In the Community

Faculty and students have conducted research on local problems and engaged with local communities and industries in a number of positive ways.  These and other involvements have provided academic stimulation, served to train students and have resulted in improved relations between the University and local communities and industries.  Some recent examples of this engagement are:

• Measuring the effects of housing development on groundwater, Rowley, MA (with Mathematics)
• Measuring atmospheric deposition onto Stony Brook watershed, Westford, MA
• Developing a well-testing data base for the Board of Health, Westford, MA
• Improving the prediction of wave heights along New England coasts
• Measuring polycyclic hydrocarbon deposition onto Massachusetts Bay
• Determining the effects of buried valleys on arsenic migration from the Boxford dump
• Instructing Lawrence police on GIS applications
• Developing an environmental protection plan to permit the expansion of Westford Academy
• Providing weather data for community leaders, lawyers, etc.
• Developing and implementing an environmental/econometric assessment model for Black Brook, Lowell (with Economics)
• Providing daily weather forecasts for the Merrimack Valley that are accessed by the University and the public
• Developing a formal collaboration with AECOM, Westford
• Conducting upper atmospheric research that has led to the establishment of a spin-off company located in Chelmsford (Lowell Advanced Radio Systems)
• Making presentations in scores of classrooms on the role of meteorology and geology in the environment
• Studying the role of microbes in wetlands surrounding Westford town wells (with Clinical Laboratory Science)
• Working closely with the Tsongas Industrial History Center to demonstrate the impact of industry on the environment to public school students and teachers
• Conducting a limnological study on Long-Sought-For-Pond, Westford