• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Microsoft wants cloud computing to reshape natural disaster modeling, but challenges remain

September 22, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

Weather forecasting is a notoriously challenging field, but it’s an endeavor that is becoming ever more vital to the daily functioning of our planet. Climate change is intensifying the scale and devastation of natural disasters, from wildfires and typhoons to floods and cyclones. Knowing precisely when and where a disaster strikes (or, even, just getting a few hours advanced notice) can drastically change the outcome for the populations affected.

In this field, Microsoft sees both an opportunity to do good as well as a lucrative niche to secure for its cloud computing service Azure. Through its AI for Earth program, which we last covered during its launch in 2017, the company has compiled a series of offerings into what it dubs a “planetary computer.” Those offerings include APIs for identifying objects as well as species of plants and animals. AI for Earth offers grants for scientists and others to use Azure in their own research and modeling. The program joins other Microsoft cloud initiatives such as AI for Health and AI for Accessibility.

Microsoft launches AI for Earth to give $2M in services to environmental projects

I’ve been focusing on all aspects of the disaster response stack the past few months, so I was curious how the so-called planetary computer was performing and where the barriers are to better modeling of natural disasters. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño, program director of the project, told me that the ambitions of the project remain as strong as ever.

“The goal is to have a planetary computer to help everyone manage earth’s ecosystems, since that is the only way to be efficient when disaster happens,” he said. While the program is focused on “reduction, response and recovery,” it is the response stage which gets most interesting since decisions have to be made as quickly as possible.

Sánchez-Andrade Nuño noted that AI has advanced tremendously fast over the past couple of years, particularly in domains relevant to the environment. “AI doesn’t need as much data as a lot of people think,” he said. “There has been a lot of progress with retraining algorithms … [and] we do a lot of work to onboard people to understand AI and how you can build an extremely efficient deep learning [model].”

One big challenge for applying AI to earth systems is simply the number of disciplines required to congregate in order for modeling to be successful. However, many disciplines remain aloof from each other, and no gap is wider than between scientists and AI researchers. Sánchez-Andrade Nuño sees an opportunity for the program to continually engage all sides into combatting some of the toughest challenges facing the planet.

There are “different dynamics because of different incentives — in the science community there is an incentive to create more knowledge, [but] for the modelers, [they want to] create good answers quickly,” he explained. “How can you make decisions quickly under uncertainty?”

One way of bridging that gap is through what he dubbed “upskilling,” or offering more AI training to scientists. “It’s all part of the same strategy … of helping people do environmental analytics faster and better,” he said. Nowhere is that harder than around geospatial analytics. “Computers are really good at one dimensional … they are not very good with things that are near each other.” He noted that he had originally trained in astrophysics, but upskilled himself in GIS (geographic information systems).

The effort involved in upskilling advanced AI skills has declined as libraries have expanded and common AI models are both well-behaved and also have prodigious educational materials available to understand them. “You used to need a PhD, and today, you need 10 lines of code,” he said.

That increasing power though is leading folks to believe that AI can solve every planetary problem. It cannot, or if you’re optimistic, cannot yet. “We are trying to reduce the hype of AI,” he said. “If you don’t know what AI is, you won’t trust what it is.” The program has been emphasizing explainability in a lot of its initiatives, so that scientists and AI researchers together can understand the outputs that come out of models.

That mission is increasingly aligned with relevant government agencies. Recently, the AI for Earth program signed a partnership with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center to improve the agency’s coastal monitoring system.

Ultimately, there is increasing maturity in a lot of modeling even if there is more work to be done. “Right now, I would argue, we are still in the mezzanine phase,” Sánchez-Andrade Nuño said. “A lot of processes need a lot of ad-hoc processing than we should.” The good news is that more and more people are stepping into the field and trying to connect the dots, and in the process, improve the world’s disaster response capabilities.

The human-focused startups of the hellfire

Source Link Microsoft wants cloud computing to reshape natural disaster modeling, but challenges remain

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Soccer-Ellis to lead advisory group on future of women’s game
  2. Soccer-Mexico beat Costa Rica 1-0 in World Cup qualifier
  3. Republican congressman who voted to impeach Trump won’t seek re-election
  4. Hyundai Heavy Industries shares jump above IPO price on debut

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • The World’s Oldest Wild Bird “Surprised” Everyone With A Hatched Chick At 74
  • “Spectacular” New Species Of 40cm Giant Stick Insect May Be Australia’s New Heaviest Insect
  • What Is “Nobel Disease”, And Why Do So Many Prizewinners Go On To Develop It?
  • New Human “Mini-Brains” Combine Cells From The Whole Brain – Even The Blood Vessels
  • Aging NASA Spacecraft Could Intercept The Interstellar Comet On The Other Side Of The Sun, Astronomers Suggest
  • The Deepest Complex Ecosystem Ever Discovered Has Been Found 9,000 Meters Below The Sea
  • Drone Footage Shows Synchronized Moves By Killer Whale Pairs Are More Effective Than Hunting Alone
  • For The First Time, A Quantum Computer Has Been Sent Into Space
  • A Vast Ocean Of Water May Be Trapped In The Transition Zone Beneath Our Feet
  • Beneath Antarctica’s Sea Ice, Leopard Seals Sing Nursery Rhymes In Search Of Love
  • Double-Slit Experiment Performed With Single Atoms Shows Einstein Was Wrong
  • Forecasting Tomorrow: How Science Fiction Is Helping Scientists Explore Possible Futures
  • Siberian Mummy’s 2,000-Year-Old Tattoos Reveal The History Of Ancient Art
  • Humans Were Buzzing On Psychoactive Betel Nuts 4,000 Years Ago
  • Megaflash Stretching 892 Kilometers Sets New World Record For Longest Lightning Strike
  • Your Organs Don’t All Age At The Same Rate. One Is Growing Old Much Quicker Than Others
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: How Has The Internet Changed The Way We Use Language?
  • One Of The Most Dangerous Volcanoes Is Home To The World’s Largest Lava Lake
  • What Astrobiology Might Tell Us About What Aliens May Look Like
  • Voyager: An Inside Look At NASA’s Longest-Running Mission With Someone There From The Start
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version