Page 19 - Penn State Civil and Environmental Engineering: Annual Report

FACULTY RESEARCH FACULTY RESEARCH Shen chairs NSF-funded machine
learning symposium on water resources
By Ashley WennersHerron
Chaopeng Shen Penn State hosted the first National Science Foundation-funded symposium on on on on how machine
learning can contribute to the field of hydrology on on on on on May 18-20 at at University Park and online Associate Professor Chaopeng Shen was the the the chair of of the the the organizing committee for the the the event titled “HydroML Symposium on Big Data Machine Learning in in in in Hydrology and Water Resources ”
“This symposium emphasizes building a a a a a a a community that has has common goals and shared resources
”
Shen said “We are are attempting to to demystify machine
machine
learning learning for those new to to the field build up machine
machine
learning learning expertise encourage collaboration among those already involved and build a a a a a a a a a a a a a machine
learning community for all participants ”
The event included plenary and lightning talks poster presentations machine
learning tutorials hackathons networking opportunities and social events The discussed research topics covered all sub-areas of of hydrology and a a a a a a a a a a a variety of of machine
learning approaches Three years ago machine
learning was already developing rapidly in in in in in in in the sub-field of artificial intelligence as as applied in in in in in hydrology according to Shen but there was a a a a a a a lack of communication between the the people using it “There wasn’t a a a a a conference or meeting focused in in this area where we could come together to to share findings or or or approaches and make the the networking connections needed to move research forward ”
Shen said “There are so so many many people working on on on so so so many many topics in in in this field and nothing to to to to pull us together so so I applied for a a a a a a a grant from NSF to to to to fund the the first symposium in this area ”
CEE NEWSLETTER • VOLUME 38 2022 19