E&O: Undergraduate Modelling Workshop: May 21-25, 2018

Location

This workshop took place at the Institute of Advanced Analytics (IAA) on the NC State University Centennial Campus, Raleigh, NC.

Description

The mathematical sciences, particularly through applied mathematical and statistical research, facilitate understanding of the world around us and the prediction of future conditions. This is nowhere more true than in assessing and anticipating the shifts in our planet’s environment as the climate changes. This workshop will expose students to the research process involved in applying mathematics and statistics to climate science questions. Besides gaining familiarity with the research process, students will also learn about the Earth’s climate system, gain skill in handling large data sets and insight into modeling, and will also have fun working with peers on a group project.

Students will work in small groups on specific problems drawn from the geosciences. There will be freedom to try new ideas and the investigations will be guided by the instructors. A specific aim will be to promote awareness of the key points in the research process from problem formulation to the articulation of results and their distillation into tools for training future students. Each day will begin with an overview giving the appropriate background, motivation, and context for the day’s activity. For the rest of the day, there will be ample time for group work which will be punctuated with group reports and short presentations by SAMSI early career mathematical scientists recounting their own experiences in carrying through a research project.

Problem topics will include: rainfall in the Gulf coast and extreme events like Hurricane Harvey, predicting the motion of sea-ice in the Arctic, representing currents and temperature in the deep ocean, estimating the risk of hurricanes, and assessing the biomass of Alaskan forests. Based on each group’s expertise we expect that computing will be carried out using either Matlab or R.

Schedule and Supporting Media

Printable Schedule
Project Abstracts

Monday, May 21, 2018
Institute of Advanced Analytics (IAA) (Roanoke Room); NC State University Centennial Campus

Description Speaker Slides
Introduction and Overview of SAMSI Elvan Ceyhan, Deputy Director, SAMSI
Setting the Scene: The Influence and Importance of Climate Change Research Doug Nychka, (NCAR) and Chris Jones, (UNC-Chapel Hill)
The Climate System Doug Nychka, (NCAR)
Why do Mathematical Scientists Need to be at the Climate Table? Chris Jones, (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Discussion about Analytics Opportunities and Programs at IAA Michael Rappa, Founder and Director, Institute of Advanced Analytics (NCSU)
Creation of Working Groups and initial meetings
Project I: Arctic Sea-Ice Group Leader: Christian Sampson
Project II: Air Quality Group Leader: Yawen Guan
Project III: Ocean Temperature Group Leader: Mikael Kuusela
Project IV: Southeastern US Rainfall Group Leader: Whitney Huang
Project V: Vegetation Group Leader: Maggie Johnson
Project VI: Forest Cover Group Leader: Huang Huang
Project Group Meetings – Problem Formulation and Group Structure
Group Reports – Present Problem and Group Structure
Introduction to ‘R’ Lab

Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Institute of Advanced Analytics (IAA) (Roanoke Room & Breakout Rooms); NC State University Centennial Campus

Description Speaker Slides
Recap and Announcements – Goal for the Day Elvan Ceyhan, Deputy Director, SAMSI; Doug Nychka, (NCAR); and Chris Jones, (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Group Meetings
Guest Lecture: Hierarchical models for sparsely sampled high-dimensional LiDAR and forest variables: An interior Alaska FIA case study Andrew Finley, (Michigan State University)
Group Meetings
Progress Reports and Feedback
Open Group Work Time

Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Institute of Advanced Analytics (IAA) (Roanoke Room & Breakout Rooms); NC State University Centennial Campus

Description Speaker Slides
Recap of Announcements – Goal for the Day Elvan Ceyhan, Deputy Director, SAMSI; Doug Nychka, (NCAR) and Chris Jones, (UNC-Chapel Hill); and Thomas Gehrmann, (NCSU)
Group Meetings
Group Progress Reports and Feedback
Group Meetings
SAMSI Graduate Fellow Poster Session

Thursday, May 24, 2018
Institute of Advanced Analytics (IAA) (Roanoke Room & Breakout Rooms); NC State University Centennial Campus

Description Speaker Slides
Recap of Announcements – Goal for the Day Elvan Ceyhan, Deputy Director, SAMSI; Doug Nychka, (NCAR) and Chris Jones, (UNC-Chapel Hill); and Thomas Gehrmann, (NCSU)
Group Meetings
Group Progress Reports and Feedback
Group Meetings
Open Group Work Time

Friday, May 25, 2018
Institute of Advanced Analytics (IAA) (Roanoke Room & Breakout Rooms); NC State University Centennial Campus

Description Speaker Slides Videos
Group Presentations and discussions
Project I:Arctic Sea-Ice Group members: Madeleine Braye, Yasmin Eady, Nicole Jacobs, Jesse Liu, Ryan Norlinger, Jose San Martin video
Project II: Air Quality Group members: Meixi Chen, Vincent Gonzales, Alan Ji, Chandni Malhotra, Hongyu Mao, Sharon Sung video
Project III: Ocean Temperature Group members: Ahmet Hatip, Alex Hayes, Alexa Maxwell, Joseph Struzeski, Ingrid Tchkaoua, Wenbo Wang video
Project IV: Southeastern US Rainfall Group members: Lin Ge, Jianan Jang, Jessica Robinson, Erin Song, Seth Temple, Adam Wu video
Project V: Vegetation Group members: Samuel Hood, Zhihan Lu, Rita Pradhudesai, Thomas Rechtman, Meghana Tatneni, Ganlin Ye video
Project VI: Forest Cover Group members: Richard Groenwald, Mehmut Hatip, Katrina Lewis, Jennifer Soter, Astride Tchkaoua, Sylvester Wieb video
Meeting Adjourns and Participants leave NCSU

Questions: email [email protected]