Predicting the Future: LSU Graduate’s AI-Powered Path to Solving Problems and Improving Lives
July 15, 2024
Growing up in Montana, LSU graduate Dylan Wichman is familiar with wildfires. But his interest in trying to stop them set him on a path of working with artificial intelligence.
Wichman says the research experience he gained at LSU has been invaluable in preparing him to be a research engineer.
Wichman says choosing to attend LSU was a “no-brainer” due to the academic opportunities and campus culture.
Wichman graduated in December 2023 and returned to Montana, where he gets to enjoy being in the mountains.
Wichman says his remote job allows him to spend time fly fishing in his native Montana.
While attending LSU, you will have access to world-class research and faculty while still being a part of an SEC school and all of the fun and excitement that goes along with that. LSU is definitely one of a kind in that regard. Everyone knows about how good we are at sports, but I don’t think people know that we are also a research powerhouse.
Dylan Wichman, LSU graduate
He says he started learning about AI in 2017, during his sophomore year of high school. “My ‘access’ was basically watching YouTube videos. When I first started learning, I was trying to understand basic models so I could make them myself.”
“For a high school science fair project, I had the idea to find a way to help prevent wildfires,” Wichman says. “I was already interested in coding, so I thought I could create a program as my project, and that’s when I started to learn about AI. I saw the potential to use AI to try to predict where wildfires would occur before they start to help inform and assist firefighters.”
His project placed third in the international science fair in the computer science category, and he was put in contact with the U.S. Forest Service, which incorporates fire prediction into its work. “Coincidentally, the ‘fire lab’ was only 200 miles from my hometown.”
The Path to LSU
Wichman knew he wanted to attend college out of state and applied to LSU for computer science.
“During my Stamps Scholarship interview process, we had dinner with LSU faculty, and the professor I was sitting next to, Dr. Qingyang Wang, told me about a wildfire project being led by Dr. Supratik Mukhopadhyay,” Wichman says. “That's when I really started leaning towards attending LSU, since I could basically keep researching what I had already been working on the past few years.”
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After learning he received the Stamps Scholarship, choosing LSU was a “no-brainer,” he says.
“Something that really drew me to LSU was the southern culture; it is about as different as you can get from Montana,” Wichman says. “My experience at LSU was great. It took a while to get used to the weather, but I met a lot of friends, had great professors, and got to watch some of the best college sports teams in the country! I was also a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, which was a big part of my experience at LSU. I met some of my best friends there, made professional contacts, and had a great support system during my time as a student.”
Wichman would become a research assistant under Dr. Mukhopadhyay and part of the DeepFire team using AI to build a system to predict and detect wildfires.
“DeepFire is trying to use AI to detect wildfires anywhere in the world using a combination of a prediction and detection model. I was in charge of the prediction, creating the prediction model, and finding relevant data to train it on. This involved staying on top of the latest developments in the AI field, as well as trying to come up with novel methods to use in our model,” Wichman says.
A Career in AI
Wichman graduated in December 2023 and returned to Montana to continue his work in AI.
“I am a research engineer at Bentley Systems. The focus of my role is applying artificial intelligence to different engineering problems. Since my job is remote, I moved back to Montana and spend most of my free time fly fishing and being in the mountains,” Wichman says.
He might be far from Baton Rouge, but Wichman says his time at LSU set him up for success.
“The research experience I gained at LSU has been invaluable in preparing me for my current role as a research engineer. I also took multiple AI-related courses during my time at LSU. LSU has clearly made a point to be at the forefront of this rapidly growing field, so I never felt like I was “missing out” on learning about new AI developments.”
What does he see as the future of AI?
“I think my field, like most, is going to be greatly transformed by AI. AI will help engineers become more efficient, informed, and effective at their jobs. Change is coming, but there are new developments in this field every day, so it is very hard to make predictions as to what the future will look like.
“I think the best everyone can do is to familiarize themselves with new AI developments and to keep an open mind when it comes to using AI in their jobs. Being on the forefront of such a fast pace and emerging technology is very exciting for me.”
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