“A sincere thank you for your participation in the R-CUBED Symposium and Workshop at the New York Institute of Technology on April 16th and 17th, 2021. Your attendance at the symposium and the wonderful workshop sessions created rich conversations, inspired our students, and created new possibilities for our project. We can’t thank you enough for spending your Saturday with us and making the workshop a success! Thank you again, on behalf of the R-CUBED team, for sharing your insights and collaborating with our students, it was an invaluable learning experience for them… and a special thanks for taking the lead and jumping in with such enthusiasm in the conversation!! You’re the BEST!!”
R-Cubed: Relief x Reconstruction x Resiliency critically considers the role of academia within community-based disaster relief projects with real stakeholders, sites and potential impact. The initiative aims to provide an experiential learning experience for students collaborating across multiple disciplines, while participating in current, pressing social and environmental research. Projects build infrastructures (physical, educational, social, biomedical, technology, communications) in locations recently affected by natural disasters such as pandemic, floods, storms, earthquakes, and drought and by man-made disasters such as political conflict, social injustice or economic decline.
Aouad was invited to participate during this two day event (April 16-17, 2021) and worked within a team of diverse professionals / community stakeholders / students on disaster scenarios to test-drive the beta R-CUBED digital tool for collaborative engagement. The tool aims to empower communities often left behind and facing systemic issues with ways to connect with each other and with professionals working on the ground.