Emma Vail joins the GAEC Lab as a PhD Student

The GAEC lab is excited to welcome Emma Vail as its newest member.

Emma is joining the lab as a new graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in NC State’s Center for Geospatial Analytics. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Spatial Analysis at the University of North Georgia. Emma has worked as a teaching assistant for geospatial programming and remote sensing, as well as holding internships at the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) and the NASA DEVELOP program.

With ARLIS, she developed and implemented a remote sensing based machine learning algorithm with the goal of increasing maritime safety globally. At NASA DEVELOP’s Athens node, she worked with a team to map LULC changes and habitat fragmentation across three states, and map urban and suburban flood extent in underserved communities. Emma’s research interests include leveraging remote sensing to study flood risk assessment in diverse environments and wetland ecosystem analysis.

Outside of the lab, Emma happily works as a GIS software developer and is always looking for more insights into the overlap of remote sensing and development. She also enjoys hiking and kayaking in cooler weather, reading fantasy/action books, and playing relaxing sandbox-style video games. Additionally, she is passionate about animal care (especially rodents)!

The GAEC lab recently met for a lunch social and got to meet Emma. Everyone is excited to welcome her to the team.