Shaun Wilson, information systems major:  The Business Fellows project that we're working on and the disaster models we produce are actually used to forecast what could happen to the city of Muncie.  By incorporating that entire area, we're able to understand how we can help protect the entire community and the citizens of Muncie.

Bill Gosnell, Director of Delaware Country Emergency Management:  The hazardous project is software that was produced by FEMA.  It's very large, complex software that allows our community to do "what-if" planning scenarios.  This software will give us actually data-how many people are injured, how many people are killed, what sort of buildings are damaged and how extensive that damage is, what infrastructure-telephone, gas, power, utilities-have been severed.  It gives us a very good estimate for earthquakes, floods, and high-wind events. 

Shaun Wilson:  Unfortunately, they're unable to run these due to the lengthy time that it takes to process them.  So, they've contacted us to expedite the process and present them with tangible information that they can take to the state legislature and to other monetary organizations in order to gain funding to help better prepare the community and make sure that there's a general awareness of what could happen and how we're prepared for it.  The particular technical aspect of our project was initially to use a cluster computing system which is basically intended to distribute the processes of a program over multiple computers.  So, say you have one system that is trying to run a program.  It might take an hour and a half.  By using multiple computers, you can actually send information throughout and it's kind of like ten people working on a project instead of one.

Fred Kitchens, information systems professor:   I thought for immersive learning it was a really neat project because it was so unusual, so different, and something people don't usually get involved in.  It's so critical to a local area like Delaware County and Muncie and a lot of fun to investigate what would happen if there were a flood or an earthquake.  On this team we have students from four different areas-geography, computer science, information systems, and technology. 

Shaun Wilson:  This is the first project that I've seen or been exposed to where I am directly working with other members of other departments and understanding what their skills are and how I can work with them to accomplish a common goal.

Fred Kitchens:  As a mentor on a project like this, I don't run it like a class.  I run it more like a business or as close to a business that I can.  I'm there to back them up, support them, correct them, give them direction, but I'm not there to lecture and dictate what needs to be done.

Shaun Wilson:  You learn to perfect time management and project management skills because ultimately you are working for a business client who has expectations of you and we suddenly become more than students in the respect that they treat us as professionals and we have expectations of them as well. 

Fred Kitchens:  It's hard to find a university that really thinks outside the box and encourages students to get involved in the community and actually apply the skills they're learning in the classroom to real situations.