Built to Endure: From Municipal Needs to Digital Resilience Solutions (Spring 2027)
This is a new Bass Connections team that will run for one semester in Spring 2027. Interested students should fill out this form to apply.
Background
Flooding, extreme heat, drought and other climate-related hazards pose growing risks to communities and critical infrastructure. Many decisions about addressing these risks are inherently local, from managing stormwater and guiding development to prioritizing infrastructure investments. New technologies — including artificial intelligence, geospatial analysis, digital twins and advanced modeling tools — offer powerful capabilities for addressing climate risks, yet many local governments lack the staff, expertise and resources to identify and apply them effectively.
The Built to Endure workshop, hosted by Duke in February 2026, brought together government officials, researchers and industry experts to explore what communities need, what resources and technologies already exist, where gaps remain and where jurisdictions could work together. A key takeaway was that local governments cannot build the necessary capacity alone. Collaboration across government, universities and industry can help communities access and apply technological resources needed to make better resilience decisions.
Project Description
Working with government and private-sector partners, this project team will prepare for the inaugural Triangle Digital Resilience Challenge, a weekend competition in which interdisciplinary student teams, supported by academic and industry mentors, will develop practical digital solutions to local resilience problems. The goal of the competition will be to strengthen local governments’ capacity to make informed resilience decisions.
To prepare for the competition, team members will begin by identifying priority resilience challenges and decision-support needs alongside local government partners. They will then work backward to: (i) determine where technologies such as geospatial analysis, AI, digital twins, simulation, visualization and other decision-support tools could help; (ii) assess relevant data and digital resources; identify barriers and gaps; and select tractable problems for the Challenge.
Students will develop competition prompts and assemble relevant datasets, software environments, background materials, constraints and evaluation criteria that Challenge teams will need to develop useful solutions.
The semester will culminate in the Triangle Digital Resilience Challenge, an intensive weekend competition in April or early May 2027. Interdisciplinary teams from Duke and other regional universities will tackle the problems developed by the Bass Connections team using the datasets, software resources and background materials assembled during the semester. Bass Connections students will serve as problem leads, while private-sector experts provide technical mentorship and local government representatives serve as advisors, judges and potential end users.
Anticipated Outputs
- Well-defined municipal resilience problems and decision-support needs suitable for digital solutions
- Triangle Digital Resilience Challenge prompts, as well as competition-ready datasets, technology resources and analysis platforms
- Prototypes of digital solutions
- Reusable tools, workflows and lessons for municipal decision-making
- Foundational materials and processes for future regional resilience planning initiatives
Student Opportunities
Students will work at the intersection of climate resilience, technology and public-sector decision-making, directly with local governments and private-sector technology experts. Ideally, the team will include 5 graduate students and 5 undergraduate students from a range of disciplines, including engineering, environmental science, computer science, information science, data science and public policy. Experience or coursework in geographic information systems, modeling, programming, infrastructure systems and environmental science is valuable; however, students with complementary backgrounds in policy, communications, stakeholder engagement, design, visualization and public-sector decision-making are equally encouraged to apply.
Team members will investigate real municipal resilience problems, determine where emerging technologies can help and translate selected needs into well-scoped problems for the Triangle Digital Resilience Challenge. The project will provide experience integrating perspectives from engineering, climate and environmental science, data science, policy and planning while learning how technical capabilities can be matched to real-world decision needs.
Through sustained interaction with government officials, faculty and industry experts, students will also develop skills in stakeholder engagement, interdisciplinary teamwork, data and technology assessment, project management and communication across technical and nontechnical audiences.
A Ph.D. student project manager will coordinate activities and milestones across the team. Students will also help recruit Challenge participants, lead preparatory sessions and support event planning.
Student travel will be limited to local jurisdictions within the Research Triangle, particularly Durham and Orange counties. Depending on funding and partner interest, 1-2 students may have opportunities for paid summer work with local municipalities to further develop, test or implement promising solutions emerging from the Challenge.
Timing
Spring 2027:
- Identify priority resilience problems and decision needs with local partners
- Assess digital resources and select Challenge problems
- Prepare Challenge prompts, data and resources
- Recruit Challenge teams
- Serve as problem leads during the Triangle Digital Resilience Challenge
Summer 2027 (optional):
- Work with local municipalities to further develop, test or implement promising solutions emerging from the Challenge
Crediting
Academic credit available for spring semester