More Like this

1. Building a Sustainable University-Wide Interdisciplinary Graduate Program to Address Disasters

   Paretti, M.C.; Deters, J.; Webb, M.; Menon, M. (July 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Disasters are becoming more frequent as the global climate changes, and recovery efforts require the cooperation and collaboration of experts and community members across disciplines. The DRRM program, funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship (NRT), is an interdisciplinary graduate program that brings together faculty and graduate students from across the university to develop new, transdisciplinary ways of solving disaster-related issues. The core team includes faculty from business, engineering, education, science, and urban planning fields. The overall objective of the program is to create a community of practice amongst the graduate students and faculty to improve understanding and support proactive decision-making related to disasters and disaster management. The specific educational objectives of the program are (1) context mastery and community building, (2) transdisciplinary integration and professional development, and (3) transdisciplinary research. The program’s educational research and assessment activities include program development, trainee learning and development, programmatic educational research, and institutional transformation. The program is now in its fourth year of student enrollment. Core courses on interdisciplinary research methods in disaster resilience are in place, engaging students in domain-specific research related to natural hazards, resilience, and recovery, and in methods of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. In addition to courses, the program offers a range of professional development opportunities through seminars and workshops. Since the program’s inception, the core team has expanded both the numbers of faculty and students and the range of academic disciplines involved in the program, including individuals from additional science and engineering fields as well as those from natural resources and the social sciences. At the same time, the breadth of disciplines and the constraints of individual academic programs have posed substantial structural challenges in engaging students in the process of building interdisciplinary research identities and in building the infrastructure needed to sustain the program past the end of the grant. Our poster and paper will identify major program accomplishments, but also draw on interviews with students to examine the structural challenges and potential solution paths associated with a program of this breadth. Critical opportunities for sustainability and engagement have emerged through integration with a larger university-level center as well as through increased flexibility in program requirements and additional mechanisms for student and faculty collaboration. 

   more » « less
2. A conceptual framework for knowledge integration in cross-disciplinary collaborations

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104197  

   Punjabi, Shruti; Misra, Shalini; Rippy, Megan A; Grant, Stanley B; Galappaththi, Eranga; Lim, Theodore; Birkland, Thomas A (October 2025, Environmental Science & Policy)

   This paper synthesizes three domains of literature to develop a conceptual framework for knowledge integration in cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral collaborations: (1) studies of inter- and transdisciplinarity, (2) studies of knowledge co-production in sustainability research, and (3) studies focusing on factors influencing knowledge integration in the Science of Team Science field. Combining a scoping review methodology with a cited reference search approach, we identify eight dimensions of knowledge integration: types of knowledge integrated, competencies and education required to practice knowledge integration, organizational structure, types of actor involvement, stages of collaboration, contextual factors, processes and mechanisms of knowledge integration, and types of knowledge integration outcomes. We structure these dimensions across four interconnected components of collaboration: knowledge gathering (inputs), structural dynamics and collaborative dynamics (processes), and integrative outcomes (outputs). We identify the different types of knowledge mobilized in cross-disciplinary collaborations – epistemic, experiential, contextual, cultural, applied, specialized, knowledge for systemic change, and normative knowledge - and link them to the structural features (e.g., team composition, governance) and collaborative dynamics (e.g., stakeholder engagement, interaction frequency, and roles) of cross-disciplinary teams that influence the processes and outcomes of knowledge integration. This framework is intended to function as a heuristic to prompt teams to adapt it to specific contexts, projects, and team configurations. It can also be used a scaffold for designing and evaluating knowledge integration efforts in diverse collaborative settings. 

   more » « less
3. Assessing Interdisciplinary Competency in the Disaster Resilience and Risk Management Graduate Program using Concept Maps

   Deters, J. R.; Paretti, M. C.; Zobel, C.; Cowell, M.; Irish, J. L. (June 2019, 2019 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition)

   Concept maps have emerged as a valid and reliable method for assessing deep conceptual understanding in engineering education within disciplines as well as interdisciplinary knowledge integration across disciplines. Most work on concept maps, however, focuses on undergraduates. In this paper, we use concept maps to examine changes in graduate students’ conceptual understanding and knowledge integration resulting from an interdisciplinary graduate program. Our study context is pair of foundational, team-taught courses in an interdisciplinary Disaster Resilience and Risk Management (DRRM) graduate program. The courses include a 3-hour research course and a 1-hour seminar that aim to build student understanding within and across Urban Affairs and Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geosciences, and Business Information Technology. The courses introduce core principles of DRRM and relevant research methods in these disciplines, and drive students to understand the intersections of these disciplines in the context of planning for and responding to natural and human-made disasters. To understand graduate student growth from disciplinary-based to interdisciplinary scholars, we pose the research questions: 1) In what ways do graduate students’ understandings of DRRM change as a result of their introduction to an interdisciplinary graduate research program? and 2) To what extent and in what ways do concept maps serve as a tool to capture interdisciplinary learning in this context? Data includes pre/post concept maps centered on disaster resilience and risk management, a one-page explanation of the post-concept map, and ethnographic field notes gathered from class and faculty meetings. Pre-concept maps were collected on the first day of class; post-concept maps will be collected as part of the final course assignment. We assess the students’ concept maps for depth of conceptual understanding within disciplines and interdisciplinary competency across disciplines, using the field notes to provide explanatory context. The results presented in this paper support the inclusion of an explanation component to concept maps, and also suggest that concept maps alone may not be the best measure of student understanding of concepts within and across disciplines in this specific context. If similar programs wish to use concept maps as an assessment method, we suggest the inclusion of an explanation component and suggest providing explicit instructions that specify the intended audience. We also suggest using a holistic scoring method, as it is more likely to capture nuances in the concept maps than traditional scoring methods, which focus solely on counting factors like hierarchies and number of cross-links. 

   more » « less
4. Work in Progress: Fostering Team Science in an Engineering Education Research Team

   Valdes-Vasquez, R; Sanford, K L; Paige, F; Parker, P J (June 2024, ASEE)

   This poster displays results from a project supported by an NSF grant to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration in civil and environmental engineering education. In its second year, part of the project focused on improving team science competencies within the core research group. Key activities included workshops on collaborative writing and grant writing best practices. The team attended a Science of Team Science (SciTS) workshop to refine collaboration skills and responded to the Teaming Readiness Survey, which revealed strengths in valuing expertise but identified areas for improvement, such as role clarity and effective communication. In addition, the team responded to a Social Network Analysis Survey that showcased a growing network of research ties, indicating a robust collaborative environment, particularly among Principal Investigators. The preliminary results highlight a development in the team’s effectiveness and psychological safety ratings, fostering trust and collaboration. The social network evolved from professional to social connections, with new members gradually integrating into the team. The research team concludes that focusing on collaborative skills and effective communication strengthens interdisciplinary collaboration in the changing scientific landscape. 

   more » « less
5. Board 431: Work in Progress: Fostering Team Science in an Engineering Education Research Team

   Valdes-Vasquez, Rodolfo; Sanford, Kristen L; Paige, Frederick; Parker, Philip J (June 2024, American Society for Engineering Education)

   This poster displays results from a project supported by an NSF grant to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration in civil and environmental engineering education. In its second year, part of the project focused on improving team science competencies within the core research group. Key activities included workshops on collaborative writing and grant writing best practices. The team attended a Science of Team Science (SciTS) workshop to refine collaboration skills and responded to the Teaming Readiness Survey, which revealed strengths in valuing expertise but identified areas for improvement, such as role clarity and effective communication. In addition, the team responded to a Social Network Analysis Survey that showcased a growing network of research ties, indicating a robust collaborative environment, particularly among Principal Investigators. The preliminary results highlight a development in the team’s effectiveness and psychological safety ratings, fostering trust and collaboration. The social network evolved from professional to social connections, with new members gradually integrating into the team. The research team concludes that focusing on collaborative skills and effective communication strengthens interdisciplinary collaboration in the changing scientific landscape. 

   more » « less