We are thrilled to share that three members of our lab were recognized with Best Presentation Awards at the 2026 Korea Water Resources Association (KWRA) Annual Conference in Busan. This year's conference theme — "In the Era of Climate Crisis, Smart Water Management Opened by AI" — was a perfect fit for the kind of research our team has been pushing on, and it was wonderful to see that work recognized by the wider Korean water resources community.
Congratulations to Kunhee Park, Hoang H. Nguyen, and Venkatesh Budamala!
The Award-Winning Presentations
🏆 Kunhee Park (MS candidate) — Student Competition Session
Title: Establishment of the First Korea–NASA Core Validation Site for Microwave Satellite Systems and Validation of NISAR Soil Moisture Data (마이크로파 위성 시스템을 위한 최초의 한국-NASA 핵심 검증 사이트 구축 및 NISAR 토양 수분 자료 검증)
Kunhee presented in the Student Competition (S6-6), describing the establishment of the first Korea–NASA core validation site for microwave satellite systems and the validation of soil moisture retrievals from NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar). This work is a major step in connecting Korean ground-based observation infrastructure to next-generation satellite missions, and it lays the foundation for long-term, high-resolution soil moisture monitoring over the Korean Peninsula.
🏆 Hoang H. Nguyen (Postdoctoral researcher) — International Session
Title: A novel flash drought diagnostic indicator based on groundwater storage
In International Session II (I2-3), Hai presented a new diagnostic indicator for flash droughts built around groundwater storage dynamics. Flash droughts develop on sub-seasonal timescales and remain notoriously difficult to detect with conventional indices. By bringing the slower-responding groundwater signal into the diagnostic, this work offers a complementary lens for identifying flash drought onset and severity — an increasingly important capability as climate change accelerates the frequency of these compound events.
🏆 Venkatesh Budamala (Postdoctoral researcher) — International Session
Title: A calibration-Free Hybrid Deep Learning Framework for River Flow Prediction in Data-Scarce Basins
Venkatesh opened International Session III (I3-1) with a calibration-free hybrid deep learning framework for predicting river flow in data-scarce basins. The work addresses one of the most persistent challenges in operational hydrology: building reliable streamflow models where in-situ data are sparse or unavailable. By combining physics-informed structure with deep learning, the approach avoids the basin-by-basin calibration that traditional models require — opening up flow prediction to ungauged regions worldwide.
A Common Thread
What strikes me looking across these three contributions is how naturally they fit together. Kunhee is building the observational backbone — the ground truth that makes everything downstream possible. Hai is turning observational signals into actionable diagnostics for emerging climate hazards. Venkatesh is pushing those signals into predictive frameworks that work even where data are thin.
Ground truth → diagnosis → prediction. Three awards, three career stages, one coherent vision.
A heartfelt congratulations to Kunhee, Hai, and Venkatesh — and many thanks to KWRA, the session chairs, and the wider community in Busan for a fantastic conference.
The 2026 KWRA Annual Conference was held May 20–22, 2026, at the Busan Port International Exhibition & Convention Center (BPEX).
