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1. Summary Report: 2nd Annual Workshop on Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals, 4-5 August 2022, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA.

   Locmelis, Marek ; Clark, Shelby ; Lueking, Angela ; Moats, Michael ; Awuah-Offei, Kwame ; Alagha, Lana ; Fitch, Mark ; Krolikowski, Alanna ( January 2022 , 2nd Annual Workshop on Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals)

   On August 4-5, 2022, the Thomas J. O’Keefe Institute for Sustainable Supply of Strategic Minerals at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) hosted the 2nd annual national workshop on ‘Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals’ funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The workshop was convened via Zoom and attracted 346 registrants, including 171 registrants from academia (62 students), 88 registrants from government agencies, and 87 registrants from the private sector. The workshop was free to attend for everyone who registered. On day 1 of the workshop, 152 unique viewers logged into the sessions. Day 2 had 111 unique viewers. Four topical sessions were covered: A. The Critical Mineral Potential of the USA: Evaluation of existing, and exploration for new resources (Day 1). Keynote speaker: Jeffrey Mauk, United States Geological Survey. B. Mineral Processing and Recycling: Maximizing critical mineral recovery from existing production streams (Day 1). Keynote speaker: Karin Olson Hoal, Cornell University. C. Critical Mineral Policies: Toward effective and responsible governance (Day 2). Keynote speaker: Michelle Michot Foss, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. D. Resource Sustainability: Ethical and environmentally sustainable supply of critical minerals (Day 2). Keynote speaker: Debra Struhsacker, Professional Geologist, Environmental Permitting & Governmentmore »Relations Consultant. Each topical session was composed of one keynote lecture and three invited presentations. The sessions concluded with a Q/A discussion with all presenters. Recordings of selected presentations are available from the workshop website: https://criticalminerals.mst.edu/2022-presentation-videos/. The third annual workshop on ‘Resilient Supply of Critical ‘Minerals’ will be held in the summer of 2023 on the Missouri S&T campus, Rolla, Missouri, USA. The dates will be announced in January 2023.« less
2. Advancing Cross‐Disciplinary Understanding of Land‐Atmosphere Interactions

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JG006707  

   Beamesderfer, Eric R. ; Buechner, Christin ; Faiola, Celia ; Helbig, Manuel ; Sanchez‐Mejia, Zulia Mayari ; Yáñez‐Serrano, Ana María ; Zhang, Yunyan ; Richardson, Andrew D. ( January 2022 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)

   The evolution of disciplinary silos and increasingly narrow disciplinary boundaries have together resulted in one‐sided approaches to the study of land‐atmosphere interactions—a field that requires a bi‐directional approach to understand the complex feedbacks and interactions that occur. The integration of surface flux and atmospheric boundary layer measurements is therefore essential to advancing our understanding. The Land‐Atmosphere 2021 workshop (held virtually, June 10‐11, 2021) involved almost 300 participants from around the world and promoted cross‐discipline collaboration by way of talks from invited speakers, moderated discussions, breakout sessions, and a virtual poster session. The workshop focused on five main theme areas: “big picture” overview, instrumentation and remote sensing, modeling, water, and aerosols and clouds. In talks and breakout groups, there were frequent calls for more AmeriFlux sites to be instrumented for boundary layer height measurements, and for the development of some “super sites” where profiling instruments would be deployed. There was further agreement on the need for the standardization of various datasets. There was also a consensus that funding agencies need to be willing to support the sorts of large projects (including associated instrumentation) which can drive interdisciplinary work. Early‐career scientists, in particular, expressed enthusiasm for working across disciplinary boundaries butmore »noted that there need to be more financial support and training opportunities so they would be better prepared for interdisciplinary work. Investment in these career development opportunities would enable today's cohort of early‐career scientists to advance the frontiers of interdisciplinary work over the next couple of decades.

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3. Opportunities and Barriers to Rural Telerobotic Surgical Health Care in 2021: Report and Research Agenda from a Stakeholder Workshop

   https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2021.0378  

   Hansen, Ryan N. ; Saour, Basil Matthew ; Serafini, Brian ; Hannaford, Blake ; Kim, Lanu ; Kohno, Takayoshi ; James, Ryan ; Monsky, Wayne ; Seslar, Stephen P. ( November 2021 , Telemedicine and e-Health)

   Background: There are well-recognized challenges to delivering specialty health care in rural settings. These challenges are particularly evident for specialized surgical health care due to the lack of trained operators in rural communities. Telerobotic surgery could have a significant impact on the rural-urban health care gap, but thus far, the promise of this method of health care delivery has gone unrealized. With the increasing adoption of telehealth over the past year, along with the maturation of telecommunication and robotic technologies over the past 2 decades, a reappraisal of the opportunities and barriers to widespread implementation of telerobotic surgery is warranted. Here we report the outcome of a rural telerobotic stakeholder workshop to explore modern-day issues critical to the advancement of telerobotic surgical health care. Materials and Methods: We assembled a multidisciplinary stakeholder panel to participate in a 2-day Rural Telerobotic Surgery Stakeholder Workshop. Participants had diverse expertise, including specialty surgeons, technology experts, and representatives of the broader telerobotic health care ecosystem, including economists, lawyers, regulatory consultants, public health advocates, rural hospital administrators, nurses, and payers. The research team reviewed transcripts from the workshop with themes identified and research questions generated based on stakeholder comments and feedback. Results: Stakeholder discussions fellmore »into four general themes, including (1) operating room team interactions, (2) education and training, (3) network and security, and (4) economic issues. The research team then identified several research questions within each of these themes and provided specific research strategies to address these questions. Conclusions: There are still important unanswered questions regarding the implementation and adoption of rural telerobotic surgery. Based on stakeholder feedback, we have developed a research agenda along with suggested strategies to address outstanding research questions. The successful execution of these research opportunities will fill critical gaps in our understanding of how to advance the widespread adoption of rural telerobotic health care.« less
4. A methodological approach for researching online teacher professional development

   Johnson, M. M. ( April 2021 , Middle Atlantic ASEE Section Spring 2021 Conference)

   COVID-19 has altered the landscape of teaching and learning. For those in in-service teacher education, workshops have been suspended causing programs to adapt their professional development to a virtual space to avoid indefinite postponement or cancellation. This paradigm shift in the way we conduct learning experiences creates several logistical and pedagogical challenges but also presents an important opportunity to conduct research about how learning happens in these new environments. This paper describes the approach we took to conduct research in a series of virtual workshops aimed at teaching rural elementary teachers about engineering practices and how to teach a unit from an engineering curriculum. Our work explores how engineering concepts and practices are socially constructed through interactions with teachers, students, and artifacts. This approach, called interactional ethnography has been used by the authors and others to learn about engineering teaching and learning in precollege classrooms. The approach relies on collecting data during instruction, such as video and audio recordings, interviews, and artifacts such as journal entries and photos of physical designs. Findings are triangulated by analyzing these data sources. This methodology was going to be applied in an in-person engineering education workshop for rural elementary teachers, however the pandemic forcedmore »us to conduct the workshops remotely. Teachers, working in pairs, were sent workshop supplies, and worked together during the training series that took place over Zoom over four days for four hours each session. The paper describes how we collected video and audio of teachers and the facilitators both in whole group and in breakout rooms. Class materials and submissions of photos and evaluations were managed using Google Classroom. Teachers took photos of their work and scanned written materials and submitted them all by email. Slide decks were shared by the users and their group responses were collected in real time. Workshop evaluations were collected after each meeting using Google Forms. Evaluation data suggest that the teachers were engaged by the experience, learned significantly about engineering concepts and the knowledge-producing practices of engineers, and feel confident about applying engineering activities in their classrooms. This methodology should be of interest to the membership for three distinct reasons. First, remote instruction is a reality in the near-term but will likely persist in some form. Although many of us prefer to teach in person, remote learning allows us to reach many more participants, including those living in remote and rural areas who cannot easily attend in-person sessions with engineering educators, so it benefits the field to learn how to teach effectively in this way. Second, it describes an emerging approach to engineering education research. Interactional ethnography has been applied in precollege classrooms, but this paper demonstrates how it can also be used in teacher professional development contexts. Third, based on our application of interactional ethnography to an education setting, readers will learn specifically about how to use online collaborative software and how to collect and organize data sources for research purposes.« less
5. Workshops for Building the Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering Education Community

   Gennert, M. ; Lotfi, N. ; Mynderse, J. ; Jethwani, M. ; Kapila, V. ( June 2020 , ASEE annual conference exposition proceedings)

   Intelligent Autonomous Systems, including Intelligent Manufacturing & Automation and Industry 4.0, have immense potential to improve human health, safety, and welfare. Engineering these systems requires an interdisciplinary knowledge of mechanical, electrical, computer, software, and systems engineering throughout the design and development process. Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering (MRE) is emerging as a discipline that can provide the broad inter-disciplinary technical and professional skill sets that are critical to fulfill the research and development needs for these advanced systems. Despite experiencing tremendous, dynamic growth, MRE lacks a settled-on and agreed-upon body-of-knowledge, leading to unmet needs for standardized curricula, courses, laboratory platforms, and accreditation criteria, resulting in missed career opportunities for individuals and missed economic opportunities for industry. There have been many educational efforts around MRE, including courses, minors, and degree programs, but they have not been well integrated or widely adopted, especially in USA. To enable MRE to coalesce as a distinct and identifiable engineering field, the authors conducted four workshops on the Future of Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering (FoMRE) education at the bachelor’s degree level. The overall goal of the workshops was to improve the quality of undergraduate MRE education and to ease the adoption of teaching materials to prepare graduatesmore »with a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical hands-on skills. To realize this goal, the specific objectives were to generate enthusiasm and a sense of community among current and future MRE educators, promote diversity and inclusivity within the MRE community, identify thought leaders, and seek feedback from the community to serve as a foundation for future activities. The workshops were intended to benefit a wide range of participants including educators currently teaching or developing programs in MRE, PhD students seeking academic careers in MRE, and industry professionals desiring to shape the future workforce. Workshop activities included short presentations on sample MRE programs, breakout sessions on specific topics, and open discussion sessions. As a result of these workshops, the MRE educational community has been enlarged and engaged, with members actively contributing to the scholarship of teaching and learning. This paper presents the workshops’ formats, outcomes, results of participant surveys, and their analyses. A major outcome was identifying concept, skill, and experience inventories organized around the dimensions of foundational/practical/applications and student preparation/MRE knowledgebase. Particular attention is given to the extent to which the workshops realized the project goals, including attendee demographics, changes in participant attitudes, and development of the MRE community. The paper concludes with a summary of lessons learned and a call for future activities to shape the field.« less