Arnon developed a 3D Groundwater Flooding Simulation powered by machine learning, an artificial intelligence technology that mimics the human brain. Her project can predict when flooding will occur, how deep it will be, and which areas will be affected first—a valuable tool for early disaster response and planning in Tarlac City.
She gathered historical weather data from the local PAGASA Agromet Station, and used it as input for the long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network and the hydrodynamic model. The entire process of encoding and training the model took six months.
"At first I was so excited to code. But it was a trial and error process and i was working alone so it became very challenging, I wanted to give up and change my study. My teacher coach encouraged me to continue and I appreciated her support", says Arnon.
According to her coach Ms. Nica Aquino, "A great trait of Arnon is that she is not afraid to fail. We entered a lot of competitions and she just kept on pushing forward. We're happy that our efforts paid off, she brought great pride to our school."
Her innovative research was awarded Best Project in the Mathematics and Computational Science Individual Category at the 2024 DepEd National Science and Technology Fair, and earned her a spot to represent the Philippines at the 2024 International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, California, where she also received the prestigious National Geographic Society Special Award.
Because of her excellence in Science and Technology, Arnon is one of the 2024 recipients of the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation Young Scientist Award — a recognition and college scholarship given to outstanding student-researchers who create innovations that make a difference in their communities.
At GBF, we continue to champion young minds who are turning STEM knowledge into meaningful solutions.
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