NSF-NRT project at Arizona State University:

Citizen-Centered Smart Cities and Smart Living

Dr. Troy McDaniel is an Assistant Professor at The Polytechnic School

within the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University

and directs the new HAPT-X Laboratory. He also serves as Co-Director

of the ASU Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC).

His research specializes in haptic interface design with a focus on

sensory substitution, haptic human augmentation, and multimodal

integration. Other interests include smart living, human-computer

interaction, and machine learning, especially for haptics. He has applied

his research in the development of assistive and rehabilitative

technologies for individuals with sensory and physical impairments.

Dr. McDaniel is deeply exploring the paradigms of haptic interaction,

including mapping between modalities for various means of information

representation. In addition, he is investigating the use of citizen-centered

approaches to Smart City research, emphasizing attributes such as

accessibility and public health.

Dr. McDaniel serves as one of the Co-PIs of the very first NSF-NRT

grant awarded to Arizona State University.

Dr. Troy McDaniel

Email: Troy.McDaniel@asu.edu

Website:

https://www.public.asu.edu/~tmcdani/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-

mcdaniel-asu

Profile photo of Dr. Troy McDaniel.

Photo by Kevin Navarro/ASU.

ASU NRT Participants

Group photo of the first cohort of NRT trainees.

Front Row: left to right: Jordan Miller, Danielle Jacobs.

Second Row: Nickolas Dodd, Josh Massad, Jan Cordero Casillas. Photo by Ding Ding Zheng/ASU.

2019-2020 NRT Trainee CohortNRT Team

• Jan Cordero Casillas, PhD student in the Human and Social Dimensions of

Science and Technology (HSD) degree program

• Nickolas Dodd, PhD student in the Computer Science (CS) degree program

• Danielle Jacobs, PhD student in the Computer Science (CS) degree program

• Joshua Massad, PhD student in the Human and Social Dimensions of Science

and Technology (HSD) degree program

• Jordan Miller, PhD student in the Computer Science (CS) degree program

ASU NRT Vision and Goals

Photo of ASU NRT team members from 2019 ASU NRT Annual Retreat.

Photo by Marco-Alexis Chaira/ASU.

Challenge

As population growth steadily rises, cities must meet increasingly

complex management and resource needs while continually improving

the quality of life for their citizens. Varied backgrounds, customs, and

contextual factors result in diverse life experiences of a city’s

residents, and therefore, one-size-fits-all solutions are no longer

viable.

This NRT project will train the next generation of master’s and

doctoral students to become future Smart City leaders through

integrated and interdisciplinary citizen-centered solutions for Smart

Cities and Smart Living.

Vision

The vision of this NRT will be achieved through the following goals:

1. Recruitment, retention, and timely graduation of exceptional

STEM master’s and doctoral students from diverse backgrounds,

particularly women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities, to

increase involvement of these groups in Smart Cities-related

fields.

2. Employ an integrated education-research-practice model to

provide an interdisciplinary training experience for students

through courses, joint research projects, internships, service

learning, entrepreneurial education, and communication skills

training.

3. Career placement and the creation of new career paths in Smart

Cities-related positions for STEM graduates, particularly

individuals with disabilities, underrepresented minorities, and

women.

4. Community, national, and global impact through dissemination of

research findings via high quality publications and presentations.

5. Increased public value through algorithms, methods, tools,

courses, testbeds, patents, licenses, and start-ups.

Goals

ASU NRT Training Model

NRT integrated and interdisciplinary education-research-practice training model.

This NRT project is comprised of an integrated and interdisciplinary

education-research-practice training model, the intent of which is to

provide trainees with a useful balance between research, education,

and practicum so that they are competitive for interdisciplinary,

innovative, and impactful careers.

The model will provide NRT trainees with: (i) A broad understanding of

all facets of citizen-centered Smart Cities research through required

NRT core courses; (ii) Specialization in trainee’s program of study

through discipline core courses; (iii) Interdisciplinary and

multidisciplinary training through core and NRT electives; (iv)

Application of training and knowledge in real-world environments

through internships and service-learning experiences as well as

access to state-of-the-art Smart City testbeds at all stages of

development; (v) Training and education in entrepreneurship,

innovation, and ethics through workshops and seminar series; and (vi)

A springboard for career placement through a multidisciplinary

participating faculty network.

The model is comprised of six components:

1. Curriculum training: NRT trainees are required to complete all

NRT core courses and existing discipline-specific core

courses/electives to satisfy NRT program requirements and

departmental MS and PhD requirements.

2. Research training: About half of the required credits for master’s

and doctoral NRT supported programs of study are comprised of

independent study, research and thesis/dissertation credit hours.

Through these courses, NRT trainees are expected to lead

interdisciplinary research projects tied to the rest of the NRT

community through specialization in a common research thrust with

shared practical focus through integrated application domains

under the supervision of an NRT faculty team.

3. Applied learning: Applied learning consists of three components:

Professional Growth; Internships; and Teaching.

4. Service-learning: Doctoral NRT trainees are required to complete

a service-learning experience with an NRT partner (optional for

master’s trainees). Service-learning is an opportunity for students

to apply their creativity, skill sets, and knowledge toward

personalized, real-world, collaborative research projects that

embed them into the community.

5. Entrepreneurship: The NRT Entrepreneurship Workshop/Seminar

Series, occurring twice per semester, deepens trainees’

understanding of entrepreneurship promotion and pursuit in Smart

Cities- and Smart Living-related fields.

6. Teamwork: To ensure a cohesive NRT cohort and tightknit NRT

community with continual growth, much effort will be allotted to

practices, meetings, and events that support a sense of community,

identity, sharing of ideas, and opportunities for collaborations.

Accomplishments Thus Far

Photo of ASU Sun Devil Stadium. Photo by ASU.

We did not have NRT trainees in the program during our planning

year (18-19). However, much was done to prepare and pave the way

for the first cohort of NRT trainees, including:

• Partner recruitment:

o Expanding the pool of partners to ensure trainees have

access to internships, service-learning experiences,

mentor networks, guest speakers, and entrepreneurial

education.

• NRT core course development:

o Introduction to Smart Cities

o Smart City Infrastructure and Technology

o Smart City Sustainability and the Environment

o The Politics and Ethics of the Smart City

• Fall 2019 Entrepreneurship workshop/seminar series:

o Innovation and the Entrepreneurial Mindset

o Fundamentals and Challenges for Technology

Commercialization

• Fall 2019 Communication skills training workshop series:

o Writing a Literature Review

o Introduction to the Institutional Review Board Process

o Social Media: Networking and Distributing Academic

Content without Getting Squashed or Lost

o Powerful Introductions: Networking and the “Elevator

Pitch”

o Crafting Strong Intro Emails and CVs

• Outreach: NRT faculty and staff participated in a variety of outreach

activities to spread the word about our NRT project. We also

established an online presence for this NRT project through the

creation of an NRT website (nrt.asu.edu) and social media

accounts:

o Facebook: @NRTASUSmartCities

o Twitter: @nrtasu

o Instagram: @nrtasu_smartcities

o LinkedIn: @nrtasusmartcities

• Testbed development: The first year of this project saw

considerable progress made toward testbed development for faculty

and trainees to use in their research.

o Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) smart

laboratory

o CHARTOPOLIS small-scale urban traffic testbed

o ASU Sun Devil Stadium

o Ireland’s Croke Park Stadium

How Did We Get Here?

Building an Ecosystem

• You are building an ecosystem:

o What ecosystem is needed to accomplish your

goals?

o Develop a training model to create this

ecosystem

Think about the components of this

training model, e.g., curriculum,

research, applied learning,

entrepreneurship, etc.

Carefully develop each component

o Develop a logic model to help you flesh out the

ecosystem

• What is needed to develop the components of your

ecosystem:

o Interdisciplinarity (ensure representation from

diverse fields to solve the proposed challenge,

bring in diverse faculty)

Expand beyond core team (ten

members) with faculty participants

o Partners (e.g., industrial, non-profit, government,

clinical, etc.)

o Support from departments, colleges, university

o Collaborations with other universities

• Sustainability:

o How will your ecosystem be sustained?

o Permanent courses, certificates, degree

programs, testbeds, seminar series, workshops,

archive

Photo of ASU Herberger students working with community members in Mesa on a design build installation at Maker Fest and

Prototyping Festival in November 2017. Photo by ASU.

• Vision and Goals:

o Start with answering the question of why this NRT project is

needed. What challenge will it address? What is the need?

o Then, formulate your vision of this project. What will it

achieve?

o Next, articulate the specific goals of your project that will help

achieve your vision and address the challenge

Getting “Buy-In” from Stakeholders

• Recruiting faculty:

o Approaches: General announcements to faculty to gauge interest, or direct, targeted recruitment

o Invite then meet with faculty to clearly articulate value of joining as a Co-PI or Faculty Participant

• Recruiting partners:

o What do you want them to

contribute?

o What will they get in

return?

o Maintaining engagement

• Earning the support of

University leadership:

o Department chairs

o School directors

o Dean(s)

o President

Photo of ASU dignitaries including Pres. Michael Crow, Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan and Biodesign's Joshua LaBaer along with members of the construction and

architectural firms that designed the facility and legislator Bob Robson, tossing ceremonial first shovels full of dirt at the official groundbreaking ASU's Biodesign C on the

Tempe campus, on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now.

NRT Student Cohort

• Ensure diversity:

o Recruitment of women, underrepresented

minorities, and individuals with disabilities should

be focus

• Best practices for recruitment, mentoring and

retention:

o Clearly articulate in proposal

o Your institution should have best practices for

recruitment that you can leverage

For example, online presence, tours for

prospective students, mailing lists, timely

review of applications

• Size and makeup of cohort:

o At least 40 students

o Master’s and PhD (if only Master’s or PhD,

clearly justify why only one group or the other)

o Stipend-supported and non-stipend-supported

trainees

Must have identical requirements, same

“experience”

• Funding:

o How many years will students be supported by

the stipend?

o How will the other years of a student’s program of

study be covered?

o NRT projects can vary quite a bit in how funding

is structured.

o For our NRT project, each stipend-supported

NRT fellow receives:

Two years of stipend support

Two years of guaranteed TA/RA support

o Commitment needed from school

directors/department chairs for TA/RA support

o A few comments about cost-sharing

Photo of students from the 2017 ASU Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Undergraduate Orientation.

Photo by ASU.

Project Assessment and Coordinator

• Common pitfalls:

o Project assessment as an afterthought – instead, start thinking about it now

o Recruiting project evaluator last-minute – instead, do this now to begin discussions, have him or her review write-ups

o Small section about assessment – instead, given sufficient space, e.g., 2 pages or more

o Superficial assessment plan – instead, articulate outcomes, how they will be measured, and contingency plans. The logic model will help

with this as well

• Project evaluator:

o How to find a project evaluator

o Negotiating salary

o Degree and limits of evaluation based on limits

of funding

• Project coordinator:

o Probably the most important person on your

project team

o Allocated 75% time in your budget;

realistically, you will need to find the 25% from

elsewhere because managing an NRT project

is a lot of work

o If funded, start recruiting right away through

your institutional hiring channel

o Narrow down to shortlist, interview, make

offer, negotiate

o Desirable skillsets

Photo of participant from the Future of Leadership: Transforming Organizational Culture workshop on March 3, 2019 at

the ASU Barrett & O’Connor Washington Center in Washington, D.C. Photo by ASU.

Feedback from First Submission

o Why is the cohort so small? Little impact

o The amount budgeted for the Evaluator seems very

low

o Only funded trainees are expected to complete certain

training components. NRT expects all NRT trainees to

have the same requirements

o What structures will be put in place for effective

management of and communication with the three

advisors assigned to each trainee?

o It appears as though communication training is

primarily focused on academic writing and

presentation, yet the solicitation expects training in

communication to a range of stakeholders as well,

which should include a variety of communication

modes.

o Panelists appreciated the quantitative performance

metrics presented in the evaluation plan but

considered the plan to be weak on assessment of

performance quality

o Describe how the program that would be supported by

the NRT award will provide opportunities not currently

available at your institution

o How will your stakeholders, specifically, citizens, be

involved?Photo of participant from the Future of Leadership: Transforming Organizational Culture workshop on March 3, 2019 at the

ASU Barrett & O’Connor Washington Center in Washington, D.C. Photo by ASU.