The Experience
Chosen undergraduate fellows will receive a stipend of $500 per week for the 9 week program and will be provided housing and meals. We also have some funds to help with travel to and from the site which will be determined once we've reviewed the applications and accepted students into the program.
Our program aims to catalyze interactions among students from widely varying home disciplines (e.g., agriculture, forestry, geography, engineering, statistics, computer sciences, agricultural leadership, and sociology) by focusing on interdisciplinary, stakeholder-driven
research questions. To serve as mentors and guides in this effort, we have assembled a diverse team of environmental scientists focused on understanding the underlying processes, mechanisms, and feedback loops within aquatic systems, social scientists focused on effectively
communicating science to both the public at large and decision makers, and engineers and computer scientists focused on quantifying and visualizing anthropogenic impacts at multiple scales. To promote student interaction and peer-mediated learning, as well as to provide a
common, unifying context for research:
Our program aims to catalyze interactions among students from widely varying home disciplines (e.g., agriculture, forestry, geography, engineering, statistics, computer sciences, agricultural leadership, and sociology) by focusing on interdisciplinary, stakeholder-driven
research questions. To serve as mentors and guides in this effort, we have assembled a diverse team of environmental scientists focused on understanding the underlying processes, mechanisms, and feedback loops within aquatic systems, social scientists focused on effectively
communicating science to both the public at large and decision makers, and engineers and computer scientists focused on quantifying and visualizing anthropogenic impacts at multiple scales. To promote student interaction and peer-mediated learning, as well as to provide a
common, unifying context for research:
- Fellows and mentors will work in interdisciplinary teams (Fig. 1);
- Focus on place-based research topics that address the spatial, social, and historic confluence of the Stroubles Creek watershed, Virginia Tech and the Town of Blacksburg (Fig. 2) within the context of the regionally important New River basin; and
- Each summer, the team’s efforts will center on a common overarching theme to maximize interaction and cross-disciplinary experience (Fig. 3).
Note that the 3 team projects each year will vary depending on student fellows selected and faculty available each summer. While the 3 projects will be related via an overarching theme, the 3 teams will be constructed based on interest area and expertise. Potential overarching themes and project areas are shown in Fig. 3, but may vary depending on personnel and other ongoing research by faculty participants each summer. The 3 areas are as follows:
- Social Constructs [social science research related to water and society]
- Quantification & Visualization [computational modeling, 3D visualization, etc. for communicating hydrology/water quality]
- Environment Science & Engineering [hydrology, water quality, and/or human health related research]