Sampling forests with terrestrial laser scanning
Boucher, Peter B., Ian Paynter, David A. Orwig, Ilan Valencius, and Crystal Schaaf. (2021). "Sampling forests with terrestrial laster scanning" Annals of Botany. 128(6), 689-708
CV
Education
- Ph.D in Earth and Environmental Science, Boston College, 2025 (expected)
- B.S. in Geological Sciences and B.S. in Computer Science, Boston College, 2023
- Magna Cum Laude, Scholar of the College, \(\Phi B K\)
Work experience
- Independent Research (Boston College, May 2023 - August 2023)
- Worked with Prof. Mark Behn to convert SiStER, a 2D geodynamic stokes solver, from MATLAB to Julia in order to improve runtime performance and usability
- Available on GitHub: Julias-SiStER
- Scholar of the College Thesis (Boston College, May 2022 - May 2023)
- Investigating changes in suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) along large North American rivers. SSC measurements are interpolated from Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery harmonized with rating curve derived USGS in-situ SSC and discharge measurements.
- Funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center Coastal & Hydraulics Laboratory (ERDC CHL)
- Advisor: Prof. Noah Snyder
- Manuscript available at eScholarship@BC
- Teaching Assistant (Boston College, January 2022 - May 2023)
- SCHI2000: Spatial Data Science and Applications
- CS3333: Computer Graphics
- Academic Tutor (Boston College, August 2022 - December 2022)
- Academic tutor for both computer science and environmental science courses.
- Independent Research (Boston College, December 2021 - May 2022)
- Developed methods to perform semantic segmentation of grayscale/RGB aerial imagery using the convolutional neural networks. Methods were implemented in a Google Colab UI to allow those without computational expertise or resources to use machine learning methods.
- Available on GitHub: classification-4u
- Research Assistant (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, January 2021 - April 2022)
- Research assistant under Prof. Isak Ladegaard working on a National Science Foundation-funded research project on far-right/neo-nazi forums. Responsibilities included web scraping and natural language processing using the Google nGram corpus and word2vec package.
- Principal investigator: Prof. Isak Ladegaard
- IT Support (Boston College, August 2019 - May 2020)
- Responsibilities included debugging and overseeing the GET mobile ordering system as well as maintaining all electronic registers on campus.
- Research Assistant (University of Massachusetts Boston School for the Environment, June 2017 - August 2021)
- Worked Directly under Dr. Peter Boucher to analyze the effectiveness of Terrestrial LiDAR Scanners (TLS) in regards to forest analysis. Applications include measuring insect intrusion into Northeastern Hemlock forests; namely the Harvard Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) site in central Massachusetts. Participated in joint field campaign to assess the accuracy of various scanning methodologies.
- Worked directly under Assistant Research Professor Arthur Elmes. Used Random forest statistical modeling to produce classifications of the Harvard Forest ForestGEO plot using DESIS hyperspectral data.
Awards and Fellowships
- Jasse Walsh Fellow (Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Boston College, 2023-24)
- Phi Beta Kappa (\(\Phi B K\)) Inductee (The Phi Beta Kappa Society, 2023)
- Dean’s List First Honors (Boston College, 2020, 21, 22, 23)
- Sophomore Scholar (Boston College, 2021)
- Computer Science and Earth and Environmental Science Departments
Publications
Talks
Weekly river monitoring of rivers by Sentinel-2 and Planet Labs satellites reveals sub-seasonal patterns from the Tropics to the Arctic
Talk at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C.
Wind Uncertainty and Capacity Planning During the Energy Transition
Talk at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Sentinel-2 and Landsat Derived Suspended Sediment Concentrations and Applicability to Multi-Dammed River Systems
Talk at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, Mississippi
Sentinel-2 and Landsat Derived Suspended Sediment Concentrations and Applicability to Multi-Dammed River Systems
Talk at Boston College Earth and Environmental Science Department, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Research Posters
Valencius, I., Sweeney R., Ming. Y., Wind Uncertainty and Capacity Planning During the Energy Transition, AGU, American Geophysical Union, Washington D.C., December 9-13, 2024
Sheehan C., Behn M., Dahl T. A., Snyder N., Valencius, I., Cumulative Impacts of Multiple Dams on Watershed Sediment Dynamics: A Combined Approach Using Landscape Evolution and Delta Models, AGU, American Geophysical Union, Washington D.C., December 9-13, 2024
Valencius, I., Sweeney R., Ming. Y., Wind Uncertainty and Capacity Planning During the Energy Transition, Boston College EESC department ERDC poster Session, October 2024
Valencius I., Snyder N. P., Dethier E., Behn M. D., Sheehan C., Dahl T. A., (2022), Sentinel-2 and Landsat Derived Suspended Sediment Concentrations and Applicability to Multi-Dammed River Systems, AGU, American Geophysical Union, Chicago, December 12-16, 2022
Sheehan, C., Behn, M. D., Snyder N. P., Dahl, T. A., Hines, C., and Valencius, I., Modeling the Anthropogenic Effects on Landscape Evolution at a Watershed Scale Using Landlab: A Preliminary Example from the Chestatee River in Northern Georgia, USA, AGU, American Geophysical Union, Chicago, December 12-16, 2022 <!– Teaching ======
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Other Experiences and Interests
- Schiller Student Advisory Board (February 2024 - Present)
- The Schiller Student Advisory Board facilitates the organization of environmental, health, and energy programming at Boston College through the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.
- The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Global KM-scale Hackathon (May 12th - May 16th, 2025)
- Princeton University-Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory *From the Princeton node website: “The Princeton workshop will focus on simulations performed with GFDL’s X-SHiELD (eXperimental System for High-resolution prediction on Earth-to-Local Domains) model. This hackathon is part of the larger WCRP effort to push the boundaries of climate system modeling and digital innovation globally.”
- Rossbypalooza (July 22nd - August 2nd 2024)
- University of Chicago
- From the Rossbypalooza website: “Rossbypalooza is a two-week long project-oriented summer school for people from a broad field of atmospheric, oceanic and planetary sciences. The goal is to provide a platform for interactions among students and faculty to understand climate extremes, their impacts, and their connection to climate change from various perspectives including small-to-large-scale dynamics and data-driven methodologies. The school will consist of lectures and projects where participants will work in groups to address a question of their choice, mentored by one of the faculty members.”