In the heart of our university, a little ways off Synergy Park, lies an unassuming sign reading “Eco Hub.” Despite meaning little to the average passerby, the hub is a hidden world dedicated to exploring nature, climate and soil, and the environmental interactions which shape our lives.
Shalini Prasad, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering, runs soil sensors and projects at the Eco Hub to develop an understanding of soil conditions from the ground up. The hub is a site for her to run experiments and to discuss food scarcity and food deserts with her students. Prasad said that as the human population continues to increase, it is more critical than ever to understand how to use our soil efficiently for agricultural and preservation purposes.
“The most important thing that is covering the Earth besides water is the soil,” Prasad said. “The issue with soil is that we have not taken very good care of it as we should, because that is the source for us to feed ourselves. We have to do more with less.”
The most important thing that is covering the Earth besides water is the soil.
— Shalini Prasad, bioengineering professor running projects at the Eco Hub
While the hub team investigates only a small area of land, the data it gathers and the theories it develops can have long-reaching effects. For instance, Prasad said studying soil sheds light on how to help mitigate the recent droughts in Texas. By managing scarce resources and having more carbon in the soil, the water table would be pulled up, leading to groundwater increasing and ultimately reducing the effect of droughts over time.
Since the club is largely experimental, Prasad and her students accept mistakes as a natural part of the process, using nature to guide their learning.
“You cannot get better until you accept the fact that things can go wrong and you learn from your mistakes,” Prasad said. “We don’t know what an outcome should look like yet, and to understand the interrelationship between all of these things we have to do experiments to understand.”
We don’t know what an outcome should look like yet, and to understand the interrelationship between all of these things we have to do experiments to understand.
— Shalini Prasad, bioengineering professor running projects at the Eco Hub
Prasad’s involvement in soil projects at the Eco Hub began during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the sudden lack of human interaction and presence around the world, animals started to become more active. For Prasad, this was a light bulb moment, and she realized she wanted to understand how to sustain positive moments like this through human actions.
“You read all these reports, you see all these nearly extinct species of animals are now more active, you hear birdsong in the cities [like] New York,” Prasad said. “The idea that nature is flourishing because human intervention with nature has suddenly reduced, which was an experiment that ended up happening [due to] circumstance.”
The first step for Prasad was when she started incorporating technology into the soil studies: using soil probes designed by her students and herself. These probes allow the user to measure for a variety of factors such as pH, moisture, soil organic matter and minerals.
“All of us today wear wearables of various forms, I want to know [for example] whether I did my 10,000 steps today, so as humans we respond well to cues,” Prasad said. “This is when I thought we can make technologies that actually help humans understand what they are doing to soil, that will then help change behaviors.”
Technical and detailed in its nature, soil study can seem like it’s only for students skilled in engineering or environmental sciences. But Prasad said there is space for students of all majors and backgrounds to contribute.
“I work with students not just from engineering, [but also] people who are in the arts and humanities, because how do you envision these interplays?” Prasad said. “If you want to create an animation that communicates to people what is happening, these are the kinds of things that are opportunities for the students.”
Various other projects like beekeeping take place at the Eco Hub. Although separate, Prasad finds their interconnected nature the core of what makes the Eco Hub an intricate and fascinating place. The bees that pollinate flowers impact carbon fixation, nitrate consumption and the nitrogen cycle, for example. Prasad said even the littlest things are a part of the hub’s interconnectedness, such as the sunflowers currently growing in aim to change the aeration of the soil.
“For us to understand soil health, it’s what’s happening within this ecosystem,” Prasad said. “It’s not just a plant by itself or a group of plants, it’s what’s happening with the other species that are working with them. Think of it like a holistic laboratory.”
It’s not just a plant by itself or a group of plants, it’s what’s happening with the other species that are working with them. Think of it like a holistic laboratory.
— Shalini Prasad, bioengineering professor running projects at the Eco Hub
The Eco Hub’s teachings extend beyond the experimental space and into Prasad’s personal life. She said the hub has taught her that preventing a problem is better than trying to cure it after it develops, a mentality that has encouraged her to focus on eliminating plastics from her household out of environmental consciousness.
“It is very exciting that for us in UTD, in Richardson, we have a test bed like this, considering that we ourselves are not an [agricultural] school,” Prasad said. “It is that vision that we want to teach, the future demands different.”