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Objective 6

Offer diverse education and research opportunities for Boise State students across all disciplines

Vertically Integrated Projects students
Anujay Chopra, Communications Major; Kade Anderson, Masters of Public Health; Chloe Bauer, Urban Studies Major; Nathaniel Campbell, Urban Studies Major; Tayah Brodt, Economics Major; Sabrina Akther, Geoscience Doctoral Student
Students and Faculty
Kolby McClure, Civil Engineering; Tianjie Zhang, Computer Science; Donglei Wang, Civil Engineering; Alessie Molino, Physics; Grant Goertzen, Civil Engineering; Alexandra Friel, Geoscience; Owen Walsh, Geoscience; Adam Dickson, Geoscience. Faculty: Lee Liberty, Geoscience; Robert Hamilton, Civil Engineering; Yang Lu, Civil Engineering; Britnay Brand, Geoscience.

Resilient communities need a workforce trained to think holistically about problems. The HCRI helps Boise State students from across disciplines gain experiences with real communities and resilience-related problems.

We build coursework that helps students develop skills related to stakeholder engagement, technical writing, presenting, research and more all while meeting community needs through applied projects.

Students also have professional development opportunities such as presenting their research at annual events, finding internships or research opportunities, and networking within the community.

Activities under this goal include

  1. Vertically Integrated Project Building Resilient Communities Class
  2. Seismic Retrofit Assessments

1. Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Building Resilient Communities Class

Each semester, students work with an Idaho community to identify the societal, economic, and environmental stresses that comprise a community’s quality of life and capacity for resilience.

Our analysis includes components of the natural environment, built environment, health and wellbeing, economy and society, and leadership and strategy.

Project outcomes, developed with and for community partners, include  a prioritized list of feasible, actionable projects that will serve to strengthen the city and region.

In future semesters, students can select projects from this list within their interest to work on.

Example of student poster
In Fall of 2022 the VIP students presented a poster at the VIP Student Showcase that included information about each student’s project and next steps. Title of the poster was VIP: Building Resilient Communities; Fall 2022: City of Kamiah, ID Projects

2. Seismic Retrofit Assessments

In 2023, Tetra Tech Consulting, Geoscience, and Engineering students partnered to complete a seismic vulnerability assessment for four counties in eastern Idaho.

They completed field work and wrote a report for each county that includes the assessment and make critical infrastructure retrofit recommendations.

Funding for this project comes from the Idaho Office of Emergency Management through a FEMA grant.

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