Professor Chris Emrich of the College of Community Innovation and Education and his team – including Department of English and Texts & Technology assistant professor Dr. Sonia Stephens – were awarded $3.4 million to help people make smarter housing decisions based on hazard risks and mitigation of those risks from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Gulf Research Program.
“The project team will be gathering risk and hazard information all across the Gulf region, and developing easy-to-use tools including apps, maps, and websites to share this information with the public all in one place,” says Dr. Stephens. “My role in the project is to work with community members as the tools are being developed in order to ensure that the tools are easy to understand and use by the public. I’ll be working with community members to understand their needs and concerns about the tools, and with our app and website developers to test the designs and prototypes to make sure those community needs are incorporated into the design. In other words, my role is to make sure that we use community-centered methods as we develop the tools.”
Stephens is an Assistant Professor of English and core member of the Texts and Technology doctoral program. She’s also a faculty affiliate of UCF’s Center for Integrated Coastal Research.
Read the full story on UCF Today: UCF Receives $3.4 Million Grant to Develop Easily Accessible Program to Help Homeowners Evaluate Property Risks