Podcast — EP 68: A Future We Want: One Grand Challenge. Six Grand Solutions

Intro (00:04):
Trailblazers in research; innovators in technology; and those who simply have a good story: all make up the fabric that is George Mason University. We're taking on the grand challenges that face our students, graduates; inand higher education is our mission and our passion. Hosted by Mason President Gregory Washington, this is the Access to Excellence podcast.
 

President Gregory Washington (00:27):
Our world is at a crossroads. It is time either to brace ourselves for an era of global decline and a future that none of us would choose for ourselves, or it's time to seize back control of our destiny and work together to reverse course. Meeting this moment requires unprecedented action to create the future we want for our planet. As one of the top tier research universities in the country, George Mason has announced an important and bold new direction for our university and for research. Drawing on our roots as a university that overcame adversity to become the youngest R1 institution and one who sponsors research funding has grown significantly more than 64% since 2020, we are launching a university-wide strategy to sharpen our focus on humanity's most pressing issues while maximizing our competitiveness for a dwindling external research funding opportunities. We call it our Grand Challenge Initiative.
 

President Gregory Washington (01:29):
It will take all of us working together across schools, colleges, and disciplines at George Mason University, in partnership with research partners in our region and throughout the world to determine the course for our collective future. So today we're gonna talk about it. We're gonna dive into this with Andre Marshall, vice President for research innovation and economic impact. In his role as the university senior research officer Andre, who joined George Mason in 2021, provides overall leadership for the portfolio of research innovation and economic development activities. Prior to George Mason, Andre served in leadership positions at the National Science Foundation and at the University of Maryland College Park. He is the recipient of the NSF Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), which is one of the most prestigious awards a young faculty member can achieve. And he's also the recipient of the Philip Thomas Medal of Excellence. And his research has been supported by national and international funding. Andre, thanks for joining us today.
 

Andre Marshall (02:36):
Thank you for having me. I can't tell you how excited I am to be here.
 

President Gregory Washington (02:40):
Outstanding. Well, look, I talked about the grand challenge issue, but you know, we often get the question, what is a grand challenge? So, given that this is a big part of your portfolio going forward, I'm asking you what's a grand challenge?
 

Andre Marshall (02:55):
Alright, well we spent really a lot of time thinking about this and for George Mason University, from our perspective, the Grand Challenge Initiative, it's all about the future. And specifically as we thought about kind of what that means to operationalize this, we developed four criteria for what a grand challenge is. So a grand challenge is large and enduring. And what we mean by that is we are not trying to solve the little problems. As you say, we are focused on the big rocks and we're not looking for quick fixes. Alright? We want to have a solution that lasts.
 

President Gregory Washington (03:37):
Give me an example. Not one of our solutions, but give me a specific example of a grand challenge.
 

Andre Marshall (03:43):
A grand challenge that comes to mind would be a cure for sickle cell, for example.
 

President Gregory Washington (03:50):
Okay.
 

Andre Marshall (03:50):
You know, that challenge impacts people globally. There's a lot of suffering associated with that. It, it changes people's lives. And so if you can address those kinds of issues, you can really make a difference. And guess what? It's big. And if you solve it, you've solved it. And that's what I mean by, you know, doing something that is big and enduring. You know, also a grand challenge is complex and it requires people from not just across the, the university, but it requires external partners. So what we mean by, you know, this kind of complex, interdisciplinary, and external partner criterion is that you can't do it alone, right? You need people, the problem is bigger than just you. Alright, so we got grand challenges that are big and they endure and they require multiple partners.
 

Andre Marshall (04:58):
Um, and now let's talk about this third criterion. And this is focused on Mason. Look, we need to focus on challenges that we can really do something about and that aligns with our strengths, our assets, and our core values. So we want things that mean something to George Mason University in terms of our values and our expertise and strengths. And then finally, this fourth criterion is that we want to move the needle and to make a difference. So we don't want our, our our activities to just be a drop in the bucket. The things that we work on, they're going to really make a change. They're not just going to be additive. And so we have to be careful about the problems that we choose and the challenges that we choose so that they're aligned with our strengths and that we can really do something.
 

President Gregory Washington (05:57):
So we have world class faculty focused on a whole host of issues, right? From poverty to health, to engineering and science. How would you recommend we focus our effort? I know you, you had a committee, this committee has met for a significant period of time, some of our best and brightest faculty, and you all tackled this issue. So talk a little bit about deploying our resources and focus.
 

Andre Marshall (06:24):
I appreciate that question and I appreciate the intentionality of this question. We really need to deploy our resources. We need to deploy our entire research enterprise for action and for impact, especially considering all the headwinds that we have right now. We've got, uh, resource limitations in terms of research. We have increased competition for talent and resources, and we have changing priorities in the research landscape to, to be frank. And so we have to be intentional about how we're gonna deploy our resources and our research enterprise. Well, our faculty, they're committed to making a difference. So we, we need to honor that they are committed to having an impact and changing the world. So, you know, that's our foundation. That we want to do something, that the faculty care about, that they're good at that is really gonna make a difference. So we put together, uh, as you mentioned this committee, we talked about so many different possibilities of what we could do. There were 84 different ideas that came up.
 

President Gregory Washington (07:42):
So there, so there was a big focusing effort that happened to get it down to six.
 

Andre Marshall (07:47):
To get it down to six. There were 84 different ideas. And those were sourced not just from the faculty, their networks, the external community. We revisited those criteria that I mentioned. We kind of synthesized those 84 into groups. And then we did what's called the SOAR analysis, where we looked at strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and the kinds of results that we wanted in order to get things down a little further. And when we put everything together, we came up with some thrust areas. Alright? These thrust areas, they reflected our values, they reflected our strengths, they reflected things that the faculty and the researchers and our students could get excited about. They were things that could make a difference. And I'm not gonna tell you the six right now.
 

President Gregory Washington (08:43):
Yeah, yeah. We, we, I'm--
 

Andre Marshall (08:44):
Not, I'm not, I'm gonna tell you why I'm not gonna tell you.
 

President Gregory Washington (08:46):
No, no, no. We'll get in there. We'll get into that later.
 

Andre Marshall (08:48):
No, but I, I just wanna say this: a big piece of it was the money. Alright? So I want you, you asked about resources. And so during this whole conversation, I got a lot of pressure. It's like we're doing, we're doing all this work, we're being thoughtful, but are we gonna have the resources to actually do something? And I'm so proud to say that in addition to having the ideas, this effort in order to really deploy it, as you mentioned, has some resources behind it that are significant. And the fact that there's some resources that back up these ideas makes all the difference.
 

President Gregory Washington (09:30):
So speaking of resources, there's a lot of uncertainty right now with federal funding for research that all universities are experiencing, right? We've seen caps on overhead. Uh, we've seen reductions and grants for a whole myriad of reasons. It's started with a DEI framework, but it's gone way beyond that. I think a lot of people, so--
 

Andre Marshall (09:52):
You're talking about why I get up at two in the morning.
 

President Gregory Washington (09:54):
<laugh>. Exactly. So, so I think a lot of people would be wondering why double down and make an investment in the research space right now, given all of the uncertainty.
 

Andre Marshall (10:05):
So President Washington, we really have you to thank for that. So I'm following your lead. I can remember, you know, more than a year ago now, you actually introducing the idea that federal funding, federal resources are gonna decline. And we need to be ready for that. We need to be thinking about what are the most important problems for us to focus our efforts on. And so, George Mason University, as we often are, we are ahead of the, the curve on this one. We're organized, we have some focus areas, we have some resources behind this. And even in this declining landscape, we've got a long-term plan. You mentioned the stresses that are on our research enterprise right now. The budget cuts, the DEI concerns, the politics. Research is about so much more than that. Research is about discovery. It's about new knowledge, and ultimately it's about societal benefit and making the world a better place. And so we're not gonna focus on these distractions. We have to be aware of them, but we're not gonna focus on that. We're focused on the long game here. And this Grand Challenge Initiative gives us something to look forward to. It's a bright spot. It helps focus us from the distractions. We are leading on this because we're not so focused on some of these distractions, and it gives us an opportunity to set ourselves apart.
 

President Gregory Washington (11:45):
Well, I think that's the key issue. At a time when people are, for lack of a better way of putting this retrenching, we are going to be investing.
 

Andre Marshall (11:56):
That's right.
 

President Gregory Washington (11:56):
It follows the, the Warren Buffet adage. Warren Buffet says, look, when <laugh>, when others are greedy, be afraid. And when others are afraid, be greedy. Right? And so that is the framework, that is the, the rationale for making these investments and making them now. So access to research, whether it's support for faculty or hands-on experiences for our students, is a huge driver at George Mason. How could faculty get involved in the initiative?
 

Andre Marshall (12:28):
I'm gonna say our faculty are already involved in the initiative. When the committee was formed, we looked at broad representation from the faculty. We looked at senior faculty from across the academic units. I talked to deans about the faculty that would be good for this. We even had deans on the committee. We had junior faculty on the committee as well. So their voices have already been heard in shaping the very beginning of this. And we are just at the very beginning, there's gonna be so much more that comes out of this initiative. It it, it really does frame what our research is gonna look like strategically for the next five to 10 years here at George Mason University. And as the effort grows, we'll engage a broader community of faculty. In fact, we're very intentional about that. We've already identified champions, grand challenge champions, that are going out throughout the university and helping people to understand more about the solution areas and the opportunities for investment and connecting.
 

Andre Marshall (13:50):
We're looking for faculty that can start thinking about integrating their research into these thrust areas. So they're already out there, right? And while we are doing the outreach, faculty can already be thinking, you know what? There's this grand challenge area here. I know I'm doing something in this area or adjacent to it. How can I use this Grand Challenge Initiative to amplify that? There was this wonderful Dear Patriots letter that went out at the end of April. So the students and the faculty and everyone knows about that, can start thinking about integrating some of this grand challenge activity into their curriculum, into their classes. And what I love about this is, at its core Grand Challenge Initiative is a research effort. And as we mature as a research intensive university, we should be thinking more about really nucleating our activities around research. So having these classroom activities that are kind of, uh, built around or inspired by some major research things is super exciting. They can start thinking about the facilities and infrastructure that they might need in order to really move the needle in some of these spaces. And our solution areas are broad. And so thinking about how they might collaborate across disciplines and who their peers will be or, or could be in these solution areas will be great. And in the future, in the fall, we're gonna have, you know, some structured events and activities that can really help our faculty and student community get more engaged.
 

President Gregory Washington (15:39):
Okay. Well let's talk about these six areas. So there are six areas of investment that in, in my opinion, are areas of grand challenge need in the country, right? Actually globally. And these are areas where we have key significant expertise, right? We have both. So one: advancing 21st century education for all. Two: building a climate resilient society. Three: driving responsible digital innovation and sustainable infrastructure. Four: improving human health, wellbeing and preparedness. Five: preparing for space exploration, research and collaboration. And six: strengthening peace, trust and engagement in democracy. Those are the six grand challenge areas. I think they're outstanding. Let's talk through a couple of them and highlight some of the big areas that we believe we have expertise and we will touch society in these general areas. So first, let's talk about advancing 21st century education for all. Can you talk a little bit about how the committee came to that conclusion of, of a grand challenge?
 

Andre Marshall (17:06):
Mason is big. We have over 40,000 students. And so one of the biggest advantages, some of the biggest benefits that we offer is education, workforce development to our to our region and to the country. We know how to do that at scale. And that accessing 21st century education for all is about transforming education, breaking barriers to drive inclusivity and access and creating the workforce of the future. So, okay, we do things at scale. We care about education, we care about access, and we care about the future. And things are changing so rapidly in the technology space. And that's where I want to kind of talk a little bit about intersectionality. And so we've got this wonderful new initiative in AI, right? And we are looking at the future and how some of these technologies, whether it's AI or whether it's quantum, is gonna change the workforce of the future. And are there going to be opportunities for everyone in this rapidly changing landscape? And so we can bring our scale, we can bring our, our commitment to access and our research know-how in these emerging areas like quantum, like AI, like others, all together in order to do something that's relevant and impactful, like 21st century education for all,
 

President Gregory Washington (18:48):
There is a digital divide in the country. And we have experts that are focused in that space right? Where bridging the gap with students who have access to technology and connectivity and those who don't, teacher shortages, right? There are teacher shortages all over the country. We're one of the largest producers of educators in this region, not just in our state. A third of all the teachers in Northern Virginia are Mason educated and 50% of all the leadership, right? But then there are issues like curriculum relevance, student mental health, assessment and standardization. These are all areas that I feel that our faculty are well positioned to actually tackle. And I think we're gonna have great outcomes relative to this.
 

Andre Marshall (19:34):
I I can give you one, one example, you know? Uh, in the research space, we just had Professor Kaya, who's an elementary education professor. She is working on this digital divide, just like you mentioned, just received a million dollars from NSF to cultivate AI literacy through inclusive linguistics and integrated elementary curriculum and educational robotics.
 

President Gregory Washington (20:03):
Oh, that's amazing.
 

Andre Marshall (20:04):
Yeah. So, so we're doing it.
 

President Gregory Washington (20:06):
So another one of these areas is this whole area of building a climate resilient society. And then this is an area where we actually have a significant number of outstanding scholars. And so let me highlight what I see in this area, and then you can talk specifically about what the committee, uh, dealt with in terms of their focused efforts. When we talk about climate resilience, we are talking about climate resilient energy systems, right? And that means strengthening the systems to respond and recover to climate related disasters, uh, you know, more effectively and quickly. Right? You know, we can argue about what's causing the climate change, which is what we tend to be doing in this country now. Or we could really be focused on what do we do when 40 major storms hit our country in a year causing widespread destruction and loss of life.
 

President Gregory Washington (20:57):
Uh, how do we rebuild systems that are resilient to what's coming of the fact that our climate has changed, you know, for lack of a better way of putting it, people will argue over whether climate change is caused by man or is caused by nature. But what they're not arguing over <laugh> is the fact that our climate is changing, right? You know, people see the, the storms, they see the wildfires, they're experiencing this. It is so prevalent and so frequent that you actually can't deny that aspect. And so, uh, building systems that are resilient to these climate change, that's, that's one area where we know we have expertise and where we have strength. And then there's issues of community preparedness that's ensuring that vulnerable communities have the resources, knowledge and support to adapt to the actual changing climate, right? And so I see a whole host of areas plus others, right, where we actually have significant expertise. Talk a little bit about the committee and what the committee thoughts were as it relates to these issues.
 

Andre Marshall (22:01):
So we knew that we have, and we know that we have strength in those areas. And the committee spent quite a bit of time discussing our strengths in these areas and how to pull them together into a narrative that we could put forward, but we were worried about putting it forward. Because of the word climate.
 

President Gregory Washington (22:24):
Interesting.
 

Andre Marshall (22:25):
And we spent quite a bit of time talking about this. And in the end, we know that this is an important solution to the problem of and challenge of creating the future we want, and it's aligned with our values and our strengths and we move forward with it. I'd like to pull some of the things together that you mentioned in terms of how big this could be and how much George Mason University could do in this area.
 

President Gregory Washington (22:59):
Okay.
 

Andre Marshall (22:59):
You talked about infrastructure resilience, you talked about community resilience. We have an amazing team of climate forecasters who are experts in computational fluid dynamics also. And you can pull all of that together.
 

President Gregory Washington (23:17):
Right? And, and, and not to mention the climate communications folks.
 

Andre Marshall (23:21):
Ah, it's an excellent point.
 

President Gregory Washington (23:22):
Who, when you talk about engaging communities, right? When we talk about this whole aspect of community preparedness, ensuring that vulnerable communities have the resources, knowledge, and support to adapt, right? That's all about how you get information to people and how you do it in a high quality and accessible fashion, right? Let me talk a little bit about probably the <laugh>, the one that's probably most controversial, right? And that is grand challenges, uh, relative to what we're doing in the area of peace, trust and engagement in democracy. Peace, trust and engagement in democracy. Because in my opinion, the political climate in the country is really changing our ability to be successful in many of the other areas, right? Because the political climate is affecting our funding, and that funding affects how we tackle all of the other grand challenges. So we gotta deal with it. We gotta talk about it, right? And so, so what kind of challenges are we talking about here? The erosion of trust. There's clearly declining public trust in democratic institutions. We actually have the faculty here who could study, who can analyze that. And that's declining trust in democratic institutions. There's declining trust in the media. Uh, the <laugh> declining trust in higher education...
 

Andre Marshall (24:44):
<laugh>
 

President Gregory Washington (24:45):
Where, where, where we sit. And so we have faculty who are working in that space. We have people that are working in this general area of disinformation and misinformation, right? Uh, we have faculty who are studying that. And the whole idea of the spread of false or misleading information, and that's amplified right now by social media and, and bringing in and, uh, those aspects of social media and understanding and helping people to understand what kind of tools and systems we need to have in place to thwart that and to ensure that the public is actually getting accurate and actionable information.
 

Andre Marshall (25:21):
Yeah. These are great points. And again, our strengths and our values are aligned with this. And we have international clout in this space.
 

Andre Marshall (25:32):
We just received or we were just designated as the UN Hub for Sustainable Development Goal 16, which focuses on peace, trust and strong institutions. So we have an international position here that we can build on for moving the needle in that space. And that is through our Carter School of Peace and Conflict Resolution. But we'll draw on all of the centers and academic units to, to fields of study to support this. One thing that comes to mind is some of the nice work that Max Albanese, uh, does in the area of election security. So I wanna make this point, whether we're talking about these areas like strengthening peace, trust, and engagement in democracy, or building a climate resilient society. Many of the activities that we've been talking about, they're what you need to build an ecosystem, okay? When you're talking about these areas, we can't think of 'em like, oh, we have just a few strong faculty, or we've got some great infrastructure. We are looking at building ecosystems around these communities of experts and partners and networks and infrastructure and projects and programs that span research and education all in this thrust area. Because when you have that network and that infrastructure and the talent all there activated, that's when you can move the needle in a space. And that's what we're trying to buy.
 

President Gregory Washington (27:13):
This is, this is good. There's so many areas in this space where we have really strong expertise, voter suppression, electoral integrity, we got experts there. We got folk who are focused in dealing with this issue of political polarization. Even, uh, when it comes to technology and surveillance. So if you think about that, you know, these are, you got these digital tools and they can empower citizens, right? But they, they also raise concerns about privacy, about surveillance, and about algorithmic bias in these systems, right? And, you know, we have this whole AI initiative with this AI group that's really strong. But the reality is that group has a focus in, uh, for lack of a better way of putting this, AI and integrity, right?
 

Andre Marshall (27:59):
Yes.
 

President Gregory Washington (28:00):
AI and ethics.
 

Andre Marshall (28:00):
Yes.
 

President Gregory Washington (28:02):
That's where this technology piece intersects with the political realm and having folk looking at the ethical questions and the ethics of AI and focused in that area, I think we run the possibility of being able to change, uh, outcomes, uh, relative to that space.
 

Andre Marshall (28:21):
Yeah.
 

President Gregory Washington (28:21):
And then finally looking at authoritarianism and democratic backsliding, right? We have expertise in that space. And so the reality is that some countries elected leaders are weakening democratic checks and balances. They're restricting freedom of the press and they're eroding judicial independence. Being able to look at that and look into the effect that that will have on societies in general, even on our own, is critical as we, as we move forward. And so I think these are the right six areas. I know we didn't have time to get into all six of them, but you all chose an outstanding set. We haven't even began to talk about some of the more fun ones like space exploration, right? You know? Well, so why is that important? Because if we screw this thing up on this planet, we need to find another one to go to. <Laugh>. Right. But all kidding, all kidding aside, these are the right areas for focus. I think that we're, we're gonna do really, really well with these, and I look forward to the great outcomes that our faculty will achieve in the space.
 

Andre Marshall (29:34):
So thanks, uh, for saying that President Washington, I'm really excited about where we're gonna go and I'm most excited about having a plan and a good plan that we all can get behind and row in the same direction and focus on the future and not be worried about all of the things that we can't do anything about right now.
 

President Gregory Washington (30:01):
So before we close, talk about your next steps. We have this entity in place now. It's been approved, we've allocated some resources to it. And so what are some of the next steps as you roll this out?
 

Andre Marshall (30:16):
So there are really three things that I'd like everybody to think about as we move forward. We're raising awareness, we're driving engagement, and we're making investments. Those are the three things that we're doing. So the email that you sent out at the end of April really kicked off the Grand Challenge Initiative. And people are already contacting me about how can they get involved, what can I do right now to begin to work on this, to be a part of the solution? I'll give you an example. Young man contacted me who's president of AIAA: the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. And he says, I can't tell you how excited I am. I think he saw that space
 

President Gregory Washington (31:05):
<laugh>. He did.
 

Andre Marshall (31:06):
He saw that space solution, you know?
 

President Gregory Washington (31:08):
Yeah. He saw that one in, he, he just couldn't, uh, resist. We got it.
 

Andre Marshall (31:14):
<laugh>. So, but, but here's a point. This, to be candid, is exactly what I was hoping for, right? When people see research opportunities and opportunities for investment, oftentimes there's this very narrow view like, oh, okay, there's gonna be a seed funding opportunity. I'm gonna write a proposal and I'm gonna get, you know, a little bit of support to catalyze a research area. And we're gonna do that. Okay? But we have our entire community now. We have a student organization that's connected to a national network that's thinking about our grand challenge solution area in space. Could they do a student competition? Could they host a national or international student competition at George Mason University? Might they want to write a proposal for that? Again, there are ecosystems that I'm talking about.
 

President Gregory Washington (32:13):
So step one is awareness. What's the next step?
 

Andre Marshall (32:15):
Driving engagement. We have champions in each one of these thrust areas that are developing briefs that kind of serve as our roadmap or our foundation of what each challenge is about. And those champions are writing those up and then they're gonna visit local academic units. They're going to convene their networks and partners and stakeholders with our help. There'll be large meetings in the fall where we get everyone together and our external networks and really help people understand what's possible with this grand challenge opportunity. And to make sure that people are imagining what can happen. And the thing that I didn't mention that I need to in the, uh, raising awareness space and driving engagement space is at the end of this month, we're sending out a request for information--an RFI--and it's just like an idea solicitation. We just want people to just write us and tell us what they're thinking about, what they think they could do, alright, in the grand challenge.
 

President Gregory Washington (33:24):
That's a good step.
 

Andre Marshall (33:25):
We'll collect all these ideas and that's gonna help us with these events early in the fall to organize people because we'll already know what they're thinking and we can build on their thoughts and add our own. And we'll be able to have relevant conversations in the fall based on all these ideas.
 

President Gregory Washington (33:47):
And what's the, last, the last step,
 

Andre Marshall (33:49):
That's the money piece: making investments. We have an investment committee. That's looking at putting together a solicitation of sorts that our community and stakeholders can apply to for funding. And that's gonna be informed by the RFI. It's gonna be informed by our community on exactly what these investments may look like. We're thinking that the investments might be really high level at the institutional level. They could be at the team level or even at the individual level working that out.
 

President Gregory Washington (34:26):
Well that's great. Well, look, this is big and I want to thank you and all of the research faculty, staff, and students who are working so hard already on these bold solutions. Every day we read new awards, new outcomes, new discoveries, and they're outstanding. And I know George Mason research is a major reason why students come to the university. Every year we get more and more applications because we are creating the access, the affordability, the flexibility, and the opportunity for people to achieve great things by solving problems like the ones we've outlined today. And that leads to a successful career and a successful life. So I am just ecstatic about where we're going with this, and I look forward to great things that come.
 

Andre Marshall (35:16):
Thanks so much, President Washington. I really appreciate the time, uh, that you spent the visibility that you're giving this important initiative, and I'm happy to be connected to it. Thank you.
 

President Gregory Washington (35:26):
Outstanding. I am George Mason, president Gregory Washington. Thanks for listening. And tune in next time for more conversations that show why we are all together different.
 

Outro (35:42):
If you like what you heard on this podcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu. For more of Gregory Washington's conversations with the thought leaders, experts, and educators who take on the grand challenges facing our students, graduates and higher education. That's podcast.gmu.edu.