2024/2025 Meetings
The AEG Southern Nevada Chapter holds dinner meetings eight times per year. Meetings are typically held on the second Tuesday of the month at the Embassy Suites Las Vegas located at 4315 University Center Drive (Near UNLV between Harmon Avenue and Flamingo Road) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Each meeting features a presentation regarding a pertinent geological, environmental, or other relevant science-based issue.
Check-in and Socialize 6:00 to 6:30 pm
Dinner: 6:30 pm
Presentation: 7:15 to 8:00 pm
Members: $40.00
Non-members: $45.00
Student Members: $20.00 (Do not Pay in Advance)
Student Non-members: $25.00 (Do not Pay in Advance)
Walk-ins: $50.00
Vegetarian options are available. Just let us know when you
register!
Payment for attending required at the time of registration.
NDEP - Certified Environmental Manager (CEM) Professional Development Hours (PDHs)
Attendance of a meeting will qualify for one NDEP-CEM-PDH. There is no limit on the amount of PDHs that can be obtained by attending monthly meetings. Become an active member of the AEG Southern Nevada Chapter and an additional four PDHs can be obtained annually. Attending the AEG Southern Nevada Chapter meetings is a great way to network while obtaining the required PDHs necessary to maintain your CEM license.

Tuesday - February 11, 2025
6:00 to 8:00 p.m. PST
"Advanced Edge-AI Monitoring Technologies for Combating the Geologic and Hydrologic Hazards Associated with Climate Change"
By: Dr. John Kemeny
Emeritus Professor
Mining and Engineering Geology, University of Arizona, Tucson
2024-2025 Jahns Lecturer
ABSTRACT:
Monitoring and characterization of natural and manmade geologic environments are important aspects of applied geology, and can include monitoring water flow or rock movement, or characterizing the condition of a rock slope or debris flow path. I am currently involved with utilizing neural networks to develop some new monitoring and characterization strategies to help combat the increasing geologic and hydrologic hazards associated with climate change. This is particularly needed in resource-constrained countries and communities, where utilizing traditional technologies common in the mining/petroleum/civil industries is often cost prohibitive. Useful concepts that I focus on are 1) TinyML, where sophisticated neural net routines are embedded on very small microcontrollers that are highly energy efficient and can form the basis for innovative field sensors, and 2) EdgeAI, where the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision Language Models (VLMs) can be embedded on small EdgeAI computers such as Jetson Orin Nano that allow the very innovative “monitoring with intelligence, not data” (which will be explained with examples). The Jahns talk will cover the kinds of AI used in TinyML and EdgeAI, the potential applications of AI to monitor and characterize geologic and hydrologic hazards, and hands-on examples of how easy it is to train neural net routines and/or utilize large language models for applied geology applications. TinyML examples we are currently developing are small sensors that only utilize sound to characterize water flow and rock movement, with installations as simple as hanging the sensor from a tree or light pole.
BIO:
Dr. John Kemeny has over 40 years of experience in the applied geoscience fields through a career that has included working at a geomechanics consulting company, post-doc at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 33 years as Professor at the University of Arizona, and co-founder of a successful startup company that became a world leader in vision-based rock fragmentation measurement software and point-cloud based rock mass characterization software. He earned BS degrees in geology and math from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1977, ME and PhD degrees focusing on rock mechanics from the University of California Berkeley in 1982 and 1986. He began his career in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Arizona in 1989, retiring as Emeritus Professor in 2022. At the University of Arizona Dr. Kemeny published over 170 papers, gave over 80 invited technical talks and workshops, and graduated 15 PhD and over 50 masters students, with research and teaching focused on rock mechanics, slope stability, rock fracture mechanics, numerical simulation in rock mechanics, and developing 3D imaging and sensing technologies for geotechnical applications. In 1998 he co-founded Split Engineering with three students, a spinoff company focused on new technologies for measuring rock fragmentation and point cloud processing software for slope and underground stability. The company had offices in the US, Chile, Peru, South Africa and Australia and was acquired by Hexagon Mining in 2019. Since retiring from the University of Arizona, Dr. Kemeny has been involved with integrating AI into the applied geology fields, to help combat the increasing hazards due to climate change.


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October 8, 2024
"Seismic Profiling Across the Eglington and Frenchman Mountain Faults to Identify and Constrain Quaternary Fault Motion" by Professor Lee Liberty, Boise State University, Idaho.
November 12, 2024
"The Community Environmental Monitoring Program: Radiological Monitoring of Air and Groundwater Surrounding and Downwind of the Nevada National Security Site, Including Data from the Las Vegas Valley and Boulder City" by Beverly Parker, Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, Nevada.
January 14, 2025
"Mapping the Heat Islands of Las Vegas and Reno: Towards a More Heat Resilient Nevada" by Dr. Thomas Albright, Associate Professor and Deputy State Climatologist, Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno.
February 11, 2025
Jahns Lecture: "Advanced Edge-AI Monitoring Technologies for Combating the Geologic and Hydrologic Hazards Associated with Climate Change" by Dr. John Kemeny, Emeritus Professor, Mining and Engineering Geology, University of Arizona, Tucson. 2024-2025 AEG Jahns Lecturer.
March 11, 2025
"Flood-Managed Aquifer Recharge, and Modeling Contaminant Movement in the Central Valley of California" by Dr. Zach Perzan, Geoscience Department, UNLV.
April 8, 2025
"70 Years of Flood Control in the Las Vegas Valley: Historical Floods and the District's Response" by Andrew Trelease, Assistant General Manager, Clark County Regional Flood Control District.
April 12, 2025
Field trip to Tropicana Detention Basin, discussion of its strategic location, led by Andrew Trelease.
May 13, 2025
“Threats to Western Water Security as Viewed from Space” by Dr. Jay Famiglietti, Arizona State University.
May 31, 2025