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Press Release

Big Data: Integral Awards Research Fund to UW Graduate Student

By Nikki Rise, Associate Engineer

Congratulations to University of Washington (UW) graduate student Rachel Fricke, recipient of the 2021 Integral Environmental Big Data Research Fund! Her project is titled “Emerging Technologies to Assess Human Benefits from and Risks to Water Resources.”

Rachel Fricke headshot
Rachel Fricke, UW graduate student and 2021 Big Data Award recipient.

Ms. Fricke is interested in understanding the impacts of anthropogenic manipulation of watersheds through invasive species transmission and altered flow regimes and in developing conservation approaches that employ an array of big data sources. Her research leverages anonymous public data from social media applications and cellular phone locations to model spatiotemporal patterns in human lake use, characterize the ecosystem services associated with water-based activities, and understand inequities in lake accessibility.

Integral’s Big Data award is open to graduate students in UW’s College of the Environment whose work focuses on extracting information from large data sets through the use of innovative computational and analytic approaches. Applications for the 2022–2023 award year are due February 7, 2022. Integral assistant engineer Nikki Rise is coordinating the award with UW. For more information, contact Ms. Rise at nrise@integral-corp.com.

Integral is passionate about investing in the future and living up to our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. These scholarships are just one piece of our overall ESG commitment. Learn more about Integral’s ESG vision.