The 2nd Annual Meeting of Southeast Texas Urban IFL (SETx-UIFL) was hosted at Lamar University on October 8-10th. The annual meeting is where SETx-UIFL scientists and students gather to share the latest research updates and discuss collaboration ideas for the forthcoming years. A total of 75 members joined the meeting both in-person and virtually. Additionally, we were delighted to have the external advisory board and members from two task forces join us in this event.
Some highlights from the SETx-UIFL annual meeting are presented below:
Sunday, October 8th, 2023
On Sunday, October 8th, SETx-UIFL scientists and students were invited to network, socialize, and enjoy a dinner at the Science and Technology Building at Lamar University as we got ready for a busy two days of sessions, training, and tours.
Monday, October 9th, 2023
On Monday, October 9th, SETx-UIFL members gathered at the Center for Innovation, Commercial, & Entrepreneurship at Lamar University. To open, Dr. Paola Passalacqua, SETx-UIFL Lead PI welcomed all participants and presented SETx-UIFL Vision and Goals as well as some updates from the 2023 Annual Principal Investigator’s Meeting in Rockville, MD. After that, each theme lead, including Dr. Geeta Persad (Climate), Dr. Ethan Coon (Water), Dr. Pawel Misztal (Air), Dr. Katherine Lieberknecht (Co-design), and Dr. Michelle Meyer, Dr. Christa Brelsford, Dr. Nathanael Proctor Rosenheim, and Dr. Siyu Yu (Equity) presented theme updates and plans for year 2. Following theme updates, Dr. Jaimie Masterson summarized the main findings from the joint task force meetings conducted at the beginning of September 2023. Morning sessions ended with the Executive Committee meeting with External Advisory Board (EAC). Four EAC members raised questions related to community engagement, the role of community groups in research, leveraging research data/ information to assist community and decision-makers, and research funding allocation during the 5 years of the research.
Afternoon sessions covered a series of training for SETx-UIFL scientists and students, including the Knowledge Management Platform, ChatGPT, and Slack with Dr. Will Mobley and student training with Dr. Jaimie Matterson. Following the training, Dr. Liv Haselbach updated Activity Areas regarding 2024 Spring courses and Student Institute in May 2024. A breakout session was then held for discussions within each theme.
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023
Tuesday, October 10th started with Cross-pollination sessions which provided opportunities for SETx-UIFL scientists and students to discuss their collaborations between themes in the upcoming years. After the discussion, team leads summarized major keys and presented their strategic plans for year 2. Some major keys that will be investigated across themes in year 2 are sea level rise, storm surge, rainfall, wetland restorations (Climate-Water), pre-management vs. emergency response (Water-Equity), bottom-up workflow (Climate-Co-design), integrating air data, SV data and health data (Air-Equity), focus group vs. interview (Co-design), and green stormwater infrastructure (Co-design-Water). Theme leads also suggested hosting joint theme meetings and winter task force meetings with the participation of water and air members. SETx-UIFL 2023 Annual Meeting concluded with Dr. Paola Passalacqua providing a summary and extending gratitude to all the participants.
A bus tour for our scientists and students to visit several SETx sites was then organized and guided by Lamar University members.
Save the date for 2024
We are truly grateful to everyone — including our external advisory board members, task force members, SETx-UIFL scientists and students, and other virtual attendees — who made the SETx-UIFL 2023 Annual Meeting a spectacular success. The Center for Resilience at Lamar University played a crucial role in hosting the event, making this success possible.
Thank you for attending the SETx-UIFL 2023 Annual Meeting and we look forward to seeing you on November 17-19th, 2024 in Beaumont for the SETx-UIFL 2024 Annual Meeting!