COMM Updates - 10/10/2023

Hepeng is pictured center (wearing a tie) with his science & technology communication research team. Faculty team members come from Tsinghua University, University Of Sheffield, KU Leuven in Belgium, and other leading universities. The remarkable building behind and to the left is Soochow University’s library.

Grants

Associate Professor Andrea Stevenson Won et al received a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The grant sponsors the project “Virtual Reality at the Point of Care to Increase Uptake of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder in the Emergency Department,” on which Andrea serves as Co-PI and advisor. The objective of this project is to develop and test VR-Choice, an immersive virtual reality experience designed to motivate eligible patients to agree to treatment with buprenorphine in the emergency department. 

Honors

Research Associate Dominic Balog-Way was elected the inaugural Chair of the Board for the Society for Risk Analysis’s Strategic Endowment Fund. The Board is responsible for overseeing the Society’s strategic investment portfolio (‘The Fund’), proactively identifying new strategic initiatives that seek to advance the Society’s mission, and using investment income to fund those initiatives. As Chair, Dominic is responsible for ensuring the continued functioning and operations of the Board and Fund and pursuing a strategic vision for funding high-quality initiatives.

In the Media

Graduate student Ria Gualano was interviewed by the Voices of VR podcast at the XR Access Symposium poster session. Ria’s segment starts at 7:23. Following her poster session, Ria led a breakout session on inclusive avatars.

Ria, holding a laptop, discusses her research on understanding invisible disability representation and disclosure on Social VR platforms.

Professor Katherine Sender was quoted on BBC 4 The World Tonight on advertising and LGBTQ inclusivity. Katherine’s segment starts at 37:36.

Invited Lectures

Professor Bruce Lewenstein delivered a keynote address at the 2023 conference of the Swiss Association for the Studies of Science, Technology & Society, which took place in Basel. The conference theme was “Science, Expertise and Other Modes of Knowledge: Trends, Patterns, and Prospects.” Bruce’s talk addressed communication as the essence of science and argued that building inclusion and diversity into citizen science projects forces us to deal with the complexity of science communication, leading us to reconsider what we mean by "studying science and technology."

Bruce is pictured delivering his keynote address, “Citizen science, participation, inclusion…and STS.” The picture is taken from a tweet by Seun Williams.

Media Projects

In summer 2023, graduate student Amanda Vilchez developed Nocturnal Detectives (“Let's Talk about Bats”), a video study of bats through acoustic methods and through understanding people's perception of bats by means of participatory research methods. The videos show the experiences of people in two Peruvian communities: the High Andes of Lima (San Lorenzo de Huachupampa and Quilcamachay Vicas) and the Amazonas (San Pablo de Cuyana). This research was supported by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the College of Agriculture and Life Science.

Publications

Professor Lee Humphreys, recent Ph.D. graduates Chelsea Butkowski and Ngai Keung Chan, graduate student Talia Berniker, et al., September 2023, “Communication about Sensors and Communication through Sensors: Localizing the Internet of Things in Rural Communities,” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. This article came out of an National Science Foundation Public Internet of Things Network project, which focuses on rural communities and building sustainable technological networks that meet local needs. The team found that designing rural sensor networks requires stakeholders to navigate obstacles of communication about sensors and communication through sensors to facilitate secure, ethical, and localized sensing in rural communities. 

Michael Kantar, Diane Wang, Iago Hale, Richard C. Pratt, J. Vernon Jensen, and Professor Bruce Lewenstein, September 2023, “Improving Science Communication in the Agricultural Sciences,” Agricultural and Environmental Letters. Communicating research is a key part of public science, but current graduate curricula in the agricultural sciences often have a narrow focus on communication within science. This article summarizes general communication strategies that can be incorporated into graduate agricultural science courses.

Graduate student Pengfei Zhao, Professor Natalie Bazarova, and Natercia Valle, August 2023, “Digital Parenting Divides: The Role of Parental Capital and Digital Parenting Readiness in Parental Digital Mediation,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. This study examined digital parenting divides, or how parents' strategies for regulating their children’s online activities differ based on their available resources and digital parenting readiness. The authors found that parents’ economic, social, and cultural resources, as well as their digital parenting readiness, shape how they approach digital mediation. Recognizing these divides is crucial, pointing to the need for interventions tailored to each family's unique circumstances.