Environmental Internship Program - 2023 Booklet
Jamie Kim ’24 CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Certificate: Applications of Computing WATER AND THE ENVIRONMENT 102 PROJECT TITLE The Interface of Hydrology and Machine Learning: Generating Better Information for Decisionmakers and Educating the Decision-makers of the Future ORGANIZATION(S) Integrated GroundWater Modeling Center (IGWMC), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University LOCATION(S) Princeton, New Jersey MENTOR(S) Reed Maxwell, William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Lisa Gallagher, Education and Outreach Specialist, IGWMC, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Providing accurate information about our water sources is important for future decisionmakers to make wise and sustainable plans concerning water management. However, due to climate change, future environmental conditions have become further unpredictable, making it challenging to understand our water supplies. Using both physics-based and datadriven modeling in combination is essential for predicting conditions, as both modeling methods have advantages and disadvantages. To inform the integration of these methods, I analyzed the correlations between pumping data and climate condition variables and determined how groundwater pumping affects water table depth. I focused on implementing a machine learning, data-driven model that used a regression-enhanced random forest method to estimate water table depth in New Jersey. In addition, as part of the educational aspect of the internship, I helped teach at The Watershed Institute’s Watershed Academy for High School Students where I introduced the idea of pattern recognition and discussed the importance of data quantity and quality for training, all of which are fundamental to machine learning. Through this experience, I learned various practical skills in machine learning and data analysis which I hope to utilize for my senior thesis and other future work.
Wiley Kohler ’25 MATHEMATICS PROJECT TITLE Understanding Watershed Processes in Complex Terrain – Mountain Hydrology Field Camp ORGANIZATION(S) Integrated GroundWater Modeling Center, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University LOCATION(S) Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic, Colorado MENTOR(S) Reed Maxwell, William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Harry Stone, Ph.D. candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering Much of the American West relies on the waters of the Colorado River, but the mountain processes that drive its flow are poorly understood. While models can help interested parties make water use decisions, they often fail to account for small-scale processes in small stream catchments. Through intense study of one such catchment, I aimed to better understand how conditions at these small stream catchments scale up to entire drainages. I worked with another intern and a Ph.D. candidate in an intensive field data collection campaign to gather vast amounts of hydrometeorological data, including soil moisture and streamflow data. I found this project exciting from a research perspective as a bridge between realworld observations and modeling. In addition, I preprocessed data for analysis, which included fixing data anomalies due to snowfall. I also developed a model for inferring the hydrologic properties of soil, which was an exciting opportunity to contribute to a larger project and ideate independently. I plan to refine and test my model as a part of my junior or senior independent work, and my summer experience will likely lead me to pursue similar research that includes a real-world field component in the future. WATER AND THE ENVIRONMENT 103
- Page 51 and 52: Brooke Beers ’25 CIVIL AND ENVIRO
- Page 53 and 54: Sava Evangelista ’26 COMPUTER SCI
- Page 55 and 56: Alliyah Gregory ’25 ECOLOGY AND E
- Page 57 and 58: Noe Iwasaki ’26 UNDECLARED PROJEC
- Page 59 and 60: Chien Nguyen ’25 COMPUTER SCIENCE
- Page 61 and 62: Martina Qua ’25 CIVIL AND ENVIRON
- Page 63 and 64: Angelica She ’26 CIVIL AND ENVIRO
- Page 65 and 66: Sarina Wen ’26 CHEMICAL AND BIOLO
- Page 67 and 68: Rees Barnes ’26 ELECTRICAL AND CO
- Page 69 and 70: Leilani Bender ’24 CIVIL AND ENVI
- Page 71 and 72: Yagiz Devre ’26 COMPUTER SCIENCE
- Page 73 and 74: Helena Frudit ’25 MECHANICAL AND
- Page 75 and 76: John Kim ’25 PHYSICS Certificates
- Page 77 and 78: Nicholas Lim ’24 SCHOOL OF PUBLIC
- Page 79 and 80: Stephane Morel ’25 ELECTRICAL AND
- Page 81 and 82: Chloe Park ’25 CHEMISTRY Certific
- Page 83 and 84: Azhar Razin ’26 CHEMICAL AND BIOL
- Page 85 and 86: Maya Avida ’26 PHYSICS Certificat
- Page 87 and 88: Rebecca Cho ’26 GEOSCIENCES OCEAN
- Page 89 and 90: Dylan Epstein-Gross ’25 COMPUTER
- Page 91 and 92: Lindsay Anne Pagaduan ’26 CHEMIST
- Page 93 and 94: Sophia Villacorta ’24 GEOSCIENCES
- Page 95 and 96: Tienne Yu ’26 MOLECULAR BIOLOGY O
- Page 97 and 98: Braeden Carroll ’26 CIVIL AND ENV
- Page 99 and 100: Ashley DeFrates ’25 CIVIL AND ENV
- Page 101: PROJECT TITLE Molecular Simulation
- Page 105 and 106: Christopher Li ’26 CIVIL AND ENVI
- Page 107 and 108: Alyssa Ritchie ’25 CHEMISTRY Cert
- Page 109 and 110: Acknowledgments FUNDING FOR THE 202
Wiley Kohler ’25<br />
MATHEMATICS<br />
PROJECT TITLE<br />
Understanding Watershed<br />
Processes in Complex<br />
Terrain – Mountain<br />
Hydrology Field Camp<br />
ORGANIZATION(S)<br />
Integrated GroundWater<br />
Modeling Center,<br />
Department of Civil<br />
and <strong>Environmental</strong><br />
Engineering, Princeton<br />
University<br />
LOCATION(S)<br />
Rocky Mountain<br />
Biological Laboratory,<br />
Gothic, Colorado<br />
MENTOR(S)<br />
Reed Maxwell,<br />
William and Edna<br />
Macaleer Professor of<br />
Engineering and Applied<br />
Science, Professor of Civil<br />
and <strong>Environmental</strong><br />
Engineering and the High<br />
Meadows <strong>Environmental</strong><br />
Institute; Harry Stone,<br />
Ph.D. candidate, Civil and<br />
<strong>Environmental</strong><br />
Engineering<br />
Much of the American West relies on the<br />
waters of the Colorado River, but the mountain<br />
processes that drive its flow are poorly<br />
understood. While models can help interested<br />
parties make water use decisions, they often<br />
fail to account for small-scale processes in<br />
small stream catchments. Through intense<br />
study of one such catchment, I aimed to better<br />
understand how conditions at these small stream<br />
catchments scale up to entire drainages. I worked<br />
with another intern and a Ph.D. candidate in<br />
an intensive field data collection campaign to<br />
gather vast amounts of hydrometeorological<br />
data, including soil moisture and streamflow<br />
data. I found this project exciting from a<br />
research perspective as a bridge between realworld<br />
observations and modeling. In addition, I<br />
preprocessed data for analysis, which included<br />
fixing data anomalies due to snowfall. I also<br />
developed a model for inferring the hydrologic<br />
properties of soil, which was an exciting<br />
opportunity to contribute to a larger project<br />
and ideate independently. I plan to refine and<br />
test my model as a part of my junior or senior<br />
independent work, and my summer experience<br />
will likely lead me to pursue similar research<br />
that includes a real-world field component in the<br />
future.<br />
WATER AND THE<br />
ENVIRONMENT<br />
103
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