Grand Challenges

Research activities of USEIT are structured around "Grand Challenges" in earthquake information technology. The Grand Challenge is posed by SCEC Director Tom Jordan during the first week of of the summer program.

Click on the year below for more information on each summer's Grand Challenge.

Year	Challenge Statement	Intern Class
2013	The Grand Challenge for 2013 is still in progress. Please be sure to check back soon!	View
2012	Develop visualization capabilities based on SCEC-VDO and GIS that can display earthquake rupture forecasts, and publish visualization products that can be used to educate the general public about the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecasts, including the new forecasting model, UCERF3.	View
2011	Develop a Seismic Sequence Visualization System based on SCEC-VDO and GIS that can display earthquake sequences, monitor their evolution in space and time, and assess their hazards and risks.	View
2010	Develop a Seismic Crisis Visualization System based on SCEC-VDO that can display information needed for operational earthquake forecasting.	View
2009	Deliver SCEC-VDO images and animations of faults and earthquake sequences to SCEC, the Earthquake Country Alliance, and other virtual organizations via a content management system that captures the metadata and guides the user.	View
2008	Communicate the value and the content of the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast to end-users and the public at large.	View

2007	Communicate important earthquake science concepts by creating one or more "serious games" based on SCEC-VDO.
2006	Develop fault-sytem visualization tools to detect anomalous earthquake behavior, particularly behavior that might be precursory to a future large earthquake.
2005	Create and earthquake monitoring system based on SCEC-VDO that enables the rapid integration and visualization of data sets needed to evaluate the potential danger of a rapidly evolving earthquake sequence.
2004	Develop a version of LA3D that is functionally capable of stable enough to release to the scientific community. Prototype the next generation of intern software, which should be capable of visualizing earthquake objects in a whole-Earth spherical coordinate system (SCEC-VDO).
2003	Enhance LA3D with animation and scripting capabilities that can generate a movie within one hour after a significant earthquake, showing the 3D relationships of the mainshock hypocenter to regional faults.
2002	Develop an open-source, object-oriented visualization platform in Cartesian coordinates (LA3D) that allows the interactive, 3D exploration of the active faults and seismicity of Southern California to a depth of 50 km.