Technology and Human Potential

The use of technology continues to contribute in significant ways to enhancing research efforts and improving lives. In Social Ecology, we have found ways to use technology to better understand crime, plan urban spaces and pioneer a new field of science. Below are a few examples of our work happening in the research hub Technology and Human Potential. To learn more about our research hubs, click here.

Understanding the Geography of Crime

The Irvine Laboratory for the Study of Space and Crime (ILSSC) is dedicated to researching the social ecology of crime at all levels of analysis from street segments, blocks and neighborhoods to cities, counties, and metropolitan areas. The Laboratory generates high quality scientific research on the space-crime nexus to foster meaningful exchange between researchers and community partners.

Bolstering Community Resilience

Our flood and drought program, FloodRISE, focuses on disaster risk mitigation in Southern California, Mexico and Africa. We develop sophisticated computer models in partnership with communities that include local knowledge and respond to needs and values. Customizing information for residents, emergency responders, planners, businesses and civic leaders is proving to be a valuable approach to risk reduction. 

Using Big Data to Understand SoCal Challenges

The Metropolitan Futures Initiative sifts through mountains of data to develop an improved understanding of communities and their potential for integrative and collaborative planning and action to ensure a bright future for Southern California. It brings together an interdisciplinary research team along with the insights and techniques of “big data” research to address interconnected processes in the region.

Groundbreaking Discovery

The Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research pioneered a new scientific field to non-invasively collect biological data in everyday life, benefiting our understanding of human health and development, and the well-being and welfare of animals.