Accelerating Convergent Solutions at the Technology/Work Interface for Societal Impact (Panel)- WIE ILC 2021

Maithilee Kunda, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University, and NSF Convergence Accelerator 2019 Cohort Member (NeuroAII@Work)

Ranjana Mehta, PhD, Associate Professor, Wm. Barnes Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University and NSF Convergence Accelerator 2019 Cohort Member (LEARNER)

Kylie Peppler, PhD, Associate Professor of Informatics and Education and Director of The Creativity Labs, University of California, Irvine and NSF Convergence Accelerator 2019 Cohort Member (SkillXR)

Divya Srinivasan, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech and NSF Convergence Accelerator 2019 Cohort Member (LEARNER)

The world’s technological advancements in AI, machine learning, and robotics is irrevocably shifting the future of work in unanticipated ways. The National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator is focusing on solutions to train, reskill, upskill, and prepare the current and future workforce with industry needs and jobs of the future, as well as build a talent pipeline to stimulate the U.S. workforce.

The audience will hear from NSF funded academic and industry luminaries converging together to provide disruptive future of work solutions that envision a positive national-scale societal impact. Solutions include developing the U.S talent pipeline through competency-based training intelligent tools to connect academic institutions with industry needs to prepare students for the workforce, improving workforce training and safety for emergency responders through human augmentation, and creating VR/AR tools to identify unique visuospatial skills of neurodiverse individuals thus preparing them to thrive in the workforce, and upskilling the manufacturing industry through virtual and mixed reality applications.

The panel will also feature convergence research fundamentals such as cross-cutting partnerships between academia, industry, non-profit, government, and other sectors; use-inspired research, team science, and design thinking; used by the NSF Convergence Accelerator to transition basic research and discovery toward meaningful societal impact.