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There has been growing interest in the application of smart technologies for hazard management. However, very limited studies have reviewed the trends of such technologies in the context of flash floods. This study reviews innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and robotics used for flash flood early warnings and susceptibility predictions. Articles published between 2010 and 2023 were manually collected from scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. Based on the review, AI/ML has been applied to flash flood susceptibility and early warning prediction in 64% of the published papers, followed by the IoT (19%), cloud computing (6%), and robotics (2%). Among the most common AI/ML methods used in susceptibility and early warning predictions are random forests and support vector machines. However, further optimization and emerging technologies, such as computer vision, are required to improve these technologies. AI/ML algorithms have demonstrated very accurate prediction performance, with receiver operating characteristics (ROC) and areas under the curve (AUC) greater than 0.90. However, there is a need to improve on these current models with large test datasets. Through AI/ML, IoT, and cloud computing technologies, early warnings can be disseminated to targeted communities in real time via electronic media, such as SMS and social media platforms. In spite of this, these systems have issues with internet connectivity, as well as data loss. Additionally, Al/ML used a number of topographical variables (such as slope), geological variables (such as lithology), and hydrological variables (such as stream density) to predict susceptibility, but the selection of these variables lacks a clear theoretical basis and has inconsistencies. To generate more reliable flood risk assessment maps, future studies should also consider sociodemographic, health, and housing data. Considering future climate change impacts, susceptibility or early warning studies may be projected under different climate change scenarios to help design long-term adaptation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the peculiarly linguistic approach that contemporary philosophers use to apply St. Thomas Aquinas's arguments on the immateriality of the human soul, this paper will present a Thomistic-inspired evaluation of whether artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) chatbots' composition and linguistic performance justify the assertion that AI/ML chatbots have immaterial souls. The first section of the paper will present a strong, but ultimately crucially flawed argument that AI/ML chatbots do have souls based on contemporary Thomistic argumentation. The second section of the paper will provide an overview of the actual computer science models that make artificial neural networks and AI/ML chatbots function, which I hope will assist other theologians and philosophers writing about technology, The third section will present some of Emily Bender's and Alexander Koller's objections to AI/ML chatbots being able to access meaning from computational linguistics. The final section will highlight the similarities of Bender's and Koller's argument to a fuller presentation of St. Thomas Aquinas's argument for the immateriality of the human soul, ultimately arguing that the current mechanisms and linguistic activity of AI/ML programming do not constitute activity sufficient to conclude that they have immaterial souls on the strength of St. Thomas's arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Earth system sciences are urgently calling for innovation on improving accuracy, enhancing model intelligence level, scaling up operation, and reducing costs in many subdomains amid the exponentially accumulated datasets and the promising artificial intelligence (AI) revolution in computer science. This paper presents work led by the NASA Earth Science Data Systems Working Groups and ESIP machine learning cluster to give a comprehensive overview of AI in Earth sciences. It holistically introduces the current status, technology, use cases, challenges, and opportunities, and provides all the levels of AI practitioners in geosciences with an overall big picture and to “blow away the fog to get a clearer vision” about the future development of Earth AI. The paper covers all the majorspheres in the Earth system and investigates representative AI research in each domain. Widely used AI algorithms and computing cyberinfrastructure are briefly introduced. The mandatory steps in a typical workflow of specializing AI to solve Earth scientific problems are decomposed and analyzed. Eventually, it concludes with the grand challenges and reveals the opportunities to give some guidance and pre-warnings on allocating resources wisely to achieve the ambitious Earth AI goals in the future.

There has been growing interest in the application of smart technologies for hazard management. However, very limited studies have reviewed the trends of such technologies in the context of flash floods. This study reviews innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and robotics used for flash flood early warnings and susceptibility predictions. Articles published between 2010 and 2023 were manually collected from scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. Based on the review, AI/ML has been applied to flash flood susceptibility and early warning prediction in 64% of the published papers, followed by the IoT (19%), cloud computing (6%), and robotics (2%). Among the most common AI/ML methods used in susceptibility and early warning predictions are random forests and support vector machines. However, further optimization and emerging technologies, such as computer vision, are required to improve these technologies. AI/ML algorithms have demonstrated very accurate prediction performance, with receiver operating characteristics (ROC) and areas under the curve (AUC) greater than 0.90. However, there is a need to improve on these current models with large test datasets. Through AI/ML, IoT, and cloud computing technologies, early warnings can be disseminated to targeted communities in real time via electronic media, such as SMS and social media platforms. In spite of this, these systems have issues with internet connectivity, as well as data loss. Additionally, Al/ML used a number of topographical variables (such as slope), geological variables (such as lithology), and hydrological variables (such as stream density) to predict susceptibility, but the selection of these variables lacks a clear theoretical basis and has inconsistencies. To generate more reliable flood risk assessment maps, future studies should also consider sociodemographic, health, and housing data. Considering future climate change impacts, susceptibility or early warning studies may be projected under different climate change scenarios to help design long-term adaptation strategies.

Many higher education institutions have responded to the significant shortage of professionals with strong analytical expertise by offering graduate programs in business analytics and data science. These programs are typically designed to be practitioner focused and many of them offer a Capstone course that gives students the opportunity to conduct a real‐world analytics project. In this article, we describe the innovative design of a Capstone course offered to cohorts of approximately 110 graduate students in the business school at the University of Texas, Austin. This course is designed to deliver self‐directed and experiential learning from interacting with business stakeholders and successfully completing team‐based, business analytics projects within a commercial firm using the firm's data. The course design includes student and sponsor engagement, the formation of diverse balanced project teams, matching of teams with projects, and scaffolding, which includes consistent structured mentoring, team reflections, interim deliverables and in‐class learning for practical skills not covered elsewhere in the curriculum. This course has now been offered successfully to two cohorts. In this article, we will also describe changes made for the second cohort related to team formation, project matching, mentoring and in‐class learning. These changes were based on feedback from the first cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]