UW School of Oceanography researchers awarded Microsoft AI for Earth Innovation grant | College of the Environment

UW School of Oceanography Professor LuAnne Thompson and college student Hillary Scannell are conducting among five projects from worldwide to get the Microsoft-Leonardo DiCaprio Structure (LDF) Innovation grant this month for their proposition to utilize expert system to much better understand the world and solve pushing ecological concerns. The grants will support a range of tasks, covering the innovative use of technology to monitor human-wildlife dispute in Tanzania to tracking harmful marine heatwaves and anticipating drinking water shortages in underserved neighborhoods.

The AI for Earth Development grants program supports candidates in developing and carrying out open-source machine-learning designs, algorithms and datasets that directly tackle environmental difficulties the world deals with today in the locations of biodiversity loss, environment modification, and water security.

Thompson, Scannell and collaborators will track and predict marine heatwaves. As the planet’s climate continues to warm, the ocean is taking in and storing excess heat, resulting in extreme events called marine heatwaves that cause coral whitening, fish population decrease and the death of marine life. This job will utilize AI to track marine heatwaves and help scientists in much better understanding their effects and, ultimately, establish approaches to predict how heatwaves will evolve, informing catastrophe and emergency responders who can help alleviate the results of future events.

Of the 135 applications submitted, LDF and Microsoft chose 5 jobs that significantly demonstrate work that will result in the implementation of ingenious AI models that deal with important environmental concerns, can quickly scale and will develop long lasting effect beyond the grant period. Proposals could request as much as $100,000 for support over one year. This year’s winners will get a total of almost $450,000 to execute their solutions.