BC to launch flood forecasting, engineering education project
Boston College’s Engineering Department has been awarded a three-year, $328,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study hyperlocal flooding and rainfall sensor development in urban settings while also promoting interest in and pathways to the field of engineering among undergraduate and middle school students.
Titled “Developing Interest and Pathways for Engineering Engagement in the Localized Contexts of Urban Spaces Across the U.S. Northeast,” the project, which launches on July 1, is funded by the NSF’s Directorate of Engineering, and the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports endeavors that build understanding of practices, program elements, contexts and processes that contribute to increasing students’ knowledge and interest in STEM, and information and communication technology careers.
Principal Investigator Catherine Hoar (Caitlin Cunningham)
"By addressing gaps in rainfall data needed for flood forecasting, the real-time responses to weather emergencies, and resilient urban development, the sensor network program aims to motivate students to engage with and foster an interest in engineering careers by recognizing how collaborative engineering solutions support human well-being, starting with their local communities,” said BC Assistant Professor of Engineering Catherine Hoar, principal investigator for the project. “Preparing the future engineering workforce to address societal challenges requires educational experiences that highlight the complex, interconnected nature of environmental and social systems.”
Through partnerships with education centers in three cities, the project team will collaborate with middle school educators and undergraduate engineering students to co-design a low-cost, rain gauge sensor kit and an accompanying curriculum that highlights the multifaceted interrelation of engineered and natural systems within urban communities. The group will then work with middle school students to implement the curriculum, build and deploy the rainfall sensors, analyze data in a multi-city research collaborative, and share processed data through a public dashboard.“
Co-Principal Investigators Govindasamy and Avneet Hira (Caitlin Cunningham)
"The project's educational research goal is to investigate how localized educational experiences and engagement with a multi-city research network can influence students' interest in interdisciplinary engineering careers and impact their understanding of the complexity of urban environmental challenges,” said co-principal Investigator Avneet Hira, an assistant professor and a Sabet Family Dean’s Faculty Fellow in BC’s Engineering Department.
The multi-city network will connect middle school and undergraduate students across three cities in two states, she noted, fostering collaboration and emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary engineering solutions to challenges that have social, environmental, regional, and hyper-localized implications.
According to the research team, curricular materials will be publicly shared, allowing additional sites to join the research network, which will expand the educational program as well as the range or density of rainfall data collection sites. With this expanded data collection coverage, the network will also be better positioned to answer important questions regarding hyperlocal rainfall patterns and distribution. Additionally, students will develop “engineering ways of thinking” through sharing their stories around flooding while practicing engineering design.
The program will also provide students with the opportunity to engage with Internet of Things sensors—"smart" devices that connect to the web to collect, exchange, and act on information—providing a practical approach for collecting localized environmental data in urban spaces.
“Working with these sensors and the information they collect will provide participants with meaningful experiences in system design, electronics and artificial intelligence,” said co-principal Investigator Siddhartan Govindasamy, a professor and a Sabet Family Dean's Faculty Fellow in BC’s Engineering Department. “The project's focus on urban spaces will highlight for younger and older students, as well as public audiences, the specific challenges to collecting data in metro areas, and developing solutions to address concerns revealed by the data.”
Through a mixed-methods approach, the investigators will assess how participation in a localized, informal education experience impacts student interest in engineering and related STEM pathways, noted the team. The project's narrative inquiry approach will also build knowledge about what role stories play in how students conceptualize what engineers do in designing and supporting urban environments. Through observation of the research collaborative, the team will build knowledge regarding how and in what ways the collection of environmental data in the context of an interdisciplinary, multi-city collaboration contributes to middle school students’ conceptions of engineering.
Andrea I. Silverman, an associate professor of environmental engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, will serve as a co-principal investigator.