Seaver College Hosts Inaugural Interdisciplinary Research Symposium

Two interdisciplinary research teams led by Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering faculty presented their climate change research to a full house at the inaugural Interdisciplinary Research Symposium on March 11, 2024. Both teams were awarded seed grants through Seaver College for research projects that help develop new interdisciplinary opportunities to address societal changes.

Principal investigator Maria Christina Vasquez, associate professor of biology, led the project titled "An Interdisciplinary Approach to Addressing Climate Warming Effects on Marine Mussels." The team's co-investigators include Barbara Marino, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Andrew Forney, associate professor of computer science.

This research project sought to understand the effects of climate change, specifically thermal exposure, on marine mussels' physiological tolerance to predict the species' future persistence. Marine mussels are both ecologically and economically important. On the ecological level, they aggregate together to build mussel beds creating crevices in which other marine species can hide. Economically, mussels are part of a $270+ million aquaculture and shellfish industry along the U.S. west coast. The team developed both hardware and software systems to create a temperature control system that would expose mussels to temperatures in a tank that replicates warming in their natural environment. The team also developed sensors to measure the opening of the mussel shell. The team plans to continue this research and have made the monitoring and data capture systems scalable.

"The interdisciplinary component of this project was inspiring to watch," said Vasquez. "One team member, a computer engineering student, learned some environmental science and biology concepts for the first time and applied that knowledge in the development of computer systems and monitoring tools that captured our research data."

The second research project, led by principal investigator Jordan Freitas, assistant professor of computer science is titled "Green Crossings: A New Platform for Collective Climate Action." The team's co-investigators include Eric Strauss, presidential professor of biology; Zahra Alavi, assistant professor of physics; Sarah Bittick, assistant professor of biology; Ray Toal, professor of computer science; and Brendan Smith, associate professor of mechanical engineering.

This research project involved building an online application for promoting environmental activism, accurate information dissemination, action, and collaboration among individuals and organizations. "Our Green Crossing platform will not only provide accurate, curated information about ecological and social issues, but also gives the user connections to others organizing for environmental activism projects," said Freitas.

The goal of this application is to capture the interconnections between societies, governments, corporations, and nonprofit organizations and empower individuals with the knowledge and tools they require to understand ecological disruptors, possible actions to address them, and the impacts of both disruptors and corrective action. Also embedded in this portal will be online tools that facilitate building supportive communities to make it easier for individuals/groups to collaborate, share resources, and maximize their collective actions and impacts.

Looking ahead, the team will use this dynamic platform in an environmental science summer program for high school students transitioning to college. There is also potential to integrate the platform into a year-long high school curriculum called Urban Ecolab: How Healthy is My City developed in partnership with the National Science Foundation

The 2023 - 2024 Interdisciplinary Project Seed Grants for projects addressing climate change were supported by a generous gift from Timi Sobrato.

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