Show Postdoctoral Researcher Indigenous Innovation in data models, AI, and climate readiness

UH Mānoaʻs NREM Department site to advertise positions & opportunities.

Starting annual salary of $72,000 USD with 3% COLA

3 Years

Location: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

The Ka Hawai‘i Pae ʻĀina Pod of Abundant Intelligences is co-located at the University of Hawai‘i West Oʻahu and Mānoa campuses. The Pod is investigating how to weave Hawaiian traditional knowledge and practices with AI systems to perpetuate abundant, resilient landscapes in the Hawaiian archipelago.

Abundant Intelligences (AbInt) and the Hawai‘i Climate-Smart Partnership (HiCSC) is an initiative whoch aims to build capacity in data-driven, relational fields that interweave soils, agroecosystems, ʻāina momona (abundant land), Indigenous genealogy, and well-being into equitable climate-assessment frameworks for an abundant, sustainable future. This collaboration represents a multi-disciplinary effort combining western and Indigenous ways of knowing to address climate change challenges through innovative soil and land management practices.

This position will explore how socio-ecological-cultural spheres (such as land care and beliefs about the relationships between people and soil or land) and existing economic-political domains (e.g., of conservation practices, incentive programs, emergent markets, and climate-smart agricultural systems) interact with soilscapes and how that interaction can be operationalized using AI tools and techniques. The position will also integrate principles of the circular economy, examining how regenerative land use and waste cycles can inform and enhance sustainable land care practices. We aim to imagine, design, test, and prototype a series of research and technological development activities that build AI-driven decision-support systems grounded in both Western soil health science and Indigenous Knowledge (IK). This position will create a foundation for future Indigenous AI systems that 1) captures landscape history and interrelation of landscapes embedded in Hawaiian cultural practices as well as Western data collections, and 2) develop decision-support tools that support reciprocal human-soil relationships within a climate-smart and circular framework. This position will be supported and mentored by the Director of the Office for Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation(OIKI), Kamuela Enos. The role offers access to a robust network of engagement and support within the Abundant Intelligence network and Hawai‘i Climate-Smart Partnership (HiCSC). This will include introductions and training in appropriate protocols and opportunities for professional development. The Postdoctoral Fellow will collaborate closely with four other members of the Postdoctoral Team in Indigenous Innovation (Community and Climate Readiness), Life Cycle approach to Circular Economy, Climate Benefit of Sequestration, and Data Driven Decision Support as well as graduate students.

If you are interested contact Dr. Susan Crow crows@hawaii.edu

climatesmarthawaii.org

abundant-intelligences.net