Design skills for environmental risk communication. Design in and design of an interdisciplinary workshop

Effective environmental risk management and risk reduction requires an inherently interdisciplinary and cross-sector approach to communication design. The challenging global impact of this area can only be addressed by increasing skills capacity in communication design across disciplines, a challenge which itself requires the design and delivery of new expert training. This paper reports on the design of and findings from an interdisciplinary, problem-based workshop to build risk communication skills, held at the World Bank’s Understanding Risk 2018 conference, Mexico City. The workshop combined high competence interdisciplinary participants (including designers) with detailed real-world scenarios in a 24-hour ‘pressure cooker’ working environment, designed by a team of interdisciplinary young professionals. The results show engagement from participants across the disciplines involved, who produced outcomes with a community education and user-centred focus. The workshop highlighted that more direct, critical, engagement from the design community is needed in educating about, and delivering, environmental risk communication

Interdisciplinary pressure cooker: environmental risk communication skills for the next generation

This article presents a “pressure cooker” approach for building interdisciplinary risk communication capacity in young professionals via an intensive 24 h workshop. The event successfully brought together 35 participants from around the world to work on real-world environmental hazard/risk communication challenges for two areas in Mexico. Participants worked in interdisciplinary teams, following a three-step iterative process, with support from mentors and a range of specialists to develop risk communication outputs. Feedback surveys indicate that the workshop met its goal of improving participants' knowledge of risk communication and interdisciplinary working. The workshop resulted in an interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners, including organisers, participants and supporting specialists, which was still active after the event. It is recommended that such interdisciplinary workshops are used to build the capacity to tackle complex challenges, such as risk communication, but they require further testing. Insights into the design and implementation of such interdisciplinary workshops are given (e.g. team design, use of preparatory materials, and engagement of specialists and local stakeholders are presented), including critiques of challenges raised by the workshop participants. Guidance is provided to those interested in applying a pressure cooker approach and further adaptations of the approach are welcomed

Interdisciplinary pressure cooker: environmental risk communication skills for the next generation

This article presents a Pressure Cooker approach for building interdisciplinary risk communication capacity in young professionals through an intensive 24-hour workshop. The event successfully brought together 35 participants from around the world to work on real-world environmental hazard/risk communication challenges for two areas in Mexico. Participants worked in interdisciplinary teams, following a three-step iterative process, with support from mentors and a range of specialists to develop risk communication outputs. Feedback surveys indicate that the workshop met its goal of improving participants’ knowledge of risk communication and interdisciplinary working. The workshop resulted in an inter-disciplinary community of researchers and practitioners, including organisers, participants and supporting specialists, still active after the event. It is recommended that such interdisciplinary workshops are used to build capacity to tackle complex challenges, such as risk communication, but require further testing. Insights into the design and implementation of such interdisciplinary workshops are given (e.g. team design, use of preparatory materials, and engagement of specialists and local stakeholders are presented), including critiques of challenges raised by the workshop participants. Guidance is provided to those interested in applying a Pressure Cooker approach and further adaptations of the approach are welcomed

Role of the RING domain in MDM2-mediated ubiquitination of p53

The MDM2 protein regulates the tumour suppressor protein p53, acting as its chaperone, regulating its translation and targeting p53 for degradation by the 26s proteasome via its E3 ligase activity. The E3 ligase activity of MDM2 is dependent on its C-terminal RING domain. E3 ligases containing a RING domain are traditionally thought to catalyse the transfer of ubiquitin from their conjugating enzyme (E2) partner to the target protein, in the final step of the ubiquitination cascade. Various E2 enzymes have been shown to interact with their partner E3 ligases, yet evidence for the interaction between MDM2 and its partner E2, UbcH5α has not yet been shown. It has been reported that the reason for this lack of evidence is that the interaction between the two is highly unstable. Here I show that MDM2 forms a stable isolatable interaction with UbcH5α, the C-terminal tail of MDM2 is not necessary for this interaction. Although RING E3 ligases were not previously thought to interact with ubiquitin, preliminary evidence is emerging that suggests that this interaction is possible indeed I show that MDM2 and ubiquitin form a stable complex. I demonstrate that UbcH5α and ubiquitin both interact with the RING of MDM2, specifically the 20 most C-terminal amino acids of MDM2. My results show that both these proteins can bind this region of the RING simultaneously. I also highlight specific residues including tyrosine 489 and arginine 479 important for UbcH5α and ubiquitin binding respectively and the negative affect that these mutations have on the E3 ligase activity of MDM2 towards p53. Furthermore I show by limited proteolysis and hydrogen deuterium exchange that UbcH5α can be allosterically activated by MDM2. A novel peptide phage display technique linked to next generation sequencing was developed to further confirm an allosteric change and demonstrates that UbcH5α has different binding specificity for peptides when in a free or ligand bound conformation. MDM2 is a popular target for cancer therapeutics due to its dysregulation throughout many cancer types, including 30% of soft tissue sarcomas. Dissecting the mechanism of MDM2 function is an important step in identifying specific drugable interfaces on MDM2 and its interacting partners so that effective therapeutics can be designed

Designed Co-spontaneity: A New Model for Facilitating Pedagogic Practice

This paper presents a conceptual model for a design thinking approach to achieving co-spontaneity in higher education contexts, particularly within ‘meetings’, (i.e., lectures, tutorials, and tutor-student feedback sessions). The model re-evaluates these meetings as an essential part of ideation and exploration—rather than as a barrier—in spaces where uncertainty can be embraced. Uncertainty is often seen as a factor to be reduced or avoided, especially in teaching, but is here viewed as essential to bringing about engaging staff-student experiences through strategically designed spontaneity for all participants. In support of this approach, the literature and reflection on practice are presented as challenges to complacency on the part of educators, championing instead the need to embrace uncertainty in design-led classrooms as desirable for both, teaching and teaching planning. The model thus proposes that spontaneity be ‘co-collaborative’ and not simply imposed upon students as yet another activity demanding compliance. Reflections from practice with this model are grouped around three themes: (i) barriers from academic culture, often on the part of staff; (ii) barriers from academic literacy, often on the part of students; and (iii) assumptions, applicable to all. By positioning these reflections alongside contexts drawn from literature around meetings, uncertainty, and risk in higher education, our four-zone model presents a continuum—from absolute control to absolute chaos. The model does not attempt to provide definitive answers to uncertainty, but instead offers a reflective tool to support, and even embrace, the benefits of uncertainty and spontaneity in teaching and planning for staff and students of design

Vegetable Shipping Line Graph Testing Survey

Survey results from both an online and in-paper survey designed to determine if how uncertainty information was displayed changed users' decisions from and interpretations of the data. Participants for the survey were recruited in different ways to target different audiences

Commercial Vehicle Research Buggy For Active Driver Assistance Systems

This is the Final Design Report for Daimtronics, a senior project team sponsored by Professor Charles Birdsong of Cal Poly and by Daimler Trucks North America. This team integrated mechatronic systems into a scale semi-truck chassis using existing mechanical and software systems from three separate Cal Poly senior projects over the recent years: Daimscale, MicroLaren, and ProgreSSIV. The goal was to have a user-friendly platform capable of executing autonomous driving algorithms that are programmable at a high level in Simulink and Robotic Operating System (ROS). Advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle algorithms were not within the scope of this project, but the capability to upload the platform with such software was. Through research on existing products and technologies in the field today, as well as through communication with the sponsors, Daimtronics has compiled a list of customer needs and resulting engineering specifications that will verify whether the needs are met or not. Included is both the preliminary design direction, encompassing the selection of a motor, a computing platform and a middleware framework, as well as the final design direction as the project evolved. The sensor suite for object detection and detailed plans for the integration of the electronic, computing, and mechanical components are described. The proposed and final design of the motherboard integrating the electronic and computing platforms of the system is detailed. A description of the current state of the project is included, as well as suggested next steps for future teams who will be working on this platform. A timeline of key deliverables and their due dates throughout the 2018-2019 academic school year is included

Volcanic Ash Workshop Survey Results

Survey results from the 22 February 2016 Volcanic Ash Workshop with user groups from research and operations. Users included pilots, the civil aviation association, representatives from airlines, engine manufacturers, forecasters from the UK Met Office, and researchers from academia. Survey was a decision-making game for flight paths given different forecasts. The purpose of the survey was to see how decisions change if given different risk levels or different ways of displaying the information