Bridging Disciplines for Creative Solutions
The second annual BRIDGE Symposium gave graduate students and postdoctoral scholars the chance to share ideas for bridging disciplines to address complex scientific challenges.
Judging from the kind of creative thinking presented at last week’s BRIDGE Symposium at North Carolina State University, two heads can indeed be better than one when it comes to solving big challenges that affect the economy, the environment and people’s lives.
At the event, 10 pairs of graduate students gave six-minute presentations describing actual or proposed interdisciplinary research to address complex problems. Topics ranged from automating plant disease prediction and treatment to using evidence-based communication strategies to enhance adoption of biotech crops that improve environmental sustainability.
Sponsored by Eastman, the second annual event was a joint effort of the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative and the NC State University Graduate School. The symposium is designed to help train students to communicate about their interdisciplinary research and its value and impact on society.
Building skills in collaboration and communication
As Terri Long, the N.C. PSI’s platform director for education and workforce development, said, “In this particular symposium, we’re asking students to talk not just about their work but talk about how they are building bridges across disciplines. This enables them to think outside of the box and develop creative solutions to pressing problems.”
Rhonda Sutton, the Graduate School’s assistant dean for professional development, said the event was also designed to help build students’ communication skills.
“We all know that your research matters, but it matters more when you can effectively communicate it,” she said. “Having programs like this really make a difference helping people build out that skill, and we think that’s a skill most employers appreciate.”
Participant Isabel Albelo, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in fiber and polymer science in the Wilson College of Textiles, said preparing for the symposium with College of Natural Resources doctoral candidate Ryen Frazier gave her new ways of viewing her own research.
“Getting to collaborate with Ryen was a fantastic opportunity to look at my research from a different perspective and think creatively about different ways in which it can be leveraged to meet other challenges,” she said.
Not only that, she added, “hearing about the amazing work being done by other grad students at NC State was incredibly inspiring, and definitely left me feeling energized about research and the importance of collaboration in addressing some of the critical challenges facing the world today.”
Winners delved into wide-ranging challenges
Albelo and Frazier won first place among the teams discussing theoretical research. They shared how they could use their varied expertise to find ways to use wheat straw, a byproduct of wheat production, to create valuable products and promote sustainable manufacturing.
Second place winners in that category were Praneswar Ghosh, Ph.D. student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), and Baha Erim Uzunoglu, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in the College of Engineering (COE). They proposed research to measure and monitor nitrogen gas loss from agriculture using low-cost gas sensors.
Among the five teams delivering presentations on existing collaborations, Evan Dadson and Emma Schoeppner came in first place. Dadson is a Ph.D. student in the College of Natural Resources, and Schoeppner is pursuing a doctorate in CALS. They discussed bringing insect ecologists and geospatial analysts together to improve pest management outcomes.
Second place winners were Micaela Robson, a Ph.D. candidate in CALS’ microbiology program, and Marlee Strong Reed, a Ph.D. candidate in geotechnical engineering in COE. Their research involves using microbes to create a biocement that could enhance the resiliency of levees and other protective infrastructure in the face of extreme weather events.
An opportunity to connect with industry
In addition to being a competitive communications event, the symposium also offered a networking component for students, faculty and industry representatives.
Presentations were judged by representatives of some of the area’s leading bioscience and technology firms. The judges were Joerg Bauer, BASF; Maureen DeNardo, IBM; Jamie Saxon, Inari; David Rosenthal, N.C. Biotechnology Center; Kevin Donohue, Syngenta; Sarah Pierce and Walter Diaz, UPL; Pradeep Marri, Pairwise; Ryan Schron, Novonesis; Cheryl Cass, SAS; and Paul Ingram, Raleigh Biosciences.
The judges also serve on the external advisory board for NC State’s new GRAD-AID for Ag program to train graduate students at the intersection of basic and applied plant sciences and artificial intelligence.
