Dr Amy McGovern

Amy McGovern

 Lloyd G. and Joyce Austin Presidential Professor
 School of Meteorology
School of Computer Science
University of Oklahoma

NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography

I am the Director and PI for the NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography. Changes in weather patterns, oceans, sea level rise, and disaster risk amplify the need for accelerated AI research in the environmental sciences. AI2ES is a convergent, multi-sector NSF Trustworthy AI institute led by the University of Oklahoma that brings together researchers in AI, atmospheric science, ocean science, and risk communication to create novel trustworthy AI techniques that improve our ability to understand, predict, and communicate high-impact weather.

Research

My research focuses on developing and applying artificial intelligence and machine learning methods for real-world applications with a special interest in high-impact weather. Much of my current work focuses on weather analytics or physical data science, where my students and I are developing physics-based trustworthy AI methods as well as explainable AI. We apply these methods to high-impact weather phenomena including tornadoes, hail, severe wind events, flooding, drought, and aircraft turbulence.

To create a top science, technology, engineering, and mathmatics (STEM) workforce, we need a diverse and flexible workforce. Diversity will bring new ideas to the forefront and flexibility is required when technology changes rapidly. I’ve developed K-12 outreach projects to excite students about STEM careers and also actively work on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

My research lab is the Interaction, Discovery, Exploration and Adaptation (IDEA) lab.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science (May 2002), University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  • M.S. in Computer Science (1998), University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • B.S. (Honors) in Math and Computer Science (minor: Spanish, 1996), Carnegie Mellon University