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NASA Asks Researchers to Help Define Trustworthiness in Autonomous Systems

A Florida Tech-led group of researchers was selected to help NASA solve challenges in aviation through its prestigious University Leadership Initiative (ULI) program. Over the next three years, associate professor of computer science and software engineering Siddhartha Bhattacharyya and professor of aviation human factors Meredith Carroll will work to understand the vital role of trust in autonomy. Their project, “Trustworthy Resilient Autonomous Agents for Safe City Transportation in the Evolving New Decade” (TRANSCEND), aims to establish a common framework for engineers and human operators to determine the trustworthiness of machine-learning-enabled autonomous aviation safety systems. Autonomous systems are those that can perform independent tasks without requiring human control. The autonomy of these systems is expected to be enhanced with intelligence gained from machine learning. As a result, intelligence-based software is expected to be increasingly used in airplanes and drones. It may also be utilized in airports and to manage air traffic in the future. Learning-enabled autonomous technology can also act as contingency management when used in safety applications, proactively addressing potential disruptions and unexpected aviation events. TRANSCEND was one of three projects chosen for the latest ULI awards. The others hail from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach – researching continuously updating, self-diagnostic vehicle health management to enhance the safety and reliability of Advanced Air Mobility vehicles – and University of Colorado Boulder – investigating tools for understanding and leveraging the complex communications environment of collaborative, autonomous airspace systems. Florida Tech’s team includes nine faculty members from five universities: Penn State; North Carolina A&T State University; University of Florida; Stanford University; Santa Fe College. It also involves the companies Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and ResilienX of Syracuse, New York. Carroll and Bhattacharyya will also involve students throughout the project. Human operators are an essential component of aviation technology – they monitor independent software systems and associated data and intervene when those systems fail. They may include flight crew members, air traffic controllers, maintenance personnel or safety staff monitoring overall system safety. A challenge in implementing independent software is that engineers and operators have different interpretations of what makes a system “trustworthy,” Carroll and Bhattacharyya explained. Engineers who develop autonomous software measure trustworthiness by the system’s ability to perform as designed. Human operators, however, trust and rely on systems to perform as they expect – they want to feel comfortable relying on a system to make an aeronautical decision in flight, such as how to avoid a traffic conflict or a weather event. Sometimes, that reliance won’t align with design specifications. Equally important, operators also need to trust that the software will alert them when it needs a human to take over. This may happen if the algorithm driving the software encounters a scenario it wasn’t trained for. “We are looking at how we can integrate trust from different communities – from human factors, from formal methods, from autonomy, from AI…” Bhattacharyya said. “How do we convey assumptions for trust, from design time to operation, as the intelligent systems are being deployed, so that we can trust them and know when they’re going to fail, especially those that are learning-enabled, meaning they adapt based on machine learning algorithms?” With Bhattacharyya leading the engineering side and Carroll leading the human factors side, the research group will begin bridging the trust gap by integrating theories, principles, methods, measures, visualizations, explainability and practices from different domains – this will build the TRANSCEND framework. Then, they’ll test the framework using a diverse range of tools, flight simulators and intelligent decision-making to demonstrate trustworthiness in practice. This and other data will help them develop a safety case toolkit of guidelines for development processes, recommendations and suggested safety measures for engineers to reference when designing “trustworthy,” learning-enabled autonomous systems. Ultimately, Bhattacharyya and Carroll hope their toolkit will lay the groundwork for a future learning-enabled autonomous systems certification process. “The goal is to combine all our research capabilities and pull together a unified story that outputs unified products to the industry,” Carroll said. “We want products for the industry to utilize when implementing learning-enabled autonomy for more effective safety management systems.” The researchers also plan to use this toolkit to teach future engineers about the nuances of trust in the products they develop. Once developed, they will hold outreach events, such as lectures and camps, for STEM-minded students in the community. If you're interested in connecting with Meredith Carroll or Siddhartha Bhattacharyya - simply click on the expert's profile or contact  Adam Lowenstein, Director of Media Communications at Florida Institute of Technology at adam@fit.edu to arrange an interview today.

Education expert: Delaware needs to reform its education funding system

In the next year, residents of Delaware will have the opportunity to voice their opinions about school funding in support of the students and teachers in the state's public schools. School funding reform is urgently needed. Delaware has an unusually high number of students requiring additional resources to succeed — including students with disabilities, students living in poverty, and English learners. While Delaware spends more than the national average on public education, the funding is not sufficient to meet the needs of these students and their teachers. The evidence is clear. Compared to other states, Delaware ranks near the bottom in reading and math performance, according to the Nation’s Report Card (the National Assessment of Educational Progress). Reading and math scores have been declining for the past decade, with 8th grade reading reaching an all-time low in 2024. Delaware’s spending has not kept up with student needs, and the state struggles to compete with neighboring states for top teaching talent. Beginning teacher salaries are the lowest among nearby states, with even lower salaries in less wealthy communities. Unlike every other state, Delaware does not allocate more funds to districts with less property wealth, further deepening disparities. The stakes are high. Delaware’s students and teachers deserve strong support, and the state’s economy — including businesses, employers, and universities — depends on graduates who are well-prepared for careers and higher education. Delaware’s current school funding system, largely unchanged for 80 years, lags behind reforms enacted in other states. Many states have shifted funding to prioritize student needs and address inequities, resulting in measurable improvements in academic achievement, graduation rates, school climate, and college and career readiness. In the coming months, the Public Education Funding Commission will complete its review and present recommendations to update the funding system. When Governor Matt Meyer — a champion for Delaware’s public schools — sends his recommendations to the General Assembly for consideration, public understanding and engagement will be crucial. –––– Gary Henry is a professor at the University of Delaware and a commissioner on the Public Education Funding Commission. He specializes in education policy, educational evaluation, educator labor markets, and quantitative research methods. He is available for interviews on education funding, accountability and related policy changes, helping ensure Delawareans are fully informed as they prepare to voice their views on this important investment in the state’s future. He has advised various states on education funding including Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas. 

Annual Healthy Georgia Report looks at public health in the Peach State

The fourth edition of the “Healthy Georgia: Our State of Public Health” report has been released by the Institute of Public and Preventive Health in Augusta University’s School of Public Health. Within the 64 pages of the report is a snapshot of how healthy Georgians are compared to citizens across the 12 states that make up the Southeastern Region (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia) and the entire United States. The 2025 edition addresses 31 health topics and has been expanded this year to include multimorbidity; long COVID-19; HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infection rates; opioid and methamphetamine drug use; suicides; and vaping. Biplab Datta, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Management, Economics, and Policy in SPH, heads up the team of IPPH faculty and staff who create the report each year. Datta credits Jen Jaremski, research associate, and Kit Wooten, public health analyst, with handling much of the work of bringing the report to life. Together, Jaremski and Wooten collected and organized all of the needed assets and organized the 64-page document, preparing it for print and the web. “Every year we strive to present data in a way that policymakers may find helpful in making policy choices,” Datta said. “There are several new topics that were added to this year’s report and some of those are concerning for the state of Georgia, particularly the communicable diseases like HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. High prevalence rates of these conditions in Georgia, compared to the rest of the U.S. and the Southeastern Region, warrant attention of the public health community.” Georgia has the second-highest rate of HIV infections in the U.S., fourth-highest rates of gonorrhea, sixth-highest for chlamydia and 13th for syphilis. Something that is also new in this year’s report is a comparison of numbers from 2019, or before the COVID-19 pandemic began, compared to after the pandemic for certain conditions. Also coming out of the pandemic, the report looks at how long COVID has affected Georgians, with the state ranking 24th in the nation for rates of long COVID. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long COVID is defined as a chronic condition that occurs after COVID-19 infection and is present for at least three months. On top of looking at comparisons between Georgia and the Southeast and the nation, Datta noted a clearer picture is starting to emerge concerning the difference in urban and rural areas within the state. “For several chronic conditions, like hypertension, diabetes and multimorbidity, we clearly see a striking difference between rural and urban residents of Georgia,” Datta said. Hypertension affects 44.1% of adults in rural Georgia compared to 35% in urban areas, while diabetes affects 17.5% of adults in rural Georgia compared to 12.3% of those in urban areas. Hypertension and diabetes are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which affects 12.2% of adults in rural areas compared to 8.3% of adults in urban areas of Georgia. “Hypertension and diabetes are the major risk factors for heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and worldwide, so these are some concerning numbers to see,” Datta said. Multimorbidity, which is when a person has multiple chronic conditions, including obesity, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, cancer, skin cancer and arthritis, affects 57.4% of adults in rural Georgia compared to 49% of adults in urban areas of the state. These rates are significantly lower than the rest of the Southeast but on par with the rest of the country. When comparing Georgia to the U.S. national average, adults in Georgia have lower rates of cancer and methamphetamine use but higher rates of childhood asthma and adult obesity. At the same time, rates of adult asthma and adult obesity among Georgians were comparable to the averages seen in the Southeast. Interestingly, while adult health insurance coverage was significantly lower than the U.S. national and Southeast Regional averages, the child health insurance coverage in Georgia was comparable to both national and regional averages. The Healthy Georgia Report is the only report of its kind in the state Looking to know more or connect with Biplab Datta, PhD? Then let us help. Dr. Datta is available to speak with media regarding this important topic. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.

NSF grant totaling more than $1.4 million helps jumpstart WCU Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program

The past three years have been busy for Sloan Despeaux, professor in Western Carolina University’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and her colleagues. Getting a grant to fund the Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program took lots of meetings, lots of data collection — and lots of waiting. Getting the thumbs up from the National Science Foundation took a bit longer than expected, but their patience was rewarded. Despeaux, the grant’s principal investigator, and co-principal investigators and WCU faculty members Nathan Borchelt, Stacey Zimmerman, Kathy Jaqua and Pam Buskey were granted $1,449,913 from the foundation over five years to support the SMNS program at WCU. “It’s incredibly exciting, and it’s the result of a lot of work,” said Despeaux. “The grant was 100 pages long. It was a very big grant. Big money and big work.” The Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program, which started this semester, is a stipend and scholarship program aimed at producing future high school math teachers at WCU. Students participating in the program can start as an apprentice during their freshman or sophomore years at WCU or any North Carolina community college. Apprentices receive a $2,000 stipend each year, and in return, they do 100 hours of field work per year. "Alison Carter, the mathematics department chair at Southwestern Community College serves as WCU's Noyce Community College coach, who will help apprentices from area community colleges plan out courses that will both meet the requirements of the associate’s degree and make the transition to WCU’s mathematics program as smooth as possible," Despeaux said. After their sophomore year, students can apply to become scholars, who can get up to $18,026 per year, up to the cost of attendance at WCU. Scholars also receive supplemental instruction for challenging upper-level math courses, and they participate in the Transformative Rural Urban Exchange with North Carolina A&T and the Smoky Mountain Math Teachers’ Circle’s annual summer “Math Camp.” Following graduation, for every year of support they received in their junior and senior years, scholars must teach for two years in a high needs district within eight years. However, the program’s help doesn’t stop there, as Noyce beginning teachers receive funds and support after graduation. “You don’t ever finish being a Noyce Scholar because we really want them to feel like they're a part of this cohort and part of this community, and that they can keep coming back to us for resources,” Despeaux said. This grant has paved the way for future SMNS students for the next five years, but it took a great deal of work to make it become a reality. Despeaux and her team wrote a capacity building grant worth about $130,000 from the National Science Foundation in order to conduct surveys, collect data and find out the biggest needs to help create the best possible program. Once the group submitted their request for the more than $1.4 million grant in August 2023, patience was key. “It's been a lot of suspense because we didn't actually get it until this fall,” Despeaux said. “We were pretty sure we were going to get it, but when school started in August, we still hadn’t gotten the official announcement.” But the Office of the Provost stepped in to assist the program so scholarships could be given to get the program up and running. “That was really, really helpful,” Despeaux said. “It was a lot of trust put in us.” Despeaux is confident the program will attract prospective students interested in teaching high school math, a cornerstone of WCU in its early years. “Western’s roots were a normal school. This is what Western’s heart is, preparing teachers and just being a part of a project like this that can help us reconnect with our core mission, it couldn’t make me happier,” Despeaux said. Looking to know ore about the WCU Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program or the other amazing things happening at WCU - then let us help. Sloan Despeaux is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon to arrange an interview today.

Innovating (Western) North Carolina

NCInnovation may sound like a catchy name for a craft beer, but it is much more than a name. NCInnovation is a nonprofit organization created to unlock the innovative potential of North Carolina’s world-class public universities. While the state of North Carolina is a well-recognized leader in research and development, the output does not measure up to the state’s size and historically, most of the state’s research efforts have stemmed from the Research Triangle Park. Today, other regions of North Carolina are making a name for themselves with innovative concepts that University of North Carolina System schools are developing through academic-industry partnerships every day. This is where NCInovation steps in — to bridge academia and industry, to move inventions to market and create long-term economic benefits for all regions of the state. This is done by supporting researchers with grant funding, mentorship and partnership development to commercialize applied research breakthroughs and accelerate the transition from the classroom to the production floor. NCInnovation’s focus is on supporting North Carolina public university research that has commercial promise. Four regional networks are located at UNC System campuses in Charlotte, Cullowhee, Greensboro and Greenville. WCU is part of NCInnovation’s Western Regional Network, led by Meagan Coneybeer, regional innovation network director. “We are tech agnostic, which means that we are open to any faculty member here in the western part of the state at our institutions which include WCU, UNC Asheville, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Morganton and Appalachian State,” Coneybeer said. The program supports faculty working on industry-led, program-based innovations in partnership with industry or those who are interested in collaborating on large scale regional economic development projects that would be anchored in research, experience and excellence of a university collaboration. As part of the pilot grant funding, Brian Byrd, WCU’s mosquito expert and professor in the environmental health sciences program, along with Scott Huffman, professor in WCU’s Department of Chemistry and Physics, have been approved for grant funding from NCInnovation to continue their work in developing tools that utilize spectroscopy to analyze vibrational signals from mosquitoes. “Using spectroscopy, we are developing tools that analyze chemical signals from mosquitoes to tell us the species, sex, age of the mosquitoes and if they are infected,” Byrd said. “Using our approach, we can rapidly assess the risk of infection in the Aedes mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever and Zika.” Currently, it takes days or weeks to conduct this type of risk assessment, but the approach Byrd and Huffman are developing will make the work much quicker and more efficient. “There is a similar Aedes mosquito in Western North Carolina that transmits La Crosse virus causing encephalitis in children every year,” Byrd said. “This tool gives us a platform to improve risk assessments and opportunities to reduce human disease.” For Huffman, this project hits close to home. “When I was a boy, I almost died from a vector-borne disease,” he said. “This experience impacted me. While I have no skills or ability to address the particular disease that I experienced, working with Brian for the past six years has given me the opportunity to contribute in a small way to the field of pediatric vector-borne diseases. This funding from NCI will help us translate some of our fundamental laboratory research into an applied tool that hopefully will benefit society.” The grant approval is conditioned on standard next steps, including executed grant agreements and formal notification to government partners. The funding is part of NCInnovation’s larger mission to unlock the innovative potential of North Carolina’s world-class universities. “Dr. Byrd and Dr. Huffman’s award from NCI is a testament to the exemplary dedication to teaching and applied research by the outstanding faculty at Western Carolina University,” WCU Chancellor Kelli R. Brown said. “This funding serves as a catalyst for additional innovative exploration by our faculty as we strive to bolster economic condition in Western North Carolina and indeed the entire state. I would like to thank the General Assembly for supporting exciting, applied research underway here at WCU and across the UNC System.” The grant funding from NCInnovation’s larger effort to support the development and commercialization of university research in North Carolina. The campus-to-industry pipeline has been the foundation of American innovation for decades. There is so much applied research happening and this gives us the oppertunity to support that journey to commercialization and to partner with universities to bring successes to market. - Bennet Waters, President and CEO of NCInnovation “We are consistently blown away by the applied research innovations coming out of North Carolina’s public universities,” said Michelle Bolas, NCInnovation executive vice president and chief innovation officer. “Dr. Byrd’s and Dr. Huffman’s work has promising applications throughout the state and country and we’re excited to watch this research continue to develop.” Bennet Waters, president and CEO of NCInnovation; is excited about the opportunities that will stem from these partnerships. “At its core, NCI is a regional economic development opportunity and the concept is to use the existing or potentially applied research from our university campuses and not just those that are in the RTP,” said Waters. “There is so much applied research happening and this gives us the opportunity to support that journey to commercialization and to partner with universities to bring their successes to market. NCInnovation puts boots on the ground to foster these relationships. This is not a Raleigh-centric model; this is about helping folks that live beyond population centers to develop economic opportunities.” The organization received $500 million in state funding as an endowment to accelerate the commercialization of research at universities. NCInnovation will deploy the interest earned on the endowment to provide grant funding and support services to university researchers. By doing so, NCInnovation will support the growth of new businesses and licensing revenue from commercialized research, helping boost economic development in the region. The program supports faculty working on industry-led, program-based innovations in partnership with industry or those who are interested in collaborating on large scale regional economic development projects that would be anchored in research, experience and excellence of a university collaboration. “The partnership between WCU and NCI presents incredible opportunities to promote research-based entrepreneurship, product development and commercialization, and bolsters the likelihood of new job creation in the western portion of the state,” said Rich Price, WCU’s chief marketing and strategic partnerships officer. “The investment potential presented by NCInnovation removes so many barriers to university-led product and concept realization and the creation of intellectual property that will fuel economic growth.” Looking to know more or cover this topic - we can help. Brian Byrd and Scott Huffman are both available to speak with media - simply click on either expert's icon now to arrange an interview today.

WCU’s Karayaka, Yu receive $45K grant for research

Western Carolina University College of Engineering and Technology professor Bora Karayaka knew it was a shot in the dark — but that shot ended up paying off. Karayaka and WCU affiliate faculty member Yi-Hsiang Yu received a $45,000 grant from the Coastal Studies Institute. The grant was also received by M.A. Gabr and Anderson Rodrigo de Queiro at North Carolina State University. “In terms of grant search, you should try whatever you can,” Karayaka said. “Nothing is guaranteed, so I said, ‘Sure, let’s give it a try,’ and we tried and then it worked out at that time, so we were happy.” The grant will be used toward a project Karayaka and his colleagues are working on. The team is looking to see whether placing wave energy converters around wind farms on the coast would reduce the impact of environmental loading into the wind farms. Karayaka, Yu and two WCU graduate students will be responsible for making models for the wave energy converters while they meet with their NC State partners on a biweekly basis. In the spring, the team will head to the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese for the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Research Symposium to present their results. Along with the chance of advancing research on the North Carolina coast, Karayaka also views this as an opportunity for WCU to continue to lend a hand in these research projects. “I don’t think we have received grants before (from the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program,) so it kind of opens the door to us to collaborate with other folks and get to know other folks, NC State, UNC Charlotte,” Karayaka said. “Maybe in the later stages, we will look into more physical aspects of the system. How can we put together a prototype? Not just models and make it real in a way.” Looking to know ore about this important environmental project or the other amazing research happening at WCU - then let us help. Bora Karayaka is available to speak with media - simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today

Project Discovery earns $175K grant to help expand resources

Project Discovery director JennieV. Sorrells has seen her program impact the lives of tons of students. The project, hosted by Western Carolina University, has given secondary students the opportunity to explore careers and colleges and partake in adventure-based learning. And thanks to a six-figure grant, Project Discovery’s reach to students will be expanded. Sorrells and co-principal investigator Eric Klein of the University of North Carolina Asheville received a $175,000 grant from the Dogwood Health Trust. “I love working for talent search, but there are certain limitations to it and what we’re able to do, what services that we’re able to provide, just based on the structure from the Department of Education, but we knew that there were other means there,” Sorrells said. “We’ve seen these things through our practice. We know it’s an area of need, so when I saw the opportunity, it made sense to pursue it as a way to continue to build our body of work.” Project Discovery is an educational talent search program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that assists students in 15 schools in Western North Carolina. The program encourages students, who are primarily income limited and potential first-generation, college-bound students, to complete their secondary education and pursue a college one. With the grant from the Asheville nonprofit, Project Discovery will start a bridge program to support former participants in their transition into college and through their postsecondary studies. “A lot of times, we find that that’s where students can struggle and are trying to get to know new systems, new folks, build new relationships, so I like to think of this as the idea of the ‘warm handoff,’” Sorrells said. Project Discovery also hopes it can assist in reenrolling students who stopped their education, and it will aim to build the Higher Education Access and Success collaborative. HEAS, which started last year, includes several organizations across Western North Carolina. “(HEAS) is really kind of the idea of building upon the depth of knowledge that we already have in our region,” Sorrells said. “We have incredible college access programs and folks doing this kind of work, but a lot of times, we work in really siloed environments, “This is going to give us an opportunity to come together, build a community of practice and kind of learn from each other because there are a lot of things specific to our region and population.” Looking to know more or cover this topic - we can help. JennieV. Sorrells is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today

Heading to the Ballot Box

The impending U.S. presidential election is already breaking records. Voters are beginning to cast their ballots as early as 45 days before Election Day. Voting early by in-person or mail-in absentee ballot is typically a popular choice amongst Democrat voters, but this election season has seen an uptick in Republican voters choosing to cast their ballot before November 5. This has led to record numbers of early turnout in vital swing states such as Georgia and North Carolina. Will these increased numbers impact the election and voter turnout overall? Political expert, Dr. Mark Caleb Smith, pointed out the anxiety that this election is causing Americans and how that may affect voting. Here are three key takeaways from his recent interview: Both the Republican and Democrat political parties speak about the upcoming election in terms of fear, claiming drastic consequences if the other party wins the presidential office. Has this heightened anxiety pushed more Americans to cast their ballot early? Smith points out that many voters feel immense pressure as they prepare to choose a candidate. As Americans worry about the perceived high stakes of this election, will the U.S. see an increase not only in early voting but in voting overall? As nearly 19 million Americans head to the polls early, will their ballots be affected by this highly-charged election season and increased threat of misinformation spread on social media? If you are a journalist covering this election season, our experts are here to help with all of your questions and stories. Dr. Mark Caleb Smith is the Director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University. Mark is available to speak with the media regarding election emotions, the upcoming election, and the aftermath. Simply click on his icon or email mweinstein@cedarville.edu to arrange an interview.

AU expert talks Hurricane Helene’s impact on the supply chain

Hurricane Helene tore a path of destruction beginning at Florida’s Big Bend region and stretching up through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. As those affected have slowly been able to grasp the scope, a different form of trouble in the aftermath is creating a ripple effect that will be felt around the region, country and even the world. Western North Carolina is at the heart of the problem leading to sourcing, transportation and disruption issues. While still trying to understand the full scope of the impact in the most remote areas, ongoing recovery efforts continue following the storm where the death toll has risen to over 250 as of Oct. 14. According to Rick Franza, PhD, professor in the James M. Hull College of Business and an expert on operations and supply chain management, said lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the Port of Baltimore incident earlier this year can help with mitigation of risk and recovering during these problematic times. “The biggest thing you’re always dealing with in situations like this is uncertainty,” said Franza. “You can’t expect everything. You can’t anticipate everything, but we learned a lot from COVID and then the Baltimore bridge collapse and the supply chain disruptions those caused.” Franza said North Carolina is a case study in disruption to the supply chain at three different points: the source, manufacturing and transportation. “When we think about supply chain disruptions, people don’t typically think about it affecting the physical supply, but rather the transportation and logistics,” said Franza. “This one’s a little trickier because you have one industry affected by the supply of raw materials, another affected by the manufacturing of supplies and so many more will be affected by transportation problems.” Problems in manufacturing One industry that has been heavily impacted by the storm is the medical field, particularly the manufacturing of IV fluid bags. Baxter International, one of the largest producers of IV fluid bags in the country, has a manufacturing plant located in Marion, North Carolina. According to the American Hospital Association, the Marion plant produces 1.5 million IV bags per day, which equates to 60% of the country’s supply. “There are two big questions affecting the supply chain for those IV fluid bags,” said Franza. “If you lose a manufacturing facility, like the one in Marion, does another facility or a competitor have the ability to add capacity, even if it’s just a short term? The other piece of it is, even if they have the capacity, do they have the raw material inputs? So it’s a ripple effect.” In the wake of the storm, Baxter announced its other manufacturing facilities would increase their capacity. Thanks to its new Mount Carmel Mega Distribution Center located in Mississippi, the company feels confident it will be able to meet the needs of hospitals across the country. Baxter plans to increase allocation levels for direct customers from 40% to 60% and for distributors from 10% to 60%. They are also increasing allocations for designated children’s hospitals by 100%. Problems at the source Just outside the town of Spruce Pine, a town of less than 2,200 people located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, are two mines that produce an estimated 80% to 90% of the world’s most pure quartz. The quartz found in those mines is used in the manufacturing of semiconductors for microchips for everything from smartphones to cars to medical devices and more. The two companies that manage those two mines, Sibelco and The Quartz Corp, shut down operations on Sept. 26 ahead of the storm. As recovery efforts continue in the region, there remains more uncertainty as the full scope of the damage continues to be realized, and there is no certain timeline for when things will get started again. “The issue with natural resources like quartz is, unless you’ve come up with some method of producing an artificial version of it, you can’t really make it somewhere else,” said Franza. “Since there isn’t currently an alternative, it then becomes a question of is the mine accessible or how long until it is accessible and people can get back to regular operations?” Problems with transportation In Western North Carolina, entire roads along with buildings and other structures were wiped out as streams and rivers surged and mudslides occurred. On top of getting the mine back up and running, there is also the problem of getting the raw quartz where it needs to go. “Once you are able to access the ability of the mine to get back online, you then have the problem of whether the raw material can get where it needs to go to be processed,” said Franza. “A big problem in western North Carolina is entire roads are gone, and it’s not a simple repave. On top of that, Interstate 40 is estimated to be shut down until sometime next year, so transportation in that area is going to be extremely difficult for quite a while.” The good news is that quartz and the microchips that it is used in are not perishable items, and some chip manufacturers may have several weeks’ worth of quartz supply built up to be able to continue production. But an extended shutdown will likely mean even more chip shortages, similar to the global chip shortage that began in 2020 and lasted through 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the tightened restrictions in the countries that manufacture those chips. The loss of roads is not the only source of recent transportation problems, as immediately following the during the storm there was a three-day disruption in imports at 36 ports, including shutting 14 down stretching from Maine to Texas, as 45,000 dockworkers went on strike over pay. While that disruption could have caused serious issues, particularly for the upcoming holiday season, Franza said many companies have learned from previous disruptions, and most of the goods needed for Cyber Monday, Black Friday and preparing for the holiday season were already in the country. “I have heard that somewhere between 80% to 90% of the items for the holidays are already here, so the dock workers’ strike would not have been as much of an issue for the holidays, but there would definitely have been things you’d run out of.” Franza said the biggest problem during situations such as this is misinformation. “One of the biggest problems is most people are uninformed,” Ranza said. “Look at the toilet paper shortage at the beginning of COVID. If all of a sudden people rush to buy everything up and hoard it all, you can’t meet that demand so it causes even more problems. People need to be better informed because rumors start and then more problems are caused.” But Franza reiterated that companies have learned from past events, and that planning has made the supply chain stronger. “I think we’re better than we were four years ago because each of these crises builds our toolbox on how to plan for and deal with disruptions. It has built resiliency.”

Hurricane Milton: Second major storm in two weeks could multiply danger on Florida's Gulf Coast

Now a Category 5 hurricane, Milton is making a beeline toward Tampa Bay and other parts of Florida's western coast. But it will also hit some of the same areas that Hurricane Helene decimated less than two weeks ago, amplifying the danger and need for an on-point disaster response. Experts in the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center can talk about several facets of this developing situation: Jennifer Horney: The mental and physical impacts of multiple disasters; environmental impacts of disasters and potential public health impacts for chronic and infectious diseases. She can talk about both Milton and Helene – Horney is a native of North Carolina and has done fieldwork in the state. Victor Perez: Can talk about known environmental justice issues in the Gulf Coast region that interact with climate change impacts, like hurricanes. Sarah DeYoung: Conspiracy theories and misinformation during disasters; pets in emergencies, infant feeding in disasters, decision-making in evacuation and community cohesion. DeYoung is from western North Carolina and can draw parallels from Milton to Helene. Jennifer Trivedi: Can talk about long-term recovery after large scale events – including compounding events – as well as challenges during disasters for people with disabilities, vulnerable communities and decision making. Tricia Wachtendorf: Evacuation decision-making, disaster response and coordination, disaster relief (donations) and logistics, volunteer and emergent efforts, social vulnerability. James Kendra: Disaster response activities, volunteers, and emergency coordination. A.R. Siders: Expert on sea level rise and managed retreat – the concept of planned community movement away from coastlines and flood-prone areas and the "expanding bullseye" that is contributing to the rising disaster costs in the U.S. Shanjia Dong: Research looks at smart and resilient urban systems; infrastructure systems, critical infrastructure protection, effective disaster preparedness and response, and equitable resilience planning and climate change adaptation. Joe Trainor: Post-storm housing decisions and insurance.