2025 NOAA EDMW

Join this session to ask questions about the event or test any technical aspect such as screen sharing, going off mute, etc.  

Reach out to the EDMW Planning Team via edmw.planning.team@noaa.gov with any questions outside of this window.

Improving data readiness for AI research and development is a key focus of the NOAA Center for AI (NCAI). Although the concept of AI-ready data is appealing to data managers, data producers, and researchers, it is often challenging to get started with actionable activities towards improving AI-readiness of a dataset. NCAI is collaborating with NOAA’s AI Community of Practice and external partners (e.g., World Data System, UK Met Office Informatics Lab) to improve the AI-readiness of open environmental data through open hackathons and pilot projects. This hands-on approach enables participants to implement community guidelines developed by the ESIP Data Readiness Cluster in their own workflow and identify areas for future improvement.

This session will invite hackathon and pilot project participants to share their experiences and outcomes including failed attempts. The goal of the session is to showcase actionable steps to improve AI-readiness of existing datasets. NCAI will continue to host hackathon events in the future focusing on AI-ready data. The session will end with ways to stay engaged on future AI-ready activities and opportunities to partner with NCAI to host similar events focusing on specific use case areas.

Building from last year’s EDMW, this session provides numerous updates and real-world examples on the use of the new NCEI cloud archive ecosystem known as the Open Information Stewardship System (OISS.. OISS leverages the cloud and Knowledge Graphs to fundamentally change how we archive and steward data. Just as “the cloud” consists of networked IT infrastructure, and AI consists of networks of artificial neurons, OISS has been designed to network our environmental data, leading to an equitable future where everyone can explore the connections inherent in our data and discover previously unseen linkages and knowledge. Bringing together today’s developments in AI and cloud with the power of networked environmental data will unleash the full value of our vast and diverse data holdings. The session will include an overview of OISS, a demonstration of an OISS workflow, and updates on the development of tools within the OISS ecosystem.

Across NOAA, there are efforts underway to move data infrastructure to the cloud. These range from large-scale systems that cover the full data lifecycle, to smaller-scale solutions for data storage or public access. This session will be a forum to share success stories and lessons learned, but we especially want to discuss challenges and potential solutions. Presentations will focus on questions like: Have you implemented clever tiered storage solutions to reduce costs? Do you need advice on how to overcome a data security challenge? Do you want to share your elegant data dissemination solution that minimizes data egress? Attendees will come away with an understanding of the challenges in moving data systems to the cloud and some new technical solutions for managing cloud data.

The primary duties of the Assistant Chief Information Officers encompass the leadership of enterprise-wide Information Technology endeavors and initiatives, the support of the Department of Commerce and NOAA Office of the Chief Information Officer IT Portfolio Management Strategy to ensure the efficacy and efficiency of IT expenditures and programs, and the provision of oversight to Line Office IT Workforce Management Plans, including the recruitment of IT specialists. This session will serve as a forum for the NOAA community to engage with IT executives, share priorities and concerns, and bridge the communication gap between IT and science. Speakers include Malan Dalal (NESDIS), Nancy Majower (NMFS), Lemuel Thomas (NOS), Beckie Koonge (NWS), Trey Young (OMAO), and Jeremy Warren (OAR).

New human centered generative AI powered Chatbots and automation tools are emerging daily, proposing to provide tremendous value to the multitude of our diverse and complex expert data engineering, scientific discovery and user access development workflows. With modern AI natural language processing, understanding and generation techniques (e.g. retrieval augmented generation), these novel applications are showing great promise to streamline many of our human workflows. However, they are also emerging before trustworthy and responsible AI best practices have been researched sufficiently and benchmarked.

Through demonstrations and community discussion, this session will explore the state of the art in human natural language infused applications applied to NOAA’s environmental data and information services. This will include a range of explainable and trustworthy AI experiences and their implications on data integrity and information provenance assurance. We will intentionally focus on sharing successes and lessons learned including failures along the way.

Biodiversity observations provide critical data in support of many NOAA mission areas, such as fisheries management, monitoring National Marine Sanctuaries, and evaluating ecosystem health. 'Omics methods, which analyze biological molecules such as DNA, are increasingly being applied at NOAA to identify the organisms in a community, how they function, and how they might adapt to changing conditions. This session would feature presentations on best practices and data management tools to support making NOAA's biodiversity and 'omics data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). Attendees, whether they are data managers, program managers, or data providers, will come away with an improved understanding of the unique challenges and successful solutions for managing these distinct data streams.

Across NOAA, there are efforts underway to move data infrastructure to the cloud. These range from large-scale systems that cover the full data lifecycle, to smaller-scale solutions for data storage or public access. This session will be a forum to share success stories and lessons learned, but we especially want to discuss challenges and potential solutions. Presentations will focus on questions like: Have you implemented clever tiered storage solutions to reduce costs? Do you need advice on how to overcome a data security challenge? Do you want to share your elegant data dissemination solution that minimizes data egress? Attendees will come away with an understanding of the challenges in moving data systems to the cloud and some new technical solutions for managing cloud data.

Across NOAA, there are efforts underway to move data infrastructure to the cloud. These range from large-scale systems that cover the full data lifecycle, to smaller-scale solutions for data storage or public access. This session will be a forum to share success stories and lessons learned, but we especially want to discuss challenges and potential solutions. Presentations will focus on questions like: Have you implemented clever tiered storage solutions to reduce costs? Do you need advice on how to overcome a data security challenge? Do you want to share your elegant data dissemination solution that minimizes data egress? Attendees will come away with an understanding of the challenges in moving data systems to the cloud and some new technical solutions for managing cloud data.

NOAA's mission to understand and predict environmental changes and manage coastal and marine resources requires a diverse set of data science skills across its scientific, data management and developer workforce. As the data science landscape evolves rapidly, NOAA faces the critical challenge of continuously equipping its staff with relevant skills. This session invites presentations across NOAA to explore how different programs are responding to these needs through innovative upskilling, training strategies, inter-departmental collaborations or academic partnerships. Presenters are encouraged to share insights into building a workforce agile enough to adapt to rapid change, fostering partnerships with educational institutions, and developing training programs that maintain NOAA’s cutting-edge scientific capabilities.

We are particularly looking for talks and presentations that touch on data science workforce development and training activities in these areas: Transition to Cloud Infrastructure, Transition to Cloud-Native Data and Distributed Data Systems, New Data Access and Sharing Models, Statistical Analysis and Geospatial Analysis, Machine Learning and AI, Modeling and Simulation.