Several weeks ago, members of various subaward projects - along with our core team, communications team, and a group of sociological researchers - descended on San Antonio for our Opening Summit. The activities began with a poolside reception on Wednesday evening and concluded with a formal dinner on Saturday night. In between, we listened to colleagues share brief overviews of their projects and participated in stimulating interdisciplinary discussions. We also shared some wonderful meals at local restaurants, where conversations continued into the night.
PI Alan Love opened the meeting on Thursday morning with an overview of the project itself. His slides are available on the dashboard here. The subsequent lightning talks sparked considerable interest, and if you would like to review any of the slides, they too can be accessed online until the end of June. Afternoon sessions provided some technical challenges, as we encountered certain limitations of the hybrid format. However, after surviving a few audio and visual wobbles on day one, things went more smoothly for the rest of the meeting. Our sincere thanks go out to those who participated virtually despite the difficulties.
Talks and discussions ranged over a wide variety of subjects. From the evolution of cooperation to the development of the integrated earth-life system, from the physics of development to the use of biological ideas in engineering and design…we covered a lot of ground! The concept of agency proved a particular point of contention in several breakout rooms. Of the core themes of the project (agency, directionality and function), agency elicited the widest range of divergent interpretations. But other concepts provoked diverse interpretations as well. Look out for communications from the core team as we begin developing our "conceptual inventory" based on these discussions, which will benefit from your input.
Meeting in person again was exhilarating, and the event solidified the feeling for many of us that the project now is in full swing. We’re looking forward to hearing more about how Summit activities generated ideas for research and dialogue within your projects and throughout your clusters. Please remember to share any plans for events and publications by team members with our staff team so we can publish them on the project website and event calendar. And finally, thanks to those of you who gave your time to our science communications team, who are in the process of developing a podcast series based on the project. We’ll have more to say about this series, including how and where to listen, later in the year.
