Grants

NSF

This doctoral dissertation research project examines how corporate consolidation in the rental market is impacting the fiscal landscape of cities. The project specifies the evolving portfolio management strategies of institutional investors, assesses the impacts of these strategies on tax valuation, assessment and administration, and investigates the connections between corporate portfolios and local strategies to lower tax assessments. The research contributes to knowledge on the housing shortage by analyzing how shifting concentrations of investment in rental housing are impacting urban tax bases and city budgets. The project also contributes to the education and training of an early-career scientist. This research proposes that increasingly consolidated ownership structures associated with rental housing are disrupting longstanding patterns and trends in tax assessment. The researchers conduct expert interviews, augmented by observations at real estate and tax assessment conferences, to assess how rental management strategies seek to offset investors’ largest yearly operational expense in local property taxes. This analysis is complemented by extended fieldwork to document how the portfolio management strategies of rental investors capitalize upon the specificities of local tax systems, such as using local tax consultants to file property tax appeals or in advocating for project-based tax abatements. Through its focus on the infrastructural dimensions of taxes and the tax code, this project brings together scholarship from Geography, City and Regional Planning, Science and Technology Studies, and Urban Studies, to specify how housing rentiership is redefining the fiscal landscape of US cities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Cellular damage can result from an imbalance between free-radicals and antioxidants, also known as oxidative stress. When the production of free radicals overcomes the body’s antioxidant defenses, chronic health conditions and an increased risk of mortality may develop. Childhood is a particularly critical period for caloric requirements (children spend ~50% more calories each day than adults when adjusted for body size), but their increased caloric expenditure can also amplify the body’s production of free radicals. At the same time, antioxidant defenses are energetically costly, and during childhood they can take calories away from growth and development. This study examines the complex relationship between free radicals and total calories used in a day in a group of children (ages 3-10). Results are shared with stakeholders, activities are developed with schools and youth organizations, and students receive STEM training. The study provides practical insights for public health priorities and disease prevention. To further current understanding of human life history trade-offs, this study investigates oxidative stress in relation to Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) in a group of children (3-10 years old, n = 70). The study builds upon an ongoing longitudinal study as well as robust pilot testing. The study determines how child TEE relates to oxidative stress by measuring TEE using doubly labeled water and by establishing the Oxidative Stress Index (urinary 8-OHdG; OSI). The selected methods allow for the study to measure oxidative damage levels relative to antioxidant activity. These bioassays are complemented with household-level information regarding food and nutrition. The study provides practical insights for public health priorities and disease prevention. The study's methodological approach advances NSF priorities for investments in biotechnological innovation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Forest fires profoundly alter the ecological communities that inhabit affected areas and may have played a significant evolutionary role among multiple animal lineages including primates. The role of fires in the ecology and evolution of primates is not well understood, because most current primate species live in tropical forests where fire studies are rare. This doctoral dissertation research assesses how forest fires affect primate species that have different diets. The research provides context for studies of primate and human evolution since wildfires may have played a significant role in the transition from forest to savannah environments when hominins were first emerging. Results from this study are relevant to the assessment of current conservation efforts. Additionally, the project provides training and educational opportunities for K-12, undergraduate and graduate students. This study assesses how forest fires affect primates with different dietary traits, by focusing on two food sources suggested to benefit primates after fires: new foliage and insects. Applying surveys and distance sampling methods, this research measures and compares the post-fire population densities of seven non-human primate species across dietary niches. The study evaluates changes in the availability and nutritional content (water, protein, fiber, and condensed tannin) of leaves from known food species in burned and adjacent unburned forest. Additionally, resource abundance and isotopic niches among sympatric species are analyzed to determine whether fire-induced changes lead to dietary overlap among them. The study informs primate conservation and primate evolution. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Sociality provides advantages in defense and food resource acquisition, but the ecological landscape of gregarious species is complex and requires accessing and accruing social resources (e.g., allies, friends, and mates) that can impact fitness. Studies that focus on gregarious primate species have revealed how social resources influence male interactions (e.g., male-male confrontations over hierarchy and mates), but little is known about female-female competition. This doctoral dissertation research project investigates the impact that female competition over males, and the social resources they provide, have in the reproductive success of a close human relative. The study informs the evolution of sociality among primates, provides educational opportunities, and creates pedagogical material. Studies show that competition for food resources influences female sociality and fitness outcomes, but little is known about the impact and prevalence of social resource competition. Although some non-human primate females have behavioral patterns that suggest they compete over males, who may provide protection and infant care, direct evidence is scarce. This project leverages long-term databases and integrates novel behavioral, demographic, and hormonal data to explore female social resource competition in habituated non-human primates. The study evaluates whether females use competitive behaviors (i.e., aggression and dominance) to monopolize males and receive social benefits from them. Additionally, glucocorticoids and reproductive hormones levels are measured to determine if they influence competitive behaviors in ways that limit or promote access to social resources. The study advances knowledge regarding the causes and consequences of female-female competition, as well as the social and physiological mechanisms through which such competition may influence survival and reproductive success in social animals. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This project examines legal actions involving insurance companies that have denied claims following natural disasters, because geographical variation in litigation may help to explain why communities vary in their pace of recovery. The research examines demographic and economic factors that potentially underlie variation in litigation rates and the legal outcomes. The study also investigates correlations between litigation and recovery rates as indicated by construction that is evident over time in satellite images, which are processed with deep-learning algorithms. The findings and recommendations are made available to a broad range of stakeholders, including regional planners. The project also provides opportunities for the training and education of multiple students. As a contribution to the geographical sciences, this study examines the dynamic processes that lead to spatial variation in recovery rates after natural disasters. Communities may vary in their litigiousness, and this study uses qualitative methods to elucidate the reasons for considering legal recourse among a sample of impacted residents. Complementary methods are used to construct a quantitative parcel-level dataset in communities that have been negatively impacted by recent disasters. This dataset combines property records, court records, and satellite images of the study area. Deep learning algorithms are used with the satellite images to detect evidence of damaged homes and subsequent recovery. The dataset facilitates multilevel hazard modeling of parcels’ time to recovery as a function of litigation participation and related outcomes. The study refines understandings of the role of litigation as an adaptive strategy for homeowners who have been affected by natural disasters. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The shift from hunting wild animal species to managing domesticated herds marked a significant transformation in human society by providing reliable food and resources, supporting permanent settlements, and reshaping social and economic structures. This doctoral dissertation research focuses on the domestication of camelids (llamas and alpacas). As the only large-bodied domesticated animals native to the Americas, camelids have been integral to multiple societies for millennia, providing transportation, wool, and meat. Despite their cultural and economic importance, the genetic diversity of modern camelid populations has drastically declined due to environmental pressures and human interventions, particularly from colonial-era impacts. This project investigates how ancient communities adapted their subsistence strategies amidst the shifting environmental conditions of the deep past. The work has significant implications for modern conservation efforts, offering potential strategies for preserving the genetic diversity of camelids in the face of contemporary challenges such as environmental change and habitat fragmentation. This interdisciplinary project integrates archaeogenomics, isotopic analysis, and environmental data to examine the processes of camelid domestication and management. Researchers combine carbon and nitrogen isotopic data from camelid bones with dental calculus analysis to reconstruct the diets of grazing ancient herds. Additionally, analysis of ancient mitochondrial DNA (aDNA) sheds light on the genetic changes that occurred during the domestication process, providing critical insights into how human and environmental pressures influenced the genetic diversity of camelid populations over time. The findings contribute to broader discussions on the evolution of pastoral economies and the role of human-environment interactions in shaping animal domestication. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Archaeologists continue to debate when and how humans' use of dense and predictable resources impacted human evolution. Today, billions of humans still depend on dense and predictable resources, namely agriculture. Previous studies suggest that agriculture allowed humans to become sedentary, leading to greater technological advancements and forms of resource defense and stratification. Recent archaeological evidence suggests these adaptations predate agricultural development and, thus, may be more ancient than previously thought. However, before archaeologists can determine how far back in time these adaptations exist, they must first understand how other forms of dense and predictable resources, like fish and shellfish, impacted hunter-gatherer behaviors. As such, this project yields insights into the role of aquatic resources in human evolution, providing comparative data for global studies of hunter-gatherer adaptation. The project supports education and training by involving students and engaging local communities while fostering scientific collaboration. Educational outreach, including the development of language material and a database of archaeological data on aquatic exploitation, extends the impact of this work to a variety of audiences and educational settings. This interdisciplinary project contributes to theoretical and methodological advancements in archaeology and anthropology while enriching understanding of past, present, and future human responses to resource challenges. Researchers investigate how intensified aquatic resource use influenced hunter-gatherers' technological and mobility decisions over the past 5,000 years. This study examines stone tool adaptations across two distinct environments. Both sites provide rich archaeological records of transitions towards increased consumption of fish or shellfish, enabling the researchers to analyze the impact of aquatic intensification on hunter-gatherer technology and mobility. This project tracks how hunter-gatherers made, maintained, and sourced their stone tools before and during aquatic intensification. This allows the researchers to explore whether shifts in dietary focus—toward marine and freshwater resources—altered hunter-gatherer strategies for tool utility, raw material use, and mobility patterns. These findings enhance our understanding of how resource optimization shaped human innovation and adaptation during periods of cultural and environmental fluctuation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This doctoral dissertation project uses evolutionary and endocrinological approaches to examine factors underlying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and better understand why some individuals develop PTSD while others exposed to the same stressor do not. The project leverages longitudinal data for a group of individuals who had stress hormone measurements taken during childhood and then as adults, including after a natural disaster. By pairing previously collected data with new biomarker measurements, the project tests whether early physiological signatures relate to later vulnerability or resilience. These findings advance evolutionary models of PTSD, recognizing multiple pathways that underlie symptoms. The project advances the use of biotechnology for collecting detailed physiological data and can inform novel interventions targeting the biological processes most relevant to each individual’s symptoms. The investigator leverages pilot data for individuals who were juveniles in the 1980s and who experienced Hurricane Maria in 2017 as adults, finding that specific diurnal cortisol profiles as children were associated with individuals who reported PTSD symptoms after the hurricane. The project expands this work to address how cortisol profiles change before and after a stress event, and how contemporary physiological markers, including inflammatory biomarkers, map onto distinct PTSD symptom clusters. The project uses a 72-hour continuous monitoring protocol with advanced biosensors to capture cortisol, melatonin, IL-6, and TNF-α in three-minute intervals, and compares these data to psychological assessments of PTSD symptoms. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This project addresses the role and effectiveness of institutions in the mitigation of conflicts over natural resources, particularly resources that are important to people who raise livestock in arid regions. In these settings, access to water and pastureland can be contentious, and local institutions that have been designed to mitigate conflict must increasingly accommodate new challenges. This project examines the extent to which individuals regard different institutions as helpful for managing natural resources. The project enhances the education and training of an early-career social scientist while building capacity for future collaborative research on natural resource management. This doctoral dissertation project uses a multi-sited research design to examine how trust in local institutions varies based on resource availability and, concomitantly, how this trust affects cooperative or conflictual attitudes among resource users. While leveraging a household survey among four different groups of livestock owners, which is further supplemented by focus group discussions with community members, the study collects primary data on resource use, conflict patterns, cooperation between and within the groups, and strategies for resolution. By sampling in multiple communities, this project examines a range of ecological contexts, providing a clearer picture of the role of institutions in shaping behavior and social outcomes in increasingly challenging environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The unprecedented global spread of early humans was facilitated by cognitive, cultural, and physiological adaptations. Among the latter, nasal morphology played a significant role in our species' adjustment to environments with varying humidity levels and temperatures. While traditional bio-anthropological assessments have broadly described nasal shape in relation to heat, this doctoral dissertation study examines nasal morphology’s impact on metabolism and thermoregulation by collecting information using visualization methods and measuring brain temperature. The study can inform clinical research on thermoregulation and advances technological and academic training for undergraduate and graduate students. To address a classic bio-anthropological question using new biotechnological methods, this project implements a sampling strategy that emphasizes the continuous variation of nasal morphology. The study implements innovative methods and technologies that include: (1) using microwave radiology to develop a detailed quantification and reconstruction of both skeletal and soft-tissue nasal anatomy, (2) recreating environmental variables in a controlled chamber, and (3) measuring metabolic and respiratory responses with a wearable COSMED K5 metabolic unit. Measuring brain temperature is a significant improvement over earlier studies because, among other factors, it influences blood flow and other physiological responses involved in maintaining a stable core body temperature. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Social information can be linguistically represented in many ways, such as with word endings or as part of the word’s definition. For example, some words are stereotypically gendered because the word itself is not linguistically marked for gender, but it still carries information influenced by social experiences. This doctoral dissertation project advances an understanding of how the various representations of social information in nouns differently impact language comprehension and processing. Additionally, this project tests possible social information in adjectives, which has not been previously studied in language processing. Additional benefits to society include educational and workforce development opportunities for undergraduate students who receive training in psycholinguistic research methods. Research in linguistics shows that gender bias plays a crucial role when forming a coreferential dependency, which is the process of linking a pronoun with a larger noun phrase that the pronoun replaces and refers to. Influence of gender on coreferential dependency formation has been found in online processing measures, with a slowdown in reading times when a noun phrase, though grammatically accessible, is judged by the perceiver as “mismatching” the pronoun in gender. This project uses eye-tracking measures to investigate how differences in processing may reflect differences in the social representation of a word and/or differences in the sentence structure and context surrounding the target word. Additionally, new methods for testing social information are developed. De-identified data and code are made publicly available, as a major goal of this project is providing updated norming results on nouns, as well the first publicly available norming results on adjectives. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This doctoral dissertation research investigates the impact of food commodity supply chains on local communities. Through a focus on the commodity supply chains of industrial meat production, investigators specifically test for the various factors that influence rural households, communities, and economic livelihoods. They also measure the variable impacts of local and imported meat production and consumption on agricultural communities and the adaptations that the communities undergo as they participate in the broader commodity supply chains of food production. Research activities include interview and behavioral data collection across food commodity supply chains. The broader impacts plan includes training of a graduate student in anthropological science and widespread dissemination plans to various stakeholders in this bioeconomy. The research findings will make contributions to the anthropology of food and food production and to local management of bioeconomy. It will significantly expand our understanding of commodity supply chains related to food. The project furthers research that fuels economic prosperity, particularly in the agricultural sectors and impacts investments in understanding human adoption of biotechnology innovations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This doctoral dissertation research project investigates the impacts of cross-border trade and exchange on diplomatic relations and on land and wildlife management. Investigators specifically examine the role that management of vertebrate wildlife has on cross-border trade and border management. Research findings have translational impact on border security and workforce development in diplomacy and land administration. Research findings will contribute to the understanding of diplomatic and trade relations. In addition to training a graduate student, research findings will be disseminated to inform the development of land management and/or cross-border trade and diplomatic strength. Expansion of our understanding of the role that land and wildlife administration play in the governance of trade and diplomacy will contribute to NSF’s priorities of fueling economic prosperity, national security, and global competitiveness. It will also contribute to the science of national security, and secure borders. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This doctoral dissertation project focuses on how children learn “wh-dependencies,” a challenging aspect of language that can be found in questions like “What is she reading?” Understanding these structures, especially in long questions such as “What does her mother think she is reading?” requires children to grasp intricate relationships between words and hold information in memory while comprehending longer sentences. Remarkably, by age four, children achieve this feat despite two major challenges: (1) cognitive limitations, such as reduced memory capacity compared to adults, and (2) variations in language input, as children are exposed to widely different linguistic environments but still succeed in learning these complex relationships. This research investigates theories of language learning and examines whether they can account for children’s ability to overcome these challenges. The findings provide valuable insights into the processes of language acquisition and child development, as well as practical strategies to support children’s learning. The project employs computational cognitive modeling to implement a learning theory of wh-dependency acquisition. This approach concretely specifies how the learner processes wh-dependencies in child-directed speech and how the learner outputs behavior that demonstrates adult-like wh-dependency knowledge. To implement the two sources of limitations outlined above, this research tests the performance of the learning model under child-like memory limitations and examines how the model behaves with input across different environmental settings. To ensure the learning theories reflect real-world scenarios, the research also expands a database of child-directed speech to better capture the input children encounter. By precisely implementing learning theories and aligning them with limitations children face, this project aspires to uncover foundational principles of language learning and further our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that support this remarkable ability. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Social animals navigate a particularly complex environment in which their actions influence their social standing and reproductive success. Among their behavioral repertoire are poorly understood vocalizations that may relate to the complexity of social structures and the evolution of social organization. This doctoral dissertation research examines the vocalizations and hormonal levels of males from a highly competitive non-human primate species to determine whether vocalizations play a role in a male’s social rank and reproductive success. The study advances fundamental knowledge about animal communication, social evolution, and sexual selection. In addition, this research supports conservation efforts, provides scientific training, and promotes STEM education among K-12 and undergraduate students. This doctoral research project combines behavioral observations, acoustic analyses, and hormone assays to investigate if dominant males produce more frequent, diverse, and acoustically distinct calls linked to higher androgen levels. The research uses playback experiments by broadcasting recorded calls to other animals, assessing how individuals respond based on the caller’s rank and group membership. This experimental component reveals whether vocalizations alone communicate dominance and competitive ability in the study species. The project uses statistical models to assess relationships between vocalization features, hormone levels, and behavior while accounting for factors like group membership. This integrative approach advances the understanding of the ways in which sexual selection shapes communication strategies in primates. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The project investigates the varying impacts of technology and digital online spaces on youth populations and workforce development in a digital economy. To understand the impacts of digital tools in workforce development and the future of work, the investigators study how those newly entering the technology workforce develop digital skills and entrepreneurship. The data gathered from the project’s focus on the impacts of digital technology on young workers will expand understanding of Artificial Intelligence adoption. The focus on workforce development will address Advanced Manufacturing particularly to attract, educate, train, and reskill/upskill workers. In addition to training a graduate student in scientific methods of data collection and analysis, the broader impacts and dissemination plans will reach populations across the nation that are entering the workforce in a new digital economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Human language often allows different ways of saying the same meaning by changing the order of words in a sentence. However, these different word orders are not always understood with equal ease, even when the meaning remains the same. This doctoral dissertation project investigates how people process sentences with flexible word order and examines why some orders are harder to understand than others. It tests two sources of difficulty in understanding flexible word order sentences. One source involves the mental effort needed to connect a phrase that has been moved from its original position (known as filler–gap dependency formation). The other involves a mismatch between what the reader expects to come next and what actually appears (known as prediction mismatch). In addition to training a graduate student, benefits to society include providing innovative training opportunities in research methods including statistical analysis, which supports workforce development for artificial intelligence and other data science industries. To compare how the filler–gap dependency formation and the prediction mismatch affect sentence processing, this doctoral dissertation project uses a combination of online and offline experiments – including self-paced reading and sentence completion tasks – with various types of sentences. The findings deepen our understanding of how people comprehend language, using rigorous experimental methods and high-powered samples, to conduct the research. This project also makes publicly available code used for designing experimental tasks and running data analyses to improve infrastructure for future sentence-processing research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

National Park Service

United State Department of the Interior, National Park Service (NPS) Notice of Intent to Award. This is not a request for applications. This funding opportunity is to provide public notice of NPS's intention to fund the following project activities without full and open competition. Task Agreement # P14AC01651 under Cooperative Agreement H8W07110001 with the University of Alaska Anchorage, a partner under the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, for project titled "Document Expressive Culture of Area Dena ina"

National Park Service

Under this task agreement, the National Park Service and its cooperator will revise and prepare drawings on Ellis Island buildings and on ABMC cemeteries.

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NSF

All languages have syntax, which allows smaller units, like words, to be combined into larger units, like sentences. Syntax is a primary method of communicating between speakers. Languages differ syntactically in restricted ways, and the dividing line between sentence and word is an important area of research. The formation of words in some languages is complex and, despite decades of research, is still not completely understood. Part of the reason why is that there are incomplete tools and data for answering these questions, including a lack of detailed syntactic descriptions. Such descriptions are important not only for linguistic typology and theory, but also for other benefits including educational opportunities and refinement of artificial intelligence (AI) and other language technologies. This project investigates syntax in a language for which a detailed description of lexical structure exists. This project approaches the study of syntax in two ways, through the study of sentences in recordings of natural speech, supplemented with questions to speakers about possible and impossible sentences and their meanings. The project transcribes and translates narratives, then posts them with their audio or video on a website so that the widest possible audience can read, understand and enjoy the language. The entire corpus of data collected during the project is archived in a publicly accessible archive, which may help future investigators find answers to questions not imagined in the current project. New words from the recordings are incorporated into an already-substantial dictionary draft. The project yields a syntactic description and a dictionary, and a website of texts. The results from this project have broad applicability in linguistics, history, anthropology, and other disciplines and provide innovative educational opportunities that build capacity for linguistic research in a non-academic setting. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program. This 9-week REU will use an apprentice-style training model and an interdisciplinary approach to studying water quality issues. Poor water quality is widespread in the U.S. and is a complex problem that needs continued interdisciplinary research. We will investigate the dynamics and consequences of surface and groundwater quality issues including nutrient presence, algal blooms, nitrates in drinking water, and other emerging factors. In addition, we will explore potential solutions to these problems. Student-faculty teams will focus on policy and land use decision-making, the social and economic impacts of pollution, community capacity, policy implementation, remediation strategies, and communication with stakeholders. The results will be broadly disseminated via public student presentations, peer-reviewed literature, local media outlets, and directly to stakeholders. Data will also be integrated into a comprehensive strategy for land use and building community capacity. Through professional development programming, data sharing, and research activities, we will prepare students for graduate school and careers by providing them with the interdisciplinary and collaborative thinking skills necessary to address complex problems. Our students will be trained by disciplinary experts and work across teams to synthesize research and look for water quality remediation strategies. Students will become comfortable with looking at a problem from different angles and working collaboratively using a range of perspectives and methods including water quality sampling and testing techniques, interviews, surveys, archival research, remediation strategy testing, mathematical modeling, and statistical analysis. By synthesizing their results, students will improve their effectiveness in collaborative problem solving. This project will lead to significant translational impacts including but not limited to student training and education, adding to our understanding of the complex processes contributing to water quality, and developing practical solutions. By sharing the results with landowners, citizens, and government workers, this new knowledge will positively impact public policy, the local economy, and regional water quality. The overall project will help to develop a more competitive work force in the social and natural sciences in the US, support community engagement, and assist with improving water quality. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program. We live in an information-rich society where information can be both opportunity and burden. Tomorrow’s researchers and professionals urgently need to improve competencies in handling and understanding the massive amount of one such type of information—text data—in an effective and scientific way. These competencies also include understanding how large language models such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Claude work and utilizing them with awareness and accountability. This program will support 12 REU students per summer in a research setting designed to build knowledge and skills in interdisciplinary research areas. A key point of distinction for this REU site is that it will provide an opportunity for social science majors to build technical skills in the application of human language technologies for research. This REU program supports undergraduate students through a summer of science-, research-focused, hands-on, computational, and interdisciplinary learning experiences. Activities include social science text analysis research methods workshops, seminars, professional development, team-building opportunities, faculty research mentorship, and hands-on research project development and presentation. Students learn how to handle large text-based data, systematically conduct computational social science research, and be prepared for future academic or professional development. A key goal is to encourage students to sustain research interests in the context of subsequent educational activities and get exposure to research and text analysis that will benefit their future research and professional goals. This REU program is home to 35 undergraduate researchers from universities across the country. From the first two completed cohorts, at least four student researchers won conference awards and have papers published in conferences, and many have continued to graduate schools or PhD programs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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