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1. Summary Report: 4th Annual Workshop on Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals, 7-8 August 2024, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA

   Locmelis, M; Clark, S; Swain, R (September 2024, Missouri S&T)

   On August 7-8, 2024, the Thomas J. O’Keefe Institute for Sustainable Supply of Strategic Minerals at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) hosted the fourth annual workshop on ‘Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals’. The workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was attended by 212 participants. 143 participants attended the workshop in-person in the Havener Center on the Missouri S&T campus in Rolla, Missouri, USA. Another 69 participants attended online via Zoom. Twenty participants (including 12 students and 4 early career researchers) received travel support through the NSF grant to attend the conference in Rolla. Out of the workshop 212 participants, 199 stated their sectors of employment during registration showing that 88 participants were from academia (34 students), 58 from the private sector and 53 from government agencies. The workshop was followed by a post-workshop field trip to US Strategic Minerals (formerly Missouri Cobalt) in southeast Missouri that was attended by 18 workshop participants from academia (n=11; including 4 students) and the private sector (n=7). Four topical sessions were covered during the workshop: A. The Critical Mineral Potential of the USA: Evaluation of existing, and exploration for new resources. B. Critical Minerals Workforce Development: How to grow the US critical minerals workforce. C. Critical Mineral Processing and Recycling: Maximizing critical mineral recovery from existing production streams. D. Critical Mineral Policy and Supply Chain Economics: Reshoring critical mineral production. The topical sessions were composed of two keynote lectures and complemented by oral and poster presentations by the workshop participants, as well as a 30-minute open discussion at the end of each topical session. Breakout sessions that concluded each day discussed: • Can mining lead the new materials future? • Critical minerals research: where to go from here? • Should the Bureau of Mines be restored? Discussions during the workshop highlighted, for example, that: (i) Mining companies need to better address downstream needs and develop company cultures inclusive of younger generations; (ii) Although funding opportunities over the past year’s started to make a difference for critical minerals supply chain resilience, additional funding that is aimed at strengthening academia – private sector partnerships as well as international collaborations is needed to ensure a long-term impact; (iii) The majority of participants would welcome the reestablishment of the Bureau of Mines, although no consensus was reached on its potential responsibilities. This workshop report provides a detailed summary of the workshop demographics and discussions. 

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2. Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE): Second Year Progress

   Yanik, Paul; Rowe, Scott; Cagle, Wendy; Ritenour, Andy; Ferguson, Chip; Stone, Wesley (June 2024, ASEE)

   The NSF S-STEM-funded program titled Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE) hosted by the School of Engineering+Technology at Western Carolina University has now completed its second year of operation. The program aims to create graduates who bring impactful contributions to industry employers or create new businesses with their own original technology innovations. FLiTE has continued its mission to cultivate entrepreneurial and growth oriented thinking among financially needy engineering and technology students. With the first and second-year classes aboard, the program currently serves eighteen students. Program activities for the 2023 calendar year included the induction of a newly recruited class, connection with campus resources and veteran entrepreneurs, and scholar participation in a formal pitch development course. Pre- and post-year surveys were completed by the scholars to characterize personal perceptions of their initial and developing aptitudes toward the entrepreneurial mindset. This paper describes the cohort teaming sessions, invited speakers, informal and formal pitch presentations, and survey results from the fall 2022 and spring 2023 semesters. Summary results show improvement in scholar perceptions of entrepreneurial dimensions entrepreneurial targeted by program interventions. Findings from these activities may inform the curriculum at Western Carolina University and the content of similar entrepreneurship programs. 

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3. The Agile Academic Enterprise

   Wilson, T. A.; Towhidnejad, M.; Pembridge, J. J.; Bowen, E. E.; Ochoa, O.; Castro, C. A. (January 2021, 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   What might it mean to be an agile academic department? An agile college? An agile university? “Agile”, as used here, refers to practices and frameworks in software development and deployment, such as Scrum, Extreme Programming, and Crystal Clear. The Agile movement’s founding documents, the Agile Manifesto and its accompanying Agile Principles [https://agilemanifesto.org/], were published by leading software engineering researchers in February of 2001. The Manifesto staked out distinction with the prevailing software development approach at the time, called planned development and otherwise known as waterfall. The Agile Manifesto states, "We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan "That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.” Since the Manifesto’s publication, Agile use has expanded from its then primarily application in software development into a wide range of activities, from rocket motors (Space X), to race car development (Wikispeed), to finance (World Bank), to human resources (ING). Denning postulates Three Laws of the Agile Mindset: (1) The Law of the Small Team, in which small cross-functions teams work in short iterations receiving regular customer feedback; (2) The Law of the Customer, in which delighting the customer is taken as the ultimate purpose for any enterprise; and (3) The Law of the Network, in which networks of small teams act, having trust in the competency of each other, act like small teams in themselves [The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done. AMACOM, 2018]. Academic enterprises have unique attributes — recurring, months long, instructional terms; “customers” (students) whose short-term dissatisfaction can be part of the path to long-term success; industrial stakeholders who influence program direction and focus to satisfy hiring needs; generation of new knowledge, often with financial support from government agencies and industry; service to the profession and to our institutions. Using Denning’s Laws as a framing, we present possible approaches to employing agile within an academic department and discuss potential expansion of such to the level of a college and even an entire university. 

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4. 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 & Government 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. 

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5. Summary Report: 3rd Annual Workshop on Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals, 9-10 August 2023, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA, 36 pages

   Locmelis, Marek; Clark, Shelby; Moats, Michael; Awuah-Offei, Kwame; Fitch, Mark; Krolikowski, Alanna; Fikru, Mahelet (November 2023, Missouri S&T)

   On August 9-10, 2023, the Thomas J. O’Keefe Institute for Sustainable Supply of Strategic Minerals at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) hosted the third annual workshop on ‘Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals’. The workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was attended by 218 participants. 128 participants attended in-person in the Havener Center on the Missouri S&T campus in Rolla, Missouri, USA. Another 90 participants attended online via Zoom. Fourteen participants (including nine students) received travel support through the NSF grant to attend the conference in Rolla. Additionally, the online participation fee was waived for another six students and early career researchers to attend the workshop virtually. Out of the 218 participants, 190 stated their sectors of employment during registration showing that 87 participants were from academia (32 students), 62 from the private sector and 41 from government agencies. Four topical sessions were covered: A. The Critical Mineral Potential of the USA: Evaluation of existing, and exploration for new resources. B. Mineral Processing and Recycling: Maximizing critical mineral recovery from existing production streams. C. Critical Mineral Policies: Toward effective and responsible governance. D. Resource Sustainability: Ethical and environmentally sustainable supply of critical minerals. Each topical session was composed of two keynote lectures and complemented by oral and poster presentations by the workshop participants. Additionally, a panel discussion with panelists from academia, the private sector and government agencies was held that discussed ‘How to grow the American critical minerals workforce’. The 2023 workshop was followed by a post-workshop field trip to the lead-zinc mining operations of the Doe Run Company in southeast Missouri that was attended by 18 workshop participants from academia (n=10; including 4 students), the private sector (n=4), and government institutions (n=4). Discussions during the workshop led to the following suggestions to increase the domestic supply of critical minerals: (i) Research to better understand the geologic critical mineral potential of the USA, including primary reserves/resources, historic mine wastes, and mineral exploration potential. (ii) Development of novel extraction techniques targeted at the recovery of critical minerals as co-products from existing production streams, mine waste materials, and recyclables. (iii) Faster and more transparent permitting processes for mining and mineral processing operations. (iv) A more environmentally sustainable and ethical approach to mining and mineral processing. (v) Development of a highly skilled critical minerals workforce. This workshop report provides a detailed summary of the workshop discussions and describes a way forward for this workshop series for 2024 and beyond. 

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