Jonathan Poterjoy and Kayo Ide, both from the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, will lend their expertise to the new $6.6 million initiative.

The University of Maryland joined a $6.6 million consortium to improve weather predictions and train the next generation of atmospheric scientists.

Recommended for funding by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the federal Inflation Reduction Act, the new Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education (CADRE) will focus on improving data assimilation—the science of using observations to improve model predictions of natural systems, like Earth’s atmosphere, over time. The initiative will also bring students up to speed on a complex area of study that few people have mastered, creating a high demand for data assimilation specialists.

“The U.S. has some catching up to do in terms of data assimilation implementations,” said Jonathan Poterjoy, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (AOSC) who studies data assimilation and was named UMD’s principal investigator for this collaboration. “The U.S. has a massive shortage of students coming from grad schools to fill positions at places like NOAA and push the boundaries of what we can do with our current models.”

Although weather forecasts have vastly improved in the last several decades, the computer models used to create them need to be continuously upgraded to reflect new mathematical and technological developments. A recent example underscoring these shortcomings was the sudden onset of Hurricane Otis, which struck Mexico’s southern Pacific coast last fall and caused catastrophic damage.

“We had a very high-profile event this last hurricane season where a major hurricane made landfall right off the coast of Acapulco and there was very little lead time,” Poterjoy said. “The storm went from virtually nothing to a major hurricane in less than a day, and none of the models got it right. That’s something that shouldn’t happen.”

Extreme weather events are also becoming more common, creating an urgent need for more accurate forecasts. 

“The U.S. is experiencing nearly six times more major weather and climate disasters per year than it did 40 years ago, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring we have the most accurate data possible to mitigate the impact of these disasters and fight climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

“This investment, made possible thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, will upgrade and improve NOAA’s technology for numerical weather prediction capabilities to ensure accurate and timely information is available to the public and public safety officials in the face of extreme weather and climate events—making our communities more climate resilient.”

AOSC Associate Professor Kayo Ide, a data assimilation expert who teaches a course on the subject, also joined the UMD team participating in CADRE. Ide has appointments in AOSC, the Department of Mathematics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology.

In addition to UMD, the CADRE collaboration includes five other universities: Colorado State University, Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Utah. Most of these institutions will focus on land surface or atmospheric applications, but Poterjoy and Ide will explore ways to improve data assimilation for two lesser-studied parts of global weather systems: the ocean and cryosphere.

“On the UMD side, we’re focusing primarily on marine applications, so that’s one thing that’s unique to us,” Poterjoy said. “We’re focusing on changes in ocean ice over relatively short timescales—days to weeks—because it’s becoming increasingly important to get a good handle on what sea ice looks like to forecast Arctic weather, which then has an impact on mid-latitude weather.”

Data assimilation can help paint a more accurate picture of what’s happening in a weather system and can lead to more accurate predictions of tropical cyclone intensity, rainfall, snow depth, thunderstorm wind speeds and more. It corrects a weather model in real time by taking new observations into account, and models such as the Global Forecast System—used by NOAA to produce weather forecasts—rely on these constant updates.

By identifying better numerical weather prediction systems and data assimilation methods, CADRE’s collaborators hope to more accurately predict the weather with the Unified Forecast System (UFS), a community-based and comprehensive Earth modeling system.

“The more precisely you can characterize what’s happening in the atmosphere right now, the more accurately you can predict in the future,” Poterjoy explained. “Any improvements you make in data assimilation can lead to better forecasts."

Experts from around the world will be tapped to solve this issue. CADRE will foster collaboration, student training and an exchange of expertise between NOAA, participating universities and the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation.

Support from additional academic partners, including minority-serving institutions and international institutions such as the Met Office in the UK with its Met Office Academic Partnership and the new Transatlantic Data Science Academy, will further support improvements in weather and climate modeling. CADRE will also work closely with NOAA’s Earth Prediction Innovation Center to put new data assimilation science into practice within the UFS.

Poterjoy said he’s most excited to get UMD graduate students and postdocs involved in this collaboration, which he believes will strengthen their scientific expertise and career opportunities in the long-run.

“You’re going to end up with students graduating from our program with a better understanding of data assimilation as well as some of these outstanding issues with modeling,” Poterjoy said. “And if you’re graduating from our program with expertise in data assimilation, you’re going to have excellent job prospects.”

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This article is adapted from text provided by NOAA.

The University of Maryland announced on Thursday a $27.2 million gift to the Department of Mathematics to endow the Brin Mathematics Research Center, establish a new Brin Endowed Chair in Mathematics and pilot the Brin Maryland Mathematics Camp for talented high school students in the state.

The gift is the latest from UMD mathematics Professor Emeritus Michael Brin and his wife Eugenia, a retired NASA scientist, who established the Brin Mathematics Research Center in December 2021 with a $4.75 million gift.

"We are always happy to help support the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland,” said Michael Brin.

This is the fourth-largest outright gift to the university from an individual and the largest ever to the department.

“Michael and Eugenia Brin believe in the power of research to expand knowledge and solve grand challenges, and we are grateful for their investment,” said university President Darryll J. Pines. “The research at the Brin Mathematics Research Center expands our mathematics and statistics understanding and showcases excellence here at the University of Maryland.”

Housed in the Computer Science Instructional Center, the Brin Mathematics Research Center is a platform for UMD to expand and spotlight its mathematics and statistics research excellence nationally and internationally. The center brings hundreds of mathematicians to the university every year for workshops, summer schools and distinguished lectures. It also fosters interactions among mathematicians from near and far.

“This generous gift from the Brins ensures that the research and scholarship taking place in the Brin Mathematics Research Center will continue for generations to come,” said Amitabh Varshney, dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. “The additional support for an endowed chair is critical for recruiting and retaining the best faculty members in mathematics, and we’re excited that the summer camp will bring young scholars to College Park to explore our programs and campus.”

Michael and Eugenia Brin, parents to Google co-founder Sergey Brin ’93 (mathematics and computer science) and Samuel Brin ’09 (computer science), have made several significant gifts over the years to support the university’s Department of Mathematics; Department of Computer Science; Russian program; and School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.

The impact of their gifts has been immediate. Since the Brin Mathematics Research Center launched, the University of Maryland rose to become the No. 20 graduate-level math program, and No. 6 among public institutions, according to U.S. News & World Report.

“The Brin Mathematics Research Center makes the University of Maryland a destination for mathematics and statistics research,” said Doron Levy, the center’s director and chair of the Department of Mathematics. “With this transformational gift, we will continue to boost the visibility of our program, attract top faculty and students, and provide our Maryland community with unparalleled educational and research opportunities.”

The new gift includes:

• $25 million to endow the Brin Mathematics Research Center and support activities such as visiting scholars, workshops and research
• $2 million to establish a new Brin Endowed Chair in Mathematics
• $200,000 for the new Brin Maryland Mathematics Camp, a competitive summer camp launching in 2024 for high school students in the state

The Department of Mathematics has over 100 tenured/tenure-track and professional-track faculty members, 650 undergraduate majors and 200 graduate students and teaches over 10,000 students a semester.

Virtual Course, Summer Program Taught by UMD Faculty Give Prince George’s Students Free College Math Experience.

Savannah Grooms ’27 hated math in middle school and stewed over the C she got in her seventh-grade introduction to algebra. But just a few years later, she found herself on the other side of the desk, tutoring students who had similarly struggled with the subject at her alma mater—and a University of Maryland program was a big factor in her turnabout.

As a rising senior at Bowie High School, Grooms enrolled in a virtual summer program and calculus course taught by University of Maryland math professors and coordinated by College of Education faculty. Launched in 2020 and funded by the Office of the President, the collaboration with Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) has allowed more than 100 students from demographically diverse high schools—some of which don’t consistently offer calculus—to get a leg up on their math education for free.

“It’s a way to allow students to get a sneak peek to what studying at Maryland is like,” said Francesca Henderson, a UMD Ph.D. candidate in mathematics education who’s helped coordinate the program for three years. “For a lot of people, getting some college credit while you’re still in high school makes college less of a financial burden.”

Since the partnership began, students at 16 PGCPS schools have accessed the course, including this past year at Charles Herbert Flowers, Northwestern, Chesapeake Math and IT South, and Oxon Hill high schools. Students must have at least a 3.5 GPA to enroll in the three-credit class on Zoom three days a week; UMD teaching assistants hold discussions and office hours during the same time slot on the other two days.

While the program initially taught Calculus I (MATH 140), it now instead eases students into the subject with Elementary Calculus I (MATH 120), which is “more accessible for students at different math levels,” Henderson said. It’s similar to what’s taught in AP Calculus AB, but students taking the UMD-taught course need to pass the class, not a national exam, for college credit.

For the past two years, the program has also incorporated a summer component, where enrollees get a college algebra and precalculus refresher, also taught free of charge by UMD faculty.

“If you’re going into engineering, physics or chemistry, calculus is sort of a gateway. Having some exposure to it before you get to college is very valuable,” said Professor Larry Washington, associate chair for undergraduate studies in the Department of Mathematics, who’s also helping to coordinate the course. “We’re taking the most talented students and trying to keep them going and giving them a push. And maybe some of them find out, ‘This is not what I want,’ but it’s good to find out (in high school).”

For Grooms, the class inspired her to become a tutor and minor in math at UMD, and the skills she learned also translate to her journalism major, she said.

“I learned the rigor of college early on. I know I have to go to office hours, become close with my teacher and ask questions,” she said. “I also built relationships with the people in the class. We all still remain friends. We all had our own study sessions. That really is also what happens in college.”

The program has evolved into a partnership with UMD’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Henderson said. Most students who take the course apply to the university, and they receive support throughout the application process.

Partners from both UMD and PGCPS hope to build on the program’s success in helping open doors to college, STEM fields and beyond.

“The constant collaboration and conversation between the university and the school system has really created a model that works,” said Olivia Pearson, PGCPS college readiness supervisor.