Gary L. Brase - US grants

Security is very difficult to use, and staying safe online is a growing challenge for everyone. It is especially devastating to inexperienced computer users, who may not spot risk indicators and may misinterpret currently implemented textual explanations and visual feedback of risk. This work explores, evaluates, and compares the effectiveness of several online safety education modules for users of various skill levels and the importance and effectiveness of visual feedback when encountering security threats. This interdisciplinary work, with psychologists and computer scientists playing crucial roles, is developing and testing specific user feedback strategies to determine their relative effectiveness in keeping users from making security-critical mistakes, and unambiguously informing users when security failures have occurred. This research is a vital step to determine what works, what does not work, and to get users to pay attention to important risk signals that may otherwise go unnoticed.

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will generate simulated data to model the behaviors of the interdependent beef production system and transportation infrastructure in southwestern Kansas, with due consideration of key social and economic factors. This process involves: i) modeling of the system as a multilayer network; ii) designing of an agent-based model incorporating all collected data and considering key social and economic aspects; iii) assessment of interdependencies between the beef production and transportation infrastructures, iv) evaluation of different scenarios and their impact on the infrastructure performance. The generated data will be organized and publicly shared with the final goal of increasing the understanding of these coupled systems. Benefits of this work include improved understanding of how to prevent and contain risks to these systems, thus contributing to the goal of greater safety and economic viability. Mentoring and training of a graduate student in the conduct of interdisciplinary research is an important component of the research. Project data and software will be publicly shared through websites and results disseminated through academic conferences and journals. The Center for Engagement and Community Development of Kansas State University will be utilized to distribute project results to target stakeholder audiences through the organization of a workshop in a critical location for the beef industry.

From a theoretical perspective, the expected outcomes will provide novel insights into the structural characteristics and the interdependencies of coupled infrastructures. New methods and models will be developed and made publicly available for scientists in the field to use in other regions and other contexts. From an application perspective, the data generated in this project will advance current knowledge of the beef production and transportation systems. Furthermore, the significant economic and social aspects of these interdependent systems will provide foundational elements for cross-disciplinary analysis in the domains of network science and social organization.

This planning NSF S&CC project aims to investigate key technical, economic, social, and policy issues that influence the transition to a green and sustainable energy future for rural communities. The project is based on a hypothesis that policies, incentives and strategies that are community-focused rather than individual-focused will be more effective in advancing solar energy in rural America. The intellectual merits include convergent research to investigate social, technical, economic, and policy issues in an integrative manner to obtain detailed understanding of barriers to solar energy in rural communities and to explore strategies to advance solar energy in these communities using a smart and interconnected co-design framework. Broader impacts include enhancing the understanding of barriers to advancing solar energy in rural America and seeking solutions to overcome these barriers while explicitly placing social equity as key criteria in the models. Advancing solar energy in rural communities will not only contribute to the social goal of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change, it adds economic values to the rural communities and provide economic opportunities to its citizens. By engaging the community of citizens of Greensburg and other rural communities in Kansas, and the community of rural energy service providers, the project will disseminate relevant information for advancing solar energy in rural America. The project will support students for research tasks. Efforts will be made to engage women students and students from under-represented groups in the project. The students’ involvement will enable them to receive hands-on training in a range of interdisciplinary research techniques.

The research team will conduct appropriate surveys of the community of residents in Greensburg, Kansas and other rural communities in Kansas, and the community of rural municipalities and electricity service providers to delineate issues that influence the transition to a green and sustainable energy future for rural communities. Understanding these barriers will enable effective strategies to foster an environment that would be conducive to advancing solar PV in rural communities. This research will also develop the application of persuasion research in psychology to real-world problems and context in order to achieve positive social change. Innovative data analysis, engineering, and economics principles will be used to determine appropriate size and locations of the PV and storage for Greensburg. A key innovative aspect is co-design of planning and operational framework with engagement of city administrators, industry, community and other stakeholders. The project will use a holistic approach to find solutions for optimal deployment of solar energy and management of distributed energy resources. Economic solutions will integrate impacts on social and economic equity for rural areas in the transition to a green energy future. Given that solar energy penetration in rural communities is at a nascent stage, the proposed co-design framework could serve as a shining example for other communities aspiring to transition towards a sustainable energy future.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.