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��ӽ紫ý researchers collaborate on $1.5M NSF study to electrify bus fleets

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 19:02:13 +0000

��ӽ紫ý researchers collaborate on $1.5M NSF study to electrify bus fleets Andrew J Schappert Wed, 08/21/2024 - 15:02

A new $1.5 million study funded by the National Science Foundation will draw on the expertise of a transdisciplinary research team from ��ӽ紫ý, the University of Virginia, and Syracuse University, in an effort to address the challenges involved in transitioning public bus fleets, including transit and school buses, to electric power.

Principal Investigator Jie Xu will lead the NSF study. Photo provided.

The study, “SCC-IRG Track 1: Community-Responsive Electrified and Adaptive Transit Ecosystem (CREATE): Planning, Operations, and Management,” is headed by the principal investigator (PI) Jie Xu, a professor at ��ӽ紫ý’s Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC).

The project team’s co-PIs from ��ӽ紫ý include Fengxiu Zhang from the Schar School of Policy and Government, Ran Ji from the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research in CEC; and Wenying Ji from the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering in CEC. Also on the team is Jundong Li from the University of Virginia’s department of electrical and computer engineering.

Electrifying the nation’s bus fleets could significantly improve air quality and public health, especially in communities that have suffered from diesel exhaust pollution, says the Schar School’s Zhang. However, the shift to electric buses is complicated by several issues, such as limited driving range, long charging times, high upfront costs, downtime, a lack of skilled workforce, and varying priorities among stakeholders.

“Electrifying public fleets is crucial for reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, and enhancing public health, particularly in traditionally disadvantaged communities,” she said. “Our project seeks to address the complex challenges of planning, operating, and managing fleet electrification by developing comprehensive sociotechnical solutions to facilitate achievement of those outcomes.”

A key focus, she added, “is the integration of environmental and transportation justice principles, ensuring that the electrification process prioritizes communities burdened by environmental injustices while not compromising the accessibility and reliability of bus services.

Fengxiu Zhang: ‘Electrifying public fleets is crucial for reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, and enhancing public health, particularly in traditionally disadvantaged communities.’ Photo provided

“We will adopt a user-informed approach by extensively engaging with our partners to co-develop tailored solutions that meet their specific needs and priorities to ensure the relevance, applicability, and effectiveness of our solutions.”

The goal is to create a scalable, sustainable path for public transit systems to transition to electric buses. Researchers say this will involve developing intelligent decision-support tools that help in planning and managing the fleet, while considering the unique challenges of electric buses compared to traditional ones. For instance, factors like charging capacity and locations are more crucial for electric buses due to their limited range and longer refueling times than conventional buses.

The project will bring together various partners, including local transit agencies, schools, utility companies, bus service providers, and national labs, to develop innovative technologies that meet both analytical and practical needs. These technologies will include advanced machine-learning and optimization tools to handle the complexities and uncertainties of electrifying bus fleets.

These tools will help optimize daily operations, such as maintaining the right charge levels in buses, managing charging schedules, responding to incidents, and performing maintenance—all while ensuring the buses are used efficiently and the overall costs remain competitive.

The project will also assess collaborative governance in public bus fleet electrification planning and policy-making. In addition, it aims to build a skilled workforce that can support the transition to electric buses, ensuring that the shift is sustainable in the long term.

At the end of the project, the researchers will deploy the CREATE Suite, a set of intelligent decision-support tools developed during the study in a pilot program in collaboration with public transit systems and school districts that are partnering in the project. The project will also establish an electric bus clearinghouse as a centralized platform to disseminate lessons learned, best practices, and other information to help other transit agencies and schools electrify their bus fleets.

Other experts in the project team include David Wong from the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science and Vivian Genaro Motti from the Department of Information Sciences and Technology, both from ��ӽ紫ý, and Professor Saba Siddiki from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

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��ӽ紫ý agricultural tool is another step closer to helping U.S. farmers, thanks to NSF support

Colleen Rich — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 19:08:57 +0000

��ӽ紫ý agricultural tool is another step closer to helping U.S. farmers, thanks to NSF support Colleen Rich Tue, 08/13/2024 - 15:08

The CropSmart Digital Twin (CSDT) decision tool, a research project led by ��ӽ紫ý research professor Liping Di, is one of seven multidisciplinary projects nationwide recently selected to advance to Phase 2 of the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator, which could provide the researchers with up to $5 million in funding.

Liping Di. Photo provided

The user-inspired CropSmart Digital Twin provides on-demand, decision-ready solutions to take the guesswork out of crop management decisions. The services will be easily accessible to users through both web portals and smartphone apps. The optimal solutions are derived from near-real-time remote observations of cropping systems with artificial intelligence or machine learning-based modeling and simulations.

The United States accounts for more than 25% of the total grain traded globally. Successful crop production involves smart management decisions. With the Accelerator, the NSF is investing in new technologies that address the complex challenges in tackling food and nutrition insecurity from population growth, increasing diet-related diseases, and disparities and climate resilience.

In Phase 1 of the Convergence Accelerator, Di and his team received $750,000 from NSF to design CropSmart. With Phase 2, the team will focus on an operational release of the tool. “So it can be tested and evaluated in a real operational environment and provide services to users,” said Di, who is the director of the Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems in ��ӽ紫ý’s College of Science.

Farmers often depend on their own experience when making decisions, but some will make large investments in commercial instrumentation to measure and collect data on their crops. Yet, after making that investment, they must also collect the data and possess the scientific knowledge to apply it effectively. Di’s team will do this using remote sensing and modeling, covering larger areas at no or very low cost to the farmers, agribusiness operators, and governmental agriculture decision makers.

Di said they were working with more than 20 end-user partners to test CropSmart and anticipates increasing that number to 2,000 over the course of 2024. These users represent different agricultural sectors ranging from individual farmers to farm credit bureaus and ag-related businesses, and include the USDA.

The team is focused on commodity crops, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. Co-principal investigators on the project include Cenlin He at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Jenny Du at Mississippi State University, Haishun Yang at University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Juan P. Sesmero at Purdue University.

Sesmero said the first part of the release—CropSmart 1.0—focuses on certain decision points: when to apply irrigation and how much; crop condition and yield prediction for supporting farm loan and crop insurance decision making; and in-season crop mapping and statistics.

Over time, the teams plans to add additional decision points, such as when to plant and harvest and when to apply nitrogen fertilizer and how much. They will conduct comprehensive field testing to ensure a fully tested and operational solution by the time they release CropSmart 2.0.

“We use the results of our testing to refine the technology,” said Sesmero. “We collect data, process it, and deliver that information through the app.”

The CropSmart Digital Twin will provide three types of products to users: decision-ready information, a “what if” service, and direct management recommendations. The decision-ready information will be delivered to end users for free.

The CropSmart team is focused on commodity crops, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. Photo by Andrew Draper on Unsplash

“The users will get a good amount of aggregated information at whatever the format they want for free,” explained Sesmero.

The CropSmart "what if” and direct recommendation services are provided with a subscription fee, intended to help fund additional product development and sustain the operation of CropSmart Digital Twin.

In a “what if” service, the CropSmart Digital Twin will give a prediction of outcomes. Users can experiment with different decision scenarios and management paths, see their effects, and compare potential outcomes, by posing such questions as “Should we plant today or wait for another week?”

Also, a third service is available where the tool provides a direct management recommendation. For example, the CropSmart suggests planting within the next four days. This recommendation, optimized for the user’s specific decision goal, is automatically generated by CropSmart.

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SeaGlide Summer Camp ends swimmingly

Martha Bushong — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:58:56 +0000

SeaGlide Summer Camp ends swimmingly Martha Bushong Tue, 08/06/2024 - 09:58

Lap swimmers at the Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center on ��ӽ紫ý's Science and Technology Campus shared the pool with some unusual visitors on Friday, July 25, as more than a dozen high school students tested their underwater gliders on the final day of the SeaGlide Summer Camp.

Splashdown! High school campers launch their maritime robots at the pool inside the Freedom Aquatics and Fitness Center. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

The camp is supported by the National Science Foundation grant (NSF), BRITE Relaunch: Persistent and Accessible Maritime Monitoring (PAMM), which promotes STEM outreach activities in maritime robotics. College of Engineering and Computing Professor Leigh McCue started the camp a few years ago to help get high schoolers excited about STEM.

According to Kim Campbell, a parent of one of the high schoolers, the camp exceeded its goal. “This camp engages your child mentally and physically,” said Campbell. “I felt it resembled an abbreviated summer college course. The instructors were hands-on and made the course exciting. My child talked about the camp every day for a minimum of an hour after she departed.”

At the camp, students built an untethered underwater glider from a kit designed by RoboNation. The kit provides supplies and directions, but students can innovate and experiment with different designs. The kit includes a sports water bottle that forms the hull of the glider with material for wings that extend from the sides. The glider moves by changing its buoyancy, taking in or expelling water. making it sink and rise. As the glider travels up and down, its “wings” generate lift, which propels the glider forward. Different colored lights indicate the glider’s status as it rises, falls, and moves forward.

The high school students built their gliders from a kit and tested them in the Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center pool. Photo by Ayman/Rashid/Office of University Branding

Graduate research assistant Vanessa Barth who works in McCue’s lab at the Potomac Science Center on fundamental research in maritime robotics supported by the NSF grant helped McCue coordinate and manage the camp activities. She said the students experimented through trial and error using pieces of a pool noodle or adding weights to achieve neutral buoyance with their gliders.

In the past, campers tested the devices in a four-foot-deep tank at ��ӽ紫ý’s Innovation Drive facilities, but this year McCue wanted to try something different, so she contacted the team at the Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center, and they agreed. “I want to be sure to give a shout-out to them. They couldn’t have been more helpful and accommodating,” said McCue.

In the pool, the gliders could move more freely, even if they didn’t always stay within the lane lines. Sometimes they drifted into the lanes of recreational swimmers, but McCue said everybody was understanding. Some even stopped to watch and ask questions. Though the grant ends soon, McCue hopes to keep the camp going and wants to continue the partnership with the aquatic center.

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Through NSF funding, graduate students and community partners find novel solutions to public health problems

Sarah Holland — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:18:40 +0000

Through NSF funding, graduate students and community partners find novel solutions to public health problems Sarah Holland Fri, 06/21/2024 - 12:18

One of the ways ��ӽ紫ý is All Together Different is its approach to research. Students in the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions (CASBBI) NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program learn how to apply interdisciplinary, community-focused research to find solutions to the world’s grand challenges.

2023-24 NRT cohort members. Photo by Sarah Holland

Since the program began in 2019 with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the NRT Program has bought together graduate students from engineering, data science, and social science for one-year fellowships. Students work in multidisciplinary teams of other fellows and community partners to define a problem within the community and co-develop creative solutions. Thus far, 82 graduate students have participated in the five cohorts.

“No one is doing this level of interdisciplinary convergence,” explained Samuel Acuña, research professor in the Department of Bioengineering and assistant director of CASBBI. “You'll see other programs with, say, mechanical engineers working with electrical engineers, but we have groups with computer scientists, social workers, and linguists working together. Psychologists, engineers, and neuroscientists. It’s novel.”

In the program, students are assigned to groups and matched with community partners working to solve public health problems. The groups work with these partners to establish a project that will best meet their needs: This could be anything from data collection to mobile application development to further developing the work of the previous cohort.

Some groups have even continued their work long after their time in the program concludes; iConnect, an app to connect those suffering from substance abuse to local resources and support, continues beyond the program with their community partner The Chris Atwood Foundation.

“To have, say, a computer science student work with the community and think about people and problems in a way they wouldn’t otherwise, that’s the type of experience that they can draw on for years and years to come,” Acuña said. “The fellowship helps them think more deliberately about how they approach their research through a toolbox of techniques. So, when they’re done, they can approach any issue or problem they might be assigned from this perspective.”

Community-centered and human-centered research is a big draw for some NRT fellows. Morgan Lamarre, BA Dance ’22, BS Bioengineering ’24, master’s student in bioengineering and a member of the 2024-25 cohort, said, “Many of us hope that our careers are in community-facing work, so to have these skills and experience in engaging with the community will be really helpful. And these methods are different from what we see in our classrooms and labs.”

“As engineers, we’re often given a problem to solve how we want and how we think is best without input from the community, and there’s a bit of mistrust between the overall community and the scientific community as a result,” said Kirubel Tadesse, BS Bioengineering ’24, current master’s student in data analytics engineering and incoming cohort member. “But through this method, we’re actively engaging with the community and stakeholders to ensure that our designs are meeting their specific needs. We’re bridging that gap.”

2023-24 Team FIRE (First-responers, Innovation, Research, and Exploration) presents their research at NRT orientation. Photo by Sarah Holland

“It’s a completely new way for us to approach our work,” said Brady Stinson-Smith, master’s student in bioengineering, and fellow member of the incoming cohort. “We can be so siloed in our fields, but this program helps us make the connections between not only the community, but also with researchers in other fields like sociology, psychology, and social work who can help us think better and differently about our approaches and solutions.”

This is the philosophy upon which the NRT program is built. “No one field is enough to solve these problems,” said Acuña. “The leaders of tomorrow need to know how to navigate across multiple disciplines and groups of stakeholders in order to create impactful change.”

“We all come from different approaches,” said Yosef Shaul, PhD student in kinesiology and 2023-24 cohort member. Shaul was a member of team VIRTUE (Violence Intervention and Resolution through Unifying Efforts), focused on addressing barriers to domestic violence prevention and management in Northern Virginia. “Everyone brings their own advantages and attributes. It makes the whole greater.”

Now that he has completed the fellowship, Shaul plans to adjust his research process for his PhD to incorporate more community-centered practices. “My outcomes,” he said, “will now better meet community needs.”

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Mason researcher measures troubles at the tap

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 13:13:48 +0000

Mason researcher measures troubles at the tap Nathan Kahl Mon, 04/29/2024 - 09:13

Kirin Emlet Furst, an assistant professor in ��ӽ紫ý's Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to investigate how Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are transformed and persist in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) that bring water to our spigots.

Kirin Emlet Furst. Photo provided

CAREER award funding is reserved for the nation’s most talented up-and-coming researchers. From the NSF website: “The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

PFAS are sinisterly known as “forever chemicals” because once created they do not break down, existing in water and soil—and even human blood—indefinitely. They have been used in numerous applications, including firefighting foams, metal plating, and food packaging, and spread easily through water and air.

This means, whether we like it or not, many of us are gulping down PFAS with every drink of water. To address this, the EPA recently released rules establishing limits on six PFAS in drinking water, affecting approximately 66,000 water systems, serving 90 percent of the country.

“PFAS really like interfaces between water and air and water and surfaces, so they stick to all sorts of stuff,” said Furst. “In DWDS, they may stick to the surface inside pipes and tanks, especially if there is biofilm growth or flaking of the inside material, giving them more to hold on to.” Furst said well-maintained DWDS typically won’t have such issues but knew of one water storage tank that had not been cleaned in 20 years, resulting in three feet of sediment on its floor. Such sediment, along with other conditions, may create conditions for PFAS accumulation and transformation.

Furst will test tap water across Northern Virginia, including on Mason's Fairfax Campus.

The focus of regulators and utilities is removing PFAS at the treatment plant, but in communities where exposure to PFAS is prevalent—near chemical plants, for example—Furst suggests there’s a likelihood that PFAS has been building up downstream, so to speak, in the DWDS.

“In Fairfax County the amount of time water could spend in the distribution system is as long as a week,” Furst said. “In some systems it’s going through miles and miles of pipes, with a lot of places for PFAS to hang out.”

There are more than 12,000 types of PFAS, and in the presence of certain microbial processes, unregulated precursor compounds can be transformed to the more toxic, regulated species like perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Furst worries the new EPA rule, relying on measurements at treatment plants, won’t reflect the levels in water at household taps.

Furst’s lab will get samples from distribution systems from Northern Virginia utilities and she hopes to have a larger DWDS pilot on the Mason Fairfax Campus as part of the “Mason as a Living Lab” program. She hopes her findings will aid in solutions to minimize and mitigate PFAS contamination.

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Mason researcher works on tiny structures with a big impact

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 19:03:07 +0000

Mason researcher works on tiny structures with a big impact Nathan Kahl Mon, 04/01/2024 - 15:03

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Pei Dong, an assistant professor in ��ӽ紫ý’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award for $559,755 for her work on the multi-scale manufacturing of carbon nanostructures.

Pei Dong in the lab. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“While porous carbon structures have been manufactured for decades, it remains difficult to manufacture these structures with pre-specified porosity.” said Dong. “This grant aims to address this challenge and will have a huge impact in the areas of energy, water and carbon capture.”

Her proposed research will result in pioneered manufacturing processes that enable the creation of advanced-material devices, which perform more effectively and are critical for future energy and water demands. These structures could be utilized for water treatment, solar cells, supercapacitors, batteries, and carbon capture.

The CAREER award is reserved for the nation’s most talented up-and-coming researchers. From the NSF website: “The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

Students in Mason's mechanical engineering lab work on work on advanced materials design.

Leigh McCue, Mechanical Engineering department chair, said, “Pei has been a tremendous asset. As one of the first tenure-track faculty hired into our young department, she has been a pioneer and leader from day one. It is great to see her talents recognized with this prestigious award.”

Dong credits the Mason culture in helping her in her early-career success. “Mason is great. I highly appreciate all the support I get from my colleagues, the department, the college and the university. I enjoy being in the lab and classroom and working with students and also our outreach activities where we interact with the local K-12 community. Mason gives faculty a bigger platform, since we’re such a huge university.”

She’s also encouraged at how excited her students are to be part of this research. “The students' enthusiasm is truly remarkable as they recognize the profound impact of our research efforts and are wholeheartedly engaged in the pursuit of a sustainable society. They are eager to tackle these challenges head-on, determined to find solutions and make a meaningful difference.”

The grant will run for five years, wrapping up in 2029.

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Mason researcher prepares vulnerable communities for wildfire impact

Colleen Rich — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 19:18:20 +0000

Mason researcher prepares vulnerable communities for wildfire impact Colleen Rich Tue, 03/05/2024 - 14:18

��ӽ紫ý scientist Alireza Ermagun is leading collaboration to establish disaster resilience prototype using an interactive map to protect vulnerable regions in California.

Alireza Ermagun. Photo by Robert Ritchie

Ermagun, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science in Mason's College of Science, leads a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported project titled “Snuff It Out: Extinguishing the Disparity of Access to Shelters for Disadvantaged Communities in Wildfire-Prone Areas” to optimize response to the growing menace of wildfires.

The project will address shelter access when wildfires occur and has the potential to revolutionize disaster preparedness and response strategies, serving as a blueprint for fostering resilience in communities facing the escalating threat.

This collaboration, supported by a $397,365 NSF grant, focuses on disaster resilience in Lake County, California, which grapples with persistent wildfires. The comprehensive examination of shelter access differences, in a broader sense, also seeks to better comprehend the challenges faced by marginalized communities in California.

“Access to shelters is indispensable in transforming wildfires from potential tragedies into manageable emergencies,” said Ermagun. "The project involves the development of an interactive map, serving as a platform for both public officials and community members to plan and implement disaster resilience strategies.”

Since 2015, wildfires have consumed more than 60% of the county, disproportionately impacting its disadvantaged residents. With wildfires increasing in severity and frequency, Ermagun stresses the urgency of this research, which unfolds in three phases: assessing disparities of access, optimizing equity through preparedness strategies, and developing an interactive model to reduce the vulnerability of marginalized communities to wildfires and the cascading hazards such as debris flows and flooding.

The “Snuff It Out” project employs an interdisciplinary approach, collaborating with Farshid Vahedifard from Tufts University, Chief of Police Kathy Lester of the Sacramento Police Department, Leah Sautelet from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, and Nick Widmer and Gabriela Perez Albarracin from the American Red Cross.

Vahedifard emphasized the importance of community collaboration in addressing natural hazards, stating, “Having been fortunate to have very supportive community partners in the study area, we aim to work closely with the community to co-develop and implement a methodological framework to improve access to shelters during natural hazards and extreme events for all communities while prioritizing marginalized communities to account for their lower risk threshold and adaptive capacity.”

Echoing the commitment to community collaboration, Sautelet, serving as the emergency services manager for Lake County, articulated the synergy between the project’s aims and local emergency management objectives. “Utilizing this innovative interdisciplinary approach, the project has the potential to strengthen both public welfare and emergency management endeavors," she said. "Rooted in Lake County’s steadfast dedication to protecting public safety, the project seamlessly aligns with our overarching objective of enhancing community resilience as a whole. By providing crucial data for comprehensive planning and preparation, it seeks to reinforce our ability to respond effectively during times of crisis.”

Lester, expressing support for the initiative, highlighted its potential to make a significant societal impact. “This research project has potential widespread benefits to society by improving the resilience of disadvantaged communities and helping first responders with science-based tools to improve outcomes.” Lester’s enthusiasm underscores the project’s aim to empower both communities and first responders through evidence-based strategies.

Adding to the collective vision, Ermagun focused on the project’s commitment to addressing social inequalities, “We aim to address equity discrepancies and enhance community resilience faced by the residents during these ongoing challenges,” underscoring the project’s community-centered methodology.

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Teaching humans to play safe

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 21:02:44 +0000

Teaching humans to play safe Nathan Kahl Mon, 03/04/2024 - 16:02

Autonomous systems can be programmed to always make the logical, “best” decisions, given a set of circumstances. But what happens when human judgment and decision-making is introduced to a system? Xuan Wang, an assistant professor in ��ӽ紫ý’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is asking this question as part of a recent $344,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

Wang stressed that this research is particularly important given technologies on the horizon. “The operation of many real-world systems involves the co-existence of human and autonomous agents. Inadequate coordination among these agents can lead to significant performance degradation or safety risks.”

Wang is turning the idea of humans controlling machines on its head. “The key novelty of this research is, instead of thinking about how humans can program robots, we are thinking about the ways that the autonomous agents can impact humans," he says. "Assuming human response can’t be coded in the way we can control a robotic agent’s behavior, then how we can design the robot’s behavior so they're impacting human behavior in a way that is beneficial for the overall system?”

In one of Wang's simulations, a human and robot carry a cup of hot water, testing programmed guarantees so that when the cup spills, it only spills to the robot side of the board, protecting the human. Photo provided.

Because human agents, who are very diverse, use observations to see occurrences in the world around them and respond accordingly, traditional optimization approaches are less effective at predicting behavior. Wang says that he’ll use a framework relying on game theory, which assumes each agent has their own objective function, and that function is coupled with another agent’s decisions and actions. Then both human and autonomous agents ideally will optimize their overall behavior to coordinate across a whole system, creating a better output.

This human-response alignment mechanism is bidirectional, allowing for communication moving in opposite ways at the same time. For robots, they will investigate new approaches that allow them to adapt more intelligently to human behaviors with uncertainties; for humans, they will study how they can be incentivized during human-robot interaction so that human responses favor the efficiency and robustness of the entire system.

But how can systems—autonomous or controlled by humans—ever guarantee safety, say in the use of unpersoned vehicles?

Wang says, “When we are deriving safety criteria, there might be some uncertainties, so given the inputs of the system there will be an upper and lower bound that allows you to know what is the worst case that will happen. Given that, if all assumptions are satisfied, one can guarantee that there will be no crash.”

Wang and team are also working with the Army Research Lab to develop collaborative autonomous vehicles working in unknown environments, ensuring the vehicles can coordinate and gain advantage when there are potential threats in the environment.

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Costello College of Business finance professor receives coveted NSF early-career award

Greg Johnson — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 15:43:13 +0000

Costello College of Business finance professor receives coveted NSF early-career award Greg Johnson Thu, 02/22/2024 - 10:43

Jiasun Li, a recently promoted associate professor of finance at the Costello College of Business at ��ӽ紫ý, has received a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Jiasun Li

According to the NSF website, the CAREER award is given to “early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

The award totals $711,679 over five years. It will support Li’s ongoing research into the organization of digital services with the rise of emerging technologies.

This project jumps off from recent developments in cloud and decentralized computing. Both technologies present radical new possibilities for off-premise digital services, as evidenced by the rise of numerous cloud service providers as well as blockchain platforms.

However, the presence of strategic incentives may undermine the smooth and reliable functioning of such systems. For example, cloud providers may opt to short-charge clients when it comes to the provision of services, if it is in their best interests to do so. Alternatively, strategic actors may also disrupt the consensus protocols governing decentralized systems.

Li proposes to tackle these problems in an interdisciplinary manner, blending tools from computer science (as the topic is inherently about digital services) and economics (since incentive analysis traditionally falls in the domain of economics). He has finely honed this approach in a series of papers applying analytical models based on economic principles to decentralized systems such as blockchain proof-of-work technologies.

The ultimate goal of Li’s project, as stated in his NSF proposal, is to “guide the efficient organization of digital services for productivity gains, and thus enhance the economic competitiveness of the United States.”

Previously, Li received individual and collaborative grants from Mason’s Multidisciplinary Research Initiative, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Ethereum Foundation, among others. He was recently named an inaugural Faculty Fellow of Mason’s Institute for Digital Innovation (IDIA).

“I am extremely honored to receive an NSF CAREER Award because such grants are traditionally rare in business schools," said Li. "I really appreciate the trust NSF bestowed on me. This recognition is only possible thanks to the tremendous support and many forward-looking initiatives from Mason and the Costello College of Business, as well as many colleagues across different disciplines who have inspired, guided, and elevated me over the years. I look forward to carrying out the interdisciplinary research projects under the continued support from NSF and the University/Costello College of Business.”

Ajay Vinzé, dean of the Costello College of Business, said, “This prestigious award from NSF is a fitting recognition of Jiasun’s superb/impactful research record and a proud moment for Costello College of Business--Congratulations Jiasun! As the evolution of the digital economy plays out, research like Jiasun’s project is going to provide relevant and actionable insights. I look forward with great excitement to contributions that are forthcoming.”

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A $6 million NSF grant will translate research into practice to help local communities become climate-resilient

Colleen Rich — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 18:50:38 +0000

A $6 million NSF grant will translate research into practice to help local communities become climate-resilient Colleen Rich Tue, 01/23/2024 - 13:50

��ӽ紫ý scientists and partners will leverage their climate expertise and the university’s resources into broader societal implications, thanks to a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that is going to translate research into practice to support the creation of climate-resilient communities across Virginia.

Mason researcher Celso Ferreira (far right) and President Gregory Washington take Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger on a tour of Mason's Flood Hazards Research Lab. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

The funding from the NSF’s Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program will allow Mason to expand its capabilities and capacity for translating research into real-world practical applications, with the creation of programming that will allow Mason faculty to serve communities across the commonwealth—especially within the state’s underserved regions—by co-producing science-based solutions that help them increase their resilience to climate change.

The four-year cooperative agreement, “ART: Translating Research to Practice to Create Climate-Ready Communities Across Virginia,” begins Feb. 1, and will allow Mason faculty and their nonprofit partner, the Center for Climate Strategies, to work with local municipal governments and community partners to produce science-based solutions that will create sustainable, community resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The project proposes two initial seed translational research projects, focusing on the co-production of solutions to mitigate flood hazards and reduce the impacts of urban heat on frontline communities. The latter comes on the heels of the world’s warmest year on record in 2023. Faculty will have the opportunity to propose additional translational research projects that address other climate impacts and response capabilities needed by Virginia communities to become climate-ready.

Mason’s Jeremy Campbell leads a discussion on local resiliency planning with staff from the Northern Virginia Regional Commission at a workshop held by the Virginia Climate Center in March 2023. Photo by VCC

“This really gives universities a chance to have an impact,” said Leah Nichols, the project’s principal investigator and the executive director of Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth. “I think it’s going to help us start to institutionalize things that until now had been one-offs.”

Mason was one of 18 schools to have been awarded an ART cooperative agreement. The NSF overall investment of more than $100 million will enable academic institutions to accelerate the pace and scale of translational research that will grow the nation's economy.

“NSF endeavors to empower academic institutions to build the pathways and structures needed to speed and scale their research into products and services that benefit the nation,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “The [ART program] identifies and champions institutions positioned to expand their research translation capacity by investing in activities essential to move results to practice.”

Mason’s ART program leverages the model already created by the Virginia Climate Center (VCC)—which was initially established by a $2 million Community Project grant sponsored by Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) – since its inception in 2022 for the necessary engagement infrastructure. That includes targeted outreach to individual community leaders and other key influencers in the hopes of creating the kind of collaborative relationships necessary to figure out what each community’s specific needs are.

Other co-PIs on the Mason project include Jim Kinter, a professor in the Climate Dynamics PhD Program and the director of both Mason’s Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies within the College of Science and the Virginia Climate Center; Celso Ferreira, an associate professor within Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing and the director of the Flood Hazards Research Lab; Luis Ortiz, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences within the College of Science; and Tom Peterson, the CEO of the Center for Climate Strategies. Other entities involved include MN Associates Inc., which will monitor’s the program’s implementation and progress, and the University of Kentucky, which is serving as the project’s mentoring institution. Pairing awardees with mentor institutions that have an established translational research ecosystem is one of the unique features of the ART program.

Current research that can be brought to bear on local community concerns includes, but is not limited to risk and vulnerability assessment, the development and deployment of new adaptive capacities through modeling, simulating, predicting and projecting climate variability and change, including downscaled global observational and modeling data sets, and the development of solutions to close vulnerability gaps by assessing needs for action and designing and evaluating new measures for local implementation.

Other aims include supporting faculty who wish to be involved and the creation of specific academic programming, such as specialized courses on key climate issues, a new climate action minor, and a graduate certificate program, for future workforce development.

“One very troubling aspect of the effects of climate change is that it has the biggest impact on underserved people and communities that are least able to address the issue,” Kinter said. “Mason, being the largest public university in Virginia, owes it to the residents of the commonwealth to understand the risks it faces and create innovative solutions to increase community resilience.”

Virginia bore the brunt of nine climate disasters in 2018 and 2019 alone, resulting in $1.6 billion of negative economic impact, according to the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.

Increasing community resilience to the effects of climate change is expected to help mitigate the impact and substantially reduce costs associated with damage from progressive climate change, extreme weather events, and other climate-driven effects, the researchers said.

“We’re really trying to understand what it is that [local communities] need from a scientific, technical, or research point of view through the lens of what is it that a university can provide,” Nichols said. “And once the climate-focused ART programs become well-established, we hope to extend this model to support the translation of research into practice in other sustainability domains as well.”

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Celso Ferreira

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