Untangling the Role of AI in Water: From Promise to Practice

Webinar Summary

In the era of digital assistants, autonomous cars, and smart toasters, should we embed the same level of intelligence into water systems? The answer is not clear cut, largely because the conversation is still obfuscated by buzzwords and hype. This talk will provide the origin stories and core terminology needed to have a meaningful conversation about AI in water. With that foundation, we will dive into specific examples of smart water systems—using open-source hardware, sensors, and algorithms—that have the potential to vastly shrink the size of infrastructure needed to manage runoff pollution and flooding. As with any new tech, there are inherent risk to adoption. When compared to doing business as usual, however, the time appears better than ever to responsibly embrace new tech.

Webinar Speaker

Branko Kerkez is the Arthur F. Thurnau Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Digital Water Lab. He is also the chief technical officer at Hyfi, steering research and development of sensing and AI technologies for urban water management. His research interests include water, data, and sensors. His group is working to enable smart water systems, which autonomously adapt themselves to changing conditions using real-time data and controls. His research projects have spanned wireless sensing of large mountain basins, real-time flood forecasting, robotics, and control algorithms for water systems. He is the founder of Open-Storm.org, an open-source consortium dedicated to freely sharing hardware, software, and case studies on smart water systems. He was recognized as a Gilbreth Lecturer by the US National Academy of Engineering in 2018 for his contributions to smart water systems. Other honors include the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award, Verizon Climate Resilience Prize, the Grand Prize for the WEF/WRF Intelligent Water Challenge, UM’s 1938E Award, as well as numerous teaching and research paper awards. Dr. Kerkez holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.

Webinar Format

This webinar will include a moderated Q and A session following the speaker’s presentation. The session is open to environmental engineering and science professionals across all sectors and career stages. Our objective is to offer special insights on leading edge solutions for graduate and undergraduate students as well as early to mid-career environmental professionals who are considering specialty certification.

AAEES Board Certified Individuals: Attend this event and earn 1.5 PDHs towards your PDH requirements for maintaining your specialty certification.

This event is part of the AAEES AI Webinar Series.  Click here for more information.

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