Innovation

review
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
VOLUME 23 NUMBER 1

Highlights of innovative
breakthroughs leading
up to a fifth year ranked
No. 1 in the U.S.

Engineer a solution
Research and big thinking on
how AI will impact the future of
work in Arizona and beyond

A
bright
idea
Jesse Senko’s
pioneering work
with solar lights
protects sea turtles
and transforms the
future of fishing

We customize.
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1

WELCOME

The official publication of
Arizona State University
Winter 2020, Vol. 23, No. 1
MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jill Andrews �97 BS, �03 MPA
SENIOR DIRECTOR

Lindsay Kinkade
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR

Heidi Easudes
PHOTOGRAPHER PRINCIPAL

Jarod Opperman

Contributors

DIRECTOR, NEWS AND STRATEGIC
COMMUNICATIONS, ASU NOW

Penny Walker

Keridwen Cornelius
An ASU alum, ’98 BA in
Psychology and ’08 MMC, and
award-winning magazine writer,
she has been a contributing
writer for The New York
Times, National Geographic
Adventure, Outside and
Scientific American.

Aaron Kotowski
An award-winning
photographer, he has worked
on assignment for Forbes,
Forbes JAPAN and Adweek.

Lindsay Lauckner
Gundlock
A Mexico City based
photographer, she has
published her work in
Bon Appétit, Condé Nast
Traveler, Dwell and Monocle.

COPY EDITOR

Leigh Farr
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig ’98 BA
PRODUCTION

Chris Myers
STORY IDEAS AND
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

asuthrive@asu.edu
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

PO Box 875011
Tempe AZ 85287-5011
480-727-5440
asuthrive@asu.edu
asunow.asu.edu/thrive-magazine

ASU Thrive (USPS 024-438; ISSN 1940-2929) is
published quarterly by the Arizona State University
Enterprise Marketing Hub, PO Box 875011, Tempe
AZ 85287-5011, 480-727-5440. Subscriptions are
sent to all ASU alumni. For detailed information about
alumni memberships, visit alumni.asu.edu/give-back/
asu-alumni-membership. Periodicals postage is paid
at Tempe, Arizona, and additional mailing offices.

Scott Seckel
An ASU alum, ’90 BA in
journalism, and award-winning
newspaper journalist, he spent
nearly three decades writing for
newspapers, magazines and
wire services, including Agence
France-Presse. He covers the
hard sciences for ASU Now.

Postmaster: Please send address changes to ASU
Thrive, Attention: Circulation, PO Box 875011,
Tempe AZ 85287-5011. Permissions: Portions of
this publication may be reprinted with the written
permission and proper attribution by contacting the
ASU Thrive editor. ASU Thrive can be accessed
online at asunow.asu.edu/thrive-magazine.

If you would prefer to receive only the
digital copy of the magazine, please update
your subscription:
Alumni

Alex Stuckey

links.asu.edu/thrive-subscription-alumni

A Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist, she covers NASA for
the Houston Chronicle.

Faculty and staff

links.asu.edu/thrive-subscription-employees
ASU Thrive is printed on paper that is certified
to the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®)
Standards.

Innovation
mindset
Imagine all the things that you wish were different.
Imagine big problems. Imagine that you know
someone with a medical issue that needs to be
resolved. Imagine that we had better outcomes in our
K–12 education enterprise. Imagine the people you
know who have not achieved their full potential could
be empowered to do it. Every one of these things
will be a product of constant innovation – the forces
of creation, the moving out of old, the moving in of
new, adaptation to new ways of doing
everything. This is the innovative
mindset in action.
We have built and continue
to build an environment where
innovations are the product of
everything we are doing. All of
our interactions, the people we are
talking to, the people we are learning
with, the communities we are working with – are all
driven by innovation on every level. It is in each of us.
When this is in action, then we see more resolution,
more solution, more forward progress, more individual
attainment, more fulfillment than without it.
This fall we received the No. 1 innovation ranking
from U.S. News & World Report for the fifth year
in a row. The ranking doesn’t point to one specific
achievement of the university – it points to the sum
of our efforts. It points to the tremendous energy
that we’ve been able to create among faculty, staff,
students and alumni that is unlocking new value for
Arizona locally and around the world.
In this magazine, you will find the members of our
community creating innovation at new intersections
of big ideas. And stories of access multiplied by
inclusion are woven throughout as they are woven
throughout ASU, making all our efforts stronger.
Thank you for all you do in creating and sustaining
the culture of innovation in Arizona.
Michael M. Crow
President, Arizona State University
asuthrive@asu.edu
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

1

FIND

Go

Calendar of events
Populate your agenda
with upcoming events,
from highlights on ASU’s
campuses to career
events. 4
Update in the news

Dream deal to earn degree. 10
Barrett named Air Force
secretary. 13

ASU Spark introduces
an innovative approach
to igniting new ideas.

Year in review: What
made the biggest news
in 2019. 26

Advance your career

Jaime Casap: What
problem do you want
to solve? 16

Building the culture
of innovation. 30

How to succeed by cultivating
adaptability for the future
of work. 20

Engineer a solution

Changing
the mind
of a robot

Review of innovation

Innovation
milestones

Highlights of ASU
innovation stories that
made headlines. 24
Robots learn
to work with
humans, not
displace them.

Research and big thinking
on how AI will impact the
future of work in Arizona
and beyond. 38
Connecting research to
business. 43


youtube.com/asu
youtube.com/ASUAthletics

2

WINTER 2020

alumni.asu.edu/linkedin
linkedin.com/school/arizona-state-university

instagram.com/arizonastateuniversity
instagram.com/asu_alumni
instagram.com/sundevilathletics
instagram.com/asuyoungalumni

JAROD OPPERMAN; ERIKA GRONEK

Washington visitors
walk the red planet. 8

Explore the world

Cady Coleman: We are the crew
of Spaceship Earth, writes ASU’s
Global Explorer in Residence. 44

A bright idea
Jesse Senko’s solar-powered
lights are rescuing more than sea
turtles from fishing nets — they’re
helping to transform the future of
sustainable fishing. 46
The dream maker: Shantel
Marekera helps preschoolers in
Zimbabwe achieve their goals. 52

Jesse Senko, right, and
Juan Pablo Cuevas untangle
a fishing challenge.

LINDSAY LAUCKNER GUNDLOCK; TODD MACMILLAN; PETER VANDER STOEP

Lindy Elkins-Tanton
leads the NASAfunded Psyche
mission to explore
the building blocks of
planet formation.

Envisioning the future of space:
Lindy Elkins-Tanton and the Interplanetary
Initiative reach for the stars to shape our
place in space. 54
Play like a Sun Devil

Sustainability and sport: Showcasing ASU’s
environmental commitment. 62

Hitting records and the books:
Sun Devil student-athletes balance
the rigor of sport with the
challenges of Barrett,
The Honors College. 63
Caption, regular,
char style: white
text

twitter.com/asu
twitter.com/asu_alumni
twitter.com/thesundevils
twitter.com/asuyoungalumni

ASU beats Arizona to claim
Territorial Cup for the third
consecutive year. 60

facebook.com/arizonastateuniversity
facebook.com/asualumni
facebook.com/arizonastatesundevils

pinterest.com/arizonastate
soundcloud.com/asualumni

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

3

Jan.

GO

Sustainability
Solutions Festival

Sun Devil
hoops
Watch the Sun Devil
Men’s and Women’s
Basketball teams drive
for another showing in
the NCAA brackets!

Now through March,
Desert Financial
Arena, Tempe
campus
TheSunDevils.com
Ticketed Family

Take part in a series of
events for audiences of all
ages and backgrounds,
from students to business
leaders. This year’s theme
is focused on the
question: “How can we
individually and
collectively reimagine our
lives and our planet?”
Events feature business
development conferences,
community gatherings,
film screenings and
additional opportunities.

Feb. 1–22, Valley-wide
sustainability.asu.edu/
sustainabilitysolutions/
events/rsvp/solutionsfestival-2020

Feb.

Free Ticketed Family

4

WINTER 2020

Open Door
Whether you’re a thrillseeker, lifelong learner,
science guru, art enthusiast
or adventure chaser, you will
find a unique experience at
each of ASU’s four metroPhoenix campuses, and you
are invited to visit them all
during ASU Open Door.
Events include hundreds of interactive,
hands-on activities and opportunities
to visit with ASU students, faculty and
staff. This signature event of the Arizona
SciTech Festival offers you and your
family the chance to discover all things
science, technology, engineering, arts
and math.
Saturday,
Feb. 1,
1–5 p.m.,
West campus

Saturday,
Feb. 22,
1–5 p.m.,
Tempe campus

Saturday,
Feb. 8,
1–5 p.m.,
Downtown
Phoenix campus

Saturday,
Feb. 29,
1–5 p.m.,
Polytechnic
campus

opendoor.asu.edu

Free

Ticketed Family

Cybersecurity
challenge
Talented minds
from high schools
and colleges
in Arizona
will address
challenging,
real-world
problems that
face today’s cyber
professionals,
digital forensics
scientists, and
network/security/
system engineers.
Students of all
ages are welcome
to attend.
Saturday, Feb.
22, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.,
La Sala
ballrooms,
West campus
newcollege.
asu.edu/
cybersecurity/
challenge
Free

Family

SUN DEVIL ATHLETICS, DEANNA DENT/ASU

What does it
mean to eat
in our time?

Ceramic
Studio Tour
Travel the Valley and enjoy the art
of local artists during the 19th
Annual Ceramic Studio Tour. This
event showcases the work of
professional artists offering the
public a rare opportunity to view
working spaces of participating
artists. Some work will be available
for sale.

Feb. 22–23, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. selfguided tour
asuartmuseum.asu.edu/
programs-and-events/
ceramics-programs/ceramicsstudio-tour
Free

Family

Broadway show
and Tony-Award
winner ‘Once on
This Island’
In the sweeping, universal tale of
Ti Moune, a fearless peasant girl in
search of her place in the world, she
is guided by the mighty island gods
as she sets out on a remarkable
journey to reunite with the man
who has captured her heart. The
groundbreaking vision of the
two-time Tony Award-nominated
director, acclaimed choreographer
and Tony Award-winning
songwriters, “Once on This Island”
is a timeless testament to theater’s
unlimited possibilities.
March 3–8, ASU Gammage
Auditorium, Tempe campus

asugammage.com

Adventures in
Earth and space

Artists, scientists,
innovators,
activists, farmers
and cooks of all
skills are invited to
join in producing
interactive artworks, exhibits
and performances
that playfully
explore what
it means to
eat in a time of
environmental and
social change.

Explore and interact
with intriguing science
exhibits, immerse
yourself in outer space
with 3D planetarium
shows, check out a
full-scale replica of the
Curiosity Rover
currently on Mars
and more.

Friday, March 27,
6:30–9:30 p.m.,
Interdisciplinary
Science and
Technology Building
IV (ISTB4), Tempe
campus
sese.asu.edu/events
Free

Family

Saturday, March 21,
4–10 p.m.,
Mesa Arts Center
emerge.asu.edu
Free

Family

Ticketed Family

Mar.

Nicholas Bernard and other Valley
artists will host studio tours.

Find your fit: an
in-depth tour of
each metro Phoenix
ASU campus
As part of Sun Devil Day
events, join your guides
for an experience on each
of the four metro Phoenix
campuses. In these halfday events, prospective
students tour campus
buildings while meeting
college representatives and
ASU students.
Tours in March and April
visit.asu.edu/sundevilday
Free

A day for Devil
donations

19

Join ASU’s annual
day of giving during
which faculty, staff,
students, parents,
alumni, donors and
ASU supporters
have the opportunity to give to a
particular cause through ASU. Your
tax-deductible donations may be
made to specific colleges,
programs or initiatives.

Thursday, March 19
givingday.asu.edu
Donation

Check in at
events to earn
Pitchforks
and rewards!

Bring a friend and your
appetite for experimentation
to the Emerge event on what
it means to eat.

Visit asuevents.asu.edu for events at ASU.

Family

COURTESY OF NICHOLAS BERNARD; JOAN MARCUS; NINA MILLER/ASU

Log in to the Sun
Devil Rewards
app for ASU
event listings,
news, games and
more. Earn and
be rewarded!
sundevilrewards.
asu.edu

Athletics event and ticket information at
TheSunDevils.com

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

5

Career

GO

Community

Aaron Pool, ’09 BS,
founder of Gadzooks
Enchiladas & Soup, is a
three-time Sun Devil 100
winner and Pool Family
Endowment sponsor.

Honoring high-performing
alumni businesses

Events for budding
and established
entrepreneurs

The annual Sun Devil 100 celebrates
the business achievements of ASU
alumni around the world. The ASU
Alumni Association selects leaders who
demonstrate innovation, growth and
entrepreneurial spirit. Honorees are
invited to campus to be recognized, to
connect with each other, to meet ASU
leaders and interact with aspiring student
entrepreneurs.

From conferences to
competitions, whether you
are a small-business owner
or simply curious about
entrepreneurship, events
in the ASU community
of business builders are
a great way to grow your
network and get plugged in.
entrepreneurship.asu.
edu/events

Wednesday, April 29, 11:30 a.m.,
Memorial Union, Tempe campus
alumni.asu.edu/events/sun-devil-100

Free

Networking

Ticketed

Volunteer, Devils
ASU Alumni chapters nationwide gather in the
spring to participate in family friendly volunteer
activities, from building homes to feeding the
hungry. Sun Devils support their local communities!

See March and April listings for ASU Cares
events in your area at alumni.asu.edu/
volunteer/asu-cares
Networking

Family

Bringing
innovation
directly
to you
Fast Company
and ASU have
partnered to
bring some
of the world’s
most innovative
visionaries
together
with alumni
for thoughtprovoking live
storytelling.
Now we’re
bringing
the learning
resources
directly to
you. Check
out alumni.
asu.edu/cpe/
innovation-you
or subscribe
to our YouTube
channel at
youtube.com/
ASU
Free

6

WINTER 2020

Networking

JAROD OPPERMAN/ASU; MICHAEL JENNINGS

Career services for life
All ASU alumni have lifetime
access to ASU career fairs,
webinars, networking and
other career development
events. ASU is here to help
you chart your career path.
alumni.asu.edu/services/alumni-careerand-professional-development-services
Free

Networking

Job search

Recruit-aDevil today
Highly qualified ASU
students and alumni
are prepared to grow
your business and
build your workforce
as team members.
Through ASU Career
and Professional
Development
Services, you can
post jobs and
internships, attend
career fairs, connect
with prospects
and more.
career.asu.edu/
employers
Free

Job search

Join an alumni chapter
in your area or one
based on your special
interest or college.
Attend events and
meetups to catch up
with friends and make
new connections.
alumni.asu.edu/
chapters
Networking

Linking
together
When Sun Devils
connect and help one
another, great things can
happen. Join the official
ASU Alumni group on
LinkedIn and search the
ASU alumni network
for local connections
in your area. Find the
latest employment
opportunities and find
out what other ASU
alumni are doing.
alumni.asu.edu/
linkedin
Networking

Free Networking
Job search

Entertainment
career fair in
Los Angeles
Employers from throughout
the entertainment industry
with open career and
internship positions will
be on-site to meet with
you. Past participating
companies include Lionsgate,
PXL Agency, CBS, NSQ,
Buchwald, Paradigm Talent
Agency, Hutch Parker
Entertainment, Bob Industries,
Cedar Shore Productions, and
The Hideaway Entertainment.
The event is open to current
students and alumni.
Friday, Feb. 7, 1–4 p.m. PT,
The Culver Hotel, Gallery
Room, Culver City, CA
filmspark.asu.edu/careerfair
Free

Networking

Job search

JAROD OPPERMAN; NICOLE NERI/ASU

The spring career
fair is the largest
recruiting event
at ASU and is
open to students
and alumni of all
majors and degree
levels. More than
150 employers
from a variety of
industries will be
on-site to meet
with you.
Feb. 25 and 26,
1–4 p.m., ASU
Memorial Union,
second floor,
Tempe campus
links.asu.edu/
asucareerfair

Chapters

Career
fair for
students
and alumni

Get involved
in the US and
worldwide

Alumni chapters

Tillman Honor Runs
in your area
Join in the planning for this year’s
Pat Tillman Honor Runs, honoring
his legacy of service and hosted
coast-to-coast by ASU alumni
chapters nationwide. Find out how
to get involved at alumni.asu.edu/
events/tillman-honor-runs

Stay in touch
Update your info
to stay in the know
with exclusive invites
to special events
and more.
alumni.asu.edu/
update

Family

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

7

UPDATE

MARS ON THE MALL

Washington visitors
walk the red planet
Tourists at the National Mall in
Washington, D.C., experienced a
unique look at Mars — the world’s
largest map of its surface. A
combination of 24,000 individual
images taken by the Thermal
Emission Imaging System camera
on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter,
it provided “a more physical
experience,” says Jonathon Hill,
project lead and Mars scientist at
ASU’s School of Earth and Space
Exploration. “We wanted to show
people the map’s incredible detail.”

8

WINTER 2020

Update
in the news

Dream deal to
earn degree

ASU-Uber
partnership
expands education
opportunities.

10

Public service
with a crown
Alum wins
Miss Navajo
Nation 2019.

11

A solution to
Gulf War illness
The Worleys — Paul, baby Scarlett, Elise, toddler Emmaline — and Christine Attardo,
from left, plant their feet on Mars. ASU unfurled the world’s largest map of the red
planet’s surface at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in October.

AARON KOTOWSKI

ASU researchers
find FDA-approved
antiviral drugs offer
effective treatment.

13

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

9

UPDATE

Visions of
many futures
A new science fiction
anthology takes the
cutting-edge science
of now — tech like
robotics, gene
editing and space
colonization —
to surprising places.
In “Future Tense
Fiction: Stories of
Tomorrow,” a disease
surveillance robot’s
social programming
gets put to the test.
In a futuristic sport,
all the athletes have
been chemically and
physically enhanced.
“Future Tense
Fiction” — a partnership
of ASU, the online
magazine Slate and the
think tank New America
— commissioned the
series of stories from
leading writers who
imagined what life might
be like in a variety of
possible futures.
Find it wherever
books are sold.

10

WINTER 2020

Dream deal to earn degree
After high school, Shannon Rozas put her education on hold to
raise a family of three with her husband of 27 years, Daryn.
Today she is back in school thanks to a partnership between
ASU and Uber, where Daryn drives, extending fully funded
undergraduate degree opportunities to eligible family members
through ASU Online. That allows Shannon to pursue a degree in
liberal studies tuition-free, and earning a degree will boost her
chances of different employment opportunities.
“Not having a degree put me at a disadvantage,” she says.
“All these years it has been on my mind to finish my degree, and I
couldn’t believe that this opportunity would be possible because
of ASU and Uber.
“I want to be a good role model for my kids and show them that
it is never too late to pursue your dreams.” — CARRIE PETERSON

“I couldn’t
believe this
opportunity
would be
possible
because of
ASU and Uber.”
— S H A N N O N R OZ AS O N
PURSUING A DEGREE
IN LIBER AL STUDIES

Building strength on a vegetarian diet

Mung bean protein
supplements improved
strength among underactive vegetarians.

Vegetarian diets generally protect
against chronic disease, but there
is one aspect to be aware of: the
possibility of nutrient deficiency.
It is much harder for humans to
absorb protein from plant-based
sources, often making protein
supplementation a priority. College
of Health Solutions professors
Carol Johnston and Chris Wharton
examined the relationship between
protein intake, strength and lean
body mass in 37 underactive

vegetarians. For eight weeks,
a small subgroup was given a
mung bean protein supplement.
At the end of the trial, researchers
found improved strength among
those who took the supplement
compared with measures of their
strength taken before the trial.
Mung beans were chosen
because they tend to have higher
amounts of protein than other
plants, and they can be raised
sustainably.
OMAR MOTA; CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

Urban agriculture’s power
A group of researchers led by ASU assessed
how urban agriculture can help Phoenix meet
its sustainability goals.
“Our analysis found that if Phoenix used
only about 5% of its urban spaces — 2% of its
land, and about 10% of its building surfaces
— for urban agriculture, the city could meet
its sustainability goals concerning local food
systems,” says Matei Georgescu, associate
professor in the School of Geographical
Sciences and Urban Planning and co-author of
the study.
The study estimates that nearly 28 square
miles are available for urban agriculture in
Phoenix. This can supply the city with nearly
183,000 tons of fresh produce per year,
meaning that the city’s output could meet 90%
of the current annual fresh produce consumed
by Phoenicians.

Devil Clefs’ Billie Eilish
mashup hits viral high note
The ASU a cappella group Devil Clefs went
viral in November after the 18-member
group posted a video singing a mashup
of “idontwannabeyouanymore” and “when
the party’s over” by Billie Eilish on TikTok, a
short-form mobile video platform. Recorded in
a stairwell in ASU’s Music Building in Tempe,
the video garnered more than 1.9 million likes
and 6 million views on social media. “It just
blew up out of nowhere,” says sophomore
fashion student Milena Santiago, who wrote
the mashup arrangement.
ISABEL HAN/THE STATE PRESS; CONNOR MCKEE/ASU; BAILEY SMITH

Google
chooses
Cronkite
School
project in
innovation
challenge
The Walter
Cronkite School of
Journalism and Mass
Communication at
ASU is a recipient
of Google News
Initiative’s first North
America Innovation
Challenge, a
program that funds
innovative projects
that focus on
increasing audience
engagement in local
newsrooms.
Cronkite
will develop an
Interactive Story
Wall that will be used
by Cronkite News
broadcasters as a
tool to tell data-driven
stories through
visualizations.

Keep up with the
headlines at ASU
by subscribing to the
ASU Now e-newsletter
at asunow.asu.edu/
subscribe.

Public service with a crown
Becoming Miss Navajo Nation 2019 was no
easy feat. Over five days, alum Shaandiin
Parrish’s traditional knowledge was put to the
test with a series of rigorous competitions
focused on Navajo language, culture and
practices.
“As the titleholder, you are responsible
for visiting communities in our tribal lands in
Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah,
making sure people feel like their concerns are
being heard and they matter,” she says.
Winners spend a year visiting more than
27,000 square miles of tribal land. Because
the Office of Miss Navajo Nation is a branch
of the tribal government, the titleholder also
serves as a goodwill ambassador, promoting
community health, economic development and
other initiatives.

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

11

UPDATE

Headline S, Bold
Intro paragraph.
Explore at url.

DESIGNED TO SUSTAIN

Briefs Headline,
Entrepreneurs
combine food andBody, No indent.
Body url.
sustainability
Prepped, a free, early-stage food
business accelerator program
designed for ventures owned by
women and underrepresented
minorities, has added sustainability
to its mix. The program is geared
toward owners of emerging food
businesses that are beyond the
idea stage and seeking the tools
to scale. Now, in addition to the
already established curriculum that
includes food costing and financial
literacy, small business marketing
and communication strategies, and
permits and licensing, participants
of Prepped are learning green
business operations so that
sustainability is built into their
companies from the start.

12

WINTER 2020

Large

Sana Sana Foods owner Maria Parra Cano talks with a customer about
her plant-based ancestral foods. At the Prepped Showcase, she won
the grand prize of $5,000 to support her business’ growth.

CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

A solution to Gulf War illness
A team of scientists, including ASU virologist
Efrem Lim, has shown that adjusting GI tract
viruses by repurposing existing FDA-approved
antiviral drugs offers a route for effective
treatment for Gulf War illness and its symptoms.
In the 29 years since Desert Storm, the
illness has plagued more than 200,000
Persian Gulf veterans with a variety of
symptoms. Existing treatments have been
unreliable. By utilizing existing antiviral drugs
for treatment, clinicians can begin testing these
FDA-approved medications in patient cohorts
at an accelerated pace compared to the lengthy
timeline associated with traditional trials.

Barrett named
Air Force secretary
Three-time ASU alum Barbara Barrett’s
impressive list of accomplishments grew in
mid-October when the U.S. Senate confirmed
her as the next secretary of the Air Force.
“I can think of no position that offers more
excitement, challenge and meaning than the
secretary of the Air Force,” Barrett said in an
Air Force news release. “Our Air Force is the
best in the world because of extraordinary
airmen and civilians with whom I am now proud
to serve.”
Barrett earned bachelor’s, master’s and law
degrees at ASU, becoming the first woman to
run for governor in Arizona and the first civilian
woman to land in an F/A-18 Hornet on an aircraft
carrier. Her distinguished career included a stint
as U.S. ambassador to Finland.
CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

ASU Law again
No. 1 in state for
bar passage
For the seventh
consecutive year, the
Sandra Day O’Connor
College of Law received
the highest overall bar
passage rate in Arizona
for the calendar year,
according to the July
2019 results released
Oct. 25.
Results of the
Arizona Bar Exam show
ASU Law first-time test
takers had an 88%
passage rate, which is
up 9% from last year.
This is well above the
state’s overall firsttime taker passage
rate of 78% and more
than 20% higher
than the next highest
bar passage score
in Arizona.

88%
ASU Law firsttime test takers’
bar passage
rate, above the
state average

PBS NewsHour West debuts
PBS NewsHour West, the new bureau and
West Coast feed of “PBS NewsHour,” hit
the air for the first time in October from
inside the Cronkite School.
PBS NewsHour West is housed at
the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism
and Mass Communication under a new
partnership with ASU. In addition to
producing news stories based in the
Western U.S., the Phoenix-based team will
update the “PBS NewsHour” Eastern time
zone broadcasts for West Coast audiences.
Made possible with the generous
support of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, PBS NewsHour West allows
the “NewsHour” nightly broadcast to better
serve audiences in the West and online, and
to continue its expansion into a 24/7 news
operation.

1 in 4 Arizona suicides are
related to domestic violence
One in four suicides in Arizona is related
to violence involving an intimate partner,
according to a new report from ASU’s Center
for Violence Prevention and Community Safety.
The report is a compilation of statistics
taken from the examination of 5,711 violent
deaths in Arizona between 2015 and 2017.
Researchers found that 3,678 of those
deaths were determined to be suicides, says
Professor Charles Katz, with 25.6% of those
involving “intimate partner violence.”
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

13

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Advance

your career
LASER FOCUS

A first-of-its-kind
instrument provided a
one-of-a-kind experience
for five ASU students
working on the Compact
X-ray Free Electron
Laser (CXFEL) through
internships made possible
by Bill and Susan Levine.
“We were able to get a
skill set that you really
don’t see in a lot of interns
or college students,” says
engineering student Brett
Liebich. When completed,
the CXFEL could advance
discoveries in drug
development, sustainable
energy and more.

That is the
question

Jaime Casap
asks: What
problem do
you want to
solve?

16

Working
with tech
Alex Gardeck, a mechanical engineering student, examines
the precision thermal trim unit that uses water to cool
components in the R/F room of the Beus CXFEL Laboratory
beneath Biodesign Institute Building C.

ANDY DELISLE/ASU

How to
succeed by
cultivating
adaptability.

20

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

15

ADVANCE

Environmental issues
may be your passion
and a world powered
by clean energy
may be one of the
ways you imagine a
solution. Focusing
your strengths,
passions and interests
on solving your
chosen problem can
lead you on a path to
make a real difference
and find a satisfying
career along the way.

16

WINTER 2020

What problem
do you want
to solve?
That is the question to consider
when pondering your future
Story by J A I M E C A S A P, ’9 3 M PA

“Don’t worry about
what you want to be
when you grow up.
Spend time thinking
about the problem
you want to solve and
then utilize everything
you’ve got to take
on that problem and
change the world!”
— J A I M E C A S A P,
C H I E F E D U C AT I O N
E VA N G E L I S T AT G O O G L E

“So kid, what do you want to be
when you grow up?”
The question has been passed
down from the beginning of time.
When I think about that, I
imagine a 10 year old in the
1700s brimming with pride and
answering, “I’m going to be the
best wheelwright in the world!”
(Look it up.)
While this question helped
us think about our future, it is no
longer useful or relevant. We are at
the beginning of the digitalization
economy, and we can’t even
imagine the type of work that will
require. Change happens gradually
and then suddenly, and you, my
friend, are living in “suddenly” times.
The jobs of the future do not exist
today. Digitalization is also causing
jobs to shift and change like never
before. All roles will be impacted
by automation, robotics and
digitalization.
So I have three better questions
for you to answer.

Jaime Casap, ’93 MPA in
public administration, is the
chief education evangelist
at Google. He evangelizes
the potential of digitalization
as an enabling capability in
pursuit of promoting inquiry
based learning models. He
collaborates with school
systems, educational
organizations and leaders
focused on building innovation
into our education policies
and practices. Subscribe
to his YouTube channel at
youtube.com/jaimecasap.

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

17

1. What problem do you want
to solve?
What is the problem you want to
take on? It doesn’t have to be a
social problem like climate change,
for example, it can be any problem. If
you don’t know, that’s OK. Start the
process of thinking about it. Search
deep enough and you will discover
patterns about what motivates you or
what gets you excited.
2. How do you want to solve
that problem?
There are a million ways to undertake
a problem, so how do you want to
use your gifts and your talents? If
you tell someone you want to solve
climate change, for example, they
might suggest becoming a scientist
or policymaker. However, that may
not be where your talents are. Maybe
you are a remarkable photographer
and the way you solve climate
change is by documenting its impact
on human life.
3. What do you need to know to
solve that problem?
What are the knowledge, skills
and abilities you need to take on a
problem like climate change? What
do you need to learn? You could
study biology, photography and
18

WINTER 2020

sustainability. When you do this,
you can see the type of classes you
should be taking. And even if you
already have a degree, you can see
the classes you need to keep taking
because we live in a time where
lifelong learning is essential!
These three questions line up
nicely with what my Twitter friend
Daniel Pink wrote in his book “Drive”
regarding what motivates all human
beings. It’s the same three things —
Purpose, Autonomy and Mastery.
What problem do you want to solve
(purpose)? How do you want to
solve it (autonomy)? What do you
need to learn to solve that problem
(mastery)?
One of the many reasons why
I love Arizona State University is
its focus on solving the world’s
problems. Its size, scale, programs,
areas of research, areas of study
and partnerships tackle almost any
problem you define. If you bring an
issue to ASU, you can connect with
a person who can help.
So don’t worry about what you
want to be when you grow up.
Spend time thinking about the
problem you want to solve and
then utilize everything you’ve got to
take on that problem and change
the world! n

The psychology
of workplace
satisfaction
When something boosts
your mood, your brain
releases neurotransmitters
like serotonin, dopamine and
oxytocin. Studies have shown
the simple act of smiling
can release some of those
chemicals — and the feeling is
contagious.
Smile to a room full of
coworkers, for example, and
others will likely do the same.
That’s an easy way to help
create a happier workplace.
ASU alum Melanie
Katzman ’82 and ’85, shares
research-based, actionable
things you can do to improve
your success and joy at work
in her new book, “Connect
First: 52 Simple Ways to Ignite
Success, Meaning, and Joy at
Work.” She maintains a clinical
psychology practice and
consults on workplace diversity
and leadership with some of
the largest organizations in
the world.

OMAR MOTA

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ASU Universal Learning™
made possible by you
When retirees Laura and Herb Roskind
audited classes in ASU’s Institute for Human
Origins, they had no idea the experience
would inspire their passion and philanthropy.
But through a charitable gift annuity,
Laura and Herb have created — and
benefited from — academic opportunities for
students and faculty.
We don’t always see our generous
donors, but you’re always in the picture.

Together, our potential is limitless
asufoundation.org

Opening
Fall 2020

ADVANCE

How to succeed by
cultivating adaptability
for the future of work

d
a
A pt
Story by S E T H U R A M A N
PA N C H A N AT H A N

A

Sethuraman
Panchanathan is ASU’s
chief research and
innovation officer. “Panch”
leads the Knowledge
Enterprise which advances
research, innovation,
strategic partnerships,
entrepreneurship and
international development
at ASU. His research is in
human-centered multimedia
computing, haptic user
interfaces, person-centered
tools and ubiquitous
computing technologies.

20

WINTER 2020

ll jobs require
critical thinking
skills that allow
us to assess
situations, projects and
directives, make informed
judgments, and pivot as
necessary when changing
circumstances and
priorities dictate. In today’s
workplace climate, the term
adaptability takes on new
meaning. Jobs and career
paths are in a state of flux.
This presents opportunities
for dynamic growth and
advancement, particularly
if you can demonstrate to a
current or potential employer
your understanding of this
changing paradigm.
As an advisor to the

White House American
AI and Industries of the
Future initiatives, I am
innately aware of the
nation’s perception of the
advancement of automation
and its potential impact on
the ways we live, learn and
work. With the recent, rapid
advances in technology
and artificial intelligence
(AI), we’re all looking for
ways to position ourselves
to be successful in the
future of work. I encourage
an attitude of optimism, as
we collectively embrace a
world in which machines

and humans work together
to accomplish things
neither could do alone. It’s
imperative that as lifelong
learners, we continually
strive to adapt to evolving
workplace dynamics in the
following ways:
Develop and employ an
entrepreneurial mindset.

This doesn’t always mean
you have to launch your
own business, but rather,
it’s a matter of finding ways
to innovate, to grow, take
calculated risks, and expand
and excel in your profession.
CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

abi ty
i
l
Be aware of factors that
stand to change the

fundamentals of the way you
work. Is automation playing

an increasing role in how
your company operates? Are
new hires expected to have
particular skill sets that you
don’t have? Pay attention to
what’s coming through the
pipeline and be proactive
in adapting as necessary to
ensure you remain relevant.
Be enthusiastically prepared
to evolve with your company.

This could mean requesting
mentoring to come quickly

up to speed on institutional
knowledge, cross-training
to learn the needs and
operations of other
departments, or upskilling
and reskilling as necessary
to advance and thrive in
your company.

Expect and embrace change
and prepare accordingly.

Develop not only your
professional abilities, but
other skills, like critical
thinking, empathy and
creativity. Being well-versed
and well-rounded in your
mindsets will ensure you are

an asset to your employer
(or employers) throughout
the course of your career.
As the future of work
continues to evolve,
corporations will be drawn
to lifelong master learners
who possess an innovative,
creative mindset. As
such, being adaptable in
today’s workplace includes
recognizing and accepting
that change is continuous.
Choose to go with changing
the tide rather than fight
against it. n

“Jobs and career
paths are in a
state of flux. This
presents
opportunities for
dynamic growth
and advancement,
particularly if you
can demonstrate ...
your understanding
of this changing
paradigm.”
— SETHURAMAN
PA N C H A N AT H A N

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

21

FIVE YEARS OF INNOVATION

ASU celebrates five consecutive
years as the No. 1 school for
innovation, according to U.S.
News & World Report’s annual
comparison of more than 1,500
U.S. institutions. So what makes
ASU No. 1? “Innovation means
saying yes,” says ASU President
Michael M. Crow, “and that’s
always what we strive to do.”

The Crater Carpet,
an interdisciplinary
meeting place
at the School of
Earth and Space
Exploration.

ASU sponsors the
First Lego League,
an innovative
global robotics
program designed
for children 9-14.

22

WINTER 2020

The School of
Arts, Media and
Engineering
specializes
in emerging
computational
media
technologies.

JAROD OPPERMAN/ASU; TIM TRUMBLE FOR ASU

Review

of innovation

Yuval Mazor’s lab
at the Biodesign
Institute studies
structural
biology related to
photosynthesis.

Innovation
and year
in review

Milestones
and highlights
from five years
of innovation
and 2019.

24
ASU’s McCord Hall
is home to highcaliber master’s
degree programs
within the W. P.
Carey School of
Business in Tempe.

DEANNA DENT/ASU

Building
innovation
culture

Inside five
years of No. 1
in innovation.

30

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

23

REVIEW

2016

2 0 1 5 -2 0 1 8

Innovation

THE NEW YORK TIMES • Sept. 2

review
Milestones

Highlights of ASU innovation
stories that made headlines
2015
SCIENCE MAGAZINE • March 4

Fossil pushes back human
origins 400,000 years
ASU graduate student
Chalachew Seyoum changed
evolutionary science when he
discovered the 2.8-millionyear-old jawbone at the LediGeraru site in Ethiopia. The
fossil predated other Homo
fossils by 400,000 years. In
2019, ASU investigations at
the Ledi-Geraru and nearby
sites are producing insights
into the patterns of behavior
in our earliest ancestors
— including the earliest
evidence of making and using
stone knives.

POPULAR SCIENCE • Sept. 23

Brilliant 10: Arianne
Cease prevents
biblical plagues with
modern data
Professor Arianne Cease was recognized for
her investigation into what transforms
harmless individual locusts into ravenous
swarms that threaten the livelihoods of one in
10 people on Earth. She won a half-milliondollar grant from the Office of U.S. Foreign
Disaster Assistance to launch a pilot study
using soil amendments to keep locust
numbers low across a broad area in Senegal.
FORBES • Oct. 24

Did Starbucks just create the most epic
$250 million recruiting tool ever?
The first-of-its-kind ASU Starbucks College
Achievement Plan was expanded to offer 100%
tuition coverage for every eligible U.S. Starbucks
employee. The program has expanded employees
in the UK, and ASU has launched many new
partnerships including a partnership with Uber.
24

WINTER 2020

FDA bans sale of
many antibacterial
soaps, saying risks
outweigh benefits
The Food and Drug
Administration prohibited
the sale of personal-care
products containing
prominent antimicrobials,
including triclosan and
triclocarban, prized for their
antimicrobial properties. ASU
researcher Rolf Halden found
that the ingredients pose
significant risks to human
health and the environment.
Halden recently joined a team
that will use an open-access
viral databank to provide
a multidimensional view of
viruses and their infectious
trends. The project is funded
by a $1.53 million grant
from the National Library
of Medicine.

—
THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL • Sept. 6

The art of setting the
stage for persuasion;
pre-suasion is a way to
put people in a receptive
mood before asking them
for something
Robert Cialdini’s book
goes on to become a New
York Times and Wall Street
Journal bestseller. In 2019,
he was elected a member
of the National Academy
of Sciences, one of the
country’s most distinguished
KAYE REED; CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

scientific
organizations.
Frequently
regarded
as the
“Godfather of
Influence,” he
is known and
respected worldwide for his
body of work.

2018

NATURE MAGAZINE • Oct. 3

2017
FORBES • Nov. 15

Meet Zero Mass Water,
whose solar panels
pull drinking water
from the air
“It’s often said you can’t
make something out of
nothing. Cody Friesen
may have come as close
to succeeding as anyone,”
wrote the author of the
Forbes article. Friesen, an
ASU engineering professor
and founder of Zero Mass
Water, continues to address
the global water crisis and
in 2019 he was awarded
the prestigious $500,000
Lemelson-MIT prize.

FORBES • May 26

NASA will reach unique
metal asteroid worth
$10,000 quadrillion
four years early
The Psyche Mission was the first ASU-led
deep space NASA mission. Today, the first
pieces of the actual spacecraft that will travel
on the long voyage are being built.

THE NEW YORKER • Nov. 13

Can carbon dioxide
removal save
the world?
The New Yorker
chronicled ASU
researcher Klaus
Lackner’s journey
as he dedicated his
career to developing
technology that is 1,000
times more effective than
CO2

SOURCE Hydropanels
pull water from the air.

Air

trees. Today, Lackner
is leading the largest
carbon dioxide
removal project
to date. A
forest of 1,200
mechanical
“trees” is poised
to pull more carbon
dioxide out of the air
than any human-made
endeavor before it.
Bicarbonate
ions

Hydroxide
ions

ZERO MASS WATER; PETER RUBIN/ASU; CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU; NICOLE R. FULLER/NSF

Clean
air

Simulated labs
are booming
With the help of Google
and Labster partners, ASU
launched first-in-the-U.S.
virtual-reality biology lab
courses. Students are
now enrolled in courses
such as cell and molecular
biology, animal physiology
and ecology.

—

PHYSICS WORLD • Dec. 6

Breakthrough of the
year: Ancient hydrogen
reveals clues to dark
matter’s identity
ASU cosmologist Judd
Bowman and his team were
recognized for detecting
evidence of the earliest
stars in the universe, born
a mere 180 million years
after the Big Bang. Bowman
continues to inspire students
to explore the stars, and
he most recently mentored
the student-run Phoenix
CubeSat mission.
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

25

REVIEW

Year in
review

2 0

In the news

Highlights of ASU innovation
stories that made headlines

FAST COMPANY • May 22

RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD •
Jan. 1

ASU researchers break
solar-cell efficiency record
at 25.4%
ASU researchers have set a
new world record for solar
efficiency, breaking their
own previous record set
in 2017. The cost of solar
electricity is largely driven by
the efficiency of the panels
and the improvements could
drive down the long-term
cost of solar energy.

This nanoscience
researcher is building
DNA origami to fight
cancerous tumors
In a major advancement in nanomedicine,
ASU scientists, in collaboration with
researchers from the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, successfully programmed
nanorobots to shrink tumors by cutting off
their blood supply. For his work, ASU’s
Hao Yan was named one of Fast
Company’s Most Creative People in
Business of 2019.

—
MEDCITY NEWS • April 29

Mayo Clinic and Arizona
State University reveal
6 startups in new
MedTech Accelerator
Early-stage medical device
and health care technology
companies join the accelerator
as they tackle issues like hand
injuries, remote patient
26

WINTER 2020

monitoring and sexual
health. The companies
get support and
expertise as they develop
or optimize new
products, license
intellectual property and
sponsor research and
clinical studies.

The TENZR wearable sensor
measures movement to
rehabilitate injured wrists and
elbows. Its creators participated
in the MedTech Accelerator.

Research
suggests our
gut microbiomes
affect our brain
communication
and neurological
health.

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC •
June. 14

How the gut
microbiome
could provide
a new tool
to treat
autism
ASU researchers Rosa
Krajmalnik-Brown and
James Adams
demonstrated longterm beneficial effects for
children through a
revolutionary technique
known as Microbiota
Transfer Therapy.

JAROD OPPERMAN/ASU; DEANNA DENT/ASU; CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

1 9
The Phoenix
CubeSat will orbit
Earth for two years
collecting infrared
images.

to make big energy and
environmental conservation
impact. The product could
help maintain comfortable
temperatures in the interiors
of houses and other
structures. Founders Aashay
Arora, ’18, and Matthew
Aguayo,’18, received
their doctoral degrees in
civil, environmental and
sustainable engineering.
Their early pitches at
ASU’s Change the World
Competition and ASU
Venture Devils Demo Day
provide early support
and funding.

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC • Nov. 8

THE WASHINGTON POST •
Oct. 17

“Though small
and elite colleges
have their roles,
higher education
is too important
for individual and
social progress to
be held hostage
to exclusivity
thinking.”
— M
 I CH A EL M . CR OW,
P R E S I D E N T, A S U

JAIME SANCHEZ DE LA VEGA

It’s time to end the
obsession with
college exclusivity
Amid the “Varsity Blues”
scandal involving parents
paying sometimes hundreds
of thousands of dollars to
fraudulently get their children
into exclusive universities,
The Washington Post invited
President Crow to weigh in.

Satellite built by students
soars to space on
mission to map heat in
Phoenix, other cities
A spacecraft the size of a
jumbo loaf of bread, launched
from Wallops, Virginia, is
bound for the International
Space Station. The Phoenix
CubeSat is the creation of
more than 100 science and
engineering students, faculty
and researchers at ASU. The
spacecraft is designed for
a two-year mission to study
urban heat island effect.

—
FORBES • Dec 3

Obsessed with efficiency:
the 2020 Forbes 30 Under
30 in energy
Startup venture EnKoat (a
shorthand for energy saving
coatings) emerges from ASU
engineering research, poised

—
KJZZ • Dec. 11

$8.7 million grant aims
to get more Arizona kids
enrolled In college
ASU and the Be A Leader
Foundation have been
awarded a grant to form
a Network for School
Improvement. The program
expands their existing school
partnerships to build the
K–12 pipeline and increase
access to higher education
for Arizona students. The
$8.7 million grant will be
funded by the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation.
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

27

REVIEW

Year in
review

By the numbers

Economic impact

Research

TOP

10

in the world
for patents
ASU with Stanford,
MIT and Harvard
— U
 . S . N AT I O N A L A C A D E M Y
O F I N V E N TO R S A N D T H E
INTELLECTUAL PROPERT Y
O W N E R S A S S O C I AT I O N

$886.5M

ASU’s research-based economic
impact on Arizona economy

$317M

2-year economic impact on
Arizona from ASU startups
and affiliated businesses

$264.5M

annual economic impact
generated by international
students at ASU
SOURCE: Seidman Research Institute

28

WINTER 2020

Top 1% of world’s most prestigious
universities
— T I M E S H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N ,
WORLD UNIVERSIT Y R ANKINGS , 2020

ahead of Princeton
and Caltech
– N AT I O N A L S C I E N C E
F O U N DAT I O N , 2 018

Academics

Athletics

#1 most innovative in the U.S. five
consecutive years, ahead of Stanford and MIT
— U . S . N E W S & W O R L D R E P O R T, F I V E Y E A R S , 2 016 -2 0 2 0

#9 in first-year
experience

Top producer
of Fulbright Scholars

— U . S . N E W S & W O R L D

With 21 students in the U.S.
government’s flagship international
educational exchange program, ASU
ranked third among public universities
in Fulbright awards in 2018-19 and
11th among all research institutions,
ahead of Harvard, Columbia and
Stanford. ASU’s selection rate of
39.6% was the highest among
top-producing schools.

R E P O R T, 2 0 2 0

#10 in U.S. for best
undergraduate
teaching
— U . S . N E W S & W O R L D
R E P O R T, 2 0 2 0

Degrees awarded
30,000

ASU
27,485

25,000

Best in field
• Triathlon team national champions
• Triathlon individual national champion:
Hannah Henry
• Wrestling: Zahid Valencia, NCAA
champion at 174 lbs.
• Women’s Track and Field: Samantha
Noenning, NCAA champion in shot put
(indoors and outdoors)
• Cliff English, College Triathlon
Coaches Association Coach
of the Year
• Matt Thurmond, Pac-12 Men’s Golf
Coach of the Year
• Armen Kirakossian, GCAA/
TaylorMade Jan Strickland Outstanding
Assistant Coach Award
• One of the top 50 greatest college
football programs over 150 years of
college football, according to ESPN
3.24 highest
cumulative GPA
of all time
77% with a GPA
above 3.0

20,000

15,000
U of A
10,835
NAU
7,557

10,000

5,000
2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

ASU annually graduates thousands of innovators who excel in engineering,
business, education, the arts and other fields. In 2018-19, ASU awarded
degrees to 19,340 undergraduate and 8,145 graduate students.
— A S U O F F I C E O F I N S T I T U T I O N A L A N A LY S I S , U A R I Z O N A U N I V E R S I T Y A N A LY T I C S A N D
I N S T I T U T I O N A L R E S E A R C H , N A U I N S T I T U T I O N A L R E S E A R C H A N D A N A LY S I S

#1 in the world for
global management

#2 supply chain and
logistics program

Thunderbird global
management degree

for second consecutive year,
ahead of Penn State,
Ohio State and Michigan

— T
 IMES HIGHER
E D U C AT I O N A N D
WA L L S T R E E T J O U R N A L

— U
 .S . NEWS & WORLD
R E P O R T, 2 0 2 0

Philanthropy

101.5K+ donors
Campaign ASU 2020
set a fundraising record
for the fifth consecutive
year. More than 101,500
individuals, corporations
and foundations donated
$413.7 million in fiscal year 2019,
a 65% increase from fiscal year 2018.

7,400+
ASU students received
scholarships funded by
private support in 2019.
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

29

REVIEW

2 0 1 6 –
2 0 2 0

Building
the culture
of innovation
A look inside the processes and
community behind five years of the
nation’s top innovation ranking
Story by K E R I D W E N C O R N E L I U S
Photos by J A R O D O P P E R M A N

30

WINTER 2020

On Nov. 1,
the Arizona State University

community held
Innovation Day.

But 1,000 of the participants
didn’t just revel in the university’s
successes. They’re tackling some
of its problems.
Student-athletes and
international students are
brainstorming ways to engage
international students in sports
events so they feel like they
belong in America. A faculty led
team is creating opportunities
to foster employees’ well-being
and career success. Staff are
cultivating experiences that support
students’ emotional and social
needs. Community-led teams are
addressing safety on campuses
and initiating ways to boost degree
completion in northern Arizona.
The initiative, called ASU Spark,
uses a democratic method for
igniting ideas that was conceived,
prototyped and tested at ASU.
Proposals were submitted by
everyone from long-time faculty to
one person who had been at ASU
for three months. In some teams,
a dean and an intern might work
together, and facilitators are trained
to ensure everyone’s ideas are
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

31

Zainab Al
Nasr and
Pengjian Wang
collaborate on
Innovation Day to
determine how
athletics might
encourage more
inclusivity with
international
students using
the ASU Spark
Method.

32

WINTER 2020

given equal consideration.
“To me, that is the story of
innovation at ASU,” says Minu Ipe,
the knowledge enterprise architect
and senior fellow for leadership and
institutional design at ASU. “It’s the
sense that it doesn’t matter who
you are, that this institution allows
you to solve problems, to imagine
what the future could be, to live in
that space of ‘What could we be?’
And then you get an opportunity to
mobilize people around you, figure
out how to solve the problem, and
have an impact.”
ASU’s innovation story often
gets told through marquee
examples — undergrads designing
a spacecraft funded by NASA,
daring collaborations between
dancers and scientists, students
fashioning wearable technology
with a Nobel Prize winner.
But all of that emerges from
something subtler: an innovation
mindset encouraged in every

student, teacher, employee and
community member.
“People feel empowered,”
says Maria Anguiano, senior vice
president and university planner
in the Office of the President.
“There’s a mindset that things
can be done and therefore we
should do them.” When you set
goals and create a can-do culture,
she adds, “that literally trains
everyone’s minds into a problemsolving mode.”
Lifelong access to learning
Anguiano, a first-generation college
graduate, is particularly passionate
about ASU’s efforts to solve one of
society’s biggest problems: a lack
of access to higher education. ASU
is bucking exclusivity by setting a
goal to achieve excellence through
inclusivity. But that mission opens
the door to an array of challenges,
because it requires meeting the
needs of a wide variety of people at

every stage of their lives.
ASU faculty combine forces
with public and private sector
partners to develop online
courses infused with virtual
reality, artificial intelligence and
game-based learning. Learners
can build the confidence and
know-how they need to start
a business, gain the skills to
generate sustainability reports,
prepare for a project management
certificate, and integrate sciencebased mindfulness practices into
their lives.
“Innovation is impact,” says
Nikhil Dave, an undergraduate
student and researcher in
Knowledge Enterprise’s
interdisciplinary Luminosity Lab.
“It’s a matter of making meaningful
impact, whether that’s within a
small community in one person’s
life, or in a whole society. That’s
something cool about ASU.”
Programs “are not innovation

for innovation’s sake,” Anguiano
emphasizes. “It’s innovation
because there’s a problem to
be solved, which is that there
is not enough access to higher
education.”
One access-expanding
initiative grew out of a problem
at Starbucks: 74% of its
U.S. employees considered
themselves students or
aspiring students, but only
32% were enrolled in school.
So ASU unveiled the Starbucks
College Achievement Plan, an
unprecedented partnership that
allows Starbucks employees to
earn a bachelor’s degree through
ASU Online.
At annual forums, Starbucks
program graduates tell stories
that are “unbelievably moving,”
says Phil Regier, university
dean for educational initiatives
and CEO of EdPlus, ASU’s
international system of digital

learning opportunities. “They are
stories about people overcoming
dramatic odds, about people who
never thought they’d be able to
achieve a university degree.”
On the other end of the
spectrum, many adults want to
enhance their work and life skills
and earn certificates without
officially entering a university. For
these professionals, ASU recently
debuted Universal Learning. The
program is designed to help them
keep up with a rapidly changing
world at their own pace and on
their own terms from anywhere
and any time they can join in.
“Here you can dream it,
think it and act on it almost right
away,” says ASU President
Michael M. Crow.
Fertile environment
This fall, ASU welcomed its
largest, most diverse, and most
academically prepared first year

Collaborators from across ASU came together in small groups
to actively work through challenges in a new format called ASU
Spark. The method is intentionally low-tech and in-person to foster
communication and solutions-oriented outcomes.

“To me, that is the story of
innovation at ASU. It’s the
sense that it doesn’t matter
who you are, that this institution
allows you to solve problems,
to imagine what the future
could be, to live in that space
of ‘What could we be?’”
— MINU IPE, ASU’S KNOWLEDGE ENTERPRISE
ARCHITECT AND SENIOR FELLOW FOR
LE ADERSHIP AND INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN

class ever — an accomplishment
that is also driven by a mission, Ipe
says. That includes support of firstgeneration students. ASU received
a First Forward designation from
the Center for First-generation
Student Success in 2019.
Almost 40% of ASU students
are the first in their families to
attend college, a rate that has
tripled since 2002. Across ASU,
several long-standing initiatives
positively impact first-generation
student outcomes. Among
them are Access ASU, the
First-Year Success Center’s
coaching initiative and TRIO, a
set of federally funded college
opportunity programs.
“When you bring in large
volumes of students, and when
we have a system that says we
want to include people, what we
are saying is we are including
their ways of thinking, their ideas
and their creative energies,” Ipe
says. “Then when institutionally
we try to remove some of the
barriers that get in the way of these
collisions, you’re really creating
an environment that’s absolutely
fertile for new ideas to take root
and grow.”
This fall, 35 first-year students
took a class called Innovation 101:
Discover the Innovator in You. One
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

33

Sticky notes and low-tech brainstorming
tactics are part of the ASU Spark
process. Because the method is
accessible to participants of many
backgrounds, big ideas emerge and can
be moved into new structures quickly.

“Here you can
dream it, think
it and act on it
almost right away.”
— M I CH A EL M . CR OW,
ASU PRESIDENT

of their tasks was to figure out
how to nurture a stronger sense of
belonging through ASU’s mobile
app. The university’s technology
department had been wrestling
with this challenge, and who
better to take it on than newbies
struggling to fit in?
Another effort designed by
ASU undergrads launched in
November. The Phoenix CubeSat,
a bread loaf-sized spacecraft,
will orbit Earth to collect thermal
infrared images to determine how
different city designs impact the
34

WINTER 2020

urban heat island effect. In this
NASA-supported mission, students
studying engineering, urban
planning, design, space exploration
and journalism are banding
together to help make cities more
sustainable.
Meanwhile, the interdisciplinary
Luminosity Lab empowers
students. “I love it,” says senior
Catharine Lewis, “because it
has the smartest and the most
interesting people who are willing
to work with me and teach me
things that we can collaborate
about, whether they’re from
engineering or business or design
or whatever background source.”
Interdisciplinary collaborations
like these are as common on
campus as ASU sweatshirts. A
new initiative at the Institute of
Sustainability is harnessing the
humanities to cultivate imaginative
solutions to environmental

crises. The Biodesign Institute
partners with dancers to
choreograph performances
that open the public’s eyes to
the creative and human sides
of science. SciHub, co-led by
Nobel Prize-winning physicist
Frank Wilczek, brings together
students and professionals in
science, tech, engineering, design
and art to invent commercial
products. They’re currently
developing technology to correct
colorblindness and allow people
to see new colors, infrared and
ultraviolet.
Innovation is a must at ASU,
says Ipe. “We are in the process
of designing a very different kind
of institution — one that ultimately
leads to social transformation and
economic impact.
“We need new ways of
thinking, because we are in
uncharted terrain.” n

Location.
Location.
Innovation.

Welcome to Innovation Zones at ASU, a portfolio of co-location
offerings at Arizona State University — named the country’s most
innovative university by U.S. News & World Report. Companies
benefit from direct connections with ASU students, world-renowned
research, and nationally leading programs in engineering, bioscience,
business, cybersecurity, health care and more. You’ll be surrounded
by Fortune 500 companies as well as dozens of innovative startups.
ASU offers you both location and innovation.
View locations at innovationzones.asu.edu.

Students in ASU’s
Biomimicry Center
examine sea sponges
as part of their
bioengineering studies.

WHAT WOULD NATURE DO?

That’s the question for ASU’s
Biomimicry Center and School
of Sustainability. The engineering
of modern innovations such as
high-speed bullet trains and
sharkskin swimsuits illustrates
how biomimicry applications
can be hidden in plain sight.
“Bringing biomimicry to the built
environment allows us to create
cities, buildings, products and
human systems that function like
the natural world — sustainable
and aesthetically beautiful,”
says Sara El-Sayed, a research
associate at the center.

36

WINTER 2020

Engineer

a solution

Changing
the mind of
a robot
How AI
will impact
future work in
Arizona.

38

Connecting
research to
business
Engineering
schools build
partnerships.

43

DEANNA DENT/ASU

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

37

ENGINEER

“ We are rethinking
how a robot’s
‘mind’ should
work in order
to make it more
amenable to
providing on-thejob training and
collaborating with
humans.”
— S I D D H A R T H S R I VA S TAVA ,
A S S I S TA N T P R O F E S S O R ,
SCHOOL OF COMPUTING,
I N F O R M AT I C S , A N D
DECISION SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING

38

WINTER 2020

Changing
the mind
of a robot
Story by K A R I S H M A A L B A L

Research and big thinking on
how AI will impact the future of
work in Arizona and beyond
What happens when technology advancements
threaten to automate people’s jobs?
The question is on the minds of many as research
and development in artificial intelligence and machine
learning rapidly grows.
A new project led by Siddharth Srivastava, an
assistant professor in the School of Computing,
Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering
at Arizona State University, aims to help alleviate
this concern.
Srivastava and his multidisciplinary team are creating
autonomous systems that are not only more adaptable
and efficient in manufacturing environments, but
also have built-in intelligent tutoring systems that will
cooperate with factory workers and retrain them to use
AI technology so they are not displaced from their jobs.
Funded by a $1 million grant from the National
Science Foundation as one of its Convergence
Accelerator awards, the project is highly focused
on using AI to augment the workplace rather than
replace workers.
“Suppose you have this new robot, it’s very efficient,

ERIKA GRONEK/ASU

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

39

When Raytheon had a problem with a $350,000
robotic arm, the industrial corporation joined
ASU’s eProjects program, bringing students and
industry together to solve real-world problems.
The arm was shipped from Tucson to the
innovation lab on ASU’s Polytechnic campus in
Mesa where ASU students repaired and tested it.
Then they returned the robot ready to work.

but you need to hire five computer
science graduates to operate and
maintain it instead of five current
factory workers,” Srivastava says.
“That’s not feasible, first of all
because we don’t have that many
computer science graduates in
society. Our idea is that instead of
getting people to enroll in a new
college program again, what we can
do instead is design our AI systems,
our robots, in a way that will help
people to come on board.”
Srivastava is collaborating with
ASU faculty members in the Ira
A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
and the School for the Future of
Innovation in Society to bring the
project to life.
“We have 10 team members,
including experts in robot control,
tutoring systems and human systems
engineering — a field that involves
thinking about how the robot and the
human would interact and how you
would build a situation where the
human trusts the robot,” Srivastava
says. “We also have experts in law
to help solve the sociotechnical
aspects of the problem.”
How artificial intelligence
can preserve jobs
Traditionally, AI has mostly been
developed with a mind to automate
human-performed tasks — that is, to
perform tasks in place of a human.
For example, machines play chess
better than humans do and are also
faster at distinguishing patterns
and performing calculations. One
40

WINTER 2020

“ Training is
where we need
to invest more
money in order to
have a successful
integration of
workers and
autonomous
systems so we can
minimize safety
risks.”
— K AT I N A M I C H A E L ,
PROFESSOR, SCHOOL FOR
THE FUTURE OF
I N N O VAT I O N I N S O C I E T Y
AND THE SCHOOL OF
C O M P U T I N G , I N F O R M AT I C S ,
AND DECISION SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING

example of AI working to augment
human-performed tasks rather
than replace them can be found in
intelligent tutoring systems.
The ASU team is focusing
on this interaction, particularly in
implementing the intelligent training
systems for factory workers. This
eliminates the concern about driving
up the demand for highly educated
workers to unsustainable levels and
also empowers human workers to
incorporate AI into their work.
“We are now considering
scenarios in which the AI system
teaches humans on the job,”
Subbarao Kambhampati, a professor
of computer science, says. “If you
are using one machine, and there is
a big technological advancement,
then the question is what is the

ASU engineering
by the numbers

Nation’s largest
producer of
future engineers
– B U S I N E S S I N S I D E R A N D
H I R I N G S O LV E D S U R V E Y

Students in engineering and technology

21,206 22,458 23,903
FA L L 2 017

FA L L 2 018

#4 master’s
degrees
awarded by
school

– American Society for
Engineering
Education,
Engineering by the
numbers, 2018

best way to get people to come
up to speed in using these new
machines?”
This retraining process is
essential to helping factory workers
in the evolving manufacturing
industry keep their jobs. It’s a
necessary transition into a future
when machines can augment
human activities without replacing
the people who have traditionally
performed them.
In that scenario, workers would
be able to assign robots a wider
variety of tasks while the robots
teach workers how to use the robots
and why robots are making the
decisions they do.
“[Robots] are more adaptable
in that their behavior adapts to the
changes in their environment, they
CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

adapt to the tasks that you give
them and at the same time they can
answer your questions,” Srivastava
says. “A worker who doesn’t know
the internals of the robot can ask
it, ‘Why did you go along this path
when I think you should have just
gone straight?’ And the robot can
answer, ‘If I go this way then my hand
might collide with that table.’ So,
in that process, the worker learns
about the robot’s constraints and
how to operate it.”
Moving toward a
more robotic future
Could machines ever replace
humans? Is it cheaper to have an
all-robotic workforce?
The answer is complicated,
says Katina Michael, a professor

FA L L 2 019

#8 online
graduate
engineering
programs for
veterans
–U.S. News and
World Report,
2020

The Phoenix
metro area is
the #1 preferred
location of ASU
engineering
alumni

$63,500
Average salary
for first job offer
for a Fulton Schools graduate with
a bachelor’s degree in engineering
SOURCE: Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

41

jointly appointed in the School for
the Future of Innovation in Society
and the School of Computing,
Informatics, and Decision Systems
Engineering, one of the six
Fulton Schools.
“At face value, initially it seems
that robots would do better than
the operational expenditure of the
human labor force,” she says, “but
when you look at this quite clinically,

“Ultimately, it’s getting
that multidisciplinary
conversation going
between people who
actually build the
machines and people
who think very critically
about job design and
human workers.”
— ER I N CH I O U, P I CT U R ED B ELOW,
A S S I S TA N T P R O F E S S O R O F
HUMAN SYSTEMS ENGINEERING ,
P O LY T E C H N I C S C H O O L

42

WINTER 2020

you’re almost shifting costs from
the human labor force to the robotic
labor force. It’s quite debatable as to
whether costs will be reduced.”
While robots can operate
24/7, people need breaks, time
off, insurance coverage and
compensation. However, robots
must be updated and maintained,
and they also need power to operate
— human workers are still extremely
necessary in the workplace.
Although the research project
is focused on AI development, it is
ultimately centered around training
human workers and ensuring
job security. The team wants to
enhance communication between
both humans and robots to obtain
the best of both worlds in the
manufacturing industry.
“Many corporations are trying
to save money somewhere, but
training is where we need to invest
more money in order to have a
successful integration of workers
and autonomous systems so we

can minimize safety risks. If we
don’t have adequate training, we
don’t have adequate responses
to reducing the incidence of
on-the-job disasters,” Michael says.
An interdisciplinary
interaction
“We’re interested primarily in how
humans and robots work together,”
Michael says. “With the humans
doing their bit and the robots
doing their bit, we want to see
if there is any incongruousness
or congruousness that can be
observed.”
Erin Chiou, an assistant
professor of human systems
engineering at The Polytechnic
School, one of the six Fulton
Schools, is studying the interactions
of humans and machines for data
to guide the design of systems
that prioritize the collaboration of
humans and robots.
“Ultimately, it’s getting that
multidisciplinary conversation going
between people who actually build
the machines and people who think
very critically about job design and
human workers,” Chiou says.
The ASU team also has
experts looking at the legal, social
and economic implications of
implementing such technology in
the workplace, all of which will be
considered when designing the
new systems.
“It’s not about changing
the hardware, it’s about how to
change the software,” Srivastava
says. “We’re thinking about how
it should act and what it should
do. We are rethinking how a
robot’s ‘mind’ should work in
order to make it more amenable to
providing on-the-job training and
collaborating with humans.” n
JESSICA HOCHREITER/ASU

ENGINEER

Connecting research to business
Engineering schools
at ASU further
industry partnerships
to support Arizona’s
growth

In the past three years, engineering faculty members at ASU
have brought research to market in powerful ways, including:

192

patents
awarded
for devices,
processes and
materials

24

startups

“Some companies want to know
how new discoveries will apply
to their businesses or may be
looking for the next big idea
they could take to market.”
— JOSEPH HUANG , E XECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
T H E B U S I N E S S E N G A G E M E N T C ATA LY S T

innovating in
the areas of
sustainability,
personal health
diagnostics
and more

Wearable tech is a major growth area with
multiple startups at ASU, including Hoolest
Performance Technologies, made up of three
ASU engineering students. They won the
$100,000 grand prize at the ASU Innovation
Open and are now creating their earbud devices
which block stress by stimulating the vagus nerve.

ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering is the largest
and most comprehensive engineering program in the U.S.
Prestigious engineering faculty in national academies

38
8
4
5
97

IEEE Fellows
National Academy of Engineering members
National Academy of Construction members
National Academy of Inventors members
N
 SF CAREER awardees since 1995

“We want to help companies think about
how they can drive workforce
development for their companies ...
and plug in throughout the university
in the best possible way.”
— D AV I D WA H L S , S E N I O R D I R E C T O R O F D E V E L O P M E N T F O R

355+
faculty
members

conduct research
and entrepreneurial
ventures to bring
research to market.
Their research includes
solar cells, computer
science, transportation,
robotics, construction,
aerospace
and more.

In the past year, engineering
Dean Kyle Squires has built
new working groups that
make partnerships easier for
companies and investors to
work with the schools.
The new Industry
Engagement Catalyst
includes 30 top senior
executives from major
national corporations
who are helping the
schools shape and direct
future growth.
The Catalyst includes
cross-sector leaders such as
executives at Intel, American
Express, Starbucks, the
Greater Phoenix Economic
Council, Arizona Commerce
Authority, Fulton Homes,
Sunbelt Holdings,
Honeywell, Motorola
and more.
Another recent launch,
the Business Engagement
Catalyst, helps companies
navigate the complex
university environment to
identify and activate new
connections with faculty and
research.
The team has experience
in the academic world
as well as in business,
understanding the needs
and culture of both sides,
and helping them facilitate
successful partnerships.
Learn more at
engineering.asu.edu/engage.

T H E F U LT O N S C H O O L S O F E N G I N E E R I N G

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

43

VIEW FROM SPACE

We are the crew of Spaceship Earth
During my 180 days in space, first
on two space shuttle missions
and then on an expedition to the
International Space Station, I felt
like a colonist. It took living up
there to realize that space is a
place that belongs to all of us.
That’s one of the things that
excites me about being here at
ASU — we all belong here too.
As space crews, we have the
luxury of knowing that the mission
of exploration is imperative.
Exploring really is the way to make
change, and I tell people that
ASU is changing the very fabric of

44

WINTER 2020

education. I joined ASU as Global
Explorer in Residence because I
wanted to be a part of that.
Exploration takes work and it
takes a team. In order to gather
yours, you may need to look at
the people around you differently.
You need to teach yourself to
constantly strive to see more;
each time, look differently. When
we do that, we achieve a crew that
is our very own.
Looking at Earth from space
I saw that we are the crew of
Spaceship Earth — all of us.
— CADY COLEMAN

Explore
the world

A bright
idea

Jesse Senko
rescues sea
turtles — and
fishing’s
future.

46

Envisioning
the future
of space
U.S. astronaut Cady Coleman stands near her Russian Soyuz rocket
at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Coleman, Russian
cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli
rode the ship to the International Space Station in 2010.

DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Interplanetary
Initiative
shapes our
place in
space.

54

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

45

EXPLORE
FIND

i

de
a

A BRIGHT

ASU researcher
Jesse Senko, right,
deploys a solar-powered
illuminated net in the
Sea of Cortez, which
renowned explorer
Jacques Cousteau
described as the
“aquarium of the world.”

46

WINTER 2020

Jesse Senko’s solar-powered
lights are rescuing more than sea
turtles from fishing nets — they’re
helping to transform the future of
sustainable fishing
Story by S C OT T S E C K E L
Photos by L I N D S AY L AU C K N E R G U N D LO C K

T

welve-year-old Jesse Senko
is on vacation with his family
in the Cayman Islands.
They’re on a snorkeling
tour. Senko is in the water, dazzled by
the fish, when a big green sea turtle
appears in front of him. Because he is a
12-year-old boy, he grabs it. The turtle
takes off. Every 15 to 30 seconds it
surfaces for air.
Senko’s mother is on the boat,
throwing up, panicking, screaming
“Come back!” The boat operator is
cursing because what to do when a kid
takes off on a turtle is definitely not in
the employee manual.
Senko hears them screaming. He
doesn’t care. He’s enjoying the ride.
Sea turtles can hit close to 30 mph.
Eventually the turtle returns to the boat.
With one powerful flap of its flippers, it
rids itself of its hitcher.
“Right at that moment I say to my
parents, ‘That was awesome! I want
to study these things!’” Senko says.
“Ever since then I’ve been obsessed
with sea turtles.”
Flash forward a few decades.

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

47

The East Pacific
hawksbill turtle is
among the most
endangered sea
turtle populations
and one of the
oldest creatures
on Earth.

48

WINTER 2020

Senko is now a marine biologist
and conservation scientist at Arizona
State University. Most scientists
spend their careers working on one
problem, or part of a problem, or
a tiny part of a problem. Senko is
working on about 10 problems at
once. Saving sea turtles is job one,
but that’s related to sustainable
fishing, which ties into resilient
coastal communities. Engineering
transformative fishing gear and
reducing plastic trash in the oceans
are other parts of his puzzle.
“Fishing gear is the greatest
threat to sea turtles worldwide,”
Senko says. “Sea turtles are vital
for the health of the world’s oceans.
They perform fundamental roles in
ocean ecosystems, many of which
are not fulfilled by other species.
And humans need healthy oceans to
survive and thrive.”
In the Sea of Cortez, on a tiny

“As scientists,
we are great
at assessing
and identifying
problems. We’re
awful at solving
them. ASU is
about solving
problems. ”
— J E S S E S E N KO
remote island lost in time and
inhabited by one fishing family, all
the strands of Senko’s work come
together.
It’s about solving problems
He grew up on the coast of
Connecticut on Long Island Sound.
His father had him out on boats

when he was in diapers. He’s
been fishing since he could hold
a rod. He majored in fisheries and
wildlife sciences at the University
of Connecticut and received
his master’s degree in wildlife
ecology and conservation from the
University of Florida.
He studies sea turtles, and
Gainesville is about a 90-minute
drive from the Atlantic. Why come
to ASU in the middle of the desert,
to earn a PhD in biology?
“As scientists, we are great at
assessing and identifying problems.
We’re awful at solving them,” he
explains. “ASU is about solving
problems.”
Upon completing his PhD at
the most innovative university in
the country, he joined ASU’s new
School for the Future of Innovation
in Society, which works on solving
global problems and the unintended
consequences behind them.
Senko’s passion is sea turtles,
some of the oldest creatures
on earth. Whatever killed the
dinosaurs, turtles survived it. They
can live to 100.
The Mexican government
banned sea turtle hunting in 1990.
Get caught with one — dead or
alive — and it’s a 9-year prison
sentence. Recovery has been slow,
though. Sea turtles swim right into
the fishing nets and drown.
When Senko was working on his
PhD in Baja California, he noticed
lights put on gill nets to attract fish
reduced sea turtle bycatch. Turtles
and sharks can see nets and avoid
them. As an experiment, he put
battery-powered lights on fishing
nets. He found a 50% reduction in
turtle bycatch and a 95% reduction
in shark and ray bycatch. He
saw turtles swim up to nets and
turn around.

Tk

Senko (far left) activates the solarpowered lights (left), on one of
the two nets they use to fish. The
“treatment” net is illuminated while the
“control” net has deactivated lights.
Below, Senko shows PhD student
Janie Reavis how to measure a sea
turtle’s shell.

But batteries and fishing lights
are expensive. Glow sticks, used by
commercial fishermen everywhere,
are cheaper. But they’re usually
tossed into the ocean after
one night, adding to the global
plastic problem.
With solar-powered fishing
lights, fishermen can toss their nets
on the deck or dock and the lights
recharge themselves. This is where
ASU’s interdisciplinary mission paid
off — Senko isn’t an engineer.
So he cast around the university
and assembled a team to develop
solar-powered net lights. First,
engineers: Jennifer Blain Christen,
Mark Bailly, Christopher Lue Sang,
Stuart Bowden and Michael Goryll
from the School of Electrical,
Computer and Energy Engineering
in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of
Engineering. The only environment
harsher than the sea is space. They
cracked the problem of creating
something that functions on
the ocean.
Second, another turtle expert:
Agnese Mancini, the scientific
coordinator of Grupo Tortuguero de
las Californias, a Mexican nonprofit
coalition of people and communities
working to save sea turtles.
Finally, fishermen: brothers Felipe
and Juan Pablo Cuevas, arguably
the most famous among their peers
in the waters of Baja California
Sur. They hail from one of the most
unusual places in the world, the
remote island of El Pardito.
From here, Senko’s revolution is
being launched.
RYAN FITZGERALD/ASU

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

49

Juan Pablo
Cuevas and
Senko repair
an entangling
net, which
they will
use to help
compare
catch rates
of sea turtles,
sharks and
target fish.

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WINTER 2020

Island of discovery
Civilization is far, far away from El
Pardito — two long hours by boat
from La Paz.
The island is tiny, about 2.5
acres, most of it hill. The island
is part of the Islas del Golfo de
California Protected Area which
is managed by Mexico’s National
Commission on Protected Areas.
Small houses built from a variety of
materials are connected by trails
and paths and stairs. Thatched
palapas cover deep patios with
hammocks and sleeping pads.
Dried shark jaws, shells and a Turk’s
head knot adorn rafters. There’s no
electricity, no running water and no
communications except for a radio.
All the houses are solar-powered.
The original people came to the
island to escape mosquitoes. Juan
Cuevas and his wife settled on El
Pardito in 1927, raised a family, and
dove for pearls. Only two of the kids
stayed. The rest left for the mainland.
The pearl fishery tanked in the
late 1930s. During World War II the
Cuevases fished for sharks. Today,
they primarily fish for yellowtail,
grouper, halibut, snapper and
triggerfish when using nets.

“I want my kids to
learn how to fish,
but I also want
them to go to
school. I want
them to learn
about fishing and
maybe research.”
— F E L I P E C U E VA S
O N J E S S E S E N KO ’ S
I M PAC T
Conservation for the Cuevas
brothers is not just turtles, it’s the
whole marine ecosystem. They are
working on eight projects with a
variety of organizations.
They are as attuned to the sea as
a farmer is to his land. They began to
notice it wasn’t like it was when their
father fished full time. They had to go
farther and farther for good catches.
The watershed moment came on a
trip when they went all the way to the
Pacific to catch sharks and didn’t
bring in much.
They want to learn how to read
the results of scientific studies so

they can teach conservation to other
communities in the area. They also
want to learn how to fish better and
preserve the balance of life. They’re
well aware of what can go wrong.
About 90% of the world’s fisheries
are small-scale and they’re not wellmanaged. If they’re not careful, they
can put themselves out of business.
The brothers also want to see
more studies on reproduction.
Anecdotally they know more about
different fish and their behaviors
and connections than most marine
biologists because they’ve seen
it all for decades. Parrotfish are
better off in the water because they
play a more valuable role there than
on a plate. There’s a nearby island
where parrotfish were overfished
and now it’s overrun by sea urchins.
The coral is suffering too.
They want to see more size
restrictions and seasonal bans. The
Mexican government is unwilling to
implement either for two reasons:
Both are unpopular and they would
be difficult to enforce.
Felipe Cuevas discussed the
future he wants for his children
and Senko’s impact. “I want them
to learn how to fish, but I also want
them to go to school,” he says. “I
want them to learn about fishing
and maybe research. I want my
kids to be curious about history on
the island.”
Lightbulb moment
Grupo Tortuguero has a permit
to catch, study, measure, tag and
release turtles. In the morning,
the Cuevas brothers head out
and catch a hawksbill turtle in a
mangrove swamp about three miles
from the island. Hawksbills have
been a protected species since

Sunrise at Isla El Pardito in La Paz,
Baja California Sur, Mexico. The
2.5-acre island has been inhabited by
a single family for more than 100 years.
Senko measures an East Pacific
green turtle with his fishing partners,
Felipe (left) and Juan Pablo (right)
Cuevas. The turtle was captured in
a non-illuminated “control” net with
deactivated lights.

Learn more about the work
ASU researchers are doing
to save the turtles
See video featuring the team
working directly with turtles
and fishermen and watch Jesse
Senko present about his work in
Washington, D.C. on our YouTube
channel at youtube.com/ASU.

1990, but are still poached for
their tortoiseshell, which is used in
combs, jewelry and eyeglass frames.
In 15 years of research in Baja, this
is only the second hawksbill that
Senko has seen.
At sunset, he goes out with
the brothers to test the lights in a
turtle-rich area. They drop two nets
separated by a 200-meter length of
line. One net has lights switched on
— the treatment net. The other has
lights turned off — the control net.
The lights look like a blinking
landing strip in the darkness. The
group takes off to go fishing for an
hour. Leave the nets unattended
for longer than an hour and a turtle
could drown.
An hour later, after handlining
snapper, grouper, two needlefish
and a huge moray eel that the
brothers did not want in the boat,
they return to the nets. The middle
light on the treatment net is not
working. There’s a big dark area in
the middle. And that’s exactly where
they find a green turtle, away from
the lights.
The lights work.
They haul the turtle on board,
free it, and release it back into the
water. Senko notes that the floating
lights need to be weighted so they’re
below the surface, casting more light
down and less up.
More testing remains. Would
different colors or wavelengths be
more effective? What about adding a
sound, like that of orcas? How about
hanging them at varying depths?
And there are other fisheries to
introduce the technology: Trinidad
and Tobago, Peru, Indonesia,
Philippines, Malaysia and Greece.
Senko’s turtle ride has only
just begun. n
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

51

EXPLORE

The

dream
maker
Rhodes Scholar
Shantel Marekera
helps preschoolers
achieve their goals
at home in Zimbabwe

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WINTER 2020

Shantel Marekera is giddy. She’s found her own kind
of fairy tale as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of
Oxford, Arizona State University’s second in three
years, and is eagerly working toward her second
master’s degree in international relations.

Shantel Marekera reaches out to
children from low-income families
in her native Zimbabwe by providing
preschool education through her Little
Dreamers Foundation.
DARRAN REES

Her passion for advocacy, policy
and international human rights law,
particularly as it concerns women’s
rights in her homeland, runs deep.
The Zimbabwe-born Marekera
launched the Little Dreamers
Foundation, a subsidized preschool
for low-income children, in her
suburban community of Harare.
“I strongly identify and connect
with the community that I work with
and for, and that’s where my drive
always comes from because I know
I am helping to make my community
better for current and future
generations,” says Marekera, a
summa cum laude ’18 ASU graduate
who completed both her bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in justice
studies in only four years, including
research and achievements in
Barrett, The Honors College.
In 2005, Zimbabwe’s government
implemented changes to its
education system, mandating all
children graduate from preschool
before enrolling in primary school.
This put myriad strains on financially
disadvantaged families since
preschool costs as much as $200
per month. In the face of economic
hardship, most families prioritize
sending their sons to school.
Determined to help girls in
her native community attend
school, Marekera tapped into her
entrepreneurial spirit and created
the Little Dreamers Foundation.
It provides tuition, meals and
scholastic materials to students

“Shantel is a brilliant
young woman, focused
on the best kinds of
justice and committed
to her country and
community. She is
the epitome of what
the School of Social
Transformation hopes for
in our students.”
— B R YA N B R AY B O Y, M A R E K E R A’ S F O R M E R
TE ACHER , PRESIDENT ’S PROFESSOR OF
I N D I G E N O U S E D U C AT I O N A N D J U S T I C E ,
A N D S C H O O L O F S O C I A L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N
INTERIM DIRECTOR

for less than $30 per month. She
received financial assistance from
a fellowship co-sponsored by the
Igniting Innovation Summit and The
Resolution Project, which support
socially responsible young leaders.
The preschool opened in August
2018 with a ratio of one boy to
three girls.
Marekera hopes to introduce a
new branch of the preschool each
year in a different part of Harare and
ultimately open a primary school.
“I feel so honored to play even
the smallest role in the future of
these amazing children,” she says. “I
am so proud of their potential and all
they have to offer to the world.”
By living out her dream, Marekera
is creating dreams for others.
­— JANE LEE

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

53

EXPLORE
FIND

Envisioning
the F U T U R E
of space
Lindy Elkins-Tanton and the
Interplanetary Initiative reach
for the stars to shape our
place in space
Story by A L E X S T U C K E Y

Lindy Elkins-Tanton,
managing director of
ASU’s Interplanetary
Initiative, introduces one
of her missions: “I hope
we train a whole group
of people — these great
young minds— to go off
and make the world better
where they end up.”

54

WINTER 2020

T

The 60 people sitting in an
Arizona State University
conference room in January
2017 had virtually nothing in
common. There were theater
majors and scientists; sophomores
and school deans; local residents;
and private sector employees.
A passion for space — and
planetary scientist Lindy ElkinsTanton — brought them together.
“We brainstormed the biggest
questions we have to solve that
would have a positive effect on
humans’ interplanetary future,”
Elkins-Tanton says. “These are not
like the sort of things you could do
for a thesis. Imagine throwing a
javelin over a hill and trying to run
to catch up with it.”

CHARLIE LEIGHT/ASU

On that day, the Interplanetary
Initiative was born.
And for the past two years
with Elkins-Tanton at the helm,
the Initiative has been partnering
students and faculty members of
all disciplines to examine some of
the most complex, space-related
questions society faces — with the
help of small amounts of university
seed money.
The projects include a card
game called “Port of Mars” that
examines the best way to sustain
healthy communities in space, and
the Interplanetary Podcast that
aims to have public conversations
about space while also
highlighting the work done at ASU.
It all comes at an important
time in space exploration, as the
U.S. races toward some of the
most complex human missions
to date, including a long-term
return to the moon and a potential
mission to Mars.
“We want people who will
take the first steps to solve
something that’s unsolved,” ElkinsTanton says.
Educational movement
January 2017 marked a busy
month for Elkins-Tanton. Four days
into the new year, she got a phone
call at 5:30 a.m. — a phone call
she had been waiting six years to
receive.
ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

55

Elkins-Tanton seeks a team of
people who are “synergistic and
respectful and integrated and
diverse” — including students.

NASA delivered the news it was
funding her Psyche project, set to
explore a metal asteroid orbiting
the sun between Mars and Jupiter.
“We were the underdogs by
far,” Elkins-Tanton says.
The Psyche mission is
scheduled to launch to the asteroid
270 million miles from the sun in
2022, with a landing expected in
2026. Scientists expect it will cost
an estimated $760 million. They
believe the asteroid is the nickeliron core of an early planet, a
building block of the solar system.
In the days following NASA’s
phone call, Elkins-Tanton started
building the Interplanetary
Initiative with its first meeting. She
became managing director and
co-chair of the Initiative that day,
though she had been approached
about starting the program
months earlier by ASU President
Michael M. Crow.
“It’s a more complicated story,”
she says. “There wasn’t a moment
when I said I want to run a space
mission, but there is the thrill of

The Psyche mission to a metal
asteroid 270 million miles from the
sun is set to launch in 2022.
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WINTER 2020

running a space mission and the
thrill of running Interplanetary,
which has a lot to do with the team
and the vision.”
Elkins-Tanton originally joined
ASU in 2014 as director of the
School of Earth and Space
Exploration following a stint as
director at the Carnegie Institution
for Science’s Department of
Terrestrial Magnetism. Before that,
she spent time working at both
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Brown University.

Then came the Interplanetary
Initiative. In Crow’s eyes, it was
a means of bringing people of all
disciplines together to solve a
problem, which resonated with
Elkins-Tanton.
“I’d been in search of a place
where people were connected
intensely and made things that
were impossible as just an
individual,” she says. “I think of the
Interplanetary Initiative as a pilot
for what future universities could
be. What we’re trying to do here is
SSL/ASU/P. RUBIN/NASA/JPL-CALTECH

“I’d been in
search of a place
where people
were connected
intensely and made
things that were
impossible as just
an individual. ”
— L I N DY E L K I N S TA N TO N

reinvent the way research teams
are built and the way education
is done.”
Anyone can participate,
regardless of their major or
involvement at the school.
The individuals who show up
brainstorm the questions they
believe need to be answered to
improve humankind’s relationship
with space exploration.
The group votes on the top 10
or so ideas, and then the members
divide into teams based on
WILLIAM CAMPBELL/ASU

interest. At that point, the university
hands out seed money — about
$10,000 or so — to each of the
top ideas.
Students don’t receive a
degree or a certificate through this
approach, but they get something
even more rewarding, ElkinsTanton says. They get research
experience.
The Initiative is set up to allow a
diverse group of individuals to get
involved in space research who
otherwise would never have been
exposed to the topic.
That includes Kevin Hubbard,
a graduate associate in ASU’s
School of Earth and Space
Exploration who was pursuing
a PhD in politics in spring 2017
when he happened upon the
Initiative. He was enjoying political
science, he says, but he was
looking for something new and
exciting to be the subject of his
dissertation. He decided to focus
his initiative-based research
on space policy — specifically,
how to manage conduct on the
lunar surface.
“We don’t want to ruin the

place that we plan to live on in the
future,” he says.
Hubbard is examining the policy
around mining the seabed in the
Pacific Ocean, and how that could
apply to space. Space is a harsh
environment like the sea, he adds,
and no nation state has exclusive
rights to the area.
It’s a timely topic with NASA
planning a return to the moon for
the first time since 1972 with the
hope of humans staying there for
an extended period. The Artemis
program plans to land the first
woman and next man on the
moon by 2024, but that’s only
the start. “NASA’s trying to make
a sustainable presence on the
moon,” Elkins-Tanton says.
The big questions
Can humans adapt to space?
That’s one of the big questions
the Interplanetary Initiative is
trying to understand and answer.
For Artemis, the Initiative is
partnering with private companies
and research groups working
with NASA on specific aspects
of engineering and science.
“We’re also working with NASA
to help them create information
clearinghouses to fill in the gaps of
knowledge we need to make it to
Artemis,” Elkins-Tanton says.
Meanwhile, about 120
individuals, including faculty
members and students, are
participating in 13 active projects
at the Initiative, she says.
One is the Port of Mars
card game, launched in 2016.
It examines how people might
socially respond to living on Mars.
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57

“Port of Mars is a
rehearsal for the
future, a social
science experiment
cosplaying as a
game … how do
we make sure they
won’t tear each
other apart?”
— L A N C E G H A R AV I , P R O J E C T
L E A D A N D A S S O C I AT E
PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF FILM,
D A N C E A N D T H E AT R E , W O R K I N G
O N I N T E R P L A N E TA R Y I N I T I AT I V E
PROJECTS

Players participate on teams,
and each round of the game is
monitored by an ASU volunteer.
They then use how players respond
to conflict and morality questions
to determine how a Mars colony
might work. Team members
presented at the Broto conference
on art and climate change held
in Massachusetts in May 2019
and are working to make the
game digital.
“Port of Mars is a rehearsal for
the future,” says Lance Gharavi,
project lead and an associate
professor in the School of Film,
Dance and Theatre, “a social
science experiment cosplaying as a
58

WINTER 2020

game … how do we make sure they
won’t tear each other apart?”
The Initiative’s project on “Five
Senses in Space” is inventing a
“smell engine” that will use haptic,
auditory and visual systems with
virtual reality to create a holodecklike experience of space here on
Earth. It also could be used in the
reverse, providing an Earth-like
experience for astronauts on
long duration space missions.
They’re also building a simulated
Martian habitat.
After receiving initial seed
money from the university, the
project last year had three student
payloads launched into space on

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Students currently are analyzing
the data from the payloads, which
include instruments built to capture
elements of the senses in space.
Students plan to use this data
on Earth to convey how space
impacts the senses.
Other Interplanetary Initiative
projects include:
• Rapid Response Space,
focusing on growing the
applications and capabilities of
small space satellites.
• Space Works, creating
courses that help students apply
their knowledge through teambased challenges related to the

Lance Gharavi teaches Anissa
Flores to play Port of Mars, a
card game developed as part
of the Interplanetary Initiative.
It uses play to examine how
people might socially respond
to living on Mars, including a
no-win scenario.

needs of NASA and the industry.
• Humans and Robotic
Connection, working to create
intelligent software and hardware
that can assist human dexterity
and cognition.
• Space Advisory, looking at
how to best support a prosperous
and equitable future.
“By working toward the vision
of an optimistic human space
future we make ourselves better
here on Earth and we make our
life here on Earth better,” ElkinsTanton says. “What we’re trying
to do with Interplanetary Initiative
is speed up that process for
everyone.” n
JAROD OPPERMAN/ASU

The Interplanetary Initiative is partially
supported by Arizona’s Technology
and Research Initiative Fund, which
has enabled thousands of scientific
discoveries, more than 800 patents,
280 new startup companies and
hands-on training for approximately
33,000 students across Arizona’s
universities. Publicly supported
through voter approval, TRIF is
an essential resource for growing
Arizona’s economy and providing
opportunities for Arizona residents to
work, learn and thrive.

Interplanetary
future, soon
powered by a
new major
Starting this August,
more students will be
able to participate in the
Interplanetary Initiative.
ASU approved a new
major associated with this
educational movement with
15 ASU units contributing to
the curriculum. The Bachelor
of Science degree also will be
available online to encompass
as many interested students
as possible. It will take three
years to complete instead of
the typical four.
“They’ll learn how to
solve problems intellectually
and also how to solve
them with their hands in a
maker’s space,” says Lindy
Elkins-Tanton, the Initiative’s
managing director. “We have
a vision of creating a critical
mass of people who are
problem-solvers.”
Currently, ASU is
conducting practice classes
in preparation for the major,
with at least 100 students
involved thus far. ElkinsTanton is also lining up
companies to take interns for
the summer.
“This is a way of building
up the ecosystem and
pushing us toward the future
we think will work more
efficiently,” she says.

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

59

TERRITORIAL CUP HISTORY
Did you know the oldest rivalry trophy
in college football resides in Tempe?
According to legend, ASU won the
first Territorial Cup on Thanksgiving
Day in 1899 with an 11-2 victory
against Arizona in Tucson in the first
football game between the schools.
But that’s not entirely true, according
to Robert Spindler, ASU’s university
archivist. Turns out ASU — then
Territorial Normal School — captured
the Arizona Territorial Football League
Championship Cup with a 5-1-1
record, topping Arizona, Phoenix
Union High School and Phoenix Indian
School. However, the Territorial Cup
became emblematic of the fierce
rivalry between the two colleges, both
founded on the same day in 1885.
They have played 93 times, annually
since 1946. A replica of the Cup has
been awarded to the winner since
2001. ASU has won 12 of 19 times.

The original Territorial Cup, above,
disappeared in 1900 for 83 years.
Found again in a Tempe church, it was
returned to ASU, the rightful owner.

60

WINTER 2020

TOM STORY/ASU

Play
like a

Brandon Aiyuk shows off the
Territorial Cup replica awarded
to the ASU-Arizona winner —
making three in a row for ASU.

ASU’S CUP RUNNETH OVER
The Territorial Cup is the No. 1 sports
rivalry in North America, according
to knowrivalry.com. So nothing’s
bigger for Sun Devil Football than
beating Arizona, which they did for
the third consecutive year on Nov. 30
in Tempe. “What I learned today was
that emotions run high in this game,”
freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels
said after the 24-14 victory. “It means
a lot to everybody in Arizona.” Junior
Eno Benjamin led the way with 168
rushing yards, most in the series since
1973, and two touchdowns.

PETER VANDER STOEP

Sun Devil

®

Honor roll

Sun Devil
athletes excel
in Barrett,
The Honors
College.

63

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

61

PLAY

Football

Sustainability and sport
Showcasing ASU’s
environmental
commitment, including
the nation’s first School
of Sustainability, Sun
Devil Football sported
“selfless” uniforms this
season. In partnership
with adidas, the all-white
uniforms were made
with multiple sustainable
processes.
Numbers
• Custom-made block
numbers and nameplates
on the back use less
material.

Cleats
• Made from recycled
material.
Color
• White color in the
uniform eliminates the
need for dyes.
Jersey
• More than 70% Econyl
yarn (regenerated nylon).

®

• Climacool technology
with a body-mapping
design for a refined fit.
• Sleeve design
resembles Arizona’s
state flag and recognizes
ASU’s solar installations.

“ I love that
Barrett provides
so many
opportunities to
learn and grow
beyond the
typical college
curriculum.”
Frank Darby, redshirt junior wide receiver, capped a
milestone season with two touchdowns in ASU’s upset
victory against Oregon.
62

WINTER 2020

– OLIVIA JENKS ,
T R I AT H L E T E A N D
K IN ES I O LO GY M A JO R

SUN DEVIL ATHLETICS

Hitting records
and the books
Sun Devil student-athletes
balance the rigor of sport with
the challenges of Barrett,
The Honors College

Barrett sophomore Audrey
Ernst finishes second in
her division at the Women’s
Collegiate Triathlon 2019
National Championships at
Tempe Town Lake.

PETER VANDER STOEP

The challenge of competing in
triathlons wasn’t enough for Olivia
Jenks. She also wanted to be
challenged in the classroom, so
she chose Barrett, The Honors
College at Arizona State University.
“I knew I wanted to challenge
myself beyond the typical course
load of college,” says Jenks, a
sophomore majoring in kinesiology.
“I also wanted to be able to live
with and be surrounded by other
academically minded students and
student-athletes. Barrett allows me
to be an academic leader, while
also providing a great education in
smaller, more focused classes.”
Jenks is among 68 studentathletes from football to water
polo in Barrett, including fellow
triathletes Audrey Ernst, Kira
Stanley and Mckenzi Wilson.
Considered the nation’s gold
standard among honors colleges,
Barrett’s residential community has
more National Merit Scholars than
MIT, Duke, Brown and Stanford.
“Barrett, The Honors College is
extremely proud of all of our varsity
student-athletes,” says Mark
Jacobs, ASU vice provost and
dean of Barrett. “It takes admirable
focus, drive and energy.”

68
studentathletes
in Barrett
in 2019,
including
students from
16 sports

4
triathlon
team
members
in Barrett

ASU THRIVE MAGAZINE

63

STRETCH

MIND-BODY PRACTICE

Different kind
of workout at
Sun Devil Stadium

Yoga participants rise with the sun in a morning
class this winter in the Upper East Sideline Club
as part of the LiveWell Stadium Yoga Series.

64

WINTER 2020

If you can breathe, you can do yoga.
In that spirit, the ASU 365 Community
Union presented free yoga classes at
Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. “Yoga
has beneficial effects on both physical
and mental health,” says John Barton,
director of clinical psychology at ASU’s
Department of Psychology. “You can get
out of the house and out of your head.”
For more wellness opportunities
in the stadium, see
asu365communityunion.com/wellness

COURTNEY LIVELY

FUELING SUN DEVILS past
®

PRESENT & FUTURE

FPO Full
Page Ad
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OFFICIAL MILK & PROTEIN OF SUN DEVIL ATHLETICS
®

shamrockfarms.net

PO Box 875011, Tempe, AZ 85287-5011

Cancer-fighting
nanobots
ASU Biodesign Institute
Center for Molecular Design
and Biomimetrics

innovate.asu.edu

ASU faculty, students and alumni are
leading discoveries that move our world
forward. From patents and startups to new
technologies and bioscience breakthroughs,
our innovation mindset fuels extraordinary
outcomes with global impact.

Mechanical
“trees” that combat
global warming
ASU Center for Negative
Carbon Emissions