Click here to listen to the BBC's story on our work.

Below are some photos from last Thursday's student presentations.

Anna Tompsett, Sustainable Development PhD student, explaining the
importance of mapping water availability in the Niger Inland Delta.
The River Niger flows from west to east for most of the length of West
Africa. Each year the river floods an area of tens of thousands of
square kilometres in a complex spatial pattern of channels and
islands, although the total flooded area varies from year to year. Land can
only be used for high yield crops during the flood season if there is water
access nearby.  With Dr. Chris Small of Columbia's Observatory,
Anna is in the process of analyzing satellite images and water flow records to
understand water availability.  The products under development will
eventually be available for use in  long-term or annual planning for
agriculture on a regional scale.

Hildigunnur and Jonathan describing how to increase a building's efficiency by storing excess heat generated in the winter months for conversion to energy in the summer months.

MBA student, Kevin Rehak, explaining how ChildCount works.

Applied Math PhD student, Selin Kocaman describing her work on the Network Planner, a mathematical modeling tool designed to help rural utility providers determine an optimal and cost effective path for connecting a scattered group of homes to a central-source utility like water or electricity. This is useful in determining the cheapest way to provide a village with electricity or deciding where to site a water pump.

Interdisciplinary Student Presentations hosted by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Earth Institute.
MODI RESEARCH GROUP
Thursday October 22, 12-2pm
Interschool Lab, 7th Floor, CEPSR

Spatial Tools for Resource Management and Service Delivery 
“An Integrated System for Infrastructure Planning and Optimization,” Sahil Shah, undergraduate student, Applied Physics & Applied Mathematics Department, SEAS, Ayse Selin Kocaman, graduate student, Earth & Environmental Engineering Department, SEAS and Roy Hyunjin Han, Energy & Data Analyst, Modi Research Group 
 
“The Flood in the Desert: Dealing with Spatial and Temporal Variation in Water Availability in a Data-Sparse Environment,” Anna Tompsett, graduate student, School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA)

“Urban Energy Efficiency,” Hildigunnur Jonsdottir, graduate student, Mechanical
Engineering Department, SEAS 

“Using Rapid SMS for Improved Health Services,” Kevin Rehak, graduate student,  Columbia Business School

Interventions/Adoption/Impact Assessments
 “Evaluation of Household Biomass Cookstove Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Jin Wang, undergraduate student, Applied Physics & Applied Mathematics Department, SEAS 

“Adoption & Cost-benefits of Agroforestry in Mali,” Frances Jeffrey-Coker, undergraduate student, Mechanical Engineering Department, SEAS 

“Irrigation in Gujarat, India,” Ram Fishman, graduate student, School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA)