said Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, OU vice president for research and partnerships. “Dr. McGovern and her collaborators’ work is a perfect representation of how the OU research enterprise moves beyond traditional boundaries, across disciplines and across institutional boundaries to create solutions. This multi-sector approach will accelerate transformative change in the development and use of trustworthy AI. It will improve the nation’s understanding of severe weather and ocean phenomena, save lives and property, and increase societal resilience to climate change.”

Using AI to Save Sea Turtles An undergraduate research assistant, Jennifer Williams, with the Conrad Blucher Institute at the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi holds a rescued sea turtle near Corpus Christi, TX.

“It doesn’t get cold very often in Corpus Christi, but at times, strong cold fronts can decrease the temperature of the water in bays and lagunas very quickly,” said Philippe Tissot, associate research professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, one of the institute’s partnering organizations. “Up to thousands of sea turtles can rise to the surface during these events, where ships can run over them.”

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi created a preliminary AI method predicting when these cold stunning events will take place. Because of this data, barge shipping companies have agreed to stop traffic ahead of the weather events so that volunteers, state and federal agencies can mobilize to save more than 80% of the sea turtles in that area.

McGovern said this is just one example of how AI can make an environmental impact. The long-term goal for the institute is to apply AI to a broad array of environmental challenges.

“This institute is a convergent center that will create trustworthy AI for environmental science, revolutionize prediction and understanding of high-impact weather and ocean hazards, and benefit society by protecting lives and property,” McGovern said. “Leading experts from AI, atmospheric and ocean science, risk communication, and education, will work synergistically to develop and test trustworthy AI methods that will transform our understanding and prediction of the environment.”

Developing Trustworthy AI

“The open-source collaboration within the institute will accelerate development of AI methods to create more accurate and actionable weather information for our business and consumer audiences,” said Kevin Petty from IBM’s The Weather Company. “Combining the expertise of academia, government and industry will close the gap from AI research to operations and help bring trusted value to those who need it to make better decisions, while helping to nurture the next generation of weather and AI researchers.

McGovern adds that environmental science provides an ideal