2026 HydroLearn Workshop and Hackathon Recap
Posted Jul 8, 2026
This summer, educators, researchers, and hydrology professionals from across the United States and Canada came together for a HydroLearn–CIROH Workshop and Hackathon, combining three days of in-person collaboration in Salt Lake City during the CIROH Developers Conference with an intensive eight-day virtual hackathon to create 11 new HydroLearn modules that showcase new research tools developed by the CIROH community.
The 22 fellows selected to participate included research scientists, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. The fellows were paired and assigned to module topics that align with their expertise, and guided by education and hydrology experts to transform their research into engaging, peer-reviewed learning modules that will be freely available through the HydroLearn platform.
The module topics include forecast-informed reservoir operations, flash flood forecasting, high-performance computing, model evaluation metrics, perceptual models, community engagement in decision-making, foundations of cold region hydrology, flood inundation mapping, rainfall characterization, the community HydroFabric, and hydrologic modeling using machine learning. The scope of each module was informed by lead researchers within the CIROH community, and the HydroLearn education experts taught fellows how to embed best practices in course design and active learning strategies into their modules.
The event highlighted what makes HydroLearn unique: bringing together content experts and educators in a collaborative environment where learning modules are designed through evidence-based pedagogy, peer review, and continuous feedback. The result is a growing collection of high-quality, openly accessible educational materials that strengthen hydrology education nationwide.
We extend our sincere congratulations and thanks to all of the fellows, technical leads, education guides, and reviewers whose enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication made this event such a success. We look forward to sharing these new modules with the broader community as they complete peer review and become available on HydroLearn.
Thank you to everyone who helped make the 2026 HydroLearn–CIROH Workshop and Hackathon an inspiring example of collaboration, innovation, and community in hydrology education.
About HydroLearn
HydroLearn is an open educational platform and community that helps educators collaboratively develop, share, and adapt high-quality learning resources for hydrology and water resources engineering. Originally established through a National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project (2017–2022) led by Dr. Emad Habib, HydroLearn pioneered a collaborative workshop and hackathon model that has engaged faculty from universities across the United States while producing more than 50 peer-reviewed learning modules. Since 2023, HydroLearn has partnered with the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) to expand this work, developing new educational resources aligned with national water prediction priorities while advancing the platform's long-term sustainability and impact.
This HydroLearn Workshop and Hackathon 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.