Harnessing new technology tools for research

By Janette Neuwahl Tannen [email protected] 09-24-2025

When Madeleine Dawson began studying ocean sciences, she grew interested in the physics of the weather above the open sea.

And when she learned about the island wake phenomenon-where winds whip around islands and leave a trail of low wind behind them-Dawson was fascinated.

It drove her research, where Dawson is using satellite images of the ocean and advanced computing to make wind forecasts more accurate in the Caribbean. In the near future, it could help fisherman and naval ships to traverse the region with fewer surprises and may even aid future hurricane forecasts.

"Currently, island wake dynamics are a very small part of forecast models, but they can have a large impact," said Dawson, who is now in her fifth year of graduate school at the University of Miami, studying with ocean sciences professor Hans Graber.

Her research was accelerated by a fellowship from the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC), where Dawson worked with her mentors from ocean sciences and IDSC to utilize new machine learning techniques to read these satellite images more efficiently. Her work is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

"This fellowship helped me understand how to get a machine learning model running for my research and to decide which was the best computing model to use for this work," she said, adding that her adviser, computer sciences associate professor David Chapman, was extremely helpful.

Other IDSC Fellows have used advanced technology to help identify how tumors evolve on the eye, to better understand how Alzheimer's disease spreads, and one fellow even created a tool that could help psychologists diagnose autism more efficiently. And any students with a defined research topic have until Oct. 14 to submit their applications to IDSC for the current academic year.

"Ultimately, we offer this fellowship because we want students to see how computational science can benefit the discipline they are in, and how new algorithms developed by computer scientists can be applied to other subject areas and problems," said Mohamed Iskandarani, professor of ocean sciences and chair of the steering committee who selects the four IDSC Fellows. "It's a great opportunity to propel your career forward."

Those students chosen as fellows will be notified in early November. They will then be paired with an IDSC core faculty member, in addition to their subject area mentor, to help identify the ideal algorithms, or software for their work, as well as which of the University's two supercomputers-Pegasus or Triton-they may want to utilize to start their work.

"Their mentor should help them overcome hurdles that prevent them from taking their research to the next level," Iskandarani added.

Marybeth Arcodia, a current core IDSC faculty member and assistant professor of atmospheric sciences, helped to mentor junior Nimay Mahajan last year when he was an IDSC Fellow. Mahajan was working on a project to understand the relationships between Indian monsoons and Atlantic Ocean hurricane development, and he is now working on a senior thesis with her. Arcodia said the fellowship is ideal for students interested in using data science to improve their research.

"AI, machine learning, and data science have garnered a lot of excitement, so students are excited and eager to get involved in this work-but they often don't know how," said Arcodia, who is also an alumnus of the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. "This fellowship provides a pathway to bridge that gap and to help expose students to big data and to machine learning for whatever topic they are interested in."

To learn more about IDSC Fellowships visit their website.