Paid Research Opportunity for VT Honors Students
Are you an honors student interested in research? Join an interdisciplinary team studying how communities make decisions about infrastructure systems, and how these decisions can be made more resilient and sustainable. Faculty from Urban Affairs and Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Psychology are offering a paid research opportunity for honors students with support from the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS).
Deadline to apply: Sunday, October 29th at 5:00pm EST
To apply: Email Dr. Robin Panneton at panneton@vt.edu the following:
A one page resume or CV
A statement of no more than 500 words about why you are the ideal candidate for this opportunity
If you are invited to join the team you will:
Earn a $3000 stipend for work during the 2017-2018 academic year
Enhance you resume and graduate school applications
Collaborate with faculty and students from multiple disciplines
Present your work to members of the university community in April 2018
They are interested in students who:
Have knowledge and experience relevant to the research project
Are interested in pursuing studies in environmental policy and planning, public and urban affairs, engineering, or related fields
Are from groups traditionally underrepresented in the academy
More information about the research project:
Land use is a major determinant of the capacity for infrastructure systems to be resilient and sustainable. However, public officials who shape land use policies often make decisions with limited knowledge of the effects on infrastructure systems. The proposed interdisciplinary REU site will investigate the interactions between local land use and infrastructure systems, focusing on how exposure to indicators affects decision-making in (1) land use regulatory processes and (2) land use community planning processes.
Undergraduate researchers will assist with: (1) synthesizing and applying indicators to target localities; (2) collecting observational baseline data on land use processes, institutions, perceptions, and preferences in target localities before introduction of resilience indicators; (3) time permitting, collecting post-intervention data on the same. They will gain an understanding of the institutional, behavioral, and informational barriers to more resilient decisions in local land use regulatory and planning processes.