it.”

Take a look at the full series

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Gregory Washington

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Rare peace accord signed in the Congo, thanks to Carter School’s community-centered approach

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:18:43 +0000

Rare peace accord signed in the Congo, thanks to Carter School’s community-centered approach Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 12/13/2021 - 19:18

In This Story

Alpaslan Özerdem

Charles Davidson

Members of 21 armed groups, Congolese leaders, members of the armed services and local community leaders, including several female peacemakers, met in November to discuss a path to peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo provided by the Carter School.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has not seen peace for more than three decades, but in November 2021, ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution helped the country take a leap in a hopeful direction.

In the province of South Kivu, the school gathered representatives from 21 armed groups, the Congolese government, military, police, intelligence services, religious leaders, civil society groups, and peace advocates. Not only did everyone discuss a path toward peacebuilding, but they also signed a peace accord to solidify it.

“As a methodology, what we’ve done here is exemplary, and it can really change the way peace processes are designed, peace agreements are brokered, and the role of academic institutions in that,” said Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem. “This is the first of many direct engagements we’re hoping to have in carrying the flag of peacemaking as an academic institution.”

Female peacemakers were also in attendance and played a substantial role in the four day conference. Photo provided by the Carter School.

So, what was new about the school’s approach?

Charles Davidson, PhD ’19, Carter School research faculty and alumnus, said it was reexamining the intersection of local and international peacebuilding—something he calls the “new hybridity” approach.

“It’s about, what would it look like to not have outsiders dominate the conversation? What happens when locals and internationals combine efforts?” Davidson said.

Özerdem said the process gives locals hope and opportunities to build their own peace.

“The role of the Carter School has been to facilitate, to accompany local actors by providing our direct qualities of trust building, and knowledge in the planning and implementation,” Özerdem said.

Members of local armed groups sat alongside members of the Congolese state and armed services in pursuit of peace. Photo provided by the Carter School.

The school’s model flips tradition on its head.

Typically, peace processes are administrated by outside states or international organizations. Özerdem said that dynamic may cause lower trust among locals, due to the nature of the conflict and the legacy of those relationships.

“With this South Kivu process, the uniqueness is that it was really designed and implemented by local leadership and international actors accompanied the process,” Özerdem said. “When an external academic institution comes, that creates a different type of opportunity for trust building.”

In many peace negotiations, money is given to incentivize collaboration.

“We emphasized we are not going to pay [non-essential] stipends—you come if you’re interested in making peace,” Özerdem said. “That gave a different proposition than previous peacemaking attempts.”

Surprisingly, it was effective.

“Many people showed up who were not invited,” Davidson said, mentioning more than 60 people were in attendance. “Knowing they had nothing [financial] to gain…they still came and I think it was a huge testament to what was going on.”

Members of local armed groups sat alongside members of the Congolese state and armed services in pursuit of peace. Photo provided by the Carter School.

That wasn’t the only break from the norm. Özerdem said third parties typically consult academic institutions for expertise only if and when needed.

“In this one, because an academic institution is the lead actor in facilitating the entire process, the knowledge part is integrated in a much more organic and natural way,” he said.

Özerdem said the school plans to replicate the process, piloted in the Congo, in other conflict-ridden zones.

“Particularly with our renaming last year, one of our key aspects of the vision is our relevance for conflict-affected communities and how we can translate this into practice, from addressing issues in our neighborhoods here, to global challenges of peace and security,” he said

It’s a sensitive undertaking with risks the school does not take lightly, Özerdem said, so each step is strategic.

And that’s what the school’s mission is about.

“For units like the Carter School, it’s really important that the practice of conflict resolution is part of our DNA,” Özerdem said.

David Bubasha (center), a former child soldier who left the militia to start AJDC, an organization that works to demobilize child combatants in the Congo, speaks to members of the Congolese press about the peace summit. AJDC, Charles Davidson's nonprofit Innovations in Peacebuilding International, and the Carter School helped facilitate the peace summit in November 2021. Photo provided by the Carter School.

Members of local armed groups sat alongside members of the Congolese state and armed services in pursuit of peace. Photo provided by the Carter School.

Topics

Carter School Leadership

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Peacebuilding

peacebuilding and analysis

Leadership

grand challenges

International Relations

Mason Alumni

Campus News

Mason team tackles climate change in Virginia counties through new three-step initiative

Mariam Aburdeineh — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 17:54:54 +0000

Mason team tackles climate change in Virginia counties through new three-step initiative Mariam Aburdeineh Thu, 12/09/2021 - 12:54

In This Story

Joel Hicks

Solving climate change is a grand challenge facing the planet. As more individuals and leaders are recognizing the need to switch to environmentally friendly practices, ��AV’s Local Climate Change Planning Initiative (LCCPI) is helping make that a reality for counties across Virginia.

“Our vision is to have Mason be the lead university in helping counties that lack the resources and expertise in [addressing climate change] get this done,” said Paul Bubbosh, a 1988 Mason alumnus and adjunct professor at the Schar School and College of Science.

Wealthier counties have funding to mitigate environmental issues, said Bubbosh, who started LCCPI with Schar School adjunct professor Joel Hicks in Fall 2021. Many smaller jurisdictions do not, he said, and they may not have staff for these initiatives.

LCCPI, housed within the Center for Energy Science and Policy, allows Mason to bring in its resources and expertise in modeling, engineering, environmental science, policy law, and more, to provide pro bono services to these counties, Bubbosh said.

Students will play an active role in the initiative’s three-stage process, which the Mason team is piloting in Manassas City.

The first stage, which Bubbosh said takes four to six months, is about gathering data on the county’s emissions footprint and having students conduct inventory modeling.

The next stage involves working with community leaders for a year to develop goals, such as changing streetlights to LEDs or reducing emissions, he said.

“In that process, which involves students leading community meetings with faculty, we begin to educate members of the public about the things they desire,” Bubbosh said. “It’s moving them toward understanding what makes the best, most economical, most practical sense for the community.”

Working at the local level is where critical change can happen, said Bubbosh, who said LCCPI was inspired by his time as a Peace Corps volunteer, when he saw how local communities are impacted by climate change.

That’s why stage three provides heightened value.

Hanna Metuda is one of two undergraduates volunteering with LCCPI. Photo provided.

“Any contractor you hire to do this leaves at stage two,” Bubbosh said. “We want to embed students in internships with the local county to help them implement what they found in stage two.”

“Being in the forefront and crafting creative solutions that could ripple through other communities is really inspiring,” said Hanna Metuda, a senior studying government and international politics. “That Mason is allowing students to be a part of that is exciting…and it gives me hope for our environment.”

Metuda is one of two undergraduates volunteering with LCCPI. She said growing up in the Philippines with the effects of pollution and climate change inspired her environmental drive. While she said she’s excited to apply what she’s learned in the classroom, she understands challenges could arise.

“Students will discover hurdles along the way that no classroom will ever be able to prepare a student for,” Bubbosh said, suggesting some challenges may be insurmountable. “However, that learning experience, even at a loss, is a win for students in terms of practical work experience.”

“It’s about seeing results—not academic exercises—and actually making a difference in someone’s life,” he said.

From left to right: Delegate Rip Sullivan (D-48th) from Manassas, Paul Bubbosh and Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich, Director of Mason's Center for Energy Science and Policy. Photo provided.

Topics

Sustainability

Sustainability Research

Schar School

Schar School Faculty

College of Science

Center for Energy Science and Policy

Manassas

Campus News

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Government and International Politics

internships

Climate Change

climate change education

environmental science

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Racing toward Mason’s first 3D-printed solar car

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 17:50:29 +0000

Racing toward Mason’s first 3D-printed solar car Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 11/17/2021 - 12:50

Hypernova Solar, Mason's student-run solar car team, meets at the MIX to discuss progress and moving forward with building a 3D-printed, solar-powered car for competition. The team is building the 3D printer, pictured here, that will be used to build the car. From left to right: Mason undergraduates Abigail Kennedy, Phoenix Lee, Brandon Escobar, Kareem Elsharkawy, Petr Soucek. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications/��AV.

Most people with access to a 3D printer find themselves creating small objects or gadgets. But one student group working at the MIX at ��AV each Friday is driven by a different dream.

“We build, design, test and plan to compete in solar-powered car competitions,” said Michael Riggi, president of Mason’s solar car team, Hypernova Solar. “[We believe] our car, when complete, will be the world’s first and only 3D-printed solar car.”

Riggi, a junior studying systems engineering, said the team aspires to compete in the American Solar Challenge, which involves racing a couple thousand miles across the country against other university teams. Their subsequent goal is to race in the World Solar Challenge in Australia.

When Hypernova Solar was founded in 2019 by Mason alum Alex Hughes (BS Bioengineering, Honors College '21), Riggi said the group laid the logistical groundwork for parts, designs, and fundraising. Today, the group’s 50 members comprise everyone from Mason freshmen to seniors, and a few students from Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) and local high schools.

Their momentum has been strong.

“We’re in the process of building our own car, Hypernova One, that we plan to complete in about a year,” Riggi said, adding that the car’s steel frame that they weld on Mason’s Science and Technology Campus is halfway done.

From left to right: Johnnie Hall (ME Lab Shop Technician, Volgenau School) and mechanical engineering major Abigail Kennedy welding the new suspension for Orion in May 2021. Photo by Michael Riggi.

From left to right: Johnnie Hall, Exploratory Honors College student and EIP alum Elyas Shafiq, and Environmental Science major Brandon Escobar welding Hypernova One's frame in October 2021. Photo provided by Hypernova Solar.

Hypernova One will be the team’s proof-of-concept car, he said. Once it’s complete, they’ll review it to see what could be done better, and then build a second car for competition.

The group has also been working on a car that was donated to them in 2020 from the University of California, Berkeley team.

“We’ve completely revamped the suspension, the motors, the aeroshell and repainted it,” Riggi said of the 10-year-old vehicle they renamed Orion. “It gave everyone a good experience on what actually goes into a solar car.”

Michael Riggi, president of Hypernova Solar, with Orion. Photo provided by Hypernova Solar.

They’ve also been benefiting from Mason’s resources and experts.

“My systems engineering coursework has helped me manage the team, understand business concepts, as well as understand the engineering aspects and challenges presented to us,” Riggi said. “I’ve also taken a MIX workshop on 3D printing and am applying this knowledge to building a 3D belt printer to create the shell of our first car.”

A model of Hypernova One's shell. Image provided by Hypernova Solar.

Why is the team developing their own 3D printer?

“Unlike a 3D printer where you’re printing layer by layer going up, ours is tilted at a 45-degree angle and prints on a conveyor belt, so you can actually print on an unlimited axis,” said Ross Clark, Hypernova Solar’s lead designer and a NVCC student who said he’s transferring to Mason.

The unique printer helps make the car resilient and safe, he said. Printing vertically would make it more susceptible to breaking along the X-axis.

“The shell is going to be sturdy and meet safety regulations,” Clark said. “We’re also using a special plastic, PETG, which doesn’t break, it flexes more, and is a lot more heat resistant.”

“I’ve been impressed by the team’s passion and drive,” said faculty advisor Colin Reagle. “They are constantly pushing boundaries on what they can do within a university setting.”

“The opportunity to build a unique machine like this is a huge draw to a diverse group of students,” said Reagle, who teaches in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “I can’t wait until you see them rolling around campus in this vehicle inspiring the next surge of students.”

Exploratory student Kareem Elsharkawy drills holes in aluminum at the MIX to help create a 3D belt printer, November 2021. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications/��AV.

Overall, Hypernova Solar is about more than just building cars.

“The most rewarding part is seeing progress on the car and watching team members develop new skills,” Riggi said. “Our goal is to develop the skills of the students, make them more well-prepared for the workforce, and also just make friends.”

In addition to the thrill of problem solving, and the joy of mentoring new members, Clark and Riggi said another benefit is the group’s inclusivity.

“We have a spot for everyone—even if you’re not an engineering major,” Riggi said. “Some members aren’t huge car people, but want to develop personal skills, or do business and fundraising.”

“That’s why I love this project so much,” he said, “you can tailor it to what you want to get out of it.”

Hypernova Solar, Mason's student-run solar car team, meets at the MIX in November 2021. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications/��AV.

Topics

Students

Campus News

Volgenau School of Engineering

systems engineering

Systems Engineering and Operations Research

student organizations

Leadership

The MIX

environmental science

mechanical engineering

A conversation with Andre Marshall

Colleen Rich — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 17:09:43 +0000

A conversation with Andre Marshall Colleen Rich Fri, 06/25/2021 - 13:09

Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation and economic development and president of the ��AV Research Foundation. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Andre Marshall joins Mason as its new vice president for research, innovation and economic development and president of the ��AV Research Foundation on July 1. He also joins the faculty of the Volgenau School of Engineering. Before coming to Mason, Marshall was program director for the National Science Foundation’s $38 million Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program, which helps researchers reduce the time it takes to translate promising ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. He was also founder and director of the Fire Testing and Evaluation Center at the University of Maryland, College Park.

How did you get interested in engineering?

I've always wanted to be an engineer. In middle school, I was in a talented and gifted program, and I built my first radio. This was around 1982, and back then a radio was a physical thing, not something to click your phone. This was before the [electronic] breadboards that students use today. There was no kit. We had a piece of wood and connected the wires across the nails. We used a soldering iron. It was a whole physical process, and it was fascinating to me and very satisfying in the end to build something that actually worked.

Is that what attracted you to mechanical engineering?

That's a longer story. I attended Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon. When people think about Portland, and they think of the television show “Portlandia,” they think of Intel and Nike. That's not where I grew up [laughs]. Portland had a history of shipbuilding post-World War II. After that kind of dried up, it was still [focused on] the wood industry. Portland hadn't yet transitioned to a high-tech hub, benefiting from the overflow of all of the California tech success, but we were kind of moving in that direction. My high school had been a trade school, where you learned a skill, whether it was sheet metal work or machining. Then the 1980s, when I was there, they started moving toward college prep, and I got this really cool balance early on. I was building things in sheet metal shop and in machine shop. I got to work with my hands, and I loved it. I majored in robotics, but after my high school experience, I realized that I didn't want to go into that field, so I decided on mechanical engineering. It was a lot of fun and great experience to take into the laboratory. Oftentimes, we think of research as being very academic, and it is—and I love that part of it. But in engineering, research can be very hands-on in the labs.

What attracted you to this position at Mason?

I absolutely love Mason's culture of accessibility and inclusion. I am excited about the idea of inclusive excellence. Also Mason is an R1 university, which, as someone who absolutely loves the research enterprise, is exciting. I have a high regard for what Mason has been able to achieve in its research enterprise. Combine that with this culture of access and inclusion, it is really going to be a lot of fun. This whole idea of executing excellent research while creating opportunities for more people through access—it's really a dream for me.

Do you have a sense of what you will tackle first?

I have met with President Washington, and the major priorities of the university are in focus. Expanding the research enterprise is a priority, especially in digital innovation. And the Arlington Campus is going to be important to that expansion. The president is also prioritizing these grand challenges so that's certainly top of mind for me in when visualizing what the research expansion might look like.

What are your thoughts on best practices for supporting and promoting multidisciplinary research?

The institute structure that is in place at Mason is considered a best practice for promoting multidisciplinary research. Those areas of application—biohealth, sustainability, digital innovation—do in fact serve as a focal point where you can bring in experts that may have different areas of expertise surrounding a specific challenge. In my experience at a national level with [the National Science Foundation], looking at different universities and how they've organized themselves, Mason is already there. We have a great framework, and by the way, that framework is what attracted me to Mason. I was like, Oh my gosh, they've already figured it out. It's what I would've done if it wasn't in place, so I have a high regard for my predecessors in building out that framework.

Speaking of your NSF experience and coming from that national view of research, were there any challenges at Mason that you were able to spot from the outside?

When you're coming into a position, you do want to have a vision, you want to have something to offer. While it is a good thing to have your own ideas and your own values, it has to be tempered with learning what the institution's real challenges are, and that takes time. I had some ideas from the outside about things that I could help Mason with, but in really learning and hearing more from the university, I began to understand better what some of Mason's challenges were, and they weren't necessarily what I thought they would be. So my approach is going to be to continue to learn the culture of Mason— that's what I did at NSF—and to begin to understand where the opportunities are and where the challenges are from inside of the organization. And then harmonize those with my own ideas to make sure that we are doing things that are going to matter for Mason.

One of the things that we teach at [NSF’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps)] in our experiential and entrepreneurial education programs is customer discovery. We teach researchers looking to translate their technology into a useful product or service to interview prospective customers and just learn from them. They cannot bias the interview by mentioning what their technology may or may not be able to do. They just listen for signals about problems or opportunities that their technology may be able to address. In doing so, they begin to understand how their innovations may or may not be useful. So I want to learn more about Mason and not be quick to push something that does not address an urgent need or create a meaningful opportunity.

How can Mason best address the challenge of securing funding for large-scale applied research?

One of the things I spoke about in my public talk was how exciting it is to be an R1 university. It's prestigious, and it's also an awesome responsibility because we are in the top 131 universities performing research at the highest levels, and the nation will be looking to us to lead.

I want to look at it from that perspective: Large-scale is a responsibility, and it's an opportunity for us to have impact. In order to meet that challenge and have that national impact, we will need these large-scale research activities. The timing is good for us to be to be able to put some of the pieces in place with the support that we're getting from entities such as Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP) and our growing talent pool.

I think we should play to our strengths and also honor our core values as we think about where the opportunities may lie. The humanities and social sciences and the recent expansion in our science and engineering activities are all strengths for Mason. If we want to honor those strengths and stay true to our core values, I think we'll be the most competitive, and there will be opportunities for us to truly differentiate our contributions.

What do you do for fun?

I love to garden—flower gardening, not vegetable gardening. I love to be out in the yard. I did a lot of yardwork as a kid, and it's really satisfying for me to get plants started and watch them grow.

Topics

Research

NSF

grand challenges

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

Podcast - EP17: The climate change imperative

Kristin Heydt — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:46:05 +0000

Podcast - EP17: The climate change imperative Kristin Heydt Fri, 01/29/2021 - 12:46

In This Story

Gregory Washington

Andrew Light

Fighting climate change is a global imperative, and the consequences of inaction could be dire. But Mason's Andrew Light, who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement on climate, tells Mason President Gregory Washington that for the go-getters, opportunity awaits.