Being with us from here is honesty today.

Raise your hand if you are familiar
already was requested.

Well for the one or two people who are not
to be our campus wide initiative that tax

is focused on interbreeding
opportunities to engage the stable

communities work all across the curriculum
attend So raise your hand if your R.

and R.
If you're in

some kind of excellence ability of course.

Texas.

We get to compliment the courses
that we work with we do a regular

series of events and workshops focused
on a different themes every year and.

I have been somewhat obsessed with the
idea of sustainability and happiness ever

since I encountered it a number of years
ago long before I came to Tech because

I think we we think especially have
an engineering school like Tech we think

about sustainability a lot in terms of
technology in terms of infrastructure and

terms of policy and we don't think it
enough about it in terms of community

which is where Sir going to stay in the
focus of sustainable communities comes and

right it's not just a sustainability
program but it's really thinking about

where those intersections between
what we call sustainability and

what communities actually care about and
we also don't think enough

about the issues that seem like they might
be humanity's issues right like what makes

a life worth living what brings meaning
to people's lives what brings pleasure to

the people's lives what makes people
happy and so if people think of

a system who thinks about sustainability
or has thought about sustainability.

And inviting sustainability is
often times like you should.

Into this you should it's usually it's
sustainability people walk in the room and

everybody else walks.

Because it's like guilt or time.

Right and that's what happens a lot is
that people hide their water bottles or

they say well I didn't take the train
because the last guy has a crappy

transportation because of course if you
come up with excuses for why you aren't

living her life the way that you are
living it right and then sustainability

comes to be seen as something that's about
giving up the quality of life that we

actually want when really we take it for
granted if it's actually going to work we

have to think about how are we going to
do sustainability in a way that people

actually feel like they have better lives
than they had before or lives with more

meaning maybe less stuff means more
me maybe if we had a really good

transportation system like where I lived
in Japan in Tokyo you would think of only.

Because your life is actually much easier
if you can get everywhere without driving

this big hunk of metal right so
what does it mean whatever though what

are the intersections between something
that has to do with technology and

infrastructure and talisman and
those kinds of things and these other more

cerebral more harder to pin down things
that make us want to get up every day and

want to have relationships with each
other and want to raise kids or

educate kids I see you have
a life that we think is full of

joy and how do we connect
sustainability with joy so

that when people walk in the room courses
the ability of people you actually want to

be different right so that has been
something I have wondered about and

five about for a long time is a I
myself I'm a culture publishers so

fast forward to this year and
we discover it engineer

who has been studying links between
sustainable development and happiness.

And I also have connections
with Alex Carter who used to be

my colleague your source in your
regional planning here at Tech.

And I called up Alex and
said this could happen.

And he said yes.

You know what that somebody like the fact
that project one is some of you may know

that the project one thing for
this year is happiness and

what is happiness and so tomorrow is going
to be another senior student workshop

a little different than this time great
to simply thinking about how do you

create happiness in a church right.

So they can give a little bit
more of a formal talk and

smile but you know he's also
going to ask you to talk a lot.

But that's what we're really
trying to look at is that and

maybe you can also talk a little bit about
what does it mean Raise your hand if you

are in some kind of engineering major.

There we go you know what does it mean if
you're interested in this kind of stuff

and you are an engineer
never going to go into and

likely go into some kind of engineering
career maybe that's a touch of course.

But he comes to us from Arizona State
University which is one of the most most

renowned schools of sustainability and
world I think maybe the only way there's

two hundred fifty something over there is
where the first we claim to be personally

you're probably the biggest We're a pretty
big best well yeah yeah yeah so that's

yes he's a he's environmental engineer
who cares about communities upset with.

Thank you for being here thank you.

My friends OK so I have to tell
a story last night I got to the boat.

Was emptying my bag and I like to.

Have a good friend that told me that
when to put your stuff from the desk or

in the drawers of the hotel and about
a year ago and I thought it was weird but

I started doing it it was actually
really fun going to quit.

Imagine you live in there and stuff but
I was going to do that and I pulled out my

pants my dress pants and ironed and
I in my tie I got my dress shoes and

then I went to grab my dresser and it
wasn't there so I forgot my dress shirt so

what I normally would do when I forget
things like that is I would panic and

I would find the nearest store and
I would get a dress sure I would try to

fit my long linking arms and my skinny
body and then I would go in that but

I didn't do that and
there's a reason that I didn't do that.

And it's related to the stock and
it's related to happiness and

it's related to sustainability too and
I want you to think about that I'm

going to share some other little
kind of mind bending things here and

I want you to think about why what's
the purpose of me doing these things and

sharing this story with you and instantly
it came to me that this would be a story I

could share that we could think about
these things together so what I would like

to do first is I would like you to partner
up with somebody that you don't know

someone you've never met would be
preferable to someone you know very

little would be good anyone you just pick
someone in the audience or find a partner.

OK friends friends.

I would like you to take a minute each or
so about a minute each and I would like

you to describe what you love about your
community in your community as in your

student housing your neighborhood you talk
about your neighborhood at home if you

don't live in Georgia or Atlanta What
do you love about your neighborhood or

your community and share that with each
other about a minute and I'd also like

you to share what makes you happy about
your community or your neighborhood so

I'm going to give you about a minute
give you about three minutes total.

All right friends'.

Friends' Friends' Friends'.

Friends' friends' friends.

Can we share a little bit can
a couple people summarize what they

learned about each other.

Whoever wants to go.

You know this is where we need to go.

It's.

Just more.

Walkability also.

Other police anyone.

I said I want to.

Thank you doesn't like to see.

You.

Very cool awesome.

And I want to know.

What are the things.

That we.

Were able to for you.

It's good it's.

Good.

You know not just.

Ready to move on.

OK when I'm Scott my parents name me that.

What is sustainability have to do with
happiness we're going to talk about that

today we're going to look at both
directions around to look at high level

and really look at the low
level of the grassroots and

we're going to look at the high level
assessment of these things too and

then we'll meet somewhere in the middle
have a conversation at the end so I'm good

OK so what I would like you to do is I'd
like you to talk to your partner for

thirty seconds what is
the purpose of this.

Why do we do that.

Thirty second chapter your partner
why do we share talk outlines.

OK we're ready.

Friends Are we ready.

Are we excited.

OK So why why did I do this.

Why did I do that.

This is my talk out line.

By the way why did I do that thirty
more seconds please discuss it

welcome back to this why did I do this.

OK ready.

All right let's dive in so

we're going to do met we're going to do
macro level we're going to do stuff that

engineers are probably like we're going
to do some assessment indices and

then we're going to go through and
we're going to watch a video and

then after the video I will share some of
the community based work and then we'll

wrap it up and we'll chat OK that's
the real outline but why did I do that.

Think about it OK So happiness and
happiness is well known as a subjective

sense of well being right it's
an evaluation of my own physical mental

spiritual emotional health so
I you can ask me how I feel and

typically when I'm giving you some
sense of my happiness with anything or

an assessment of life overall or in the
moment it's also known as a satisfaction

with life there's lots of studies that do
look at happiness life satisfaction and

this is all important what we'll
talk about as we go then how life

progress matches expectations this is
a way to operationalize us biologically so

biologically I am an organism that has a
set of expectations I behave a certain way

and I look to either match
those expectations or

see the exceed those if I match
them I could be deemed as satisfied

if I exceed them I could be to deem as
happy so if life turns out to be my

current state turns out to be greater than
my expectations I'm usually pretty happy.

It's a good way to operationalize it
from the biologists and then there's

also the spiritual side the spiritual
experience of living every moment the love

of racing gratitude there's lots of
studies around this about love and

happiness connection and happiness active
practice is of gratitude gratitude

journaling and so things are people
familiar with the greater good center and

out of California they do a lot
of these types of studies and

they're really interesting to think about.

OK And why is happiness matter
what we know that happiness

typically when people report
themselves happier or

happy they report they are healthier
Yeah thanks they are healthier I think.

You know they're more willing to
participate and they're nice or

whatever that means in that situation.

Significant gains in
academics desk behavior and

creativity in this trip this
plans on educational studies and

also things like Google who have found
ways to make people super productive

maybe to productive maybe more like
robots but we'll talk about that too.

OK and then greater chance of success and
increased productivity same to stuff.

And it matters to country cities and
communities or

countries all over the world.

Has taken on this idea of gross and
happiness as other countries modeling that

France is England is doing some stuff
city there are cities that have happy

city in the seas they have measures
they're looking at the happiness of their

citizens in their communities
doing the things as well and

then I've noticed a lot in the last
I have been researching this area for

the last ten years or so and I've noticed
a lot of this is really starting to

pick up momentum at universities and also
across individuals individuals are really

interested in how we pursue happiness and
how we can find that.

And we'll talk more about what it all
means I'm not going to go into super

depth on sustainability I'll just
tell you that with the way that I

conceptualize sustainability is a play on
Brian's definition of meeting the needs of

the present while also addressing the
wrongs of the past right a lot of us have

access to resources today because we
have wrong people in the past or we've.

Not nicely taken resources right and so
we have think about how we redistribute

these things and then how can we do that
what without compromising the needs of

the future generations and
then very simply for

happiness Well just think of it as
a subjective evaluation of one's wellbeing

so how I evaluate my own physical
mental spiritual emotional wellbeing.

So lots of people all over even dogs and
and other animals ask how do we

link these two things sustainability and
happiness how do we tie it together and

I thought a lot about this and I used
to think that sustainability happiness

are the same and I've gone through
different iterations of that and

I'll share how I feel about sustainability
happiness at the end this is an amazing

picture so we were working in Guatemala
and I was there with McDowell whose name

is down there right there he's quite a
photographer and he catches these amazing

photos and so this gentleman here
with another one here what they do

is they ride around the countryside it's
not really countryside it's farm on its.

Corporate farms and their land was
taken from locals there and they go and

they take firewood they illegally steal
firewood and then they take it throughout

the village and they sell it and they
make some money doing that and there's

also a lot it's actually kind of rare to
see a man doing this usually you see women

hiking up the side of a road with a big
pack of wood on the caption This would but

I think this really captures the essence
of what we're thinking about right this is

a farm that took some farms it took
some land for people there that live

locally and had the land for many
years before them and then they go and

they're stealing firewood and they're
redistributing it to the community for

some little income and I just the shirt
really seals the deal that he loves his

job right what an interesting thing to
think about when you see these things

happening while you're there in person and
I like that he has and this is it.

So I'm going to talk about sustainability
happiness linking these things together

empirically and talking about.

Some of them the make metrics and things
that we've developed along the way and

we'll talk about anecdotally two and
then the happy eleven Have you heard so

the happy lab is this is the inability
happiness research that's

my research lab at A.S.U.
We have about twenty two students and

there are seven or eight Ph D.

students if you masters and then undergrad
honor students and then happy Hood's happy

who does the work sustainability
sustainable neighborhoods to happiness so

we work in communities thinking about
how we feel when opportunities for

happiness through intentional design
intentional interventions that come from

the community and then we support with the
resources we have to help the community.

And then I'll talk a little bit at the end
about where we're headed in kind of what's

going to happen in the next
couple years as I see it.

OK comparative studies and indices of this
driving some of the work that I did for

my Ph D.

and beyond and
I'll share this with you now.

One of the first things I did I was very
interested in how sustainability and

happiness relate and so did a basic cross
cross sectional study looking at data from

the Gallup poll Gallup Well-Being Index
and comparing it with sustain lane and

the green city index which are two
sustainability indices for

cities in the U.S. So we correlated all
this data collected all this data and

we did correlational studies and we found
that there are significant relationships

between certain categories and happiness
that display this in a different way so

it's more friendly for you to look at.

The ones that we really found
are impactful so governance matters and

there's different metrics of governance
in there that I can show you later.

Buildings waste and energy and these ones
are statistically significantly related so

we did this with I did this a lot
of other different data sets and

I started to come up with these kind of
categories and it's done and for interview

these i just want to show you all the
different ones but in water management and

energy management in urban design you're
starting to see these are things that

engineers have some play and right at
least initially that's what I was thinking

as an engineering student and
a future engineer working in the field.

And even business in economic development
with clean technology incubators and

green business directories and
things we play a role in that stuff.

So put all these things together into some
metrics and I what I did is I went to

twenty two cities across the U.S.
and developed this index and

I said I want to I want to understand can
we predict happy to out opportunity for

happiness based on sustainability
interventions and how are these things

related and are sustained sustainability
happiness by directionally Related Is it

related only in one direction what are the
relationships between these things this is

called the sustainable neighborhoods for
happiness index and you can see here that

each one has its own metric or
measure variable and then we have

weightings in the middle so everyone's
weighted explain how that happened here.

So I went through and

did these correlational studies I talked
about earlier and then I had a panel of

experts who work in these areas do some
waiting with me along along the way.

And we just gave some initial winnings and
then just a constrained linear

optimization to figure out what the way
things are for each of these things and

what you see here with the final weight is
that things like energy play a huge role

in predicting opportunities for
happiness so does waste sort of build at

the time we spend so much time in
buildings predicts a great opportunity for

happy we are and this surprisingly
there are things like urban design

which had different measures
that I would use today.

But those are important as well.

Simple linear equation.

And then I started to study the cities and
you see not surprisingly that cities like

Seattle and San Francisco provide
a great opportunity for happiness and

this is controlled for income too so
it's not just based on income

even though it is expensive to live there
and this is your one hundred scale.

And then you see other cities here Phoenix
where I live is not the happiest place to

live and then Detroit at the time was
going through bankruptcy the day that we

had for Detroit was through bankruptcy so
that probably looks a lot different today.

But this is all information to take right
take this information and the idea behind

this information we can do this with
neighborhoods as well as we can aggregate

this data and we can generate curves in
which we can begin to plot communities

that we score and every time we get more
communities we can update the curve or

we can update the distribution of all
the cities and we can start to think about

what cities are what neighborhoods do this
really well what can we learn from them

and what ones aren't doing so well what
can we learn from them as well and

how do we think about how
we from opportunities for

happiness through
sustainability interventions.

And so there's an example so

I scored after I was in Athens shortly
after the time of this there for

a postdoc in engineering and
also in Ithaca where I did my Ph D.

and went through and describe these cities
and I just want to share this just to show

generally how you can score these cities
and scale them from zero to one hundred

and then you can plot them and that's
the idea that I was describing so we could

do this with Atlanta we could do it with
the Georgia Tech community we could do it

with the neighborhoods that we work and
and so we did shift this over from a spill

level index to a neighborhood level
index which I'll share in a little bit.

And then comes the real work and

this is again an overwhelming thing that I
don't want you to read but I just want you

to understand the amount of work that goes
behind this scoring these actual cities so

you spend time calling looking on the
census or you call the city of Baltimore

and you're asking for all this data and do
this for twenty two cities it took a long

long time to scrub the cities and so
what I was thinking about as I was doing

these is to document where we get this
information about how can we do this in

a more efficient way where we can begin to
score cities rapidly and develop an index

a help to help us figure out the impacts
that we're having in the communities.

And then for every city we
develop this spider chart and

you can see in the black line this is
the actual city and how they score in each

category the green the dark green is the
average in the outer green is the best and

so this is Baltimore and what this
is a tool is a tool to help guide

interventions in a community and that's
the idea in a neighborhood in the city and

you can see that Baltimore struggles with
water management so anyone that works for

the city of Baltimore someone that we
collaborated with could say what can we do

to improve our water management score
that was the idea behind you know X..

And then you could see a city like
San Francisco who is nearly at the best on

most things they struggle a little bit in
food management and again these are even

a place like San Francisco can
look at this scoring profile and

think about what interventions could we
take to work within our community and

the idea again of this is not just
about this is saying ability and

rent interventions it's about how they're
related to promoting opportunities for

happiness and the reason I say
opportunities for happiness is because not

everyone is going to take advantage of the
things that are not going to going to or

not able to take advantage of the things
that will be available to them by a city

and that's what I really like we're
here the neighborhood scale that I.

Just another way to this to
depict these things standard T.V.

one standard deviation above and
below how the cities fall in there and

again this is data where people can look
in comparative they compare their city to

another look at how that city does well or
not and think about how

they could do things within their
city to promote higher scores.

And then this is not the what most
wonderful chart in the world but

it's this is every city plotted on
that same distribution and you can see

cities like San Francisco and Seattle are
out here all the traits out here and there

are places that I live closer to like
Boston or up on the upper half but again

how they fall within distribution is just
another way to distribute to show that.

So then I had a student come when I was
starting when I was working as a professor

started working as a professor he came in
he was really interested in turning this

into a neighborhood level tool that people
could use with tablets and phones and

could go on their own neighborhood and
score their own neighborhood and so

he took all the categories and he changed
all the city level indicators into

neighborhood level indicators and I'll
give an example of one how he did that but

this is the tool you use and you go in and
you can click on it and then Bill.

Things you could click
in on one of these and

what would happen is one
of these would open up.

And so you could see for

building indicators there's four different
categories that he created in these

all drawn literature and he did this and
I was helping him by this.

And how many houses have
a serious Cape landscaping so

he would walk up and
down the street of a neighborhood and

he would he would assess that right
low water use in the desert and

this is specific to Phoenix not specific
to Georgia or a place like that so

it could be modified you go through and
do all these different things and

then he would go back he would go to each
category and then you to calculate and

it would spit out a score like this and
I would tell you how well they do in each

category and then again it's just it's
built to look at what interventions might

be possible at the neighborhood
level right so this one that he did.

The neighborhood this is a neighborhood
that we work in that it's not there's

not great public transportation access and
residents want that well and

that's a part of the waiting in the next
so we think about what can we do

to enhance public transportation and
index in that community or access and

then again this is all we did for
how it affects happiness OK so

talk outline that was the that
was the engineering of stuff and

we're going to watch a video here about
what what I show for talk outline

how about how about thirty seconds to
discuss again why show that what I showed.

You that Chad is a group for

thirty seconds why did I show that
again now hearing what you just heard.

There this has me talk again why am I
doing this let's share let's shout Why

why why am I not giving the talk out loud
on purpose and person when I first start.

Why didn't I give the talk outline

think about the definition of
happiness they shared earlier.

One of the definitions of happiness

and checking expectations right that's
the idea so when the reason that we give

talk outlines is so I can moderate your
expectations a little bit right so you can

know what's coming and then you can make
an assessment based on what I provide how

well I did on that talk outline right and
sometimes we lose ourselves in the title

and we forget where we actually outlined
in The Ramble in another direction but

that's the idea and why would I show up
to promote you what's the point of that.

How do you set the bar the how do you how
do you feel when I showed that the and

you can be honest about this is a check
how did you feel when I showed that.

Spot that's possible with outs who wanted
to actually see you know and you could be

honest as a safe space because I like it I
will I will respect you this is good and

how did you feel when you didn't see it do
you feel like you're robbing a little bit.

Like I was wasting your time me sure.

OK we'll close one more time with this
discussion but I just want to think about

it on the show a video now I think
we have sound it should work.

Yeah.

I think it's important to study
sustainability happiness because we all

strive to be happy and I believe that the
pursuit of happiness is in direct conflict

with sustainability I believe that we're
focused on material goods and consumption

and finding athletes to happiness that
don't necessarily line up which is that

ability principles and to me happiness
is what we're all after so for all after

happiness I think it's important that we
think about how we can pursue happiness

while also being illogical you're right
about all the and socially sustainable.

So initially the community
engagement group formed as really.

The group that would go
out into the community and

engage with the residents to find
out what projects there were for

other groups to work on figure
out maybe what the wants and

needs were find out maybe other neighbors
that were willing to engage with us from

the people that we already had contact
with follow up with past projects so

on and so forth then and
we really did a good job with that but

the thing that I think we were really
successful at is as the semester

progressed we realized that maybe
our original intent needed to

morph a little bit to fit the needs
of the class and the neighborhood so

we worked with the teams in our class in
terms of just really being kind of a check

point for them and making sure that they
were to be in this happiness framework

with in whatever they were doing in
terms of sustainable interventions and

that they were checking their mindsets and
making sure they were going in as X.

burns and then even continuing
on throughout the semester and

thinking about.

Maybe that how we could market
ourselves to the communities so

we moved into that space where we
could potentially create videos and

maybe a social media presence and so

going forward I think that that
will be a really good start for

groups to continue our work as
a community engagement team.

I think my biggest takeaway from this
class is just it's just a different

experience completely from the four years
you spent in the sustainability student

it really is just sort of the inquiry and
we talk about these theories and

we talk about these concepts and this was
really the first opportunity we had to

actually put it to the test I think
one of the ME major parts soon

ability is people and that's what we did
we started just talking to people we would

have to people's houses and we talked
with them we just went door to door and

everything house you know Candy and
getting to know some of the neighbors and

just talking about you know what we were
all about and when we're trying to do you.

Going to the time to explain kind of where
we're coming from it was really amazing to

see how many people are going
to genuinely interested and

what we were trying to do and
I think it was really nice to see how

the shooting even if someone in the
certainly one of our home in their yard or

anything like that they were very creative
that we were taking our time going to

the neighborhood and kind of helping out
their neighbors I was really willing a lot

to start with you know before we got
to the community we came up with our

plans like one of the plans I want
to do was to survey residents

about kind of how they feel about
how cohesive the community was and

whether or not they feel like their voices
in like the local city government is

respecting and so the first interview
that I did with a resident.

Enough to be not such a good idea didn't
really bring up the temper things I was

looking at and I was reminded by
the resident that I have a lot of

book knowledge but not all of the things
in the books work out in real life so

this helped us re shame we shape
our focus and honestly the block

party was a much better way of engaging in
community cohesiveness and creating clean

cohesiveness than a surveyor interview
would never ever been and so

things I took away I was learning to
not come with too many pre-planned and

preconceptions And those things that Scott
told us to repeat was I know nothing and

on it's with that mentality
that you step in and

you look at kind of how can I help instead
of How Can I compose this plan on you know

and so that was a great lesson and
in the end I think abiding

by that lesson we were able
to in fact get a lot of

our original goals to achieve I had a very
interesting time trying to figure out

that like I like straight edges ninety
degree corners I love technical stuff

just science based and
it was very interesting to go in and

teach abstract concepts and and having to
build something as abstract as trust and

even friendship trying to inspire and
cultivate another concept in

just happiness which is a really
hard thing to pin down in and

of itself like even individually
we can't really define

our own happiness let alone what's good
for someone else let alone what's good for

several other people and that's very
interesting dynamic of the neighborhood

I had a lot of fun just to get like
the stimulation you get from that and

just seeing how happy makes people because
you know maybe they cut it there or

you know his money will get in time and
we just go and

do it don't worry we're going to do this
very random thing for you and it's for

the sake of academics and
you just hope it makes you happy what.

It's so good about the classes you get
to work with people with such different

mindsets and backgrounds and I think
it really adds to the experience and

while we were working with the community
we formed our own community so

our little queen gets one group became
a community and then our class and

I remember doing a reading about communing
age man and they said you know part of

communication is utilizing the different
skill sets amongst the residents and

then I realised that was something we
were doing within our own community so

if we'd I kicked a project
like hey we want a garden bad.

Fixed or we needed a tree planted
we would think OK who are who in

our community can bask address this
as communion gauge man I thought we

had a really good offer to you or we
could just jump into any project because

we didn't have our own agenda we didn't
have any food projects or beautification

projects that we specifically wanted to
deal our only job was to make sure that

other things got done so helping other
groups in our community actually I think

taught me a lot and
it gave me a lot of happiness in that and

because I got to see them accomplish
what they wanted to do you know and

you know to see the residents
you know really benefit and

enjoy working with the other students and
our own and that's what I've learned so

much from this process from my
students I've learned how to teach and

learn the same time I think it's a gift.

Learning from the understanding the way
that they process the world around them

the systems that they believe in
what they're up to in the world

the problem was favorite thing about
the question that's watching the students

struggle at times and be scared and
nervous and frustrated.

And then it just all comes together at
the highest in the last few weeks and

I just feel so blessed to be able
to watch that process to feel.

Feel the students energy to see them
grow comforting but I think that the.

To me is the most important takeaway for
them is the ability to be confident

we can do as individuals with
someone telling us how to you know.

It captures the essence of
what the work is all about and

what my research is and what.

It's not just the students that
go through that process it's I go

through that process alongside them.

And the residents that we work
with go through that process and

what we're doing is we're using
sophisticated tools of engineering and

math and science and we're using those
as soules to promote this transition and

to promote our transition ourselves how we
develop as individuals in the project and

as a community as a class and then how we
also develop alongside residents and so.

The first the first year or so that I
was there I was told a lot that I was

say in there the devil and I was poisoning
my students' minds which I probably

am doing maybe with good things but
I'm still poisoned their eyes and

I'm getting I'm getting students to think
outside of the way that we think about

things normally and in order to do that I
have to think outside of the way we think

about things normally myself and
it's a it's an amazing adventure

it's a lot of fun so I'm going to get
into the neighborhood work and I'm going

to share some examples of projects that we
do and then I will close it all up with.

A summary of where we're headed.

OK So sustainable neighborhoods for

happiness happy Hood's this was born
out of the index and so the index was

originally born out of the idea that I
could go to all these communities and

I could score them and sit in my office
and make comments about everybody and

then I'd be done right now I get my
get my job and tenure and I'd be

home just chillin whatever that looks
like but the when I started to worry.

In communities and I had started the story
might be a city and I had been I was in

the attorney for six years and I had been
a lot of communities in the military and.

I knew something was missing and so
we started to work in communities and

I was trying to think about what are the
core traits that anyone that works in

these communities this community based or
it needs what we need as humans and

we like threes right threes
are going to raise and so the for

the first one without question that I've
learned just over and over again is this

insane sense of humility like beyond
normal humility you have to know that

you know nothing and in order to know it
knowing that you know nothing opens up so

much space to hear the stories
that other people have the sharing

to see the experiences that other people
who are not like you who do not think like

you don't look like you process the world
including not engineers and people that

you know the sorrow who is talking of
the student she had said something about

green spaces to the resident the residents
like what the hell are green

is like that's Parky that shit sounds
like something out of a textbook and

she was like my God like I don't
know how to act we will and

these are the things we learn as we go
through this work and as we go on we're

doing engineering projects right now
we're designing a straw bale shed and

we're going to getting all kinds of cool
engineering features onto it we can't

talk engineering you can't talk about
that you can't really talk sustainability

you can't really talk happiness you
just talk on a human to human level and

where people are and the happiness route
is a nice route to go on explain that more

and a bit the other
ideas an open heart and

I don't mean the open heart in
the sense of running around and

hugging everybody in Cooma on all those
things I mean an open heart in the sense

of connecting with any one of the heart
to heart level I can connect with you no

matter what you're saying to me I can
try to connect with that and connect and

embody what you're saying and take it on
and on as is what I'm saying right and

think about how that would affect me and
then but

I do in that space with access
to the resources that I have and

the same thing with an open mind right so
there have been so many times that I have

thought I've known in this community
based work and I quickly get slapped

across the head that I don't know right
and so I have to check myself and

say OK I thought this was the way that
things were I thought we would do.

In this and the residents perceive it
as this or this or that and we have to

readjust or the city perceives that we're
doing some one way or the other and

there's an adjustment right so these are
the three fundamental traits that I really

find key to our projects now so being
an academic I always try to pull this back

to research and thinking about methods and
processes and frameworks that we can put

these things into and how you would do
this and how this can be replicated So

right now we have project partners in
Guadalajara Mexico in Bolivia we've had

partners in Bolivia and
in Denmark our sorry in.

Bolivia we have now we had partners
in Guatemala and in Denmark and

the idea is that each institution local
university leads this local project on

the ground and we are a global network of
people doing this type of work and we're

sharing our experiences with our so I'm
not what I started doing was being the guy

that would show up and then they would
want me to lead the project in Guatemala

when I realize I can't do that I don't
have a local context I'm not from there

I don't live there there's so many things
that are missing to me so many factors and

there's and I said today's who a group of
students here there's ten thousand plus

universities in the United States Imagine
if every university took ownership of some

communities nearby then the impact that
we could have doing this type of work and

that's the idea and
using this framework through happiness to

move toward sustainability so making
sustainability not about doom and gloom or

about fear that we're all going to die
making it more about this positive emotion

the dopamine releases
are serotonin receptors firing that

are telling us this is a good thing
we're doing a good job the baby

steps are OK We're doing all right some of
the project so the first step is what I

call happiness visioning out of this thing
is this step is really about reciprocity

establishing reciprocity with a community
where it's an equal stange of wisdom and

knowledge and resources we're learning and
giving and we're taking and

growing from one another and with one
another and this is a very slow process

this is not something that is overnight
it probably took us about a year and

a half to two years just to develop
a sense of reciprocity to where

we were sharing some plants with residents
and they were cooking this these foods for

our students and then we started
to get into these more calm.

Projects in our projects continue to get
more complicated as we go and involve more

parts and stakeholders to help out with it
once you're through they have as many of

the idea of the visioning session as you
have everybody that comes to the table all

stakeholders the community members
cities businesses organizations students

faculty staff we all get together we think
about OK what are the things that we

can contribute to a community to promote
opportunities for happiness within that

community that also match sustainability
and we have those conversations and

this is an iterative process again and so
I'll be updating this this image soon and

then step two is really about CO creation
OK now we know that these resources

exist we have all or all of our kind of
assets together what can we co-create

what do we want to do what are the themes
that we've heard in the community maybe

some residents are talking about food some
residents are talking about wanting to

have a community association some
are talking about a community garden or

transportation we take all
this information we have

a big conversation about what things
we can co-create together and

then we look at an asset in a tour of
the things that exist within that thing we

want to create so if we want to create a
community garden do we have vacant land do

we have a group of residents who want to
lead this thing do we have access to water

on that land do we have what kind of
supplies we have to bring from outside and

put that on that land is that sustainable
how we sustainably harvest water how

we distribute the food that's grown and
things are wasted how we compost then what

we do with that compost we wring it to
a community nearby we keep it locally we

give it to people in the community these
are all things that pop up so this

is a big big long process as we go through
this once we have an idea of the assets we

pull all these things together and now we
know we can systems plan right and this

is kind of where I think engineers would
thrive in the space where you know you hot

you have all the available resources that
you have these are both you know human

and non human and natural resources and
not natural resource you have

all these things together and you think
about now we're going to we're working on

a community garden or working on gardens
of homes what do we need to do to make

that happen we go through this
big planning phase for that and

then we make the interventions and
we go through and we put in a garden or

we start the community garden and this is
a cyclical process it goes right back we

say OK now we've done this stage
in the food process of the.

Community Garden let's have let's have
another visionary session to talk about

where we want to go next let's talk about
who needs to be involved who's missing

whose voice is not being there are we
being too dominant are we forcing our

ideas on you these type of conversations.

So I want to just give some examples of
places that we've been around lately this

is this this one from Guadalajara Mexico
and so what we like to do what we're

thinking about a lot lately is how do
you how do you go into a community and

I don't like to go to a community and just
say you need to be fixed because it just

doesn't make sense because nobody wants
to be told they need to be fixed and

nobody really needs to be fixed right
we go if we're invited and so we were

invited by a colleague at the University
of Guadalajara who asked us to come and

work with the local community there and so

he took us to the community to meet with
them and we met with the community and

the first thing they did is we
went right to the church and

this is their church inside the building
while our just outside the town.

And what happened is the utility came in
and they put a pole right in front of

their the entrance to their church this
is this is meant to be an arch and

be like this beautiful entrance
to this building right and

they don't have the resources to get it
moved or to have to have it moved in so

what the university of Guadalajara is
doing now is they're working on having

that moved and then they're going to have
a big event where they remove the poor and

move it to the other side and

they were going to you know do that
through the front in the facade and

make the entryway and
you talk about centers for happiness and

sustainability churches are often that
especially in countries like Mexico.

Where people come every Sunday to worship
more than every Sunday to worship and

to pray to practice and this is their
community center where they talk about

things going on in the community so

every project we have an offering
like this where we come in and

we offer something to the community
that they would like down and

that's the start of the process we start
that and then we start getting together

as a team and visioning and thinking
about what we can co-create together.

We've also working in Guatemala and I just
want to point this out to you take a look

at these buildings here and notice
the steps in the front I just want you

to think about those I'm a tell your story
we got those in a minute this is a Habitat

for Humanity colony and
people move here from from not wonderful.

Situations and they move into these
colonies and they they live here I'll

share more about that in that we've been
to Denmark to this is the largest urban

garden I think they call themselves the
largest urban garden in the world they're

on there on this site that's going to be
built with a skyscraper at some point but

they haven't been able to figure out
how to get the foundations straight.

But the thing that's interesting about
this community is twenty five percent of

this building which is the iceberg
it's a very famous building in or who

stand Mark that they really love twenty
five percent of his low income and so

in places in the U.S. waterfront property
like this would be very expensive and

that wouldn't be set aside so Denmark's
an example for that in Denmark I've

taken students study abroad there
every two years the last two summers.

And that's an amazing place to study
happiness for many reasons immigration is

a major problem there right now so we get
to see these things on the front lines and

then we work in Bolivia and Bolivia we're
traveling down the summer with a group of

ten or twenty standing twenty students and
will be doing community based work they're

thinking about starting a project there
and there's a commune there's a university

there that will lead the on
the ground efforts and

we're helping support the network and then
this is victory acres this is where we

were A.S.U.
is roughly over here somewhere and

then here too it's about a mile and
a half two miles east of the University.

And so this is the neighborhood here and
so in the in the not that long ago

actually I forget is the fifty's or
seventy's this this was cleared for

right away for a highway and
this committee was asked on today and

also victory Akers' love authority to
have the they put the highway through and

most of us probably know what happens with
the but when highways go through some part

of it falls apart right and so you can
notice the vacant lot start popping up and

then this is the community center that
residents don't have access to except for

one road over the highway which
is really stressful to walk over

because I was always packed and so
we focused our efforts here but

we were asked here by Habitat for Humanity
at the time to do some work with them

helping to get habitat humanity's
efforts into the community so

we went there we started working with them
and we started working on the ground and

so the process that happens for of Egypt
want to start to show these things in

person is we have these visioning
sessions right where we get together and

these are students and
these are residents and and staff and

he's just more students this is Terry who
we work with quite a bit in the community

and then THIS IS US IN A lot of
Mala doing the same thing so

what resources that we have available to
us to promote happiness in the community.

And what's really turned out in victory
acres the commune that we work in not far

from the university is edible landscaping
and perma culture which is a highly

engineered system but it's also very
complex because we live in the desert

how much water can you actually use
what kind of plants can you integrate So

this is this lady here she's from
the Philippines or names Terry.

And she wants certain types of fruit
plants that remind her of home arena which

is not a fruit plant it's a low butter
use plant really awesome plant super high

dense protein and all kinds of nutrients
but she wants Mandarin and orange and

Pomelo and guava and so we're putting
these things in there were thinking about

what kind of systems can we design
to capture water for these and

should we design those things.

She would like to integrate aquaculture
these types of systems too and

then right now we're working on she
changes this is evil into a meditation

circle insurrection how do we actually
design a meditation circle and what's the.

Engineers or civil engineers can we
integrate to help us with that process and

what tools can we think about to integrate
Edible Landscaping and water and all those

things and then we're also designing a
shed like I said the stripe will shed and

all the different natural building
techniques that exist for that at the same

time so we have this running for
many houses in the neighborhood that we

we do and then we have lots of students
that are working in all kinds of different

projects or some students work on
designing a building a garden bed some

students we're going getting your gauge
and systems in some sense think about

how we later hook that irrigation system
up to grey water main water catchment

some students just work on hanging out
just hang out with the residents and

chat and don't want to do any a labor and
that's a space for them to just to

develop relationships of the residents
of new residence things like that.

And then my boys always come there
bigger than that now therefore

they come out How about the neighborhood.

It's pretty awesome to watch them drag
around shovels and not work much but it's

still from the US and then this is Jason
Jason quite a bit about permaculture and

edible landscaping in the garden in
the desert and he is an undergraduate just

about to become a master student
program wealth of knowledge and

then every semester what we used to call
these was community engagement parties and

I'm not a big fan of the word community
engagement because it's often one sided.

But he but now we do this block parties
in the city actually is the one that

turned this idea of a lot of parties and
we have these block parties and

we introduce all kinds of sustainability
things we introduce deuced types

of foods and residents have tables where
they sell things like at a yard sale or

it's this big celebration
of the end of and

the semester we all get together
celebrate what we've been working on.

And then every semester students have
projects they finish this is one semester

where they often it's the guy they
finish so much a garden beds and

then the state group here they're
sifting Bermuda grass which do

you have between a grass here is not fun
to get rid of it's quite challenging and

it's high it's highly into.

It's of it's such a nature that out of the
soil like crazy and so the trees and fruit

plants and gardens can't grow very well in
that so we've been removing that in some

spaces if any of you would like to have an
engineering project in design a sifter for

Bermuda grass I will pay you
significantly because it's a lot of work

getting it out we spend
many hours on that.

And then these are some of the residents
as we do small projects students you know

integrate simple things like orange trees
or put in different gardening things Terry

is a master gardener streets
all these amazing things and

every semester reporting in more and
more sophisticated projects and

integrating more and
more sophisticated things.

And this is just the picture of Terry so
I always like to tell this story because

we were we had just kind of met Terri
at a community meeting in the community

things were tough and they were and
they were tents for for good reasons.

And we kept going to Terry's to spend time
with her and she kept telling us about

this amazing garden she used to have with
her husband and it finally clicked for

me that that's what we should start with
one of our first projects we the community

just a garden or house to the neighborhood
did not want to community garden they

didn't want to manage it they didn't
want to go through that hassle.

So we thought about well how do we put
a garden in that into that community and

we built her she wanted to raise
garden beds so we built that start and

sense and we've done a ton of food
projects in the community and

that really started at that idea because
lots of residents will come to Terry's and

see it in that I want I want
something like that right so

we're introducing healthy foods and
alternative food and we're growing crazy

stuff that none of us have heard about
that grows well in the desert and

we're all learning alongside each other
as we go and Terry's cooking all these

amazing dishes with it too which is really
cool so back to the white Amala story.

Habitat has wonderful intentions and they
do amazing work and they get people out

of very terrible living situations
they put them in these homes but

one of the things that we found a lot
in this community is people felt

like the houses were too was a they
didn't have their cultural flavor and

they also didn't provide much space to
interact the road is right next to here

there's not really a space where you can
hang out and connect with your resident

connect with fellow residents and
things right and that's very common in.

Phoenix and that's for sure about Atlanta
with the garage front facing garages and

everything they have is here in Atlanta
and up no front facing porches so

front facing porches if you don't have
those front porches that's really

challenging for social capital where you
really know your community because we go

into our garages close the door
only Great into our house and

we don't really know anybody or
have a chance to interact with people so

we purposely been flipping gardens
out to the front of the community and

starting to put Sherry gardens out
front so we can start interacting with

residents in the community as
we do this work and my wife and

I put a guard in their front yard trying
to do the same stuff so I'm it's not like

I'm living in a wonderful paradise of
a neighborhood either we're doing the same

stuff actively in our community as well
trying to the relationship between or.

So that we went to the mayor's house
which looked exactly like this ten years

before in the same type
of neighborhood and

that's what he did to the house
he changed it completely and so

we were asking habitat Well why don't
we just connect with the residents and

why don't we just design these things to
begin with have some options across to

you know like a scale of options
that people could pick from and

we were still working with
Habitat at the time but

now we're not working with them so we're
not sure what's going to happen with that

but this is a lesson learned this is a
valuable design lesson right if you design

these houses that are in and
you can look down here that one change and

everyone down the street is change
if you're giving something P.

a product that they're all changing that's
a sign that something might be wrong with

your product right and so it think about
that particular from a sustainability

happiness in point cultural sustainability
how people feel when they come

home into their home and they see that
it's very important to spend a lot of time

in their homes this is
a cool story of this

young lady who had a cook stove and so
people are trying to integrate stoves into

into local homes in Guatemala all the time
in other places around the world and

they're struggling with that they're
struggling with getting it to happen and

so they give cooks those that look like
this and residents will take them and

they'll use them as tables or they'll use
them as like a pot holder or they'll put

in just weird spaces and not use it right
and to me again that's a failed design

where we haven't connected enough with the
people on the ground who live there and

experience life every day to see if it's
something that they really want done and

the idea of getting
the smoke out of the house

all the smoke filters back into
the house and there's children in there.

And the same thing happens with water
filtration systems a genius design and

engineer down there design this came
up with this cool desire he used.

It's essential the sawdust and
wood fire wood fired killing he fired

the kiln with clay and it turned into a
filter water filled activity carbon water

filter basically he put silver in there to
strip out some of the micronutrients and

he a lot of these turns in the water or
Flora pots or

seats around the so seats around
the table from the cook stove right and

so again a missed design thing that we're
going to see as we're working on these

projects and then this one is another one
that I want to share with the rabbits so

there is a group of people who were
listening to the local Guatemalans and

understanding that there are nutrient
deficient they were an issue division and

protein they were eating a lot of corn
tortillas and corn is not rich in protein.

And so what they decided was to the people
who decided to help the locals grow

rabbits rabbits are pets for
many Guatemalans and

so be like us raising dogs to eat them
right there was a missing point there and

then what was happening is the locals
were feeding tortillas to the rabbits who

then became nutrient division and they are
habits who are nutrient deficient right

and so again a missed opportunity
here to see this and so

what actually happened this project is
a school organization called Seeds for

seeds for the future I think they came
in and they they worked with locals and

found that there's this there's this plant
that grows locally that super high in.

And our protein and all kinds of amazing
nutrients and they shot that up and

put it in the tortillas and
they didn't have to eat their pets and

they don't have to raise their pets to eat
them and they can eat the tortillas to

be happy and they taste pretty good
we got to taste them they were good.

And then of course wonderful companies
like Pepsi exist in the middle of

Guatemala in the most remote village you
could ever see there's a Pepsi stand

it is the most mind blowing thing I've
ever seen in my life and theirs and

some of these places the water is so

contaminated the residents call
the saga that is their water and

then they introduce things like to read
those in the interest of the snacks and

the residents love it because it's
this awesome dopamine rush we're like

holy shit this feels amazing anything
I've eaten right but they can't stop and

they're malnourished and they have
all kinds of issues of that right and

we're not we're no better we're awesome
on there is from these things but

I think thinking through
the lens of sustainability and

happiness all of these examples that I
share with you a look much different and

this is what helped me to think
differently about sustainability and

happiness I used to think sustainably
happiness were the same thing I used to

think and if were happy were sustainable
if were sustainable were happy and

I don't think that's
necessarily true anymore

I actually think that happiness
is why are unsustainable

in the way that we think about happiness
as pleasure we largely pursue pleasure.

In the name of unsustainability right
we could we could all go right now and

get drunk and have a bunch of food and
party and do all kinds of crazy stuff for

pretty low expense and that would not be
sustainable at all right we could do and

then we can wake up tomorrow and get
stressed about our work and then we can

say let's do it again tonight we're not
stressed get another dopamine rush and

this is what we do and this is what you
psychologically in a logically return

to these things so thinking more
about happiness we're ahead and

I'm really starting to think more and
more about happiness as meaning and

how do we how do we develop purpose in
our life as we move towards a state but

in how do we move through
the pathway of pleasure to introduce

the sustainability concepts to where we
get to space where we find meaning and

purpose and it has to be objective I don't
believe there's an objective purpose

I mean I think we want to live we
want to survive but there's just so

much variation in what
people are after and

what they think they believe in
what they what resonates for

them so our job is to try to help promote
these pathways where we move toward

sustainability not through the doom and
gloom around.

So goals for the future we're continuing
to assess project impacted by the verse in

social capital it's really amazing
to see all the animals and birds and

bees and bugs that are returning to the
community as we're starting to do these

edible landscaping projects and alongside
that social capital is increasing people

are sharing food to residents who didn't
really talk to each other got together and

cooked a meal for our whole class and
we set off running from their house it was

just an amazing experience and
you see these things shifting so

I'm very interested from an N.S.F. couple
natural human systems type perspective how

these things grow together and can there
be interventions that allow them to be

mutually beneficial growing going forwards
that's something we're doing there and

then looking at qualitative asked
quantitative aspects are easy for

me as an engineer but I'm very interested
in qualitative aspects you know what

do people say in interviews and
how do they perceive their community and

what are the themes we can draw out
of that for more strategies and

interventions to go forward and then
how do we use technological design and

complex science to promote whatever
it is that they're looking for and

we can tap into those resources at
the university on a huge scale.

And then just continually modifying the
framework we're continuously reevaluating

what we're doing in the neighborhood and
what's being what's useful and

what's not useful and we're getting
feedback from residents and thinking about

is this something we can replicate to
many communities in can we talk to

a lot of the high about our efforts and
their efforts and how can we continue

to modify this idea of how we're actually
going to do this work from the ground up.

And then investments in our
work to support residents and

students so we continue to seek funds and

grants to support students
through philanthropy it through.

Scientific grants or governmental
foundation grants and then again like I

said we're expanding this partnership in
network domestic and internationally so

we're working more more in Phoenix we're
starting to have more communities pop up

there that want to work together and then
we have more countries that are asking us

to get on board and help them with the
idea the hardest idea is to go to somebody

to fly to another country and
they I'm not going to help you.

Will be a partner and
will be in your network but

you really have to lead this effort and

so we're doing that before we even leave
the country now to go help to make sure

that somebody wants to be locally invested
in leading the project and then this is

probably the best quote that ever existed
with happiness and I think if you all want

to be happy you have it within you
happiness exists within all of us and

if you think that you have that you're
happy that is enough to be happy and

we all have a good life here and we all
have privilege and we all have access to

resources and there's places that I've
been all over the world the communities

that don't have that and they're happy as
can be to write because they have these

different perspectives of community and
connection thinking about those things and

then this literally increases
happiness there's this bacteria and so

I'll call them back a and if we get it in
our hands and our nails and we inhale and

ingest it we have releases of dopamine and
we get happy and

the soil tells us to getting in so
we dug a soil pit and

put water in it the students stuck their
hand it was very fun to watch them play

in the soil cause many of them
don't they don't do that right and

there's also been there's been
studies that have been shown.

People who had low libido couples who had
low libido as they did a controlled study

with a control group in another group
that gardened and their libido went up

there are lower incidence of cancer so
digging in soil is good for

you to go dig in soil if you want to
be happy good and then I love the last

quote No one can make a greater mistake
and he and I think it could be she too

who did nothing because you know we
do a little and there it is again.

And that's that.

Thank you friends.

Thank you.

Why is that there.

What's the purpose is true.

That is true.

I really want you to think
about expectations and

happiness in your own life and

in the lives that you see of others what
do we expect what do we think we deserve

and then how do we behave to try to
achieve those expectations right and then

notice in your own life when something
it exceeds your expectations notice how

you respond feel your body feel your mind
you can actually feel chemical releases if

you pay attention see how it feels when
you or your expectations are exceeded and

I think you can all think of things were
like something awesome happened to you and

you get super excited and happy right but
there's also the ones where you like just

barely past your expectations you have
to just notice and pay attention so

in the classes that we work with
students I'm always harassing them and

challenging them and trying to get in the
see the chemical releases as they happen

and the same for depression to our bodies
tell us this is not good for you stop

doing this but we're all pretty damn good
at dealing with low levels of stress and

staying invested in that right so just pay
attention that's the idea pay attention

and don't have expectations for
talk on the other.

Core and

questions yes.

It was sure.

I were invited into or
invited by a community or

a partner that's working
in the relationship and

then my goal is literally just to go
sit with a resident and just chat and

get to know them and to show up again and
students struggle with that because

there's not a lot to do other than
just sit and chat with a resident but.

I'm starting to get I'm
starting to better understand.

How to interact with people and.

You know when when is when is a good
time to start doing things and

when is not a good time
to start doing things and

I quite I haven't quite figured
out how to put it into words yet

but I can sense it when I'm there and our
students are starting to sense that it's

a much different experience being
there than me telling you in words and

I think you can all you can all
see when someone's happy and

you can all see when somebody is in
qualitative research the reason we like

qualitative research is because when you
start to see themes emerging reemerging

within a community or over the course
of spending time with somebody

that's where you know there's
something to work with right but

you can see that energetically too when
you act with a human you can see how

they act when Terry Our friend was talking
about her garden she would light up and

there was no garden there and she would
light up and we'd see it wants and

then we'd see it twice and then we'd see
it three times and four and five times and

say OK she would like to have a garden
right rather than someone that

shows up and says I want I want
to garden you know like I want

I want to be told what to do you
know these ideas that we think and

there's a lot of people that want to be
told how to do things and what to do and

so I'm trying not to do that trying
to just meet people where they're at.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah yeah so every semester students
have a project that they propose at

the beginning of the semester and
inevitably it gets

back when they have some deliverable
that they're going to work on right so

one one group now is going to build
the shed and I'm sure that will get

you know maybe the foundation in the walls
bill will have to finish the roof next

semester or something or one group builds
one garden bed you know early they want

to build three garden beds and they try to
build one it takes a long time because we

only spend just recently we have the class
to four hours a week and we spend one day

four hours in the neighborhood that's only
so much you can do in four hours and so

I've been hiring people to help with
the actual work too on that stuff too so

it's we're figuring that process out
as we go but there's no timeline for

this work I mentioned the the goal would
be to be kicked out of the neighborhood to

be told like we don't need you anymore and
we got this like get out of here and

that would be I would be very happy
about that or like a big party where

we just celebrated and we moved on and
people within the community understood how

to access resources they needed to because
we don't even understand it all we're

learning together but eventually I hope
that we get asked to leave that's the goal

because it's not my neighborhood it's
not my community they're our friends and

they're you know I have Terry's come
to my house for parties and stuff and

she's becoming like family but
it's still not like community.

You know the questions yes.

Yeah yeah.

Sure sure.

You know it would be very different
I think especially from an urban

design standpoint transportation in a lot
of the cities it be very different and

to be interesting it would be
interesting to do and we've talked about

doing that before doing it and
we'd like to do in South America too.

And that will come but it would be very
different just from being in the cities

and communities and
knowing people that work there and.

Europeans conceptualize sustainability
very differently than than we do and

the same with South America it's just
very different and we're learning I

students are going all over the place
learning these conceptualizations and

think you know how we integrate
that into our work to.

Yes.

Sure there's a concept called the beer ban
which is the idea of the good life which

is summers of philosophy and what's been
talked about for a long time but it's.

It's a synergistic
relationship with nature and

it's truly being linked is
you know the word nature

is not doesn't exist to distance
ourselves from nature we are nature right

we are a part of the system we are an
integral part of the system there's a deep

spiritual spiritual element and
there's a non spiritual element and.

They have a very different relationship
with food and I met this amazing you know

a farmer and I just you know if I remember
Livia she just was like this beaming

ray of pure happiness and joy and
I just wanted to learn from her and

it's a very different
relationship with the land and.

Through it through a Ph D.

student so ability or
working down there with a Ph D.

student we have and
I went down to a conference and

she came to the conference
I was presenting Yeah yeah.

I guess so.

Yeah.

There's a lot of infrastructural
investments in mine I haven't studied

these things there but just from
being there in time there's a very

different infrastructure
investments in transportation and

lots of community gardens in the city you
know in Denmark where you're studying

you're in food systems and thinking about
how you're going to surprise us from

demagogues get cited as the happiest
country in the world right in their very.

Socially elite group their very
socialist country which is great and

there's a lot of good access to resources
but it's not what the US is and so

we were thinking what are the things
we could take away design wise or

bring back to the US and
they do have a lot of up and starting

community urban community gardens but
we have that also in the US the places to.

Yeah.

Yeah sure so food management was it
was I forget the exact dimensions but

it was the density of food
gardens per miles it was

policies to support that
support community gardens and

there's a couple other ones I can
remember off the top of my head.

Yeah yeah.

Yeah great question.

Yeah yeah it's a wonderful question
we're still figuring that out

you know we have residents that we work
with a lot yesterday I went into a bar

Monday when took a bunk bed apart for
a resident the need of the bunk bed took

apart because she couldn't do it so
I'm not sure that's a great question and

that's something we're very mindful of and
threw acid base community about which

I didn't talk about today and
regenerative develop the ideas.

It can't just be it can't just be a one
way dependent relationship where they rely

on the resources from the university but
in some ways to some people need that

right there are people that don't have the
physical Terry could never do the things

they were doing she couldn't physically do
it she said she's over seventy and she's

she just wants to have these gardens and
so I'm not so sure it's a bad idea that

that a resident relies on the university
to take care of them in their community

and eventually the idea is using community
resources to say when we build a garden

beds we put a card to the community we
need some resources as any we have access.

Resources and

they share things with us the idea
starting this up within the community

where they support each other to at the
same time but you can ask it in a year and

maybe I'll have an answer I'm not sure
still is still learning every day.

Great question that's
a really good question.

Just.

This one I've been in the neighborhood for
almost four years yeah yeah and so

the first year or two is just developing
relationships and making lots of mistakes

going to a community and telling them that
they need to get organized I mean that

mistake once and that was that I could
write because telling the need to be

recognized saying they're an organized so
this whole this whole initial

project has been a huge learning curve for
me and just learned so much.

That's.

Yep.

Yep Yep there is a housing one Yep
it is huge housing as we go out and

we that's why habitat got involved really
really because there are this neighborhood

is the only non developed neighborhood
in the valley in the Tempe community so

it was it was given to farm workers who
worked on a farm the land was given to

them and they built their own houses and
so it's multigenerational housing and some

of them are in need of repair but there's
also this amazing sense of pride among

the residents where they want to take care
of their own space and they want somebody

to take care of things right and so that's
what we're figuring this out as we go.

Yeah.

Yeah we did so we started with a community
engagement party right in that that

carried just as a language for
people that they didn't enjoy and so

there were some college kids living is a
really quiet just throw block party and we

were all right we want to fill a paper out
we're got it is you to do a community or

a city attempt he and
they also called it a block party so

now we call it a block party and every
semester the residents look forward to

the block party we're having
a March thirty first and

it's really it's amazing it's we get
a bounce house and the kids come out and

play and we're all just kind of hanging
out but we're learning and residents

are introducing each other and we get a
new resident start working with us because

of the Ba'ath Party so we start of
the other couple houses that are working

with and so I didn't share this with the
original way we started the neighborhoods

we surveyed the entire neighborhood and
then we and everybody was angry at us for

serving because it happiness
questions why they don't like those

it's and it's personal and then and
then we had community meetings in their

community meetings were angry because we
were we were trying to impose ourselves on

them which is true even though I didn't
think I was at the time I think I was.

And then when I realized we just kind
of went down and kept focusing down to

working on one house and we developed a
really amazing relationship with Terry and

now we're expanding back on now we're
coming up to eight houses in the next

semester we will do sixteen but
we're coming back up we're focusing on one

street within one neighborhood because
that's the human scale that we can handle

right and that we can develop those
relationships on so I've read go of this

timeline of like you know you need to have
one hundred houses to have an impact and

you'd have all this I'm really
focused on the slower Gannett

steady process right to learn so much and
we all learned so much together and

directing resources that I have access to
into these communities is you should give

back their monster it's one hundred
thousand students now are up to a very big

university we have access to a lot of
resources in their president watch that

our president talks about social embedded
in giving back to our community so

there's lots of us at A.S.U. that
are trying to embody those principles but

it's very messy it's not like engineering
sitting in the classroom it's very

different but engineering becomes a really
valuable tool when you design things and

people like to see that.

So as engineers it can you share your
question again that you asked me

the engineers want to you asked me you
asked me at the beginning at how do.

Yeah.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah I would

go volunteer with organizations there's
lots of organizations and non-profits that

need engineering help and design you know
there's been there's a group today as you

called have pics which came out of the do
engineering project community service

where a group of engineers will get
together and work on community based

projects and it's really amazing some of
the products that they've come up with and

design and some of them have been patented
and some of them had big impact so there's

access and I was once one of the engineers
students sitting there asking why we were

designing for people and what about
the people who are designing things for.

And so if you're there reach out and
I can help you through that process.

Thank you friends what's that I'm
going to wear this shirt tomorrow and

I was there for two days because I forgot
my share I guess of the shirt so the idea

of the shirt the one with happiness again
the same thing expectations I brought

dress clothes because I was guessing
on what your expectations of how

I should look would be right and
what I normally would do is freak out and

try to meet those expectations
you know when I screwed up and

what happened last night you said Scott
you're meant to give this talk in vans and

making sure and that's just the way
that it's the way that it is right and

there's a freedom and happy there's also a
little bit of a fear like what are people

going to perceive me as when I show up but
I think this is the kind of stuff that we

have to wrestle with through the happiness
process we have a lot of social norms that

are imposed on us that we all
agree to participate in right and

if we all agree to participate and
they still if they stay social norms but

I think we'd all probably rather
show up to work in pajamas or

in shorts and
stuff right to be much more fun.

And the slouchy come back from
Google the Google movie to share it

that would be fun yeah.

That only cost them It is.

So thank you both so
much thank you I want to thank you.

For what you have left the web and
good excellence and

I want to just say a couple things about
someone's rights if you don't mind.

One of them is that so
the way a bunch of you are in the S.L.S.

courses or some New York teaching
us off course we also for

the students who are here or
partners we have.

We have two We have three partners in the
room we have Suzanne her mother here from

US Green Building Council who
specifically works out great schools and

we have crystal Jackson here from
the Atlanta Regional Commission and

we have seen time here from
South based energy institute So

yes we can if you're interested in
chatting with any of them for the people.

But I wanted to say that we
have a number of the best.

What is.

The next one then yeah this is
March eighth Well we have to do.

More even more interact.

Not thinking about happiness at Georgia
Tech come back here tomorrow I think

they're serving pizza eleven visit
to eleven which makes people happy

usually it's track you know three
hundred eleven eleven forty five here.

But then the next thing we have something
called engineering business and

he says U.N. Sustainable Development Goal
and that is buying.

Something coming in from back to our
children for coming in from California

on to talk about how this big
engineering firm is using the U.S.

to build development goals to
structure its work and so it's a very

different level than you know working as
a community but it definitely didn't.

You know.

But it will develop.

You happiness time.

I'm going to.

Interact with global and why

I mean that's a march and if you look at
our website if you look at your events and

workshops you'll see a list of
everything that's coming up but

I also want to just point out right at the
top there there's a the recall courses so

this year alone this
academic year will be up for

a hundred seventy really good courses
some of the courses will go due

to the type of stuff that Skype is talking
about them specifically especially.

Are our foundation courses so

you'll see that courses section on
the right there's a list called foundation

courses foundation courses
you can take a look at those.

But there's a whole bunch of other courses
too and if you're really interested

in the specific community type of work
there's an option to search for for

courses that have a community.

In gauge projects you can look at that
you can also always get into and we can

talk to you about courses but I think you
know the trick especially if you're next.

If this stuff interests you is to really
seek out those courses where you're going

to get to experiment with where some
of these skills because most of

the engineering and most of computing
skips this right because it's not so

focused on people or food is focused
on people's not necessarily focused

not usually focused on what
needs really globalization and

our goal as a last is also the help and
think about how can you break this workers

not just as a volunteer an opportunity
right how what does it mean

to go in as an engineer and
understand everything there is to do

everything you guys do is impact in
the world how are you going to know

to ask the questions about is this is
this thing that we're going to invent

or why use it somebody said to
me the other day today said

why is it that engineers at their
exams going to tell us when

the computer knows how to figure out
that the numbers are going back so

how do we figure out as engineers as
computer scientists whatever you it is and

you're going technology
how do you figure out what

is a really important right and
how do you figure out if you're at it and

use that knowledge and if you're going
to have someone says to you we're going

to go down on the top of what
we're going to build this bridge.

Was going to ask just what religion
what's on either side of the bridge

has anybody talked to the community about
what this bridge should look like or

could this bridge is connected right but
who thinks about when.

Places like Chicago I don't know if this
happens a lot I would assume it does

you want walkability nobody's
going to walk if they get

it will not walk through the gate of
right looking thinks about engineers and.

So you if you have those interests you
need to seek out those classes that

are going to help you go out and
more and more employers are looking for

so we can help you so I hope you
will come and look at the horses and

opportunities that are going to make
you really good global citizen.

And.

So thank you for joining us today and
thank you again Mr Scott very.

Much afraid there's a couple

people pretty I was in the dashes or
was learning your partnership specialists

who knows a lot about everything
I was just talking about you.

And your radio station got
the scuttle talk with Crystal or

Suzanne we're sitting here and it was
that you think you're going to something.