Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science

Kyle Compare received the Beck Award at the 17th Multidisciplinary Conference on Sinkholes and the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst

Kyle Compare, a Ph.D. Candidate in Geology, received the Beck Award at the 17th Multidisciplinary Conference on Sinkholes and the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst (aka The Sinkhole Conference). The Sinkhole Conference is an international conference sponsored by the National Cave and Karst Research Institute. It aims to bring together the engineers, geographers, and geologists who study how and where karst develops, with the engineers and planners who apply this information to building and maintaining society’s infrastructure in an environmentally conscious way.

The Beck Award is a competitive grant awarded to one or more students who presents the results of their research at the Sinkhole Conference. The award was inaugurated in 2013 in memory of the late Dr. Barry Beck, a pioneer in the scientific study of sinkholes who founded the Sinkhole Conference series, and who died in 2011.

At the conference, Kyle presented his research on using neural networks trained on groundwater and surface water monitoring data to simulate springflow at Wakulla Springs. “Karst hydrogeology is really interesting because of the dynamic interactions between groundwater and surface water through sinkholes. I think that neural networks and deep learning are powerful tools that can be used to model how these interactions impact springs,” Kyle said.

A list of 2023 Beck Award Recipients can be found here:Beck Award Recipients PDF