Surface Processes & Modelling Laboratory

About the Lab

The Surface Processes and Modelling Laboratory (SP&M Lab) is a state-of-the-art computational facility established in January 2025, located on the third floor of the Mining and Mineral Resources Building. Funded by the NSF EPSCoR 'Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction & Building Response Systems (CLIMBS)' award, our lab aims to advance Kentucky's climate resiliency through hazard assessment based on Kentucky-specific scientific research.

Hardware

• 5x workstations with: 14900KS CPU, 192 GB memory, 1x RTX 4080 Super GPU
• 2x Alienware with: 285K CPU, 64GB memory, 1x RTX 5080
• 1 modeling server with: 2 x 48-core Xeon, 2TB memory, 4 x RTX 4090 GPU

Workflows

• Brute force, Monte Carlo, & stochastic implementation of machine learning algorithms
• Canning custom scripts into GUI standalone programs
• Modeling 3D surfaces using satellite SAR data
• Processing drone-based LiDAR

The intent of the SP&M Lab is to combine and streamline complex workflows to develop integrated surface process models that will elucidate landscape evolution, hazard prediction & response under changing climate regimes, and associated risk to small rural communities.