ERDC has a long legacy of bringing together researchers from various disciplines to make new
discoveries that no one could have found alone.
That cross-laboratory, cross-disciplinary collaboration is one of ERDC’s greatest strengths,
enabling engineers and scientists to tackle problems in innovative ways. However, with seven
laboratories spread across four states, it requires intentional effort to build these collaborative
teams.
That’s why ERDC launched the Research and Development – or RD as they’re known –
workshop series in 2018 as a biennial event to enable researchers to learn from and interact
with those in different laboratories – forming new teams and sowing the seeds for future
innovations. RD26, the fifth installment in the series, was held in April and drew a record
number of participants and presentations.
Joining us to discuss ERDC’s efforts to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration are RD26 leads
Carra Carrillo and Lauren May. Carrillo is the chief of the River and Estuarine Engineering
Branch at ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory. May is the acting chief of the
Environmental Processes Branch at ERDC’s Environmental Laboratory.
Topics discussed include the history of the RD workshop series and how it has evolved through
the years (1:43), why cross-laboratory collaboration is important and the challenges of making
it happen at a place like ERDC (3:44), and how the RD workshop series enables the cross-
pollination of ideas (7:07). We also talked about how the event makes ERDC stronger (8:44),
how it prepares future ERDC leaders (13:26), and the types of topics that were discussed at
RD26 (15:36).
Watch a video of this podcast on our website at PowerofERDCPodcast.org/56-cross-laboratory-
collaboration_video.
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