National Science Foundation
CAREER Award (# 2339174)
CAREER: A Cyberinfrastructure Enabled Hybrid Spatial Decision Support System for Improving Coastal Resilience to Flood Risks
RESEARCH INTERESTS
• Geographic Information Science and System (GIS)
Cyberinfrastructure and CyberGIS
• Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI)
• Participatory GIS and spatial decision-making
• High-performance and distributed computing
RESEARCH APPLICATION AREAS
• Disaster Management
• Critical Infrastructure Resilience, Transportation
• Blue Economy (e.g., Fishery Management, Renewable Energy, and Maritime Transport)
• Geosearch and Data Sharing
OPPORTUNITIES
Dr. Zhe Zhang is actively recruiting undergraduate, Master’s, and PhD students to join the CIDI-Spatial research group. Dr. Zhang's team conducts research at the frontier of cyberinfrastructure-powered spatial data science, artificial intelligence, and participatory spatial decision-making, addressing complex real-world challenges with innovative solutions. By joining the group, you will have the opportunity to contribute to high-impact projects, gain advanced expertise in high-performance computing on world-class supercomputers, and develop leadership skills through active participation in leading GIScience and computer science conferences and professional organizations.
If you are interested in working with Dr. Zhang, please email your CV, a code sample (if available), and a writing sample to zhezhang@tamu.edu.
ONGOING PROJECTS
1.NSF CAREER (#2339174): A Cyberinfrastructure Enabled Hybrid Spatial Decision Support System for Improving Coastal Resilience to Flood Risks (Dr. Zhang as Sole PI, $568,302)
This CAREER project builds a Hybrid Spatial Decision Support System that integrates scalable geospatial data and visualization tools into a cyberinfrastructure-enabled framework to support decision-making in flood management. This project also establishes a scientific roadmap to advance disaster decision science using advanced cyberinfrastructure, geospatial artificial intelligence, and education activities to educate communities to better prepare for flood hazards. In the Hybrid Spatial Decision Support System, a high-performance cyberinfrastructure-based interface accelerates reading and visualizing disaster-related Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) data. Another innovation is to combine the data-driven approach with expert-driven decision analysis to enable a more accurate, comprehensive, and transparent flood risk assessment that bridges the gap between the digital world and human perception of risk. Community engagement activities and use-inspired research are used to evaluate the level of trust and transparency of using geospatial artificial intelligence and decision-making models in flood risk prediction. Finally, the project integrates research outcomes into educational curricula and activities to engage students and researchers in high-performance computational thinking for disaster management research.
2. Collaborative Research: Conference: NAIRR Pilot Expansion: FA1:Utilizing NAIRR Pilot Resources for Building Sustainable Blue Economy (Dr. Zhang as lead PI, $299,997)
The Gulf of America faces significant challenges for Blue Economy research, including environmental degradation from pollution and overfishing, as well as the impacts of natural disasters. These issues strain marine ecosystems and coastal communities, creating barriers to sustainability. Similarly, the mid-Atlantic region, such as Maryland, suffers from agriculture, urban runoff, and industrial activities that degrade water quality and significantly impact fish populations and the overall health of the fishery. Hawaii, meanwhile, encounters unique challenges due to its geographic isolation and heavy reliance on ocean resources. This project aims to address these challenges by establishing coordinated efforts to improve Blue Economy research in these regions, enhancing funding for innovative research, and strengthening partnerships across sectors to build a Blue Economy research network. This project will bring together students, faculty, and researchers from U.S. institutions, along with participants from broad fields, including GIScience, oceanography, computer science, biology, and civil engineering. The goal is to promote AI education and workforce development in Blue Economy research.
The workshop will offer training opportunities to help research communities effectively navigate NAIRR pilot resources, including learning how to access and use these resources for ocean and coastal sustainability analysis. All workshop and training materials will be made publicly available through a project GitHub repository and website, ensuring broad accessibility and ongoing learning opportunities.
3. Collaborative Research(#2519476): CyberTraining Implementation Medium: Broadening Adoption of Cyberinfrastructure and Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Management (Dr. Zhang as PI, $1million, 2025-2029)
The primary goal of this project is to establish a CyberTraining Network for Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) in Disaster Management. Through the proposed CyberTraining activities, the project will enable disaster management students, researchers, and professionals, to strengthen their capabilities in cyberinfrastructure and GeoAI. By broadening access to GeoAI and cyberinfrastructure, the project will support research workforce development across various disciplines, including disaster science, geosciences, transportation, and engineering. The team will collaborate with academia, industry, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to provide open access to disaster-related data, training materials, and cyberinfrastructure resources. To ensure scalability and sustainability, the project will be supported by core partner organizations and integrated with National Science Foundation funded cyberinfrastructure, disaster data providers, professional societies, and industry stakeholders. Students and educators will be actively engaged through a participant award program, expanding educational and career development opportunities. Furthermore, this project will enable disaster researchers to advance their use of cyberinfrastructure and GeoAI in disaster management, enhance computational skills, and improve data-driven decision-making for increased disaster resilience. The project is designed to significantly improve the well-being of populations affected by natural hazards and disasters.
For more information on projects, please visit project page: https://dev.ctdm.org/
4. NSF CyberTraining (#2321069): Implementation: Small: Broadening Adoption of Cyberinfrastructure and Research Workforce Development for Disaster Management (Dr. Zhang as PI, $454,847)
Disasters are prominent global issues which simultaneously pose threats to multiple countries or regions. Disaster management is gradually empowered by increasing geospatial big data awareness and growing computing capabilities to produce spatial vulnerability and situational understanding for supporting timely decisions. This project will establish an international CyberTraining for Disaster Management (CTDM) network in which disaster research communities can broaden their cyberinfrastructure (CI) and geospatial skills by participating in the proposed training activities. The project will establish a CI-enabled geospatial disaster science network among academic institutions, governmental agencies, hazards research centers, industry, and educational organizations to leverage the expertise of pertinent communities in developing training materials for preparing the next-generation workforce. A novel training curriculum is developed to consist of various training modalities such as summer schools, workshop sessions, and online webinars, which utilize CI and scalable geospatial analytics for effective disaster management practice.
Please visit our project website to learn more about out CyberTraining activities.
For more information on projects, please visit project page: https://dev.ctdm.org/
SELECTED MEDIA COVERAGE
Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences News: Dr. Zhe Zhang has been selected as 2024 recipient of the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award (CAREER Award) for junior faculty.
Texas A&M High-Performance Research Computing. NSF ACES, 2021.
Texas A&M Today. NSF funds Texas A&M research on west coast fisheries management, 2021.
HPC Wire. NSF grant supports Texas A&M Acquisition of High-Performance Computing Platform. 2020.
