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

REU 网站：地震信息技术本科生研究 (SCEC/UseIT)

• 批准号: 1659880
• 负责人: Thomas Jordan
• 金额: $ 36万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-04-01 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1659880&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: REU; Site; Undergraduate; Studies; Earthquake

Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (UseIT) is a mentored summer research program administered by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) at its lead institution, the University of Southern California (USC). The goal of UseIT is to motivate undergraduates with diverse educational backgrounds towards STEM careers through team-based research in the exciting field of earthquake information technology. UseIT enables undergraduates to participate in interdisciplinary research enabled by high-performance computing (HPC), visualization software, and other IT tools to address grand challenges in earthquake system science. An objective is to close the gap between computer science and geoscience by cross-training students in the modes of understanding distinct to these disciplines. The project particularly seeks to enhance the competency and diversity of the STEM workforce by increasing the research skills and self-confidence of women, under-represented minorities, first-generation college students, and undergraduates from institutions with limited research opportunities, particularly community colleges. UseIT aims to enhance the computational science expertise that SCEC needs to achieve the practical objectives of predicting strong ground motions and understanding earthquake predictability, thus aligning with the NSF's mission of promoting science and advancing nations welfare.Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (UseIT) has matured into a program with an experienced staff and a well-equipped Undergraduate Earthquake Research Laboratory at USC. UseIT's goal of motivating a diverse cadre of undergraduates towards STEM careers is approached by supporting team-based research in the field of earthquake information technology, highly interdisciplinary research enabled by high-performance computing (HPC), visualization software, and other IT tools through which UseIT participants address grand challenges in earthquake system science. SCEC was awarded its first REU-site grant in 2004 and subsequent grants in 2007, 2009 and 2012. The UseIT interns have developed SCEC-VDO, a powerful visualization platform for the 4D display of earthquake information that has seen wide application, e.g., by the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities. The UseIT toolkit has expanded in recent years to include geographic information systems (GIS), the OpenSHA hazard-analysis platform, the HAZUS risk-estimation platform, and the physics-based RSQSim rupture simulator. Team-based research on grand challenges with explicit HPC components can demonstrate to students how difficult system-level problems can be solved by using the HPC facilities as precise scientific instruments. This next phase of UseIT incorporates new elements of HPC-enabled research, probabilistic forecasting, and visualization-assisted data analysis of physics-based earthquake rupture simulators to provide probabilistic earthquake forecasts. UseIT received 19,500 node-hours of allocation on the Blue Waters supercomputer, which the students used to run simulated earthquake catalogs hundreds of thousands of years in length, from which they produced time-dependent earthquake forecasts, and the project aims to continue this partnership. UseIT enhances the STEM workforce that SCEC will require to make fundamental progress in earthquake system science.

地震信息技术本科研究(UseIT)是由南加州地震中心(SCEC)在其牵头机构南加州大学(USC)管理的一个有指导的夏季研究项目。UseIT的目标是通过团队在令人兴奋的地震信息技术领域的研究，激励不同教育背景的本科生投身STEM职业。UseIT使本科生能够参与由高性能计算(HPC)、可视化软件和其他IT工具支持的跨学科研究，以应对地震系统科学中的重大挑战。一个目标是通过交叉培训学生不同于这些学科的理解模式来缩小计算机科学和地球科学之间的差距。该项目特别寻求通过提高妇女、代表性不足的少数群体、第一代大学生和研究机会有限的机构，特别是社区大学的本科生的研究技能和自信，来提高STEM工作人员的能力和多样性。UseIT旨在提高SCEC所需的计算科学专业知识，以实现预测强地面运动和了解地震可预测性的实际目标，从而与NSF促进科学和促进国家福祉的使命保持一致。地震信息技术本科课程(UseIT)已经成熟为一个拥有经验丰富的工作人员和南加州大学设备齐全的本科生地震研究实验室的项目。UseIT的目标是通过支持地震信息技术领域的团队研究、高性能计算(HPC)、可视化软件和其他IT工具实现的高度跨学科研究，来激励不同的本科生走向STEM职业生涯，UseIT参与者通过这些工具应对地震系统科学方面的重大挑战。SCEC在2004年获得了第一笔REU场地赠款，随后在2007年、2009年和2012年获得了赠款。UseIT实习生开发了SCEC-VDO，这是一个用于4D显示地震信息的强大可视化平台，已被加州地震概率工作组广泛应用。UseIT工具包近年来已扩展到包括地理信息系统(GIS)、OpenSHA危险分析平台、HAZUS风险评估平台和基于物理的RSQSim破裂模拟器。对具有显式HPC组件的重大挑战进行的团队研究可以向学生演示如何通过将HPC设施用作精确的科学仪器来解决系统级的困难问题。UseIT的下一阶段结合了基于物理的地震破裂模拟器的高性能预测研究、概率预测和可视化辅助数据分析的新元素，以提供概率地震预测。UseIT在Blue Waters超级计算机上获得了19,500个节点小时的分配，学生们用这台计算机运行长达数十万年的模拟地震目录，从中产生随时间变化的地震预报，该项目旨在继续这一伙伴关系。UseIT增强了SCEC在地震系统科学方面取得根本性进展所需的STEM劳动力。