Our Work Is Local, but Our Impact Is Global

Spanning across a wide range of climatic regimes, Texas relies on water extracted from rivers and aquifers within its own borders. Climate change and population growth are adding unprecedented stress on Texas waters and other types of natural resources. Quantifying the nexus between natural resources, energy generation, and food production is critically important for sustainable regional planning. This need also echoes one of the primary pillars of PT2050—Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of water availability and other natural resources, in relation to energy production and urban demands. 

When hurricanes strike the coast of Texas, one of the more significant, but often overlooked, challenges is the logistics of patient evacuation.  The complex process of choosing staging areas, hospitals to receive patients, and the resources needed for transport are further complicated by the uncertainty of hurricane forecasting.

The widespread use of service robots has been predicted to be just around the corner for decades. This project seeks to overcome the prevailing technical and social hurdles to deploying these robots by building and studying them in communities where they will be used rather than just in laboratories and warehouses.

Preparing for floods and heat waves by designing new maps and tools that can be used by first responders, neighborhood associations, city governments, and planners.

Parenting in a pandemic presents unique challenges that may affect the physical, emotional and behavioral health of parents and children alike, and the academic progress of children. 

Pioneering new methods to explain and predict changes in ecosystems by monitoring wildlife, weather, soil, disease-carrying pathogens, and more to better understand the effects of climate change and human activity on nature and human health.

Advances in AI are shaping the future of work, but how can we ensure that employees, organizations, and society will benefit from the changes? Instead of automating tasks, which can reduce or eliminate the need for human workers, this project seeks to design smart hand tools that have embedded sensing and AI.

Reexamining the past to inspire a new vision of human resilience and effective response to the climate crisis.