Innovation

Registration is Now Open for Leadership in the City

Are you interested in Extension in urban areas and ready to improve your knowledge, skills, and results?

The Leadership in the City course will help you learn about leadership, networks, innovation, and management. The 5-month online program will prepare you, as an Extension professional, to be relevant locally, responsive statewide, and recognized nationally.

The goal of this comprehensive professional development program is to improve the knowledge, skills, and results of university Extension professionals working in large cities. You will connect with peers from around the country to engage in critical thinking and creative problem solving to become better prepared to be relevant locally, responsive statewide, and recognized nationally.

The program was developed based on a foundation of entrepreneurial theory and urban Extension practice and will build upon existing leadership experiences, management training, and Extension professional development.

You will learn from experienced leaders; apply what you learn in your city, region, or state; engage in critical thinking and creative problem solving; and participate in online collaborative learning. Each competency-based module incorporates interactive digital delivery and the flipped classroom model for active learning and engagement.

Upon completion of the course, you will be better prepared to:

  • Evaluate, illustrate, and build upon their four dimensions as an entrepreneurial leader (traits and drivers; competencies and experiences).
  • Navigate as a leader working in the urban and university contexts.
  • Implement elements of entrepreneurial organizations.

The investment in the program is $500 plus a commitment to work hard and have fun investing 8-14 hours per month. The 5-month online course begins in January 2021. If you have multiple participants from the same institute, you are each entitled to a $100 discount (Promotion code: LITC21-MULT).

This course is led by Dr. Julie Fox from the Ohio State University Extension.

Complete details and registration information can be found at https://cityextension.osu.edu/leadership. The deadline for registration is November 30.

Researchers Aim to Create Thriving Agricultural Systems in Urbanizing Landscapes

Agricultural systems in metropolitan regions and in adjacent, non-metro counties account for more than two-thirds of the United States’ net farm income and 97% of net farm income in Pennsylvania. But, can food systems in these urbanized landscapes remain economically and environmentally sustainable in the face of development pressure and perceived disamenities associated with agriculture? A team led by Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences researchers is almost a year into a five-year study aimed at providing answers to this question. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Morning Ag Clips

How to Fail (Forward): Fostering Innovation in the Public Sector

Local governments everywhere are showing resilience, speed, and innovative spirit in the face of an unprecedented crisis. They are taking risks, failing, and learning as they go. But this spirit of experimentation and learning from failure is all too rare in local government. Join this webinar for an expert panel where city leaders, technologists, and innovators discuss why it is usually so hard to learn from failure in government and what governments and their allies can do about it. The panel discussion is taking place Thursday, August 6, 2020 from 1- 2 p.m. EDT. Follow this link to learn more.

This panel coincides with the new release of How to Fail (Forward): A Framework for Fostering Innovation in the Public Sector, a report from the Centre for Public Impact and the Aspen Institute Center for Urban Innovation.

Sourced from: Centre for Public Impact

Reclaiming Spaces and Places: Virtual Workshop

Spaces and Places, born of the necessity to be acknowledged within the built environment, has embarked on its most unique and ambitious convening since its conception. Now in its fourth year, the annual grassroots conference will be hosted virtually in partnership with BlackSpace and Next City. Reclaiming Spaces & Places will assemble urbanists and community leaders for a two-day event of virtual learning and exchange, taking place on Thursday, August 6, 2020 from 12-1:15 p.m E.T. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Next City

Emerging from the Pandemic: Fostering Wellness and Connection

This year, summer finds our world different than ever before. Summer 2020 will be remembered as the time when everyone was forced to think about other people by quarantining to keep themselves, loved ones, and entire communities healthy and safe. Governments have been struggling to reopen their economies while attempting to protect the health of the people they serve. Follow this link to read more.

Soured from: Government Technology

Ohio State Research Boosts Smart Columbus

It’s been four years since the city of Columbus was declared the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation Smart Cities Challenge. Now, several grant-supported projects by The Ohio State University are reaching their conclusions. Researchers at Ohio State agree the work for a smarter Columbus is just getting started.

David Cooke, senior associate director of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) and one of the university partners with Smart Columbus, said the lessons learned from the program will have a long-term impact. “What [the smart cities grant] brought to the city of Columbus is to really put us at the forefront of mobility and smart cities research on a national scale,” Cooke said. “[CAR has been] engaged in automotive research for 30 years doing a subset of this work, very specifically on vehicle design and systems development, but mobility is much broader than just the vehicle.” Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: The Ohio State University

Enhancing Tree Health in Water Sensitive Urban Design: Role of Mycorrhizae Webinar

This project investigated the effects of adding a mycorrhizal fungal inoculant on three plants species growing in stormwater biofilters. They evaluated the impacts on both plant establishment and on plant stress and pollutant removal after two durations of drought. The results found that adding mycorrhizae had minimal impact on plant growth and stress tolerance of the tree species, Melaleuca ericifolia, and had a similar impact on sedge species. Interestingly, different species reacted differently to inoculant addition with regards to water quality improvement. Removal of nitrogen and phosphorus was improved with added inoculant in one of the sedge species both before and after a two-week dry period. These results show that mycorrhizal inoculants may be a promising amendment to biofiltration systems for improving water quality, but are less likely to improve plant health and tolerance to drought. The webinar is being held Tuesday, July 14, 2020 at 5 p.m. EDT. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: TREE Fund

Rx for Hot Cities: Urban Greening and Cooling to Reduce Heat-Related Mortality

In this webinar, Edith de Guzman will introduce the efforts of the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative (LAUCC), a multi-disciplinary, national partnership of researchers and practitioners working to understand and implement urban cooling strategies in Los Angeles. Dr. David Eisenman will discuss heat-health impacts on the human body and how choices made in urban environments may prevent heat-related illness and death. Dr. Larry Kalkstein will present methods and findings of a recently-completed LAUCC modeling study revealing how various tree cover and solar reflectance “prescriptions” in L.A. could delay warming impacts and reduce heat-related mortality, temperature, humidity, and oppressive air masses that lead to increased deaths, and how this work could have relevance elsewhere. This webinar is free and open to the public. The webinar will be held on July 8, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. EDT. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: eXtension