WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NASA, and the American Association of Geographers (AAG) hosted a Poster Session for young innovators participating in a global environmental fellowship program called My Community Our Earth/SERVIR (MyCOE/SERVIR). The event, held at USAID headquarters in Washington D.C., featured the work of 14 students from universities across the globe engaged in geospatial technology-based environmental research addressing development challenges.
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah opened the event stating that "USAID is harnessing the power of science, technology, innovation and partnership across its work in more than 80 countries. The MyCOE/SERVIR Fellowship program supports this approach, by empowering students to pursue essential research on issues that affect millions — from forest fires to floods, from earthquakes to droughts."
The MyCOE/SERVIR Fellowship Program, with funding support from USAID, NASA and the AAG, engages teams of university-level students in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia with mentors to conduct long-term research projects using geographic information and technology. These research projects work to solve development problems using the most advanced geospatial data and tools available. The program supports the Agency’s new model of engaging science, technology innovations and research partnerships in its development work by identifying new approaches and next generation teams to solve development challenges.
Dr. Patricia Solis, Director of the MyCOE/SERVIR program at the AAG also provided brief remarks followed by a short student panel discussion and a poster display where innovators had an opportunity to showcase their research to attendees from both the development and scientific communities.
The Fellowship Program is part of a larger collaborative effort between USAID and NASA to provide satellite-based Earth observation data and science applications to help developing nations in Central America, East Africa and the Himalayas improve environmental decision making.
Key themes for fellowship research included water, disaster management, food security, climate change, gender, and land. Specific research topics included:
• use of remote sensing of frost to aid agriculture
• assessment of glacier health to understand climate change
• the study of floating gardens’ potential to save natural ecosystems
• investigation of the impacts of illegal logging on rainforests.
Lhakpa, a Master’s student in Sustainable Development from the Royal University of Bhutan and one of the 120 students receiving support under this program for his research linking traditional beliefs on climate change to scientific understanding stated, “My participation in the MyCOE/SERVIR Program has really taken me some steps ahead. It has fostered a richer insight about research besides giving me an opportunity to tackle real field-related problems.”
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For more information about USAID and its programs, please visit www.usaid.gov