Tech Refactored

In this episode Gus talks to Rezaul Mahmood, a professor at the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also an applied climatologist and the director of the High Plains Regional Climate Center. 

In 2021, Dr. Mahmood received a supplemental grant from the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, a program designed to provide supplemental research funding to teams that are already engaged in active internally or externally funded research at the University of Nebraska. These grants encourage researchers developing new technologies to consider potential policy aspects of their research and are meant, in the longer term, to facilitate new interdisciplinary collaborations.

Dr. Mahmood’s research conducted in conjunction with his NGTC funding “will comprehensively identify and review academic and industry literature examining connections between policies and impact on land use land cover change LULCC, with a focus on how agricultural policies, RFS and trade agreements may influence LULCC in the agricultural sector of Nebraska. 

Episode Notes:

The Great Plains Irrigation Experiment 

In the third episode in this series we again speak with Ash Eliza Smith on their project called “Flyover Fictions,” that pairs scientists with artists to create digital books. For the second half of the episode, Professor Kyle Langvardt sits down with one of these pairs, Joshua Herr and Yasaman Sheri , whose digital project is titled, “Desert Skin & Microbial Glyphs.” This is the final episode in the series that will explore the digital books in the Flyover research platform.

Click here to listen to episode 1.
Click here to listen to episode 2.

Checkout all the projects:
https://www.flyoverfictions.com

Joshua Herr is a biologist with broad interdisciplinary interests, focused mainly on the genomics and metagenomics of microbial interactions. His main interests center around understanding the symbiosis of mycorrhizal-plant interactions, but he follows interesting research questions where ever they may exist.  Josh's research is generally environmental and laboratory studies, although he utilizes computational and bioinformatic techniques heavily.

Yasaman Sheri is Designer & Director investigating the creative inquiry of technology and biology. Her research explores interfaces of sensing, perception and aesthetics of simulation. She is an advocate for diversity in technology and builds platforms and tools that support artistic practice in Life Sciences.

On this episode we explore what leadership and innovation look like in the industry and in academia focused on the tech sector. Matt Perault is the director of the Center on Technology Policy at University of North Carolina’s School of Information & Library Science. He previously led the Center on Science & Technology Policy at Duke University. Before returning to academia, Matt was a director on the public policy team and the head of the global policy development team at Facebook. He covered issues ranging from antitrust to law enforcement to human rights and oversaw the company’s policy work on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality.