A group of University graduate students will present recommendations to improve the Charlottesville voting system to the city's Board of Elections today.
The recommendations follow a six-week study by 17 students involved in the University's new Northern Virginia-based Executive Master's Degree Program in Systems Engineering.
The group chose the study to be its "capstone" project, which is required for the students to complete their degrees in May.
The City of Charlottesville already had begun to review its voting system, which serves 21,000 registered voters, and readily agreed to be the group's client for the project.
"The students have been doing an incredibly job, and the capstone project is designed to integrate all of the knowledge they've gained," said Christina Mastrangelo, assistant professor of systems engineering and lead instructor for the capstone course.
Using their training in systems engineering, which involves the analysis and management of data, the group will provide a statistical analysis of nine previous elections, a simulation analysis of poll-site operations, a financial analysis of operational costs and a discussion of related legal issues.
"The students will be making recommendations for new voting technologies and procedures to be used in the future," Mastrangelo said. "After the Florida debacle, people don't have much faith in the current punch-card system."
Although Charlottesville did not experience any major problems during the hotly disputed November election, the city's current voting system does not comply with standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The University study is addressing ways for the city to become fully ADA compliant.
Student reaction to the project has been enthusiastic.
"The results I've seen come through are amazing," graduate student and project participant Susan Urban said. "The project has broadened our awareness of the support system ... and we hope that Charlottesville gets some value out of this too."
The Executive Master's Degree in Systems Engineering is designed for business executives and technical professionals.
Full-time University faculty teach the program in collaboration with several technology companies in Northern Virginia.
The two-year program was created two years ago, and the students completing the voting study will be the first graduating class.
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