Biosystems Analytics Lab

Nelson, Assistant Professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was a panelist on the Natural Hazards and Disasters Resilient Design Panel, and discussed the Biosystems Analytics Lab (of which she is lead PI) and the work the lab has been doing in relation to disaster resilience. The Biosystems Lab uses environmental agricultural data for systems management and predictive modeling of agricultural systems using machine learning approaches. Nelson highlighted some of the research graduate students are doing with the lab and emphasized how the lab uses environmental monitoring data to advance understanding of environmental systems and they respond to change. Research challenges the lab addresses includes establishing baselines; essentially how an environmental system behaved prior to a natural disaster; and utilizes proactive monitoring. Nelson concluded the presentation by identifying an opportunity to overcoming challenges to sufficient monitoring by using digital infrastructure and education for data literacy to expand monitoring within communities.