Joanmarie Del Vecchio, assistant professor of geology at William & Mary, uses traditional field approaches and machine learning to map how the Arctic landscape is changing in response to rising global temperatures, according to a W&M News Q&A. She will present her research progress at the next Faculty Research Forum on Nov. 11 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Muscarelle Museum of Art’s Event Hall. Del Vecchio, a geomorphologist who studies “the science behind the scenery,” said her research addresses uncertainty about how much carbon will come out of thawing permafrost landscapes, noting that carbon stored in frozen soil can be released as greenhouse gases when permafrost thaws. She said one of her goals is to use the physics of landscapes and big data sets to understand how those landscapes are changing now so researchers can make better predictions for the next 10, 25, 100, and 1,000 years of change at the poles. She said her science often uses machine learning techniques, including “computer vision,” to train a computer to find things in satellite imagery.