CREST faculty members, Drs. Te Pei (Principal Investigator) and Yingli Tian (Co-Principal Investigator) received funding from the National Science Foundation on August 29, 2024 to conduct research on Unifying Landslide Domain Knowledge and AI to Understand Landslide Causality. The study begins on October 1, 2024 and ends on September 30, 2027. This award supports research to understand landslide causality by combining advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies with established geoscientific domain knowledge.
Dr. Te Pei, a geoscience and geotechnical engineering expert, and Dr. Yingli Tian, a ML and computer vision expert, both from the CCNY will closely collaborate to conduct this research. Dr. Pei is an assistant professor in civil engineering with a focused research trajectory on physics-data hybrid geohazards modeling. Dr. Tian, a CUNY distinguished professor in electrical engineering and computer science, brings her extensive expertise in ML and computer vision to the project, with a strong track record of contributions to video-based activity analysis, remote sensing, etc. The collaboration will not only advance scientific knowledge in both geoscience and computer science but also promote the integration of research and education across these fields.
Elated on this accomplishment, Drs. Pei and Tian expressed “We are deeply honored and grateful to receive this funding for our project. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved, whose dedication and efforts have made this achievement possible.”
Drs. Pei and Tian were motivated to apply for this grant as they believe that innovations are required to advance landslide understanding by leveraging complementary strengths of both Earth observation data and geoscientific domain knowledge.
The project will develop new technologies for building AI-physics hybrid models. These will explore hydro-eco-geomorphic synergies across scales, timeframes, and diverse environments to better understand factors leading to landslide occurrences and their causality.
Drs Pei and Tian are positive that this research will lead to new advances in scientific understanding of landslide mechanisms, enhancing the integration of geoscience insights with AI and ML models, and developing effective strategies for overcoming the technical challenges associated with applying AI models to handle scarce, noisy, and limited geoscience data. They said, “This research will enhance landslide situational awareness and preparedness for communities and guide informed decision-making among stakeholders. It will also inform broader efforts to integrate AI/ML approaches into earth surface modeling, such as floods and soil erosion. Additionally, research outcomes will feed into educational experiences for K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students from diverse backgrounds.”
Drs. Pei and Tian are grateful to CREST and CCNY for providing the platform, facility, and resources that will be crucial to conduct this research.
Read the NSF news release about the grant here.
