REU Site: Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (SCEC/UseIT)

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (USEIT) is a team-based Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site implemented by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) at its lead institution, the University of Southern California. SCEC coordinates earthquake research in Southern California, which comprises over 23 million people and about half of the national earthquake risk. The SCEC science plan addresses the most pressing issues of earthquake system science, and the USEIT REU Site enhances the computer science and information technology (CS/IT) expertise that SCEC can draw upon to achieve its objectives in the prediction of strong ground motions and the understanding of earthquake predictability. Over a period of 10 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 is now widely used as a visualization platform throughout the SCEC community. More broadly, the USEIT REU Site benefits all federal agencies that participate in the National Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP); and 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. Since 2002, 220 undergraduates from around the country have participated in the program, and over time, USEIT's broadest impacts will come as these REU Site alumni develop into a new generation of CS/IT savvy leaders in system science. Earthquakes pose the greatest natural threat to the built environment in seismically active regions such as Southern California. Earthquakes are also 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 use this team-based research experience in the exciting field of earthquake information technology to motivate undergraduates from diverse backgrounds to pursue STEM careers. 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 CS/IT, in the geosciences, and in cyberinfrastructure and computational science more generally.