Dr. Casey Canfield, affiliate professor of engineering management and systems engineering, has been selected as a fellow for the Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS) Fellowship, a national two-year program to assist researchers strengthen the impact of their work.
Canfield was chosen as one in all 5 fellows. The fellowship consists of skilled growth, national collaboration alternatives and a stipend. The University of Missouri developed this system to broaden the impact of National Science Foundation grants.
“I’ve always had that goal in mind, of how I can have real-world impact and actually make the world a better place,” Canfield says. “I like to do research that directly speaks to problems that people have that they want solved.”
Canfield’s analysis focuses on how folks work together with expertise and how techniques could be designed to raised meet folks’s wants. Her work spans areas akin to synthetic intelligence choice assist in organ transplantation, renewable power adoption and rural broadband infrastructure. A variety of her analysis attracts from choice science and behavioral science to grasp how folks make selections associated to expertise.
A key a part of her work is participatory analysis, the place she collaborates with communities all through the analysis course of to guarantee that options are efficient. She says the ARIS Fellowship will assist help her with higher methods for collaboration.
“The idea is that you don’t have to wait until the end of a project to think about impact,” she says. “You can start at the beginning by working with the people who will ultimately use the results.”
The ARIS Fellowship brings researchers from throughout the United States to develop methods to translate analysis into societal advantages. They take part in national conferences and coaching centered on the broad impact of analysis, tips on how to talk outcomes and constructing partnerships.
Canfield says the expertise will even assist her assist different school members and college students at S&T in strengthening the worth of their work.
“I see this as an opportunity to be a leader and an example for others who want their research to have a meaningful impact,” she says.
Canfield’s profession has all the time been guided by a want to attach analysis with the general public good. She serves on the advisory board for the Missouri Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Program, which connects scientists and engineers with state legislators to present insights on public coverage selections. She can also be the previous chair of the Midwest Regional Hub for the Public Interest Technology University Network. Before becoming a member of the college, she labored within the federal authorities via a science and expertise coverage fellowship within the U.S. Department of Energy.
“I’m excited about ways that I can help people have more societal impact for their research, but also have research that benefits the public good,” she says. “It will be helpful to have infrastructure, incentives and models in place to see what that looks like.”