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Celebrating UNM Research and Discovery Week 2024

November 6, 2024 - Carly Bowling

photo: a woman working with electronic components in a laboratory setting.

The University of New Mexico will host a variety of exciting events in celebration of UNM’s research, innovation and creative activity during the 2024 Research and Discovery Week Nov. 8-15.

The School of Engineering will welcome several special events to the Centennial Engineering Building including the AI Summit, two of four Research and Discovery Week Keynote speakers, an engineering seminar, and a workshop with the National Institute of Health. Throughout the week, computer science and engineering faculty will present their work at the AI Summit, Grand Challenges Day, Space Day and more. Below is a list of events especially relevant to the engineering community. For a full list of programming, visit the Research and Discovery Week website.

Monday, Nov. 11

AI Summit
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Stamm Commons, Centennial Engineering Center

This is an opportunity to share and learn about research in artificial intelligence at UNM from computer science and engineering to social and natural sciences and biomedicine. Come and learn how AI is transforming our world! Event registration has closed.

Tuesday, Nov. 12

Grand Challenges Day and Level 1 Program Launch
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in SUB Ballroom C

Celebrate the successes and new frontiers of President Stokes' signature Grand Challenges Program. The morning will feature presentations from past and present Grand Challenge teams highlighting strategies for communication, community engagement, public policy impact, and student success. The afternoon will mark the official launch of the search for the next UNM Grand Challenges, featuring a panel of influential New Mexicans discussing the challenges facing our State, followed by an ideation session for UNM faculty, staff and students to discuss how research can address these problems.

Keynote Lecture, Dr. Kelly J. Cross - Racialized Trauma: Does It Happen in Engineering?
6 p.m. in Larrañaga Auditorium, Centennial Engineering Center

The last few years, we witnessed several examples of social injustice and social unrest. As human beings and engineers, we must decide how we want to respond to what happened and how we want to move forward. Calls to improve our approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have coincided with the call to update our overall engineering curriculum. The goal of this talk is to provide engineers with a basic understanding of racialized trauma and how it lives and breathes within the engineering culture and articulate potential responses to the inequity based on race in engineering and realign our actions to improve engineering education. This impactful workshop will provide definitions and practical examples of racialized trauma in engineering and potential mitigation strategies. Dr. Kelly J. Cross, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Georgia Tech and Emory University, is a data-informed, transformational mission-focused culturally responsive practitioner, researcher, and educational leader. Cross has conducted online and in-person workshops on managing personal bias in STEM, inclusive teaching practices, and mitigating racialized power and privilege. Her research interests include diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM, intersectionality, teamwork and communication skills, assessment, and identity construction. Her teaching philosophy focuses on student centered approaches such as problem-based learning and culturally relevant pedagogy. Cross’s complimentary professional activities promote inclusive excellence through collaboration. She is an NSF CAREER awardee, delivered multiple distinguished lectures, and has received a national mentoring award.

Wednesday, Nov. 13

UNM Space Day
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in SUB Ballroom C

Come celebrate a day dedicated to space research, exploration, and opportunities! The event will include a series of exciting talks, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities with leaders in the space industry. Walk on the surface of Mars and touch the surface of the Moon and Mars through immersive space technologies. Connect with Students, Faculty, and Space Industry Experts to explore groundbreaking space research and technologies. Explore internship opportunities with National Labs, AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory) and Commercial Space Industries. Engage in workshops and presentations on topics such as the Artemis III mission, UNM student and faculty projects, and current space initiatives.

Esther Takeuchi: Toward Clean Energy: Scalable Batteries for Large Scale Storage
4 p.m. in Larrañaga Auditorium, Centennial Engineering Center

Dr. Esther Takeuchi, a SUNY distinguished professor and the William and Jane Knapp Chair in Energy and the Environment at Stony Brook University, will deliver a seminar discussing the topic of scalable batteries. Electricity generation is the second largest source of emissions in the US. Implementation of clean and renewable energy generation using solar or wind power is challenged by their inherent intermittency as they require storage to balance supply and demand. Large-scale energy storage systems suitable for pairing with renewable energy generation require low-cost materials and safety. A promising candidate for large scale storage is the aqueous Zn-ion battery. Takeuchi holds a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory as Chief Scientist and Chair of the Interdisciplinary Science Department. Previously, she was employed at Greatbatch, Inc., where her work was instrumental in the development of the lithium/silver vanadium oxide battery, the power source of life-saving implantable cardiac defibrillators. Takeuchi is a prolific inventor with more than 150 patents.

Friday, Nov. 15

PMNIH-UNM Joint Workshop - Ensuring Fair Authorship in Research Publishing: What you need to know
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Stamm Commons, Centennial Engineering Center

Graduate students, postdocs, and other researchers are invited to a workshop co-hosted by UNM Vice President for Research Dr. Ellen Fisher and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director of Research Integrity Dr. Kathryn Partin. UNM investigators will join NIH intramural researchers on an interactive session focused on the understanding the best practices of responsible authorship, including developing authorship agreements, managing authorship disputes, and understanding the roles and responsibilities of authors. Workshop followed by lunch and a lecture by Dr. Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch. Registered workshop participants will receive 2 hours toward their Responsible Conduct of Research training requirements. Registration required through UNM Learning Central course ID RCR-BEG-BASICS-0004. Lunch will be provided following the workshop.

Keynote: Ivan Oransky, MD - Retractions: On the Rise, But Not Enough
1 to 3 p.m. in Larrañaga Auditorium, Centennial Engineering Center

Dr. Ivan Oransky is editor-in-chief of The Transmitter, distinguished journalist in residence at New York University's Carter Journalism Institute, and co-founder of the influential blog, Retraction Watch. He has had a distinguished career as a senior editor for Scientific American, Reuters Health, The Scientist, and Medscape. He won the John P. McGovern Award for biomedical communication from the American Medical Writers Association. Lecture to be followed by a Q&A moderated by UNM Vice President for Research Dr. Ellen Fisher.

In 2000, there were about 40 retractions from scholarly literature. In 2023, there were more than 10,000. That is a dramatic increase, even accounting for the growing number of papers published per year. In this talk, I will explore the reasons for the increase, why it is good news, and why the real number should be even higher. I will tell the stories of the sleuths who are finding problems in the literature, drawing on more than a decade of experience at Retraction Watch. And I will talk about what's driving bad behavior in the literature. Event will be hosted live in-person and online via Zoom.

Workshop: Science Communication
1 to 4 p.m. in PAIS 2120

The ARID Institute at UNM will host this workshop to share strategies, tips and best practices for science communication to non-technical audiences. The workshop will be hosted by Debbie Lee, senior program manager for the ARID Institute. She is an experienced environmental mediator, facilitator, and science communicator. The workshop will help researchers think through the basics of communicating their research and build skills in communicating science to convey information and inform behavioral change. Register in advance online.

Join the fun next week by attending one of more than 30 planned lectures, workshops or conferences to celebrate UNM’s place as New Mexico’s premier Research 1 university. Learn more on the Research and Discovery Week website.

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