Students Help Power Up New Ways to Analyze Energy Data

This story is part of the Climate Education Series

Led by , the at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability is applying new data science techniques to satellite imagery to detect and map energy resources. These novel approaches can yield critical data for decision making to support the global transition to sustainable energy.

Over the past eight years, Bradbury and colleagues have engaged students in this research via Duke鈥檚 during the school year and program (including the new ) during the summer. A continuous chain of sixteen project teams has helped test and refine promising approaches, each team building on the work of the last.

鈥淭hrough these projects, dozens of students from diverse degree programs have learned about machine learning, computer vision, and remote sensing techniques and also gained a better understanding of energy challenges and opportunities,鈥 said Bradbury, a faculty member at the Pratt School of Engineering and Nicholas School of the Environment. 鈥淭hey have advanced the lab鈥檚 work while deepening their own research, project management and communications skills. Many have been able to add published journal articles and data sets to their resumes.鈥

Find out what you can learn about energy infrastructure from a satellite image:

Series: Climate Education at Duke
A Climate Commitment Series

This series aligns with the , which unites the university鈥檚 education, research, operations and public service missions to address the climate crisis.