In the Spatial Analysis Laboratory at the University of Vermont, Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne stood in front of a computer screen showing the details of stream erosion in central Vermont in images collected by one of UVM’s unmanned aircraft vehicles.
Three UVM faculty members had followed O’Neil-Dunne, the SAL’s director, into a small office he calls “the space shuttle command room” to see the kind of geographic mapping information the drone provides. Vicki Brennan, a UVM associate professor of religion with a doctorate in anthropology, expressed an interest in the technology.
One of her classes is mapping religious soundscapes in Burlington. Her primary research in Lagos, Nigeria, focuses on the influence of sound on people’s sense of place and community. The SAL could help her manage and analyze the data from those projects, she said when the group sat in a nearby conference room to talk about ways they can collaborate.
With the SAL staff, Brennan wouldn’t have to pay an outside person to do that analysis, O’Neil-Dunne said. “These are examples of where we can take care of that sort of heavy-lifting.”
A connection between religious studies and geo-spatial mapping would seem unlikely, but that’s precisely the goal of UVM’s Faculty Activity Network. The FAN program launched in 2014 to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration -- even between researchers in divergent subject areas that otherwise would have little reason to intersect.
Some of the FAN meetings have involved close to 20 participants. Ideally, some of those faculty members would combine their interests and, at minimum, agree to continue to discuss a possible partnership, said Richard Galbraith, UVM’s vice president for research, who created the FAN.
Whether their ideas or an actual project comes to fruition -- although certainly a desirable outcome -- is less important than the participants saying, “Let’s meet in the middle and let’s change the direction of what we were doing before,” Galbraith said.
The FAN program is part of a larger effort at UVM to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration, a research approach funders are increasingly giving priority to. Galbraith’s office also sponsors an interdisciplinary grant program called Fostering Interdisciplinary Scholarship, Arts & Research, or FISAR.
“Interesting and compelling”
FAN is open to all UVM faculty and staff. Anyone who wants to host a FAN group must write a short description of his or her work that is “interesting and compelling” enough to entice others, Galbraith says. Proposals that are too technical or esoteric will fail to attract would-be collaborators.
“It’s about scholarship, and it’s about creativity,” he said.
Even within specialties that would have obvious intellectual overlap -- environmental studies and agriculture, for example -- UVM researchers aren’t necessarily aware of their colleagues’ work, let alone thinking of teaming up on projects, Galbraith said. The nature of research encourages tunnel vision, a focus on a very specific topic, something unique enough to qualify for funding and publication, he said.
Modern technology that limits direct conversation, in favor of emails and texts, only exacerbates barriers to collaboration. The FAN program forces faculty members to get out of their offices, meet, talk and understand what others at the university are doing.
“That alone has value,” Galbraith said.
After each FAN gathering with a host, the group goes to lunch with Galbraith, who listens to their ongoing exchange. Those who come up with an idea can apply to Galbraith’s office for $1,000 in seed money, a boost for them to take the next step and seek more funding.
“I would urge you not to let this wither on the vine,” Galbraith told a FAN group that met late last month with host Pablo Bose, a UVM associate professor of geography who has extensively studied refugee resettlement in Vermont and elsewhere.
The 10 participants in Bose’s group included faculty and staff in the departments of education, social work, nursing and health sciences, and nutrition and food sciences. Bose proposed setting up a database of refugee-related research at UVM, so those involved in that work can see what others are doing.
“The whole idea of duplication of efforts, I think, is a real challenge,” he told the group.
Many in Bose’s FAN group praised his idea and added suggestions for funding and maintenance of the information.
Susan Munkres, director of UVM’s Community-University Partnerships & Service Learning office, said the database would help her find the right contacts for students who want hands-on experience with those working with immigrant and refugee populations.
“I’m delighted to see this move to a place where faculty might get to collaborate,” she said during their lunch. “It gives students more opportunities to reach across disciplinary boundaries to pursue more areas of interest and passion.”
The FAN participants hosted by O’Neil-Dunne seemed equally enthusiastic at their lunch. Raju Badireddy, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, suggested ways he could use the SAL’s drone for hyperspectral imaging of nanoparticles in lakes and rivers. That would add another perspective to the measurements he takes in his lab.
“And if you combine these two,” Badireddy said, “you have a wide spectrum to look at.”
And nearly any UVM department could take advantage of the SAL, O’Neil-Dunne said. Anthropologists have explored the use of LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, to examine land surfaces. Historians studying World War II can use modern mapping to find the locations of armaments.
The technology today is widely accessible, he told his group. “Your imagination should be the limiting factor.”