October 20, 2025 • 33 mins
“Infrastructure” is one of those words that can mean a lot of different things to different people. At George Mason, we’re focused on infrastructure in terms of sustainability – how can we help innovate new systems for the world’s infrastructure that will be resilient and flexible enough to support a changing world.
On this episode of Access to Excellence, President Gregory Washington is joined by two guests working at the intersection of innovation and sustainability to develop George Mason’s capabilities as a living laboratory for students, faculty, and staff to find solutions to our grand challenges: Liling Huang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering and Computing and the Dominion Energy Faculty Fellow in Power and Energy Systems, and Leah Nichols, executive director of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) in the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Trailblazers in research,innovators in technology,
and those who simply have a good story:
all make up the fabric thatis George Mason University,
where taking on the grand challengesthat face our students graduates in
higher education is ourmission and our passion.
Hosted by Mason PresidentGregory Washington,
this is the Access to Excellence podcast.
(00:26):
Infrastructure is one of those words thatcan mean a lot of different things to
different people. At George Mason,
we're focused on infrastructurein terms of sustainability:
how we can help innovate new systemsfor the world's infrastructure
that will be resilient andflexible enough to support a
(00:48):
changing world. And we'renot just talking theory here.
My two guests today are atthe intersection of innovation and sustainability to
develop George Mason's capabilities tobe a living laboratory for students,
faculty,
and staff to find solutions toour pressing grand challenges.
Liling Huang is an associate professorof electrical and computer engineering in
(01:11):
the College of Engineering and Computing,
and she's the Dominion EnergyFaculty Fellow in Power and Energy
Systems.
And Leah Nichols is theexecutive director of the
Institute for Sustainable Earth, or ISE.
It is in the Office of ResearchInnovation and Economic Impact.
(01:34):
Leah, Liling, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Liling,
your work focuses on securingthe nation's critical energy
infrastructure.
Can you tell us a little more aboutwhat this means and why it's important?
Energy is a backbone ofour national security,
(01:56):
our economy, sustainability, our
community trust.
So without the energy wecannot have data flow,
we cannot run hospitals,we cannot run data centers.
So it is very, very criticalinfrastructure for our modern life.
(02:17):
So what kind of threats do you see thatour energy and infrastructure face?
Our infrastructure isfacing many challenges, uh,
including the aging infrastructure.
Our energy infrastructure was builtmore than a hundred years ago.
It is aging and needs to be modernized.
We also facing challengesof cyber physical attacks,
(02:41):
we also facing challengesof the workflow shortage,
the supply chain shortage,
the challenge of incorporating therenewable energy into the power systems.
I see.
Have we taken some major steps asa country or as a region to secure
our energy infrastructure?
(03:02):
Yes.
I think the public privatesector are working together along
with the government to securethe energy infrastructure by
upgrading our infrastructure,investing in workforce development,
uh, as well as bringinga more diverse energy
(03:22):
portfolio to the system.
Well, that's more easilysaid than done, right?
When you start to talk aboutdiverse energy portfolio,
that could be many other diverseenergy pieces bring their own
set of problems, right?
Yes, exactly.
So one of iscs key programsis Mason as a Living Lab.
And that whole entity aims to stimulateand support the development of
(03:46):
research and scholarship that use thecampuses and their physical and social
ecological structures forimplementation in education.
And that framework seems tobe working really well. Leah,
can you tell us more about howthis initiative came about?
Sure. Happy to.
I came to Mason about five years ago toto run the Institute for a Sustainable
(04:08):
Earth.
And a core mission of the instituteis to help put research into practice.
So the campus itself iseffectively a small city.
There's over 48,000 people on the campus,
a population that that utilizesthe campus, some of whom live here.
It embodies all of the different typesof infrastructure systems that are
required to support andmaintain that population.
So it's an ideal microcosmwith which to engage,
(04:31):
to study the socio-environmentaltechnological ecosystems that make up this
small city.
And then it's also a microcosm withinwhich we can develop solutions,
test solutions, use it as a test bed,
create some demonstration projects thatcould then be scaled into solutions in
communities elsewhereand around the globe.
So it was my first targetto create opportunities to put research into practice.
(04:54):
I reached out to Dr. Greg Farley,who's the director of sustainability,
and he and I really jived on this idea.
We really liked this ideaand wanted to lean into it.
So we looked at what all was going onalready on campus and how faculty and
students were utilizing thecampus for research. Um,
and learned that there was a lot going on.
Our faculty are innovative and they wannasee their research put into practice.
(05:17):
Um, but all of those projects werebeing, being done on an ad hoc basis.
The wheel was being reinventedover and over again.
And so Greg and I put our headstogether along with Frank Strike,
vice president for, uh, facilitiesand operations, campus operations,
and Andre Marshall, vicepresident for research,
to really develop a programthat standardized protocols that effectively built a
(05:38):
bridge between the research communityand the facilities and operations
communities. So this type of researchactivity could go on much more smoothly,
be amplified.
We also created a data sandbox tocapture the data that was being collected
about the university so that it could beshared across units with others who are
interested in, in similarsorts of research projects.
Well, let's talk about scale and,uh, be a little more pragmatic.
(05:59):
Can you gimme an idea ofwhat kinds of projects
have gone through this process? You know,
just talk high level in termsof what they are and what they,
what they're supposed to do.
They do range and scale, and wehave provided seed funding to,
to support some new projects. Uh, theyand those typically are on the order of,
(06:20):
you know, tens of thousands, um,
or so to support students and facultywho are getting ideas off the ground.
Some of them are very largeprojects, not ones that we supported,
but ones that wedefinitely amplify as the,
that are internationalrecognized arboretum,
which has a massive amount of dataabout the trees on campus. Um,
and like I said,internationally recognized,
but we also supported verysmaller scale projects.
(06:43):
One of our very first ones that camethrough the new program is the Cherry
Blossom Monitoring.
And the math department has stood up a,
a global competition where they'reworking with students who, um,
to do statistical analysis to predictwhen the cherry blossoms are gonna bloom
here in DC at Mason, I think in Japan,
there's a couple of otherinternational sites. It's, it's,
(07:04):
it's now taken on a life of its own,
but we were able to put inplace working with facilities,
cameras to monitor the,the, the blooms there.
We also have a small project thatwe just funded this year that I'm,
I'm quite excited about.
Dr. Changwoo Ahn is taking on analysisof a corner of the campus that used to be
an intermittent wetland. It's nowturning into, um, a permanent wetland.
(07:25):
And that transformation process issomething that's not well studied. Um,
so it creates opportunities there,but it's also of interest to the,
the campus operations.
Understanding this change processwill help them better manage the,
the wetlands and the ecosystem that's,that's emerging in this space. So,
very exciting.
So Liling?
Yes.
While your smart grid labis independent from ISE,
(07:48):
if I'm not mistaken, right? The projectis working towards a similar goal.
Right? So we got two living lab concepts.
So talk to me about each one of you.What does it mean to be a living lab?
To me, a living lab,
it is the platform to close many,
(08:10):
many gaps between theindustry and academia,
within the academia, betweenthe students, the faculty,
the staff. It's,
it is a platform can bringeverybody together as
a community, and especially at Masonto achieve education and research.
(08:31):
Talk a little bit about how the projectsupport experiential learning of our
students.
It's bring our student, uh,
career ready and build theirteamwork problem solving,
and it builds their confidencebecause they operate,
they experience that theybring the theory into practice.
(08:53):
I think it's very, veryimportant to our students,
not only to recruit, but alsoto retain and to advance.
And I think it also will put Mason as
a leading position in allthe aspect. It's a very,
very important tool for, forMason and for our students.
(09:15):
I would agree. Uh,
a lot of faculty do take their studentsout of the classroom and utilize the
ecosystems, the campusgrounds to gather data.
And while their students are learningabout the tools and the data collection
methods and the analytical methods forstudying these types of systems, and,
you know, with our lab.But we're hopeful we,
we have some faculty who are alreadyfeeding this data that their,
(09:36):
their students are collecting in coursesinto the data sandbox that starts to
create a longitudinal data set of, um,similar sorts of data collection, um,
over time. But the morethat we can get, um,
and encourage our faculty to get ourstudents out utilizing the campus to
develop their research skills, todevelop their understanding of,
of socio-environmental system theory,et cetera, is, is really exciting.
(09:56):
And to me, I think the, the livinglab, what I see, it's beyond the lab.
It is a living community,uh, living society.
We can have studentactually have a startup,
a model startup to run thiscommunity, to run the lab,
to collect the data, uh, and then to,to hire student, to be the operator.
(10:19):
So I think this is, uh, evenbeyond lab, you know, like,
and it, it also bridge, uh,
brings in multidisciplinarycollaboration between engineering,
science, business and policy.
Well, the problems that wehave to deal with today,
especially in the energy space,are all multidisciplinary, right?
(10:41):
Mm-hmm. Yes.
They have the technicalaspects. Which are very clear.
You have the social economic aspects,which in my opinion are very, very clear.
And you got the political aspectswhich are not as clear, uh,
at least on some things, but arestill clearly there, right? So,
Leah, your role at theISE is specifically around
(11:04):
developing connections acrosscommunities to put George Mason's
research and scholarship into actionin support of a sustainable world.
So what does it look like to buildthose bridges across discipline?
Yes.
And talk a little bit about thereceptivity on campus to building
those bridges amongstour faculty and, and our,
(11:26):
and our researchers and the like.
Sure. Um, I was gonna say,
I'm gonna go one step further and saywe're building bridges across academic
disciplines, but we're alsoworking to bring external partners,
people who are interested inco-designing, co-developing solutions, um,
that they're experiencing in their,in their lives with local governments,
local, you know, local businesses.
Yeah. Sometimes they can be, forlack of a better way of putting it,
(11:47):
easier to build relationships withthan the entities right here on campus.
That can be true.
A couple of nights ago I had dinnerwith one of the founders of Nvidia.
And at that dinner, theywere talking, of course,
they were extolling thevirtues of their AI chips
and the super computers that youcan build from these AI chips.
(12:11):
And one of the things that he talkedabout really piqued my interest that just
immediately came to mind listening toyou all talk about bridging the divide.
Their belief is that some solutionsare hyperdimensional, right?
Meaning there's so many layers ofpossible connection that we just
may not be able to see.
It may not be able to draw theconnection to inner city social science
(12:34):
issues and next generation solar. Right.
But that computers, especiallythose equipped with, uh, uh,
AI generated tools,
can actually explore wellbeyond our realm of seeing
an actual problem.
And so I just wanna get yourreaction to that relative to this
(12:57):
transdisciplinary work and findingsolutions that right now aren't
obvious to us.
So you really hit on somethingI'm also excited about. One,
one of the things I was doing while I wasat the National Science Foundation and
was trying to fund science that wouldadvance our understanding of these complex
system interactions.
And the advances in the technology havereally unlocked that ability. You know,
(13:19):
science hundreds of years agothrough relatively recently,
was focused on a reductionist, like,let's break it down to the smallest,
smallest, smallest parts to reallyunderstand what's going on. Valuable, but
at like, now,
we can really look at systems and tryto interrogate what's the causality?
Can you explain causality within systems?
So these types of tools really allow usto interrogate these complex systems in
(13:39):
really new ways,
which could very much revealopportunities to adjust to,
to where to take action,
how action in some spaces will potentiallypropagate into action. Uh, you know,
this is a new area of science. I'm not,
I'm not saying that we're gonna beable to explain every complex system,
but what an exciting avenue of science is,
is to be interrogating the complexityinstead of the smallest pieces.
(14:03):
Yeah. I, I think that we,a a unit, an institution,
we have a very limited timeto learn. Very limited view.
And yes,
AI does provide a potentialto be able to look at
everything holistically, maybecome up with a good solution.
But personally, I always think that,you know, everything has, it's,
(14:26):
it's always two folded. On oneside, it has one and has a zero.
So I think it, it brings opportunity,
but also we want to know thechallenge that AI bring in to the
society. So we still need a human,
human in the loop to help AIdo a better job. You know,
we are human being, wewant to have a better life.
(14:49):
So we don't want the whole worldto become just machine, just AI.
So the human in the loop is veryimportant. Uh, and that also,
like all the AI computation,again, I'm the power person.
So I would like to say the challengethat the AI computation bring in is the
humongous energy demand tosupport those AI computation,
(15:12):
and that huge energy demand is part ofthe challenge to our infrastructure,
the impact to the environment. So howdo we solve those complex problem?
It's very interesting.
Oh, I hear you. I hear you.
I think AI is an exciting tool,
but fully agree that you have to useit cautiously. Any type of science,
any type of tool,
how is it gonna get used and how is itgonna be put into practice and changing
(15:34):
the world around us. Sothings to think about the.
The challenge is that cat might be outof the bag right now, you know? So look,
you both have work experienceoutside the academy, right? So Leah,
you spend time at National ScienceFoundation; Liling, you were a certified,
uh, professional engineer at TaiwanDevelopment and Trust Corporation before
(15:55):
pursuing a PhD.
And so talk about thoseexperiences and how those
experiences inspire yourmove into higher ed,
but also how those experiencesare helpful for you today.
So I think it's a veryvaluable experience. Uh,
like I work in industryand I see the challenge
(16:16):
in industry, which the student will be,uh, facing, you know, in their career.
So I see the gap betweenthe industry and academia.
I remember when I first report to, uh,my manager, I have to learn everything,
you know, start from the beginningbecause it's, I learn all the theory.
So I kind of see the importanceof hands-on, practical. Uh,
(16:40):
and also I see that the,
the importance and actuallyto run the infrastructure,
human is also, I wouldsay like the operator.
The engineer is very important and verycritical part of the infrastructure.
So I see the gap and I see theimportance of having a skillful
(17:00):
engineer workforce. And that's why, uh,
inspire me to build a career inacademia because I think that, uh,
it is a very prestigious position totrain and educate a future engineer.
And that experiencehelped me to better embed,
improve my teaching, uh,
(17:21):
education and research to beable to bring in the practical
challenge and experience intothe education and research.
Interesting.
So while I was at theNational Science Foundation,
one of my primary roles was to helpbuild and design these multidisciplinary,
and transdisciplinary types of fundingprograms to fund different types of
(17:43):
science. Again, focusing predominantlyon socioecological systems and the,
the role of, of those systemsand how those are changing.
And then toward the latter part, whileI was engaged with an advisory council,
they gave us very strongadvice. Like we're,
we've been describing thechallenges of the world for a while,
quite a long time in thesocio-environmental systems.
What do we start doing about it?
(18:03):
And that really helped driveme to think about like,
what type of science needs to be doneso that we can start taking action to
address these grand challenges,these wicked challenges. And as a,
a program officer,
I was facilitating thosesorts of dialogues across disciplines so that I bring
back to the table here at Mason,
getting lots of people with very differentworldviews in the same room to come
(18:24):
to a,
a common understanding ofneed and opportunity and ways that we can support, uh,
science to developsolutions in these space.
I was also often one of thevoices in the room saying,
how do we bring the spacesof research use into the,
the scientific questions orthe science that we're funding?
How do we get use-inspired science wherecommunity partners or industry partners
(18:45):
are,
are deeply engaged in development of thescience itself or the co-design of the
science.
So one of the solutions in ourgrand challenge initiative is
George Mason at the center of buildinga climate resilience society. Now,
you two sit in differentcomponents of that spectrum, right,
of building a climate resilient society.
(19:07):
And so as two researchers dedicatedto innovation and sustainability,
what does climate resiliencymean to you? Right.
And what do you see as thegrand challenge in your space?
So a climate resilience society,I, I will say, you know,
we are in the throes of climate change.
We are now experiencingmore intense storms,
(19:27):
greater and in longer, and durations ofheat, shifts in seasonal, um, patterns.
However, a lot of our communities,as, as, uh, Liling was saying earlier,
a lot of our infrastructure was builtdecades, if not centuries ago, uh,
well before climate change was evenunderway or understood to be underway.
And so there's vulnerabilities,
(19:49):
and we need to start accounting forhow the changing climate and the,
the information that we're receiving, um,
now about how the ecosystems are workingand the physical systems are working
into managing those, theinfrastructure and the,
the systems that comprise communities.
That means understanding and likereally looking at where are the risks?
What types of changes in theflood patterns or the rainfall
(20:12):
patterns or the heat indices,
where are those gonna cause the mostdamage? And then how do we start,
um, mitigating that type of damage?
What interventions do we need to putin place so that when events happen,
when significant rainfallhappens and floods occur,
infrastructure and people areoutta the way not damaged?
Or what can we do to makesure that those systems are,
(20:35):
can sort of go down for a shortwhile and then come right back up?
They're not being destroyed. Soidentifying where there's risk,
identifying opportunities tomake changes to ensure that our,
our systems are sustainable and canwithstand the consequences or the,
the more extreme weather and the,
the different weather and climateeffects that we're experiencing now is,
(20:56):
is really important.
And to me, I think Leah meant, you know,the cause--it's very, very important,
like to build a climate,uh, resilient society,
we need to understand and thecause and to observe the pattern,
and from the engineering perspective,from the energy infrastructure,
(21:17):
we need to know if we are part ofthe cause, how do we improve that?
How do we reduce that from thedesign operate perspective to
support that? And also,
when this type ofextreme weather occurred,
how can we continuouslyprovide reliable energy?
Because that's the backbone ofeverything, of our daily life.
(21:39):
So to build a resilient climate,uh, you know, uh, society,
I, I see that all our sixgrand challenges touch this
topic.
And this is actually the core toconnect all the six challenges together.
We need the 21st century workforce, uh,
to build a climate resiliencesociety. We need the digital,
(22:02):
we need the AI, we need a healthcaresystem, we need everything.
And then our grand challengesright on top of that.
Okay. Well, let's let'sdive into this a little bit.
This whole concept of buildinga climate resilient society
really is not about understandingclimate change from the perspective
(22:24):
of whether it's manmade or whether
it's just a natural artifact ofthe changing cycles in the way our
planet is progressing. It's reallyabout saying whatever's causing it,
we have some challenges, right?
We have major challengeson both coast.
(22:48):
One can't get enoughwater and it's burning,
and the other one is literallygetting too much. And, you know,
we've had multiple 500, uh,
year biblical floods ina number of locations.
This is about what happens aswe deal with the aftermath of
climate change, building aclimate resilient society.
(23:10):
Our climate is changing.
Our society has to changein order to accommodate it.
And so, yes, everything you guyshighlighted, we need faculty,
we need folk trained properlyin order to manage this. Right?
But what I'm getting at here is:
talk a little bit about deal withthe political issues that may be
(23:33):
dividing us on the causalityaspect of this problem.
How do we get away from that andfocus on the fact that, look,
I don't care what your belief is,
you're flooding and weneed a solution for that.
We need a a new home type system for that,
or we need a solution tohelp you mitigate that,
(23:54):
or a warning system tokeep you out of that.
Or communications framework that helpsyou to understand when these things are
coming so you can react.Talk about that a little bit.
The, what you were justsaying is essential.
We need to address the problemsof today, as you just said,
coasts are being inundated, communitiesare being destroyed, literally, um,
quite literally. Um,and in a repeated way,
(24:16):
both from wildfires and extremelike downpours and flooding in,
in places that you would notexpect floods to happen. And it,
it's happening outside of the floodplainsthat we understand from before.
Severe wind and tornadoesare taking down, you know,
there's a lot of damage to infrastructureand people and livelihoods all across
the country.
So we do need to be addressing thechallenges that we're experiencing today.
(24:38):
I think one of the things that we needto do differently is a lot of the,
like I said, the,
the prior infrastructure and the riskassessments are typically looking
retrospectively.
Like what has happened in the pastthat we need to plan for now. Like you,
you mentioned 500 yearfloods. In the past,
those types of floods did happenonce every 500 years or so. Now,
(25:00):
the science is able to, to,
to provide some predictions about whatthe future trends are going to be in
these areas. And so in order to plan and,
and address infrastructurechallenges of today,
we should be looking at what the bestavailable science is telling us about
where things are going so that wecan start accounting for that in,
in the way that we build ourinfrastructure systems. I mean,
(25:20):
you might say climate science,but you, you might also just say,
this is best available science ofhow many floods are gonna happen.
Or, this is just communityplanning now, right? Look, if,
if the flood plain is shiftingand it's going to be here now,
it's not build the homes there,
let's shift them and build thema mile two miles away, where
(25:43):
it might've been a problem previously,but maybe it's not that now you, you,
you get what I'm saying?
And it's, some of it's the floodplainsthat themselves are shifting,
but a lot of what's happening now isthis heavy, heavy, heavy downpours,
you know?
No, I, I get it. I get it. I mean,places that were flooding previously,
this is what happened with the youngpeople in, uh, in, in Texas. Texas, right?
(26:04):
Yes, that was terrible.
You know, look, the reality is isthat the, the area always flooded.
And that's why nobody reallyworried about it too much.
But we live in a different timenow. We need tools to predict that.
We need tools to say, Hey,based on our predictive models,
what's coming is not what yousaw five years ago, 10 years ago.
This is different. Get out. Right.
(26:25):
And so that's the kind ofthing that I want us to get to
as we build a climate resilient society.Liling, I I know I interrupted you.
Go ahead.
No, no, you're good.
Uh, I, I, you know, becauseyoure, you're in the, you're,
you are literally in the core spaceof this with energy production.
Yes. As long as they are humanactivities, we impact the environment,
(26:49):
but there's no way we'll goback to live in the cage, uh,
without electricity, going backto, you know, millions years back.
So how do we better design and,
and live in the environmentto reduce the impact?
And President Washington,you mentioned, like,
to design a climate resilientsociety is not just the science,
(27:13):
not the engineering, but it'sthe society. My experience,
my view is a lot of community,
they do not have the access to the data,
to the fact people make decision basedon the feeling, their perspective,
a very limited perspective onmaybe just economy or maybe
(27:35):
just political or, you know, they,
they all look at a smallerset of their view and,
which cannot solve theproblem. Uh, you, you see,
like even the energy policy,
you roll out the energy policyfor the next five years,
and all of a sudden youchange, and then who knows,
then next five years it change again.I think what the, the challenge is,
(28:00):
uh, to have a holistic viewof the multidisciplinary:
from the social, from the business,from the political, from engineering,
from science. And again, the coreis the community, is the human.
So I think that's actuallywhat I see, the, the challenge.
And then I think that we havethe responsibility to deliver the
(28:23):
message, uh,
to deliver the holistic factand data to inform that,
you know, this is going to happenif you don't take this action.
And then I think everyoneis responsible, you know,
on the building the resilient society.
I was also gonna add, 'cause I, I,
I didn't talk much aboutmitigation of climate,
(28:44):
the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
but that is somethingwe might wanna be very,
very thoughtfully considering aswe address climate resiliency.
Things that keep me up atnight are, um, you know,
we have trajectories and the science isstarting to tell us that some systems
are going to start collapsing.
And we're talking about like oceansystems and sea level rise, and well,
(29:04):
what's gonna happen to ouragriculture system? I mean,
there's some of theseexistential challenges that might be on the horizon that
we're still working on getting thescience about when is that gonna happen?
Is that gonna happen?Those sorts of things.
But there is signals that we do reallyneed to be addressing how much carbon
dioxide we're putting into the atmosphereso that we hopefully keep us below
some of those tipping points. We'll see.
(29:24):
As we move forward here. And,
and if you were to be havingconversations with our young people today,
as you do in the classroom andbeyond, or even with our faculty as,
as we end,
what are some of the ways individualscan help create climate resilient
communities and ensure sustainable future?
One of the most effective ways of, ofcreating resiliency within a community is,
(29:47):
is actually reaching out to your,your neighbors and your community.
Understanding where people are vulnerable,
helping them address thosevulnerabilities if and when possible.
Recognizing that you, you might wanna goup the street and check on somebody in,
in the context of a disaster so that youcan help them create some resiliency.
The more that we connectand create community,
the stronger those communities are,regardless of the infrastructure. Though,
(30:10):
ideally you also are engaged in theprocesses that will upgrade and,
and increase the resiliency of thecritical infrastructures of those
communities.
Yeah. Uh, for me,
I always encourage my studentand emphasize the importance
of having a critical thinkingskill. They are the future, uh,
generation. They're the futureengineer to build the system,
(30:33):
to operate the system.So critical thinking,
skill and teamwork,it's very important. Uh,
one person cannot solve aproblem. You need a team.
You need people from different skillset,from different perspective. Also,
to be able to work with a team to drivethe innovation and critical thinking.
(30:54):
Uh, you don't always believewhat you hear. Right.
You have to be able to criticallyevaluate before you accept it.
I think that's very, veryimportant. Not just, you know, uh,
receive what we were told and thenexecute that. I think critical thinking,
very important.
So you don't be influencedor misled easily.
(31:16):
Understood. Understood. Well,look, this has been fantastic.
Last point. Just quickly, lightning round.What's given you hope for the future?
I think the, the hope of thefuture, uh, is our next generation.
It is here, Mason, ourfaculty, our student.
(31:36):
I think that's the future. And thenthe infrastructure side, you know,
the research, and again, our theme,
like our living lab thatgive us hope of the future.
What gives me hope is,
is the amount of people who are workinghard to solve these types of problems.
You know, faculty as well asstudents in the next generation,
(31:59):
despite significant headwindsin some contexts. There's,
there's a lot of people in theworld in the United States and,
and far beyond that arereally committed to,
and digging into solvingthese sorts of challenges.
And that's the only way things are gonnaget done, is we just keep on working,
keep on designing. I thinkthere's, there's a lot of opportunities to innovate.
(32:20):
I just look for the people whoare doing things, good things, um,
and there's a lot of them through theliving labs and through the Institute for
Sustainable Earth,
always wanting to help and support thoseindividuals here in the Mason community
and beyond.
Outstanding. Outstanding. Well,we're gonna have to leave it there.
Liling and Leah, thank youboth for joining us today.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for havingus. Thank you so much.
(32:42):
I am Mason President GregoryWashington. Thanks for listening.
And tune in next time for moreconversations that show why we
are all together different.
If you like what youheard on this podcast,
go to podcast.gmu.edu formore of Gregory Washington's
(33:02):
conversations with thethought leaders, experts,
and educators who take on the grandchallenges facing our students, graduates,
and higher education.
That's podcast.gmu.edu.
Trailblazers in research,innovators in technology,
and those who simply have a good story:
all make up the fabric thatis George Mason University,
where taking on the grand challengesthat face our students graduates in
higher education is ourmission and our passion.
Hosted by Mason PresidentGregory Washington,
this is the Access to Excellence podcast.
(00:26):
Infrastructure is one of those words thatcan mean a lot of different things to
different people. At George Mason,
we're focused on infrastructurein terms of sustainability:
how we can help innovate new systemsfor the world's infrastructure
that will be resilient andflexible enough to support a
(00:48):
changing world. And we'renot just talking theory here.
My two guests today are atthe intersection of innovation and sustainability to
develop George Mason's capabilities tobe a living laboratory for students,
faculty,
and staff to find solutions toour pressing grand challenges.
Liling Huang is an associate professorof electrical and computer engineering in
(01:11):
the College of Engineering and Computing,
and she's the Dominion EnergyFaculty Fellow in Power and Energy
Systems.
And Leah Nichols is theexecutive director of the
Institute for Sustainable Earth, or ISE.
It is in the Office of ResearchInnovation and Economic Impact.
(01:34):
Leah, Liling, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Liling,
your work focuses on securingthe nation's critical energy
infrastructure.
Can you tell us a little more aboutwhat this means and why it's important?
Energy is a backbone ofour national security,
(01:56):
our economy, sustainability, our
community trust.
So without the energy wecannot have data flow,
we cannot run hospitals,we cannot run data centers.
So it is very, very criticalinfrastructure for our modern life.
(02:17):
So what kind of threats do you see thatour energy and infrastructure face?
Our infrastructure isfacing many challenges, uh,
including the aging infrastructure.
Our energy infrastructure was builtmore than a hundred years ago.
It is aging and needs to be modernized.
We also facing challengesof cyber physical attacks,
(02:41):
we also facing challengesof the workflow shortage,
the supply chain shortage,
the challenge of incorporating therenewable energy into the power systems.
I see.
Have we taken some major steps asa country or as a region to secure
our energy infrastructure?
(03:02):
Yes.
I think the public privatesector are working together along
with the government to securethe energy infrastructure by
upgrading our infrastructure,investing in workforce development,
uh, as well as bringinga more diverse energy
(03:22):
portfolio to the system.
Well, that's more easilysaid than done, right?
When you start to talk aboutdiverse energy portfolio,
that could be many other diverseenergy pieces bring their own
set of problems, right?
Yes, exactly.
So one of iscs key programsis Mason as a Living Lab.
And that whole entity aims to stimulateand support the development of
(03:46):
research and scholarship that use thecampuses and their physical and social
ecological structures forimplementation in education.
And that framework seems tobe working really well. Leah,
can you tell us more about howthis initiative came about?
Sure. Happy to.
I came to Mason about five years ago toto run the Institute for a Sustainable
(04:08):
Earth.
And a core mission of the instituteis to help put research into practice.
So the campus itself iseffectively a small city.
There's over 48,000 people on the campus,
a population that that utilizesthe campus, some of whom live here.
It embodies all of the different typesof infrastructure systems that are
required to support andmaintain that population.
So it's an ideal microcosmwith which to engage,
(04:31):
to study the socio-environmentaltechnological ecosystems that make up this
small city.
And then it's also a microcosm withinwhich we can develop solutions,
test solutions, use it as a test bed,
create some demonstration projects thatcould then be scaled into solutions in
communities elsewhereand around the globe.
So it was my first targetto create opportunities to put research into practice.
(04:54):
I reached out to Dr. Greg Farley,who's the director of sustainability,
and he and I really jived on this idea.
We really liked this ideaand wanted to lean into it.
So we looked at what all was going onalready on campus and how faculty and
students were utilizing thecampus for research. Um,
and learned that there was a lot going on.
Our faculty are innovative and they wannasee their research put into practice.
(05:17):
Um, but all of those projects werebeing, being done on an ad hoc basis.
The wheel was being reinventedover and over again.
And so Greg and I put our headstogether along with Frank Strike,
vice president for, uh, facilitiesand operations, campus operations,
and Andre Marshall, vicepresident for research,
to really develop a programthat standardized protocols that effectively built a
(05:38):
bridge between the research communityand the facilities and operations
communities. So this type of researchactivity could go on much more smoothly,
be amplified.
We also created a data sandbox tocapture the data that was being collected
about the university so that it could beshared across units with others who are
interested in, in similarsorts of research projects.
Well, let's talk about scale and,uh, be a little more pragmatic.
(05:59):
Can you gimme an idea ofwhat kinds of projects
have gone through this process? You know,
just talk high level in termsof what they are and what they,
what they're supposed to do.
They do range and scale, and wehave provided seed funding to,
to support some new projects. Uh, theyand those typically are on the order of,
(06:20):
you know, tens of thousands, um,
or so to support students and facultywho are getting ideas off the ground.
Some of them are very largeprojects, not ones that we supported,
but ones that wedefinitely amplify as the,
that are internationalrecognized arboretum,
which has a massive amount of dataabout the trees on campus. Um,
and like I said,internationally recognized,
but we also supported verysmaller scale projects.
(06:43):
One of our very first ones that camethrough the new program is the Cherry
Blossom Monitoring.
And the math department has stood up a,
a global competition where they'reworking with students who, um,
to do statistical analysis to predictwhen the cherry blossoms are gonna bloom
here in DC at Mason, I think in Japan,
there's a couple of otherinternational sites. It's, it's,
(07:04):
it's now taken on a life of its own,
but we were able to put inplace working with facilities,
cameras to monitor the,the, the blooms there.
We also have a small project thatwe just funded this year that I'm,
I'm quite excited about.
Dr. Changwoo Ahn is taking on analysisof a corner of the campus that used to be
an intermittent wetland. It's nowturning into, um, a permanent wetland.
(07:25):
And that transformation process issomething that's not well studied. Um,
so it creates opportunities there,but it's also of interest to the,
the campus operations.
Understanding this change processwill help them better manage the,
the wetlands and the ecosystem that's,that's emerging in this space. So,
very exciting.
So Liling?
Yes.
While your smart grid labis independent from ISE,
(07:48):
if I'm not mistaken, right? The projectis working towards a similar goal.
Right? So we got two living lab concepts.
So talk to me about each one of you.What does it mean to be a living lab?
To me, a living lab,
it is the platform to close many,
(08:10):
many gaps between theindustry and academia,
within the academia, betweenthe students, the faculty,
the staff. It's,
it is a platform can bringeverybody together as
a community, and especially at Masonto achieve education and research.
(08:31):
Talk a little bit about how the projectsupport experiential learning of our
students.
It's bring our student, uh,
career ready and build theirteamwork problem solving,
and it builds their confidencebecause they operate,
they experience that theybring the theory into practice.
(08:53):
I think it's very, veryimportant to our students,
not only to recruit, but alsoto retain and to advance.
And I think it also will put Mason as
a leading position in allthe aspect. It's a very,
very important tool for, forMason and for our students.
(09:15):
I would agree. Uh,
a lot of faculty do take their studentsout of the classroom and utilize the
ecosystems, the campusgrounds to gather data.
And while their students are learningabout the tools and the data collection
methods and the analytical methods forstudying these types of systems, and,
you know, with our lab.But we're hopeful we,
we have some faculty who are alreadyfeeding this data that their,
(09:36):
their students are collecting in coursesinto the data sandbox that starts to
create a longitudinal data set of, um,similar sorts of data collection, um,
over time. But the morethat we can get, um,
and encourage our faculty to get ourstudents out utilizing the campus to
develop their research skills, todevelop their understanding of,
of socio-environmental system theory,et cetera, is, is really exciting.
(09:56):
And to me, I think the, the livinglab, what I see, it's beyond the lab.
It is a living community,uh, living society.
We can have studentactually have a startup,
a model startup to run thiscommunity, to run the lab,
to collect the data, uh, and then to,to hire student, to be the operator.
(10:19):
So I think this is, uh, evenbeyond lab, you know, like,
and it, it also bridge, uh,
brings in multidisciplinarycollaboration between engineering,
science, business and policy.
Well, the problems that wehave to deal with today,
especially in the energy space,are all multidisciplinary, right?
(10:41):
Mm-hmm
They have the technicalaspects. Which are very clear.
You have the social economic aspects,which in my opinion are very, very clear.
And you got the political aspectswhich are not as clear
at least on some things, but arestill clearly there, right? So,
Leah, your role at theISE is specifically around
(11:04):
developing connections acrosscommunities to put George Mason's
research and scholarship into actionin support of a sustainable world.
So what does it look like to buildthose bridges across discipline?
Yes.
And talk a little bit about thereceptivity on campus to building
those bridges amongstour faculty and, and our,
(11:26):
and our researchers and the like.
Sure. Um, I was gonna say,
I'm gonna go one step further and saywe're building bridges across academic
disciplines, but we're alsoworking to bring external partners,
people who are interested inco-designing, co-developing solutions, um,
that they're experiencing in their,in their lives with local governments,
local, you know, local businesses.
Yeah. Sometimes they can be, forlack of a better way of putting it,
(11:47):
easier to build relationships withthan the entities right here on campus.
That can be true.
A couple of nights ago I had dinnerwith one of the founders of Nvidia.
And at that dinner, theywere talking, of course,
they were extolling thevirtues of their AI chips
and the super computers that youcan build from these AI chips.
(12:11):
And one of the things that he talkedabout really piqued my interest that just
immediately came to mind listening toyou all talk about bridging the divide.
Their belief is that some solutionsare hyperdimensional, right?
Meaning there's so many layers ofpossible connection that we just
may not be able to see.
It may not be able to draw theconnection to inner city social science
(12:34):
issues and next generation solar. Right.
But that computers, especiallythose equipped with, uh, uh,
AI generated tools,
can actually explore wellbeyond our realm of seeing
an actual problem.
And so I just wanna get yourreaction to that relative to this
(12:57):
transdisciplinary work and findingsolutions that right now aren't
obvious to us.
So you really hit on somethingI'm also excited about. One,
one of the things I was doing while I wasat the National Science Foundation and
was trying to fund science that wouldadvance our understanding of these complex
system interactions.
And the advances in the technology havereally unlocked that ability. You know,
(13:19):
science hundreds of years agothrough relatively recently,
was focused on a reductionist, like,let's break it down to the smallest,
smallest, smallest parts to reallyunderstand what's going on. Valuable, but
at like, now,
we can really look at systems and tryto interrogate what's the causality?
Can you explain causality within systems?
So these types of tools really allow usto interrogate these complex systems in
(13:39):
really new ways,
which could very much revealopportunities to adjust to,
to where to take action,
how action in some spaces will potentiallypropagate into action. Uh, you know,
this is a new area of science. I'm not,
I'm not saying that we're gonna beable to explain every complex system,
but what an exciting avenue of science is,
is to be interrogating the complexityinstead of the smallest pieces.
(14:03):
Yeah. I, I think that we,a a unit, an institution,
we have a very limited timeto learn. Very limited view.
And yes,
AI does provide a potentialto be able to look at
everything holistically, maybecome up with a good solution.
But personally, I always think that,you know, everything has, it's,
(14:26):
it's always two folded. On oneside, it has one and has a zero.
So I think it, it brings opportunity,
but also we want to know thechallenge that AI bring in to the
society. So we still need a human,
human in the loop to help AIdo a better job. You know,
we are human being, wewant to have a better life.
(14:49):
So we don't want the whole worldto become just machine, just AI.
So the human in the loop is veryimportant. Uh, and that also,
like all the AI computation,again, I'm the power person.
So I would like to say the challengethat the AI computation bring in is the
humongous energy demand tosupport those AI computation,
(15:12):
and that huge energy demand is part ofthe challenge to our infrastructure,
the impact to the environment. So howdo we solve those complex problem?
It's very interesting.
Oh, I hear you. I hear you.
I think AI is an exciting tool,
but fully agree that you have to useit cautiously. Any type of science,
any type of tool,
how is it gonna get used and how is itgonna be put into practice and changing
(15:34):
the world around us. Sothings to think about the.
The challenge is that cat might be outof the bag right now, you know? So look,
you both have work experienceoutside the academy, right? So Leah,
you spend time at National ScienceFoundation; Liling, you were a certified,
uh, professional engineer at TaiwanDevelopment and Trust Corporation before
(15:55):
pursuing a PhD.
And so talk about thoseexperiences and how those
experiences inspire yourmove into higher ed,
but also how those experiencesare helpful for you today.
So I think it's a veryvaluable experience. Uh,
like I work in industryand I see the challenge
(16:16):
in industry, which the student will be,uh, facing, you know, in their career.
So I see the gap betweenthe industry and academia.
I remember when I first report to, uh,my manager, I have to learn everything,
you know, start from the beginningbecause it's, I learn all the theory.
So I kind of see the importanceof hands-on, practical. Uh,
(16:40):
and also I see that the,
the importance and actuallyto run the infrastructure,
human is also, I wouldsay like the operator.
The engineer is very important and verycritical part of the infrastructure.
So I see the gap and I see theimportance of having a skillful
(17:00):
engineer workforce. And that's why, uh,
inspire me to build a career inacademia because I think that, uh,
it is a very prestigious position totrain and educate a future engineer.
And that experiencehelped me to better embed,
improve my teaching, uh,
(17:21):
education and research to beable to bring in the practical
challenge and experience intothe education and research.
Interesting.
So while I was at theNational Science Foundation,
one of my primary roles was to helpbuild and design these multidisciplinary,
and transdisciplinary types of fundingprograms to fund different types of
(17:43):
science. Again, focusing predominantlyon socioecological systems and the,
the role of, of those systemsand how those are changing.
And then toward the latter part, whileI was engaged with an advisory council,
they gave us very strongadvice. Like we're,
we've been describing thechallenges of the world for a while,
quite a long time in thesocio-environmental systems.
What do we start doing about it?
(18:03):
And that really helped driveme to think about like,
what type of science needs to be doneso that we can start taking action to
address these grand challenges,these wicked challenges. And as a,
a program officer,
I was facilitating thosesorts of dialogues across disciplines so that I bring
back to the table here at Mason,
getting lots of people with very differentworldviews in the same room to come
(18:24):
to a,
a common understanding ofneed and opportunity and ways that we can support, uh,
science to developsolutions in these space.
I was also often one of thevoices in the room saying,
how do we bring the spacesof research use into the,
the scientific questions orthe science that we're funding?
How do we get use-inspired science wherecommunity partners or industry partners
(18:45):
are,
are deeply engaged in development of thescience itself or the co-design of the
science.
So one of the solutions in ourgrand challenge initiative is
George Mason at the center of buildinga climate resilience society. Now,
you two sit in differentcomponents of that spectrum, right,
of building a climate resilient society.
(19:07):
And so as two researchers dedicatedto innovation and sustainability,
what does climate resiliencymean to you? Right.
And what do you see as thegrand challenge in your space?
So a climate resilience society,I, I will say, you know,
we are in the throes of climate change.
We are now experiencingmore intense storms,
(19:27):
greater and in longer, and durations ofheat, shifts in seasonal, um, patterns.
However, a lot of our communities,as, as, uh, Liling was saying earlier,
a lot of our infrastructure was builtdecades, if not centuries ago, uh,
well before climate change was evenunderway or understood to be underway.
And so there's vulnerabilities,
(19:49):
and we need to start accounting forhow the changing climate and the,
the information that we're receiving, um,
now about how the ecosystems are workingand the physical systems are working
into managing those, theinfrastructure and the,
the systems that comprise communities.
That means understanding and likereally looking at where are the risks?
What types of changes in theflood patterns or the rainfall
(20:12):
patterns or the heat indices,
where are those gonna cause the mostdamage? And then how do we start,
um, mitigating that type of damage?
What interventions do we need to putin place so that when events happen,
when significant rainfallhappens and floods occur,
infrastructure and people areoutta the way not damaged?
Or what can we do to makesure that those systems are,
(20:35):
can sort of go down for a shortwhile and then come right back up?
They're not being destroyed. Soidentifying where there's risk,
identifying opportunities tomake changes to ensure that our,
our systems are sustainable and canwithstand the consequences or the,
the more extreme weather and the,
the different weather and climateeffects that we're experiencing now is,
(20:56):
is really important.
And to me, I think Leah meant, you know,the cause--it's very, very important,
like to build a climate,uh, resilient society,
we need to understand and thecause and to observe the pattern,
and from the engineering perspective,from the energy infrastructure,
(21:17):
we need to know if we are part ofthe cause, how do we improve that?
How do we reduce that from thedesign operate perspective to
support that? And also,
when this type ofextreme weather occurred,
how can we continuouslyprovide reliable energy?
Because that's the backbone ofeverything, of our daily life.
(21:39):
So to build a resilient climate,uh, you know, uh, society,
I, I see that all our sixgrand challenges touch this
topic.
And this is actually the core toconnect all the six challenges together.
We need the 21st century workforce, uh,
to build a climate resiliencesociety. We need the digital,
(22:02):
we need the AI, we need a healthcaresystem, we need everything.
And then our grand challengesright on top of that.
Okay. Well, let's
This whole concept of buildinga climate resilient society
really is not about understandingclimate change from the perspective
(22:24):
of whether it's manmade or whether
it's just a natural artifact ofthe changing cycles in the way our
planet is progressing. It's reallyabout saying whatever's causing it,
we have some challenges, right?
We have major challengeson both coast
(22:48):
One can't get enoughwater and it's burning,
and the other one is literallygetting too much. And, you know,
we've had multiple 500, uh,
year biblical floods ina number of locations.
This is about what happens aswe deal with the aftermath of
climate change, building aclimate resilient society.
(23:10):
Our climate is changing.
Our society has to changein order to accommodate it.
And so, yes, everything you guyshighlighted, we need faculty,
we need folk trained properlyin order to manage this. Right?
But what I'm getting at here is:
talk a little bit about deal withthe political issues that may be
(23:33):
dividing us on the causalityaspect of this problem.
How do we get away from that andfocus on the fact that, look,
I don't care what your belief is,
you're flooding and weneed a solution for that.
We need a a new home type system for that,
or we need a solution tohelp you mitigate that,
(23:54):
or a warning system tokeep you out of that.
Or communications framework that helpsyou to understand when these things are
coming so you can react.Talk about that a little bit.
The, what you were justsaying is essential.
We need to address the problemsof today, as you just said,
coasts are being inundated, communitiesare being destroyed, literally, um,
quite literally. Um,and in a repeated way,
(24:16):
both from wildfires and extremelike downpours and flooding in,
in places that you would notexpect floods to happen. And it,
it's happening outside of the floodplainsthat we understand from before.
Severe wind and tornadoesare taking down, you know,
there's a lot of damage to infrastructureand people and livelihoods all across
the country.
So we do need to be addressing thechallenges that we're experiencing today.
(24:38):
I think one of the things that we needto do differently is a lot of the,
like I said, the,
the prior infrastructure and the riskassessments are typically looking
retrospectively.
Like what has happened in the pastthat we need to plan for now. Like you,
you mentioned 500 yearfloods. In the past,
those types of floods did happenonce every 500 years or so. Now,
(25:00):
the science is able to, to,
to provide some predictions about whatthe future trends are going to be in
these areas. And so in order to plan and,
and address infrastructurechallenges of today,
we should be looking at what the bestavailable science is telling us about
where things are going so that wecan start accounting for that in,
in the way that we build ourinfrastructure systems. I mean,
(25:20):
you might say climate science,but you, you might also just say,
this is best available science ofhow many floods are gonna happen.
Or, this is just communityplanning now, right? Look, if,
if the flood plain is shiftingand it's going to be here now,
it's not build the homes there,
let's shift them and build thema mile two miles away, where
(25:43):
it might've been a problem previously,but maybe it's not that now you, you,
you get what I'm saying?
And it's, some of it's the floodplainsthat themselves are shifting,
but a lot of what's happening now isthis heavy, heavy, heavy downpours,
you know?
No, I, I get it. I get it. I mean,places that were flooding previously,
this is what happened with the youngpeople in, uh, in, in Texas. Texas, right?
(26:04):
Yes, that was terrible.
You know, look, the reality is isthat the, the area always flooded.
And that's why nobody reallyworried about it too much.
But we live in a different timenow. We need tools to predict that.
We need tools to say, Hey,based on our predictive models,
what's coming is not what yousaw five years ago, 10 years ago.
This is different. Get out. Right.
(26:25):
And so that's the kind ofthing that I want us to get to
as we build a climate resilient society.Liling, I I know I interrupted you.
Go ahead.
No, no, you're good.
Uh, I, I, you know, becauseyoure, you're in the, you're,
you are literally in the core spaceof this with energy production.
Yes. As long as they are humanactivities, we impact the environment,
(26:49):
but there's no way we'll goback to live in the cage, uh,
without electricity, going backto, you know, millions years back.
So how do we better design and,
and live in the environmentto reduce the impact?
And President Washington,you mentioned, like,
to design a climate resilientsociety is not just the science,
(27:13):
not the engineering, but it'sthe society. My experience,
my view is a lot of community,
they do not have the access to the data,
to the fact people make decision basedon the feeling, their perspective,
a very limited perspective onmaybe just economy or maybe
(27:35):
just political or, you know, they,
they all look at a smallerset of their view and,
which cannot solve theproblem. Uh, you, you see,
like even the energy policy,
you roll out the energy policyfor the next five years,
and all of a sudden youchange, and then who knows,
then next five years it change again.I think what the, the challenge is,
(28:00):
uh, to have a holistic viewof the multidisciplinary:
from the social, from the business,from the political, from engineering,
from science. And again, the coreis the community, is the human.
So I think that's actuallywhat I see, the, the challenge.
And then I think that we havethe responsibility to deliver the
(28:23):
message, uh,
to deliver the holistic factand data to inform that,
you know, this is going to happenif you don't take this action.
And then I think everyoneis responsible, you know,
on the building the resilient society.
I was also gonna add, 'cause I, I,
I didn't talk much aboutmitigation of climate,
(28:44):
the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
but that is somethingwe might wanna be very,
very thoughtfully considering aswe address climate resiliency.
Things that keep me up atnight are, um, you know,
we have trajectories and the science isstarting to tell us that some systems
are going to start collapsing.
And we're talking about like oceansystems and sea level rise, and well,
(29:04):
what's gonna happen to ouragriculture system? I mean,
there's some of theseexistential challenges that might be on the horizon that
we're still working on getting thescience about when is that gonna happen?
Is that gonna happen?Those sorts of things.
But there is signals that we do reallyneed to be addressing how much carbon
dioxide we're putting into the atmosphereso that we hopefully keep us below
some of those tipping points. We'll see.
(29:24):
As we move forward here. And,
and if you were to be havingconversations with our young people today,
as you do in the classroom andbeyond, or even with our faculty as,
as we end,
what are some of the ways individualscan help create climate resilient
communities and ensure sustainable future?
One of the most effective ways of, ofcreating resiliency within a community is,
(29:47):
is actually reaching out to your,your neighbors and your community.
Understanding where people are vulnerable,
helping them address thosevulnerabilities if and when possible.
Recognizing that you, you might wanna goup the street and check on somebody in,
in the context of a disaster so that youcan help them create some resiliency.
The more that we connectand create community,
the stronger those communities are,regardless of the infrastructure. Though,
(30:10):
ideally you also are engaged in theprocesses that will upgrade and,
and increase the resiliency of thecritical infrastructures of those
communities.
Yeah. Uh, for me,
I always encourage my studentand emphasize the importance
of having a critical thinkingskill. They are the future, uh,
generation. They're the futureengineer to build the system,
(30:33):
to operate the system.So critical thinking,
skill and teamwork,it's very important. Uh,
one person cannot solve aproblem. You need a team.
You need people from different skillset,from different perspective. Also,
to be able to work with a team to drivethe innovation and critical thinking.
(30:54):
Uh, you don't always believewhat you hear. Right.
You have to be able to criticallyevaluate before you accept it.
I think that's very, veryimportant. Not just, you know, uh,
receive what we were told and thenexecute that. I think critical thinking,
very important.
So you don't be influencedor misled easily.
(31:16):
Understood. Understood. Well,look, this has been fantastic.
Last point. Just quickly, lightning round.What's given you hope for the future?
I think the, the hope of thefuture, uh, is our next generation.
It is here, Mason, ourfaculty, our student.
(31:36):
I think that's the future. And thenthe infrastructure side, you know,
the research, and again, our theme,
like our living lab thatgive us hope of the future.
What gives me hope is,
is the amount of people who are workinghard to solve these types of problems.
You know, faculty as well asstudents in the next generation,
(31:59):
despite significant headwindsin some contexts. There's,
there's a lot of people in theworld in the United States and,
and far beyond that arereally committed to,
and digging into solvingthese sorts of challenges.
And that's the only way things are gonnaget done, is we just keep on working,
keep on designing. I thinkthere's, there's a lot of opportunities to innovate.
(32:20):
I just look for the people whoare doing things, good things, um,
and there's a lot of them through theliving labs and through the Institute for
Sustainable Earth,
always wanting to help and support thoseindividuals here in the Mason community
and beyond.
Outstanding. Outstanding. Well,we're gonna have to leave it there.
Liling and Leah, thank youboth for joining us today.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for havingus. Thank you so much.
(32:42):
I am Mason President GregoryWashington. Thanks for listening.
And tune in next time for moreconversations that show why we
are all together different.
If you like what youheard on this podcast,
go to podcast.gmu.edu formore of Gregory Washington's
(33:02):
conversations with thethought leaders, experts,
and educators who take on the grandchallenges facing our students, graduates,
and higher education.
That's podcast.gmu.edu.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.