SusTech 2025 is hosting talks on Sustainability topics.

“Sustainable Mountain Development on the Campus: The Synergy of the Student Engaged Learning Model in the Context of Applying AI and High Technologies to Higher Education”

with Baktybek Abdrisaev and Tyler Jaynes, Utah Valley University, USA

Date/Time: July 16, 2034, 6 – 7 pm PDT (7 – 8 pm MDT)

Register: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/event/register/424361

Abstract:

Among the many challenges impacting higher education today, the ability to blend the ever-present changes in AI (artificial intelligence) and other high technologies with coursework stands out as a critical aspect of a well-rounded academic program. Particularly with respect to engaging college-level students in activities promoting the U.N’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their numerous targets, there is a growing need to establish an effective learning model that can encourage individual technological literacy while also showing how students can apply their field of study to sustainable community development. This talk will focus on how the Student Engaged Learning (SEL) model (as employed by Utah Valley University) can be an effective tool to raise individual awareness of sustainable community development, promote digital literacy and critical thinking, and prepare students for changes in labor market demands. By exploring how a focus on Sustainable Mountain Development (SMD) through the SEL model has resulted in positive student outcomes, we display how other sustainable community emphases can result in equivalent results.

Speaker Biographies:

Dr. Baktybek Abdrisaev has been working as a Lecturer in the Department of History and Political Science at Utah Valley University (UVU), USA, since 2005. During 1997-2005, he served as an Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United States and Canada. He teaches courses on International Relations, World Diplomacy, Post-Soviet Politics, Comparative Politics of Central Asia, Sustainable Development Goals, and Sustainable Mountain Development (SMD), a few to mention.

Since 2011, he has involved UVU students in SMD advocacy through an inclusive co-curricular student-engaged learning model. The model and UVU were featured in the United Nations Secretary General’s report on SMD in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022. His assignment on teaching classes by using the New York Times was included in the Teaching Toolkit of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. He has written on issues of Central Asia and SMD in media outlets like OpenDemocracy, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Foreign Policy.

He testified in 2010 before the US House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Committee of Oversight and Government Reform about upheaval in Kyrgyzstan and its possible implications on U.S. policies. He served as an expert in the International Affairs Department of the Presidency of the Kyrgyz Republic in 1992, which he chaired later in 1993. Dr. Abdrisaev was also a Member of the Kyrgyz Parliament from 1995 to 2000. Dr. Abdrisaev received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the Academy of Sciences of Belarus in 1990.

Tyler L. Jaynes is a bioethicist and technologist who has served as the volunteer Chair for the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Standards Committee (2021 – 2023), IEEE Standards Association (SA) representative to IEEE Young Professionals (2023 – 2024), and engages with several other industrial standards Working Groups in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR) and Metaverse technological applications, neurotechnology, and quantum-based technological applications. Beyond his several publications and international presentations at venues such as the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Haifa) World Congress on Bioethics, Medical Ethics & Health Law, Mr. Jaynes is a Regulatory Affairs Associate for a medical device manufacturer based in Salt Lake City, UT, USA, and serves as a member of IEEE SA Standards Board Audit Committee (2023 – 2024).

Outside of his engagement in industrial standards development in the IEEE SA, Mr. Jaynes has also participated in standard development coordination in the fields of XR and quantum-based technological applications through the IEEE Future Directions Initiative. As part of these efforts, Mr. Jaynes has spoken on the topic of standardization in the field of quantum-enabled technological applications at the 2022 and 2023 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE). Mr. Jaynes received his B.Sc. in Philosophy from Utah Valley University in 2018.