 Alright, so thank you everyone who's here and everyone online for joining us today. This is our first spring semester 2023 graduate research series presentation. I'm Janet Holm, Assistant Dean for Collections and Digitization Strategies here in Alden Library for Ohio University Libraries. The University Libraries Graduate Research Series is a collaboration between the University Libraries Graduate Student Senate to offer opportunities to graduate students to practice their presentation skills, discuss their research process, and explain how they use library resources. Each semester students are invited to submit their research for consideration and a panel of representatives from the libraries and GSAs select one or two projects for their presentation. The selected students are also given a cash award. This afternoon's presenter, Hashem Pashtun, is a civil engineering doctoral candidate who earned his bachelors of civil engineering in Pune University. Hashem has already published several research papers and has filed a patent for a model of low cost ground water recharge system. He has worked all over the globe in his fluent in seven languages, in addition to being a TEDx speaker. His expertise is in water management, community infrastructure, energy efficiency, carbon emissions control, and infrastructure planning. You're very lucky to have you here. Hashem's research entitled Integrated Model for Infrastructure Planning Appalachia Community Grant Program focuses on the state of Ohio's $500 million Appalachia Community Grant Program. This program is designed to aid economic growth in Ohio's Appalachia region through grants to improve infrastructure, workforce development, and healthcare. Pashtun's study provides a rubric of analysis of Ohio's 32 Appalachian counties to assess economic, social, and political factors to inform project execution and determine the effectiveness of grant funded projects. There'll be time for audience questions at the end of the presentation and we'll be inviting questions from online folks through the chat, of course. So please join me in welcoming Hashem to the graduate research series. Thank you. Thank you so much, everyone. As introduced, there's no need. I will get started. I will try to make it as summary to the point as possible because I know that the whole research is pretty long and I just want to make it as specific and easy to understand as possible and as I know that I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do some research and contribute as much as possible for my time that I've lived in Athens, Ohio, and at Ohio University, to this community of Appalachia for sure. So let's get started. I mean, as the title suggests, we prepared a model, a rubric, which can help in the successful and effective execution of the Appalachia Community Grant program. First of all, to get started. Just to give you some idea, Appalachia, which is in different states, but this highlights that what Appalachia is in the kind of eastern, northeast, and southeast Ohio. Mostly divided into four areas. It's based on the land development, but I'm sure like most of you understand or know about Appalachia, so I'll go to the facts that almost as per the before COVID that we had the recent statistics under two million population. This is only for Appalachia, Ohio. We have half of the population density in the rest as compared to the rest of Ohio state, which is on 125 people per square mile compared to the almost 300 or 290 square people per square mile population decline because of urbanization. People are trying to shift from rural areas to urban areas and most of the urban areas are located in the non Appalachian part of the state of Ohio. And that also has caused more less development of the land and especially effective development of the land compared to what we have statewide. And 58% of the region is forest, so it's mostly green areas that needs more attention, more preservation, and also to be used effectively for tourism and other opportunities as well. 92% of the population defies white compared to 81% statewide, so need for more diversity and inclusion. I would just more say diversity. And of course, education wise, also this is one of those areas which is very backward compared to what the numbers we have statewide. I'm trying to turn to the facts as fast as possible because to then get to the problem statement. Economic problems as well. This is as for the 2020 statistical data that we have almost 20% decline or 16% decline compared to the median household income statewide. Around 12.5% of Appalachians live through the poverty line. The worst is certainly Athens County for sure, one of the economically distressed counties in Appalachia itself. Access to clean drinking water, so these are some of the challenges that we have access to clean drinking water, access to health care, aging population and processors not up to the mark. Broadband access, which was very crucial, especially during the COVID times, and Appalachia was one of those areas which was still having difficulties. And of course substance use disorder, health issues, and a workforce and labor participation rate is also very low compared to the numbers we have statewide, which can be shown here. As you can see, I will try to put this thing. Okay. Yeah, that's correct. Thank you. So this shows like this is literally as if you have marked Appalachia with literally as the boundary of Appalachia, but this is the map of the workforce in the state. And as you can see, these are the two lowest indicators, and most of them are in Appalachia. And the top five counties with the distressed economy are Adams, Athens, Migs, Monroe, and local counties. So this was just to highlight of the need for such community grant program, especially which can contribute in the economic development, but most importantly, in the sustainable and effective investment of this funds. So what does this community grant does? It's almost 500 million project. The three areas, major three areas that they're investing is workforce development, which is upgrading in the capacity development of the human resources that we have training programs, education, and how to make sure that the workforce available in Appalachia is ready for higher income jobs, more contribution to the wage, wages as well healthcare for sure as we discuss the challenges and infrastructure infrastructure can be from anything to some small community development to development of highways to other infrastructure which can help in the economic development of the Appalachia. One disclaimer that I'm passing today, so my mouth may get dry, so my apologies for that as the month of Ramadan is going on. So what can be some of the potentials that we have or the needs that Appalachia community grant can be focused on and can make out of Appalachia? We can invest in broadband, connect Appalachia with the world, so most of the resources that we need for the workforce development for the human workforce development can be more accessible to the people of Appalachia rather than their physical presence. COVID really proved that to us that most of the tasks as possible to be done remotely through a good broadband connection. Tourism opportunities as you can see, we discuss also about the forest, about the water, sources that we have water bodies that certainly think access to clean water, that's the other thing that needs to be done in this area for sure. Career development, STEM technology, state of Ohio is becoming major attention for technology as you know that Intel is investing in the Lincoln County, almost $20 billion of investment, that requires a lot of workforce to be hired and if Appalachia can deliver or contribute or a portion of that, that will be a great asset for Ohio and for Appalachia as well. And of course economic hubs and markets, if it is economic zone or something, that can help boom the economy and stay the investment inside Appalachia rather than taking it outside. So when we are going to the investment plan, the professional planning and what has to be done when we are trying to choose what kind of projects has to be invested, how this $500 million to be invested, some of the factors that I was able to identify are these areas. Investment opportunities that we have to identify, for example, is anyone who is running the grant to identify where are the projects that you can find a private entity, any institute, any nonprofit, any company that can partner with you, so your investment is less than the whole project investment. You are just being a shareholder or just contributing to that. Any investment in the areas of workforce development, regional impact, let me remind you, Ohio is on the crossroad of the United States and on the north of America. Connecting Canada with southern, like southern United States and also east with the west. So regional impact is really crucial and especially that Appalachia is one of those areas that connects east with the west. So anything that can lead to the regional impact is very crucial for Appalachia and for investment. Community development infrastructure for social development as well. Environmental protection and sustainability is something that we need because of the assets that we have that has to be preserved and all the project investment should be as sustainable as possible. Economic development as we saw the distressed economy in the Appalachia, so any project that can boom the economy or the economic development in the region, healthcare, social development and education. So this is just to give you the idea of the rubric that how it gets started is that you can identify any two major constraints that you need as your project identification. For example, in this one I want to say any project that has higher impact and then how much need of the project is mentioned or do we have. These two areas will be defined in later slides but then you decide every project if it is say from a development of a small road to a community center to a health clinic and then you put them in this rubric based on how much it's impact on that specific area, county region and how much do we need it. Because let me remind everybody that the 32 counties are not same. The needs are not same, the potential is not same, the resources are not same, so that's why they are different. So it's better if we go county by county rather than just painting all the 32 counties in one color. That's why we need to get more specific. This is just an example. If I want to take the cost of the project as one of my constraints and impact. So developing a commercial mall will require major cost and impact maybe not as much as if I want to develop a tech growth. Because this will lead to the social development, human resource development, workforce development and impact will be higher while the cost can be almost the same. Trail development, anything with tourism can not have that much cost but the impact will not be that much either compared to if I have any work for development center or any population for undergrad making sure that we have more enrollment at the university level. Something like that can have higher impact but low cost. So you put these projects or the essence of the project in such a rubric to identify where this project is going to take me, what are the inputs which is the cost, which is for attention, time, resources and what is the output if it is impact, if it is any revenue generation, if it is leading to economic, social, healthcare and that is how you develop this rubric. This is just an example if I have a matrix of say different counties and I have projects in economic development, healthcare, infrastructure, education, workforce then I can choose which county needs the most in which project. So for example, again it is an example that maybe I can identify that Athens needs more projects to increase the economic development because it is one of the distressed economy in the 32 counties and maybe Athens doesn't have access to a better broadband connection so that is a priority for me rather than education for example where fortunate to have Ohio University and a good school district for example so we can say this is my lower priority area these are my higher priority areas. So in this way each county can identify their priorities and give it to the community grant program or vice versa another objective is how can we identify priorities based on some assessment, based on the needs and based on the output of any project that we are choosing. This will give you a better idea imagine where I have 5 projects for any county again say Athens I give scoring based on my need based on the investment needed based on the impact for each project so for example imagine this yellow line is for a healthcare project it will have some impact in the social development area it will have very minimal impact towards the environment and sustainability it will certainly have a greater contribution towards infrastructure development less contribution comparatively towards economic development and some contribution towards the education workforce so in this then if I am someone who is on the panel who chooses a project or a group of people and I am saying that for my county I need a project that is focused on healthcare I will be looking in this area any project that is coming in this area that is my priority if I am someone that I want to invest in the education workforce I will be looking in this area so these are the lines or metrics for different projects I know my address where I am looking at and then accordingly I can choose a specific project out of the pool where the education can be executed now here where it is very interesting is my past experience that I want to connect this is another project executed in another part of the world in Pakistan Pakistan is divided major in the four provinces or four states and this is one of the states called Balochistan now why I connect these almost the population one of the economically background states of Pakistan where the high resources if it is mineral, if it is oil and gas and a strategic location because this is the province that connects with Afghanistan the sea and Iran and China also wants to have Balochistan to have access to this Arabian sea especially in the last 10-15 years this province is getting more attention from China as well and that was the need that the European Union decided that we want to invest 40 million dollars in this province for community development now these are the points that as if you would think that I am defining apalachia economic development social development and building the trust between the people of Balochistan and the government and making sure that they are not ignored and then they can have access to more resources that they have if it is their geostatic location if it is their mineral resources and to make sure the economic development is on the path so when I was working back home I was part of the company or the consultancy that we did first of all, we did all the metrics and the rubric model to prioritize the projects for each county here it is called districts so they have nine districts also known as counties on a converted American level cancels is more between counties if you have different towns or cities and these are the councils or community councils or union councils that they have like community associations so what we did was we took the nine districts we identified their priorities by certain statistical data and certain surveys that understanding that which district needs attention in which area we gave that rubric to the European Union and to the execution agency that these are the priorities in different districts based on that we moved back they awarded the projects to different implementing authorities the implementation was done we came back to the picture to monitor and assess the impact of these projects to the economic, social and infrastructure development of those projects so these are the major areas that Brace, that Balochistan rural development and community empowerment was a program so what was the projects social mobilization, community investment fund vocational training programs health insurance or healthcare or something we can generate revenue for that community, any project and community physical infrastructure they almost kind of aligned with what Appalachia community grant program is defining which is healthcare workforce development and infrastructure so these were the results outcomes and impact this is the theory of change for that project and I want to make the same thing for Appalachia also we have results which will be just a result of one project several projects will combine together towards a good one outcome and several outcomes will combine together to a major impact and that's how in long term and short term we can identify and have key indicators of our progress these were the five major areas based on what we were able to identify the impact of the project and I'll go one by one for example efficiency was it in time along with the work plan risk integration or mitigation how was the planning for contingencies efficiency and the dispersions of funds and impact analysis of contingencies for the key indicators that we defined and how these funds were utilized effectively level of participation participation of women and other in deciding and implementation and has that project created more opportunity for the development of women and other marginalized groups this was one of the major priority in that province as well and then this is the impact of stakeholders perception how much was stakeholder involved and how much were they supportive of these projects how were they responsive and the level of improvement in the socioeconomic profiles so we also defined the ROIs for each project the return on investment contributing in the socioeconomic development of that county or that district sustainability aspects and also relevance how much was the project in line with the state agenda with the national agenda with the community agenda is this something that was completely alien or that was something that people really needed it the surveys were done through different formats if it was key informant interviews if it was focus group discussion with communities the whole surveys and if it was the visit of the people who are making a decision to the actual sites and see how the progress of the work is going on so what were the expected results and what are the expected results from this program also relevance of the community physical infrastructure to the needs of the local communities especially women and other marginalized communities and these immediate impact in the socioeconomic outcomes of these projects can be identified how can we quantify which project is more useful which project is least and to choose between them one of the things that I want to highlight the approach for project execution for this $500 million should not be project or proposal based it should be priorities based not that someone is submitting a proposal so I should select among the proposals I should have my priorities set and then accordingly I can choose the projects not that because this company or this nonprofit have submitted a proposal so it should be chosen or not and of course the community and the government departments their perceptions and their support to the outcome now that's the slide that I want to make sure that how that commitment and cooperation is very needed there are certain some of the organizations that their coordination their cooperation their support and involvement is really needed and that is a very interesting thing that if it is this community program is executed successfully this will be one of the very rare programs which covers all the 17 goals of the National Sustainability Development Goals I even looked in that and one of the goals which was like the life underwater and I was like but we have lakes, we have the Ohio River that also contributes to that so that was the one thing that I was but if it is executed successfully Appalachia Community Grant Program can be one of those very rare programs which can cover all the 17 development goals of the United Nations so that's really a hope a good news for us but we need attention and that will be really useful if this rubric or model can be used not only for the project identification selection but also for the impact assessment post completion thank you and special thanks to all the library not only for the references it's worth to mention that my first connection with Appalachia was also to Alden Library that I attended one of those programs in 2015 and then I understand that I'm living in Appalachia Appalachia is around me so one thing that I want to say is that any institute, any body can refer you to some resources but Alden Library connected me with Appalachia and I think that's the difference between another organization and Alden Library not only give you a reference but also connects you and that's why I chose this project for my doctoral research as well thank you so much questions? I'm really excited about that we do have one comment but no questions online just yet you may know this person Nazria yeah since I know a little about the subject but more about the speaker good luck and it's quite an informative session while we're waiting for other questions you referred to it as a rubric model it seemed like a very sort of rigorous approach with like an optimization problem of engineering that I should be able to speak a bit more about the history of how the of the model in terms of why that one was selected so this model is one of the most effective approach which has been proved in the past also so the same model was also used in the Brace program which was in Pakistan it was also easy for me because I worked on that to bring that model considering the factors and variables and the constraints which are present in this project based on some statistical data some survey reports I was able to kind of paint those colors as I said for different counties and to identify that which county needs attention in which areas I can completely understand that there may be other types of models also but there are two major challenges one how much that model is effective in the past especially with the same factors or constraints that you have it's because it's a tailor made it's a customized thing so how you want to make sure that the measurements are as similar as possible that was the major reason that I chose with this model and as I agree it's more an engineering approach for optimization of resources I hope that answers your question also were all did you was there like a lid review or something of alternative models there are some certain models especially like with project optimization not with project so there are two types of models that usually people use if execution of project one is for project optimization which means on site how can you make sure that any project is taking place the time is constraints the resource the other is project selection or project prioritization so imagine one is client and one is the implementing agency client use kind of this model to choose the projects the implementing agency will you choose the next model for the project execution things like your mother question also I guess I mean it seems pretty evident to me like if I were sitting down here to allocate finding my grant money this is how I do it too I was just curious about about the history of the of the framework I guess yeah there was some literature review for that like also for as a history or what has what are the practices done in the past if any program like that is there for the community development or for any grant for regional development and how they have defined their priorities and how they have chosen the projects and the implementation has been done but it's a learning process I feel like with time you learn new constraints and then you make sure that in the next projects these things are taken into consideration like one of the things is post project assessment is something comparatively new than pre-project assessment because once the project is done people just close the books but now it's more trend that post project assessment is there to make sure what was done right what was done wrong what can be better or even how can we build up on this done before and kind of a continue yeah so can this rubric go with or is there no worry about like competition between the counties right actually so the competition can be a healthy competition or positive or negative but that's what the hope is that you have to identify as someone who is a decision maker or a panel or a group first of all is the allocation of funds uniform why is it uniform I mean technically it should not be because of different populations different economic constraints are different so again it has to be fair and just so if fair is injustice is there I'm sure the negative side of the competition can be avoided because you provide the rubric you provide the statistics why this county gets this why this county gets this so I feel this is more easier to define to the people to make sure that there was no biasness because it's more entering a mathematical system rather than just some people choosing some proposal and that's why I said it should be based on priorities not proposal submitted then I have a similar question like in terms of Intel right being more in central Ohio but I can see how we can like feed into that but how do we keep how do we keep like our ability to educate and prepare a workforce or tech work without losing those people from this area and becoming that's a very good question because I do have an idea and I'm glad to record it because then I can I can have the patent for that idea for Appalachia like you know one of the things that Intel is coming and as we mentioned before COVID has defined a more work imagine not only the people from Appalachia being educated and prepared for that workforce imagine even the outsiders we are almost an hour away from say tomorrow's Intel company like Drive imagine you develop a residential project here so they can have reside here and also I say for example a corporate building where they can even have office spaces they can work here they can live here they can reside here which will contribute to the economic development of Appalachia so not only you can retain your own workforce but you can also get more workforce because of your cost of living is much lower than central Ohio counties so that can be a good boost for our attractive thing for bringing the people here rather than staying in Licking County or Prattling County where the cost of living is higher I mean imagine an apartment here is $801,000 compared to $2,000 in Columbus so if we really focus if investment is done and I know it's not part of this community grant program but my point is the overall coordination or agenda or strategy can be defined where you not only retain your workforce but you can also bring other workforce. Point number two even if you prepare the workforce which is going out because you cannot retain all the workforce well in some way they are still connected with Appalachia and that happens all across the globe where I mean look at India they are preparing the workforce almost for the whole world especially in the areas of IT including America they're coming but they are still connected with India their families are there their roots are there so I believe that one development of the workforce second try as much as you can for retention but third even if they go out they will be still connected if the infrastructure or the other factors are aligned in your region or your area thank you thanks for your presentation what what impact does the available resources have to the matrix right so I'm thinking of a specific example are you familiar with the Bailey's Trail System okay so the Bailey's Trail System was a recipient of this grant but they couldn't get that grant if you didn't have one the people who were driving the interest in that grant or willing to put up the resources of their personal labor for that right and then also you wouldn't be able to get that grant if you didn't actually have the way National Forest has a resource to build the trails upon right so look at your matrix your matrix kind of identified like what the need was for that area but it didn't identify like what does the area have to give back as a potential as either collateral or as the return on investment right so the return on investment is like we're going to take this resource and make it so it has it's not just a forest just sitting there it's got a bigger impact if you look at your other model your scale there it's going to have a bigger impact right but out of the resources that are available in the community work into your matrix whereas if someone was a decision holder they would be able to use that exactly the resources are part of the matrix in both ways so there are certain resources that needs preservation there are certain resources that needs kind of engagement and there are certain resources that needs completely avoidance mining locations for example where mining has been done you want to avoid it as much as possible a forest need preservation but also engagement for example you have different lakes or water bodies you want to for example be engaged in the sense of if it is tourism if it is for example an activity that can bring the people but the same time you want to make sure it's preserved and not polluted so and fracking or like coal mines these are resources then you can kind of again if the scoring is required that if any project say is investing in coal mining for example it will have positive and negative impact so you can score accordingly but if someone is investing say in fracking same thing but if someone is investing say in renewable energy that has more positive impact than the negative side especially on the returns side so you want to give more scoring so resources can have both aspects and the scoring is done accordingly that has a positive negative impact and is that in the part of preservation engagement or avoidance thank you I'm still around so we can still have a discussion if someone wants to have I'm a little bit curious if you talk a little bit more about the brace experience you kind of have a couple of slides in there but if anything anything if you had anything more you would have would have fit in to the present year I think there are lots of stories with the brace because we were involved for more than a year but two things for sure one is again I think I can connect with someone living in Appalachia so I'm part of I can kind of represent or talk about it is how much when someone from outside is coming these visits that I mentioned were very crucial for decision makers I feel the same thing about or believe about Appalachia if someone has not lived in Appalachia or has not been to Appalachia I want to say that they don't have the right but I will kind of ask them to different from decision making the stereotypes the mentality matters a lot even I was having the same mentality for Balochistan before visiting for example so I'm from Afghanistan I have lived in Balochistan as a refugee because it's border with Afghanistan but I haven't been to districts I was living in the capital of Balochistan so it was more urban area than other districts visits to the community hearing them out really matters a lot for two reasons one you understand the equation in a much better way but most importantly the people feel the sense of that they are being heard not that someone from outside is coming and making a decision for me maybe the decision is same as what you are thinking in the community but the best approach is if the decision comes takes place after a discussion rather than you just bringing an agenda from outside and that's what we are going to do and second and most important from my experience with Brace is how people were like you would think that if it is social problems, economic problems illiteracy, 37% of the state is illiterate you would think that how much they will be kind of avoiding this project or not receptive to that they were really keen we saw people leaving their to make sure they attend the meeting they contribute in the development or the implementation another thing was that also the project made sure that the people were also involved in the implementation of the project if I am say building this library building in Athens County and people are involved in the implementation they can do as a civil engineer I can say the operation and maintenance is the best way possible because they know how this building was constructed but if it is done by someone outside handed over the operation maintenance will not be as effective as you can think of so we made sure that the project implementation level of participation that's why it was one of the things is very key that how much local people are involved in the decision making in the implementation and post implementation of the project if these three things are there the project is more efficient and more sustainable so then how do you get the buy-in from the decision makers to have such a really a democratic sort of workflow on that right and to be using a matrix rather than just picking and choosing what they want I mean that's the point so the only thing is the pro and con of this matrix is not 100% mathematical model some human constraints are still involved it can be a positive thing because there are some of the constraints which are if it is emotional background if it is some other social thing that cannot be 100% quantified so that is useful but on the other side it can be a con because mathematical model can maybe say something else but you have your own biasness fair or unfair so I would say that it's just again how you use that tool it's up to you but it's just making sure that it's helping you to make a wise decision but at the end of the day it's a very important project any other questions? ok thank you so much thank you so for your questions I really like to understand that