The objective for the Mapping City Assets project is to use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to map the location of manhole covers, underground catchments, fire hydrants, and other important city assets in order to create a GIS data layer that will provide the City of Lawrence Fire Department and Department of Public Works with accurate database and component locations and conditions required for efficient management and maintenance. In an effort to expand the MIT@Lawrence partnership, DUSP graduate students, Leila Bozorg, Amruta Sudhalkar, and holly jo Sparks teamed up with faculty from MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics to prepare incoming freshman to participate in the Mapping City Assets project beginning January 2009.
The undergraduates are all a part of the International House for Global Leadership (iHouse), a living-learning community at MIT that incorporates strategies that enable students to build a sense of collaboration and community, do public service projects and community-based research, develop problem-solving and communication skills, increase understanding of global issues, and improve confidence, competence, leadership ability and intellectual engagement. Specific expectations will be developed in partnership with stakeholders at MIT and in the Lawrence community.
In the Fall of 2008, Prof Leon Trilling and Prof Wesley Harris taught the 16.A48 First-Year Experience (FYE) Seminar: Selecting, Formulating, and Solving Complex Problems in a Global Environment, providing incoming iHouse students with an opportunity to develop specific skill sets through a hands-on experience that would contribute to their self-development and better prepare them for their work with communities in developing regions. Specific learning objectives of FYE include the following:
- Better understanding of current issues, future trends, and technological, social, and cultural requirements in a wired, flattened world;
- Growth in skills and understanding for effective leadership and team work;
- Opportunities for self-reflection and understanding of their own leadership strengths, weaknesses, values and aspirations;
- Improved understanding of the dynamics of working in a multicultural environment, and within social, political, and economic infrastructures; and
- Hands-on experience in working as a partner with a local community in solving technical problems to meet community needs
The goal of the hands-on component of the course was for students to apply the skills and concepts covered in the course to real world problems and projects of the Community Development Department (CDD) of the City of Lawrence. Based on several meetings between MIT Aero-Astro faculty, Lawrence CDD, the Planning Department, the Department of Public Works, and Information Technology, facilitated by Milagro Grullon and holly jo Sparks, it was negotiated that a team of approximately ten seminar students would be paired with ten high school students from the Lawrence community to conduct a neighborhood-wide GPS survey in order to create GIS maps of city assets, so that the CDD and the Fire Department could begin creating a system for tracking, monitoring, and maintaining the quality and use of those assets, in a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area (NRSA) that sees frequent flooding and fires.
During their fieldwork in Lawrence the iHouse students will be introduced to a number of community leaders through informational lunchtime discussions, so that they could forge the necessary relationships for continuing their public service work beyond the seminar activities. The students will be guided and advised by two faculty members, two undergraduate Teaching Assistants, and a DUSP graduate students
familiar with Lawrence and CDD. By working with local communities, first-year students will also gain valuable insights about US multiculturalism and diversity as they help to carry out MIT’s commitment to serve neighboring communities.
Lawrence is also likely to gain substantially from this interaction. The faculty and staff expertise can be deployed for the community’s benefit, and they will have the opportunity to form ongoing relationships with people in Lawrence, and to serve as information resources for their colleagues about ways to get involved with Lawrence.
