Gulf States Center For Environmental Informatics

About Us

Dr. Mahdi Abdelguerfi
Director

Welcome to the Canizaro Livingston Gulf States Center for Environmental Informatics (GulfSCEI, pronounced “Gulf Sea”). We foster interdisciplinary collaboration within the University of New Orleans and between investigators across the Gulf of Mexico, and empower scientists and engineers with modern informatics tools to solve environmental problems of the coastal margin of the US Gulf States. We assist state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industrial partners to advance their educational, research, and development capabilities in environmental informatics. Questions and inquiries about GulfSCEI should be directed to: gulfsceidirector@uno.edu.

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Upcoming Seminars

GulfSCEI is proud to announce the return of our seminar series. A regular seminar will be hosted approximately once every three weeks in which a researcher has the opportunity to present their latest work. The seminars will be delivered in-person and remotely via Zoom.

• 

  Austin Schmidt
  Fixed-Location Forecasting with Ratio-Coupled Loss Functions

  
  

    Austin Schmidt

    Thu, April 3, 2025 @ 10:00 AM

    Math 303 & Via Zoom

  
  

  This seminar focuses on fixed-location forecasting of physical parameters collected by sensors, with a novel methodology for dynamically integrating multiple sources of training data. The forecasts of fixed locations with a generalized model aid in cases where data is missing or noisy due to... Read More

Latest News

• 

  New!
  Graz University of Technology M.S. student Christina Thrainer begins research visit at GulfSCEI

  
  Mar. 27, 2025: GulfSCEI is pleased to welcome a new Austrian international research collaborator from Graz University of Technology, Christina Thrainer. A master's student... Read More
• 
  Visiting Graz Technical University M.S. student Elias Sandner completes his visit to GulfSCEI

  
  Jul. 28, 2023: At GulfSCEI, we have the fortune to work with a wide variety of students and scholars of different backgrounds. Through July 2023, Graz Technical University Graduate... Read More
• 
  UNO researchers to use artificial intelligence to detect flood control deficiencies

  
  Mar. 10, 2023: Researchers at the University of New Orleans want to use artificial intelligence to evaluate and detect potential deficiencies in the United States’ floodwater... Read More
• 
  Computer Science Ph.D. candidate Manisha Panta lands position at Intuit

  
  Feb. 17, 2023: University of New Orleans student Manisha Panta, a doctoral candidate in computer science, has been offered a job at Intuit, the maker of the popular tax preparation... Read More

Active Grants

• Geospatial Intelligence and Pattern Discovery

  Abdelguerfi, M. (PI)

  Office of Naval Research (ONR) - Department of the Navy

  Award: $1,813,141 (N00173-19-S-BA01). Sep. 2020 — Aug. 2025

Our Research

The GulfSCEI center fosters interdisciplinary collaboration within UNO and facilitates close collaboration with non-academic institutions, such as state and federal agencies and industrial partners. Some of our latest research topics include:

Equipment & Capabilities

At GulfSCEI, we use cutting-edge technology to support our research and mission. We house multiple custom servers for data processing and analysis and numerous workstations. We also maintain and deploy drones with specialized optical technology and other sensors. Find out more about our ever-expanding equipment and capabilities with the button below.

Tour Our Capabilities

Recent Publications

• Panta, M., Hoque, T., Abdelguerfi, M., Flanagin, M., IterLUNet: Deep Learning Architecture for Pixel-Wise Crack Detection in Levee Systems, IEEE ACCESS, 2023, doi 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3241877.
• Pokhrel, P., Ioup, E., Hoque, T., Abdelguerfi, M., Simeonov, J., A Transformer- Based Regression Scheme for Forecasting Significant Wave Heights in Oceans, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 1010-1023, Oct. 2022, doi: 10.1109/JOE.2022.3173454
• Murphy, D., Ioup, E., Hoque, T., Abdelguerfi, M., Multi-Channel Residual Learning for Marine Mammal Classification, IEEE ACCESS, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3220735.
• Holmberg, E, Ioup, E., Abdelguerfi, M., A Stochastic Geo-Spatiotemporal Bipartite Network to Optimize GCOOS Sensor Placement Strategies, Second Workshop on Knowledge Graphs and Bid Data in Conjunction with 2022 IEEE Conference on Big Data, On Line Workshop, December 2022. [Full Paper]
• Kuchi, A., Panta, M., Hoque, T., Abdelguerfi, M., Flanagin, M., A Machine Learning Approach to Detecting Cracks in Levees and Floodwalls, Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, Elsevier, 2021.
• Pokhrel, P., Ioup, E., Hoque, M., Abdelguerfi, M., Simenov, J., Forecasting Rogue Waves in Oceanic Waters, IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), Seattle, Washing, December 2020.
• Rajendra, R., Michael, C., Ioup, E., Hoque, T., Abdelguerfi, M., Online Feature Selection for Semantic Segmentation, The 9th International Conference on Data Analytics, Nice - France, October 2020.
• Sharma, A., Hoque, T., Ioup, E., Abdelguerfi, M., Wind Forecasting from Airplane Data, 2020 International IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Conference, Hawaii, July 2020.

Gallery

Make a Gift

Please consider helping the GulfSCEI center by making your tax-deductible donation today. Use the link below to make your one-time or recurring gift. Make sure to select Gulf States Center For Environmental Informatics (GulfSCEI) in the options listed. Thank you!

Contact

The GulfSCEI center is located at The University of New Orleans. Inquiries should go to gulfsceidirector@uno.edu.