Full Circle Projects initiative focuses on creating scalable, innovative strategies to translate complex climate research into public awareness, inform policy, and inspire meaningful action across diverse communities.
The Full Circle Symposium yielded six transdisciplinary project proposals that combine scientific research, behavioral science, media arts, and community engagement to address the climate emergency.
Researchers: Sai Vikas Amaraneni, Nic Bennett, Sudip Chakraborty, Karen Chen, Mayeesha Humaira, Helen-Nicole Kostis, Lisa Moren, Jessica O’Reilly
This project uses community dining to explore how climate change will reshape our food systems by the year 2100. Grounded in IPCC research on ocean warming, acidification, surface ozone, and extreme weather, the initiative examines impacts on regional food supplies—including Chesapeake Bay staples like blue crabs, oysters, and striped bass, alongside local agriculture.
Rather than presenting data passively, the project hosts interactive meals featuring ingredients projected to be sustainable in 2100. Bringing together farmers, fishermen, chefs, and local residents, the gatherings facilitate intergenerational storytelling and knowledge co-creation. Drawing on the Community Capitals Framework and Contact Theory, the experience transforms climate anxiety into collective resilience, documented through a digital platform and community cookbook.
Researchers: Bruce Molnia, Aaron Deslatte, Maloy Kumar Devnath, Omar Faruque, Sarah Jewett, Barbara Klein, Sanjay Purushotham, Michael Walsh
Youth Training for Climate Action is an interactive educational initiative designed to empower teenagers as local environmental ambassadors. Grounded in cognitive science and active inference, the program translates overwhelming global risks—such as rising sea levels, extreme weather, and coastal erosion—into localized, manageable actions that build personal agency.
Central to the project is a mobile platform that aggregates environmental justice data from federal sources including the EPA, NOAA, and FEMA. Using gamification, real-time mapping, quest missions, and achievement badges, the app enables youth to analyze climate vulnerabilities in their own neighborhoods. Designed for integration into high schools and community programs, YTCA provides young leaders with actionable tools to drive grassroots environmental solutions.
Researchers: Tolulope Ale, Jenny Baeseman, Christine Mallinson, Muhtadi Munawar Zahin, Josephine Namayanja, Courtney Starrett, Lynn Vartan
Living Forward pairs local visual archives with generative AI to help communities visualize their environmental futures. Students and residents collect contemporary and historical photographs of local landmarks, natural habitats, or regional species. These visuals are processed through AI models aligned with IPCC warming projections to illustrate localized climate trajectories.
By connecting climate projections directly to familiar places, the project leverages narrative framing (Ethos, Pathos, Logos) to encourage achievable community interventions. These localized initiatives are mapped across participating regions, illustrating how small, individual commitments scale into significant environmental change.
Researchers: Michael Bruner, Sarah Garvey, Emam Hossain, Chhaya Kulkarni, Bayu Adhi Tama, Aaron Thibault, Stewart Ziff, David Victorson
Green NH3 examines the technological, social, and ecological implications of transitioning to zero-carbon ammonia for agricultural fertilizers. Conventional ammonia synthesis via the Haber-Bosch process accounts for approximately 2% of global fossil-fuel emissions. Decentralized green ammonia production powered by renewable energy offers a path to lower carbon footprints while protecting farmers from supply chain volatility.
The project also evaluates potential ecological risks, such as the Jevons paradox—where increased fertilizer access might elevate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and agricultural runoff. By engaging farmers, researchers, and policy experts, Green NH3 works to establish balanced adoption frameworks that align agricultural efficiency with environmental safety.
Researchers: Lynn Cazabon, Mostafa Cham, Victoria Coles, David Donkor, Ann McNamara, Susan M. Sterett, Tobi Williams
Blue Marble is an open-science mobile application that links personal sustainability choices to global carbon reductions. Using behavioral design, habit tracking, and personalized AI recommendations, users (“Actors”) select regional climate concerns—such as urban heat islands, flooding, or ocean acidification—and track their daily carbon-reduction habits.
The app features a 9-panel visualization engine that simulates how individual actions scale globally, transforming personal carbon reductions into dynamic atmospheric particle flows mapped across the globe. Supported by wearable tech integration, physical community bracelets, and high school educational modules, Blue Marble demonstrates the cumulative power of individual actions.
Researchers: Ran Duan, Rohan Putatunda, Akila Sampath, Mark SubbaRao, Jianwu Wang
Fire & Ice is a personalized, large-scale immersive installation tailored for digital projection spaces. Inspired by Robert Frost’s poem Fire and Ice, the exhibit creates an emotional connection to global environmental shifts by surrounding visitors with dynamic visuals of disappearing glaciers and active wildfires.
Designed primarily for parents, the installation uses optional demographic inputs at entry to generate personalized data displays on the gallery walls—such as contrasting historical atmospheric $\text{CO}_2$ levels with future projections for their children’s hometowns. Anchored in values theory and visual metaphors, Fire & Ice fosters intergenerational empathy and climate awareness without relying on polarized language.