Prospectus stuff

Ok, so here's my initial prospectus:

How can GIS Help Prevent the Spread of Communicable Diseases?

GIS (Geographic Information System) is a “computer system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data related to positions on the Earth's surface” (www.dictionary.reference.com). GIS typically integrates geography with other raw data to show spatial trends. Multiple “layers” of data are overlaid onto maps to provide a visual picture of the data and show how it is dissimulated into a geographic area. GIS can be an excellent tool for preventing the spread of communicable diseases by pinpointing the location of an outbreak and overlaying data specific to a disease to track the potential geographic area and rate of spread. This information can be used by medical authorities to quarantine specific areas and direct resources to strategic areas in the interest of minimizing the impact of a serious disease.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsors a Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) which involves the GIS department at RTI International. Some of the maps that GIS staff at RTI has created show detailed commuting patterns in the US. This helps us understand where people go and who they interact with and can be used to help predict the potential spread of infectious diseases. Along with my own research I will use GIS staff at RTI as a resource in this project.
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After presenting it to a student and seeing that he really didn't really get what I was trying do I I decided that I better make some changes. So, now I'm thinking of presenting my proposed research more like this:

Can Studying Commuting Patterns in the US Help Prevent the Spread of Communicable Diseases?

Learning how to pinpoint outbreaks and then reduce the spread of communicable diseases is becoming increasingly important in the US with the recent threat of biological terrorist attacks. Spotting and diagnosing an outbreak can be simple for medical authorities. Some tougher questions to answer are "Where might the disease spread next? How many people might it infect in a given period of time? Where should relief efforts be focused?". Finding solid answers to these questions early in an outbreak could significantly reduce the fallout from serious infectious diseases. By studying commuting patterns in the US and using Geographic Information Science (GIS) to create models for predicting the spread of diseases the above questions, and many more, can be answered.