This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This Science Masters Program focuses on environmental forecasting and disaster preparedness and response. This interdisciplinary program is producing STEM graduates with a systems understanding of the disaster preparedness and response chain, and relevant business and policy acumen. Thus, these graduates have knowledge and skills to lead a change in how America plans for and responds to natural and man-made disasters. As part of their studies, SMP students participate in a novel educational experience as members of a year-long Graduate Learning Community that exposes them to a range of emergency response and preparedness topics in a stimulating and nurturing mentoring environment. Students take specially created courses in Product Development, Policy, and Geospatial Systems, giving them business, social science, and mapping information skills to integrate with their more technical degree studies in imaging science, computer science, or environmental science. Students participate in a collaborative research project spring of their first year, solving real-life problems for local community emergency response agencies, and carry out a paid summer internship in industry, an NGO, or a government agency. Finally, students complete degree requirements and a research thesis in their chosen discipline under faculty supervision. This program provides a model for: (1) integration of external industry and government partners with academic programs, (2) broadening STEM graduate education to include understanding of business, policy, and government, and (3) development of graduate student learning communities to enhance retention and increase interaction of students with industry and government.
(EFDR) was initiated in 2010 and has successfully completed its third and final year. The EFDR SMP was a highly multi-disciplinary program to educate MS students in basic knowledge areas above and beyond their major area of study that would enable them to effectively contribute as employees in an emergency management or environmental management organization. The objective was to assist the emergency and environmental management community by making available to them qualified, STEM educated, new graduates who will bring them strong skills in math and sciences. Over three years, the EFDR SMP provided support for 18 MS students from five disciplines including Imaging Science, Computer Science, Environmental Science, Information Technology, and Environmental Safety and Management. Each year a cohort of six students was selected to take a three course sequence for the EFDR SMP that was delivered in addition to the normal course work for their particular degree program that provided a common base of understanding and the business, policy, and government knowledge they need to succeed in the environmental forecasting and disaster management and response arena as researchers, operations leaders or policy makers. The three courses were: Disaster Planning, Management and Policy: This course provided students with an understanding of the challenges created by the intersection of public and private concerns in planning for and response to disaster. From Concept to Product, a Business Perspective: This course prepared students to move more seamlessly from the academic research setting into an industrial R&D setting or a policy environment such as a government procurement agency. Spatial Modeling and Visualization: This course prepared students to understand, analyze, manipulate, and visualize the various types of geographic data that are so critical for emergency responders and decision makers to effectively plan for and respond to disasters. In addition to the course work, SMP students engaged in a multi-disciplinary projects including developing software tools for analyzing flood models, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for visualizing disaster information, and toxic plume modeling. Students were also able to participate in a disaster drill for a nuclear power plant, hear presentations from local leaders emergency management, observe a State level nuclear disaster exercise for FEMA, and participate in an after action de-briefing following major flood events in New York State with officials from local, state, and federal agencies participating. One cohort was supported to attend a three day international conference in Washington DC of Crisis Mappers sponsored by the World Bank and George Washington University. EFDR SMP students authored 9 papers and presentations for ESRI ArcUser magazine, ESRI International Users Conference, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, and the 9th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM). Finally, building upon the EFDR SMP, RIT is in the process of developing a new initiative in the form of a certificate program for educating students in disaster management. Following the model of the EFDR SMP, this program will be multi-disciplinary bringing together policy and science.
