Using AI to Understand What’s Beneath Our Feet

A new research project is using artificial intelligence (AI) to help us better understand what’s going on underground, especially in places where we don’t have much data. This is important because what lies beneath the surface affects everything from building safety to protecting natural resources.

One of the toughest challenges in this area is figuring out the makeup of underground materials, which can vary a lot from place to place. Traditional methods for mapping these underground layers are accurate but take a lot of time and computing power, making them hard to use on a large scale.

To tackle this, researchers from the University of Warwick and Fudan University are teaming up to develop a smarter, faster approach. They’re using advanced image-based AI techniques, like those used in facial recognition or medical imaging, to create realistic pictures of underground environments. These AI models will be trained using data from Warwick’s geotechnical database.

The goal is to make it easier to predict underground conditions, which can help reduce the need for expensive site investigations and make construction and environmental planning more efficient and sustainable.

This project is also building a strong partnership between the two universities, with joint research, academic exchanges, and publications that could shape the future of GeoAI: AI applied to earth sciences.