NSF Awards an Early Career Faculty Grant to EPSCoR Researcher Dr. Tiantian Yang
OK NSF EPSCoR Researcher Dr. Tiantian Yang, assistant professor of the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science (CEES) at the University of Oklahoma (OU), in Norman, Oklahoma, has received a Faculty Early Career Development Program grant (CAREER) from the National Science. Dr. Yang’s project entitled “CAREER: CAS-Climate: Forecast-informed Flexible Reservoir System Modeling Enabled by Artificial Intelligence Algorithms Using Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Hydro-climatological Forecasts” aims to develop an integrated solution in support of sustainable and adaptive water infrastructure operation (e.g., dams, reservoirs, and lakes) under the impacts of weather extremes and non-stationary changing climate.
“This research will take advantage of some newly developed hydroclimatological forecasts at the subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) scale and leverage advanced numerical models and artificial intelligence algorithms to derive ensemble hydrological predictions and to help reservoir operators to nimbly adjust their water releases in harmony with the nature of changing weather and climate. We will collaborate with several reservoir agencies to pilot and evaluate the developed decision-making support tools,” Yang said.
“We expect this project will help water managers transcend their current capability in managing different types of water infrastructure not limited to reservoirs, addressing hydroclimatological uncertainties into engineering constraints, and developing nature- and science-based solutions towards a more sustainable future,” Yang added.
Dr. Yang would like to thank the help and support he received from many institutions, agencies, and personnel that inspired and encouraged him to pursue this NSF CAREER project. These include but are not limited to the OK-NSF S3OK project (Drs. Kevin Wagner, Carol Silva, and Hank Jenkins-Smith), USACE EWN project (Dr. Robert Nairn), CEES Department Chair (Prof. Randall Kolar) and CEES colleagues, Hydrology and Water Security program (Dr. Yang Hong), Gallogly College of Engineering (Drs. Randa Shehab and Marilyn Korhonen), and collaborators including NOAA severe storm laboratory (Dr. Jonathan Gourley), NOAA Climate Prediction Center (Dr. Qin Zhang), Grand River Dam Authority (Dr. Darrell Townsend), USBR Oklahoma-Texas office (Collins Balcombe), USACE ERDC (Dr. Todd Bridges), Deltares (Dr. Edwin Welles), the National Weather Museum and Science Center (Ross Forsyth), OU K20 Center (Dr. Linda Atkinson), OU Center for Faculty Excellence (Drs. Clara Smith and Hong Lin), and the OU Office of Digital Learning (Farrell Williams and Stacy Zemke).
The official NSF CAREER abstract is at Link.
Yang will hire graduate students for this project and a postdoc supported by other projects. Interested students may contact Dr. Yang and send CV to Tiantian.Yang@ou.edu.
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Funding for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OIA-1946093 through OK NSF EPSCoR.