Complex Challenges Conference Spotlights and Sparks Interdisciplinary Research

Faculty participants built cross-school bridges, discuss innovative new projects

Thirty-three faculty from nine schools and 25 departments across Northwestern came together on August 28, 2024, for the second annual “Complex Challenges for a Complex Future Conference,” convened by the Northwestern Institute for Complex Systems (NICO) and co-sponsored with Northwestern’s Office for Research, Office of the Provost, Office of the President, the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, and the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy.

During the daylong event, attendees networked with colleagues, many of whom they were meeting for the first time. They discussed their current research successes and challenges, forged fresh interdisciplinary connections, and brainstormed possibilities for applying for seed funding for new research projects.

"Northwestern is really a world leader in the interdisciplinary study of complex systems, and we’re trying to use these ‘Complex Challenges’ conferences to leverage that and generate new, exceptionally innovative collaborations,” said NICO co-director Danny Abrams.

Furthering Northwestern’s Priorities

During one of the conference activities, participants formed five pre-assigned groups to talk about their current research and the potential strengths, challenges, and opportunities related to Northwestern’s priorities: advance the biosciences; lead in decarbonization, renewable energy, and sustainability; harness the power of data analytics and artificial intelligence; foster interdisciplinary innovation among social sciences and global studies; and enhance the creative and performing arts.

As an example of the diverse perspectives represented, the group that focused on the biosciences included two electrical and computer engineering professors from the McCormick School of Engineering, a neurosurgery faculty member with appointments in physics and applied math, a cardiologist from the Feinberg School of Medicine, and a religious studies professor from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. After comparing notes on their research, one of the participants said, “People are making robust progress on the [research] they’re working on, but they’re not talking to each other as much as they could. This [event] is an opportunity to learn something new and build disparate bridges.”

Among the individual research concepts shared among the group discussing the performing and creative arts were how to use AI to understand concepts embedded in the creative arts and how scientific consultants can better work with moviemakers to ensure a level of realism—so that, for example, people don’t leave the physics profession based on the (erroneous) notion that they will be “a lone genius sitting somewhere” and never interacting with other human beings, as often portrayed.

The group that discussed sustainability saw Northwestern’s strengths as breadth of knowledge and expertise and locational advantage near Lake Michigan and other resources. Common issues and challenges were academic incentives that could hamper collaboration and the breaking down of silos. Opportunities for the future, the participants believed, should focus on the creation of living labs and providing resources for blending social, physical and biological sciences, including the co-teaching of classes.

Research Already Underway

To gain inspiration for the possibilities that lay ahead at the end of the conference, participants heard about the results of two of the eight projects funded from the 2023 kickoff conference.

One of them, titled “Green Chemistry Provides a Clean Slate for Art,” combined the talents of Linsey Seitz, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at McCormick, and Özge Samanci, associate professor of radio, TV and film in the School of Communication. They demonstrated an electrochemical, renewable process to convert water and oxygen into hydrogen peroxide—typically produced in large quantities in toxic ways—which among other uses is harnessed to bleach paper.

The second 2023 project, titled “Neighborhood Gardens: Social and Biological Effects on Community Greenspaces,” included three anthropologists from Weinberg: Ana Aparicio, associate professor; Terry Horton, research associate professor; and Katie Amato, associate professor. Their project has forged gardening-related relationships in the communities that Aparicio studies in Puerto Rico, New York, and Chicago; and they planned to capture data on how community gardens impact people’s well-being.

“Being at this conference is going to be really exciting; I keep referring to it as speed dating,” Horton said at the outset. “You’re going to meet a lot of people and think about your bandwidth to engage in a new project.”

Potential Next Projects

The remainder of the conference focused on four collaboration rounds, in groups of three generated through an algorithm designed by Abrams. (Please see the description of the inaugural conference in 2023 for additional details.)  In each round, different trios met to more specifically review the current research of each and then attempt to find overlap that could be leveraged to create a joint project and potentially apply for NICO funding.