Shiraki International Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research (SIMuR) project is a new NSF-funded 3-year project born from a collaboration between faculty and students at three public universities (BSU, UC-San Diego, and Ilia State University in Georgia) and the National Academy of Sciences of Georgia. SIMuR will engage 15 undergraduate BSU students in high-quality interdisciplinary research into reasons behind depopulation of the Shiraki Plateau in the Bronze Age, the site of a recently discovered early civilization. Students from BSU and Georgia will work with an international group of experts in geological sciences, cyber-archaeology, computer engineering, information management, and data science. They will engage in STEM outreach to underserved communities in Georgia and Massachusetts.

Polina will present information about SIMuR, how we got here and where we plan to go. A quick tour of Georgia, included.