This summer at the University of Central Florida, we are pleased to host the first year of our National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site “Preparing the Next Generation of Scholars through Community GIS and Citizen Science.” Our program offers fully funded summer research experiences for at least 8 undergraduate students in Belize for 5 weeks and Orlando for two weeks. The program is open to all U.S. students and runs June 20-August 5, 2016. We are interdisciplinary in nature emphasizing community geography, community GIS, and citizen science through mixed methods, including sketch mapping, mobile mapping applications, focus groups, in-depth interviews, GIS, and spatial analysis. Please distribute to interested students and your networks.
Research opportunities: Students will work in one of two research directions with community partners and mentors from University of Central Florida, University of Belize, Georgia State University, and The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems Program:
• Research Direction 1: Mapping disparities in flooding & disaster management
• Research Direction 2: Mapping marine debris & mitigating impacts on coastal communities
Compensation: Each REU student will receive a competitive funding package, including a $3500 research stipend, $1400 meal allowance, free shared housing in Belize and Orlando, up to $750 in travel support to/from the REU Site, up to $750 for post-REU conference travel, and 2 research methods books.
Application process: The priority application deadline is Friday, March 25th @ 5 PM EST. Complete program information and application instructions can be found at http://www.citizensciencegis.org/ucf-reu-site/.
Student reflections from the field: “Challenging, emotional, fun, collaborative, thought-provoking, interesting, real-life, and eye-opening.” These are some of the words used by students to describe our previous research programs. We expect similar experiences in our new REU! Check out a series of short videos from our students at: http://www.citizensciencegis.org/ucf-reu-site/student-reflections/.
Questions can be directed to:
- Dr. Timothy Hawthorne: Principal Investigator, Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Systems at University of Central Florida
o timothy.hawthorne@ucf.edu
o phone: 407.823.1030
- Dr. Christy Visaggi: Co-Principal Investigator, Lecturer of Geosciences at Georgia State University
o cvisaggi@gsu.edu
o phone: 404.413.5755
Check us out on the web and share on social media!
• http://www.citizensciencegis.org/ucf-reu-site
• https://www.facebook.com/citizensciencegis
• https://twitter.com/citizen_gis
• https://vimeo.com/citizensciencegis
