Our Team
Researchers and Support Staff
-
Caixia Wang: Co-I
University of Alaska
Associate Professor and Chair of Geomatics
Director: Surveying Laboratory of Geomatics
-
Kenrick Mock: Senior Personnel
University of Alaska
Dean and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
-
Jeremy Crowley
University of Montana
Associate Director Autonomous Aerial Systems Office
-
Bart Bauer: Tech/UAS Pilot
University of Montana
Associate Director Autonomous Aerial Systems Office
-
Patrick Doyle: UAS Pilot
University of Montana
UAS Pilot
-
Erika Hildner: Project Administrator
University of Montana
Program Coordinator: EPSCoR Track II Natural Resource Management Laboratory
-
Masoumeh Heidari
University of Alaska
Assistant Professor: Computer Science & Computer Systems Engineering
Students
-
Anthony Marcozzi
University of Montana Graduate Student
Anthony moved to Missoula in 2015 to start work as a wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service. He joined the Computer Science department in 2020 in order to pursue research related to the computational modeling of forest fires. After completing his Masters in the Spring of 2022, Anthony decided to pursue a PhD in Computer Science. His current research interests are the fire dynamics of prescribed burns, the effects of fuel heterogeneity on fire behavior, and representing fuel on the landscape via the FastFuels project. He is working with both our fire science and machine learning teams.
-
Andrew Coulson
University of Alaska Research Technician
Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, senior Andrew Coulson is simultaneously pursuing a B.S in Geomatics with a GIS concentration and working as a research technician for Caixia Wang, and the abandoned oil and gas wells section of our project. He previously earned a B.S. in biology and worked for six years as an environmental consultant.
-
Gus Kauffman
Intern: Fall 2022 & Spring 2023
Gus Kauffman from Laramie, Wyoming, is a senior in the geoscience department with interests in snow science and glaciology. He is working with Joel Harper as part of our snow research team.
-
Charles Werk
Intern: Fall 2022
Charles Werk is from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and is currently a senior studying Software Engineering with specific interests in web design, software design, and content creation. For our grant research he is working with Jesse Johnson and the Aerial Team.
-
Jackson Nakae
Intern: Fall 2022
Jackson Nakae is in his first semester of graduate school studying Data Science. He hails from Trout Lake, Washington and is completing his internship with Holtz Forestry, one of our industry partners.
-
Sebastian Coombs
Intern: Fall 2022
Sebastian Coombs is from Denver, Colorado. He's is a second year Masters student studying Data Science with interests in Geospatial Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. He's working with Javier Perez-Alvaro on the Machine Learning component of our research.
-
Jared Fossek
Intern: Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024
Born and raised near Pendleton, Oregon on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Jared just completed his junior year in Forestry with a minor in Fire Science and Management. He is working with Dr. Seielstad and our fire team combining his interests in wildfire and aviation to advance our research using remote sensing specific to fire analysis.
-
Jaret Kadlec
Intern: Spring 2023
Hailing from Herriman, Utah, Jaret is a senior studying Computational Physics. He is working with the University of Montana's UAAS team over the course of his internship.
-
Brianna Daniels
Intern: Summer 2003 & Fall 2003
Brianna is a senior majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. She was born and raised in the Missoula area and hopes to find a job close to home after graduation. She interned with one of our industry partners, Silvx Labs, over the summer of 2023 and is currently working with Jesse Johnson and Anthony Marcozzi in machine learning and fire science.
-
Carly Dahms
Intern: Summer 2003 & Fall 2003
Carly, a senior studying Management Information Systems and Environmental Studies, is from St.Paul Minnesota. She was recruited to run track and cross country for the University of Montana and now coaches both youth figure skating and hockey. After college she hopes to stay in Missoula to continue coaching and find a professional job working with drones. She completed a summer 2023 internship with Bart Bauer and Jeremy Crowley and will be joining our team again for the fall 2023 semester.
-
Alex Shepherd
Intern: Summer 2003 & Fall 2003
Alex Shepherd is from Stevensville, Montana. He is a first year Masters student studying Data Science with interests in Machine Learning and Recommender Systems. Alex is working with Javier Perez-Alvaro on the Machine Learning aspect of our research. In his free time, Alex enjoys hiking, painting, and tending to his bonsai trees.
-
Karl Schubauer
Intern: Summer 2003
Karl grew up in Anchorage, AK and just finished his first year studying Mechanical Engineering at UAA. He spent his internship working with Alaska DoT&PF learning about survey equipment and GIS/UAS operations. He loves math and science, and says "having no background in aviation or geomatics prior to the internship has opened my eyes to new career opportunities in the future."
-
Sebastian Reed
Intern: Summer 2003
Sebastian is from Anchorage, AK and is a Junior in Mechanical Engineering. His internship includes work on the abandoned oil well project with the AOGCC as well as the economics department at UAA. The goal is to eventually use drones to help find the more remote/overgrown abandoned wells in Alaska and test if they are leaking or hazardous. So far he's created maps of oil and gas well locations across the state, parsed location data, researched strategies other states have been using to P&A wells, and got his Part 107 drone pilot’s license. Sebastian plans to spend his summer backpacking and rock climbing around the state as well as run a couple half marathons in Anchorage.
-
Katherine Longuevan
Intern: Summer 2003
Katherine is originally from Northern California and after living in five different states she eventually landed in Alaska. She graduated with a B.A. in Economics from UAA in spring 2023 while also taking courses in Real Estate. Her internship is with economist Mike Jones and his research into abandoned oil and gas wells. She is researching, obtaining and building a dataframe with the list of all plugged and abandoned wells from the original operator to who owns and operates today using AI playground as well as other online databases. From there she is helping to create a survey in qualtrix.
This material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement OIA-2119689. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.