CV - Koutian Wu | AI4Geoscience PhD Student at UT Austin

Education

Ph.D. in Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Aug 2024 - May 2029
- Focus: Model Optimization of Physics-based Land Surface Models (Noah-MP, CTSM, HRLDAS)
- Activities: Rock Climbing, Model Optimization research
- Advisors: Dr. Zong-Liang Yang, Dr. Daniella Rampe, Dr. Ashley Matheny
B.S. with Honors in Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Sep 2020 - Jul 2024
- Founding President, USTC Student Xingyun Poetry Club (Currently 1,197+ members) 2020-2022
- Second youngest student club president in USTC history (age 17 in Sep 2021)

Work Experience

Graduate Research Assistant (Aug 2025 - Present)
- Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin
- AI for Noah-MP Land Surface Model: Implementing rock and wood moisture into the Noah-MP land surface model
- Skills: Machine Learning, Land Surface Model development
Project Admin (Aug 2025 - Present)
- NSF NCAR - The National Center for Atmospheric Research
- Project Admin for NCAR/CISL Allocation Project UTAA0012: “Explainable AI for Improving Physics-Based Noah-MP Land Surface Modeling of Plant–Rock–Water Interactions”
- Coordinated with PI (Prof. Zong-Liang Yang, UT Austin), responsible for technical leadership and implementation
- Awarded resources: 1,000 GPU hours on NSF NCAR Derecho-GPU, 20,000 CPU core-hours on NSF NCAR Derecho, 2,000 CPU core-hours on Casper, and 2 TB campaign storage
AI Agent Evaluation Engineer Intern (Jul 2025)
- PineAI, Shanghai, China (Remote)
- Designed and implemented AI evaluation system architecture for AI Agent knowledge base assessment
- Developed automated data anonymization algorithms processing 1000+ conversation texts with 70%+ accuracy
- Built standardized Prompt engineering workflows with LLM-powered automatic Q&A extraction
- Tech Stack: Python, Shell, FastAPI, Celery, Redis, LLM APIs
Full-Stack LLM Developer Intern (Jun 2025 - Jul 2025)
- Beijing ZaiwenAI Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, China (Remote)
- Independently completed full development cycle including product design, tech stack selection, full-stack development, and cloud deployment
- Built comprehensive LLM text processing system integrating text polishing, AI detection, and plagiarism reduction features
- Developed RESTful API backend using FastAPI with Celery+Redis asynchronous task queue, improving processing efficiency by 65%+
- Project: https://github.com/ktwu01/1AI-polish/
Graduate Teaching Assistant (Aug 2024 - May 2025)
- The University of Texas at Austin
- Helped prepare course syllabus, office hours, and grade homework for ~1040 students
- Skills: Quantitative Data, Perl, Shell Scripting, Python
Scientific Visitor (Jun 2024 - Aug 2024)
- Peking University, Beijing, China
- Hydrology and Water Resources Science, Model evaluation of Physics-based Land Surface Models
- Advisor: Prof. Peirong Lin
Visiting Scholar (Jul 2023 - Dec 2023)
- NSF NCAR - The National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
- Research on volcanic perturbations in the MLT region using WACCM-X simulation and meteor radar observations
- Re-confirmed that a single volcano can send shockwaves around Earth, seen in simulations and observations
Student Fellow (Oct 2021 - Feb 2024)
- Shenzhen X-Institute (A Shenzhen Government-Tsinghua Univ. Initiative)
- Skills: Quantitative Data, Scientific Communications, Analytical Reasoning, Academic Writing, Python, Scholarly Research, Machine Learning
President & Founder (Nov 2020 - Jun 2022)
- USTC Student Xingyun Poetry Club
- Founded & Led USTC’s first poetry club, managing all operations from inception to official establishment
- Built & Managed a core team of 8 co-founders and 4 vice presidents
- Directed 25+ events, including weekly poetry salons (202+ attendees), poetry competitions, and cross-club collaborations
- Grew club to 1,096+ members as of 2025

Research Interests

AI for Land Surface Modeling: Implementing explainable AI/ML to improve physics-based Noah-MP land surface modeling
Plant-Rock-Water Interactions: Developing models for rock and wood moisture in land surface systems
High Performance Computing: Utilizing GPU and CPU clusters for large-scale geoscience simulations
Model Optimization: Physics-based land surface models including Noah-MP, CTSM, and HRLDAS
Climate Modeling: Physics-based community climate models (e.g., WACCM)

Skills

Programming Languages
- Python, MATLAB, Fortran, Shell Scripting, Perl, HTML, JavaScript
AI/ML Technologies
- Machine Learning, LLM APIs, Prompt Engineering, AI Agent Evaluation, LLM-as-a-judge
Frameworks and Tools
- FastAPI, Celery, Redis, Vue.js, LaTeX
Geoscience Specialties
- Land Surface Model Development, Model Evaluation, High Performance Computing (HPC)
- Physics-based Land Surface Models (Noah-MP, CTSM, HRLDAS)
- Physics-based Community Climate Models (WACCM)
Research Skills
- Quantitative Data Analysis, Scientific Communications, Academic Writing, Scholarly Research

Publications

Diurnal and seasonal variations of meteor speed and arrival angle observed by Mengcheng meteor radar

Wu, K., Yi, W.*, Xue, X.*, Reid, I., & Lu, M. (2024). "Diurnal and seasonal variations of meteor speed and arrival angle observed by Mengcheng meteor radar." JGR: Space Physics.

A Summary Report on the Space Physics Practical Education in 2022

Wu, K.*, Xu, X., Jiang, J., & Shen, A. (2024). "A Summary Report on the Space Physics Practical Education in 2022." Review of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

Talks

Noah-MP land surface model with plant hydraulics scheme (Noah-MP-PHS) Evaluation

February 01, 2025

Poster at JSG Research Symposium, Austin, TX

Perturbations by the 2022 Hunga-Tonga Volcano Eruption in the MLT Region Investigated Using the WACCM-X Simulation and Meteor Radar Observations

December 01, 2023

Poster at AGU Fall Meeting 2023, San Francisco, CA

Perturbations by the 2022 Hunga-Tonga Volcano Eruption in the MLT Region Investigated Using WACCM-X Simulation and Meteor Radar Observations

November 01, 2023

Oral Presentation at 4th NASA DRIVE CGS Workshop, Boulder, CO

Teaching

Earth in 2100 (GEO 303E)

Service and Leadership

Project Admin, NCAR/CISL Allocation Project UTAA0012 (Aug 2025 - Present)
- Technical leadership and implementation of project workflows for “Explainable AI for Improving Physics-Based Noah-MP Land Surface Modeling”
President & Founder, USTC Student Xingyun Poetry Club (Nov 2020 - Jun 2022)
- Founded USTC’s first poetry club, grew to 1,096+ members as of 2025
- Organized 25+ cultural events with 202+ attendees
- Managed team of 8 co-founders and 4 vice presidents
Graduate Teaching Assistant, The University of Texas at Austin (Aug 2024 - May 2025)
- Course preparation, office hours, and grading for ~1040 students

Research Projects and Publications

Perturbations by the 2022 Hunga-Tonga Volcano Eruption in the MLT Region
- Investigated using WACCM-X Simulation and Meteor Radar Observations
- Abstract: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023AGUFMSA33B2892W/abstract
- Re-confirmed that a single volcano can send shockwaves around Earth

Awards and Honors

NSF NCAR Computational Resource Allocation (Aug 2025)
- 1,000 GPU hours on NSF NCAR Derecho-GPU
- 20,000 CPU core-hours on NSF NCAR Derecho
- 2,000 CPU core-hours on Casper
- 2 TB campaign storage
Bachelor of Science with Honors (Jul 2024)
- University of Science and Technology of China
Second Youngest Student Club President in USTC History (Sep 2021)
- Age 17 when elected as President of USTC Student Xingyun Poetry Club