Julia Gersey receives DOE Fellowship supporting research to improve urban life

Julia Gersey, doctoral student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, received a Computational  Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF) from the Department of Energy (DOE) to support research that aims to improve the overall welfare of urban populations by addressing the problem of homelessness.

“Homelessness has been at a record-high,” said Gersey. “Reducing its duration can not only improve the lives of those affected but also lower crime, reduce intervention costs, and enhance overall community well-being.”

“Addressing these issues requires an efficient, large-scale solution to monitor urban conditions and respond to rapid changes.”

Gersey is developing a method to replace the slow and limited monitoring methods such as citizen reporting and manual inspections with advanced data processing techniques enabled by high-performance computing.

“By deploying mobile sensor units throughout cities, we can collect vast amounts of data on air quality, cleanliness, infrastructure, and environmental hazards, which can then be processed efficiently to generate actionable insights,” explained Gersey. “My research aims to create smarter, safer cities while offering a scalable, automated solution to reducing homelessness, improving the quality of life for all residents.”

Gersey is employing computer vision and machine learning techniques for data analysis, and has recognized the need for a 100x increase in computational power, of which high performance computing can provide, in order to scale the work. The mobile sensing system employed by Gersey integrates cameras, GPS, accelerometers, and a variety of environmental sensors; the added computational power would enable a much finer-grained analysis of urban features.

“For example,” said Gersey, “odor localization could be achieved by fusing sensor data with vehicle speed and airflow dynamics, or multi-spectral imaging could be added for even richer insights into road conditions, structural health, and air quality. With this increased power, complex analyses like 3D mapping and detailed environmental monitoring could be done on a much larger scale.”

Gersey received her bachelor’s degree from Baldwin Wallace University, with a major in Computer Science & Applied Mathematics. She is completing her first year of studies as a graduate student at Michigan, and is advised by Prof. Pei Zhang.

The DOE CSGF supports research that uses high-performance computing to solve complex science and engineering problems. Recipients of this award are provided the opportunity to gain practical experience at a DOE laboratory.