News
01/30/2024 Advancing surface water tracking in Bangladesh
12/25/2023 SASWE Group’s creative engineering education agenda profiled by UW College of Engineering (among the top 4). The art of early engineering education.
12/10/2023 SASWE Group’s latest (sixth) film, an 8 min animated short titled “THE SILENT ROUTE”, is finally ready for world promotion in film circuits after 6 years of production. Watch teaser here.
09/12/2023 Texting NASA Data to Bangladeshi Rice Farmers Cuts Water Waste
08/03/2023 NASA Data Helps Bangladeshi Farmers Save Water, Money, Energy
05/25/2023 Restoring the Mesopotamian Rivers. SASWE Group co-developed Reservoir Assessment Tool for Tigris-Euphrates.
04/25/2023 SASWE group member Shahzaib Khan wins the 2023 AWRA Student Fellowship
04/11/2023 SASWE group wins the UW Excellence in Global Engagement Award
03/03/2023 Water Power and Dam Construction Magazine Feb 2023 Issue: A satellite remote sensing perspective on hydropower dams, water management and social justice for indigeneous populations
01/05/2023 NASA Feature: Quantifying Bangladesh’s Vast Water Resources
01/03/2023 SASWE Group members Pritam Das and Sanchit Minocha win the 2022 AWRA People’s Choice Poster Presentation Award.
12/31/2022 SASWE work on operational surface water tracking and SWOT mission (led by Shahzaib Khan) featured in AWRA IMPACT Nov/Dec issue of 2022. Click here.
11/14/2022 SASWE work on Water Security acknowledged in a new article by Circle of Blue on the upcoming launch of the SWOT mission- New Satellite Will See Water’s Big Picture
10/19/2022 Satellites and Citizen Scientists Help Track Water in Bangladesh
09/19/2022 A citizen-science based Irrigation and Climate Advisory System (ICAS) co-developed by University of Washington SASWE Group with Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has won ‘one of the best innovation’ out of 530 entries judged by World Bank, ADPC and UKAid. See the short video here where the ICAS puts farmers front and center in improving the produce of advisory as citizen scientists.
06/17/2022 Another Children’s Book is now out by SASWE Group titled “Robots and Other Amazing Gadgets Invented 800 Years Ago“. Read the UW coverage of this book here.
05/02/2022 Feature article on Social Justice and Equity in The Conversation – Satellites over the Amazon capture the choking of the ‘house of God’ by the Belo Monte Dam – they can help find solutions, too. This feature is a product of student-led effort to explore ways to include concepts of social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion more quantitatively in graduate curriculum.
02/10/2022 Washington Post Feature by SASWE Alumni Dr. Shahryar Ahmad (now research scientist at NASA) – Dams alter river temperatures and endanger fish, yet 3,700 more will be built
12/15/2021 Cumulative Impact of SASWE Group’s work on South Asian farmers featured. Click Satellite System Success.
12/12/2021 Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) wins the Climate Innovation Challenge (CIC) grant for providing smarter crowd-sourced based solutions for Pakistan farmers. The proposed solution is based on the Irrigation Advisory Service co-developed by SASWE Research Group with PCRWR. TheCIC grant is managed by Asian Disaster Preparedness Center with funding from World Bank and UK govt.
11/08/2021 SASWE former member Dr. Shahryar Ahmad is featured by NASA in a group of 48 most exciting early-career scientists from diverse fields and backgrounds. Click here for the NASA Spotlight.
11/07/2021 SASWE-led paper titled “Developing a Baseline Characterization of River Bathymetry and Time-Varying Height for Chindwin River in Myanmar Using SRTM and Landsat Data” selected to be featured in ‘Editor’s Choice’ section in Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.
10/21/2021 HydroCUB designed with SASWE group leadership as part of UW Industry Capstone project gets featured in IEEE Spectrum as one of the latest robots (scroll down in the link).
10/20/2021 UW students designed a rover to inspect culvert conditions to help fish Click for pdf here.
07/27/2021 SASWE Group Leader becomes a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
06/20/2021 Arab News published an immersive story titled the “Battle for the Nile” based on the PhD research work and tools developed by SASWE alumnus Dr. Hisham Eldardiry.
05/25/2021 New SASWE article published in International Water Power and Dam Construction Magazine titled “The Hot and Cold of Current and Future Hydropower Dams”
04/20/2021 High resolution Landsat-based irrigation advisory continues to send out weekly SMS farmers in Bangladesh as part of SASWE collaboration with Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Extension. A parallel impact evaluation continues. NASA media feature on this can be checked here – Landsat Feature and NASA Earth Observatory Feature.
03/31/2021 The collective body of work by SASWE Group on dams/reservoirs and remote sensing continues to attract global interest. Examples are: two wide-audience talks (at NASA and U Illinois), multiple media features in NASA outlets (Earth Observatory, Landsat program), Embassies (Egypt and Ethiopia) and a feature by International Water Power & Dam Construction Magazine.
02/28/2021 SASWE Group completes delivery of a short course on “Remote Sensing and Cloud Computing” for Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). The course was delivered successfully by Dr. Shahryar Ahmad (thank you so much Shahryar!) and organized to address the continuing education and training needs of BWDB for developing capacity to develop home-grown solutions in the water-sector. A big thank you to Arifuzzaman Bhuyan of BWDB for helping us organize this short course.
02/05/2021 2020 Best Case Study Award in ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering awarded to SASWE group members Shahryar Ahmad, Safat Sikder and Faisal Hossain by ASCE EWRI. The paper for the case study is the development of urban flood inundation forecasting for the city of Houston, Texas.
01/10/2021 AlJazeera TV invites SASWE Group’s Dr. Hisham Eldardiry to take part in a documentary on the Nile River
11/11/2020 American Geophysical Union (AGU) bestows the International Award (A Union Award) to the SASWE Group Lead (Faisal Hossain) “in recognition of making an outstanding contribution to furthering the Earth and space sciences and using science for the benefit of society in developing nations.”
11/01/2020 SASWE Group’s Hisham Eldardiry is interviewed by BBC Science in Action for his work on the Nile River basin.
10/17/2020 The highly successful SWOT Early Adopter Virtual Hackathon hosted at UW and led by SASWE Group volunteers during May 2020 is featured by NASA SERVIR (one of the early adopters). Link.
10/13/2020 Congratulations to SASWE member Shahryar Ahmad for winning the “Best Use of Data” during the 2020 NASA Space Apps 48 Hr Hackathon. Shahryar led the team C-attle Footprint to develop a cloud computing based green house gas monitoring tool. It is no pun that Shahryar’s team’s tagline is ‘Who Passed the Gas?’
09/28/2020 Children’s Book on Science, Engineering and Medicine is now published with SASWE leadership – Secret Lives of Scientists, Engineers and Doctors.
08/21/2020 NASA tweets about SASWE Research on “Making Smart Irrigation Smarter” by combining GRACE, GPM and Landsat for South Asian Farmers. See Twitter post and Facebook post.
08/16/2020 SASWE Food Security solution “Making Smart Irrigation Smarter” gets selected as one of the 70 finalists from a pool of 2600 ideas for a social innovation competition (MIT SOLVE 2020). See the 3 min video pitch here.
07/23/2020 ArcGIS Story Maps – Satellite Data Empowers Farmers.
06/02/2020 BBC Digital Planet Podcast on SASWE Group’s Food Security innovations in Asia. Podcast link (fast forward to 21:10 to listen to the following 7 minutes).
06/01/2020 Completion of 2nd UW Student Film Contest led by SASWE Group is featured News link.
05/27/2020 Innovative Capstone course involving collaboration between CEE and ECE students proving to be a success during COVID19 era News link.
05/26/2020 The first virtual hackathon for NASA Early Adopter Program for planned SWOT satellite mission kicks off with SASWE Group leadership News link.
05/13/2020 Data in Action profile published by Physical Oceanography DAAC (DAAC) on SASWE Group’s use of Altimetry for Rivers (tool developed by Nishan Biswas) News link.
04/30/2020 The 15 year heritage of SASWE research and societal impact profiled by NASA EOSDIS user profile News link.
04/23/2020 UW Features NASA’s Comprehensive overview of SASWE Research for 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.
04/23/2020 NASA creates a 3 min Video on SASWE Research and its impact in South Asia on 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.
04/23/2020 SASWE food security work in India profiled by NASA for 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. News link.
04/23/2020 SASWE research profiled by NASA for social media blitz for 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. News link.
04/23/2020 SASWE Research on food security used by NASA GPM Applications Program to create educational products and lesson plans – 3rd Grade 5th Grade Middle School High School
03/01/2020 BBC Science in Action Podcast features SASWE research on Hydropower Dam cooling Mekong rivers. Listen to Podcast (fast forward to 23:55)
02/13/2020 SASWE research shows that hydropower dams cool rivers in the Mekong River basin. News link.
01/20/2020 PANI irrigation advisory system developed by SASWE Group and partners receives further dissemination and coverage by American Water Resources Association (AWRA) IMPACT magazine. News link.
01/09/2020 SASWE Group’s work for Marginal Farmers of India is featured in a USAID AgriLinks blog.
01/08/2020 SASWE Group’s latest work on Ecosystem-safe Hydropower Generation gets featured in International Water Power and Dam Construction Magazine. This work combines many years of R&D on hydropower maximization using weather forecast and remote sensing to monitor thermal fluctuations in downstream waters.
11/10/2019 Watch “Growing More with Less: Smart Tech Solutions to Feed the World” – a SASWE Flagship work that addresses the group’s core mission – to improve lives for real with application of research and solve societal problems (and not just on paper).
10/10/2019
UW-Daily – Professor Faisal Hossain modernizes irrigation to feed the masses. News Link
08/20/2019
National Academies Story Telling Initiative/Illustration for Doctors, Engineers and Scientists appear on Public Understanding of Science Blog.
08/08/2019
New fellowship supports global water research.
06/10/2019
Immersive story on food-energy-water nexus of the Mekong river is launched. This story involves SASWE group’s role on hydropower dams by its member Matt Bonnema as well as supporting work on Tonle Sap lake and land cover change studies.
05/15/2019
New Voices at the National Academies launches a personal story telling initiative in Science, Engineering and Medicine led by Faisal Hossain
05/01/2019
The Ivanhoe Foundation continues its generous support of SASWE Group’s capacity building effort for developing nations. A total of 50,000 USD in gift funds has been donated by the foundation to carry out training of foreign scholars/experts at UW on developing water solutions. Another 250,000 USD has been offered to the University for a matching endowment program.
02/15/2019
New SASWE work featured on EOS (American Geophysical Union) – When floods cross border, satellites data can help
02/09/2019
SASWE group launched another co-developed system for a stakeholder nation. The flashflood and early warning system for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (Ministry of Water Resources and Bangladesh Water Development Board-BWDB) was launched for trial in 2019. The system, which is computationally efficient and forecasts inundation at 30 m resolution, was co-designed and co-developed in close collaboration with engineers and hydrologists of BWDB. After a successful trial in 2019, BWDB is expected to adopt it within its operational infrastructure and offer the flashflood warning as a service to about 40 million affected citizens on a SASWE developed smartphone app called LIQUID EARTH. Flashfloods in the Northeastern region strike around the harvest time of March-April for Boro rice. Skillful flashflood forecasting as a service to millions of farmers is therefore expected to have a positive impact on the food security of Bangladesh by minimizing flashflood damage to Boro rice that accounts for the lion share of annual rice production Bangladesh.
12/18/2018
SASWE group’s numerically fast flow forecasting based on global NWP forecast for large river basins receives coverage in EARTH Magazine (of American Geophysical Institute) in a piece titled “Faster Flood Forecasting to Improve Responses.”
11/18/2018
Pakistan Irrigation Advisory system co-developed by UW SASWE Group and PCRWR (Pakistan) getting expanded to 100,000 farmers with partnership with Telenor-Pakistan. News link.
10/17/2018
Smart Phones Bring Smart Irrigation – an article published by NASA Earth Observatory. A key element for Applied Scientists who want their research to be scaled up is telling our stories right and align it to development, livelihood and business issues so that it registers on the radar of entrepreneurs or financial institutions.
08/30/2018
The Future of Farming – an article on the hyperlocal irrigation advisory system called PANI and developed by UW SASWE, IIT Kanpur, Kritsnam Technologies and Geokno.
07/15/2018
Two more water forecasting systems co-developed and launched for Vietnam agencies by SASWE Research Group. These systems are: NUMOS and NAWAPI with monitoring of transboundary reservoirs operationalized(mirror site). This is the world’s first beta-testing of an operational transboundary reservoir monitoring system based on earth observations.
06/16/2018
Advanced Water Forecasting System developed and launched by Bangladesh Water Development Board. This system is co-developed with technical assistance from SASWE Research Group and is now independently maintained with local resources of the Bangladesh Water Board
05/23/18
SASWE research viewpoints featured on “Science for Students” article by award-winning journalist Roberta Kwok. The article is titled “Science on a Shoe-string.”
05/18/18
SASWE Group Leader Faisal Hossain is now part of a highly selective cohort (of 18 members) for “New Voices in Science, Engineering and Medicine” endowed by Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and managed by the National Academies. This is a 2 year appointment and the goal is to address grand challenges across the academies and raise funds towards solving them.
05/09/18
SASWE Group’s Hydropower Maximization work (Shahryar Ahmad’s MS Thesis) featured as Guest Column in AWRA IMPACT Magazine (May 2018 issue). More to come as the concept by Shahryar gears up for global scaling up to address energy and water
04/26/18
NASA feature article ‘Before the Flood Arrives’ appears based on SWOT mission work published in Geophysical Research Letters (and led by George Allen and Cedric David of JPL). Congrats to our colleagues and lead authors George and Cedric on this seminal paper.
03/21/18
2nd UW Student Film Contest for STEM majors to blow off STEAM is launched. See www.uwoscars.com This is perhaps the nation’s first Student Film Contest for STEM majors.
02/21/18
Outstanding Achievement Award awarded by American Society of Civil Engineers EWRI. Award ceremony planned on June 6 at EWRI Congress in Minneapolis.
01/16/18
SASWE-led research and capacity building on water management gets featured on NASA Science website – again. https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/applied-sciences/making-space-for-earth/water-for-life.
01/01/18
Sustainable Mekong Livelihood Project (SMLP) gets off the ground to address nexuses among food, water, energy, climate. The project is led by ASU and UW and involves diverse stakeholders https://www.washington.edu/news/2017/12/13/uw-project-seeks-sustainable-blueprint-for-hydropower-dams/.
12/07/17
Decision Support System for Smart Dam Operations for Hydropower Maximization launched by SASWE Group – http://depts.washington.edu/saswe/damdss The Smart Dam DSS is based on SASWE member Shahryar Ahmad’s MS thesis that investigated the value of weather forecast for hydropower maximization. It is currently operational for Detroit Dam in Oregon. Stay tuned for SASWE group’s plan for scaling up in US and developing nations.
11/12/17
Seasonal forecast from North American Multi-model Ensemble (NMME) for flow forecasting for GBM and Mekong basins is now operational at http://depts.washington.edu/saswe/datavis_Timeseries.html
11/12/17
The “Fast Weather-forecast based 15 day Flow Forecast” developed by Safat Sikder of SASWE Group is now operational for Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong river basins at http://depts.washington.edu/saswe/datavis_Timeseries.html. This numerically fast technique does not require dynamic downscaling of global weather forecasts from Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models such as GFS. The savings in computational time of about 3-4 hours means that the flood forecasting agency can spend more time on disaster response and management. The six monthly seasonal forecast from North American Multi-model Ensemble (NMME) for flow forecasting for GBM and Mekong basins is now operational at http://depts.washington.edu/saswe/datavis_Timeseries.html
10/07/17
Vietnam Water Ministry (NAWAPI) demonstrates in less than 1 year a very convincing and independent mastery of satellite-based transboundary reservoir management for national adoption using SASWE-developed research (Matt Bonnema’s work for SWOT Mission) and capacity building/training program with University of Houston (H Lee). In the 17 year history of capacity building by SASWE, this is the fastest record of a stakeholder agency accelerating research to applications for national uptake.
09/15/17
Shahryar Ahmad of SASWE group demonstrates the economic value of short-term weather forecast for maximization of hydropower in US dams. Using Detroit dam (OR) as an example, the economic benefit of using short-term weather forecast amounts up to $1,053,000 over a flood event that occurred in 1996. This amount can light up 1120 households considering an average electricity consumption of 900 kWh per month. The work is currently being scaled up with seasonal forecasts for more global applications for better energy-water security.
08/07/17
More publicity on the societal impact of SASWE-designed smart irrigation/agriculture advisory for farmers on livelihood. Click for coverage on the Third Pole .
08/01/17
SASWE capacity building work continues to expand further east to Thailand and Cambodia. Training on building last capacity in satellite based water management was completed at ADPC (Aug 1-2, 2017) and Cambodia’s Ministry of Water Resources (Aug 3, 2017).
07/20/17
SASWE developed satellite flood forecasting system that is now operational in Bangladesh and serving 80 million people, received national coverage. Click for TV Coverage on SHOMOY TV and Click for TV Coverage on TBN24
06/21/17
American Geophysical Union EOS feature on SASWE collaborated work is published titled “Growing More with Less Using Cellphones and Satellites” Click for feature
06/21/17
SASWE group produced Documentary short titled “Cotton Fields from the Ivory Tower” is now officially released. You can watch it on vimeo here.
03/18/17
SASWE Group has the trailer of its 4th documentary “Cotton Fields from the Ivory Tower” released. You can watch it here. The actual documentary will be available from summer 2017.
03/16/17
The Inaugural CEE Student Film Contest held. The goal is to convert this into a regular event as the nation’s first student-driven film competition for the Civil Engineering profession that is open to all students in the US. Watch the student videos.
02/01/17
SWOT Application Workshop to be held April 5-6, 2017. Faisal Hossain is one of the leads for organizing this much needed workshop to engage with major stakeholders and identify ways to maximize the societal benefit of SWOT mission after 2021.
01/07/17
Satellite and NWP model based Irrigation Advisory system co-designed by SASWE Group with Pakistan’s PCRWR gets expanded to 10,000 farmers. Impact evaluation, farmer response and quality assurance studies under way.
12/2/16
SASWE Group’s first comprehensive study of water-sustainability of 42 US Cities makes a mark in Earth’s Future (AGU). It’s probably the first type of study that moves beyond the traditional climate change impact studies and addresses local threats, conditions and drivers that have much more relevance and skill in prediction. The study also addresses policy implication for cities. Let’s hope the mayors of these cities are listening! Click here for the news story.
10/24/16
SASWE Group member expands its application and capacity building effort to Mekong Nations as part of NASA SERVIR and USAID PEER Program. This is the first time, a SASWE Group student took the role of a trainer and provided training on water management to Mekong nation stakeholders. The training workshop took place in Hanoi during October 5-8, 2016. Click for NASA SERVIR Article.
08/04/16
SASWE designed Satellite-Based Irrigation Advisory System Helps Pakistani Farmers Stay Above Water Click for feature
Click for KING 5 TV Show
07/28/16
SASWE group helps Bangladesh Government Water Development Board and its Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) provide training on best practices for flood management to agencies of Nepal, Vietnam and Pakistan. The workshop was held from July 24-28 in the spirit of south-south cooperation and supported by USAID (PEER Program), NASA and University of Washington.
06/02/16
Successful completion of capacity building training at UW for water management agencies from Vietnam (NUCE) and Nepal (DHM) using the SASWE Backward-Forward HR training protocol. Future plans include a PEER training workshop in July 2016 for flood management for south and southeast Asian countries and a training for Vietnamese stakeholder agencies in December 2016.
04/29/16
ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine May 2016 issue reports SASWE work on hydropower operations in feature titled ‘Blue Power’ Click for feature
03/31/16
SASWE launches a ‘Build-it-Yourself’ operational web interface (in two months!) that can connect complex back-end models and codes with user-friendly front end GUI using full automation of data transfer from 3rd party sources. The system uses non-proprietory softwares and tools that are freely available using a modular approach that any stakeholder agency can build on their in a few weeks. The goal of SASWE is to further empower stakeholder agencies so that they do not have to rely on expensive web/GUI developers for maintenance. Full credit goes to application developer Nishan Biswas! Click for “Build-it-yourself” web portal
03/25/16
What’s next for Earth Observations around the World Click for feature
02/29/16
[UW Today – Engineering] NASA Data used to Track Groundwater in Pakistan Click for feature
02/29/16
[Front page on JPL-Caltech] NASA Data used to Track Groundwater in Pakistan Click for feature
02/29/16
[Front page on NASA.GOV] NASA Data used to Track Groundwater in Pakistan Click for feature
02/2/16
Pakistan Launches Satellite-based Groundwater Management Click for feature.
01/15/16
Decadal Survey Workshop Meeting Report is now out and online on EOS to strengthen the voice of global capacity building community Click for EOS feature.
01/09/16
Pakistan Government launches satellite-based groundwater monitoring for management of its water resources through SASWE-guided capacity building protocols. Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) has started since January 2016 monthly processing of GRACE SHC data to derive groundwater storage anomalies completely independently in the agency environment. The estimation of groundwater storage trends will be used for decision-making at both planning, operations and policy scales for sustainable groundwater management. With this capacity building accomplished, the total number of stakeholder individuals routinely impacted by satellite earth observation data through SASWE program is now about 160 million. PCRWR website (click on the rolling newsflash for details).
11/02/15
MOU signed between Civil Engineering (UW) and Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) for accelerating capacity building and application of UW-collaborative research on water management to Pakistan Government agencies.
10/15/15
Decadal Survey Pre-workshop Article is now out and online on EOS to strengthen the voice of global capacity building community Click for EOS feature.
09/18/15
SASWE work featured on USAID magazine FRONTLINE Click for USAID feature.
08/27/15
SASWE Group helps two water agencies/institutions (Vietnam and Bangladesh) bag the USAID PEER grants for building capacity through collaboration with federally-funded US-based scientists. Such selections, from a total of 45 selected across all areas and funding agencies (NASA, NSF, NIH, USDA) demonstrates the global visibility of SASWE group as one of the leading groups that can provide leadership to resource poor nations for harnessing the power of earth observations for environmental management. Click for PEER Cycle 4 Selections on National Academies Site. This brings the total number PEER grants facilitated by SASWE group to 3. The total amount of philanthropic funds raised by SASWE group exclusively for 3rd party development has now crossed 0.5 million USD with outreach to 5 national governments (Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Vietnam).
08/16/15
Third movie project ‘COTTON BURGERS AND WATER’ launched on kickstarter.com.
07/15/15
SASWE made documentary “BAY OF HOPE” selected for screening at the 8th Eco-Film Festival in Kuala Lumpur. Click for Eco-Film Festival
06/25/15
SASWE group led NASA Decadal Survey Workshop aims to marry NASA data with earthly needs. Click for feature
06/01/15
SASWE member Adam Stratz (MS 2014) has received the prestigious Nuclear Forensics Graduate Fellowship award from Department of Homeland Security. Congratulations to Adam on this richly deserved award.
04/11/15
The 2015 Walter L Huber Award from American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on SASWE research for “For contributions to the analysis of infrastructure resilience through land-atmosphere analyses and satellite remote sensing for more robust management of water resources in an increasingly human-impacted environment.” .
03/15/15
SASWE work latest movie production “BAY OF HOPE” launched. The movie is competing for a few local film festivals and is online at http://youtu.be/qiYFOyt0_iY.
03/14/15
SASWE work Featured as Press Release on the main NASA.GOV site. Click for pdf of the NASA.GOV feature.
01/26/15
New Op-Ed in IEEE Earthzine -“Science, science everywhere, nor any drop to drink: Three solutions to fix an outdated system” Click for the online feature. Click for pdf of the feature.
01/23/15
Bangladesh announces nation-wide expansion of SERVIR satellite-based flood forecasting and warning system. See Click for feature.
12/26/14
The slogan of ‘compound eye’ of satellites for multiplying societal impact is gaining traction through research and outreach. See Satellites Hold Secret to Understanding Remote Rivers
11/17/14
SASWE supported mobile app called LIQUID-EARTH (built in close collaboration with Computer Scientist Dr. Ghafoor and his group at TTU) wins the 4th prize at 2014 GEO Appathon.See Liquid Earth-River at GEO Appathon
10/17/14
NASA Applied Sciences Program (Water Resources) endorses SASWE Research Group with a 4-year (1.48 million USD) grant for improving the capacity of South Asian nations for sovereign water resources management using satellite and geodetic remote sensing. Partnering institutions are Ohio State University, University of Houston and NASA Marshall Space Center.
09/15/14
SASWE Group completes a highly successful summer of hosting several dignitaries from water and development agencies of developing nations at the University of Washington. Director of Strategic Programs, Basanta Shrestha of ICIMOD (Nepal) visited UW and Civil Engineering on July 10 and 11, 2014. Sudip Pradhan of ICIMOD spent 10 days from July 20-28th at UW Civil Engineering to design the integration of SASWE models in ICIMOD geoportal. During Aug 17-24, Executive Director of Institute of Water Modeling (Bangladesh) and Director of Coastal Division visited UW Civil Engineering. These visits were part of the recently struck MOU with Civil Engineering and sponsored by Office of Naval Research (ONR) Visiting Scientist Program (VSP). The hosting of these visits showcase the strategic planning and commitment of SASWE group to deliver durable and sustainable benefits of earth science research to developing nations in a manner that empowers the inhabitants. See IWM Visit and NASA-SERVIR visit.
08/31/14
Another BIG achievement of SASWE group in proving that operational systems do indeed work and serve society! Bangladesh government Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) was able to use JASON-2 water level readings upstream to guide decision making on flood management and the expected time to recede during recent spate of flooding in northern region in mid August 2014. See SERVIR Flood Forecasting System Proving Itself .
08/11/14
SASWE Group facilitates the award of NSF-USAID PEER Program funding to Institute of Water Modeling (Bangladesh) for supporting Belmont Forum Project on coastal management. The award was one of the forty awarded from a pool of 240 or more. With this award, the total amount of philanthropic fund-raising by SASWE Group for institutions in developing countries is now more than 280,000 USD (230,000 USD raised in 2013-2014 alone).
07/29/14
Recruitment video launched for Hydrology and Hydrodynamics Program of University of Washington Click here to watch the 2 min video .
06/25/14
First BIG achievement of SASWE group in crossing the valley of death and reaching an Application Readiness Level (ARL) of 8 with a stakeholder agency on promoting research-based tools. This is the highest ARL reached in the shortest span of time (2 years) for application of satellite driven earth science research to the best of our knowledge. Bangladesh government Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) has officially adopted JASON-2 based 8 day altimetry forecasts. See SERVIR news update ; and FFWC website.
06/02/14
Mobile app for JASON-2 altimetry-based flood forecasting operations is now available as a concept demonstration.Click here to download the River app.
05/07/14
JASON-2 Altimetry-based Flood Forecasting Operations news on the AVISO (CNES) website.
Click here for AVISO news link.
03/29/14
New Post-doctoral Opportunity in the area of global health and water beginning from September 2014. Interested candidates should read the announcement and follow up accordingly.
03/28/14
The Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) under the Ministry of Water Resources of the Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh has officially endorsed SASWE Group-designed JASON-2 8-day Satlelite-based Flood Forecasting system. FFWC will begin a full-scale operational trial beginning from May 2014 followed by assessment and complete adoption (without any external incubation) from the Monsoon season of 2015. Stay tuned at FFWC website.
10/10/13
SASWE Group produces the first 100 day assessment of forecast skill of the JASON-2 satellite-based 8 flood forecasting system in a real-time and stakeholder-owned environment. The rigorous test of forecast skill at 8 days lead time has revealed that most flood warning stations retain a correlation exceeding 0.75 and RMSE lower than 2 m with a high signal-to-noise ratio (exceeding 10) relative to the flood danger level. This is probably the world’s first and most rigorous assessment of forecast skill for decision making after a system has been transferred and given ownership to a stakeholder agency.
06/01/13
SASWE Group helps launch the 8 day JASON-2 Flood Forecasting System for Bangladesh in collaboration with IWM, University of Washington, Ohio State, LEGOS, ICIMOD and University of Houston with funding from US Department of State, NASA SERVIR and Physical Oceanography Programs. The forecasts are being generated completely independently by IWM staff after several months of capacity building training by SASWE Group Leader. See the scheme at ICIMOD geoportal at ICIMOD Geo-Portal for Flood Forecasting ; IWM site is at IWM Flood Forecasting Site . .
05/15/13
Another SASWE member (Wondmagegn Yigzaw) win the prestigious NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) for 2013. Wondmagegn is the 4th SASWE member to win this award in recent history. Congratulations to Wondie!
03/27/13
SASWE Group launches its first docu-fiction to raise awareness on how satellites impact the social fabric of rural life. This is the directional and production debut of Faisal Hossain where a strong story telling narrative and entertainment theme have been used to reach out to the masses. Youtube Link.
12/14/12
BBC Environment News puts SASWE Research in spotlight. Click here.
11/26/12
“International Water Power and Dam Construction” Magazine has a feature titled, “ A Two-Way Street. The online version is available here
10/21/12
ASCE’s hallmark and mainstay magazine “Civil Engineering” will feature SASWE Group’s visionary agenda on Dams, Cities and Extreme Weather in its December 2012 issue. The magazine reaches out to at least 90,000 print and many more online subscribers around the world.
07/15/12
SASWE Group receives the 2012 Charles Falkenberg Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGI). Established in 2002 and jointly sponsored with the Earth Science Information Partnership (ESIP), the Falkenberg Award is named in honor of Charles S. Falkenberg, whose research focused on enabling practical applications of Earth science through data visualization and information technology. This award is given to a scientist under 45 years of age who has contributed to the quality of life, economic opportunities and stewardship of the planet through the use of Earth science information and to the public awareness of the importance of understanding our planet.
05/15/12
Two SASWE members (Abebe Gebregiorgis and Abel Woldemichael) win the prestigious NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) for 2012. This is the 3rd NESSF award in TN’s history since the program began in the 1990s with SASWE members being recipient of all three! Also, it is quite uncommon for two awards the same year to the same research group.
04/23/12
NASA awards a 4(+1) year grant to SASWE group titled “A Satellite-based Early Warning, Mapping and Post-Disaster Visualization System for Water Resources of Low-lying Deltas of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region”. The project is in the amount of 850,000 USD, will allow Dr. Faisal Hossain to serve on the SERVIR Applied Sciences Team while continuing the capacity building effort for developing and delta nations.
04/02/12
Graduate Of the Last Decade (G.O.L.D) awarded by University of Connecticut to SASWE Group Leader Dr. Hossain for the collective work accomplished by all the past and current members of SASWE.
03/15/12
SASWE Group Leader awarded the Fulbright Faculty Award for 2012-2013. The award will strengthen SASWE Group’s visionary effort in making developing nations become independent users of new satellite technology and creators of knowledge ground up on water resources forecasting. This particular award is an endorsement of SASWE Group’s effort to make altimeter-based forecasting operational in Bangladesh.
03/01/12
SASWE Group alum Caitlin Balthrop Moffit (class of 2010 – MS) wins the 2012 Robert E. Neyland Young Engineer Award from ASCE chapter. Caitlin is now Assistant Professor at Chattanooga State.
02/07/12
March (vol. 78) issue of “Global Change” published by IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) to feature SASWE Research Group ideas in “Building our Future”. Click for a draft.
12/30/11
SASWE Research Group completes the 2nd year of capacity building of water resources staff in developing nations to handle data from emerging water satellites (GPM, SWOT and SMAP). More than 40 staffs have been trained with hands-on exercises so far.
12/01/11
Dr. Faisal Hossain wins the Caplenor Award (The University’s Highest Award).
11/30/11
SASWE member Abebe Gebregiorgis selected by AGU for travel funding support to attend Chapman Conference of 2012
8/30/11
SASWE member Abebe Gebregiorgis completes his 10 week NASA Graduate Summer Student Program at Goddard Space Flight Center Hydrological Sciences Branch.
8/15/11
TTU Professor presents research to Congress. Click for feature
6/20/11
How Dams kick up a storm – Huffington Post. Click for feature
5/26/11
Visit and interaction with US House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources to discuss long-term policy implications of SASWE Resaaerch for management of large dams in the US.
5/08/11
SASWE Research featured in Earth Magazine and Nature Magazine Research Highlight.
3/08/11
SASWE-led research on impact of dams on local climate cited prominently in a congressional hearing of the Water and Power Subcommittee. Click here for news link
2/23/11
Dr.Faisal Hossain selected for the 2010 Outstanding Reviewer Award by ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.
1/26/11
New research led by SASWE group in collaboration with Colorado University, Purdue, University of Georgia, Pacific Northwest National laboratory and Hellenic Center for Marine Research shows a clear impact of large dams on local climate and precipitation patterns. Click here for details
6/29/10
Dr.Faisal Hossain profiled on NASA.GOV Educators site. Click for feature
6/20/10
SASWE research featured on The Conservation Magazine. Click for feature
5/20/10
SASWE group leader Dr. Faisal Hossain selected by Elsevier Sciences as one of the five world-wide editors on a comprehensive and groundbreaking work on Climate change. Click for feature
3/10/10
SASWE group featured on NASA Earth Science Blog “What on Earth” . Click for feature
2/28/10
SASWE group leader Dr. Faisal Hossain interviewed live for the “Naked Scientist Show” aired on the BBC with podcast. Click for podcast
2/04/10
SASWE Research featured in The National Geographic . Click for details
1/25/10
SASWE Research Group is selected by The National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) for the 2010 National Environmental Education Excellence Award. The award will be presented in Atlanta Georgia, on April 29, 2010 at the 2010-NAEP National Conference. Click for details
12/29/09
SASWE Research featured on Newsweek Magazine, Dec 29, 2009. Click for details
12/16/09
SASWE Research featured on New Scientist Magazine, Dec 16, 2009. Click for details
12/16/09
SASWE Research featured by German radio on public radio station DeutsclandFunk, Dec 16, 2009.Click here for details
Click for Audio
12/06/09
Live Radio interview (WPTF-Raleigh) on the Morning Show with Scott Fitzgerald. Click for details
12/01/09
SASWE Group research work on artificial reservoirs featured by reporters syndicated with MSNBC, Fox News, New Scientist, Wired.com, Newsweek, National Geographic, WPTF-Raleigh-North Carolina. Click for details
08/25/09
Dr. Faisal Hossain visits the Kurdistan Region for curriculum development of the Civil Engineering B.S program for universities under a project funded by the US State Department and Higher Education Ministry and led by Appalachian State University.
03/12/09
Dr. Faisal Hossain is awarded the ASEE Southeast Section’s Outstanding New Faculty Research Award. He is the winner (First Place) for this year’s
competition.
03/2/09
Dr. Faisal Hossain is rated by the Alan T Waterman Foundation Award Committee as a ‘Top Performer’. Congress established the Alan T. Waterman Award in August 1975 to mark the 25th Anniversary of the National Science Foundation and to honor its first Director. The annual award recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Faisal Hossain was ranked among the top 35% of all nominees for this year.
01/05/09
Dr. Indumathi Jeyachandran joins the SASWE Group. Dr. Jeyachandran has a PhD (2008) from University of Utah on sustainable water resources management.
She will be working on sustainability of large reservoirs using land-atmosphere modeling.
09/15/08
SASWE Group Leader is invited to attend and deliver a talk to SWOT (Surface Water Ocean Topography) Workshop organized by Ohio State University, Columbus,
Ohio.
08/24/08
SASWE Group Leader delivers a key-note speech titled ‘Understanding Surface Water Flow and Storage Changes using Satellites’ at the
Regional Symposium on Climate Change, Food Security, Sea level rise and Environment in South Asia organized by Dhaka University (Bangladesh), UN, WMO, FAO and attended by
the head of state of Bangladesh and high-level officials from South Asian Governments.
06/15/08
SASWE Group is leading the publication of a Featured Collection (or Special Issue) in Journal of American Water Resources Association on Satellites and Transboundary Water. The featured collection aims to bring together practitioners/beneficiaries of emerging satellite missions from developing countries and the data developers/researchers from the developed world on the same platform to present articles of accelerating institutionalization of research products in operational systems serving society. Featured collection is expected to comprise contributors from more than 6 organizations and be published before end of 2009.
05/06/08
Springer-Verlag approves and accepts the publication of an edited book volume on ‘Satellite Applications for Surface Hydrology’. The book volume is currently being handled by Dr.
Mekonnen Gebremichael and SASWE Group Leader Dr. Faisal Hossain as joint Editors. The book will bring the state of the art on satellite rainfall estimation, validation and its application in decision support system from more than 15 leading research groups/organizations in the field. The book may be used as a graduate level reference book. Expected publication date is Summer 2009.
05/22/08
SASWE Group Member and PhD Student Ms. Ling Tang is awarded the prestigious NASA’s Earth System Science Fellowship for her 3-year proposal titled ‘Modeling the hydrologically-relevant features of uncertainty of NASA’s high resolution precipitation products for advancing global applications over ungauged regions.’ She was one of
the 50 selected from a pool of 200 nationally.
04/25/08
SASWE Group Leader Dr. Faisal Hossain is awarded NASA’s New Investigator Program (NIP) Award for his 3-year proposal titled ‘Advancing the Hydrologic Potential of NASA’s TRMM-based Satellite Rainfall Estimation System for Global Flood Monitoring in anticipation of GPM.’ He was one of the 18 selected nationally.
04/10/08
SASWE group member Mohammed Chowdhury is awarded the Ivanhoe Foundation Fellowship. Mohammed is also offered a position with the multi-national power firm ‘SQUARE-D’. Congratulations to Mohammed on both ends for the dual outstanding achievements!
03/18/08
Lightning expert Dr. Themis Chronis of Global Hydrology and Climate Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, Hunstville (AL) visits TTU to deliver a seminar entitled ‘Lightning: Beyond the Spark’.
03/11/08
Valentine Anantharaj of the Georesources Institute, Mississippi State University visits TTU and SASWE Group for a seminar.
02/13/08
Former SASWE Group Member Amanda Harris is featured on the OPRAH show with her husband. Congratulations Amanda!
12/10/07
Mr. Abu Saleh Khan (Head of Flood Management Division) of Institute of Water Modeling-Bangladesh delivers a seminar on the Flood Forecasting System and Disaster Preparedness of Bangladesh. His visit is part of the 5-year MOU between the Institute in Bangladesh and TTU’s Water Research Center. Mr. Khan also interacted with SASWE group members and discussed possibilities of further collaboration with Water Center faculty.
09/15/07
SASWE Research Group receives a $30,000 grant award for collaborating with University of Mississippi’s Department of Geological Engineering on protoyping GPM data for SERVIR applications in Meso-America
09/06/07
SASWE Research Group Launched
07/01/07
SASWE Research Group member Caitlin Balthrop gets selected to participate in a 5-week field campaign in Ethiopia funded by the National Science Foundation
05/20/07
SASWE Research Group Leader Dr. Faisal Hossain launches an undergraduate text book ‘Modern Concepts of Water Resources’ in Bangladesh (Published by Univerity Grants Commission of Bangladesh – 1250 copies released in first edition)
05/07/07
SASWE Research Group graduates its first batch of students with higher level training- Amanda Harris, Preethi Raj and Nitin Katiyar
04/01/07
SASWE Research Group is awarded a one-year grant by NASA through University of Mississippi for rapid prototyping of GPM rainfall products in hydrologic models. The project is a collaboration with University of Mississippi and SASWE Research Group is budgeted for $64,655 a year.
11/01/06
SASWE Research Group is awarded a three-year grant by NASA to investigate the utility of satellite rainfall products for overland applications. The project is a collaboration with University of Connecticut with a total budget exceeding $400,000.
08/01/06
SASWE Research Group Leader is appointed as an Associate Editor on Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing for the Journal of American Water Resources Association (JAWRA)
07/01/06
SASWE Research Group member Nitin Katiyar is awarded the Ivanhoe Foundation Fellowship for 2006-2007
06/01/06
SASWE Research Group member Amanda Harris is selected to participate in a 4-week long summer camp at the Nanjing Hydraulic Institute, China (sponsored by NSF)