Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability

Meet Navin Ramsaroop ’21. A recent graduate, Navin majored in Computer Science at Cornell. With support from Cornell Atkinson’s Academic Venture Fund and a supplemental grant from the Office of Engagement Initiatives (OEI) that supports undergraduate community-engaged learning opportunities, he worked with @cornelleng Professor Max Zhang and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) offices to identify where to install Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology, a key step towa...rds creating a statewide, public Internet of Things infrastructure to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban areas. Q: What role did a faculty member play in your experience? A: Professor Zhang played an important role in grounding me to the science and physics needed to be understood to make any sort of dashboard for end users. This created an important feedback loop that kept our project relevant to our users the team would implement the features on the website, and Prof. Zhang would ensure that these features were comprehensive, and most of all, scientifically correct. Q: Was there any involvement with community members? A: All of our IoT devices were made with specific members of the community in mind. For our electricity metering project in particular, we installed our metering devices in buildings across New York State, and would regularly have meetings with the building managers. These meetings were indispensable, as the community members would be able to tell us about the usability of our technology, and give us ideas on how to make our interface and analysis more impactful for actual users. Overall I learned that while technology can play an important supporting role in identifying areas of sustainability, our willingness to make little changes in our daily life is what will ensure sustainability for years to come.

A new $10 million grant led by Fellow Quirine Ketterings, Professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, aims to help the U.S. dairy industry become at least carbon neutral while supporting farmer livelihoods providing important insight for NY state. https://news.cornell.edu//10m-grant-funds-study-dairys-car

This edition of the Atkinson Update highlights a new software tool developed by researchers led by Fellow Timur Dogan, Assistant Professor in the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Cornell Atkinson's COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund supported this research. Since March 2019, Cornell Atkinson has granted 35 awards for pandemic-related research, enabling faculty to seize urgent and unique opportunities related to the COVID-19 pandemic and sustainability. https://www.atkinson.cornell.edu///newsletter-20210701.php

A team led by Fellow Gregory Bewly, Assistant Professor in the Cornell University College of Engineering, used wind speed data and the measured accelerations of a golden eagle outfitted with GPS tech to show that turbulence is a source of energy that birds may use to their advantage. https://news.cornell.edu///06/turbulence-gets-eagles-speed

"Congress should act soon on the Recovering America's Wildlife Act to deliver an easy win on the key issues that unite Americans: Jobs, infrastructure, and wildlife," writes Fellow Amanda Rodewald, Professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, in an op-ed published in The Hill. https://thehill.com//557797-recovering-america-through-the

"My key takeaway is that economics and tradeoffs are not the enemy of the environment. As we get information about benefits and cost, we can make better decisions about wildlife and about people. To have a high quality life as a human being, we have to preserve and protect wild habitats," says Cornell Atkinson Faculty Director Cathy King, Professor in the The Dyson School, speaking as a panelist at a Cornell Reunion event on bird migration and its compatibility with industry growth.

A computer modeling study co-authored by Cornell Atkinson Fellows Kathryn Fiorella, Alexander Flecker, and Suresh Sethi finds that declining fish biodiversity can affect human nutrition due to varied nutritional benefits between species. https://news.cornell.edu//declining-fish-biodiversity-pose

Meet Maia Zhang! A senior graduating this weekend, Maia majored in Math and French at Cornell. With support from Cornell Atkinson’s Academic Venture Fund and a supplemental grant from the Office of Engagement Initiatives (OEI) that supports undergraduate community-engaged learning opportunities, she has been working with @cornelleng Professor Matthew Pritchard on Cornell’s Earth Source Heat project, writing a report for the public that is now published on eCommons and helpin...g to update the Cornell ESH research webpage. Through the experience, Maia says she has gotten an inside look on Cornell’s journey towards our final goal of geothermal wells heating campus. . Q: What did you learn from working on this project? A: From this project, I learned about the complexities between addressing a scientific community (i.e. Cornell faculty and students) and a public forum like the residents of Ithaca. It can be a delicate balance to re-interpret one’s own work for the public’s best understanding. Since Cornell relies heavily on ESH to meet its carbon neutrality goals (of 2030), it has been interesting to explore this project, its viability, and its process towards success. . Q: Describe your involvement with community members? A: I attended a few town halls where I got a chance to hear the local community’s concerns and various faculty (Geoffrey Abers, Teresa Jordan, Pritchard) address the public. Also, a couple advisors from Weston Geophysical (Aaron Ferris and Jeremy Salerno) are working with us at each step of the way, even attending public forums. . Q: How has a faculty member contributed to your experience? A: Professor Pritchard has been a wonderfully understanding advisor, encouraging my co-worker and I while understanding that college inherently involves juggling many responsibilities. See more

New funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will help the Cornell Farmworker Program, led by Cornell Atkinson Fellow Mary Jo Dudley, continue to reach more than 3,000 New York farmworkers with critical health and legal information. https://news.cornell.edu//grant-expands-cornell-efforts-re

Meet Daniel May! A graduate from the Cornell Class of 2018, Daniel majored in Environmental Engineering and Science of Earth Systems. With support from Cornell Atkinson’s Academic Venture Fund and a supplemental grant from the Office of Engagement Initiatives (OEI) that supports undergraduate community-engaged learning opportunities, he has been working with @cornelleng Professors Matthew Pritchard and Larry Brown to make sense of seismic data in order and better understand ...the targeted rock formations below Cornell’s campus for the University’s Earth Source Heat project. Q: How did a faculty member impact your experience? A: Beyond their supervision as scientists, Professor Pritchard and Brown made it possible to occasionally step away from my computer screen and interact with people outside of the project itself, whether this was through trips to nearby high schools to talk to students about ESH at Cornell or working with professional geophysicists from outside the university to install seismic instruments. Q:Describe your involvement with community members? A: While out in the field it was not uncommon to have people approach us with a range of questions about geothermal energy. This was a great way to start informal discussions with community about how the seismic studies would help the engineers to properly assess risk. Additionally, I had the chance to help set up seismometers at local high schools in Ithaca and Dryden, where Prof. Brown and I also gave a short presentation to the students and answered questions about seismology ESH at Cornell. It was great to both get the students more involved with the events in their own community while also introducing them to a super exciting career path within the earth sciences. See more

This edition of the Atkinson Update kicks off with a highlight of the new Innovative Food System Solutions portal. The portal includes innovations highlighted in the Nature Sustainability expert panel report (launched in December). As Fellow Chris Barrett, Professor in the The Dyson School and Co-Leader of Cornell Atkinson's Food Security Working Group, shares in the feature story, global reach of the tool can continue to inform the efforts to increase food security as we approach the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit in September of this year. https://www.atkinson.cornell.edu///newsletter-20210520.php

Solar-power researchers at Cornell are full speed ahead, exploring ways to meet climate goals. Fellow Max Zhang, Professor in the Cornell University College of Engineering, is helping New York meet these goals. "We are at a very critical point in history to combat climate change," he says in an interview with NewsChannel 9. WATCH: https://bit.ly/2Sbo0VE

While examining the prevalence of listeria in agricultural soil, Cornell food scientists led by Cornell Atkinson Fellow Martin Wiedmann, Professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University,have stumbled upon five previously unknown and novel relatives of the bacteria. https://news.cornell.edu//all-family-cornell-adds-five-spe