Members of the Alabama Water Institute wrapped up 2023 by attending the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. Every year, the AGU hosts thousands of attendees from more than 100 countries to share research and network. These meetings aim to help researchers, scientists, educators, students, policymakers, exhibitors, journalists and communicators better understand our planet and environment and our role in preserving its future.
Dr. Ryan Johnson, Dr. Steven Burian, Dr. Junho Song, Dr. Md Shahabul Alam, Reza Alipour, Arpita Patel, Savalan Neisary, Dane Liljestrand and Josh Christensen presented on behalf of AWI, amounting to a total of 11 presentations given by affiliates throughout the week.
Burian, AWI’s director of science and executive director of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology, highlighted CIROH’s implementation of a research-to-operations paradigm at the intersection of hydrologic, computer, data and decision sciences.
Johnson, artificial intelligence research scientist for AWI, gave two presentations featuring machine learning. The first focused on machine learning snow models using the VIIRS normalized difference snow index, while the second centered around correcting the impacts of reservoir operations on national water model flow simulations with machine learning.
The AGU also provided CIROH with an opportunity to hold a networking reception at the conference.
“AGU was an important event for CIROH, and we had an incredible number of high-quality presentations by CIROH researchers from across the country,” said Burian. “We capped it off with an amazing networking event attended by more than 150 guests. AGU provided a wonderful opportunity for CIROH researchers to share results and develop new collaborations.”
This was also the first time AWI had an exhibitor booth at the AGU meeting.
“Having a booth at one of the largest physical science conferences, if not the largest, allowed AWI to showcase our work to leaders in the field, recruit top candidates and students and network with potential partners,” said Zach Krauss, AWI’s director of communications.