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Lightning Talk: Groundwater irrigation management in Bangladesh: improving food safety and sustainability while mitigating climate change By Rebecca Neumann, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington Dry season irrigation with groundwater has increased rice production and food security in Bangladesh. However, widespread use of contaminated groundwater is loading hazardous levels of arsenic to rice field soils; arsenic is entering rice plants, decreasing yields and jeopardizing food safety. Additionally, current irrigation practices emit greenhouse gases and are vulnerable to changes in groundwater availability. These issues are exacerbated by the fact that much of the water applied to rice fields is lost down the raised boundaries around field edges (i.e., bunds). Stopping bund water loss is a straightforward way to minimize groundwater abstraction and simultaneously reduce arsenic loading to field soils and emission of greenhouse gases. Three possible solutions exist. Farmers could seal bunds with a material, plow through and rebuild bunds each season, or get rid of bunds by merging nearby fields and collectively cultivating one large combined field. A pilot study focused on sealing bunds with a material demonstrated the practice reduced groundwater use and greenhouse gas emissions by 20 to 60% and reduced arsenic loading to field soils by 10 to 40%. The greater savings were associated with smaller fields that have more perimeter or bund exposure to planted field area. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: Role of Underwater Robots in Sustainable Food Systems By Xiaobo Tan, MSU Foundation Professor and Richard M. Hong Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering, Michigan State University The use of underwater robots (for example, gliding robotic fish) as mobile platforms for monitoring water quality and aquatic species, with the application examples of sampling harmful algal blooms and tracking fish movement. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: Nanoporous Metal Foams as Efficient Particulate Filters By Kai Liu, Professor of Physics, Georgetown University This talk focuses on nanoporous metal foams as efficient particulate filters, relevant for air filtration and potentially for brackish water filtration. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: Underwater and Underground IoT for Water Management By Rosa Zheng, Professor, Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lehigh University Conventional Internet of Things (IoT) use Radio Frequency to send sensing data to the internet, but underwater and/or underground IoT devices suffer from difficulties in wireless communication. This presentation shows prototypes of underwater and underground wireless communication which work with hybrid drones for data delivery from the field to the internet. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: Regulation of Political Advertising and Water Policy By George T. Haley, Professor, University of New Haven This talk discusses the effects legalizing lying has on policy formulation and development. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: Ecohydrologic Processes of Irrigated Agriculture influence Lake-Groundwater Interactions in a Highly Managed Watershed By Hoori Ajami, Assistant Professor of Groundwater Hydrology, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California Riverside; and Juan S. Acero Triana, Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California Riverside In this talk, we discuss the impact of irrigation water management on lake-groundwater interactions in a highly managed watershed in Southern California. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: New Orleans Water and Drainage System By Ruby Broadway, PhD, Professor of Biology, Dillard University The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans (S&WB) is the water utility serving the City of New Orleans. As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: Multi-scale solutions in over-exploited aquifer systems By Itza Mendoza-Sanchez, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University In many semi-arid regions, aquifers have watered the Green Revolution vastly increasing food security and economic well-being. As water tables fall, however, rising concentrations of anthropogenic and geogenic contaminants make the water toxic for human consumption. Taking lessons from our work in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, we describe a framework for a coupled hydrologic-public health-economic model to account for losses and gains incurred by a basin’s residents and stake-holders by various water management and mitigation strategies. Such an accounting model can help inform decisions made by policy makers at all levels and ultimately help curb the over-exploitation of the shared resource by revealing previously hidden feedbacks between pumping, human health, livelihoods, profits and tax revenue. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: Engineering and applying soft materials for sustainable water management and food security By Sujit Datta, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials In this talk, I describe how we use studies of soft materials -- liquids, gels, colloids, and even cells -- in see-through mimics of soils, sediments, and groundwater aquifers to develop fundamental insights for more sustainable water management and food security. As an example, I highlight our work developing principles to engineer hydrogels for water management in agriculture and low-energy clean water harvesting from atmosphere/polluted water sources. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.

Lightning Talk: 2DIR Spectroscopy of Water Dynamics for Membrane Development By John B. Asbury, Professor of Chemistry, Associate Head for Graduate Education, The Pennsylvania State University This talk discusses instrument development efforts at Penn State to enable measurements of water dynamics in functional membranes for water purification and energy generation in extreme environments. By integrating such water dynamics measurements with state-of-the-art membrane synthesis and characterization efforts, we are poised to make rapid progress toward development of next generation membranes to address food insecurities in extreme environments. *** As part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Convergence Accelerator Conference for Food Security in Extreme Environments and Food Deserts on 19-21 May 2021, participants submitted lightning talks exploring emerging solutions that can be applied to sustainable food systems in extreme environments and/or ongoing efforts by researchers, industry, foundations, and government agencies in this area. These talks have not been screened or edited by the organizers, and conference organizers, sponsors, and partners do not endorse nor take responsibility for the contents of the videos. For more information about the Conference, visit www.convergentfoodsystems.org.