Friday, September 28, 2018
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Registration opens at 9:15 a.m.
St. Paul Student Center Northstar Ballroom
Optional reception with Affiliate recognition to follow

Agenda

Morning Program

10:00 a.m. Director’s Address
10:25 a.m. IonE Impact Goals / Lightning Talks
10:45 a.m. Panel Discussion and open Q&A (further information below)

Panel topic: How Might IonE and the U of MN System Contribute to Creating Solutions to Environmental and Social Challenges Facing MN?

Panelists:

• Michael Noble, Executive Director, Fresh Energy
• Jamez Staples, President, Renewable Energy Partners
• Emily Larson, Mayor of Duluth

Moderated by Alison Hoxie, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, UMD

IonE Community Exchange

Come explore and celebrate the diverse work being done within the IonE community. IonE is comprised of hundreds of students, staff, and faculty from across all five University of Minnesota campuses. We are leaders, teachers, researchers, and artists. Below are the 23 projects that will be highlighted in the IonE Community Exchange. Detailed project abstracts are available here Abstracts (PDF). 

Acara Student Projects
Acara Co-director, Megan Voorhees

Assuring Clean Water and Sustainable Ecosystems Via Improved Agroecological Management
Grand Challenge, Lawrence P Wackett

Catalyzing Change Across Minnesota: Partners in Progress
Troy Goodnough

Commercial Building Efficiency in Minneapolis
Class Project, Andrew Butts

Energy Transition Lab
Aaron Hanson

Environment Reports
GLI and IonE Communications, Barrett Colombo and Peder Engstrom

ExCITES: Expanding Commercial Implementation of Thermal Energy Storage
PI, Jane H. Davidson

Geofinancial Analytics
Mini Grant, Nathaniel Springer

Green Solar Cells: Lead-free Halide Perovskites
Lee Penn

Identification of “Action Landscapes” to target interventions to promote sustainable agriculture in Latin America
Authors: Paul West, James Gerber

Impact Valuation
Mini Grant, Jeff Standish, Kristi Kremers, Barrett Colombo, Jen Thissen

Increasing Native Seed Availability for Minnesota’s Prairies
PI, Ruth Shaw

Increasing Student Readiness for Sustainability Careers
Mini Grant, Rebecca Meyer

(Not So) Mini Grants: The First 15 Rounds
Jen Thissen

Open Feasts Food Waste Events
Mini Grant, Barrett Colombo

Queer Science
Mini Grant, Mohamed Yakub

Sustainable Development: Architecture and Planning within the Ecological Footprint of One Planet
Richard Graves, Bonnie Keeler

Syngas from Concentrated Sunlight and Methane
PI, Dr. Jane H. Davidson

Talking Arts, Sciences and Sustainability: A Roundtable Discussion Series
Mini Grant, David Syring

Tribally directed collaborative research on wild rice: the Kawe Gidaa-Naanaagadawendamin Manoomin project
Grand Challenge, Crystal Ng, Cara Santelli, Amy Myrbo, Dan Larkin, Mike Dockry, Mark Bellcourt, Mae Davenport

Understanding the zoonotic risk of echinococcosis for a northern Minnesota tribal community
Mini Grant, Tiffany Wolf

Utilities Perspectives on Research Collaborations With Universities
Energy Transition Lab, Steve Rose, Andrew Butts, Julia Wilbur, Barb Jacobs

Waste Heat Recovery for Power Generation Enabled by High-Efficiency Thermoelectric Materials
Discovery Grant, Xiaojia Wang, Uwe Kortshagen, and James Kakalios

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

During the afternoon, we’ll have two hour-long breakout slots, which will be an opportunity to spend time discussing and developing IonE’s Impact Goals. Each of the three goals will have a session during each slot. Therefore if you attend both breakout sessions, you will be able to participate in a session on two of the three goals.

The primary objective will be to identify related ongoing efforts that could be leveraged or coordinated with members of university and stakeholder communities who are interested in joining the effort. Additional background on the goals will be available two weeks before the meeting to help prepare for the discussion.

Achieving Safe Drinking Water

Description: From defining safe water and ensuring equitable access, to upgrading grey infrastructure and enhancing green infrastructure, to putting fewer pollutants in the water and taking them out more effectively, solving water problems for Minnesota and the world requires contributions from of a broad range of expertise in both social and biophysical sciences. Possible solutions are complicated by the opportunities and constraints presented by real-world implementation. This goal will help align findings from University of Minnesota research and identify knowledge bottlenecks and opportunities in the service of ensuring safe drinking water.

Breakout session: We will elicit ideas from the group about how their research could be useful to local decision makers and discuss what kinds of additional work would need to be done to make it operational.

Carbon Neutral Energy Transition

Description: Minnesota can be a model for a low-carbon economy that benefits people and the environment. Reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions is a cross-cutting topic that touches all of IonE’s work. The University of Minnesota is uniquely positioned to work with academic and external experts to find solutions.

Breakout Session: We will discuss a unifying greenhouse gas reduction goal that focuses on energy systems transformation. Speakers and participants will be invited to share information about work they have done or will do in the future that contributes to towards this goal.

Sustainable Land-Use Planning for Minnesota

Description: IonE’s goal is to leverage and bridge the University of Minnesota’s collective knowledge of the connections between natural resources and human health and well-being with key government, NGO and corporate connections to land use management to develop a comprehensive and holistic sustainable land use plan for the state of Minnesota.

Breakout session: We will elicit ideas from the group about two complementary components of a future land use plan:

1. Goals and potential metrics of those goals
2. Brainstorming and identifying key government agencies, NGOs and corporations that could be part of an advisory group.

Part of identifying the goals and metrics will be to identify key university faculty whose research could direct inform the process.

Who’s Coming?

Last update 9/24/18 at 3 p.m.