What do sport and exercise sciences have in common with chemical engineering? Probably not much. But the distant relationship between these two academic fields was not an obstacle for faculty and students from West Virginia University’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. The groups joined forces with their counterpart programs at Universidade Federal do Parana in Brazil to create a one-day virtual workshop in April 2021 that gathered more than 140 participants.
The partnership originated in fall 2017 when WVU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Universidade Federal do Parana. It was championed by CPASS in collaboration with the School of Physical Education at UFPR and was the result of several years of research and faculty exchanges. The MOU looks to act at the university level, not just the departmental level, so the collaboration was expanded in 2018 to include the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Statler College, which also partnered with its equivalent department at UFPR.
The virtual workshop, titled “Research Across Borders,” included the participation of the deans of each college/school: Jack Watson, CPASS; Pedro Mago, Statler College; Horacio Tertuliano Filho, School of Engineering and Architecture at UFPR and Emanuel Maltempi de Souza, vice director, Biological Sciences at UFPR.
In addition, other high-ranking University administrators participated, including Amber Brugnoli, associate vice president and executive director, global affairs; David Stewart, associate provost, international relations; William Brunstein, special assistant to the president for global affairs; and Melanie Page, associate vice president, creative and scholarly activities, all from WVU. Representatives from UFPR included Fernando Mezzadri, vice rector, planning, budget and finance and André Duarte, director, agency for international affairs.
The one-day event included Zoom presentations in two separate rooms, one for students and faculty in exercise and sport science and another for those in chemical engineering. The sessions provided an opportunity for faculty and graduate students to expand their network of collaboration in projects of mutual interest.
The organizers of this event, Gonzalo Bravo, CPASS associate professor of sport management, Fernando V. Lima, associate professor of chemical engineering at the Statler College, André Rodacki, professor and director of the Motor Behavior Center in the School of PE at UFPR and Luiz Fernando de Lima Luz Junior, chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UFPR, developed the structure of the workshop and extended invitations. The organizers worked for months, sharing one common concern — the response of the public and attendees.
The event was full of logistical challenges, and the organizers had to work creatively to sort through obstacles, including working in different time zones, setting registrations, making the event accessible and successfully overcoming potential language barriers. Despite these tasks, the response of the public was impressively high.
Bravo said the outcome went beyond expectations. “We were aiming to have between 40 to 50 participants, which was the equivalent of 10 to12 participants from each department,” he said. “During the first session, which was open to all participants, we had 112 people simultaneously connected to Zoom. That was a huge surprise for us. At the end, 143 people attended.”
André Rodacki reflected on the participant response: “The high turnout demonstrated to us that faculty and graduate students from both universities are eager to find new ways of collaboration. The access to new technologies and the familiarity of most people to connect online partially explained why we had such great success,” he said.
Fernando V. Lima said that the success was due in part to the excellence of the speakers. “We had not only a great attendance that day, but the quality of the presentations and the discussions that resulted were engaging and outstanding,” he stated.
Presentations in chemical engineering focused on process systems engineering, renewable energy, polymer processing, shale gas and biogas conversion to produce value-added fuels and chemicals. Presentations in exercise and sport sciences included an overview of activities conducted at the Center for ActiveWV as well as the Center for Applied Coaching and Sport Sciences.
UFPR researchers discussed new advances related to the biomechanics of falls in aging populations; interventions of water-based training programs for populations with Parkinson’s Disease, osteoarthritis and older adults with mobility difficulties; the effect of exercise in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy and the epidemiologic characteristics and experimental interventions in physical activity and health.
At the conclusion, participants completed a survey expressing the extent of their interest in developing future partnerships with a colleague either in CPASS, the Statler College, School of PE and the Department of Chemical Engineering at UFPR. Results showed that participants expressed an interest in developing networks of collaboration in the fields of sport and exercise science and chemical engineering. Faculty expressed interest in developing new partnerships in other academic fields including business, mechanical and civil engineering, community health, physical therapy and artistic and outreach education.