SCEC Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology

National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Site

Program Overview

The SCEC/Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology program (SCEC/USEIT), unites undergraduates at all grade levels, in potentially any major, from colleges and universities across the continent to participate in a leading edge program at SCEC headquarters at the University of Southern California (USC). This NSF REU Site is co-funded by two directorates in the National Science Foundation, CISE (Computers, Information Science, and Engineering) and Geo (Geoscience). Additional funding is provided the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the USC Undergraduate Research Program, the USC Department of Earth Sciences and SCEC. To learn more about USEIT students, projects, and activities, click here.

SCEC/USEIT interns interact in a structured yet flexible, team-oriented research environment and interact with some of the nation's most distinguished geoscience and computer science researchers. A key aspect of the program is its team approach. Students share their diverse skills and interests with their peers, and students mentoring students creates a powerful synergy. The name and the acronym communicate the central goals of the program:

1. To allow undergraduates to use, hands-on, the advanced tools of information technology to solve important problems in interdisciplinary earthquake research;
2. To close the gap between two fields of undergraduate study -- computer science and geoscience -- by cross-training students in the modes of understanding distinct to these disciplines;
3. To engage non-geoscience majors in the application of earth science to the practical problems of reducing earthquake risk, and thereby inform students with varied backgrounds how their classroom skills can be applied to significant social issues;
4. to interest, train, and retain talented students from outside the earth sciences, including women, members of underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities; and
5. To teach students to succeed in collaborative, multidisciplinary workplace settings in and out of research arenas.

Our award-winning program is highly competitive and extremely successful. Nearly 80 students in computer science, engineering, earth science, cinema, economics, English, mathematics, psychology, physics, digital media design, fine arts, architecture, communications, and pre-law have participated to date. SCEC's mission spans a broad range of expertise and so does SCEC/USEIT. While the majority of our interns have considerable computer science skill or aptitude, we welcome applicants from all disciplines, class levels, and skill levels.

During prior terms, the interns have developed new visualization platforms dubbed "LA3D" and "SCEC-VDO" (Virtual Display of Objects). These are object-oriented, open source, internet-enabled software packages, written entirely in Java and Java3D, for interactive, 4D display of diverse data sets representing the complex subsurface structure of southern California and other earthquake-prone regions. With each year, an increasing number of SCEC IT and earth scientists make use of SCEC/USEIT software and request additional capabilities from the next summer's team. SCEC-VDO is currently part of the multimedia literacy curriculum at USC.

Another large project has been creation of short, animated movies, using scripting and rendering capabilities in SCEC/USEIT software, and sometimes professional editing software. Interns on this project experiment with the best ways to convey important concepts about earthquakes, faults, and earthquake risk reduction, and the resulting animated movies have been a great boon to SCEC's essential Communication, Education, and Outreach (CEO) efforts.

SCEC/USEIT interns organize themselves into research teams with specific responsiblities on projects proposed as Grand Challenges by their primary mentors, SCEC intern program executive director Sue Perry, SCEC director Tom Jordan, SCEC IT architect Phil Maechling, and SCEC CEO director Mark Benthien. Interns are always encouraged to surprise us, however, and additional, intern-generated projects are encouraged. Some of the most exciting results of past terms have come from projects devised by the interns.

Compensation

Each SCEC/USEIT intern is paid a stipend of $4000 for 10 weeks of research. This stipend is expected to cover food and incidentals.

In addition, housing costs are addressed as follows:

• For interns who attend school outside southern California during the regular school year, SCEC will provide housing on the USC campus.
• For interns who attend school within southern California during the regular school year ("local interns"), SCEC will pay a $1000 housing stipend.
• We may be able to provide housing to a limited number of "local interns". We should know more in February. If this occurs:
• housing will be provided to a "local intern" based on documented financial need;
• if SCEC provides housing to a "local intern", that intern will NOT also receive the $1000 housing stipend.

Our stipend amount is higher than that of many other intern programs because living in southern California is costly. In fact, as a SCEC intern you should not expect to end the summer with a profit remaining from your stipend. Instead, you will break even on your summer expenses.

• For interns who attend school outside southern California during the regular school year, SCEC will pay up to $300 toward your travel expenses related to participating in the SCEC/USEIT program.
• For all interns, SCEC covers all costs of attending the all-intern field trip.
• For all interns, SCEC covers all costs of attending the SCEC Annual Meeting.

Click here to read about SCEC intern programs' common activities, requirements, and deadlines.

For more information contact:

Sue Perry
Executive Director, SCEC/ELCA
Office of Experiential Learning and Career Advancement
e-mail: perry@usc.edu