Interdisciplinary Team Of Engineers Research Articles

LEVERAGING VIDEO CONFERENCING TECHNOLOGY TO FACILITATE SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT IN OLDER ADULTS

Abstract Social engagement is critical for maintaining well-being and quality of life in older adults. However, typical age-related changes across bio-psychosocial dimensions as well as age-related conditions such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), pose many challenges for older adults to remain socially connected. The development of technologies, specifically video conferencing, can be leveraged as a tool to facilitate the delivery of social engagement opportunities, both enhancing access and minimizing social isolation. For successful adoption of these tools, the needs and preferences of older adult users must be considered. We employed an iterative research process for designing and developing a social-engagement intervention using a platform called OneClick.chat. We provide community-dwelling older adults with opportunities to engage in casual conversations and reminisce with others on topics of shared interests (e.g., nature, food, hobbies). Our iterative design process involved an interdisciplinary team of engineers, human factors specialists, gerontologists, and neuropsychologists. We also evaluated the system with eight participants (aged 50-64) who provided their insights pertaining to the content, delivery, perceived ease of use, usefulness, and potential adoption of this video-conferencing platform. Based on the feedback received, we have optimized the intervention in preparation for a randomized controlled trial. Furthermore, we provide key insights related to the implementation of social engagement through video technologies with the aim of facilitating social connectivity. Our learnings can be used to guide future work involving video-technology-based interventions to facilitate social connectivity for older adults with varying cognitive abilities.

The how tough is WASH framework for assessing the climate resilience of water and sanitation

Climate change presents a major threat to water and sanitation services. There is an urgent need to understand and improve resilience, particularly in rural communities and small towns in low- and middle-income countries that already struggle to provide universal access to services and face increasing threats from climate change. To date, there is a lack of a simple framework to assess the resilience of water and sanitation services which hinders the development of strategies to improve services. An interdisciplinary team of engineers and environmental and social scientists were brought together to investigate the development of a resilience measurement framework for use in low- and middle-income countries. Six domains of interest were identified based on a literature review, expert opinion, and limited field assessments in two countries. A scoring system using a Likert scale is proposed to assess the resilience of services and allow analysis at local and national levels to support improvements in individual supplies, identifying systematic faults, and support prioritisation for action. This is a simple, multi-dimensional framework for assessing the resilience of rural and small-town water and sanitation services in LMICs. The framework is being further tested in Nepal and Ethiopia and future results will be reported on its application.

4524 Fighting Malaria, One Image at a Time: Using Computer Vision to Develop an Automated Vector Speciation Tool

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Rapid and accurate identification of primary malaria vector species from collected specimens is the most critical aspect of effective vector surveillance and control. This interdisciplinary team of engineers aims to automate identification using a deep learning computer vision algorithm. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The team spent August of 2019 observing and participating in control and surveillance activities in Zambia and Uganda. They conducted >65 interviews with key stakeholders across 9 malaria control and surveillance sites, ranging from field and community health workers, to malaria researchers and Ministry of Health employees. Stakeholder feedback validated the need for a more accurate and efficient method of vector identification in order to more effectively deploy targeted malaria interventions. The team set forth in designing and prototyping a portable, automated field tool that could speciate mosquito vectors to the complex level using artificial intelligence. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The team’s research demonstrated that accuracy, cost effectiveness, and ease of use would be critical to the successful adoption of the tool. Results of initial prototyping, usability studies, and stakeholder surveys were used to determine the tool’s minimal user specifications: 1) the ability to distinguish between Anopheles Gambiae and Anopheles Funestus, the two principal malaria vectors in the countries visited, 2) achieving an identification accuracy of ≥90% to the complex level, and 3) accessibility to the speciation data 3-7 days following vector collection. Next steps include optimizing the tool to deploy a minimal viable product for testing in Kenya by the summer of 2020. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: The accurate, high-quality surveillance enabled by this device would allow malaria control programs to scale surveillance to remote regions where an entomologist may not be available, allowing malaria programs to deploy effective interventions, monitor results, and prevent disease.

Yield and freshness improvement of fruits and vegetables by pulsed power plasma

Growing populations, a changing climate, decreasing amounts of farmland and lower fertility soils are just a few of the many problems facing the world's food supply. Because of these multitude of changes, the agricultural industry and researchers recognise a dire need for more sustainable agriculture practices and technologies. Novel technologies and methods of improving crop yields while reducing waste throughout the food supply chain are two ways that we can reduce the pressure on our already stretched food supplies. A more sustainable and less wasteful system can also go a long way to providing higher quality goods to the segments of society that do not have the luxury of shopping at continually stocked, modern grocery stores. The methods used to tackle this problem vary, from increasing soil fertility via improved management practices to genetically modifying agriculture products themselves. Each comes with its own drawbacks and public perceptions of the impacts. But what they all have in common is the need for a multi-disciplinary approach involving botanists, biologists and chemists. There will never be one magic bullet solution and collaboration not only leads to novel applications it also breeds innovation and produces advances in knowledge that may one day inspire new breakthroughs. Professor Koichi Takaki is part of an interdisciplinary team of engineers and biologists taking this approach to heart and blending the fields of high-voltage electrical and plasma engineering with biology in the hopes of shaking up the entire agricultural industry.

Potential of Citizen Science for Enhancing Infrastructure Monitoring Data and Decision-Support Models for Local Communities.

Citizen science is a process by which volunteer members of the public, who commonly lack advanced training in science, engage in scientific activities (e.g., data collection) that might otherwise be beyond the reach of professional researchers or practitioners. The purpose of this article is to discuss how citizen-science projects coordinated by interdisciplinary teams of engineers and social scientists can potentially enhance infrastructure monitoring data and decision-support models for local communities. The article provides an interdisciplinary definition of infrastructure data quality that extends beyond accuracy to include currency, timeliness, completeness, and equitability. We argue that with this expanded definition of data quality, citizen science can be a viable method for enhancing the quality of infrastructure monitoring data, and ultimately the credibility of risk analysis and decision-support models that use these data. The article concludes with a set of questions to aid in producing high-quality infrastructure monitoring data by volunteer citizen scientists.

Wasatch: An architecture-proof multiphysics development environment using a Domain Specific Language and graph theory

To address the coding and software challenges of modern hybrid architectures, we propose an approach to multiphysics code development for high-performance computing. This approach is based on using a Domain Specific Language (DSL) in tandem with a directed acyclic graph (DAG) representation of the problem to be solved that allows runtime algorithm generation. When coupled with a large-scale parallel framework, the result is a portable development framework capable of executing on hybrid platforms and handling the challenges of multiphysics applications. We share our experience developing a code in such an environment – an effort that spans an interdisciplinary team of engineers and computer scientists.

Enabling Radical Innovation through Highly Iterative Product Expedition in Ramp up and Demonstration Factories

Short development times that are characterized by a high return on engineering (RoE) become increasingly important as a critical success factor for the realization of radical innovation. However, the high degree of complexity of modern products results in a long and costly development time when traditional sequential development processes are employed. The paper at hand describes the restraints of typical gate-oriented product development processes and builds up on recent studies recommending highly iterative innovation processes for the fast realization of physical product ideas. The suggested methodology represents an approach based on the Scrum process model from the software industry that includes the continuous integration of costumers and production engineers based on the execution of feasibility studies by the early and stepwise development of prototypes. In this context, modern ramp up and demonstration factories possessing a product lifecycle management (PLM) system, an integrated ICT infrastructure, interdisciplinary engineering teams and scalable manufacturing technologies are suggested as key enablers. The authors illustrate that these facilities, together with a sensor-based product expedition are particularly suitable for implementing an adapted Scrum process for the development of physical product ideas. A critical reflection on the basis of the development of an electric car aims to underline the suitability of the presented methodology in enabling radical innovation

Agile New Service Development in an Interdisciplinary Context

This article it shows the role of services in a highly interdisciplinary context: promoting cooperation between organizations in the life sciences industry and in the engineering and automation industry. It provides insights on how required offerings of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) are developed systematically based on a simple service engineering process model. In addition to the content-related view of new service development, findings from a meta-view are presented. Cooperating researchers and practitioners in the new-service development process observed their own collaboration and how the applied service engineering model had to be modified dynamically to the requirements of the use case. The results show that an easy-to-use service engineering model in a highly interdisciplinary context has benefits, but success is dependent on the joint efforts of an accordingly interdisciplinary team of engineers and natural scientists; a close communication with the customers both from the life sciences industry and the engineering and automation industry; and a more agile approach. The key then to attaining this higher level of intelligence is to make our years of study qualitatively rich. We don't simply absorb information – we internalize it and make it our own by finding some way to put this knowledge to practical use.

The Maine Tidal Power Initiative: transdisciplinary sustainability science research for the responsible development of tidal power

The Maine Tidal Power Initiative (MTPI), an interdisciplinary team of engineers, marine scientists, oceanographers, and social scientists, is using a transdisciplinary sustainability science approach to collect biophysical and social data necessary for understanding interactions between human and natural systems in the context of tidal power development in Maine. MTPI offers a unique opportunity to better understand how group structure and process influence outcomes in transdisciplinary sustainability science research. Through extensive participant observation and semi-structured interviews we: (1) describe MTPI’s organizational structure; (2) examine MTPI’s research approach and engagement with stakeholders from different sectors of society (i.e., industry, government, and the local community); and (3) identify challenges and opportunities for involving different disciplinary expertise and diverse stakeholders in transformational sustainability science research. We found that MTPI’s holistic mission, non-hierarchical structure, and iterative stakeholder engagement process led to important benefits and significant challenges. Positive outcomes include knowledge development, a transferable research framework, shared resources, personal reward, and a greater understanding of the local environment and community. Challenges identified include balancing diverse interests and priorities, maintaining engagement, managing stakeholder relationships, and limited resources. Lessons learned from the process of integrative collaborative research in Maine can offer guidance on what should be considered when carrying out similar transdisciplinary sustainability science projects in other research contexts.

Solar Climate Control An Opportunity for World-wide Use of Solar Energy

An investigation covering the United States, Europe and Japan has been carried out since 1973 to determine the use of solar energy for heating and cooling the inside of buildings. This study, supported by and on behalf of more than 100 industrial companies was led by the author who here for the first time reports his findings to the general scientific public. A large interdisciplinary team of engineers, economists, planners and building experts was involved and their methodology their technical considerations, as well as costs, marketing and constraint are reported. Detailed data obtained from the project have only been communicated to the sponsors and are not publicly available.