DoD Workshop on Geoparticle Systems

In December of 2024, COMPASS worked with US Army and Department of Defense to produce a workshop to address key research needs in the area of geoparticle-based engineering.

We assembled this research to pursue three goals:

  • Define the PROBLEM:
    [1] Define Soil Composition with a common, functional scientific language to facilitate collaboration between disciplines and practices.
    [2] Develop an understanding of soil complexity and scale in order to define the principles of hierarchical organization and component complexity from the macroscale (ex. landslides) to the microscale (ex. clay particles).
    [3] Create an understanding of the impact and role of geoparticles in the mitigation of climate impacting factors and sustainable agriculture.
  • Define the TOOLBOX:
    [1] Create a lexicon and methodological practice space to address Complex Systems of Small Geoparticles.
    [2] Address the interplay between (i) geotechnical engineering, (ii) distributed manufacturing, (iii) agricultural and soil science, and (iv) bioresource and microbial management; this is done specifically in the context of the availability of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and graph theoretical resources.
  • Build and strength THE NETWORK:
    Through the lens of US-Africa partnerships, develop a cohort of interconnected expertise across industry, academic, and defense researchers in order to create a roadmap for future research, development and scaling activities, and scientific diplomacy frameworks.

Our contributors included government observers, cross-institutional organizers, reporters, and note takers. The array of organizations involved beyond COMPASS included: the US Army Futures Command, the DoD Basic Research Office, the University of Michigan, North Carolina State University, Carnegie Mellon Africa, and Virginia Technological University.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2243104.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.