Shahryar K. Ahmad

About

About Me

I am a PhD candidate and Graduate Research Assistant in the SASWE Research Group at University of Washington, Seattle.

My research revolves around the interface between energy and water resources. Ensuring the sustainability of our energy systems through smart use of water resources has been the overarching objective of my research.
In particular, I aim for a three-step process ('AIM') to mainstream sustainable energy generation:

  1. A nalyse the interaction of energy-water resources,
  2. I mprove the efficiency of energy systems making them more resilient, and
  3. M inimize the detrimental impacts of those operations on our environment.

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Latest Highlights

Latest Highlights

Resume

Resume

Education

2018-Present

PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Washington, Seattle

Dissertation: Weather Forecast-Informed Eco-safe Hydropower

2016-2017

Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Washington, Seattle

Thesis: Investigating the value of weather forecasts from numerical models for hydropower optimization in small to medium storage dams

2012-2016

Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Experience

2016-Present

Graduate Research Assistant

SASWE Research Group, University of Washington

Managing and development of fully automated operational monitoring systems for water, energy and food nexus across multiple basins and reservoirs around the world

2020

Graduate Student Intern

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Development of a robust machine learning algorithm to classify flooded and permanent waters from realtime microwave remote sensing products

2017

Student Intern

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

An interactive state-of-the-art web based framework, LIS Atlas, to visualize Land Information System (LIS)-generated model output from multiple model domains and configurations at different timescales

2015

MITACS Globalink Research Intern

Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

Application of radiative transfer model for satellite-derived bathymetry with case study of Canadian waters

2014

Summer Research Intern

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Analysing response of axisymmetric foundations subjected to axial loads

Awards

2020

NASA Space Apps Challenge Best Use of Data

NASA Space Apps Challenge Seattle

Led the team C-attle Footprint to develop a cloud computing-based green house gas monitoring and assessment application.

2018

Grow with Google Challenge Scholarship

Udacity/Google
2017

Washington State American Water Resources Association (AWRA) Student Fellowship

American Water Resources Association
2017

Ivanhoe Foundation Fellowship

The Ivanhoe Foundation (United States)
2015

Mitacs Globalink Graduate Fellowship

Mitacs (Canada)
2014,2015

Academic Excellence Award

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur
2016

Nominee for Commonwealth Scholarships, UK

Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)

Research

Research

Imagine a world powered with energy generated from clean and sustainable sources, a world where we don't have to worry about harming the environment or drastically changing the climate.
It is my firm believe that access to clean energy using the available resources is very much attainable and that is the vision I work towards.


Research Areas

Clean Energy Research

Water Resources Management

Satellite Remote Sensing

Citizen Science

Bridging Research-Application Gap (BRAG)

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Research Metrics

Research Metrics


0 Peer-reviewed Publications
0 Posters and Oral Presentations
19.5 ResearchGate Score
0 Journal Reviews

Collaborators from


UW
NASA GSFC
UNC
MIT
BWDB
IITK

Publications

Publications

Peer-reviewed

  1. Jameel, Y., Stahl, M., Ahmad, S.K., Kumar, A., Perrier, G. (2020). India needs an effective flood policy. Science 369(6511), pp. 1575.
  2. Ahmad, S.K., F. Hossain, T. Pavelsky, G. Parkins, S. Yelton, M. Rodgers, S. Basile, S. Ghafoor, D. Haldar, R. Khan, N. Shawn, A. Haque and R. Biswas (2020). Estimating Volumetric Water Storage in Seasonal and Transboundary Runoff-Dominated Wetlands Using Citizen Science and Satellite Remote Sensing Data, Water Resources Research
  3. Beveridge, C., Hossain, F., Biswas, R.K., Haque, A.A., Ahmad, S.K., Biswas, N.K., Hossain, M.A. and Bhuyan, M.A., 2020. Stakeholder-driven development of a cloud-based, satellite remote sensing tool to monitor suspended sediment concentrations in major Bangladesh rivers. Environmental Modelling and Software, p.104843. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104843
  4. Ahmad, S.K., and Hossain, F., 2020. Realizing ecosystem-safe hydropower from dams. Renewables: Wind, Water, and Solar, 7(1), pp.1-23. DOI: 10.1186/ s40807-020-00060-9
  5. Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F. (2020). Forecast-Informed Hydropower Optimization at Long and Short-time scales for a Multiple Dam Network. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy 12. DOI: 10.1063/1.5124097
  6. Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F. (2020). Maximizing Energy Production from Hydropower Dams using Short-Term Weather Forecasts. Renewable Energy 146, pp.1560-1577. DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.07.126
  7. Daly, K., Hossain, F., Ahmad, S.K., Bonnema, M., Beveridge, C. Nijssen, B., Holtgrieve, G. (2020). Recent Warming of the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia: Implications for one of the World’s Most Productive Inland Fisheries. Lakes and Reservoirs.
  8. Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F. (2019). A generic data-driven technique for forecasting of reservoir inflow: Application for hydropower maximization. Environ. Model. Softw 119, pp.145-167. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.06.008
  9. Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F. (2019). A Web-Based Decision Support System for Smart Dam Operations Using Weather Forecasts. Journal of Hydroinformatics 21(5), pp.687-707. DOI: 10.2166/hydro.2019.116
  10. Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F., Eldardiry, H., Pavelsky, T. (2019). A Fusion Approach for Water Area Classification using Visible, Near Infrared and Synthetic Aperture Radar for South Asian Conditions, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, pp.1-10. DOI: 10.1109/tgrs.2019.2950705
  11. Ahmad, S.K., Bonnema, M., Hossain, F. (2020). Generating more hydropower with less dams and better ecosystem outcomes: is it possible? International Water Power and Dam Construction Magazine, January 2020 issue, pp. 38-40.
  12. Hossain, F., Bonnema, M., Biswas, N., Ahmad, S.K., Duong, B., Luong, N. (2018). When Floods Cross Borders, Satellite Data Can Help. EOS (AGU) Feb 16, 2019.
  13. Sikder, S., Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F., Gebregiorgis, A., Lee, H. (2019). Case Study: A Rapid Urban Inundation Forecasting Technique Based on Quantitative Precipitation Forecast for Houston and Harris County Flood Control District. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 24(8), p.05019017.
  14. Eythorsson, D., Gardarsson, S.M., Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F., Nijssen, B. (2019). Arctic Climate and Snow Cover Trends – Comparing Global Circulation Models with Remote Sensing Observations. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 80, pp.71-81.
  15. Hossain, F., Harsha, K.S., Goyal, S., Ahmad, S.K., Lohani, B., Balaji, N., Tripathi, S. (2020). Towards Affordable and Sustainable Water-Smart Irrigation Services. AWRA Impact Jan 2020 issue
  16. Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F. (2018). Generating More Hydropower Using Weather Forecasts. AWRA Impact May 2018 issue.
  17. Knudby, A., Ahmad, S.K., Ilori C. (2016). The potential for Landsat-based bathymetry in Canada. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 42(4), pp.367-378.

In-review

  1. Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F., Holt, G., Galleli, S., Pavelsky, T. (2020) How will Future Dams Modify Temperature of Rivers around the World? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  2. Bose, I, Hossain, F., Eldardiry, H., Ahmad, S.K., Biswas, N.K., Lee, H., Aziz, M., and Kamal, M.S. (2020) Integrating Gravimetry Data with Thermal Infra-red Data from Satellites to Improve Efficiency of Operational Irrigation Advisory in South Asia, Water Resources Research
  3. Eythorsson, D., Gardarsson, S.M., Ahmad, S.K., Sveinsson, O.G. (2019). Climate change and snow cover trends in Iceland, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss.. DOI: 10.5194/hess-2019-564

Posters/Oral Presentations

  1. Ahmad, S.K., F. Hossain. (Dec 2019). Maximizing hydropower production with smart multi-dam operations using long and short-term forecasts. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. Dec 2019.
  2. Eythorsson, D., Gardarsson, S.M., Ahmad, S.K., Hossain, F., Nijssen, B. (Dec 2019). Arctic Climate and Snow Cover Trends – Comparing Global Circulation Models with Remote Sensing Observations. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. Dec 2019.
  3. Ahmad, S.K., F. Hossain. (Dec 2018). Computationally Efficient Daily Streamflow Forecasting for Hydropower Maximization Using Artificial Neural Networks. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. Dec 2018.
  4. Knudby A., Roy D., Ahmad, S.K., Bird S., Ilori C., 2016. Satellite-derived bathymetry for Canada, Canadian Hydrographic Conference, May 16-19, 2016, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
  5. Ahmad, S.K., Srinivasan V., Ghosh P., 2014a. Analysis of annular footings and anchors lying on elastic soil medium using finite difference technique.5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS) 2014, India.
  6. Ahmad, S.K., Srinivasan V., Ghosh P., 2014b. Analysis of axisymmetric foundations subjected to axial compressive or tensile static loads on Gibson soil model. Indian Geotechnical Conference (IGC) 2014, India.

Invited Talks

  1. Ecosystem-Safe Hydropower in a Challenging Climate
    MIT Energy Nights (Oct 2020)
  2. Remote Sensing of River Temperatures
    Sensing Rivers Workshop, University of Washington (Sep 2020)
  3. Energy from AI: Ushering in a New Frontier in Smart Hydropower Generation through Artificial Intelligence
    Lightning Talk, Second AI and Data Science Workshop to be hosted by JPL (Feb 2021)
  4. Reservoir Operations for Maximizing Hydropower Benefits
    Guest Lecture in Quantitative Water Resources Management class, University of Washington (Winter 2018)
  5. Using Weather Forecasts to Inform Hydropower Operations
    Lightning Talk, Freshwater Initiative Mixer, University of Washington (Winter 2017)

Services

Services

Peer Reviews for International Scientific Journals

Teaching

Training and Mentoring

Leadership

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Outreach

Outreach

News Articles

The future of farming

Aug 08, 2018 UW News 3

From cucumbers to sunflowers to rice, farmers in India grow an assortment of crops. While variety can be a good thing, many farmers struggle with knowing how much water their crops require. Read more...

Can you generate more hydro with less dams?

Mar 30, 2020 Water Power and Dam Construction 3

Hydropower generation facilities have a unique and complementary role to play in the portfolio of other renewable energy options such as wind, solar and tidal energy. Read more...

When Floods Cross Borders, Satellite Data Can Help

Feb 15, 2019 EOS 3

On 23 July 2018, a dam in southernmost Laos collapsed, and the resultant flood left more than 6,000 people homeless. Read more...

Generating More Hydropower Using Weather Forecasts

May, 2018 AWRA IMPACT 3

The operation of almost all hydropower dams in the United States is guided by water control manuals that were developed when the dams were constructed. Read more...

Towards Affordable and Sustainable Water-Smart Irrigation Services

Jan, 2020 AWRA IMPACT 3

There is a common perception in the agriculture sector that solutions for irrigation water management based on new technology that claim to be smart and precise are expensive. Read more...

Science through Film-making


The promotional film for the interdisciplinary research of SASWE (SAtellites, Sustainability and Water) Research Group was created with the motive of spreading the science to the masses in a language that everyone understands. The film won the Public Messaging and Engagement Award at the 2nd UW Student Film Contest.


Stakeholder Engagement



US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

2017

USACE was consulted for the development of Intelligent Dam Decisions and Assessment (iDDEA) system currently running for Detroit dam for potential use in the operational decision-making

Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB)

2020

Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) provided close technical support for developing a real-time flash flood forecasting system for the haor region of Bangladesh. The agency has been actively using the system for flood management in the region.

“The important thing is to never stop questioning [or learning].”
– Albert Einstein

Get in Touch

Contact

Contact Me

Address

173 Wilcox Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

Email Address

skahmad@uw.edu