Wyoming Women in Science and Engineering Travel Award

Each semester, as a part of Wyoming Women in Science and Engineering (WWISE), Wyoming EPSCoR supports travel of women from the University of Wyoming to attend various conferences to present their research at national conferences.

 “By supporting travel to conferences through WWISE Travel Awards, EPSCoR is able to support outstanding researchers, and increase the visibility of Wyoming women researchers around the country,” says Education, Outreach and Diversity Coordinator, Liz Nysson.

Last semester, eleven females, ranging from faculty, postdocs, and graduate students traveled to various conferences and events to present their research.

Dr. Ye Zhang, from the department of Geology and Geophysics traveled to San Francisco to attend the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting to present her research to the academic community.  

Along with presenting her latest research, Dr. Zhang got a lot out of the conference.

 “I learned new research techniques, familiarized myself with the most recent 'hot topics', networked with other scientists, and introduced my own students’ and postdocs’ work to peer researchers,” says Dr. Zhang.

Dr. Zhang’s experience is something she recommends to others.

“WWISE is an excellent venue to support female scientists like myself,” she says. “In the future I will encourage female students I supervise to apply to WWISE and participate in attending these meetings.”

This semester, EPSCoR will again be supporting female faculty, postdocs and graduate students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields from the University of Wyoming to travel to conferences and present their research. The deadline for spring and summer submissions is January 21^st at 5 p.m. If you would like to present your research at a national conference and are interested in applying for a WWISE Travel Award, please contact Wyoming EPSCoR's Associate Project Director, Sarah Konrad at 766-2295 or skonrad@uwyo.edu.

By Robin Rasmussen

ADHydro: Up and Running

For Bob Steinke and the rest of the CI-WATER researchers working on a sophisticated water model called ADHydro, their hard work and dedication has culminated into the completion of the model.

“We have the code running, with groundwater, surface water, infiltration and channels, rivers, and lakes,” says Bob Steinke, a software engineer at the University of Wyoming. “It’s running, it’s not crashing, and we get results out, but now we have to make sure those results are right.”

ADHydro is a new hydrology model that will allow researchers in the field to better understand water processes, including how fast water soaks through the soil, how fast water flows over land, and more.

Now that ADHydro is running, researchers will continue to work on the model and build on it, making it faster and more powerful.

“The next step is really performance improvement,” says Bob. “We’ve got a lot of ways that we can improve the performance just in the serial code itself, and then we want to parallelize it so that it can run on the supercomputer and run faster.”

For the whole team working on ADHydro, getting it up and running is a huge success, and something they’re proud of.

“We’re happy with our progress,” Bob says. 

By Robin Rasmussen

Undergraduate Research Fellowship Spotlight: Andrea Alvarez

Each semester, Wyoming EPSCoR selects and funds twenty or more Undergraduate Research Fellowships. These fellowships are excellent opportunities for students to gain quality experience in research, prepare for graduate programs, and obtain practical knowledge.

As a Petroleum Engineering student at the University ofWyoming, Andrea Alvarez was interested in the relationship between water with oil and gas extraction.

Andrea Alvarez

This interest led her to Dr. Ginger Paige, a professor in Ecosystem Science & Management at UW. As an EPSCoR Undergraduate Fellow, Andrea has the opportunity to study and conduct research under the direction of Ginger.

“I’m studying water quality analysis on the Wind River Indian Reservation,” says Andrea. “When people think of petroleum, they don’t really think of water, they think of oil and gas. But in reality, they’re very closely related.”

Although she’s conducting research in a field different from petroleum engineering, Andrea has enjoyed the challenge.

“The most challenging part is the fact that I don’t know much about water quality,” she says. “I came in from a totally different field. But it’s shown me my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to working in a field that I don’t know.”

Throughout her time as a fellow, Andrea has learned a lot about water quality, but she’s also learned about herself and the world around her.

“Doing this really gave me a better idea of what grad school would be like,” Andrea says. “It showed me where I would be lacking and where I would have advantages. It kind of just broadened my horizons overall.”

For other students thinking about applying for fellowships, Andrea encourages others to give it a shot.

“Get out of your comfort zone,” she says. “Try everything once.”

By Robin Rasmussen 

Photo courtesy of Andrea Alvarez

New Educational Resources Available for Wyoming Teachers

Hydropoly, a board game included in the toolbox

Wyoming EPSCoR’s Track 2 grant, CI-WATER, has developed teaching toolboxes for teachers to check-out and use with their students.

“The toolboxes have tools in them that simulate water modeling and water resources,” says Beth Cable, the Education, Outreach and Diversity Coordinator for CI-WATER.

The teaching toolboxes come equipped with numerous lesson plans and educational resources necessary for carrying them out.

“The toolboxes provide ideas and opportunities for both indoor and outdoor classroom use,” says Beth. “And they certainly apply many different subjects, including math, science, English, art, creative writing, and more.”

Trying out different items in the toolbox

All of the lesson plans provided with the toolbox meet Wyoming teaching standards for grades K-12, and cover a variety of hands-on, interactive and inquiry-based experiments and activities.

 “Students can conduct experiments on water, they can do outdoor water sampling, they can do art and advocacy projects, there are water mediation role plays, they can play games,” says Beth. “They can really do a lot.”

Students benefit from learning from the toolboxes, by learning important concepts about water, science, and real world applications.

“I would cheer teachers on to use it because of the fact that it provides real life science,” says Beth. “It really allows students to interact with their teachers, scientists, the natural world, and each other.”

For more information about the teaching toolbox, contact Beth Cable at bcable@uwyo.edu

By Robin Rasmussen

Photos courtesy of Beth Cable

PhD student Jorden Hayes and geophysical imaging

As a child, Jorden Hayes, a doctoral student in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, enjoyed science and geology, but she did not realize the depth of her passion until she was an undergraduate studying Television Communications with the goal of becoming a meteorologist. Soon, she realized how much she enjoyed math and geology, and eventually switched her major to geophysics.

Today, Jorden’s passion has led her to WyCEHG at the University of Wyoming to pursue her PhD under the advisement of Dr. SteveHolbrook. Her research revolves around creating geophysical images of subsurface environments. Creating these images will help researchers estimate how much water is stored in the subsurface and help them better understand the processes happening underground.

Jorden Hayes

“These images help scientists interpret geological processes such as weathering, water storage, and flow,” says Jorden. “Understanding these processes is critical to improving water management and predicting how climate change will impact our future water resources.”

The first step to create a seismic image involves hitting a metal plate with a sledgehammer. The energy from this action is then sent into the earth and picked up by a line of geophones, which are instruments used to measure ground motion.

“That gives you seismic traces,” says Jorden. “The next step is to take it to the lab and do an initial analysis of the data. Finally, you take and model that data, which, in my case, involves using the Yellowstone Supercomputer.”

After data in the field is collected, the final data analysis and modeling can take up to weeks or months.

Jorden’s research is an integral part of WyCEHG and its mission.

“One of the goals of WyCEHG is to advance innovations in near-surface geophysical methodology,” she says. Jorden’s work will allow WyCEHG to better reach their goal of understanding subsurface environments.

Jorden has learned a lot about her chosen field through her experience with WyCEHG, but that isn’t all she’s gained.

“How to integrate science across disciplines would probably be the biggest thing I’ve gained,” she says. “The fact that I’ve been sitting down with hydrologists, ecologists, and people that study isotopes, I’ve learned a lot about how to interact, how to ask questions, and how to learn.”

Jorden enjoys her research, and views science in a way many non-scientists don’t.

 “Science is way more creative than some realize,” she says. “From designing experiments and surveys to making interpretations, creativity abounds. Also, scientific discovery is incredibility motivating and rewarding.”

For other students in STEM fields, Jorden offers helpful advice.

“Don’t be afraid to ask questions, never stop learning and get your hands dirty,” she says. “Start there and find people and mentors who are going to encourage you along the way.”

By Robin Rasmussen

Photo courtesy of Jorden Hayes

Communicating About Water Essay Contest

Wyoming EPSCoR is hosting an essay contest for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Wyoming and Wyoming community colleges. This contest is through the Communicating About Water Program, which is intended to increase awareness and dialogue about water issues throughout the state.  EPSCoR has teamed up with the Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics (WyCEHG) and the Creative Writing MFA Program to invite students to join in the ever-growing discussion about water in the state of Wyoming. “This writing contest is intended to increase discussion and awareness about water issues among Wyoming students,” says Liz Nysson, project coordinator.

The contest will feature two categories, undergraduate and graduate non-fiction essay. Entries in the undergraduate division must be 500-2000 words, and entries in the graduate division must be 1000-5000 words.

The top prize in each category will be $500, publication in an anthology for all award winners and honorable mentions, and other honors, including a public reading.

Entries can range in a variety of topics related to water. EPSCoR encourages students to explore water issues in any way that is relevant to their lives, studies, or personal experiences.

The deadline for the essay contest is March 21^st, 2014. Submissions can be sent to communicating.about.water@gmail.com. Submissions must be in the form of a word document with 12-point font and double-spaced. They must also include a cover page with the essay title, your name, year in school, W-number and contact information. For more information about the writing contest, please visit our website. 

By Robin Rasmussen

CI-WATER Project Insights: ADHydro

When it comes to water management, knowing how water moves and where it ends up is crucial. That’s why a team of CI-WATER researchers are working on a new model, called ADHydro.

ADHydro will be the most robust model of its kind, presenting high-resolution detail for a broad geographical area. It will enable researchers to more accurately measure how fast water soaks through the soil, how fast the water flows over land and more. With these calculations, researchers can determine where the water goes and how it gets there.

“ADHydro is physics-based, meaning that it simulates specific physical processes as opposed to a curve-fitting model that can be calibrated to match historical data, but doesn’t simulate specific physics processes,” says Dr. Robert Steinke, a software engineer on the interdisciplinary team developing the model.

“It’s important to CI-WATER because one of the goals of CI-WATER is to allow watershed managers in the field access to high performance computing resources,” says Robert.

The ADHydro model is set for initial deployment next year. The completed model will give researchers the tools they need to study water movement in the field, ultimately helping water managers better understand this essential resource. 

By Robin E. Rasmussen