Ecological Forecast Project sponsors inaugural Fest and Feast event

Last semester, Fralin Life Sciences affiliated faculty members Cayelan Carey, Quinn Thomas, and Leah Johnson organized the inaugural Ecological Forecasting Project’s Fall Forecasting Fest and Feast at the Hahn Garden. 

Forty faculty, postdocs, and students from across campus came together to celebrate environmental forecasting research and education at Virginia Tech. 

Eight faculty gave flash talks on their forecasting research (spanning forecasting databases used for disease prediction, new statistical methods for forecasting models, teaching modules for introducing ecological forecasting to undergraduates, and the economics of forecasting risk for disaster insurance).

The keynote speaker featured Natalie Nelson, principal investigator of the Biosystems Analytics Lab in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at NC State. She presented on the forecasting system her lab developed to predict several day-ahead shellfish contamination events along the southeastern United States coast.

The Ecological Forecasting Project is a collaborative of researchers (ecology and data sciences leaders) coming together with the common goal of advancing ecological forecasting research and training across campus, with the following mission:

• Create reliable environmental forecasts and visualizations that are co-developed with users; guide decision-making to improve human well-being; and advance our understanding of ecosystems;
• Develop software and tools that are broadly used to forecast ecological processes, such as water quality, forecast production, vector-borne disease, and more; and
• Train the next generation of ecological forecasters.