Black diasporic farming communities are important sites of sustainable food production for millions of people in the US and worldwide. As tight-knit agricultural collectives, they generate food throughout cities, promote diasporic values of ecological well-being, resource conservation, and interdependence, and foster the possibility of social and political transformation for black, indigenous, racialized and marginalized groups.

Campus communities are vulnerable to a wide range of emergencies such as active shooter incidents and fires, exposing students, teachers, and other members to significant risks. This Smart and Connected Communities Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG) project aims to explore new ways in which human behaviors are systemically and robustly incorporated into building design and emergency protocols.

Tooth decay is a pandemic disease that affects 35% of the global population, or 2.4 billion people. Dental caries (tooth decay) particularly impacts children and adults living in poverty, who have poor access to dental care. Current biomedical approaches to controlling dental caries have had limited success. This project is creating a smart, connected oral health community with improved access to care and greater oral health equity.

Climate change is intensifying flood risks, with profound socioeconomic consequences. Equitable flood adaptation is designed to offer greater and/or more lasting benefits to overburdened communities than past projects in a warming climate. In pursuit of this goal, this Smart and Connected Communities Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG) project develops and tests a new paradigm of flood adaptation marked by innovation in access to, and use of, an interactive, fast flood risk simulation tool.

Communities along the coast are increasingly vulnerable to coastal hazards such as flooding due to extreme weather events and sea level rise. In the US alone, 40% of the population lives in coastal cities and subjected to elevated risks of such hazards. The probability of a flooding event in these communities is also increasing with global warming.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in huge amounts of confirmed cases and deaths both in the United States and globally. The nation experienced grave repercussions to citizens’ lives, health, and the economy. Due to its high contagiousness, policies such as quarantine and lockdowns were put in place to slow the virus’ rapid spread. Some major challenges are identifying vulnerable communities to provide immediate help and determining policies that are effective in slowing down the spread with minimal adverse effects on people’s livelihood, mental health, and the economy.

This NSF Smart and Connected Community (S&CC) planning grant will explore the concept of the "meta-garden", which is a physically and digitally augmented community garden aimed at addressing challenges associated with traditional community gardens. Community gardens have the potential to provide numerous benefits, but often face limitations such as scarce resources, limited access, lack of persistent engagement, and other challenges.

The objective of this Smart and Connected Communities Planning Grant (SCC-PG) project is to explore the use of micromobility resources as an affordable and flexible micro-mobility solution to connect riders with employment and other life-essential needs. It envisions a dockless electric scooter sharing program that helps alleviate mobility inequality prevalent in distressed neighborhoods of Hartford, Connecticut.

Various programs have been established to extend and promote healthcare services to low-income rural Americans facing financial barriers. These programs offer a wide range of healthcare services at little to no cost. However, despite the availability of these services, challenges arise in bringing patients to healthcare providers in a timely manner for healthcare. Many individuals in rural communities are unable to receive recommended services, primarily due to transportation challenges.

Despite considerable efforts in combating substance use and exploring novel treatment and recovery strategies, current practices have not been able to connect many patients from underserved low-income communities in rural areas with available healthcare resources due to infrastructure challenges, inaccessibility to pharmacies, patient’s inability to drive, and lack of transportation. Responding to such issues involves interactions among diverse community stakeholders, including healthcare providers, research institutes, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community residents.