WEBVTT 00:00:13.710 --> 00:00:17.589 Hello and welcome to Listen.Up.People., a podcast 00:00:17.589 --> 00:00:20.609 of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social 00:00:20.609 --> 00:00:23.629 Work. I'm Dr. Holly Priebe -Sotelo, Associate 00:00:23.629 --> 00:00:26.769 Teaching Professor of practicum education. I 00:00:26.769 --> 00:00:30.129 am honored to have two prolific USC researchers 00:00:30.129 --> 00:00:34.149 as my guests who do extraordinary work in sustainability, 00:00:34.750 --> 00:00:37.390 environmental justice, urban planning, and so 00:00:37.390 --> 00:00:40.350 much more. Today we're going to discuss their 00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:43.670 current research collaboration, which is actually 00:00:43.670 --> 00:00:47.369 two interconnected studies spanning four USC 00:00:47.369 --> 00:00:50.990 schools. And it gets even more interesting because 00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:54.130 they are combining social science with machine 00:00:54.130 --> 00:00:58.070 learning to study the positive effects of community 00:00:58.070 --> 00:01:01.329 resilience following a natural disaster. I'd 00:01:01.329 --> 00:01:03.630 like to welcome my distinguished social work 00:01:03.630 --> 00:01:07.430 colleague, Dr. Michalle Mor Barak, Dean Endowed 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:10.250 Professor with a joint appointment with the 00:01:10.250 --> 00:01:12.390 School of Social Work and the Marshall School 00:01:12.390 --> 00:01:16.090 of Business, and Dr. Bistra Dilkina, the Dr. 00:01:16.310 --> 00:01:19.549 Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Early Career Chair 00:01:19.549 --> 00:01:22.510 in Computer Science and Associate Professor of 00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:26.109 Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of 00:01:26.109 --> 00:01:29.640 Engineering. And I must say, they were both recently 00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:32.879 acknowledged by USC President Kim at his 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:35.400 State of the University address for their work 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.379 together. It is an honor to have you both here 00:01:38.379 --> 00:01:41.079 today. I'd like to start off by asking a more 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:43.640 personal question about how each of you became 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:46.739 interested in sustainability and environmental 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:49.359 -related issues. Why don't we start with you, 00:01:49.540 --> 00:01:52.560 Michalle? Yes, thank you, Holly, and a pleasure 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:55.319 to see you, Bistra, my wonderful collaborator 00:01:55.319 --> 00:02:00.319 in this project. The work on environmental justice 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:04.260 has been a natural development from earlier work 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:07.200 that I've done throughout my career, focusing 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:09.960 on diversity and inclusion in a global context 00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:13.520 and the model that I introduced in the first 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:17.379 edition of my book and developed further. in 00:02:17.379 --> 00:02:19.939 the second, third, fourth, and fifth edition 00:02:19.939 --> 00:02:23.199 of the book. The book is Managing Diversity Toward 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.419 a Globally Inclusive Workplace. And I emphasize 00:02:26.419 --> 00:02:31.620 in the model that in order to become truly inclusive, 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:36.789 business and not for profit organizations need 00:02:36.789 --> 00:02:42.530 to look at different circles of inclusion, expanding 00:02:42.530 --> 00:02:45.650 circles of inclusion. That means inclusion within 00:02:45.650 --> 00:02:48.810 the organization, reaching out to the community, 00:02:49.389 --> 00:02:52.870 dealing with expanded circles. And the outer 00:02:52.870 --> 00:02:56.270 circle is looking at the environment and making 00:02:56.270 --> 00:03:00.729 sure that they not only not hurt the environment, 00:03:00.930 --> 00:03:04.090 but do whatever they can to conserve the environment. 00:03:04.689 --> 00:03:07.210 And in the book, I also present some research 00:03:07.210 --> 00:03:11.590 on the benefits of such actions, not only to 00:03:11.590 --> 00:03:15.550 the recipients of that, which is community residents, 00:03:15.990 --> 00:03:18.949 but also to the businesses themselves in terms 00:03:18.949 --> 00:03:23.210 of the bottom line. So in summary, this topic 00:03:23.210 --> 00:03:27.819 of environmental justice is a natural evolution 00:03:27.819 --> 00:03:30.620 from previous works that I've done. Excellent. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:34.780 Thank you. And Bistra, how did you become personally 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:38.050 involved in this topic? Thanks, Holly. And also 00:03:38.050 --> 00:03:40.150 as well, a great pleasure to be here on this 00:03:40.150 --> 00:03:43.650 podcast and to talk about some of the wonderful 00:03:43.650 --> 00:03:46.129 research work I'm doing with Michalle and our bigger 00:03:46.129 --> 00:03:49.889 team. So my interest in sustainability actually 00:03:49.889 --> 00:03:53.310 started during my PhD in computer science at 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:56.650 Cornell, where I was lucky enough to be there 00:03:56.650 --> 00:04:00.930 at a very opportune moment where my PhD advisor, 00:04:01.189 --> 00:04:04.469 Professor Carla Gomez, at the time had proposed 00:04:04.469 --> 00:04:07.129 to NSF, to the National Science Foundation, in 00:04:07.129 --> 00:04:10.449 response to their call for people to identify 00:04:10.449 --> 00:04:13.389 grand challenges for computer science, at the 00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:15.689 time she had proposed building this new field 00:04:15.689 --> 00:04:19.069 of computational sustainability, which was essentially 00:04:19.069 --> 00:04:23.009 a call to action that computer scientists should 00:04:23.009 --> 00:04:27.430 and can play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:30.829 development. A lot of the problems in sustainability 00:04:30.829 --> 00:04:34.310 involve assigning very limited resources in order 00:04:34.310 --> 00:04:37.470 to achieve the best benefits for the environment 00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:41.290 and for the society, predicting complex processes 00:04:41.290 --> 00:04:44.870 involving climate change and ecosystems and human 00:04:44.870 --> 00:04:47.649 behaviors. And all of these things are under 00:04:47.649 --> 00:04:50.310 the purview of people, especially people in computer 00:04:50.310 --> 00:04:52.290 science working on artificial intelligence where 00:04:52.290 --> 00:04:55.310 we have tools both in terms of building predictive 00:04:55.310 --> 00:04:58.129 models, as well as building models that help 00:04:58.129 --> 00:05:00.889 inform decisions and allocate resources efficiently. 00:05:01.110 --> 00:05:03.649 But I really felt inspired by this message and 00:05:03.649 --> 00:05:06.269 started learning a lot about environmental science 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:09.970 and the problems that arise there. Then I dedicated 00:05:09.970 --> 00:05:13.189 a big portion of my research career on using 00:05:13.189 --> 00:05:16.910 AI for environmental sustainability and for disaster 00:05:16.910 --> 00:05:19.850 resilience. Excellent. Wow. Thank you so very much. 00:05:19.850 --> 00:05:24.129 Michalle, you recently led an international 00:05:24.129 --> 00:05:28.290 conference in France where you focused on a climate 00:05:28.290 --> 00:05:31.189 disaster's impact on communities. And your current 00:05:31.189 --> 00:05:33.850 work on community resilience has been also a 00:05:33.850 --> 00:05:38.149 focus. Was this inspired by the recent wildfires 00:05:38.149 --> 00:05:40.750 or had you been thinking and researching this 00:05:40.750 --> 00:05:44.939 topic of community resilience for a while? 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:49.699 A previous research study that I did looked at 00:05:49.699 --> 00:05:55.139 communities specifically. And from that, the 00:05:55.139 --> 00:05:59.600 proposal and the conference in the Chateau de 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:04.800 la Bretèche in France emerged. And the idea was 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:10.040 to look at climate -related disasters around 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:14.389 the world and how they affect communities and 00:06:14.389 --> 00:06:19.050 migration patterns. And so in that conference, 00:06:19.329 --> 00:06:24.029 we had scholars from many different fields, including 00:06:24.029 --> 00:06:29.250 demography, scholars in immigration, scholars 00:06:29.250 --> 00:06:34.290 in environmental studies, and as well as AI experts 00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:39.350 to bring that knowledge into the fold. And in 00:06:39.350 --> 00:06:44.350 that conference, Part of what we have learned 00:06:44.350 --> 00:06:49.110 was, again, the importance of communities in 00:06:49.110 --> 00:06:54.810 relating to disasters. Then after the LA fires, 00:06:55.750 --> 00:07:00.870 we realized that it's really important to focus 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:03.629 on communities, because what happened with the 00:07:03.629 --> 00:07:07.379 LA fires which is typical to most disasters, 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:11.480 is that first responders do not have enough time 00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:15.480 to get to the area and provide help. Therefore, 00:07:15.740 --> 00:07:18.920 neighbors need other neighbors to help them. 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:23.339 And this is what forms community resilience, 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:26.720 when you can rely on your neighbors, when you 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.699 can help other people in the moment of need, 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:34.959 when the official help is not available. And 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:38.779 that's why focusing on communities in disasters 00:07:38.779 --> 00:07:43.019 is so important. And so this project emerged 00:07:43.019 --> 00:07:46.379 from a combination of what we learned in the 00:07:46.379 --> 00:07:51.180 Chateau de la Bretèche conference that was funded 00:07:51.180 --> 00:07:54.680 by the Borchardt Foundation and the experience 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:58.600 we all went through as LA residents that rattled 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:03.000 all of us. and cause us to learn how important 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:08.079 it is to look at the people in our close community. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.439 Excellent. It brings me chills to hear that, 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.680 the importance of the neighbors for sure. And 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:17.480 Bistra, the research that you're working on, 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:20.259 if you can give us an overview of the two parts 00:08:20.259 --> 00:08:22.740 of the study that you're working on together 00:08:22.740 --> 00:08:26.300 and how they interconnect and what is the goal? 00:08:26.509 --> 00:08:29.889 Yeah, happy to. And I guess the connection, I 00:08:29.889 --> 00:08:32.250 guess, to even lay the grounds for this study 00:08:32.250 --> 00:08:36.950 with Michal was, you know, I had also done previously 00:08:36.950 --> 00:08:41.750 before this big study to develop a model of how 00:08:41.750 --> 00:08:46.110 people might displace under long -term sea level 00:08:46.110 --> 00:08:50.330 rise from coastal communities that will be immediately 00:08:50.330 --> 00:08:54.929 impacted by sea level rise to inland and other 00:08:54.929 --> 00:08:58.710 communities and really kind of focusing on with 00:08:58.710 --> 00:09:01.210 these predictive models that tells us where people 00:09:01.210 --> 00:09:04.250 can go, what are some of these secondary effects 00:09:04.250 --> 00:09:06.669 like other communities that are not directly 00:09:06.669 --> 00:09:09.470 impacted by sea level rise but might receive 00:09:09.470 --> 00:09:13.379 a lot of migrants. essentially climate migrants 00:09:13.379 --> 00:09:16.740 as a secondary effect of this. And so that's 00:09:16.740 --> 00:09:20.360 how, I guess, Michal and I connected by our interest 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:24.820 in looking at climate driven disasters or changes 00:09:24.820 --> 00:09:28.080 and their impact on communities and society as 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:30.960 a whole. And so as Michalle already outlined, I 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:33.909 think A critical thing is the understanding the 00:09:33.909 --> 00:09:38.909 role of community in response to a disaster. 00:09:39.789 --> 00:09:43.409 And these studies that we are leading are focusing 00:09:43.409 --> 00:09:47.570 on identifying whether we can create a measurement 00:09:47.570 --> 00:09:51.750 tool of community crisis resilience, which is 00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:55.309 basically a way to estimate how does a community 00:09:55.309 --> 00:09:59.710 perceive their shared perceptions of resilience 00:09:59.710 --> 00:10:03.769 and support. and how these perceptions translate 00:10:03.769 --> 00:10:07.289 into actual community resilience behaviors in 00:10:07.289 --> 00:10:10.970 response to a crisis, such as expresses of mutual 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:13.450 support behaviors, like checking on your neighbors, 00:10:13.590 --> 00:10:16.629 helping them, providing food, water, and shelter, 00:10:17.629 --> 00:10:20.549 or crisis preparedness behaviors, like fortifying 00:10:20.549 --> 00:10:23.590 their homes ahead of time, having fire resistance, 00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:27.019 vegetation, et cetera. So the idea is can we 00:10:27.019 --> 00:10:30.539 basically understand how essentially the social 00:10:30.539 --> 00:10:34.039 psychological context of these communities, their 00:10:34.039 --> 00:10:37.759 perceptions translate into behaviors in response 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.059 to a disaster. But the interesting part that 00:10:41.059 --> 00:10:43.960 we are also injecting into this is actually thinking 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:47.019 about not only the kind of individual context, 00:10:47.419 --> 00:10:50.059 but also thinking about the physical context 00:10:50.059 --> 00:10:52.539 of where these communities are placed. So we 00:10:52.539 --> 00:10:55.399 will be studying how the physical environment 00:10:55.759 --> 00:11:00.779 acts as a moderator to the community crisis resilience 00:11:00.779 --> 00:11:05.480 in order to change or to influence the behaviors 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:07.759 that we observe. So we'll be looking at, for 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:11.960 example, how does the community's access to shelters. 00:11:12.429 --> 00:11:16.710 to roads, to let's say fire departments and other 00:11:16.710 --> 00:11:20.169 physical infrastructure together with the actual 00:11:20.169 --> 00:11:25.149 social components of the community can impact 00:11:25.149 --> 00:11:28.190 these behaviors. And so at the end of the study, 00:11:28.350 --> 00:11:32.570 what we are hoping to understand is can we identify 00:11:32.570 --> 00:11:36.529 which communities are more likely to have a high 00:11:36.529 --> 00:11:39.049 resilience versus low resilience in order to 00:11:39.049 --> 00:11:42.970 inform policy and action? Can we understand how 00:11:42.970 --> 00:11:46.450 some of these physical infrastructure components 00:11:46.450 --> 00:11:50.809 might act as facilitators for resilience or inhibitors? 00:11:51.169 --> 00:11:55.230 And again, inform investments and policies and 00:11:55.230 --> 00:11:58.470 decisions about improving infrastructures in 00:11:58.470 --> 00:12:01.190 communities that might lack them, et cetera. 00:12:01.419 --> 00:12:05.000 One of the studies will focus on the immediate 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.139 community resilience behaviors. The second study 00:12:08.139 --> 00:12:12.360 will take that same setup, but focus more on 00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:16.539 the longer -term health impacts of this crisis 00:12:16.539 --> 00:12:19.669 and the community response to them. And so I'm 00:12:19.669 --> 00:12:22.649 going to ask Michalle, I guess, to chime in and 00:12:22.649 --> 00:12:26.129 give her perspective as well. I would add that 00:12:26.129 --> 00:12:30.909 the novelty of the study or the new element that 00:12:30.909 --> 00:12:35.389 we're introducing is shining a light on the community 00:12:35.389 --> 00:12:39.490 as a unit of analysis. Typically after disaster, 00:12:40.049 --> 00:12:43.200 people are fending for themselves. They have 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:45.879 to cope with insurance company. They need to 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:48.779 decide if they're rebuilding or leaving. They 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:52.559 need to make many decisions and typically most 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:56.799 of these decisions and actions are taken individually. 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.960 Looking forward, it would be, it would make a 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:05.000 lot more sense for policymakers to look at the 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:08.250 community. as a unit of analysis because the 00:13:08.250 --> 00:13:11.889 entire community is being affected. So if one 00:13:11.889 --> 00:13:14.529 community has a strong sense of resilience and 00:13:14.529 --> 00:13:17.970 is taking actions and another one is not, then 00:13:17.970 --> 00:13:21.919 policymakers need to put more emphasis and more 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:24.899 efforts into the communities that do not have 00:13:24.899 --> 00:13:28.159 the resources. And here in Los Angeles, we have 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:33.059 communities with varying degrees of generalized 00:13:33.059 --> 00:13:38.059 resources, socioeconomic and other characteristics. 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:41.580 And what we're trying to do in this study is 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:44.980 examine different communities and learn from 00:13:44.980 --> 00:13:48.159 those differences. So I'll give you an example. 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:53.179 community that I lived in before was one of those 00:13:53.179 --> 00:13:58.000 communities that was prone to fires. Fires got 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.159 very close and we had to evacuate many times. 00:14:01.700 --> 00:14:05.340 And after the second or third evacuation, which 00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:07.980 is pretty rattling because When you evacuate, 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:11.299 you need to think of what am I taking with me 00:14:11.299 --> 00:14:14.919 and what am I doing? It's very confusing, very 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:17.940 really disorienting. And so the community got 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:21.200 together and they decided to take action. So 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:23.399 first of all, they change all the vegetation 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:26.500 around the community, change it to vegetation 00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:30.539 that is fire resistant. And second, they put 00:14:30.539 --> 00:14:36.360 a new irrigation system. that kept the vegetation 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:39.580 from drying up. And the third thing was to bring 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:45.440 goats to eat the dry grass, which is really an 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:48.919 environmentally conscious way to deal with that. 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:54.700 I give that example to show that communities... 00:14:54.730 --> 00:14:58.049 can take care of themselves and need to do that 00:14:58.049 --> 00:15:01.549 because waiting for others to do it would probably 00:15:01.549 --> 00:15:05.610 not bring the right consequences. And communities 00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:09.049 that do not have the resources need the help 00:15:09.049 --> 00:15:12.149 from policymakers to be able to do it. And I 00:15:12.149 --> 00:15:16.279 think That's where the importance of our study 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:20.539 lies. I'm curious about the early findings from 00:15:20.539 --> 00:15:22.899 your study. So are there additional findings 00:15:22.899 --> 00:15:25.139 that you can share with our audience about the 00:15:25.139 --> 00:15:29.200 community resilience? We are still in the process 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:34.000 of analysis, so we don't have statistical results 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.840 first. But I can tell you that from preliminary 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:40.220 interviews that we did with some participants, 00:15:40.730 --> 00:15:46.149 there are different stages of decision making 00:15:46.149 --> 00:15:49.850 for community residents. So the first one, if 00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:53.970 you lost your home, are you planning to stay 00:15:53.970 --> 00:15:57.690 or are you leaving? And if you plan to stay and 00:15:57.690 --> 00:16:00.350 rebuild, you really need your community. And 00:16:00.350 --> 00:16:02.490 what we've seen with a number of communities 00:16:02.490 --> 00:16:07.309 that were the worst affected by the fire, is 00:16:07.309 --> 00:16:10.509 that the immediate reaction is to create some 00:16:10.509 --> 00:16:13.429 kind of communication system that includes all 00:16:13.429 --> 00:16:16.549 the community residents. And that helps them 00:16:16.549 --> 00:16:19.269 share information about how to deal with insurance, 00:16:19.389 --> 00:16:22.809 how to deal with FEMA, how to find builders to 00:16:22.809 --> 00:16:26.509 rebuild and so on. And there's a coming together 00:16:26.509 --> 00:16:29.789 of the community that is extremely important 00:16:29.789 --> 00:16:33.320 for building resilience. then there are communities 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:36.740 that were not directly affected, but like my 00:16:36.740 --> 00:16:41.279 previous community, had to evacuate. And based 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:44.519 on that, they might take some action. And even 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:49.000 those who were not affected and did not have 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.960 to evacuate, I think all of us living in Los 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:55.259 Angeles were part of that experience. We were 00:16:55.259 --> 00:16:58.059 all rattled by that and we all know that it's 00:16:58.059 --> 00:17:01.539 coming. It's in the future. And the same can 00:17:01.539 --> 00:17:06.000 be said about Florida and hurricanes and other 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:10.539 areas with flood. Once these major environmental 00:17:10.539 --> 00:17:14.299 disasters happen, all communities wherever they 00:17:14.299 --> 00:17:18.089 are need to take steps. to build resilience. 00:17:18.410 --> 00:17:20.990 And again, that I think is the importance of 00:17:20.990 --> 00:17:23.990 the study that we're undertaking. And which leads 00:17:23.990 --> 00:17:27.329 me really, it's a nice transition to Bistra, 00:17:27.450 --> 00:17:31.809 I'm curious about interdisciplinary aspect of 00:17:31.809 --> 00:17:35.730 your study. And is this the future for figuring 00:17:35.730 --> 00:17:39.309 out better recovery or best practices following 00:17:39.309 --> 00:17:42.470 a natural disaster about the interdisciplinary 00:17:42.470 --> 00:17:46.779 response? Yeah, for sure. I think interdisciplinary 00:17:46.779 --> 00:17:49.619 work is the answer to many things. Many of the 00:17:49.619 --> 00:17:54.440 big challenges that society faces today is having 00:17:54.440 --> 00:17:57.500 a diversity of perspectives and diversity of 00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:01.140 strengths and knowledge and methods and all of 00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:04.819 this. So in this project, again, as Michalle said 00:18:04.819 --> 00:18:08.440 earlier, we have people from social work, computer 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:11.640 scientists like myself, people from the business 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:15.660 school, students, from all of these fields. And 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:18.660 it's really important to bring these different 00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:22.480 fields together in order to synergize strengths 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:25.259 in terms of how we think about understanding 00:18:25.259 --> 00:18:28.799 these problems and solving them. So for example, 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:31.759 Michal and her colleagues are experts on understanding 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.420 the social aspect of things. And for example, 00:18:34.680 --> 00:18:38.339 designing these social psychological measures. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:42.849 And I bring a unique perspective from thinking 00:18:42.849 --> 00:18:45.670 about predictive modeling, right? And so we are 00:18:45.670 --> 00:18:48.950 leveraging the social work data that is being 00:18:48.950 --> 00:18:51.549 collected for the study. So in fact, we'll be 00:18:51.549 --> 00:18:53.609 collecting, we have been collecting and we'll 00:18:53.609 --> 00:18:57.930 collect one more round of survey data under the 00:18:57.930 --> 00:19:01.730 LA barometer study here at USC, which involves 00:19:01.730 --> 00:19:06.170 taking survey responses from around 2000 residents 00:19:06.170 --> 00:19:08.630 in the LA county where we're collecting data 00:19:08.630 --> 00:19:12.490 about, you know, their community. their opinions 00:19:12.490 --> 00:19:14.910 and beliefs about their communities, but also 00:19:14.910 --> 00:19:19.069 their actual responses in the aftermath of the 00:19:19.069 --> 00:19:23.529 LA wildfires that will help us identify how some 00:19:23.529 --> 00:19:26.109 of the factors, such as the physical infrastructure 00:19:26.109 --> 00:19:30.750 and the social infrastructure, can explain or 00:19:30.750 --> 00:19:34.690 predict the crisis behaviors, right? And so combining 00:19:34.690 --> 00:19:38.250 these strengths, understanding the social science 00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:40.930 aspect, how to ask the right questions, how to 00:19:40.930 --> 00:19:45.130 interpret the results with combining the methodological 00:19:45.130 --> 00:19:48.670 analysis techniques from statistics, from computer 00:19:48.670 --> 00:19:52.529 science and so on, I think uncovers possibilities 00:19:52.529 --> 00:19:55.910 of greater knowledge and greater impact. Excellent. 00:19:56.130 --> 00:19:59.420 And Michalle, would you care to also answer? 00:19:59.420 --> 00:20:04.240 I'd like to mention our colleagues. This is a truly 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:08.380 a collaborative effort. And in addition to Bistra 00:20:08.380 --> 00:20:11.740 and myself, we have Shinyi Wu, a professor with 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:14.519 a joint appointment in social work and in Viterbi. 00:20:14.779 --> 00:20:20.130 We have Meghana Nallajerla who is our student 00:20:20.130 --> 00:20:25.349 project director and brings expertise in community 00:20:25.349 --> 00:20:28.890 reactions to traumatic events, among other things. 00:20:29.329 --> 00:20:32.829 We have Kyla Thomas from Dornsife. We have Eric 00:20:32.829 --> 00:20:38.089 Rice from CAIS and our school. We have 00:20:38.089 --> 00:20:41.549 Shruti Natala from Viterbi, Junxian He from 00:20:41.549 --> 00:20:46.670 Viterbi, Marcella Lopez from Viterbi. We have 00:20:46.670 --> 00:20:50.150 Nick Walker-Craig from the School of Social Work. 00:20:50.150 --> 00:20:53.069 And we have some international collaborators 00:20:53.069 --> 00:20:56.990 because we're creating a platform that will help 00:20:56.990 --> 00:21:02.049 us expand the study and based on the results 00:21:02.049 --> 00:21:05.369 of this one go for additional grants and hopefully 00:21:05.369 --> 00:21:09.849 larger projects and that includes Dr. William 00:21:09.849 --> 00:21:14.910 Axel from the UN University in Canada. We have 00:21:14.910 --> 00:21:18.609 Professor Gil Luria from the University of Haifa 00:21:18.609 --> 00:21:23.650 in Israel and Professor Kojula Barzantny from 00:21:23.650 --> 00:21:28.190 the business school in France. And that's our 00:21:28.190 --> 00:21:32.250 team. And everyone contributes and collaborates 00:21:32.250 --> 00:21:36.890 and makes this project what it is. Wow, thank 00:21:36.890 --> 00:21:39.769 you so very much for sharing that. And Michalle, 00:21:39.849 --> 00:21:42.490 I would also like to add that, you know, I know 00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:44.589 that your work has been highlighted nationally 00:21:44.589 --> 00:21:47.049 and internationally, and it's no surprise that 00:21:47.049 --> 00:21:49.470 you were recently inducted into the American 00:21:49.470 --> 00:21:52.890 Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. And 00:21:52.890 --> 00:21:56.089 you've indicated previously that environmental 00:21:56.089 --> 00:21:59.950 justice is a natural evolution of your extensive 00:21:59.950 --> 00:22:03.569 work as a management expert for global workforce. 00:22:03.900 --> 00:22:06.960 diversity. Can you expand on this a little? We 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:11.759 know that the people who contribute the least 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:14.779 to climate change are the ones affected by it 00:22:14.779 --> 00:22:18.859 the most. This applies to communities. Poor communities 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:23.799 typically reside close to polluting factories 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:28.539 or close to other environmental risk factors. 00:22:28.859 --> 00:22:33.980 And poor countries are contributing less. to 00:22:33.980 --> 00:22:39.359 pollution than rich countries. And so the issue 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:43.720 of environmental justice is not just the right 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:47.019 thing to do to create an environment that is 00:22:47.019 --> 00:22:50.460 better for everyone, but it's also in the benefit 00:22:50.460 --> 00:22:54.740 of anyone and everyone residing on this globe 00:22:54.740 --> 00:22:58.420 that we all share because whatever is in the 00:22:58.420 --> 00:23:03.599 air and in the waters and in the earth is really 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:06.299 shared by all of us. And if it's polluted in 00:23:06.299 --> 00:23:10.079 one area, in the end, it will reach other areas 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:13.420 as well. And so this is something that we all 00:23:13.420 --> 00:23:18.740 need to care about, think about, study and try 00:23:18.740 --> 00:23:22.549 to do the best that we can to make it better. 00:23:23.109 --> 00:23:27.089 Bistra, you've been engaged in AI research long 00:23:27.089 --> 00:23:31.009 before the recent AI boom as the co -director 00:23:31.009 --> 00:23:34.690 of the USC Center for AI in Society. And for 00:23:34.690 --> 00:23:38.210 the benefit of our listeners, this research center 00:23:38.210 --> 00:23:41.819 is a joint venture between the social work and 00:23:41.819 --> 00:23:44.799 engineering schools at USC that was established 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:48.380 in 2016. I'd love it if you could please share 00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:52.079 a little bit more about the center, the work 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:54.460 at the center and the area of environment, which 00:23:54.460 --> 00:23:57.519 I believe is one of your research pillars. 00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:00.539 Yeah, absolutely. Actually, the Center for AI and Society 00:24:00.539 --> 00:24:03.240 is what brought me to USC. I was a faculty at 00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:05.740 Georgia Tech, and then the center had just been 00:24:05.740 --> 00:24:10.779 formed a year before that, and I was recruited 00:24:10.779 --> 00:24:13.839 to consider it. And I was like, wow, there's 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:16.579 this group of faculty and students that are just 00:24:16.579 --> 00:24:20.440 as passionate as I am about applying AI for social 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:25.970 impact. I finally found my people. And so I moved 00:24:25.970 --> 00:24:29.109 to USC to be part of this initiative. And I've 00:24:29.109 --> 00:24:33.009 been fortunate to co -direct the center for several 00:24:33.009 --> 00:24:37.069 years now. The center's mission is really to 00:24:37.069 --> 00:24:39.650 try to identify ways in which we can leverage 00:24:39.650 --> 00:24:44.160 AI to help vulnerable communities. And it spans 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:48.839 three main pillars, work in homelessness, which 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:51.440 is a topic that's very relevant to Los Angeles, 00:24:51.539 --> 00:24:55.720 but across the country, work in public health 00:24:55.720 --> 00:24:59.039 and wellbeing, and then work in environment and 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:02.400 resilience. And so we have faculty working across 00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:04.599 all three topics, but a lot of my work falls 00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:09.140 under environment and resilience. I try to find 00:25:09.140 --> 00:25:12.640 collaborations where we can identify real problems 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:16.339 and then figure out what can AI do for those 00:25:16.339 --> 00:25:20.579 real problems in a useful way. And so a lot of 00:25:20.579 --> 00:25:23.740 my work has focused on environmental protection. 00:25:23.980 --> 00:25:27.180 So looking at where should we protect habitat 00:25:27.180 --> 00:25:30.640 and then today in order to protect ecosystems 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:34.359 and their services to society for the future 00:25:34.359 --> 00:25:39.819 under climate change. how we can use AI to curb 00:25:39.819 --> 00:25:43.240 the second biggest threat to biodiversity after 00:25:43.240 --> 00:25:45.619 habitat destruction and fragmentation, which 00:25:45.619 --> 00:25:48.680 is actually poaching and trafficking. So the 00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:52.619 purposeful killing of animals by humans for other 00:25:52.619 --> 00:25:58.140 uses such as making furniture or traditional 00:25:58.140 --> 00:26:01.019 medicine. And so how can we use AI to predict 00:26:01.019 --> 00:26:03.359 where trafficking is going to happen, how we 00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:07.079 can intervene. And then in terms of disaster 00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:09.779 resilience, for example, I have worked very closely 00:26:09.779 --> 00:26:11.799 with the Los Angeles Department of Water and 00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:15.660 Power where they have this big uh, resilience 00:26:15.660 --> 00:26:20.000 initiative. Actually LA was one of the 100 resilient 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.220 cities initiative that was like, uh, part of 00:26:23.220 --> 00:26:25.319 the president's office, maybe like about 10 years 00:26:25.319 --> 00:26:29.900 ago. And in during that time, LA created a very 00:26:30.089 --> 00:26:33.809 ambitious resilience plan. And part of it is 00:26:33.809 --> 00:26:36.329 earthquake resilience, which is committing to 00:26:36.329 --> 00:26:40.609 fortify the LA water infrastructure with pipes 00:26:40.609 --> 00:26:44.890 that can sustain earthquakes, such that the critical 00:26:44.890 --> 00:26:48.410 customers like evacuation centers, schools, hospitals, 00:26:48.509 --> 00:26:51.380 and so on our guarantee to have water in the 00:26:51.380 --> 00:26:54.579 event of an earthquake. As you can imagine, LA 00:26:54.579 --> 00:26:56.880 is humongous. It has thousands and thousands 00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:00.960 of pipes and miles of pipes. And so we cannot 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:03.140 replace all of them. So they have to figure out 00:27:03.140 --> 00:27:05.400 strategically which ones to replace. That's a 00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:08.869 very hard decision optimization problem. which 00:27:08.869 --> 00:27:13.029 is exactly in my wheelhouse. So I really got 00:27:13.029 --> 00:27:15.210 very excited about partnering with them and helping 00:27:15.210 --> 00:27:18.470 them translate that urban planning problem into 00:27:18.470 --> 00:27:21.289 a computational optimization problem and then 00:27:21.289 --> 00:27:24.970 designing methods that can help them find good 00:27:24.970 --> 00:27:27.430 strategies of how to solve it. So these are just 00:27:27.430 --> 00:27:30.809 some of the examples. We have other ongoing projects. 00:27:31.069 --> 00:27:35.230 Wow, I am just so inspired and so overwhelmed 00:27:35.230 --> 00:27:38.670 with such excellent information and I wish that 00:27:38.670 --> 00:27:42.160 we could. continue this, but as we begin to wrap 00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:45.000 up our dialogue today, I'd really like to give 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:47.599 you an opportunity, if there's anything else 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:50.119 that you would like our listeners to know about 00:27:50.119 --> 00:27:53.460 environmental -related research or the importance 00:27:53.460 --> 00:27:57.319 of interdisciplinary collaboration that was not 00:27:57.319 --> 00:27:59.400 previously mentioned, I'd really love to give 00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:03.339 you a moment to just kind of give our listeners 00:28:03.339 --> 00:28:05.859 a summary of something else that you would like 00:28:05.859 --> 00:28:08.400 them to know. We'll start with Michalle and then Bistra. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:10.990 Yeah, I would like to highlight a few 00:28:10.990 --> 00:28:15.049 things. From an academic perspective, interdisciplinary 00:28:15.049 --> 00:28:19.470 work is the way to go. The problems of today 00:28:19.470 --> 00:28:24.630 are so complex that no one, no one scientist, 00:28:24.950 --> 00:28:28.690 no matter how brilliant, can study and find the 00:28:28.690 --> 00:28:34.210 solutions by themselves. And so we have to collaborate 00:28:34.210 --> 00:28:40.279 and we have to create ways to communicate across 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:46.279 the disciplinary silos. I think what Bistra and 00:28:46.279 --> 00:28:51.319 our team are doing is exactly that and it's not 00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:55.319 as easy as it may sound because From an academic 00:28:55.319 --> 00:28:57.680 disciplinary perspective, we speak different 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:01.940 languages. And just recently we did a co -educational 00:29:01.940 --> 00:29:05.240 session where we taught them what we know and 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:10.119 they taught us what they know. And so that's 00:29:10.119 --> 00:29:14.440 number one. From a social policy perspective, 00:29:14.700 --> 00:29:18.660 I think the community is a unit that needs more 00:29:18.660 --> 00:29:21.920 attention. People live in a physical environment. 00:29:22.460 --> 00:29:28.859 and they need to be able to collaborate with 00:29:28.859 --> 00:29:32.960 their neighbors. The problem of modern life is 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:36.279 that we're all inside our computers and whatever 00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:41.619 instruments that we have, and these cause isolation. 00:29:41.950 --> 00:29:46.569 Now, Holly, you know how important it is to have 00:29:46.569 --> 00:29:49.450 other people in your life and not be isolated. 00:29:49.690 --> 00:29:53.670 Isolation is a grave risk to health and mental 00:29:53.670 --> 00:30:00.329 health. And so we need to find ways to strengthen 00:30:00.329 --> 00:30:04.569 communities, not only to sustain them during 00:30:04.569 --> 00:30:09.690 crisis, but even for everyday health and mental 00:30:09.690 --> 00:30:15.299 health. reasons. We have to shine a light on 00:30:15.299 --> 00:30:19.220 communities. And the last thing I'll say that 00:30:19.220 --> 00:30:22.539 is from a global perspective, environmental justice 00:30:22.539 --> 00:30:25.559 is an issue that all of us need to care about 00:30:25.559 --> 00:30:29.160 because it affects all of us, even if we feel 00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:32.920 that currently it's not our problem, it's someone 00:30:32.920 --> 00:30:35.960 else's problem. Eventually, it will be ours. 00:30:36.200 --> 00:30:38.579 That's what I wanted to highlight. 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.819 Wow. Excellent. Thank you, Michalle. Bistra. 00:30:41.819 --> 00:30:47.119 Totally agree with Michalle. Very inspiring what she just said. 00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:50.460 I feel just as passionate about the need for doing this 00:30:50.460 --> 00:30:53.279 work. And I'm really fortunate to be part of 00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:56.859 this team. And again, I want to reiterate the 00:30:56.859 --> 00:30:59.839 interdisciplinary aspect. And I feel fortunate 00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:04.259 that at USC, I feel like we have the space and 00:31:04.259 --> 00:31:06.480 the encouragement and the infrastructure that 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:09.880 supports this kind of interdisciplinary connections. 00:31:09.940 --> 00:31:14.599 In fact, even the grant that is supporting this 00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:18.779 work, the Zumberge grant, is focused exactly at 00:31:18.779 --> 00:31:22.539 having co -investigators that span different 00:31:22.539 --> 00:31:26.819 schools. I think that's really important and 00:31:26.819 --> 00:31:29.920 kudos to USC for supporting it. At the same time, 00:31:30.059 --> 00:31:33.180 it's also difficult and I guess want to emphasize 00:31:33.180 --> 00:31:36.279 this need to also support the students of how 00:31:36.279 --> 00:31:39.400 to learn about what it means to do interdisciplinary 00:31:39.400 --> 00:31:42.240 work. Sometimes this is not sometimes, it is 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:45.240 not in our curriculum. And it's something that 00:31:45.240 --> 00:31:48.859 is hard to learn. That's, I think, one thing 00:31:48.859 --> 00:31:51.640 that for me is always like, I try to coach my 00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:53.799 own students, but I always see that as a big 00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:57.680 gap. How do we support students to learn to do 00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:01.079 effective interdisciplinary work and not feel 00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:03.299 disadvantaged or slowed down because of that, 00:32:03.359 --> 00:32:06.640 but empowered? to do more, which is what I believe 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:08.839 interdisciplinary work keeps them, opens new 00:32:08.839 --> 00:32:10.960 doors for new questions that nobody else has 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:13.400 looked at. And then as a last plug, I just want 00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:16.299 to say that if the listeners are interested to 00:32:16.299 --> 00:32:19.579 hear more about AI for social impact work done 00:32:19.579 --> 00:32:24.640 across USC, You can consider coming to the annual 00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:27.059 symposium that the Center for AI and Society 00:32:27.059 --> 00:32:29.880 organizes called ShowCAIS. This year it's going 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:33.680 to be on March 27 on campus in Ginsburg Hall. 00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:37.539 Thank you, Michalle and Bistra, for joining us 00:32:37.539 --> 00:32:40.319 today for this inspiring and great discussion. 00:32:40.940 --> 00:32:43.119 If you would like to learn more about our work 00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:45.859 in sustainability and environmental justice, 00:32:46.299 --> 00:32:49.619 please visit our website at dworakpeck.usc.edu. 00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:54.519 If you are also interested in learning more about 00:32:54.519 --> 00:32:58.119 the work at the USC Center for AI and Society, 00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:04.740 visit cais.usc.edu. And finally, if you would 00:33:04.740 --> 00:33:07.960 like to connect with our guests regarding their 00:33:07.960 --> 00:33:11.480 work or want to support our transformative research 00:33:11.480 --> 00:33:15.779 and programs, please email us at 00:33:15.779 --> 00:33:17.619 listenuppeople.usc.edu.