Project: Where can FSU students, employees, and visitors find recycling on campus?

Partner: FSU Grounds

Program: Fourth Year Undergraduate in Geography

Jacob is a senior studying Geography and looking towards a future career in GIS. As a Spring 2020 Sustainability Fellow, Jacob looked forward to mapping recycling availability on campus, making the data more accessible, and improving the waste infrastructure system.

When Jacob began his research, no inventory of recycling infrastructure had ever been compiled. Jacob worked with the FSU Grounds department and Fellow Andrea Zang to digitally map campus recycling locations and analyze patterns of waste infrastructure distribution.

Utilizing GPS technology and ArcGIS software to gather information, Jacob and Andrea mapped over 400 recycling locations across the University. While progress was slowed due to the COVID-19 situation, the team was able to compile preliminary analyses, compile a guide for future research, and present their initial findings to the FSU Grounds team.

Jacob’s campus partners describe him as competent, capable, and enthusiastic and believe the project was a good match between technical skills and topical interests.

“I have worked with a lot of people who want to prescribe a technical solution without fully taking time to understand the situation,” said Elizabeth Swiman, project supervisor. “Jacob and Andrea didn’t take that approach at all.”

During his experience as a Fellow, Jacob enjoyed applying lessons from the classroom to a project that impacts the FSU campus. He learned to be more adaptable, especially with the COVID-19 outbreak affecting the team’s research and data collection efforts. Finally, the program allowed him to take ownership of a project from start to finish.

“Being involved in every part of a project from data collection all the way to analysis will help me in many ways in the future as I can take part of a project at any level and succeed,” said Jacob. “At the end of this, I will have a physical representation as a map to show all that I have done and am capable of in a professional environment.”

To learn more about the continuation of Jacob's project in Fall 2020, visit sustainablecampus.fsu.edu/blog. 

To learn more about the Sustainability Fellows program, visit sustainablecampus.fsu.edu/sustainability-fellows.