What about the UseIT program have you benefited from most?

I've benefited most from working in a real software development environment. Having the experience will help me should I enter the software production field as a professional in the future. There is only so much you can learn in a classroom, like a lot of theory. This internship gave me an opportunity to apply what I've learned to a real situation.

How has your understanding or appreciation for earthquake science been affected by the UseIT program?

Before I entered the program I knew close to nothing about earthquakes. Now that I've spent a summer working for SCEC I know a lot more about the subject. I now appreciate how active the seismology of the area is and have an idea of how to respond and act during an earthquake. Living in Southern California, this will probably be valuable information one day.

What is the atmosphere or working environment like?

Our work environment is very casual and friendly. Everyone, for the most part, gets along with each other and we've all become friends working together. There is still that "work" feeling to the place, and we all do our projects and accomplish tasks, but we have more fun together than your average, boring office.

What about the friendships you’ve made while staying here?

It's been great meeting people from around the country with various backgrounds and experience. Without a program like this I probably wouldn't have the chance to meet people from places like NC State or Temple. I've also met a few fellow USC students who I didn't know previously with similar interests as me. I'm sure those friendships I've made will carry over into the regular school year.

What have you done in the UseIT program this summer?

This summer I worked mostly on earthquake visualization in SCEC-VDO. Working with Ifraz we changed the earthquake plugin to an object oriented design which was necessary for various functionality added during the summer. I also worked on the visual display for the animation of earthquakes. The biggest project was with Josh, working on displaying focal mechanisms in SCEC-VDO. Once that was done I brought in a new type of catalog for a new way of viewing earthquake focal mechanisms.