Wasatch Weather Weenies

Classes start at the University of Utah this coming Monday, August 24.  Campus is getting busier and energy levels are rising.  The start of a new school year is coming! I was on sabbatical last academic year and although I did teach for a full semester at the University of Innsbruck, it feels like higher ed has changed dramatically since the last time I taught at the U in spring 2025.  One reason for this is the rapid advancement of AI, including weather forecasting models and generative AI assistants like ChatGPT. My approach to teaching has been one that has brought new tech into the classroom.  The weather analysis and forecasting classes I teach today use tools and techniques that did not exist when I started as a professor and in some cases even a couple of years ago.   As we go into the new semester, I've been thinking a lot about how to utilize AI in the classroom but also how to ensure that students are using AI tools responsibly.  The lowest-...

Higher education is currently under siege and facing many challenges including declining public confidence and trust, funding cuts, and political interference.  Amongst the many questions being raised concerns whether university professors need to teach more, with greater prioritization of teaching over research.  When addressing this question, the public, politicians, and even professors and provosts often assume that research and teaching are mutually exclusive activities.  This stovepiped view of research and teaching has some conveniences, but the reality is that the best professors create a strong synergy between research and teaching to the benefit of students.   During my 30 years at the University of Utah, I have served as the lead or co-principal investigator on more than 30 external research grants, but have also won college and university teaching awards.  I am classified by my department as a "research intensive" faculty member, but I also care ...

Many years ago, after consulting with our atmospheric sciences students, we worked to offer as many of our classes for majors before mid afternoon and on a MW or TTh schedule.  Many of our students work off campus or are interested in outdoor recreation (or both) and wanted to have their classes scheduled in a way to allow them to attend school most efficiently.   So when University of Utah Provost Mitzi Montoya announced a few weeks ago that all departments would be asked to schedule no more than 50% of their classes between 9 AM and 2 PM, I knew it would not go over well with the students.   Indeed, this plan was met with overwhelming and near unanimous derision on social media.  Today, the Deseret News reported that over 6400 people have signed a petition asking for this decision to be overturned.  Source: Deseret News The 50% "rule" will apply starting in spring semester.  In Fall 2026, "scheduling expectations will also apply by day of the ...

Today was the ribbon cutting for the new L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building at the University of Utah.  Look closely for the oversized red scissors. The building is a game changer for Atmospheric Sciences and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah.  Both departments have been in old, decaying buildings for many years (with a few exceptions such as myself who was in a newer building but isolated from most of my colleagues).  We now have a gorgeous, state-of-the-art facility! A quick tour. The auditorium.  Looking forward to teaching or giving seminars here.   The (still-to-be-finished) computer lab where we will be teaching weather analysis and forecasting classes.   Meeting rooms remain important and I'm hoping to get squatting rights for occasional meetings in this one so I can stare at the views instead of the monitor.  The future home of Professor Powder.  Sadly, I will no longer be able to see the central Wasatch (I think ...

These are minor issues compared to what many are dealing with, but yesterday I received two e-mails that are reflective of the times.  In the first, I was notified that a proposal I submitted to a NOAA Weather Program Office competition was recommended for funding.  Normally this is good news, but this year, that news was accompanied with the caveat that they probably won't be able to find funding.   That would be a shame because we were planning on using deep learning to further advance the the techniques approaches we've been developing to improve snow density and snow amount forecasting.  Many of the products on weather.utah.edu and features on this blog use experimental versions of these techniques.  Without support, this line of research will probably whither in the coming months as our current grant winds down (and this assumes that funding is not frozen).  In the second, I was notified that I was eligible for the Voluntary Special Retirement Pro...

Whether it be the federal government, the state government, or the University of Utah, there is a lot of talk these days about "efficiency."  Google AI defines efficiency as "how well resources are used to produce desired outputs, often measured by the ratio of outputs to inputs."   One of the bills passed this last state legislative session, HB 265: Higher Education Strategic Reinvestment , requires a reallocation of $20 million to the University of Utah's base budget to move support from inefficient operations and programs to efficient ones.  Specifically, the U is to "develop a strategic reinvestment plan that: (i) identifies programs, courses, degrees, departments, colleges, or other divisions of the institution, operational efficiencies, and other components of the institution's instruction and administrative functions, including dean positions and other administration positions, that merit further investment; (ii) identifies programs, courses, deg...