Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Randall Laboratory
Organized By: Interdisciplinary QC/CM Seminars

In this talk, I will explore the emergent physics resulting from the complex interaction between real-space and momentum-space topology in strongly correlated quantum materials, with a particular focus on skyrmions. Using quantum Hall and quantum spin Hall insulators as key examples, I will explain the mechanisms behind skyrmion formation through electron doping in these correlated and gapped topological systems. We provide a detailed analysis of the phase diagrams and the formation of skyrmion lattices within the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model, supported by calculations from both the unrestricted real-space Hartree-Fock and density matrix renormalization group methods. In these systems, the doped electron and skyrmion form a composite object whose density is governed by the doped electron density. This electron-skyrmion bound state is stabilized by the coupling between the orbital magnetization of the Chern band and the emergent magnetic flux generated by the skyrmion. Moreover, we find that doping induces quantum anomalous Hall crystals, which exhibit quantized Hall conductance and broken translational symmetry. Our theory offers an intrinsic mechanism for the experimentally observed robust quantum anomalous Hall insulator over an extended doping range near a filling factor of ν = 1 in twisted transition metal moiré superlattices.

Reference: Miguel Gonçalves and Shi-Zeng Lin, arXiv:2407.12198

Short-bio:
Shizeng Lin completed his Ph.D. at the National Institute for Materials Science and the University of Tsukuba in Japan. After earning his Ph.D., he joined Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 2011, initially as a postdoctoral researcher in the Theoretical Division. In 2014, he was appointed as a scientist at LANL. He is also currently affiliated with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology at LANL, one of the five Nanoscale Science Research Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Lin’s research primarily focuses on theoretical studies of novel quantum materials, with a particular emphasis on systems characterized by correlation and topology. He received the LANL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program Early Career Award in 2017 and the LANL Fellows Prize for Outstanding Research in 2024.

Aim/Purpose: This study was aimed at enhancing students’ learning of software engineering methods. A collaboration between the Computer Science, Business Management, and Product Design programs was formed to work on actual projects with real clients. This interdisciplinary form of collaboration simulates the realities of a diverse Software Engineering team. Background: A collaborative approach implemented through projects has been the established pedagogy for introducing the Software Engineering course to undergraduate Computer Science students. The collaboration, however, is limited to collaboration among Computer Science students and their clients. This case study explored an enhancement to the collaborative approach to project development by integrating other related disciplines into the project development framework; hence, the Interdisciplinary Approach. Methodology: This study adopted the case method approach. An interdisciplinary service innovation activity was proposed to invite other disciplines in the learning process of the computer science students. The agile methodology Scrum was used as the software development approach during project development. Survey data were collected from the students to establish (a) their perception of the interdisciplinary approach to project development; (b) the factors that influenced success or failure of their team to deliver the project; and (c) the perceived skills or knowledge that they acquired from the interdisciplinary approach. Analysis of data followed a mixed method approach. Contribution: The study improved the current pedagogy for Software Engineering education by integrating other related disciplines into the software project development framework. Findings: Data collected showed that the students generally accepted the interdisciplinary approach to project development. Factors such as project relevance, teamwork, time and schedule, and administration support, among others, affect team performance towards project completion. In the case of the Computer Science students, results show that students have learned skills during the experience that, as literature reveal, can only be acquired or mastered in their future profession as software engineers. Recommendations for Practitioners: The active collaboration of the industry with the University and the involvement of the other related courses in teaching software engineering methods are critical to the development of the students, not only in learning the methodology but also as a working professional. Recommendation for Researchers: It is interesting to know and eventually understand the interactions between interdisciplinary team members in the conduct of Software Engineering practices while working on their projects. More specifically, what creative tensions arise and how do the interdisciplinary teams handle the discourse? Impact on Society: This study bridges the gap between how Software Engineering is taught in the university and how Software Engineering teams work in real life. Future Research: Future research is targeted at refining and elaborating the elements of the interdisciplinary framework presented in this paper towards an integrated course module for Software Engineering education.

Aim/Purpose: This study investigates the research profile of the papers published in Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management (IJIKM) to provide silhouette information of the journal for the editorial team, researchers, and the audience of the journal. Background: Information and knowledge management is an interdisciplinary subject. IJIKM defines intersections of multiple disciplinary research communities for the interdisciplinary subject. Methodology: A quantitative study of categorical content analysis was used for a thematic analysis of IJIKM. One hundred fifty nine (159) papers published since the inauguration of the journal in 2006 were coded and analyzed. Contribution: The study provides synopsized information about the interdisciplinary research profile of IJIKM, and adds value to the literature of information and knowledge management. Findings: The analysis reveals that IJIKM disseminates research papers with a wide range of research themes. Among the research themes, Organizational issues of knowledge/information management, Knowledge management systems/tools, Information/knowledge sharing, Technology for knowledge/information management, Information/knowledge application represent the five main research streams of IJIKM. The total number of papers on organizational issues of knowledge/information management increased from 16% to 28% during the past 6 years. Statistical method was the most common research methodology, and summarization was the most common research design applied in the papers of IJIKM. The paper also presents other patterns of participant countries, keywords frequencies, and reference citations. Recommendations for Practitioners: Innovation is the key to information and knowledge management. Practitioners of information and knowledge management can share best practices with external sectors. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can identify opportunities of cross-disciplinary research projects that involve experts in business, education, government, healthcare, technology, and psychology to advance knowledge in information and knowledge management. Impact on Society: Information and knowledge management is still a developing field, and readers of this paper can gain more understanding of the dissemination of the literature of information and knowledge management involved in all relevant disciplines. Future Research: A longitudinal study could follow up in the future to provide updated and comparative information of the research profile of the journal.

Objective: Evaluate the effectiveness of distance learning courses for the purpose of interdisciplinary continuing education in Speech Pathology and Dentistry. Methods: The online course was made available on the Moodle platform. A total of 30 undergraduates participated in the study (15 from the Dentistry course and 15 from the Speech Pathology course). Their knowledge was evaluated before and after the course, in addition to the user satisfaction by means of specific questionnaires. The course was evaluated by 6 specialists on the following aspects: presentation and quality of the content, audio-visual quality, adequacy to the target public, and information made available. To compare the obtained results in the pre- and post-course questionnaires, the test Wilcoxon was carried out, with a 5% significance level. Results: the teaching/learning process, including the theoretical/practical application for the interdisciplinary training, proved to be effective as there was a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post- course evaluations (p<0.001), the users’ satisfaction degree was favorable and the specialists evaluated the material as adequate regarding the target public, the audio-visual information quality and the strategies of content availability. Conclusion: The suggested distance-learning course proved to be effective for the purpose of Speech Pathology and Dentistry interdisciplinary education.

Aim/Purpose: The complexity of scientific problems has spurred the development of transdisciplinary science, in which experts are brought together to collaborate across disciplinary and practice boundaries. These knowledge diverse teams can produce novel solutions, but they often fail to achieve their potential. Background: Leaders have a crucial role to play in enabling effective collaboration among these diverse experts. We propose that a critical predictor of whether a newly formed interdisciplinary team will perform well is the leader’s multidisciplinary breadth of experience, which we define as a leader’s possession of significant experience in multiple areas of research and practice. We suggest that these leaders will have the capability to skillfully manage the interactions within the team. Methodology: We test our prediction in a sample of 52 newly formed interdisciplinary medical research teams. We also observe and examine the communication patterns in a subset of these teams. Contribution: There is a lack of systematic study of the impact leaders have on newly formed interdisciplinary science teams whose members have little or no prior collaborative experience with each other, possess specialized knowledge, and have limited overlapping expertise. This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the effect of leader multidisciplinary experience on team communication patterns and innovation. Findings: Our study finds that teams are more innovative when their leader has a moderate breadth of multidisciplinary expertise. Exploration of team communication patterns suggests that leaders with moderate multidisciplinary breadth of experience actively stimulated information sharing across expert domains by choosing cross-cutting topics and drew individuals’ attention to the knowledge and approaches of others in the team. Recommendations for Practitioners: Insights from this work can have practical implications regarding how to best select and train leaders to facilitate cross-boundary collaboration in transdisciplinary science. This study elucidates a variety of communication strategies that leaders can to enhance the team innovativeness. Recommendation for Researchers: Further investigation into the underlying psychological states that these communication strategies elicit is needed. Future research should investigate psychological mediators such as knowledge consideration, perspective taking, and cognitive flexibility. Impact on Society: Transdisciplinary science is needed to solve society’s most complex problems. The more insight we gather about factors that can help these knowledge diverse teams to be successful, but more society will benefit. Future Research: More research is needed on team formation, leader experience, and team outcomes in transdisciplinary science teams in a variety of contexts.

Aim/Purpose: Collaborative, interdisciplinary research is growing rapidly, but we still have limited and fragmented understanding of what is arguably the heart of such research—collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning (CIR). Background: This article integrates neo-Pragmatist theories of reasoning with insights from literature on interdisciplinary research to develop a working definition of collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning. The article then applies this definition to an empirical example to demonstrate its utility. Methodology: The empirical example is an excerpt from a Toolbox workshop transcript. The article reconstructs a cogent, inductive, interdisciplinary argument from the excerpt to show how CIR can proceed in an actual team. Contribution: The study contributes operational definitions of ‘reasoning together’ and ‘collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning’ to existing literature. It also demonstrates empirical methods for operationalizing these definitions, with the argument reconstruction providing a brief case study in how teams reason together. Findings: 1. Collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning is the attempted integration of disciplinary contributions to exchange, evaluate, and assert claims that enable shared understanding and eventually action in a local context. 2. Pragma-dialectic argument reconstruction with conversation analysis is a method for observing such reasoning from a transcript. 3. The example team developed a strong inductive argument to integrate their disciplinary contributions about modeling. Recommendations for Practitioners: 1. Interdisciplinary work requires agreeing with teammates about what is assertible and why. 2. To assert something together legitimately requires making a cogent, integrated argument. Recommendation for Researchers: 1. An argument is the basic unit of analysis for interdisciplinary integration. 2. To assess the argument’s cogency, it is helpful to reconstruct it using pragma-dialectic principles and conversation analysis tools. 3. To assess the argument’s interdisciplinary integration and participant roles in the integration, it is helpful to graph the flow of words as a Sankey chart from participant-disciplines to the argument conclusion. Future Research: How does this definition of CIR relate to other interdisciplinary ‘cognition’ or ‘learning’ type theories? How can practitioners and theorists tell the difference between true intersubjectivity and superficial agreeableness in these dialogues? What makes an instance of CIR ‘good’ or ‘bad’? How does collaborative, transdisciplinary reasoning differ from CIR, if at all?

Aim/Purpose: There is ample evidence that team processes matter more than the characteristics of individual team members; unfortunately, very few empirical studies have examined communication process variables closely or tied them to team outcomes. Background: The University of Miami Laboratory for Integrated Knowledge (U-LINK) is a pilot funding mechanism that was developed and implemented based on empirically-established best practices established in the literature on the Science of Team Science (SciTS). In addition to addressing grand societal challenges, teams engaged in processes designed to enhance the process of “teaming”. This study uses the Inputs-Mediator-Outputs-Inputs (IMOI) model as a blueprint for an investigation into how team communication processes (shared communication, shared leadership, formal meetings, informal meetings) influence intermediary team processes (goal clarity, role ambiguity, process clarity, trust) and team outcomes (team satisfaction, team productivity). Methodology: Monte Carlo methodologies were used to explore both longitudinal self-report (survey of communication and team outcome variables) data and objective data on scholarly productivity, collected from seventy-eight members of eleven real-world intact interdisciplinary teams to explore how team communication processes affect team outcomes. Contribution: This study is among the few that centers communication practice and processes in the operationalization and measurement of its constructs and which provides a test of hypotheses centered on key questions identified in the literature. Findings: Communication practices are important to team processes and outcomes. Shared communication and informal meetings were associated with increased team satisfaction and increased research productivity. Shared leadership was associated with increased research productivity, as well as improved process and goal clarity. Formal meetings were associated with increased goal clarity and decreased role ambiguity. Recommendation for Researchers: Studying intact interdisciplinary research teams requires innovative methods and clear specification of variables. Challenges associated with access to limited numbers of teams should not preclude engaging in research as each study contributes to our larger body of knowledge of the factors that influence the success of interdisciplinary research teams. Future Research: Future research should examine different team formation and funding mechanisms and extend observation and data collection for longer periods of time.

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