Undergraduate Experience Assisting with Household Fire Recovery — Better Practices for Finding and Removing Contamination from Homes

The research team is actively helping households impacted by wildfires better understand how to identify and remove health threats from their properties. The student would review home environmental testing reports for properties impacted by disasters and assist with data entry for the research database. The effort is a continuation of work by 3 students in Spring 2026, and 1 student in Summer 2026. The effort requires the student complete the Human Subjects Institutional Review Board training at Purdue University, and task specific training. The opportunity is about 10 hours/week. This work supports the team's goal of developing a “playbook” that can be provided to households so they can better navigate the post-disaster environmental health and safety questions.

The undergraduate student will assist the research team analyze and interpret data. Prior study results have been adopted in post-disaster protocols. More information about prior and ongoing studies can be found on our website. www.PlumbingSafety.org

Campus: West Lafayette (must be in person)

Research categories: Energy and Environment, Engineering the Built Environment, Environmental Characterization, Human Factors, Other

Citizenship requirements: None, only that student be able to be employed and paid or earn credit for a Directed Independent Study course.

Preferred major(s): No Major Restriction

Desired experience:  Students with chemistry, materials, environmental, engineering, and/or social-behavioral human interactions interests are encouraged to apply. Undergraduate students from the inside and outside the areas impacted by fires will be considered.

School/Dept.: Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering + School of Sustainability and Environmental Engineering

Contact: Prof. Andrew Whelton, awhelton@purdue.edu