Student, grads get research experience

Three University of North Georgia (UNG) graduates and one student took part in an internship this summer with the University of Maryland's Research for Intelligence and Security Challenges (RISC) Initiative.

Elizabeth Dobbs, '22, and Sonrisa Reed, '23, earned bachelor's degrees in environmental spatial analysis, while senior Emma Vail is pursuing the same degree in the Lewis F. Rogers for Environmental and Spatial Analysis (IESA). 2nd Lt. Phillip Ly, '22, earned a degree in strategic and security studies.

An intensive 10-week virtual program, RISC brought together teams of two to four interns from across the country to work on solutions for real-world problems posed by government operators and supported with realistic data sets and other materials. Faculty mentors and government topic experts supported them in these efforts.

"What we learn here at UNG, especially in IESA, it's something that's highly sought in Washington right now," Dobbs, who was part of the internship for a second summer in a row, said. "GIS, remote sensing, databases — they really want people with those types of skills." 

Dobbs' group came up with a method to map the scientific landscape of Africa. Reed's group sought to aid in the identification of cellphone towers in Sub-Saharan Africa to help advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Vail's group examined North Atlantic iceberg detection. Ly's group focused on defense research and software development.

"It was a good experience for getting accustomed to doing research in a group for when I go to graduate school," Vail, who is also pursuing a minor in computer science, said.

Reed, who also earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from UNG, said her project gave her the opportunity to use geospatial and artificial intelligence tools to help address a public health issue.

"The more accurate information a decision-maker has, the better the decisions will be," Reed said.

At summer's end, the interns gathered for a poster presentation in College Park, Maryland, to discuss project outcomes with peers and visiting experts from the Department of Defense and the intelligence community to gain further insight into how their work fits into the government agencies' missions.

Dobbs and Reed were part of seven teams out of 48 that were asked to make a second presentation on their work and that had their groups' posters sent for display in the Pentagon, and Dobbs' group also traveled to the Air Force Academy to present its work.

"This experience was eye-opening as it exposed us interns to many careers in the intelligence and security fields," Ly said.