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Sustainable consumption in the age of CO2
Experts like NJIT’s Maurie Cohen are looking beyond electric cars and alternative sources of energy to combat the rapid rise of carbon dioxide emissions. Their approach is more fundamental and societal, touching everything from the size of our homes to where we work and what we buy. The global pandemic sparked new ways of living and working, bringing previously niche approaches into the mainstream, including: Working from home Tiny houses Local swap meets Live nomadically, work digitally Cohen, co-founder of the international Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative and author of “The Future of Consumer Society,” is no newcomer to such ideas. He has studied sustainable consumption and its relationship to environmental policy for 20+ years, bringing a long-term perspective to addressing the carbon crisis. As seen in stories from Fortune, Fast Company, Vice and Yahoo News, Cohen can speak cogently about the implications of behavioral trends such as Facebook “no buy” groups, digital nomads and the shift toward working from home. To reach Cohen, simply click on the button below.
The demands of fast fulfillment
Consumers now expect packages to arrive in hours, perhaps days but not weeks. Amazon fueled this demand with the promise of speedy delivery of nearly everything you can buy online. Indeed, your doorstep now rivals the loading dock as the main destination for goods. Supply chains are the key to such quick turnarounds: in short, how items move from manufacturers to distributors to consumers. Any hiccups along the way exasperates our increasingly demanding consumers. In short, they want fulfillment to be as easy as clicking to buy something online. Through years of research and experience, NJIT’s Sanchoy Das has become an expert on fast fulfillment, even writing a book on it. It continues to evolve, however, with the prospect of drone deliveries on the horizon. He’s versed on that as well, making him an ideal source for stories that explain how goods and services are delivered in our on-demand economy. Specifically, Sanchoy can explain Logistics Breakdowns in supply chains Industrial engineering Business operations management Data-driven technology To interview him, simply click on the button below.
Enabling the disabled through technology
Technology represents new hope for people disabled by everything from cerebral palsy to injuries sustained in combat or car accidents, and NJIT’s Saikat Pal investigates the possibilities. At the university’s Life Sciences Motion Capture Lab, Pal fits disabled veterans with the latest exoskeletons, which get them upright again and moving across the room. All the while, Pal measures their range of motion to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the latest tech. Similarly, the biomedical engineer uses monitoring and recording equipment to measure the gaits of children with cerebral palsy. In short, he’s an expert on the limits of human movement, and how tech can extend those limits. And his experience is varied, having also worked as a research associate at Stanford University and biomedical engineering at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. To interview Saikat, just click on the button below.
Dissecting market failures: from root to fallout
From mining coal to mining Bitcoin, a market is always prone to collapse, triggering all types of questions, including: What were the warning signs? How will you know when it has hit bottom? At what point will investors look to capitalize? Is a subsequent upswing temporary or sustainable long-term? NJIT’s Michael Ehrlich speaks authoritatively on market failures, as director of the university’s Henry J. and Erna D. Leir Research Institute for Business, Technology and Society. He also brings real-world expertise, having run his own business and managed units of Salomon Brothers and Bear Stearns. Moreover, Ehrlich excels at explaining the most complex financial issues in plain English. To interview him, simply click on the button below.
Sharks, remoras, cavefish: how they move
Anatomy, biomechanics, physiology and hydrodynamics can tell you a lot about how fish swim, hitch rides, even walk. And that knowledge has myriad applications, including designing sensors that stay stuck to mammals and amphibious vehicles for the U.S. Navy. A pioneer in such research is NJIT’s Brooke Flammang, a Harvard-trained expert in fish locomotion. As director of the university’s Fluid Locomotion Laboratory, Flammang can answer all kinds of questions about fish but is particularly knowledgeable about: How sharks use their fins to propel themselves How remoras stay attached to whales despite relentless currents How cavefish walk As she explains, “I’m really interested in the anatomy and physiology of animals … how it works and how they’re able to just do the things that they do.” To interview Flammang, who Scientific American recognized as “one of the best shark biologists,” simply click on the button below.
Aston University cyber expert to appear at FinTech event in Birmingham
'FinTech Secured – Next Generation' will showcase the work of leading stakeholders in the research and development of financial technology (FinTech) and security Professor Vladlena Benson will offer insight on illicit money flows and trends in Financial Security Registrations are now open for the event on 7 June 2022 at The Compound, Birmingham. The director of the Cyber Security Innovation (CSI) Centre at Aston University is set to appear at a networking event around financial technology (FinTech). Following the success of their first flagship event of 2022 ‘Secure by Design, Advanced Manufacturing’, Midlands Cyber will launch 'FinTech Secured – Next Generation' on the 7 June 2022. The event will be the first face to face event after the pandemic in Birmingham, bringing together thought leaders and service applications specialists for an evening of industry networking. Professor Vladlena Benson, who also serves on the EU’s Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) task force defining the Cybersecurity Skills Framework at the European level, will be joined by contacts from within the cryptocurrency sector and offer insight on illicit money flows and trends in financial security. The event will also showcase the work of leading stakeholders in the research and development of FinTech and financial security. FinTech’s academic innovators, CEOs and company founders, entrepreneurs, contractors, investors and policymakers are encouraged to register now to discuss, participate, network and put their questions to our panel of industry experts. Professor Vladlena Benson, an industry-recognised expert in cybersecurity risk management and director of CSI Centre at Aston Business School, said: “Financial services are core to the UK economy and continue to be a common target for cyber criminals. Challenges to the insurance sector and cyber crime prosecution when crypto assets are involved are emerging and at the CSI we are working to provide forensic and data integrity solutions which help secure the FinTech sector.” User of contactless Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) may be interested in the insights of Tom Chothia, reader in cyber security at the University of Birmingham, on how the vulnerabilities of Apple Pay and Visa could enable hackers to ’Take £1000 from a locked iPhone’. Registrations are now open to join the cluster at 18:00 hrs on the 7 June 2022 at The Compound, Birmingham.
ChristianaCare is the first health system in the Philadelphia region piloting an innovative tool called Moxi, a collaborative robot — or “cobot”— that can assist in the hospital by making deliveries and performing other non-clinical tasks so that nurses and other clinical staff can spend more time focused on what they do best—caring for patients. With a landmark $1.5 million grant from the American Nurses Foundation, ChristianaCare will deploy a total of five Moxi cobots at Christiana Hospital. It is the largest single grant in the history of Nursing at ChristianaCare. Research published in the Journal of Nursing Management shows that nurses spend a significant amount of time — up to 33% of their shifts — on time-consuming but simple tasks such as dropping off lab specimens, collecting supplies or picking up medications from the pharmacy. By taking over these time-consuming but simple tasks, Moxi enables nurses to focus on patient care, where their skills are most needed. “Nurses need the time and space to deliver care and patient education at the top of their license,” said Ric Cuming, Ed.D., MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, chief nurse executive and president, ChristianaCare HomeHealth. “Moxi will be doing those hunting and gathering tasks such as getting equipment and supplies, which nurses are doing today but don’t need to be doing.” Cobots are designed to share workspace and interact directly with people. In ChristianaCare’s initiative, the Moxi cobots will be integrated with the Cerner Corporation electronic health record (EHR) platform and use artificial intelligence to proactively identify when nurses will need equipment, supplies, medications and lab tests. The Moxi cobots will be deployed to 11 inpatient units, partnering with more than 400 nurses. The American Nurses Foundation grant will enable ChristianaCare to evaluate the impact of cobots on nursing practice with the goal of scaling the technology if successful. “Moxi is not a replacement for a nurse or nursing position — or any position,” Cuming said. “It is an additional resource for nurses and their teams. “With robotic technology, we are using resources wisely and effectively, creating more efficient workflows, reducing repetitive tasks and freeing up nurses’ time for the complex clinical work that they excel at doing.” Reimagining Nursing ChristianaCare is one of 10 grant recipients from the American Nurses Foundation Reimagining Nursing (RN) Initiative. “We are proud that the American Nurses Foundation has the confidence in bold nurse-led ideas that will lead to large-scale, replicable change,” said Katherine Collard, MS, RN-BC, chief nursing informatics officer at ChristianaCare. “This grant will support nurses at ChristianaCare and our nursing colleagues across the nation in realizing their full potential, giving them the tools, resources and power to improve health care now and in the future.” With the American Nurses Foundation grant, ChristianaCare will conduct research on driving nursing outcomes through robotics. “We have a transformative opportunity to generate new knowledge and to move the science forward around robotics in nursing and in health care,” said Susan Birkhoff, Ph.D., RN, nurse scientist at ChristianaCare. “Through research, we will study Moxi’s impact to nursing caregivers that will have broad implications for nursing practice, workforce and education,” she said. ChristianaCare began exploring the potential of robotics to support Nursing with two Moxi cobots acquired in February, funded through the generosity of donors including Good Samaritan, Inc. and E.J. “Woody” Rice. With the grant, said Birkhoff, ChristianaCare will take Moxi to the next “bold frontier,” adding three more cobots with the goal of automating and optimizing nurses’ workflow without interrupting care. With five total cobots, ChristianaCare will be home to the largest number of Moxi robots in health care. The Little Bot That Can Before Moxi can become fully part of the care team, it must learn to navigate the hospital and respond to the nurses’ needs. Using artificial intelligence, Moxi is mapping out Christiana Hospital through sensors and other machine-learning technology so that the cobots can ultimately navigate and work autonomously. “When the Moxi cobots are fully integrated, we anticipate that they will complete up to 200 delivery tasks a day,” Collard said. “By making point-to-point deliveries, Moxi can save nurses hours of time and thousands of steps.” Designed to be compatible with the busy environments of hospitals, Moxi’s features include: Social intelligence: Moxi won’t bump into people or objects in hallways, waves when it sees someone new and happily poses for selfies. Mobile manipulation: Moxi can learn to use its robotic arm to operate existing automatic doors and elevator panels. Human-guided learning: The more Moxi is used, the more Moxi learns and adapts to the environment and specific ways of doing things. Friendly and safe design: With heart-shaped eyes and a friendly appearance, Moxi is designed to navigate safely and get the job done so nurses can focus on patient care. “What Moxi is doing in health systems like ChristianaCare is really transforming the way we think about health care and allowing staff to focus on the people in the hospital as opposed to the tasks,” said Dr. Andrea Thomaz, CEO and co-founder of Diligent Robotics, which created Moxi. “Robots are not something way in the future. Our robots work side-by-side with humans to ease the stress and workload of one of the most demanding jobs in society, nursing. The partnership between Diligent and ChristianaCare shows that the future is now.” Hospital Helper Directly from the Cerner EHR, Moxi will be able to anticipate clinician and patient needs and perform tasks without human involvement. Examples could include: Delivering items to patients based on nurses’ order requests. Making rounds across units to deliver lab samples on collections completed in the electronic health record. Making just-in-time deliveries of pharmaceuticals not stocked on the floor. Prioritizing tasks based on the nursing workload in a unit, so that the busiest nurses will get help first. “Connecting Moxi to the existing technology that clinicians use on a daily basis is key to making it easier to anticipate needs so clinicians can spend more time on patient care,” says Eva Karp, DHA, MBA, RN-BC, senior vice president, chief clinical and patient safety, Cerner. “Moxi could make a real difference in a nurse’s day — alleviating burnout and staffing shortages, which have become especially prevalent since the pandemic.” Incorporating the electronic health record into Moxi is part of the study funded by the American Nurses Foundation. “It’s absolutely in the best interest of our patients that Moxi can work alongside nurses so we can spend more time working directly with our patients to do what we do best,” said Pam Owen, MSN, RN-BC, nurse manager on 7E, one of the pilot units. “And Moxi brings a smile to people’s faces.” Fast Facts About Moxi Works in 22-hour shifts. Needs only two hours of charging time. Weighs about 300 pounds. Can carry a total weight of 70 pounds. Gender-neutral. Pronouns are “it” for a single Moxi cobot and “they” for more than one. Named one of America’s Greatest Disruptors in 2021 by Newsweek and one of the Best Inventions of 2019 by Time Magazine. About ChristianaCare Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,299 beds), a freestanding emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute. ChristianaCare is nationally recognized as a great place to work, rated by Forbes as the 2nd best health system for diversity and inclusion, and the 29th best health system to work for in the United States, and by IDG Computerworld as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work in IT. ChristianaCare is rated by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals and continually ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek and other national quality ratings. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. With its groundbreaking Center for Virtual Health and a focus on population health and value-based care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care.
Studying glaciers . . . from Florida
By Emma Richards On the surface, the University of Florida seems an unlikely place to find cutting-edge research on ice sheets. But Emma “Mickey” MacKie says this is the perfect place for her work — thanks in large part to HiPerGator, one of the fastest supercomputers in higher education. MacKie, an assistant professor of geological sciences and glaciologist, joined UF in August 2021 and said her decision hinged largely on access to HiPerGator and the university’s focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies. MacKie uses machine learning methods to study subsurface conditions of glaciers in polar regions and access to a powerful supercomputer is crucial given the large data sets her research generates. “I'm very happy to be in a place with lots of people who are working on different types of problems and are interested in developing these different tools,” MacKie said. “There are a number of members of my department in geology who are studying glacial geology through different lenses. And so, there's all of this complementary geological and machine learning knowledge at UF that I'm very excited to bring together.” MacKie has set up the Gator Glaciology Lab, where she and a team of seven undergraduate students from the fields of geology, computer science, physics, math and data science are using AI to analyze what lies beneath glaciers and how they are moving and melting. “Our work is part of a bigger effort in the glaciology community to start working on quantifying our uncertainty in future sea-level rise projections so that we can give policy makers this information.” It’s a very difficult challenge, MacKie said, because of limited access to polar regions and the miles-thick ice covering the ground. Then there is the scale of ice sheets; Antarctica, for example, is the size of U.S. and Mexico combined. Measurements of the topography below such glaciers are gathered using radars mounted on airplanes to “see” through ice. Her team then uses HiPerGator to simulate realistic looking topography in places where there are gaps or blank spots in the measurements. They generate hundreds of maps to represent different possible ice sheet conditions, which could be used to determine numerous possible sea level rise scenarios. “Our work is part of a bigger effort in the glaciology community to start working on quantifying our uncertainty in future sea-level rise projections so that we can give policy makers this information,” she said. Earlier this spring, MacKie swapped out her flip-flops for snow boots to study subsurface glacial conditions in Svalbard, which is next to northeastern Greenland. Visiting Svalbard will help her test and develop data collection and analysis techniques that could be applied to Antarctica or Greenland, which both contain large ice sheets that could have serious environmental impacts if they experience significant melting. In Svalbard, MacKie and Norwegian researchers from the University of Bergen and the University Centre in Svalbard took seismic and radar measurements of glaciers that will be used to make estimates about conditions beneath the ice. Among glaciers of concern is the Thwaites “Doomsday Glacier,” which is losing the most ice of any glacier in Antarctica. There are signs showing Thwaites’ ice shelf could start to break in the next few years. MacKie said it will likely be a few hundred years before the glacier could undergo significant collapse and jeopardize the West Antarctica Ice Sheet, leading to several meters of sea level rise. The effects of Thwaites and other ice sheet melts in Antarctica and Greenland will become apparent in decades to come, with the potential for a meter of sea level rise by the end of the century, which MacKie and other researchers hope to predict more accurately. “The state of Florida has the most to lose when sea level rises,” she said in an episode of the From Florida podcast. “And so, I think we have a lot of skin in the game and it’s really important to be studying this question here in Florida.” To hear more about MacKie’s work, listen to From Florida at this link.
Meet the astrobiologist and her students who are searching for life on Mars
By Emma Richards, University of Florida From a young age, Amy Williams wondered if life existed beyond Earth amidst the dark abyss of space, stars and planets — a curiosity that years later landed her a career researching and exploring Mars. Williams, an assistant professor of geology and an astrobiologist at the University of Florida, works as a participating scientist on the Perseverance and Curiosity Rover Science Teams and previously served as a postdoctoral research associate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. As an astrobiologist and geobiologist, she uses techniques from geology, microbiology and chemistry to search for life beyond Earth. “Even as a little kid watching meteor showers with my family, I wondered if there was someone out there in the stars looking back at Earth.” “Even as a little kid watching meteor showers with my family, I wondered if there was someone out there in the stars looking back at Earth,” she said in an episode of the From Florida podcast. “It’s been a passion of mine my whole career and now it’s the most amazing opportunity to serve on both of the active Mars rover missions.” Williams’ journey to Mars began as a graduate student when a research professor gave her the opportunity to work on the NASA Curiosity mission. From there, Williams built her way up and is now a participating scientist working on day-to-day rover operations. Williams also is opening doors for graduate students at UF to work on Mars research, helping upcoming generation of scientists follow her path. She is specifically interested in involving women and underrepresented groups in her work. Based on her research, Williams said life on Mars, if found, will likely look less like Marvin the Martian and more like microbial life similar to bacteria on Earth. Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 and Perseverance landed in 2021. The rovers are searching for potential life on Mars by going to habitable environments and searching for evidence of water and essential elements that could supported such life forms. Curiosity has spent nearly its entire mission exploring a large five-kilometer-tall mountain in Gale Crater known as Mount Sharp. The scientists can see Mars’ history and climate based on changes in the chemistry and sediments of the mountain. As for Perseverance, the rover is exploring Jezero Crater, with emphasis on its delta, a geologic deposit that is formed when water from a river flows into a lake. Perseverance will help collect rock and sediment samples from Mars that will be the first brought back to Earth. NASA is also working on a program to eventually send humans to Mars, which will likely take many decades; the first stage in the project will be returning humans to the Moon. “But in the meanwhile, these robots, these rovers that we send to the red planet, they are our proxy,” Williams said. “And looking through the robot rover’s eyes, the images that are returned to us, I recognize this is the closest I will ever be to standing on Mars and looking up at these beautiful geological units, looking up at an alien world that’s so familiar because the tenets of geology apply on Mars, the same as they do on Earth.” To hear more about the Amy Williams' Mars research, listen to the episode on From Florida at this link. Listen to other episodes in the "From Florida" series at this link. To learn more about her work, watch this video featuring Professor Williams:
Villa Vision receives £20K from Wesleyan to measure impact of child eye health project
Villa Vision programmes provide access to eye health care for children from deprived areas of Birmingham. 5,500 children have been reached so far. The Wesleyan Foundation and Aston University’s five-year partnership is valued at over £250K The findings of the evaluation will be shared with the Villa Vision team and all partners including participating schools, parents and children. Villa Vision, a project that delivers eye health care to children from deprived areas of Birmingham, has received £20,000 from the Wesleyan Foundation. The money will help evaluate the impact of the project to date which has reached approximately 5,500 children across the West Midlands. Villa Vision programmes are designed to increase access to eye health education, eye screening, eye examinations and to dispense glasses to children who need them with the aim of providing them with the visual foundation to succeed. The Villa Vision project is a collaboration between the Aston Villa Foundation, Aston University and optical lens supplier Essilor Vision For Life. The money donated by Birmingham based Wesleyan, alongside the Aston University funding of almost £15,000, will pay for research assistants to evaluate the first three years of the project. The objectives of the impact evaluation are to: • Review how many children have been screened, detail the coverage of the programme and its reach within the city • Analyse Villa Vision’s data recording children’s eye screening tests and eye examinations • Examine the potential impact on student’s performance on tasks that require attention to detail after being given glasses • Work with children to explore their experience of the Villa Vision programme to help develop the educational part of the programme • Work with teachers to examine the potential impact of corrected vision on children’s classroom behaviour (their integration into class, their reading at distance and close-up, their English and maths) • Work with parents to understand the impact of Villa Vision on their eye health knowledge and the quality of life of the children involved in the programme and the family more generally. The findings of the evaluation will be shared with the Villa Vision team and all collaborating partners as well as participating schools, teachers, parents and children. The findings will also be published in peer-reviewed journals, online and in newsletters to reach interested audiences. Dr Rachel Shaw, a health psychologist in Aston Institute for Health & Neurodevelopment, and project lead, said: “Villa Vision is an inspirational project offering children eye care in their schools. Not only that, Nik Sonpal and Zak El Khalifi from the Villa Vision team, have created an educational, entertaining, and imaginative workshop helping children to understand the importance of eye health, bringing it to life with the help of Aston Villa and a footballing theme.” Leon Davies, professor of optometry and physiological optics in the School of Optometry at Aston University and Vice President of the College of Optometrists said: “The team led by Dr Rachel Shaw with support from Dr Laura Shapiro, Esra Yeter, Sidratul Kazi and myself will provide robust evidence to demonstrate the impact and value of Villa Vision on children’s eye health and education in Birmingham, which we believe will help secure Villa Vision’s long-term future.” Nathan Wallis, Chief of Staff at Wesleyan said: “We are proud to be supporting Villa Vision and its research, they are making a huge difference to the lives of so many primary school children across the West Midlands. It is vital for all children to be given access to good eye care, not just to improve engagement in the classroom but for their overall quality of life and self-confidence. “As a financial service mutual for teachers and doctors it is important to us that we support the things that matter most to our customers and supporting Villa Vision is a great example of this.” Nikhil Sonpal, Villa Vision Project Manager and optometrist at Aston Villa Foundation, said: “Villa Vision and the Aston Villa Foundation are incredibly excited to have the support of both the Wesleyan Foundation and Aston University in helping to establish a deeper understanding of our eye health project. "Not only will this evaluation help unearth the level of impact our intervention is having within the community, but it will also allow us to discover ways to develop our provision further and strengthen our reach when trying to address local inequalities in eye care.”
