Faculty Research Collaborative deemed success
Coastal Carolina University's first Campus & Community Research Collaborative held on Friday, Oct. 4, was deemed a success by coordinator Amy Edmunds, lecturer in health science. The faculty-centered initiative is an effort to bridge community organizations as collaborative research partners.
Thirty CCU faculty and staff were on hand for the event, as were 31 representatives of community organizations from Georgetown, Horry and Williamsburg counties.
For instance, researchers in the same academic department may work together on a project with a community organization to measure the social and economic impact of its client services. Researchers may be members of different departments within the same general discipline, or the proect could be part of an interdisciplinary endeavor involving a complex set of questions that cross disciplines from different perspectives.
“We anticipate our students gaining enhanced experiential learning activities to result from the efforts of our faculty’s expanded community ties,” says Edmunds. “Undoubtedly, the potential research opportunities are endless. Both our campus and community will be tremendously enriched by the resulting data of this initiative.”
Edmunds pointed to two pre-event connections of the "Campus & Community Research Collaborative”
• Renee Smith, philosophy, was seeking a connection to complement her philosophy with kids program. She inquired if there would be attendees from Horry County's Parks and Recreation and/ or Secondary Schools. To her delight, Athletic Supervisor Jason Burton attended from Parks and Recreation, as well as Horry County School Superintendent Cynthia Elsberry.
• Second, Sathish Kumar, assistant professor of computer science and information systems, was seeking a connection to complement his research focus of data analysis and analytics. He attended the event and met James Paisley of the Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council to discuss a potential data analysis project of the organization's comprehensive assessment instrument.
