10th Anniversary of the Water Prediction Innovators Summer Institute
Posted Jun 10, 2025
The 2025 Water Prediction Innovators Summer Institute is officially underway — and it's a milestone year, marking the 10th anniversary of this impactful program!
Hosted in partnership with The University of Alabama, the Summer Institute engages students, faculty, and water science professionals to advance research in water prediction and flood forecasting.
This year, Twenty-three student fellows from 18 different universities will form interdisciplinary teams and collaborate on innovative research projects to tackle real-world water prediction challenges. Guided by seven Theme Leaders, university faculty and water science professionals, fellows will gain valuable hands-on experience while advancing tools and insights to improve water forecasting and flood resilience.
This year’s Summer Institute Research Themes and Theme Leaders are:
The US Operational Hydrological Forecasting Pipeline
Yinphan Tsang, Associate Professor, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Sagy Cohen, Professor, University of Alabama
Visualization of Urban Road Flooding
Kelsey McDonough, FloodID Product Lead, The Water Institute
David Maidment, Emeritus Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Scoring Rule-Based LSTM Models for Flow Forecasting in the NextGen Framework
Jonathan Frame, Assistant Professor, University of Alabama
Amobichukwu Amanambu, Assistant Professor, University of Alabama
Pluvial Floods
Marouane Temimi, Associate Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology
Jonathan Frame, Assistant Professor, University of Alabama
This year’s Summer Institute Fellows are:
Stanley Akor, Boise State University
Nana Oye Djan, Carnegie Mellon University
Fatemeh Yavari, City University of New York
Mostafa Saberian, Clemson University
Yogesh Bhattarai, Howard University
Samrin Sauda, Penn State
Adam Smith, Rutgers University
Kayode Adebayo, South Dakota State University
Faezeh Maghsoodifar, University of Alabama
Habtamu Tamiru Dagne, University of Alabama
Sadra Seyvani, University of Alabama
Saide Zand, University of Alabama
Supath Dhital, University of Alabama
Mohammad Farmani, University of Arizona
Mohamed Mowafy, University of Cincinnati
Haotian Wang, University of Connecticut
Victor Oladoja, University of Connecticut
Arman Oliazade, University of Georgia
Megan Vardaman, University of New Hampshire
Alex Simpson, University of Oregon
Keivan Tavakoli, University of Texas at Austin
Ali Farshid, Utah State University
Md Shadman Sakib, Virginia Tech
The Summer Institute kicked off on June 9 with a two-week intensive training known as “the bootcamp,” consisting of program orientation and training. The bootcamp equips fellows with the foundational skills and context needed to complete their projects, as well as providing the opportunity to connect with Theme Leaders and form project teams. Fellows will receive training on collaborative tools like GitHub and HydroShare, cloud computing, hydrologic modeling, project management, working in collaborative teams, as well as networking opportunities.
Several CUAHSI staff traveled to attend the bootcamp:
Julia Masterman, Science Education and Outreach Specialist, provided primary program coordination and oversight.
Leah Turner, Director of Education and Strategic Partnerships, delivered a program welcome and provided professional development training.
Tony Castronova, Senior Research Hydrologist, and Irene Garousi-Nejad, Research Scientist, provided trainings on collaborative data sharing with HydroShare, environmental data analysis, and step-by-step process of running NextGen models.
Congratulations to all of this year’s student fellows and Theme Leaders! We’re excited to see your progress and discoveries during this dynamic seven-week research experience on The University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, AL!
The Summer Institute is supported by the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) with funding under award NA22NWS4320003 from the NOAA Cooperative Institute Program. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NOAA.
Summer Institute Alumni: stay connected with the growing network of over 200 student alumni and mentors by joining our newly launched Water Prediction Innovators Summer Institute Alumni LinkedIn group!