The well being of the planet is likely one of the most essential challenges going through humankind immediately. From local weather change to unsafe ranges of air and water air pollution to coastal and agricultural land erosion, various severe challenges threaten human and ecosystem well being.
Ensuring the well being and security of our planet necessitates approaches that join scientific, engineering, social, financial, and political facets. New computational strategies can play a crucial function by offering data-driven fashions and options for cleaner air, usable water, resilient meals, environment friendly transportation techniques, better-preserved biodiversity, and sustainable sources of vitality.
The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing is dedicated to hiring a number of new college in computing for local weather and the setting, as a part of MIT’s plan to recruit 20 climate-focused college underneath its local weather motion plan. This yr the school undertook searches with a number of departments within the colleges of Engineering and Science for shared college in computing for well being of the planet, one of many six strategic areas of inquiry recognized in an MIT-wide planning course of to assist focus shared hiring efforts. The faculty additionally undertook searches for core computing college within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
The searches are a part of an ongoing effort by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing to rent 50 new college — 25 shared with different tutorial departments and 25 in pc science and synthetic intelligence and decision-making. The objective is to construct capability at MIT to assist extra deeply infuse computing and different disciplines in departments.
Four interdisciplinary students have been employed in these searches. They will be a part of the MIT college within the coming yr to interact in analysis and instructing that can advance bodily understanding of low-carbon vitality options, Earth-climate modeling, biodiversity monitoring and conservation, and agricultural administration via high-performance computing, transformational numerical strategies, and machine-learning methods.
“By coordinating hiring efforts with multiple departments and schools, we were able to attract a cohort of exceptional scholars in this area to MIT. Each of them is developing and using advanced computational methods and tools to help find solutions for a range of climate and environmental issues,” says Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Henry Warren Ellis Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “They will also help strengthen cross-departmental ties in computing across an important, critical area for MIT and the world.”
“These strategic hires in the area of computing for climate and the environment are an incredible opportunity for the college to deepen its academic offerings and create new opportunity for collaboration across MIT,” says Anantha P. Chandrakasan, dean of the MIT School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The college plays a pivotal role in MIT’s overarching effort to hire climate-focused faculty — introducing the critical role of computing to address the health of the planet through innovative research and curriculum.”
The 4 new college members are:
Sara Beery will be a part of MIT as an assistant professor within the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence and Decision-Making in EECS in September 2023. Beery obtained her PhD in computing and mathematical sciences at Caltech in 2022, the place she was suggested by Pietro Perona. Her analysis focuses on constructing pc imaginative and prescient strategies that allow global-scale environmental and biodiversity monitoring throughout information modalities, tackling real-world challenges together with robust spatiotemporal correlations, imperfect information high quality, fine-grained classes, and long-tailed distributions. She companions with nongovernmental organizations and authorities companies to deploy her strategies within the wild worldwide and works towards rising the range and accessibility of educational analysis in synthetic intelligence via interdisciplinary capability constructing and training.
Priya Donti will be a part of MIT as an assistant professor within the schools of Electrical Engineering and Artificial Intelligence and Decision-Making in EECS in tutorial yr 2023-24. Donti not too long ago completed her PhD within the Computer Science Department and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, co-advised by Zico Kolter and Inês Azevedo. Her work focuses on machine studying for forecasting, optimization, and management in high-renewables energy grids. Specifically, her analysis explores strategies to include the physics and laborious constraints related to electrical energy techniques into deep studying fashions. Donti can also be co-founder and chair of Climate Change AI, a nonprofit initiative to catalyze impactful work on the intersection of local weather change and machine studying that’s at present working via the Cornell Tech Runway Startup Postdoc Program.
Ericmoore Jossou will be a part of MIT as an assistant professor in a shared place between the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the college {of electrical} engineering in EECS in July 2023. He is at present an assistant scientist on the Brookhaven National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy-affiliated lab that conducts analysis in nuclear and excessive vitality physics, vitality science and know-how, environmental and bioscience, nanoscience, and nationwide safety. His analysis at MIT will concentrate on understanding the processing-structure-properties correlation of supplies for nuclear vitality functions via superior experiments, multiscale simulations, and information science. Jossou obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering in 2019 from the University of Saskatchewan.
Sherrie Wang will be a part of MIT as an assistant professor in a shared place between the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society in tutorial yr 2023-24. Wang is at present a Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow on the University of California at Berkeley, hosted by Solomon Hsiang and the Global Policy Lab. She develops machine studying for Earth remark information. Her major software areas are enhancing agricultural administration and forecasting local weather phenomena. She obtained her PhD in computational and mathematical engineering from Stanford University in 2021, the place she was suggested by David Lobell.