In the spring of 2021, JMU X-Labs hosted its fifth H4D class where transdisciplinary student teams pursued solutions to the following challenges:

1. During surgery, specialists monitor the function of a patient’s brain and nerves using techniques such as EEG and EMG to provide feedback to the anesthesiologist and the surgeon, which helps mitigate the risk of damaging the nervous system. This process is called intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring, or IONM. In partnership with Neuro Alert, a leading provider of IONM, AR/VR students will identify and map out biological markers in the brain using augmented technology in order to help technicians more easily determine where to place probes that help guide the surgeon.

2. Students designed and built a virtual reality tour of JMU’s campus called “Experience JMU 360: A Virtual Tour”. In partnership with the JMU Office of Admissions and University Marketing & Branding, the tour became part of a recruitment exhibit in the newly renovated Madison Hall, and this semester, students will have the opportunity to make key updates to enhance the virtual experience for prospective students and their families.

3. Students are often pushed towards college pathways when many alternative, well-paying careers exist that do not require a university level of education. This team’s goal was to showcase manufacturing career pathways to students in grades K-12 to give them exposure to, and pique their interest in, jobs they may not understand and allow them to have fun in the process by creating a VR tour of the Shickel factory floor.

Undergraduate and graduate students and faculty from Writing Studies, Public Policy and Administration, Math and Statistics, Social Work, and Graduate Psychology  worked with the United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County to help serve the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population of Harrisonburg and surrounding counties. This is the second time that Community Innovations has worked with the United Way, and this year, students explored how to collect data about how COVID-19 has affected the economic, social, and health of the ALICE population:

• Data – Incomplete and decentralized data create challenges for organizations on deciding how to spend their limited but valuable resources most effectively. Without a uniform dataset, organizations form their own rubric and research, creating silos, decreasing their own effectiveness in analyzing the status of the ALICE population and how to best serve them in collaboration with other efforts.
• Fundraising – There is relatively weak support of non-profit agencies by various levels of government. The burden of filling in financial gaps often falls on community organizations over relying on private donors, competing for donors, and applying for the same funding resources. Organizations also typically feel pressured to share clients’ stories to generate a greater sense of empathy among prospective donors in the hopes of moving them to make financial contributions. These dynamics can deplete capacity, create tension and division among community organizations, and increase the potential of exploitation and othering of ALICE.
• Hunger – Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, food insecurity rates have reached 11.2% (a 6% increase since 2018) in Rockingham County, and 15% in Harrisonburg City, acutely impacting the ALICE populations and increasing rates among seniors and households with children.
• Infrastructure – Different sectors are having different conversations around housing, with no comprehensive mapping of the issue. There is currently no way to show areas that are in need and lots of different actors are involved with different approaches, further complicating the matter.
• Innovative Tank – The ALICE population is likely the most significantly impacted
  population of any income-level demographic due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many new
  modalities of communication information sharing have arisen in the past few months, but we
  have yet to see how agencies and organizations are adapting to blur their boundaries to
  better share resources (human, information, financial, etc.) towards a more common goal.
  Also, in our small region, we have a diversity of autonomous organizations competing for
  limited resources by presenting themselves as experts in single or dual services, hindering the
  ability for integrated, system-based social service provision. In essence, how do traditional
  approaches to collaboration need to be taken apart and rebuilt to meet the ALICE challenge in the pandemic moment?

Addressing Human Trafficking

1. Law enforcement collaboration (Arc Aspicio)
2. Coordination of community efforts (NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center) – Create a system for local agencies to coordinate efficiently and effectively to respond to people affected by human trafficking.
3. Human trafficking education in Virginia schools (New Creation) – Address misconceptions about human trafficking and find ways to overcome barriers for schools in Virginia to implement existing quality training on prevention of human trafficking.
4. Addressing stable homes for those recovering from experiences of human trafficking (Shared Hope International) – Increase the number of sustainable and healthy placement options for children recovering from human trafficking that provide stable and supportive environments.
5. Stopping child exploitation in digital environments (U.S. Department of Homeland Security: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) – Find new ways to stop child exploitation in digital environments.

Read more here: CHBS faculty co-teach course on human trafficking

This semester we partnered with the United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County to look for systemic solutions to particularly difficult challenges for  the local ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population. Using a variety of tools associated with ideas around design thinking, collective impact, and the lean startup model, students are researching, interviewing and prototyping solutions to these complex and “wicked” (intractable) problems:

1. Access to affordable childcare
2. Challenges related to the public transportation system
3. Issues surrounding the relationship between the university and local non-profits

Collaborating closely with community partners on real problems in the healthcare and education sectors, students are learning to use design-based research methods and apply them to real challenges faced by our community partners. Working in multidisciplinary teams and collaborating with faculty members from across disciplines, students work with community partners to understand their work and how to respond to the challenges they face, talking with experts across the country as they design innovative solutions for the following partners:

1. Gift & Thrift
2. Plains Elementary School
3. The Suitcase Clinic