Civil Engineer & Climate Researcher

SomnathLuitel

Weather · Water · Community

Graduate researcher at the AIR Lab, Western Kentucky University, building AI models for high-resolution weather forecasting and sub-seasonal climate prediction. Cofounder of Paani AI, applying the same tools to flood forecasting and water security in Nepal.

Water ResourcesAI & ClimateS2S ModelingRemote SensingHigh-Res Climate DataNepal

My Work Contact

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Civil engineer, climate researcher, and cofounder — working at the intersection of water, AI, and community.

Nepal · Western Kentucky University, USA

About

Civil Engineer.
Climate Modeler.
AI Researcher.

I build AI models that predict weather before it happens and rivers before they flood.

I'm Somnath Luitel — a graduate student in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences (EEAS) at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green. I'm also a graduate researcher at the DSOC AI Research Lab (AIR Lab), working under the supervision of Dr. Manmeet Singh.

My research focuses on high-resolution climate data development, sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) climate modeling, and data-driven approaches for environmental prediction. I earned my Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from Pulchowk Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

I cofounded Paani AI — building flood forecasting tools, water quality models, and climate-resilient systems for Nepal and beyond. My published research spans flood hazard mapping at the settlement scale and InSAR-based land subsidence monitoring in Pokhara Valley.

Water ResourcesInSAR / SARMachine LearningGIS & MappingFlood ModelingPython · RS2S Climate ModelingData ScienceEarth ObservationHigh-Res Climate Data

6Papers & Preprints

2Poster Awards

4+Blogs Written

Academic Journey

Education

A path from the Himalayas to the American heartland — built on curiosity, equations, and rivers.

2026 – PresentIn Progress

Master of Science in Geoscience

Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY, USA

Focus: Climate Data Science · AI for Weather Forecasting · Subseasonal Climate Prediction

Graduate Researcher — AIR Lab Deep Learning for Weather HPC Computing

2019 – 2024Completed

Bachelor of Civil Engineering

Pulchowk Campus, IOE, Tribhuvan University Lalitpur, Nepal

Hydrology · Fluid Mechanics · Computational Methods · Probability & Statistics

Merit Scholarship InSAR Research Flood Hazard Mapping

2017 – 2019Completed

High School — Science (PCM)

Capital College and Research Center Kathmandu, Nepal

Physics · Chemistry · Mathematics · Foundation for Engineering

Science Stream +2 Level

Work & Research

Projects & Initiatives

Rooted in rivers, guided by data, built for communities.

01AI · Water · Nepal

Paani AI

Data science and machine learning for Nepal's water challenges — flood prediction, water quality analysis, and climate-resilient resource management.

Visit Paani AI

02Flood Mapping

Flood Hazard Mapping

Settlement-scale flood hazard mapping and vulnerability analysis of building structures in the Sauraha region of Nepal. Published in JScE, 2024.

Read Paper

03InSAR · Remote Sensing

Land Subsidence — Pokhara

Sentinel-1 InSAR processing to assess land subsidence patterns in Pokhara Valley, Nepal. Published in JOETP, Vol. 5, 2024.

Read Paper

04AI · Climate · WKU

AiRCast-SR — AI Research Lab

Leading the AiRCast-SR project at DSOC AI Research Lab, WKU — developing super-resolution deep learning models for high-resolution climate and weather prediction over the CONUS.

View AiRCast-SR

Recognition

Awards & Honors

Milestones from the road so far — grants, prizes, and the people who made the trip worth it.

Somnath Luitel presenting the AiRCast-SR poster at UIFCW26

UIFCW26 Travel Grant Awardees signage featuring Somnath Luitel

UIFCW26 workshop opening session signage

1 of 10 Nationwide

UIFCW26 Student Travel Grant & Student Poster Award

Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop 2026 — a UFS collaboration powered by NOAA EPIC · College Park, MD · July 20–24, 2026

Selected as one of only ten students and early-career professionals nationwide to receive a UIFCW26 Travel Grant, then awarded the Student Poster Award for presenting AiRCast-SR: A Foundation Model for Kilometer-Scale Atmospheric Super-Resolution via Latent Consistency Diffusion — work developed at the DSOC AI Research Lab (AIR Lab), WKU.

UIFCW26 Travel Grant Awardee — Western Kentucky University
Student Poster Award — AiRCast-SR poster presentation
Presented alongside NOAA, NCAR, MITRE, and university researchers

UIFCW26 Event Page

MSc Category · 1 of 10 Winners

IBL Poster Prize — Environmental Intelligence 2026 (EI26)

Centre for Environmental Intelligence, University of Exeter · Streatham Campus, UK · September 7–9, 2026

Named one of ten winners of the IBL Poster Prize in the MSc-level poster competition at EI26, an international conference on responsible AI and data science for a sustainable future.

Photos from the September 2026 conference to follow
EI26 Conference Site

Writing

Blogs & Articles

On water, engineering, society, and the examined life — in English and Nepali.

Nepali · Society

नेता नै खराब! अनि हामी नि?

On leadership, accountability, and what we owe each other as citizens of Nepal.

Read

Nepali · Education

इन्जिनियरिङको आकाशिँदो माग, खस्कँदो शिक्षा!

Engineering demand is rising steeply — but is the quality of education keeping pace?

Read

Academic · Coming Soon

Water, AI & the Future

On machine learning, hydrological forecasting, and what Paani AI is learning from Nepal's rivers.

English · Coming Soon

Engineering for a Better Tomorrow

Reflections on sustainable civil engineering and the engineer's role in a climate-disrupted world.

Academic posts in progress — water, AI, and climate research.

English essays on engineering and sustainability are in the works.

Nepali · Society

नेता नै खराब! अनि हामी नि?

Leadership, accountability, and what we owe each other as citizens.

Read

Nepali · Education

इन्जिनियरिङको आकाशिँदो माग, खस्कँदो शिक्षा!

Rising demand for engineers and declining quality of education in Nepal.

Read

Field & Beyond

Where the Work Takes Me

Engineering happens in offices — and also in river basins, mountain villages, and rain-soaked field sites.

Himalayan Field Work

Hydrology surveys in remote valleys and satellite ground-truthing in rugged terrain — where theory meets earth.

Nepal Himalayas

River & Basin Studies

Wading rivers, collecting samples, reading landscapes — understanding how water moves is both science and instinct.

River Basins, Nepal

InSAR Ground Truth

Validating Sentinel-1 satellite imagery on the ground across Pokhara Valley — bridging orbit and earth.

Pokhara Valley

Community Engagement

Workshops and listening sessions in communities affected by water and climate risk. Science is only useful when it reaches people.

Rural Nepal

Literature & Reflection

Every journey ends with a book. The best engineering thinking often happens in transit, mid-trek, or watching a river at dawn.

Wherever I Am

AIR Lab — WKU

From Nepal to Western Kentucky — pushing AI-driven climate science at the DSOC AI Research Lab, building next-gen weather and climate models.

Bowling Green, KY

Get In Touch

Let's Talk

Open to research collaborations, speaking invitations, or a conversation about rivers and books.

Always open
to connection.

Whether you're a researcher, student, journalist, NGO, or someone who cares about water and climate — every conversation is worth having.

WKU Email[email protected]

Pulchowk Email[email protected]

Personal[email protected]

LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/somnath-luitel

GitHubgithub.com/shreesomnath

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Curriculum Vitae

Somnath Luitel

Civil engineer, climate researcher, and Paani AI cofounder. Graduate researcher at the DSOC AI Research Lab, WKU. Expertise in water resources, InSAR remote sensing, S2S climate modeling, machine learning, and high-resolution climate data development.

Download Resume

SomnathLuitel

Civil Engineer.
Climate Modeler.
AI Researcher.