Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (USEIT) is a team-based undergraduate research program implemented by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) at its lead institution, the University of Southern California. Earthquakes are among the most complex terrestrial phenomena, and modeling of earthquake dynamics is one of the most difficult computational problems in science. USEIT allows students to work in multi-disciplinary collaborative teams to tackle a scientific "Grand Challenge" where they use the advanced tools of information technology to solve important problems in interdisciplinary earthquake research. The topic varies each year but it always entails performing computer science research that is needed by earthquake scientists, educators, and other target audiences. The overarching goal of USEIT is to motivate undergraduates from diverse backgrounds toward careers in STEM fields through team-based research in the exciting field of earthquake information technology. SCEC has observed that undergraduate and graduate degree programs in both computer science and geoscience continue to act as stovepipes, funneling students through narrow disciplinary training without giving them adequate breadth to span the major problem areas of system science. USEIT provides the cross-training in CS/IT and system science that encourages students to broaden their coursework in college and to consider graduate work in the CS/IT aspects of system science.
Earthquakes pose the greatest natural threat to the built environment in seismically active regions such as Southern California. SCEC coordinates earthquake research in Southern California, which comprises 23 million people and about half of the national earthquake risk. The SCEC science plan is articulated in terms of the most pressing issues of earthquake system science, USEIT enhances the CS/IT expertise that SCEC will need to achieve its objectives in the prediction of strong ground motions and the understanding of earthquake predictability. USEIT benefits all federal agencies that participate in the National Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP); in particular, it strengthens the workforce for the USGS's program in seismic hazard mapping, as well as major NEHRP-related initiatives within NSF, including the EarthScope Program and the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation. USEIT's broadest impacts will come as the intern alumni develop into a new generation of CS/IT savvy leaders in system science. The high and increasing participation of women and minority students in USEIT is particularly important given the precipitous enrollment declines in CS/IT undergraduate degree programs around the country, especially among women.
The site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (USEIT) is a team-based undergraduate research program organized by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) at its lead institution, the University of Southern California. Since 2002, 242 undergraduates from around the country have participated in the program. The overarching goal of USEIT is to motivate undergraduates from diverse backgrounds toward careers in STEM fields through research in earthquake information technology. The program also engages non-science majors in the practical problems of reducing the risk from natural disasters and thereby informs students with diverse backgrounds how their skills can be applied to significant societal issues. Intellectual Merit. Earthquakes are among the most complex terrestrial phenomena, and modeling of earthquake dynamics is one of the most difficult computational problems in science. USEIT allows students to work in multi-disciplinary collaborative teams to tackle a scientific "Grand Challenge" where they use the advanced tools of information technology to solve important, real-world problems in interdisciplinary earthquake research. The topic varies each year but it always entails performing computer science/information technology (CS/IT) research that is needed by earthquake scientists, educators, and other audiences. USEIT provides the cross-training in CS/IT and system science that encourages students to broaden their coursework in college and to consider graduate work in STEM fields. Over a period of 11 years, the USEIT interns have developed SCEC-VDO, a flexible object-oriented, open source software system that enables interactive, 4D display of diverse geo-referenced datasets for analysis, presentation, and publication. SCEC-VDO and its various products—animations of faults, earthquake sequences, and other earthquake-related processes—are now widely used by the SCEC community and have been featured in televised and print reporting of earthquakes. For example, SCEC-VDO has been extensively used by the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities to develop the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecasts. Since 2010 the interns have made high-quality video documentaries of their summer activities, which can be viewed on and downloaded from the USEIT website: www.scec.org/useit. Broader Impacts. Earthquakes pose the greatest natural threat to the built environment in seismically active regions such as Southern California. SCEC coordinates earthquake research in Southern California, which comprises over 23 million people and about half of the national earthquake risk. Earthquake system science has much in common with the study of Earth’s climate and other natural systems. It depends on a variety of modeling techniques to synthesize knowledge from different disciplines into a common, system-level understanding. Model-based prediction of system-level behaviors plays an essential role in a continually iterated cycle of data gathering and analysis, hypothesis testing, and model improvement. In this sense, the educational and workforce development issues addressed by USEIT pertain to system science more generally. The SCEC science plan is articulated in terms of the most pressing issues of earthquake system science, USEIT enhances the CS/IT expertise that SCEC will need to achieve its objectives in the prediction of strong ground motions and the understanding of earthquake predictability. USEIT benefits all federal agencies that participate in the National Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP); in particular, it strengthens the workforce for the USGS’s program in seismic hazard mapping, as well as major NEHRP-related initiatives within NSF, including the EarthScope Program and the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation. USEIT’s broadest impacts will come as the intern alumni develop into a new generation of CS/IT savvy leaders in system science. Between 2010 and 2012, 69 USEIT internships were awarded to a very diverse group of students. Over the three-year funding period, 38% of the USEIT interns were women, 59% underrepresented minorities, and 40% were first-generation college attendees. The benefits of USEIT can be placed within a broader educational framework. High quality interactions centered on educationally meaningful activities with peers and faculty mentors yield the greatest gains in student learning outcomes. Exit survey data from the USEIT alumni from 2010-12 consistently confirm the overwhelming value of frequent and sustained mentor-intern interaction as one of the key opportunities for high impact learning experiences. In particular, alumni have endorsed the value of having multiple mentors representing several areas of expertise, and having them involved with the program, field-based experiences, and special training in areas relevant to their research and future careers.
