Two researchers in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering are winners of prestigious National Science Foundation early-career awards that celebrate emerging leaders in their fields.

Juyeong Choi, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Lichun Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, received Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, Awards and will receive a five-year grant from the NSF.

“We are extremely proud of the research these two faculty members have accomplished,” said Richard Liang, interim associate dean for research and graduate studies. “The NSF award allows researchers to grow and push boundaries and bring more student successes to the college and universities.”

Choi received the award for his work developing sustainable waste management practices in building demolition. He is leading a research team to investigate the impacts of decisions made by various stakeholders across a building’s lifecycle on material use, reuse and recycling. Choi plans to develop a holistic approach to maximize recyclable and reusable material yields by harvesting sustainable material during the demolition.

“I am humbled and honored to receive this award,” he said. “I am grateful to my family for their unwavering support and my colleagues at the department and the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center for their advice and encouragement.”

Li is investigating innovative methods to integrate artificial intelligence, control theory and game theory to provide efficient computation algorithms handled on a typical computer. The idea is to make it possible to fight intelligently and efficiently against cyberattacks and rapidly deploy resources in the latest ultra-dense computer networks.

“I am very thankful to have recognized and received the NSF grant,” Li said. “We will add the topic of video game development into a freshman course and provide early research opportunities to undergraduate students, especially female students. This will help support STEM initiatives as well.”

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The destructive winds and storm surges of hurricanes are well-known dangers. But these massive storms bring another peril in their aftermath — tons of debris that poses a health risk for residents and creates an additional challenge for recovery.

Fluctuating volumes of debris and illegal dumping complicate that challenge for officials seeking to hasten cleanup efforts and rebuild in the wake of hurricanes.

Juyeong Choi, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, will lead a $75,000 National Science Foundation-funded study examining debris collection and illegal dumping in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that hit southwestern Florida in 2022.

“Affected communities must use their own limited resources for debris removal before reimbursement by FEMA, so it is critical to accurately estimate and keep track of uncollected debris,” Choi said. “This problem is complicated with illegal dumping that occurs after a storm.”

Various tools exist to estimate the initial amount of debris a hurricane creates, but these approaches don’t update estimates as debris collection takes place. More granular information could help officials who need to know where to deploy resources for cleanup and disaster response. Choi and his team hope to develop a better understanding of how to make these estimates over time so that communities can more effectively manage their cleanup efforts.

Choi and other researchers at the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center and FSU’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program analyzed the areas affected by Hurricane Ian with drones and a 3-D LiDAR scanner to record how much debris was illegally dumped over time. Their study examines how the volume of dumped debris changed compared to the amount of debris collected by haulers.

This sort of ephemeral data changes over the course of a few days or weeks. By using aerial imagery and machine learning to quantify the rapidly changing volumes of debris, researchers hope to capture this information before it’s lost.

The researchers will also survey residents to understand the social and environmental impact of uncollected debris and different disposal methods.

“The data the team is collecting on illegal dumping will help us better understand how it occurs and inform preventative measures,” Choi said. “If we can associate regional social and economic factors with illegal dumping, we can predict this phenomenon, improve logistics planning and reimbursement for this work, and mitigate the impact of illegally dumped debris.”

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