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U.S. National Science Foundation Center for the Chemistry of Molecularly Optimized Networks (NSF MONET)
DISCO Moments are a standing agenda item at every all-hands meeting of the U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Molecularly Optimized Networks (NSF MONET), built around Developing Innovation, Service, Community, and Outreach. One research group presents a short, evidence-based teachable moment; the responsibility rotates across the Center's laboratories.
Why this matters
Most centers treat professional culture as something that happens in a separate workshop, attended by whoever opts in. The Center made it a recurring item on the main scientific agenda instead, presented by the same research groups that present the science.
That design choice does the work. Because the slot rotates, every laboratory eventually has to prepare one, which means the practice is owned by the research groups rather than by an administrator. Because it sits inside the all-hands meeting, attendance equals full Center attendance rather than self-selection. And because presenters cite published sources, sessions transmit evidence rather than opinion.
How it works
One to two slides, presented by the first presenting research group at each all-hands meeting
Any Center member can propose a topic they want covered
Follow-up discussion continues after the meeting for topics that warrant it
Sessions are archived in a shared repository so material is reusable across laboratories and years
The cadence has held since October 2021, giving the Center a multi-year archive of roughly twenty documented sessions rather than a one-time training event.
Representative sessions
Date | Topic | What it delivered |
Nov 2021 | Assigning roles and responsibilities | Compared three allocation methods — volunteering, manager assignment, and a transparent system with participant consent — with the trade-offs of each, drawing on the 2019 Design in Tech Report |
Aug 2022 | Cognitive distortions and research resilience | Adapted the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education Resilient Scientist series and the Beck Institute cognitive model to the specific case of a stalled experiment; introduced the HATS framework for intervening on negative self-talk |
Sep 2022 | Mentoring dos and don'ts | A practical checklist for supervising undergraduate and junior researchers, presented from lived mentoring experience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
Sep 2023 | Accessibility, readability, and explainability of figures | Applied a computational analysis of roughly 70,000 open-access publications (Zhuang et al., EPJ Data Science 2023, 12:5) showing materials science and engineering among the fields with the highest rate of figure accessibility issues; distributed colorblind-safe palettes and the black-and-white print test |
Dec 2023 | The materials science of soccer | Piloted a five-minute hands-on activity with a community soccer club, testing whether a materials concept can land in the time a family actually stops at a table |
Feb 2024 | Experiential learning for sustainability | Documented how the MIT course "Design of Sustainable Polymer Systems" was relocated to the Amazon, combining materials design with technoeconomic and life-cycle analysis against real local design briefs |
Sep 2024 | Outreach at scale | Reported the Northwestern classroom program and take-home kit distribution, including bilingual activity guides and lab notebooks |
Sessions that changed practice
Graduate admissions: replacing a single metric with a published rubric
One session documented a concrete change to graduate admissions practice: the GRE requirement was eliminated and replaced with a rubric scoring every applicant on academic preparation, potential to contribute to research, persistence and commitment, commitment to improve society and benefit others, and demonstrated ability to collaborate. The statement of purpose prompt was rewritten and every application is now read by at least two faculty members.
The rubric is not internal-only; it was presented as a work in progress at the 2021 ASEE Annual Conference (Barker et al.), which means the practice is available to other departments rather than staying inside one program.
Outreach pilots that produced measurable reach
DISCO Moments are where outreach formats get tested before they scale. The community soccer club session reached approximately 380 children and 400 accompanying adults and coaches in a single weekend. The classroom program reported monthly visits to roughly 175 third and fourth graders, with 200 take-home kits prepared and 178 distributed, packed by activity with bilingual English and Spanish guides and a lab notebook.
These are modest numbers by design — they are pilots. Their value is that the formats tested here became the activity kits now shipped to institutions well beyond the Center.
Recognizing service that does not appear on a CV
A February 2023 session named specific trainees for the coordination work behind a Center review — editing procedural documents, organizing trainee meetings and feedback, and logistics. Naming that work in front of the full Center, in the same slot used for scientific presentations, is the cheapest available mechanism for making service visible, and it is the kind of practice that only functions if it is recurring.
Goals and what comes next
Two targets govern this initiative: integrating evidence-based research-culture practices in 100% of Center-led programs and events by 2027, and publishing peer-reviewed case studies or practical guides on recruitment, training, and outreach by 2030. The first is on track given that the meeting cadence has held for five years. The second has not yet produced a publication, and it is the stronger of the two for review purposes, since a published guide is what converts an internal habit into something other centers can adopt.
The immediate gap is documentation quality rather than activity. Session records for 2024 and 2025 exist as date-stamped entries without presentation titles, named presenters, or attached slides. The underlying sessions happened and the slide repository is intact, but the structured record does not currently support the reuse that the 2030 publication goal assumes.