A 3D printing Short Course: A Case Study for Applications in the Geoscience Teaching and Communication for Specialists and Non-experts

3D printing developed as a prototyping method in the early 1980s, yet it is considered as a 21st century technology for transforming digital models into tangible objects. 3D printing has recently become a critical tool in the geoscience research, education, and technical communication due to the expansion of the market for 3D printers and materials. 3D printing changes the perception of how we interact with our data and how we explain our science to non-experts, researchers, educators, and stakeholders. Hence, a one-day short course was designed and delivered to a group of professors, students, postdoctoral fellows, and technical staff to present the application of 3D printing in teaching and communication concepts in the geoscience. This case study was aimed at evaluating how a diverse group of participants with geoscience and engineering background and no prior experience with computer-aided modeling (CAD) or 3D printing could understand the principles of different 3D printing techniques and apply these methods in their respective disciplines. In addition, the course evaluation questionnaire allowed us to assess human perception of tangible and digital models and to demonstrate the effectiveness of 3D printing in data communication. The course involved five modules: 1) an introduction lecture on the 3D printing methods and materials; 2) an individual CAD modeling exercise; 3) a tour to 3D printing facilities with hands-on experience on model processing; 4) a tour to experimentation facilities where 3D-printed models were tested; and 5) group activities based on the examples of how to apply 3D printing in the current or future geoscience research and teaching. The participants had a unique opportunity to create a digital design at the beginning of the course using CAD software, analyze it and 3D print the final model at the end of the course. While this course helped the students understand how rendering algorithms could be used as a learning aid, educators gained experience in rapid preparation of visual aids for teaching, and researchers gained skills on the integration of the digital datasets with 3D-printed models to support societal and technical objectives.

O cei na Vulavula? Insights and Regrets of a Foreign Geoscientist in the Pacific Islands

From over three decades of close contact with Pacific Islands geoscience, the author reflects on key issues (what he wished he had known earlier) about the nature of islands, their landscapes and their peoples. Experience elsewhere in the world rarely prepares you for the Pacific, from its youthful and often tectonically unstable landscapes to the understandings of its inhabitants, which are sometimes time-consuming and difficult to access yet frequently illuminating. Mysteries abound in Pacific geoscience, often in places as difficult to access as they ever were, yet which have the potential to inform global ideas about earth-surface evolution. Geoscience research and enterprise remain largely foreigner-driven in the Pacific Islands, which is often anathemic to sustainability, privileging ideas that are uncritically assumed to be shared by their peoples. An opportunity exists for Pacific peoples to own the geoscientific knowledge and potential of their islands.

Developing Global Coordination of Solid Earth Research Infrastructures in Support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

<p>AuScope is Australia’s National Geoscience Research Infrastructure Program. As outlined in is 2020-2030 10-year Strategy<sup>1</sup>, AuScope seeks to provide a world-class research physical and digital infrastructure to help tackle Australia's key geoscience challenges, in particular, food and water sustainability, minerals and energy security, and mitigating impact from geohazards. These challenges tie in directly with the following United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG#6 (Clean Water and Sanitation); SDG#7 (Affordable and Clean Energy); SDG#8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth); SDG#9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure); SDG#13 (Climate Action) and SDG#15 (Life on Land). </p><p> </p><p>The SDGs were set in 2015 by the UN General Assembly to be achieved by the year 2030. If the global research sector is to support achieving them, is a rethink required? Current practices tend to focus on building infrastructures in domain and/or national/regional and/or sector (research, government, private) and/or institutional/network silos. These are not necessarily enabling global interoperability, reuse and open sharing of data. For example, AuScope is building high-quality geoscience research data and software infrastructures that are at the heart of positioning Australia to meet these SDG challenges. Equivalent geoscience research infrastructures are also being built internationally (EPOS (Europe); EarthScope, EarthCube (USA)) and AuScope is looking for ways to interoperate more effectively with these.</p><p> </p><p>Within the international geoscience community some interoperable networks are in place to enable global collaborations that share data and software (e.g., Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF), which develops software infrastructure for the management, dissemination, and analysis of model output and observational climate data; the Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) enables members to coordinate station siting and provide free and open data). However, these are the exceptions rather than the rule. </p><p><br>None of the SDGs depend exclusively on geoscience data: all require integration with data from other domains, particularly from the social sciences and humanities. Some initiatives trying to assist data combination between the social sciences and the physical or environmental sciences are emerging (e.g., the Data Documentation Initiative - Cross Domain Integration (DDI-CDI)<sup>2</sup>; the CODATA/ISC Decadal programme on “Making data work for cross-domain grand challenges”<sup>3</sup>) , but traditional organizational and funding arrangements do not usually facilitate this. While there are exemplars of how to achieve integration of global domain and cross-domain research infrastructures and data sharing frameworks, we urgently need to leverage these to develop a roadmap that enables global integration of data and research infrastructures, both within the geosciences and beyond, to ensure sustainable production of data, products and services that support the realisation of the UN SDGs by 2030. In doing so, potentially the main tension will be to ensure that in enabling the broader, global transdisciplinary goals of the SDGs that deeper domain science is not compromised, scarce expertise is not misdirected, and that infrastructure developments within the domains are not unduly hampered.</p><p><sup>1</sup>https://www.auscope.org.au/news-features/strategy-and-investment-plan-launch  </p><p><sup>2</sup>https://ddi-alliance.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DDI4/pages/860815393/DDI+Cross+Domain+Integration+DDI-CDI+Review  </p><p><sup>3</sup>https://codata.org/initiatives/strategic-programme/decadal-programme/ </p>

On the Application Value of Virtual Reality Technology in Earth Science Work

<p>In recent years, with the continuous improvement and optimization of the level of science and technology, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been widely used in our society and has received great attention from the people. Generally speaking, as one of the new science and technology, this technology can realize the reasonable simulation and reconstruction of reality by means of information technology, which is of great significance and value to the optimization of audience’s sensory experience. In the process of geoscience research, with the unremitting efforts of researchers, VR technology is combined with geoscience research, thus laying a solid foundation and guarantee for the promotion and optimization of the comprehensive level of geoscience research in China. In this study, the researchers systematically analyzed and discussed the application value and specific application of VR technology in geoscience research work, aiming to lay a solid foundation and guarantee for the promotion and optimization of the comprehensive level of geoscience research work in China.</p>

Key Points of Geoscience Research and Its Future Development Trend

In recent years, with the development of economy and the progress of society, the people’s thinking consciousness level has been continuously improved, thus effectively promoting the development and deepening of earth science research work. Researchers say that as one of the important basic disciplines, the number of disciplines involved in earth science is relatively complex, and among them, the contents studied by a large number of disciplines are closely related to human survival. Therefore, it is of great significance and value for the improvement and optimization of the earth’s ecological environment to effectively promote the rational implementation and deepening of the earth’s scientific research. In this study, by sorting out and analyzing a large number of data of geoscience research work at home and abroad, the researchers made an in-depth analysis and exploration of the key points of geoscience research work at home and abroad and the future development trend of geoscience research work, aiming at pointing out the direction for the development of geoscience research work in China, thus laying a good foundation and guarantee for improving and optimizing the comprehensive quality of geoscience research work.

Discussion on the Current Situation of China's Geoscience Talent Team and Suggestions for Future Development

A large number of research data show that since the state approved the current situation of China’s geoscientists and the Chinese geologist database project in 1989, the construction of geoscientists has always been a key issue in China’s scientific field. In recent years, with the continuous improvement and optimization of comprehensive national strength, China has paid more attention to earth science research work, thus effectively promoting the construction of earth science talents. However, after a lot of practice, the researchers said that at present, there are still some deficiencies in the process of training and building geoscience talents in China, which greatly improved the level of geoscience research in China. In order to solve this problem, the researchers analyzed a large number of data, and put forward corresponding suggestions on the training of geoscience talents in China, aiming at further promoting the rational optimization of geoscience talents in China.