91´«Ã½

My name is Ian Messa. I'll be graduating from CU in less than a monthÌýwith a BA in geography; a certificate in GIS; and minors in civil engineering, applied math, and pure math. I've been working at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geologic Hazards Science Center (GHSC) in Golden for the past two years, where I've been researching model optimization and uncertainty quantification for probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHAs). I actually just defended my honors thesis, which I wrote under the advisory ofÌý, entitled (it should be available in the 91´«Ã½ honors thesis repository soon). The title is long, but the idea is as follows: We have a huge ensemble of predictive models, and we can aggregate these models to quickly calculate the mean prediction of the ensemble; what can we do to estimate the spread of ensemble predictions from this ensemble without evaluating every single model belonging to it?

It's been a long, sort of winding road to get to where I am now. Here are some highlights: Freshman year, I took Natural Hazards with Dr. Bill Travis, and I enjoyed it a lot, but didn't think much of that; now, for the past two years, I have worked at the USGS, where we model natural (earthquake!) hazards. While I was taking Natural Hazards, Bill recommended a book called Normal AccidentsÌýby Charles Perrow, and Dr. Tim Oakes recommended another called The Promise of Infrastructure, edited by Anand, Gupta, and Appel; these two books made me realize that I wouldn't be content with my college education unless I studied civil engineering in some capacity, so I enrolled in the geography department's hydrology certificate (Normal AccidentsÌýhas also influenced how I think about engineered systems to this day). That summer, I got a job with Denver Water as a recreation intern during the expansion of Gross Dam, and the role made me realize that I had to drop the hydrology certificate and pursue a proper minor in civil engineering; I learned about that opportunity from the GEOG newsletter. A year later, Machine Learning in GIS with Morteza totally changed my relationship with math: I was pursuing the minor pretty dispassionately because I was good at math in high school and thought it was kind of fun, but that course made me realize that I actually had a passion and interest for mathematics when I was applying it to solve problems. After this realization, I signed up for the applied math minor in the middle of the semester.

Our faculty is very bright and just as diverse; the same can be said for our grad students. Our staff is also incredible, and I think we'd all be much worse off without their support and organization (and bagels...). The geography department has afforded me the opportunity to really poke around and learn about my interests in a way that I don't think any other department could. Much like the discipline of geography itself, the people in our department exemplify how diversity can be a strength, especially in frightful and uncertain times. I'm thankful to have spent four years in the geography department and think of my time here whenever I hear someone characterizing diversity as an evil or a weakness.Ìý

After I graduate, I'm considering a PhD, but I'm not quite sure what for. It seems like it'll be between civil engineering, earthquake engineering, and statistical mechanics; the last one might sound like it's out of left field, but I promise it's not as far from the other two as it sounds. In the meantime, I hope to continue my work at the GHSC. At the beginning of the semester, I was talking to my friend, and I told him how, after three and a half years up here, I finally feel like I'm not a freshman anymore. It's funny how fast life moves.