Sage’s artificial intelligence-enabled sensors give scientists a new tool to understand our planet.

The August 2023 wildfire that devastated Lahaina, Hawaii, was spurred by dry conditions, high temperatures and strong winds. Researchers are monitoring the area to better understand the community’s recovery process and provide new air quality and weather data. This is part of a National Science Foundation project. The team includes researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Hawaii using a specialized artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled sensor designed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

The research team has deployed an instrument featuring ten sensors, called a Sage node, near Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii Island. It is part of a multi-hazard monitoring and detection station for natural disasters. The project is in collaboration with University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa professors Jason Leigh, Thomas Giambelluca and Han Tseng. Another node has been installed on Oahu and a third will be deployed in Lahaina on Maui. The nodes will use AI edge devices to process camera images to identify wildfire smoke within seconds. The sensors will also detect smoke in the air and the environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and wind speed, which are crucial for predicting and monitoring wildfires.

“The capabilities of machine learning and artificial intelligence at the edge didn’t exist a decade ago. Sage opens the door to scientists who will be able to write code that can measure a near limitless number of urban and environmental elements.” — Pete Beckman, co-director of NAISE 

Overall, the project will gather climate and pollutant data to aid clean-up activities in Lahaina and will provide data to guide recovery planning.

Computing at the edge

The Sage project launched in 2019 to create a new kind of national-scale reusable cyberinfrastructure to enable AI at the edge. Sage was led by the Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering (NAISE), a partnership between Northwestern University and Argonne.

ts multi-institutional team is led by Northwestern and includes the University of Chicago, George Mason University, the University of California San Diego, University of Illinois in Chicago, the University of Utah and collaborators at Argonne. Funding is provided by the National Science Foundation.

A Sage node is made up of a combination of sensors, such as cameras and microphones; computing components; and edge applications. Users can attach different sensors to the node based on their specific needs. The nodes are custom-built in the Chicago area. The edge applications interface with the sensors and the connected cloud infrastructure, much like an app on a smartphone. Sensors that capture elements, such as temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, rain accumulation, video and audio, have been affixed to Sage nodes across different projects.

All the components together are about three feet tall, two feet wide and one foot deep, weighing around 30 pounds. They can be attached to a pole or meteorological tower.

The Sage nodes move advanced machine learning algorithms to ​“the edge.” Edge computing brings data analysis close to where data is collected, making the process faster and more efficient.

Many of today’s distributed sensor systems that include cameras, microphones, and weather and air quality stations can struggle with large volumes of streaming data. These traditional systems often either save data on hard drives that are only accessed a few times a year or send small amounts of data to the cloud for analysis via slow connections. Sage’s AI capabilities at the edge allow for real-time analysis and response from researchers or the system itself.

“The capabilities of machine learning and artificial intelligence at the edge didn’t exist a decade ago,” said Pete Beckman, co-director of NAISE. ​“Sage opens the door to scientists who will be able to write code that can measure a near limitless number of urban and environmental elements.”

Fast and efficient analysis is best performed by an embedded computer connected directly to the sensor. By linking small, powerful computers (i.e., edge devices) directly to high-resolution cameras, air quality and weather sensors, and experimental Light Detection and Ranging systems, this distributed infrastructure enables researchers to analyze and respond to data almost instantly.

Sage builds on an open-source wireless sensor platform called Waggle. This platform was developed and funded by Argonne in 2013, becoming the lab’s first edge computing project. Functioning as the base platform that projects are built from, Waggle first supported the Array of Things, an urban measurement project that conducted real-time data on the city of Chicago. The Array of Things showed Waggle could be used in urban environments and eventually gave way to the Sage project.

Monitoring wildfires to bird calls

The Sage team has deployed more than 100 nodes across the United States. These sensor networks help understand the impacts of global urbanization, natural disasters and climate change on natural ecosystems and city infrastructure.

Sage’s code, data and hardware are open source, allowing researchers to build their own sensor networks or use Sage’s infrastructure.

Sage software can monitor wildfires, bird sounds, urban traffic and lightning strikes. For example, networking towers in Southern California and AlertWildfire stations in Oregon can analyze camera data for fires and other hazards, even redirecting cameras automatically to areas of interest.

Sage nodes are being deployed to study climate impacts in urban settings as part of the Argonne-led Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS) project in Chicago. Another node is located in Wisconsin with the Ojibwe tribe in efforts to help understand wild rice, a food source with important cultural significance. Sage’s AI-enabled sensors give scientists a new tool to understand our planet.

Sage team travel with students to Hawaii

Sage also aims to inspire young people — especially women and underrepresented populations — to pursue science, technology and mathematics careers. Sage provides a platform for students to explore measurement-based science questions related to the natural and built environments.

Undergraduate students from Northwestern University, University of Illinois and the University of Chicago traveled to Hawaii with the Sage team in October 2023 to build and install Sage nodes. The students participated in the instrument’s construction, data gathering, analysis and visualization work.

The students also met with Hawaiian scientists and learned about local customs. They met with Derek Esibill of Windward Community College who is working to restore the traditional ways of aquaculture to sustainably support the growing needs of Hawaii. While there is a Sage node already monitoring air quality and environmental data, the team discussed how remote sensors could help gather data on fish and pond water conditions.  

“Their insights helped me understand that computer science can directly help people through collaboration with other scientists and providing better data collection,” said Aldo Malaquias Cabrera, student at the University of Chicago. ​“I know now that lab work doesn’t have to stay just in the lab but can be used in real-life situations to help people, as long as there’s an understanding between the scientists and communities.”

Anagha Tiwari, a computer science and statistics student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, helped install a Sage node near Volcanoes National Park. Armed with hiking equipment and Sage sensor parts, the team mounted it to an 80-foot tower. It took over 10 hours to successfully install.

“It was truly a unique experience and taught me the value of collaboration among scientists and communities to reach goals,” said Tiwari. ​“I believe that the foundations for such a monumental and successful deployment are the relationships and collaborations Sage developed and nurtured with individuals and organizations in Hawaii.”

The installation includes equipment such as a rain gauge, weather sensors, a particulate matter sensor, a microphone and high-accuracy cameras for both visual and thermal imaging. It will collect data and analytics on air quality, pollution levels, cloud cover, solar irradiance levels and more. The information will be shared with local communities and with the National Park Service to assess the impact of wildfires, volcanic eruptions and biodiversity in the area.

“Sage sensors and edge computing act as vital segways where data collection benefits climate scientists and provides a unique insight into the Hawaiian culture and environment,” said Tiwari. ​“Through the beauty of teamwork and collaboration, science can be transformed into a catalyst for transformational feedback and change.”

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

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Particles scatter light, act as starting point for cloud formation and initiate or limit rainfall

January 25, 2024

Despite their tiny sizes, aerosols — such as sea salt, dust and ash — play a significant role in shaping weather and climate. These particles scatter light, act as the starting point for cloud formation and can even initiate or limit rainfall.

Now, a U.S. National Science Foundation-supported study published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics by scientists at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa reveals that the coastline can produce up to five times the concentration of giant sea salt aerosols compared to the open ocean and that coastal clouds may contain more of these particles — affecting cloud formation and rain around the Hawaiian Islands.

“Aerosol-cloud interactions and rainfall are among the biggest uncertainties in projections of future climate,” said Katherine Ackerman, lead author of the study. “Because freshwater is essential to the sustainability of life on the Hawaiian Islands, it is imperative to accurately predict where and how much it will rain as our climate changes.”

Alison Nugent, an atmospheric scientist and senior author of the study, and the team developed a lightweight and affordable 3D-printed instrument that measures aerosol size distributions rather than only aerosol concentration or mass, like many other sampling methods. They attached the device to kites, fishing rods and drones to sample how giant sea salt size distributions vary across different altitudes, locations from the coastline and a wide variety of environmental conditions.

“Regular in situ observation of clouds is difficult because of the effort involved with reaching them,” said Nugent. “So instead, much of our current research has focused on the giant sea salt particles that Hawaii’s clouds form on and understanding the specific mechanisms that influence how they are produced and where they are able to travel after production.”

Ackerman added that “we identified the coast as a major source of giant sea salt aerosols which is important in understanding how they impact our coastal clouds. Their large size means they fall out of the atmosphere a lot faster than other aerosol types, so identifying their production locations is important in quantifying their potential impacts on the local atmosphere.”

The researchers also found that wave heights were the biggest predictor of giant sea salt aerosol concentrations.

“This study uses a creative methodology to make unique measurements of coastal sea salt aerosols at different heights above the ocean surface,” said Nick Anderson, a program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences. “The resulting information about the influence of waves is relevant to predictions of clouds and precipitation in Hawaii and other coastal communities.”

Research areas

Directorate for Geosciences (GEO)

Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (GEO/AGS)

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During summer 2023, the student interns built a mobile application named RESHEIPT at the UH Laboratory of Applications in Informatics and Analytics. The students were each paid a $1,000 stipend for 48 hours of work at the computer lab.

Designed to gather expenses one receipt at a time, they created the app using ChatGPT under the guidance of Assistant Professor Mahdi Belcaid (Information and Computer Sciences, Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, Hawaiʻi Data Science Institute) and Akib Sadmanee, a research graduate assistant with Pacific Ocean Science and Technology.

Students used ChatGPT to complete tasks that would have traditionally required much more time from machine learning experts or programmers.

“The group wanted to include artificial intelligence in their computer studies, and the app delivers just that,” said CDS Assistant Specialist Lisa Galloway. “The app allows users to scan their receipts, providing them with an itemized overview of their transactions. AI comes in when users are processing and itemizing their receipts with ChatGPT.”

Watch a short video about how the RESHEIPT app works

They also learned how to use no-code platforms, including Amazon Web Services, to construct the features of the app, such as authentication and storage.

“This product highlights the impact of AI and specifically large language models on technology,” said Belcaid. “If high school students can develop such a complex application in just 40 hours—much of which was devoted to education rather than coding—imagine the technological possibilities that await us as ChatGPT and similar technologies continue to mature over the next two to three years.”

Read more at the COE website.

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He found that the use of a DXA scan, commonly used in hospitals and clinics to measure bone, muscle and fat, make it possible to collect data in larger populations, advancing the understanding of the role that fat plays in disease development.

“Using the recommendations from our review, we can inform researchers on how to improve the study of the different locations where fat is stored to better elucidate what is truly a ‘risky’ level for a person,” said Bennett, who will earn his PhD this spring. “This will undoubtedly improve screening and monitoring of cardiovascular disease risk in clinical practice.”

The ISCD is a professional association that aims to improve muscle and skeletal health assessment techniques to improve quality of resources for patient care.

The UH Cancer Center leads numerous studies that examine body fat, including Shape Up!, Cyanotoxins and Liver Cancer Development Study and the Healthy Diet and Lifestyle Study 2. To participate and learn more, visit the UH Cancer Center website.

– By UH News

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Over the course of a month, 12 students representing a number of schools including University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Kapiʻolani Community College (KCC), Leeward Community College (LCC), University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and University of Michigan, took part in the first ever CyberInfrastructure TRaining for Undergraduates in Summer (CITRUS) program. Funding for this program was granted through a $1 million National Science Foundation grant awarded to the University of Hawaiʻi Hawaiʻi Data Science Institute (HIDSI) to support cyberinfrastructure training for climate scientists and students.

The program resulted in over 199 hours of data training which averaged about 16 -17 hours for each student. This initiative was designed as a research experience for undergraduates (REU), immersing students into a lab setting. The program concluded with climate-focused research projects created by students using their newly honed cyberinfrastructure skills and abilities, including programing in python, data movement, data visualization, data wrangling, high performance computing and many more.  

Students’ final presentations included topics such as wave height predictive modeling, the impact of landfills on climate and the war in Ukraine’s impact on food security. All the presentations had real life applications and were researched, created and presented at the end of the program. Participants were mentored by Hawaiʻi Data Science Institute members and graduate fellows, which CITRUS program students said were great sources of knowledge in assisting them with their projects.

Undergraduate student Alyssa Chau from KCC, an 18-year-old from Taiwan who is planning on double majoring in sustainability and Pacific Island Studies, concentrated her research project on the correlations between flood hazard zones and vulnerable communities. She spoke about the risks of flooding that happens in Hawaiʻi and how that can affect and damage Hawaiian culture and traditional practices such as loʻi Kalo (taro) cultivation and fishpond maintenance. She concluded her presentation with a quote, reflective of Dr. Alex Stokes’ teaching, ”Data is storytelling”. Dr. Stokes is a UH Mānoa Assistant Professor and lead of the CITRUS program. 

Another student who presented was Joel Nicolow, a junior at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Public Health. His research presentation focused on using image recognition techniques  to detect fog on Oʻahu’s highest peak, Mount Kaʻala and its implications on future research. Monitoring fog frequency, elevation and associated atmospheric conditions such as temperature and relative humidity would facilitate future quantitative analysis and a better understanding of the impact of different variables.

Nicolow was awarded funding for his four cameras that are placed on Mount Kaʻala’s windward side from the Associated Student Government at University of Hawaiʻi (ASUH). As the highest point in Oʻahu, Mount Kaʻala was the perfect place for Nicolow’s fog research. Nicolow also mentioned in an interview that he would love to see less human interference with public coastlines in residential areas, expressing that seawalls should be built with more thought and to let the islands naturally erode as they would without human intrusion. 

UH Mānoa and LCC graduate, Steven Camara joined the CITRUS program with a more extensive background than some of his peers. His background included medical work with a specialization in Cyber security and defense for the U.S. Navy. Camara approached his research in the program slightly differently from other students, making it more of a personal capstone of the storytelling of data science in connection to the impacts of climate change. According to Camara, he walked away “trying to find a solution,” spurring connections outside of CITRUS and UH. Camara worked with colleagues from Dartmouth and Harvard to continue his interest in climate-geared data science. He claims data science is a “weapon” of knowledge, with CITRUS training him to bear it.

All participants in the CITRUS program showed immense gratitude for their mentors, Alex Stokes, Peter Sadowski, Guiseppe Torri, Yin Phan Tsang, Ryan Longman and Sukhwa Hong. Through this innovative, cross-institutional and multi-disciplinary program, students from across nine majors including Civil and Environmental Engineering, Business and Geography were able to collaborate and integrate data science tools to probe climate-centric questions. 

-By Lizzy Marine and Tori Miranda

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Teaching critical data science skills to a broad group of students is the focus of a University of Hawaiʻi project that just received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) and the Hawaiʻi Data Science Institute (HI–DSI) announced the award for the two-year project entitled “JADE-Justice-oriented Approaches to Data Science Education.”

“Data science skills are going to be critical for the jobs of the future. Whether that job is in healthcare, in finance or fighting climate change, data science will be a component of day-to-day employment, in the same way that word processing and spreadsheets became essential 30 years ago,” said Principal Investigator Alexander Stokes, JABSOM assistant professor of cell and molecular biology and affiliated faculty with HI–DSI. “This award focuses on developing these skills in the widest possible group of students, especially those who are not in traditional computer science undergraduate or graduate programs. This NSF-funded research will look at new teaching methods to engage a wide cross-section of students in data science training and research. We want to enrich their undergraduate or graduate experience, and arm them with skills and experiences that give them a competitive edge in tomorrow’s job market.”

HI–DSI Co-Director Gwen Jacobs said, “We are celebrating this award to Dr. Stokes, who is an excellent example of our ‘virtual institute’ model at HI–DSI, where we invite faculty from a broad range of scientific domains across UH to enrich their research and teaching with data science approaches. As a HI–DSI member, Alex started using advanced data science approaches to identify new or understudied therapeutic targets for heart and other diseases and then started exploring the integration of data science and analytics into teaching. This is a highly competitive award that reflects NSF investment both in a research program and an individual who is a future leader in STEM education and research.”

The JADE award will support research on data science pedagogy and directly links to Gov. David Ige’s Digital Economy vision and the NSF 10 Big Ideas focus area of “Harnessing the Data Revolution” to strengthen science, technology and the economy.

“A digital economy recognizes that data are everywhere,” Stokes said. “As a university, and a state, we need to make sure that the analysts, engineers, physicians, nurses, entrepreneurs, climate scientists, journalists, etc., that we are training, have the skills to enhance their field through data-driven decision making.”

Camaron Miyamoto, director of the LGBTQ+ Center at UH Mānoa, who supported the grant’s design and submission, said the award is also fundamentally about equity.

“Alex is looking at inclusive pedagogy in data science, not only for students outside traditional computer sciences, but importantly asking how we reach and include groups who have been historically excluded and marginalized in STEM.” Miyamoto said. “Alex believes that focusing students on social justice issues in their research projects and involving them in wrangling data that can be used to effect social change, will resonate with under-represented students including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning one’s sexual or gender identity, intersex and asexual/aromantic/agender) participants.”

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