MII: Improving the Pipeline in Applied Computer Science

This project, focusing on the interdisciplinary challenges of environmental monitoring, environmental modeling and simulation, environmental information systems, and coastal studies, aims at improving recruitment and stimulating underrepresented minorities in the applied computer science pipeline. The work entails several challenging problems (e.g., sensor platforms, data collection, and forecasting), many related to climate research, some involving the development of autonomous vehicles for collecting environmental data, as well as developing tools for its analysis. The research, building on a real-time decision support system built on cyber infrastructure concepts, presents an opportunity to bring together CS, AI, GIS, visualization, data storage, data mining, networking, wireless communication, etc. Two research centers will play a major role in the research efforts, the Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network (TCOON) and the Harte Research Institute for the Gulf of Mexico Studies. TCOON, a series of data gathering stations from Louisiana to the Mexico border, samples data on precise water levels, wind speed and direction, atmospheric and water temperatures, and barometric pressure. Measurement in turbidity, salinity, and other water chemistry are transmitted to campus via line-of-sight packet radio, cellular phones, via GOES satellite for storage in a real-time, on-line database. Projects involve real-time automated data processing, telecommunications/network protocols, tidal datum processing, web-based visualization and manipulation of coastal data, specialized sensor and data acquisition system development, and neural-network-based and mathematical forecasts from real-time observations. The Harte Research Institute for the Gulf of Mexico Studies will be dedicated to geographic information systems and modeling. Sample projects include:

Remote Controlled Shallow Draft Vehicle, and

South Texas Tide Modeling.

The first, involving human-centered sampling methods utilizes a remote-operated vessel for performing transects of water quality parameters. Interdisciplinary challenges such as remote navigation control, communication/networking, completely automated navigation with GPD, sensor control/data collection/processing, obstacle avoidance, fault tolerance/system recovery, real-time data display and visualization, and integration with geographic information sciences. The second, involving computational simulations and visualizations, is based on a criteria of 'goodness' to evaluate the quality of predictions.

Educational and outreach activities involve seminars, faculty development, mentoring, curricular changes, and active recruitment. The activities contain a clearly articulated plan for stimulating the imagination and creativity to engage students to continue on to graduate school and an innovative outreach program aimed at high schools to recruit students. Moreover, the work promotes demonstrations such as a 'Traveling Circus of CS' to attract students. The project should contribute in the planning of potential PhD program in CS that the university contemplates for the future.