[ Dr. Mahdi Abdelguerfi: ] GulfSCEI is proud to spotlight Enrique Hernández Noguera, our latest exchange student research assistant, visiting from Universidad de Murcia - Spain.

Majoring in Computer Science, Enrique arrived last August through the International Student Exchange Programs, earning one of only about twenty highly competitive placements available through his university’s partnership program. Drawn to the breadth of University of New Orleans Computer Science (UNO-CS) offerings, Enrique shared that “the selection of courses was among the best I found — sometimes double that of other universities.”

As a research assistant at GulfSCEI, Enrique has explored two separate impactful areas of research under the guidance of Dr. Md Meftahul Ferdaus, GulfSCEI Postdoctoral Research Associate, and Nathan Alton Cooper, GulfSCEI Senior Research Engineer.

The first was in partnership with the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), where he worked on developing machine learning models to automatically detect deficiencies in sewer and culvert infrastructure. Enrique helped build, fine-tune, and deploy these models onto GulfSCEI’s robotic land vehicle. His USACE research was funded via a Tolmas Scholarship.

“What made the experience exciting was seeing the research move beyond the lab. We trained models on powerful workstations, then deployed them on a real edge device to see how they performed.”

Currently, Enrique is helping design and train new AI surrogate models to predict nearshore wave behavior — research with potential applications for the United States Department of the Navy (US DON), the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and the United States Department of the Army (US DA). Enrique's surrogate model is being funded through a research contract with the U.S. Department of the Navy – Department of War (DoW).

“I enjoy the feeling of getting a new problem and working collaboratively to find solutions to emerging problems.”

Beyond academics and research, Enrique has embraced life in New Orleans. A self-described food enthusiast, he has enjoyed exploring the city’s renowned culinary scene while also spending time hiking, watching movies, and taking advantage of UNO’s recreation facilities.

Enrique joins GulfSCEI’s growing tradition of fostering international collaboration and exchange, following students from Graz University of Technology (Graz TU) - Austria and École Centrale de Nantes (ECN) - France.

“I’m very grateful for the support and opportunities I’ve received here. I know this experience will shape my future career.”

We are excited to see all that Enrique accomplishes and grateful to have him as part of the GulfSCEI community.