From City Streets to Research Projects: West Palm Beach Students Explore Their Community Through Research

For nine Palm Beach County high school students, the streets of downtown West Palm Beach became their research laboratory this summer.

Over six weeks, they traded traditional classrooms for fieldwork in familiar neighborhoods, working alongside researchers at Florida Atlantic University to explore how technology could address challenges in their own community.

The students participated in the My Streetscapes Summer Research Institute, a paid research program held from June 29 through Aug. 7 by FAU's Institute for Smarter Cities, Spaces, and Health, supported by the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3).

With guidance from university researchers, students observed local infrastructure and public spaces in downtown West Palm Beach, collected data and explored how artificial intelligence and sensing technologies could help address the challenges they encountered.

The students’ observations in the field developed into five research projects exploring pedestrian safety, transportation and other challenges facing urban communities. Along the way, students learned to ask research questions, work with new technologies and consider how their findings could inform solutions for the neighborhoods they studied.

"One of my favorite parts of this program is watching students begin to see their own community differently," said Serena Hoermann, Ph.D., faculty mentor of the program and director of the FAU Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES). "They start by observing what's happening around them, then learn how to turn those observations into research questions and develop projects that address the challenges they've identified."

At the end of the summer, the students presented their projects and findings to researchers, program partners and community members in West Palm Beach before traveling to FAU's Boca Raton campus to present their research posters at the Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry's Summer Student Showcase.

The program builds on the institute's ongoing partnership with the West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), connecting local students with university researchers working in their own neighborhoods. Through that partnership, students had the opportunity to investigate the same urban environments where the institute and its community partners are conducting smart streetscape research.

"Our researchers work directly with communities to understand local challenges and develop technologies that address them," said Jason Hallstrom, Ph.D., executive director of the institute. "Through this program, students participate in that same process, working alongside our teams and bringing their own perspectives as members of the West Palm Beach community."

After six weeks of fieldwork, data collection and project development, the nine students closed out the summer with five completed research projects and the experience of presenting their work to both academic and community audiences. For some, it was their first introduction to university research — conducted in the neighborhoods they call home.