UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1256

Submission information
Submission Number: 1256
Submission ID: 20876
Submission UUID: fe9bbd30-fa1d-4c29-8c26-56ebee644828

Created: Mon, 08/18/2025 - 03:49 PM
Completed: Mon, 08/18/2025 - 03:59 PM
Changed: Tue, 09/02/2025 - 01:54 PM

Remote IP address: 146.201.26.208
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Primary Research Mentor Name Veronica White
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns Dr.
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific? vwhite@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) vwhite@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Position Title Faculty
FSU College (if applicable) FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Headshot (optional) headshoy.png
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above) Alexis Andaverde
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) aa24cc@fsu.edu
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable)
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Title of the Project Neighborhood Defender Service Modeling and Analysis
Project Keywords Data Analysis, Court System, System modeling
Are you currently looking for research assistants? Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed 1
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s) Open to all majors, with preference given to engineering, criminology/criminal justice, public health, social work, and related majors.
Project Location: Engineering Building B, option to work remotely or in-person
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation? Venom or FSU bus system to engineering campus
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s): Fully Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work? 7-10
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work? Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description This project may go one of two ways:
(1) Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS) is currently collecting data via a court observation study in Jackson, Mississippi to better understand differences in the city's two municipal courts. One court was the city’s original municipal court, and the other one is less than a year old, located in a more affluent area of the city. Municipal courts handle a wide range of hearings, from traffic tickets to misdemeanors to felonies. This is where the average citizen is most likely to come into contact with the criminal legal system. The original municipal court has relied largely on paper-based recordkeeping, which raises challenges for data analysis. The new municipal court has adopted electronic recordkeeping. NDS is working to compile comparable data for both courts. Because this effort involves significant person-hours to manually enter data from court dockets and to gather information from in-person court monitoring, NDS is seeking assistance from Pro Bono Analytics (PBA) to (1) review their processes, (2) provide guidance on streamlining and data management, and (3) make recommendations on metric development to appropriately answer questions for a comparative analysis of the two courts. NDS has a larger goal that their developed dataset will help reveal trends in legal representation, courtroom practices, defendant demographics, social service needs, and so on.

(2) Formalize the Neighborhood Defender Service holistic model as a system. Literature review of looking at other similar models and key mertics needed analyze the models success
Research Tasks data collection, literature review, data analysis, academic writing
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Excel (recommended)
data analysis (recommend)
academic writing (recommended)
Data management (recommended)
Metric development with categorical inputs and outputs (reccomended)
Experience with the U.S. legal system (reccomended)
Mentoring Philosophy It is my goal as a faculty member to be a mentor to students from a variety of backgrounds and programs. I promise to provide a safe environment built on mutual respect and understanding, hold you accountable to the goals you set, and provide guidance on what research and meaningful research deliverables are. I aim to build relationships with my students that make them feel supported and valued. I expect you to do your best and communicate quickly when personal and research-related issues arise, especially when they impact your work and progress. I look forward to working with you, learning about what motivates you, and working together to achieve our goals.
Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable): https://neighborhooddefender.org/
Please add any additional information here (if applicable):
Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable? Yes
Roundtable times and Zoom links https://fsu.zoom.us/j/95629400981 Tuesday and thursday 12pm to 5pm
Roundtable Info
  • Day: Thursday, September 4
    Start Time: 12:30
    End Time: 1:00
    Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/95629400981
Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation Yes
Materials Grant Yes
UROP Poster Presentation Yes
Year 2025
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