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⏳ Bio-Sketch

Dr. Ana M. Tárano is an Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University (ASU), conducting research on geospatial Machine Learning (geoML) for food security applications. Before joining ASU, Tárano was a Senior Research Associate III at the University of Miami (UM), where she applied geoML for shallow-marine habitat mapping using remotely sensed multispectral imagery. As a passionate educator and designer, she extended the NASA Planetary ReaCH engagement model with art and the design thinking framework as a 2022 NASA SCoPE Seed Grant Awardee. Before her time at UM, Tárano implemented design thinking in applying machine learning in a unique public-facing, real-time context as Project Manager for a conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI), a collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome and Stanford’s Human-Centered AI.

Tárano received her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. Her Ph.D. research improved asteroid modeling using physics-based simulations, statistical analysis, optimization, and machine learning. This work was funded by NASA’s Asteroid Threat Assessment Project (ATAP) at NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing Division. Her contributions to NASA’s ATAP were recognized by NASA’s Group Achievement Award and NASA Ames Honor Award. Her extensive aerospace engineering experience ranges from leading Stanford’s CubeSat QB50 Discovery to studying space radiation effects on astronauts at NASA Space Radiation Lab.

📰 Recent Projects

Environmental Data Science Innovation and Inclusion Lab: Data Short Course 2024 🔗

April - June 2024

This year’s short course was called: Cloud Computing, Collaboration, and Communication. We learned how to incorporate GitHub (GitHub Classroom, GitHub Codespaces, and GitHub Pages) and Python (pandas, GeoPandas, rioxarray, matplotlib, folium) into our curriculum and existing research model. We applied these lessons to our own research interests and our educational programs. See what I worked on below.

Catalyst Miami: Community Leadership on the Environment, Advocacy, and Resilience 🔗

February - April 2024

This 10-week program provided us with the groundwork to become climate justice educators, leaders, and innovators in our own communities and beyond. We developed a deep and intersectional understanding of climate science, local climate change threats, and solutions. At the end of this leadership program, we worked in teams to propose our own community resilience project. See what I worked on below.

Reimagining Bus Stops as Resilience Hubs in Miami:

🎓 Education

Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2020, Stanford University

M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015, Stanford University

B.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014, Stanford University

💼 Previous Work

• Senior Research Associate III, University of Miami, 06/2022-01/2024
• Project Manager, Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, 11/2021-06/2022
• Research Associate, Science and Technology Corporation at NASA Ames, 06/2016-08/2020
• Course Assistant for Spacecraft Design and Laboratory, Stanford University, 03/2016-06/2016

📢 Publications

• Bakker, A. C., Gleason, A., Dempsey, A., Bachman, S., Burdick, D., Tárano, ; A. M., Chirayath, V., Purkis, S. (Submitted) Remotely Sensed Spectral Variability Predicts Reef Fish Diversity. Ecological Indicators.
• Interactive AI “Performance”: Newsome, R. (Lead Artist), Symons, J. (Producer), & Tárano, A.M. (Project Manager). (2024, January). Being (The Digital Griot). Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier section. Park City; Utah.
• Interactive AI “Performance”: Newsome, R. (Lead Artist), Symons, J. (Documentary Producer), & Tárano, A.M. (Project Manager). (2022, February-March). Being (The Digital Griot). Assembly at Park Avenue Armory. New York; New York.
• Tárano, A. M. (2020). Automated Inference of Impacting Asteroids’ Physical Properties and Motion. Stanford University.
• Tárano, A. M., Wheeler, L. F., Close, S., & Mathias, D. L. (2019). Inference of meteoroid characteristics using a genetic algorithm. Icarus, 329, 270-281.
• Aftosmis, M. J., Mathias, D. L., & Tarano, A. M. (2019). Simulation-based height of burst map for asteroid airburst damage prediction. Acta Astronautica, 156, 278-283.

🎤 Recent Presentations

• Tárano, A.M., Chirayath, V., Purkis, S., Xi, H. and Bakker, A. (2023). Evaluating Global Benthic Habitat Maps Derived from Machine Learning: NASA’s Neural Multimodal Observation and Training Network. Presented at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 11-15 Dec. 2023 San Francisco, CA.
• Tárano, A.M., Shaner, A.J., Shupla, C.B., Buxner, S., Rivera-Valentin, E.G., LeMer, J., King, J., Kriescher, D., and Valdes, Y. (2023). Extending the Planetary ReaCH Towards Miami with SCoPE: Embracing Local Assets for Informal Education of NASA-based Planetary Science. Presented at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 11-15 Dec. 2023 San Francisco, CA.
• Tárano, A.M., Chirayath, V., Couch, C., Oliver, T., and Purkis, S. (2023). Informing coral reef resilience-based management through prediction of individual coral organismal growth, recruitment, and mortality (PICOGRAM). Presented at NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team Meeting, 8-9 May 2023 College Park, MD.
• Tárano, A.M., Chirayath, V., Segal-Rozenhaimer, M., and Purkis, S. (2022). Toward Global Coral Resilience and Biodiversity Assessments Using NASA NeMO-Net and Fluid Lensing. Presented at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 12-16 Dec. 2022 Chicago, IL.
• Tárano, A.M., Chirayath, V., Couch, C., and Oliver, T. (2022). Informing coral reef resilience-based management through prediction of individual coral organismal growth, recruitment, and mortality (PICOGRAM). Presented at NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team Meeting, 20-22 Sept. 2022 College Park, MD.

🏆 Awards

• NASA Group Achievement Award, 2023, “in appreciation of [NASA Science Activation program] dedicated service to NASA from the Science Mission Directorate.”
• AGU NASA SciAct Affiliate, 2023, from NASA SMD Community of Practice for Education.
• Early Career Researcher Grant, 2023, from University of Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing.
• Seed Grant Award, 2022, for project “Extending the Planetary ReaCH Towards Miami” by NASA SMD Community of Practice for Education.
• Engineer of the Future Leadership Award, 2020, from Straubel Foundation “to support high-achieving individuals in their pursuit of education”.
• ASSU Champion Advocate Award, 2019, from Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) “for [my] advocacy for overlooked communities and uplifting voices of others”.
• Community Impact Award, 2019, from Stanford Alumni Association for having “fostered a sense of belonging and inspired enthusiasm among fellow grad students, enhancing the Stanford community through their exemplary leadership of a student organization, creation of an event or program, or other unique campus contribution”.
• NASA Group Achievement Award, 2018, for Asteroid Threat Assessment Project “for advancing state-of-the-art in asteroid threat assessment to enable effective national survey and response planning”.
• NASA Ames Honor Award, 2017, for “contributions to the Near-Earth Objects (NEO) impact risk assessment team”.
• Outstanding Poster Award, 2017, for Stanford University Opportunity Job Fair.
• Sharon Kay Stanaway Summer Doctoral Fellowship, 2016, from Stanford University’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department.
• Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship, 2016, from Stanford University.
• USNC-URSI North American Radio Science Meeting Travel Fellowship Grant Award, 2016.
• Dean’s Packard Diversity Fellowship, 2014-2015, from Stanford University’s School of Engineering.