Please join us for the our next all-virtual KRYPTON seminar. We will meet at the usual time, 1600h, on Friday November 6, 2020. 

We still have lots of openings for Fall 2020.  Please let me know if you want to be on the Fall 2020 schedule.

Title —  Using AI to Identify Optimal Drilling Locations for Sustainable Irrigation for Subsistence Agriculture

Abstract — In East Africa, many drought events have occurred over the past few decades. Droughts have resulted in severe food crises, especially for countries relying heavily on agriculture. From the perspective of sustainability, utilizing groundwater for crop irrigation could be an avenue toward resilience to drought. In this study, we aim to use AI to identify optimal drilling locations for sustainable irrigation for subsistence agriculture. Our initial focus is the Hare watershed in southern Ethiopia. To identify suitable drilling locations, a hydrogeological model (TOPMODEL) for estimation of discharge and depth to water table will be implemented first; machine learning models will be constructed to estimate the probability of finding groundwater at a particular location; and finally these will be provided as inputs to an optimization model. Since this study is in progress, preliminary intermediate results are presented in this presentation. A topographic wetness index (TWI) map was developed. TWI captures topographic features related to groundwater potential and will be an important input to our drilling location model. 

Bio — Wanru Li is a Ph.D. student in Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department of George Mason University.  She got a Master’s degree in Data Analytics Engineering with Statistics Concentration from George Mason University.  She can be reached at [log in to unmask].