Millennium Café

CREATE will strengthen and organize transdisciplinary expertise across campus to tackle grand medical challenges in regenerative engineering. Regenerative engineering is a new field defined as the convergence of advanced materials sciences, stem cell sciences, physics, developmental biology and clinical translation for the regeneration of complex tissues and organ systems. Complex tissues comprise intricate vascular and nervous networks, tissue interfaces, structural hierarchy and complex functional features, which are translated into significant technical and regulatory barriers in establishing compositional gradients, temporal changes, and the use of various cells to drive tissue and organ morphogenesis.

Global climate change coupled with population and economic growth around the world are drivers for the increased demand to build cities, infrastructure, and housing. This presentation will highlight the need for low-temperature manufacturing of novel materials for construction with a special emphasis on cementitious materials – the most utilized material in the world. The use of biological matter and non-food crops to develop these materials will also be discussed to inspire new concepts in the circularity of our materials economy. Audience members will be invited to consider the systems-nature of global climate change and how new partnerships in sustainable cementitious materials can directly address critical environmental impact challenges, such as material scarcity and high-CO2 materials.   

Daryl Branford, Percussion & Cole Hons, Guitar/Vocal | Huck Institutes

Join us for some live music as we wrap up our September “Millennium Café in the Garden” experiment. We are keeping an eye on the weather and looking for feedback from the community on how to best connect folks in our current reality – have an idea?

Jennifer Weyant | Technical Services Manager, New Pig

Dan Cahoy | Research Director, Smeal Center for the Business of Sustainability

Sustainability research at the Smeal College has reached new levels of activity. Our work responds to a substantial upsurge in interest in the business community; firms that previously treated sustainability as window-dressing now consider it essential to their operations and investors increasingly demand an “ESG” focus. However, the business community’s understanding of sustainability must be better informed by science and engineering disciplines to satisfy its stakeholders. This discussion highlights areas for collaboration and invites future conversations on making business more sustainable with science.

Lara Fowler | Assistant Director, Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE); Senior Lecturer, Penn State Law

IEE focuses on enabling interdisciplinary research in climate and ecosystem change; urban systems; integrated energy systems; water and biogeochemical change, and health and the environment. I will discuss IEE's currently open seed grant call and share thoughts about how to engage more broadly on these topics. Seed grant proposals are due by 5pm on 11/19/21.