Since its inception, the Keweenaw Time Traveler has been blessed with many talented, creative, and engaging teammates. Today, we celebrate the graduation of four peers and teammates!

Brooke Batterson received her Bachelor of Arts in History. Brooke's research focused on French-Canadian social mobility in the Copper Country. 

Tim Stone received his Bachelor of Science in Sustainability Science and Society. Tim received the Department of Social Sciences Outstanding Senior Award, researching the built and social environments of children's experiences in 20th century America's industrial cities. 

Both Brooke and Tim will be joining the Department of Social Sciences Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Program in Fall of 2021.

Mason Sayles received a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering. Mason contributed greatly to expanded search options within the Time Traveler. One of the upgrades included improved through social media.

Sabrina "Cas" Tuson received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics. Cas worked behind the scenes as a Transcriber with our project, Mapping Miners at Home and Work. This project involves digitizing and mapping 40,000 employee cards from the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company!
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Zach Dill received a Master of Business Administration. Zach also worked behind the scenes on, Mapping Miners at Home and Work and worked with the pilot version of this project in summer 2018. The pilot's success helped secure the grant funding making our current project possible. Check out his video here!

For the past four years, the Geospatial Research Facility (GRF) has partnered with Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to research geomorphological processes at work by harnessing the power of geographic information science (GISc) and historical imagery. After a fifteen-year period of near historic lows, all of the Great Lakes have exceeded their average monthly levels since 2014. While seasonal variations are common, both persistent lows and highs present their own unique dangers for coastlines, for homes, and for businesses that depend on the Great Lakes. Hydropower and boat-related activity particularly suffer beneath reduced water levels while sudden increases in water levels present threats to our shores and coastlines. By early 2020, the Michigan Municipal League estimated high water damages to public lands and infrastructure had reached $63.7 million. 

The GRF uses geospatial technology and scenario-based land-use planning methods for the purpose of protecting our coastal resources and strengthening our coastal communities' resilience in the face of coastal hazards. The GRF's team of GIS analysts began with an archive of historic aerial imagery spanning eighty years. The team meticulously georeferenced the images against contemporary shorelines, developing a photomosaic of our past shorelines at well-documented intervals and digitized the past shorelines and bluff lines. The GRF can use these digitized shorelines to visualize and analyze change over time, modeling the rate of coastal change and  applying a Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) for identifying areas more vulnerable to erosion. 

Understanding our coastal change over time provides critical data as EGLE responds to the growing erosion problems faced by our coastal communities.

Click Here for the Lake Michigan and Lake Huron Historical Shoreline Viewer

Pavlis Honors College hosted this year's Undergraduate Research Symposium virtually, and two of our Undergraduate Research Associates presented their scholarship to their peers.

First, Brooke Batterson presented on French-Canadian social mobility. Many of you will be familiar with Brooke's work from our earlier posts on French-Canadians in the Copper Country and her storymap on Joseph Grégoire. 

Second, Tim Stone presented his continuing research into the built and social environments of children's experiences in 20th century America's industrial cities. Tim previously won the Department of Social Sciences Scholar Award for his early research on these spaces, and is also a co-author on a recently published paper that highlights on schools were vectors for disease transmission during the 1917 influenza pandemic. 

We are quite proud of our Undergraduate Research Associates and their scholarly excellence. Way to go Brooke and Tim!