Academy in the Public Square

ACADEMY IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE Public Exchange ExplainedTM

Today’s way of life would not exist without the contributions of creative scholars pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Public Exchange™, an initiative headquartered at USC Dornsife, is designed to reinvigorate collaboration between the university research community and public and private sector leaders.

Conceived by USC Dornsife Dean Amber D. Miller, Public Exchange officially launched in 2020. The first-of-its-kind office streamlines access to subject experts, enabling partners beyond the university to tap a dizzying range of expertise when grappling with complex problems — in a way that’s easy to navigate and affordable.

“Public Exchange provides the connective tissue that not only identifies appropriate expertise within the university to solve a particular problem, but also takes care of the contracts, project management and other hurdles that have traditionally made collaboration with researchers challenging,” Miller says.

VISION INTO ACTION Miller’s experience serving as chief science officer to the NYPD for two years while she was an experimental astrophysicist at Columbia University gave her the idea for a new way of bringing academic expertise to bear on practical problems. But it wasn’t until 2016, when she was appointed dean of USC Dornsife, that she was able to put her vision into action.

“The most relevant challenges affecting society are tremendously complex,” Miller says. “In addition to scientific innovation, research universities can provide insights from fields such as history, psychology, political science, economics and spatial science.” WHAT IS PUBLIC EXCHANGETM?

We connect our partners with USC researchers. We make it simple and fast to access deep expertise across many fields. We define the scope and keep the project on track.

publicexchange.usc.edu

FUTURE OF CITIES USC URBAN TREES INITIATIVE

90,000+

The number of trees the city of Los Angeles aims to plant citywide under L.A.’s Green New Deal.

Led by Public ExchangeTM, the USC Urban Trees Initiative is a partnership between USC Dornsife and the city of Los Angeles that provides a science-based approach to guide the growth of an urban forest of shade trees in communities vulnerable to heat waves and air pollution in a warming global climate. “The data generated by our team will provide a detailed scientific road map to help the city and the community plant an urban forest that maximizes benefits to our environment and human health,” says Kate Weber, director of Public Exchange. PUBLIC HEALTH THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FOOD INSECURITY IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY Under a strategic partnership with the Los Angeles County Emergency Food Security Branch, Public ExchangeTM assembled a team of researchers to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food insecurity in Los Angeles County.

>1 IN 4

low-income households remained food insecure in 2021, and racial and gender inequalities in food security persist.

Public ExchangeTM also partnered with Yelp to integrate novel data sources and paint a better picture of the resiliency and failures of the local food system in L.A. County.

The increase in food outlet closures during the pandemic, revealed by Yelp data. The impact of closures in under-resourced neighborhoods could be detrimental to food and nutrition security levels.

17%

ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF CLIMATE CHANGE TERMINOLOGY In partnership with the United Nations Foundation, Public ExchangeTM assembled a team of behavioral scientists and qualitative interviewers to determine how well non-scientists understand climate change terminology. Study participants were asked to rate how easy or hard it was to understand eight terms drawn from publicly available reports written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. People thought many of the terms were too complex and did not always understand them in the context of climate change. “Scientists need to replace jargon with everyday language to be understood by a lay audience,” says Wändi Bruine de Bruin, the study’s lead author and Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology, and Behavioral Sciences at USC Dornsife and USC Price School of Public Policy. “In several cases, the respondents proposed simple, elegant alternatives to existing language. It reminded us that, even though climate change may be a complex issue, there is no need to make it even more complex by using complicated words.”

Since most organizations trying to create positive social impact lack a dedicated research team, she believes that universities are an obvious, albeit often untapped, resource. Their unique approach to problem-solving also differs from those taken by large consulting firms. Academic researchers, by nature of their rigorous training, are adept at defining research questions, challenging assumptions and interpreting information.

And they’re at the forefront of new knowledge. Leading experts in their fields, scholars are uniquely qualified to provide insights about where technology or trends are headed well into the future.

SOLVING COMPLEX PROBLEMS Miller recruited Kate Weber, a leader at the United States Agency for International Development, to serve as the inaugural executive director of Public Exchange.

“Our partners in the public and private sectors are facing so many complex questions, from how to design cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to making public transit more accessible,” Weber notes. “Our researchers have the deep expertise to dig into these problems and provide real solutions.”

Public Exchange has already received widespread attention in Southern California and is generating growing awareness on the national and global stage.

Miller is enthusiastic that her idea could spread to other research universities.

“Imagine how much collective impact can be made when every other university adopts our model,” Miller says. “Tens of thousands of faculty experts around the country engaged in the same way, helping to solve problems and driving progress.” —S.K.

Reducing Waste

Researchers aim to replace plastics and batteries with more sustainable, degradable resources for the future.

USC Dornsife scientists are developing biodegradable replacement materials to end global dependency on plastic and come up with more sustainable alternatives for fuel sources and solar cells.

Skyscrapers’ limited roof space doesn’t offer enough room for solar panels to generate sufficient power to achieve zero carbon using current silicon solar technology. Covering the sides of the building with solar panels could produce enough electricity, but silicon can’t be made transparent — a major drawback as the panels would block natural light.

Mark Thompson, professor of chemistry and chemical engineering and materials science, is working with collaborators at the University of Michigan on a cutting-edge, organic-based solar cell window coating that’s 50% transparent and still 10% efficient. “It’s a promising solution to achieve zero carbon,” says Thompson, Ray R. Irani, Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Chair in Chemistry.

Hydrogen-fueled cars promise zero greenhouse emissions with water as the sole byproduct. However, a lack of infrastructure has limited widescale adoption of this alternative fuel source.

One major challenge in California is the lack of hydrogen available between Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to Travis Williams, professor of chemistry. Williams is developing new technology using catalysis to store hydrogen in a liquid carrier, and then release it onsite.

“We’ve got a demo fuel unit which we’re developing — you could probably fill a little golf cart with it, but the proof of concept is there,” he says.

Motivated by the destructive accumulation of plastics in the oceans, Megan Fieser, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Chemistry, is unlocking safe, environmentally friendly ways to break down plastics and other non-biodegradable materials using catalysts.

“Not only can we successfully recycle these plastics, but we can potentially create the plastic into a higher value product,” she says.

Microplastics have emerged as a concerning pollutant of coastal California waters.

“The best way to reduce the impact of plastics in L.A.’s waters is to prevent the use of plastics in the first place,” says Jill Sohm, associate professor (teaching) of environmental studies. She advises consumers to choose nonplastic alternatives and opt for clothing made with natural fibres. “This problem will also require larger scale changes only possible through new policies and regulations, so lobbying your representatives to support plastic source reduction legislation is key,” she says. —P.M.

Riding the Wave

USC Dornsife alumnus created a surf device that became a smash hit with beachgoers.

Next time you catch a wave, spare a thought for the inventor of the ubiquitous Boogie board: USC Dornsife alumnus Tom Morey ’57.

Surfer, musician and inventor extraordinaire, Morey was born in 1935. Growing up in Laguna Beach, California, he quickly became an avid bodysurfer, riding waves on his father’s back at age 8 and winning second place in a paddleboard competition as a preteen.

Morey’s bachelor’s degree in mathematics from USC Dornsife, combined with knowledge from several engineering and manufacturing jobs, helped him invent a steady stream of unusual surfing-related items. None captured the public’s imagination quite like the Boogie.

The squat foam board revolutionized the surfing industry in the 1970s, turning the tricky task of wave riding into an accessible sport for the beachgoing masses. Millions of boards based on Morey’s original design have been sold, creating one of the world’s most popular watersports and spawning professional competitions.

Morey also hosted the Tom Morey Invitational Nose Riding Championships in Ventura, generally recognized as the world’s first professional surfing contest.

In 2005, he earned a star on the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach, California, and was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame.

A decade later, Morey, who died last year on Oct. 14 at age 86, was still at it. At age 81, he was helping with a decades-long project to honor surfboard shapers by carving ancient sequoia wood into their trademark shapes. He then used a hot branding iron to char his name into the finegrained redwood, a symbol of his lasting imprint on the surfing world. — E.L.