Living Labs Projects

Many universities have established open orchards, organic gardens, and food forests, but none have combined these concepts with foraging education and a focus on native edible species. The Mason’s Foragers’ Forest project addresses this gap by creating an open-access, campus-based foragers' forest. This space increases access to nutritious foods, provides a distinctive and inclusive student experience, and serves as a focal point for research and scholarship on food security and wildlife conservation. The team will partner with classes, clubs and civic associations eager to learn when and how to safely and legally forage for wild foods. Mason’s Foragers’ Forest may also serve as a seed collection source and propagation station for the creation of similar spaces throughout the region.

The team is comprised of Dann Sklarew, PhD, Professor of Applied Ecology and Sustainability Science in the Environmental Science and Policy Department, College of Science, George Mason University (PI),  Sarah Roth, Environmental Science and Policy MS student in the ESP Dept., COS, George Mason University, Doni Nolan, Sustainability Program Manager for three existing agricultural sites on-campus, University Sustainability, Facilities, Biology PhD student and adjunct faculty, COS, George Mason University,  Ben Friton, Director of The REED Center, Maryland-based nonprofit repairing the connection between people and their environment through Research,  Education, Engagement, and Design of natural landscapes, and  Matt Bright, Executive Director of Earth Sangha, local nonprofit that operates a native wild plant nursery and undertakes ecological restoration in the Washington DC region.

Funding: Living Lab Initiative 2023 seed grant, Patriot Green Fund, Amazon Web Services, College of Science, The American Chestnut Foundation

Visit their website here.

The primary goal of this project is educational. One educational objective is to demonstrate to students how to collect data on the bloom date of cherry trees on the Mason Pond as well as meteorological information like the temperature, humidity, and precipitation. Students gain experience collecting data both in person and by camera to document bloom timing and extracting environmental data from a local weather station. Furthermore, students gain insight from contributing to a long-term dataset by replicating these observations annually. 

A second educational objective is to teach students how data is processed, used in statistical predictive models, and ultimately communicated to scientists and the public. Mason students will gain valuable experience working with climate data and will share their results with the Mason and broader science community. Each year students’ analyses of the data will be disseminated on a public website and uploaded to citizen science websites like the USA National Phenology Network and Project Budburst.

The team comprised of Jamie Roth, Jonathan Auerbach, David Kepplinger, and Daniel Hanley collects meteorological data at the location of the cherry trees year-round. A large hurdle facing sustainability initiatives is a lack of awareness. The project will use the campus environment to raise climate change awareness among Mason students through involvement and visibility. Those collecting and processing the data will see how the bloom dates from local campus trees relate to the large-scale issue of earlier bloom times. Students not directly involved will be able to see the results of the project and how climate change has and continues to impact their very own environment.

Funding: Patriot Green Fund

Leading institutions, including Mason, make commitments to climate action by setting greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction targets to reach carbon neutrality. Deciding on optimal investment alternatives is challenging due to: (1) the complexity of the heterogeneous infrastructures as their components operationally interact with each other;  (2) consideration of trade-offs between performance indicators; (3) investment performance dependency on efficiency of operation, which is transient due to stochastic nature of supply and demand; and (4) rapid changes in infrastructure technologies.

To address this problem, Alex Brodsky's team proposed to:

1. Research and develop models, algorithms and GADGET - A Green Assessment and Decision Guidance Tool - used to recommend to stakeholders actionable alternatives on sustainability investment for reaching carbon neutrality.  This will leverage prior work on decision guidance systems and service network optimization to allow stakeholders make informed Pareto-Optimal trade-offs between such priorities as: (1) GHG emission reduction, (2) total cost of ownership and implicit price of GHG reduction, and (3) availability, vulnerability and resilience of the underlying service network.

2. Conduct a case study that provides Actionable recommendations on Pareto-Optimal alternatives to achieve carbon neutrality in support of Mason’s Climate Action group and university leadership.

The George Mason University Honey Bee Initiative (HBI) joined the Living Labs Initiative with a set of featured projects that you can engage with or take further. HBI empowers communities through sustainable beekeeping.  The work is community-driven, multi-disciplinary, and responsive to the United Nations Global Goals.

Honey bees are threatened and bee health is critical to human survival. But for reasons including colony collapse disorder, invasive mites (Varroa destructor), and pesticides, honey bees are dying in unprecedented numbers, which has serious implications for our food security. For example, according to research, in 2019, nearly 40 percent of all US honey bee colonies, already in decline, were lost—the highest level reported since survey results were collected in 2005-2006. If bees don’t thrive, neither do we, as the health of pollinators is directly linked to food security. Of the 100 crop varieties that provide 90 percent of the world’s food, 71 are pollinated by bees. In North America, honey bees alone pollinate nearly 95 kinds of fruits, such as almonds, avocados, cranberries and apples, in addition to commodity crops like soy. Pollination services are a core component of global agricultural production, valued at over $125 billion annually. In the U.S. alone, the value of pollination services is estimated to be $20-30 billion annually. No wonder honey bees are called the most important pollinator in the world. In an effort to support bee health, we launched the George Mason University Honey Bee Initiative in 2013. Today, with vibrant public-private partnerships, HBI supports several ongoing innovative teaching and research projects. Learn more about HBI projects!

OptiStorage is a methodology and a tool designed to be used by Mason Facilities and integrated with Mason’s Energy Management System (EMS) to automatically control electric energy storage to minimize power peak demand and cost of energy as part of the carbon neutrality solution. The team has developed GADGET – Green Assessment and Decision GuidancE Tool – and are currently using it to recommend stakeholders at Mason actionable Pareto-Optimal alternatives on sustainability investment including energy efficiency, renewable sources, energy storage, schedulable loads such as in heating/cooling/EV charging, RECs and carbon offset credits. The tool allows informed trade-offs between (1) carbon emission reduction (2) total cost of ownership over a time horizon and implicit price of carbon reduction, (3) availability/vulnerability/resilience of the underlying service network, including power, heating, cooling and lighting. However, the expected carbon neutrality resources will require optimal operational management – primarily of energy storage, without which Mason will not be able to minimize peak demand and the cost of electric energy, which is essential in order to make carbon neutrality investment cost-effective. The proposed OptiStorage methodology and tool are designed to solve this problem.

PI: Alex Brodsky, PhD, Professor, CS department, CEC, GMU
Researcher: Bedor Alyahya, PhD candidate, CS department, GMU
Researcher: Xu Han, PhD student, CS department, GMU

This project will also continue close collaboration with Gregory Farley – GMU Director of Sustainability - and
through him with GMU Facilities.

The Patriot EnviroWatch will monitor air quality and water quality at multiple points across the George Mason University Fairfax campus. The project will involve faculty, facilities, undergraduate and graduate students, and an alumna as a consultant. Collected data will be analyzed to quantify pollutant concentrations in relation to other factors in air or water that enters campus. Patriot EnviroWatch will identify differences in the campus’ impact that different events (e.g., meteorological events like rain storms or busy campus events like graduation) have on air and water quality across the year. This project directly addresses the Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Ecosystems goal, by studying the interaction between the urban and natural ecosystem. This project will also enable sustainability by providing insights on fundamental environmental challenges that an urban ecosystem often faces. The Patriot EnviroWatch will offer a unique hands-on experience to our students to participate in environmental activities at Mason. This 1-year project will lay the foundation for future in-class and research projects for years to come along with providing Mason with empirical evidence of the Fairfax campus’ impacts on the environment.

Viviana Maggioni (PI): Dept. of Civil, Environmental & Infrastructure Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC)
Lucas Henneman (Co-I): Dept. of Civil, Environmental & Infrastructure Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC)
Chayanan Maunhan (Undergraduate Research Scholar)
Zhongyan Xu (Collaborator): Mason Facilities
Maryam Zavareh (Consultant): Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
until 2025: Kirin Furst (Co-I): Dept. of Civil, Environmental & Infrastructure Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC)

Funding: Living Lab Initiative 2024 seed grant, Patriot Green Fund

Growing enough food to meet the demands of rising urban populations without chemical pesticides is a pressing challenge for food security and environmental health. Hydroponic agriculture saves water and reduces fertilizer pollution but is very susceptible to root rot disease caused by oomycete phytopathogens, which are an issue all over the world and quickly move through recirculating water destroying crops in days. The Presidents Park Greenhouse at Mason’s Fairfax campus has struggled with this type of plant disease for years, but Doni Nolan, a PhD student, Facilities staff and biology adjunct at Mason, along with a team of people including high schoolers, Mason students, and interns, have worked diligently to find a solution. Applying diverse plant-growth-promoting bacteria and fungi to create beneficial microbiomes can protect plant roots from outbreaks. However, there is little known on how microbiomes do this for each crop or how they should be applied in hydroponic systems for specific vulnerable crops, such as important nutrient rich “superfoods” like amaranth microgreens. Experimental trials in the campus greenhouse with amaranth and lettuce will be coupled with DNA and protein sequencing technology to explore the root microbiome. Results will be published to address gaps in literature. The project creates hands-on living lab opportunities for Mason students and visiting interns from around the world. Support for this project will open doors for Mason into agricultural research, while supporting the community’s efforts toward food security, sustainable food systems, scientific innovation, and experiential learning.

Lance Liota - School of Systems Biology, Biology Department, College of Science, GMU
Alessandra Luchini - School of Systems Biology, Biology Department, College of Science, GMU
Patrick Gillevet - School of Systems Biology, Biology Department, College of Science, GMU
Haw Chuan Lim - School of Systems Biology, Biology Department, College of Science, GMU
Trevor Charles – Department of Biology, University of Waterloo
Maria Soledad Benitez-Ponce – Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University
Greg Farley - University Sustainability, Facilites Administraton, GMU

Funding: Living Lab Initiative 2024 seed grant, Patriot Green Fund

The Arboretum of George Mason University is a living lab that was established in 2015 across Mason’s campuses and received international accreditation in 2021. It addresses the challenge of sustaining life on land (UN SDG 15) by 1) increasing public awareness of terrestrial biodiversity through interactive signage of its trees and 2) engaging Mason graduate and undergraduate students through research about them. The proposed project will improve and expand this living lab in three dimensions: the depth of its long-term ecological measurement dataset for its trees, the breath of its biological coverage, and the scope of its intellectual inquiry. The team will expand its depth by moving all Arboretum plant records to a more powerful online database that will sustain long-term data management and accommodate distributed administrative control by more people. This project will broaden the biological dimension of the Arboretum by recording lichen species and density present on its trees, which are well-established metrics for tracking air-pollution, as part of new course-based lab modules. Lastly, they will integrate records about campus outdoor sculptures into the Arboretum database, which has a module for managing cultural assets. Interactive signage will unify the collection as a publicly accessible outdoor art museum and educational space.

Andrea Weeks, Ph.D. - College of Science, Department of Biology.
Cynthia Smith, Ph.D. - College of Science, Department of Environmental Science and Policy.
Natalie Howe, Ph.D. - College of Science, Department of Environmental Science and Policy.
Donald Russell, Ph.D. - School of Art and University Curator.

Funding: Living Lab Initiative 2024 seed grant

The Ahn Wetland Mesocosm Compound has supported numerous academic activities for students for more than a decade through experiential learning, research and scholarship, and community building & outreach in the field of environmental/ecological sustainability. The compound has been not only a place for learning but a venue for nature observation as well as a green space for carbon sequestration. For the past two years, the area right next to the compound has been flooded consistently with standing water as high as 4-6 ft in some deeper spots, turning the area into a wetland in progress (often referred as an “accidental wetland” scholarly). The study aims to initiate a long-term study of the ecological development of the accidental wetland ecosystem while establishing the larger wetland complex, including the compound for several Mason Cores, student research and scholarship, and nature observation. Specific objectives are: 1) to study the structure and the functions of the accidental wetland, focusing on physicochemistry, soil carbon storage, plant community, and/or water and habitat quality, 2) to develop a long-term natural monitoring plan that will actively engage Mason students of all majors to support various academic and mental health activities.

Changwoo Ahn, PhD, P.I. Professor of ESP, Founder and Director of Ahn Wetland Mesocosm Compound, EVPP 378 (425)-Mason Core Capstone. RS (to be Mason Apex, staring Fall 2025),

Gad Perry, PhD, Professor and Chair of ESP, EVPP 442,

Stephanie Schmidt, PhD, Assistant Professor of EVPP 108, EVPP 109, EVPP 112, and EVPP 113,

Sean Gagnon, MS, Certified wetland delineator and engineer/scientist, Bowman Consulting Group (bowman.com),

Seung Ah Han, student researcher,

Rylee Ledoux, BAM graduate student researchers

Funding: Living Lab Initiative 2025 seed grant, Patriot Green Fund

The current global biodiversity crisis needs quick action if we are to prevent further loss of species. Current methods for monitoring species are time intensive and cannot keep up with the need for biodiversity information to protect important biodiversity locations. We propose to test and improve next generation biodiversity monitoring techniques at GMU while including undergraduate and graduate students and classes in the process so that we train the next generation of scientists. We will implement and streamline a repeatable biodiversity monitoring system that relies on automated camera traps, audio recorders, eDNA sampling, drones, and satellites, as well as artificial intelligence to identify and monitor the populations of amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, and plants. Graduate and undergraduate students will be involved in all aspects of the research in the forest and in the classroom both as research assistants and through classroom laboratory activities. The project will also provide a detailed survey of the plants and animals of the Fairfax west campus which will aid GMU University Sustainability by supporting a move closer to STARS platinum. We will harness the power of ground-based Next Generation conservation technologies to teach young and emerging scientists about actionable and cost-effective biodiversity monitoring.

David Luther, Biology Department

HC Lim, Biology Department

Andrea Weeks, Biology Department

Konrad Wessels, Geography and Geoinformation Science Department

Funding: Living Lab Initiative 2025 seed grant

The Patriot EcoEye project proposes an innovative, data-driven approach to monitoring vegetation dynamics across George Mason University’s Fairfax campus using drone-based remote sensing technologies. This interdisciplinary initiative will engage faculty, facilities personnel, graduate and undergraduate students, and an alumna-consultant to establish a scalable, replicable model for integrating environmental monitoring into campus operations and academic research. Leveraging multiple drone platforms equipped with advanced sensors, the project will capture high-resolution spatial and temporal data to assess vegetation type and biomass, carbon sequestration potential, invasive species presence, and seasonal change patterns. These insights will inform targeted strategies for sustainable landscape management, improved carbon cycling, and enhanced ecosystem resilience on campus. Patriot EcoEye directly supports the University’s sustainability research priorities, particularly in carbon accounting, waste reduction, and cultivating a culture of sustainability. By positioning the campus as a living laboratory, the project will generate actionable data to refine carbon footprint baselines, guide mitigation efforts, and provide a critical feedback loop for vegetation and land-use practices. The project also prioritizes experiential learning by offering students direct involvement in field data collection, remote sensing analysis, and environmental interpretation. Outcomes will support the development of future curriculum and research initiatives, while establishing a long-term framework for institutional sustainability monitoring.

Paul Houser (PI) Dept. of Geography and Geoinformation Science, College of Science (COS)

Viviana Maggioni (Co-I) Dept. of Civil, Environmental & Infrastructure Engineering College of Engineering and Computing (CEC)

Steven Burmeister (Co-I) Associate Professor/Captain GMU Police Department College of Science, Forensic Science Program

Shahrukh Vasaya (Student) Dept. of Geography and Geoinformation Science, College of Science (COS)

Maryam Zavareh (Consultant) Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Funding: Living Lab Initiative 2025 seed grant