Featured Post from University of Florida

Studying glaciers . . . from Florida

May 9, 2023

3 min

Emma "Mickey" MacKie

By Emma Richards


On the surface, the University of Florida seems an unlikely place to find cutting-edge research on ice sheets.


But Emma “Mickey” MacKie says this is the perfect place for her work — thanks in large part to HiPerGator, one of the fastest supercomputers in higher education.


MacKie, an assistant professor of geological sciences and glaciologist, joined UF in August 2021 and said her decision hinged largely on access to HiPerGator and the university’s focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies. MacKie uses machine learning methods to study subsurface conditions of glaciers in polar regions and access to a powerful supercomputer is crucial given the large data sets her research generates.


“I'm very happy to be in a place with lots of people who are working on different types of problems and are interested in developing these different tools,” MacKie said. “There are a number of members of my department in geology who are studying glacial geology through different lenses. And so, there's all of this complementary geological and machine learning knowledge at UF that I'm very excited to bring together.”


MacKie has set up the Gator Glaciology Lab, where she and a team of seven undergraduate students from the fields of geology, computer science, physics, math and data science are using AI to analyze what lies beneath glaciers and how they are moving and melting.


“Our work is part of a bigger effort in the glaciology community to start working on quantifying our uncertainty in future sea-level rise projections so that we can give policy makers this information.”


It’s a very difficult challenge, MacKie said, because of limited access to polar regions and the miles-thick ice covering the ground. Then there is the scale of ice sheets; Antarctica, for example, is the size of U.S. and Mexico combined.


Measurements of the topography below such glaciers are gathered using radars mounted on airplanes to “see” through ice. Her team then uses HiPerGator to simulate realistic looking topography in places where there are gaps or blank spots in the measurements. They generate hundreds of maps to represent different possible ice sheet conditions, which could be used to determine numerous possible sea level rise scenarios.


“Our work is part of a bigger effort in the glaciology community to start working on quantifying our uncertainty in future sea-level rise projections so that we can give policy makers this information,” she said.


Earlier this spring, MacKie swapped out her flip-flops for snow boots to study subsurface glacial conditions in Svalbard, which is next to northeastern Greenland. Visiting Svalbard will help her test and develop data collection and analysis techniques that could be applied to Antarctica or Greenland, which both contain large ice sheets that could have serious environmental impacts if they experience significant melting.


In Svalbard, MacKie and Norwegian researchers from the University of Bergen and the University Centre in Svalbard took seismic and radar measurements of glaciers that will be used to make estimates about conditions beneath the ice.


Among glaciers of concern is the Thwaites “Doomsday Glacier,” which is losing the most ice of any glacier in Antarctica. There are signs showing Thwaites’ ice shelf could start to break in the next few years. MacKie said it will likely be a few hundred years before the glacier could undergo significant collapse and jeopardize the West Antarctica Ice Sheet, leading to several meters of sea level rise.


The effects of Thwaites and other ice sheet melts in Antarctica and Greenland will become apparent in decades to come, with the potential for a meter of sea level rise by the end of the century, which MacKie and other researchers hope to predict more accurately.


“The state of Florida has the most to lose when sea level rises,” she said in an episode of the From Florida podcast. “And so, I think we have a lot of skin in the game and it’s really important to be studying this question here in Florida.”


To hear more about MacKie’s work, listen to From Florida at this link.



Connect with:
Emma "Mickey" MacKie

Emma "Mickey" MacKie

Assistant Professor

Mickey MacKie uses geophysical observations and machine learning techniques to study the topography, geology and hydrology of glaciers.

Cryosphere ResearchGlaciologyTopography, geology and hydrology of GlaciersMachine LearningGlaciers

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from University of Florida

1 min

AI Can’t Replace Therapists – But It Can Help Them

For a young adult who is lonely or just needs someone to talk to, an artificial intelligence chatbot can feel like a nonjudgmental best friend, offering encouragement before an interview or consolation after a breakup. AI’s advice seems sincere, thoughtful and even empathic – in short, very human. But when a vulnerable person alludes to thoughts of suicide, AI is not the answer. Not by itself, at least. Recent stories have documented the heartbreak of people dying by suicide after seeking help from chatbots rather than fellow humans. In this way, the ethos of the digital world – sometimes characterized as “move fast and break things” – clashes with the health practitioners’ oath to “first, do no harm.” When humans are being harmed, things must change. As a researcher and licensed therapist with a background in computer science, I am interested in the intersection between technology and mental health, and I understand the technological foundations of AI. When I directed a counseling clinic, I sat with people in their most vulnerable moments. These experiences prompt me to consider the rise of therapy chatbots through both a technical and clinical lens. AI, no matter how advanced, lacks the morality, responsibility and duty of care that humans carry. When someone has suicidal thoughts, they need human professionals to help. With years of training before we are licensed, we have specific ethical protocols to follow when a person reveals thoughts of suicide. Read the full article from US News & World Report here

4 min

Violence alters human genomes for generations, researchers discover

In February of 1982, the Syrian government besieged the city of Hama, killing tens of thousands of its own citizens in sectarian violence. Four decades later, rebels used the memory of the massacre to help inspire the toppling of the Assad family that had overseen the operation. But there is another lasting effect of the attack, hidden deep in the genes of Syrian families. The grandchildren of women who were pregnant during the siege — grandchildren who never experienced such violence themselves — nonetheless bear marks of it in their genomes. Passed down through their mothers, this genetic imprint offers the first human evidence of a phenomenon previously documented only in animal models. The genetic transmission of stress across multiple generations. “The idea that trauma and violence can have repercussions into future generations should help people be more empathetic, help policymakers pay more attention to the problem of violence,” said Connie Mulligan, Ph.D., a professor of Anthropology and the Genetics Institute at the University of Florida and co-senior author of the new study. “It could even help explain some of the seemingly unbreakable intergenerational cycles of abuse and poverty and trauma that we see around the world, including in the U.S.” While our genes are not changed by life experiences, they can be tuned through a system known as epigenetics. In response to stress or other events, our cells can add small chemical flags to genes that may quiet them down or alter their behavior. These changes may help us adapt to stressful environments, although the effects aren’t well understood. It is these tell-tale chemical flags that Mulligan and her team were looking for in the genes of Syrian families. While lab experiments have shown that animals can pass along epigenetic signatures of stress to future generations, proving the same in people has been nearly impossible. “Resilience and perseverance is quite possibly a uniquely human trait.” —Connie Mulligan Mulligan worked with Rana Dajani, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at Hashemite University in Jordan and co-senior author, as well as anthropologist Catherine Panter-Brick, Ph.D., of Yale University, to conduct the unique study. Dajani envisioned the research project; because of her intimate knowledge of the Syrian population and its tragic history, she designed the study to cover three generations of Syrian refugees to Jordan. Some families had lived through the Hama attack before fleeing to Jordan. Other families avoided Hama, but lived through the recent civil war against the Assad regime. The team collected samples from grandmothers and mothers who were pregnant during the two conflicts, as well as from their children. This study design meant there were grandmothers, mothers and children who had each experienced violence at different stages of development. A third group of families had immigrated to Jordan before 1980, avoiding the decades of violence in Syria. These early immigrants served as a crucial control to compare to the families who had experienced the stress of civil war. Study coauthor Dima Hamadmad, a Syrian researcher and the daughter of refugees, led the search for families that met the study criteria and collected cheek swabs from 138 people across 48 families. "The participants took part in the research out of love for their children and concern for future generations,” she said. “But more than that, they wanted their stories of trauma to be heard and acknowledged.” Back in Florida, Mulligan’s lab scanned the DNA for epigenetic modifications and looked for any relationship with the families’ experience of violence. In the grandchildren of Hama survivors, the researchers discovered 14 areas in the genome that had been modified in response to the violence their grandmothers experienced. These 14 modifications demonstrate that stress-induced epigenetic changes may indeed appear in future generations in humans, just as they can in animals. The study also uncovered 21 epigenetic sites in the genomes of people who had directly experienced violence in Syria. In a third finding, the researchers reported that people exposed to violence while in their mothers’ wombs showed evidence of accelerated epigenetic aging, a type of biological aging that may be associated with susceptibility to age-related diseases. Most of these epigenetic changes showed the same pattern after exposure to violence, suggesting a kind of common epigenetic response to stress – one that can not only affect people directly exposed to stress, but also future generations. “We think our work is relevant to many forms of violence, not just refugees. Domestic violence, sexual violence, gun violence: all the different kinds of violence we have in the U.S,” said Mulligan. “We should study the effects of violence. We should take it more seriously.” It’s not clear what, if any, effect these epigenetic changes have in the lives of people carrying them inside their genomes. But some studies have found a link between stress-induced epigenetic changes and diseases like diabetes. One famous study of Dutch survivors of famine during World War II suggested that their offspring carried epigenetic changes that increased their odds of being overweight later in life. While many of these modifications likely have no effect, It’s possible that some have functional effects that can affect our health, Mulligan said. The researchers published their findings, which were supported by the National Science Foundation, Feb. 27 in the journal Scientific Reports. While carefully searching for evidence of the lasting effects of war and trauma stamped into our genomes, Mulligan and her collaborators were also struck by the perseverance of the families they worked with. Their story was much bigger than merely surviving war, Mulligan said. “In the midst of all this violence we can still celebrate their extraordinary resilience. They have persevered,” Mulligan said. “That resilience and perseverance is quite possibly a uniquely human trait.”

3 min

One AI-based advancement at a time, UF leaders are transforming the sports industry

As emerging technologies like AI reshape sport industries and professional demands evolve, it is essential for students to graduate with the expertise to thrive in their future careers. To ensure that these students are set up for success, the UF College of Health & Human Performance has launched a new sports analytics program. Led by Scott Nestler, Ph.D., CAP, PStat, a professor of practice in the Department of Sport Management and a national analytics and data science expert, the program ties back to the UF & Sport Collaborative – a five-part project intended to elevate UF’s presence on the global stage in sports performance, healthcare and communication. “Tools and insights that previously were only available to professional sports teams are now coming to the college level, and it makes sense for universities to begin using these data, technologies and new analytic methods,” Nestler said. The sports analytics program fosters collaboration between academic units, such as the Warrington College of Business and the University Athletic Association, helping bridge the gap between sport research and innovation and empowering students to address real-world challenges through data and AI. For example, the program offers opportunities to leverage technology and analytics for strategic decision making in player acquisition, team formation and in-game decisions. Beyond performance metrics, the program also explores marketing strategies and revenue analytics, providing a well-rounded understanding of the field. “When you have enough data and a large enough sample of individuals, AI can help make predictions that otherwise would take prohibitively longer for a human to accomplish with traditional methods,” said Garrett Beatty, Ph.D., the assistant dean for innovation and entrepreneurship and an instructional associate professor in the College of Health & Human Performance’s Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology. “Because those data volumes are getting so large, AI models, machine learning, deep learning and other strategies can be leveraged to make sense and glean insights from sport and human performance data in ways that have never been done before.” The program seeks to offer several educational opportunities, such as individual courses, certificate programs and potentially a full degree program. In the long term, Nestler envisions the program evolving into a center or institute, beginning with establishing a research lab in the spring. Additionally, the program will leverage the university’s supercomputer, HiPerGator, to analyze larger data sets and use newer predictive modeling machine learning algorithms. “As faculty and staff move from working with box score and play-by-play data to using tracking data, which contains coordinates of all players and the ball on the field or court tens of times per second, the size of data files in sports analytics has grown tremendously,” Nestler said. “HiPerGator, with its large storage capacity and multiple central processing units/graphic processing units, is ideal for using in sports analytics work in 2025.” Nestler also aims to increase student involvement by enhancing UF’s Sport Analytics Club and hiring research assistants to work on projects for the University Athletic Association. “We need to take a broader view of what AI is and realize that it incorporates a lot of what we’ve been calling data science and analytics in the form of machine learning models, which came more out of statistics and computer science. Those are types of AI and those that I think will largely continue to be used in the coming years within the sports space,” Nestler said. “Also, we’re continuing to see growth in the number of people interested in working in this space, and I don’t foresee that changing. Fortunately, we are also seeing the number of opportunities available to those with the appropriate skills increase as well.”

View all posts
Powered by