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Chaos, Computation, Analysis and Optimization


CaCAO stands for Chaos, Computation, Analysis and Optimization. We are a student and postdoc driven group of applied mathematicians, Earth scientists, ocean acousticians and engineers. We share a common goal of developing computational tools for solving high-dimensional problems in Earth science. Our main focus is on fitting models to data. We also organize the CaCAO Days. We meet every other week on Fridays and discuss topics that interest us. If you want to join CaCAO, contact one of us.

D. Hodyss and M. Morzfeld, Using Diffusion Models to do Data Assimilation, arXiv:2506.02249 (2025).

E. Vargas Huitzil, M. Morzfeld, S. Constable, RamBO: Randomized blocky Occam, a practical algorithm for generating blocky models and associated uncertainties. Geophysical Journal International 241(1), 567-579 (2025).

D.N. Vishny, M. Morzfeld, K. Gwirtz, E. Bach, O.R.A. Dunbar, D. Hodyss, High-dimensional covariance estimation from a small number of samples, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 16, e2024MS004417 (2024).

M. Morzfeld, D. Hodyss, A theory for why even simple covariance localization is so useful in ensemble data assimilation, Monthly Weather Review 151(3), 717-736 (2023).

D. Hodyss, M. Morzfeld, How sampling errors in covariance estimates cause bias in the Kalman gain and impact ensemble data assimilation, Monthly Weather Review 151(9), 24132426 (2023).

X.T. Tong, M. Morzfeld, Localized ensemble Kalman inversion, Inverse Problems 39 064002 (2023).


Matthias Morzfeld's research interests are, broadly: interdisciplinary mathematical/stochastic modeling, data assimilation, Monte Carlo sampling, reduced order modeling. Specifically: numerical methods for data assimilation and inverse problems.

Rebecca Gjini joined Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD as a graduate student with a B.S. in Mathematics from Lehigh University. Rebecca is interested in using derivative-free parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification methods to improve our understanding of clouds and the climate system.

Ellen Davenport is a graduate student at SIO and her research is at the intersection of geophysical fluid dynamics and computational sciences. She uses optimization and Bayesian estimation techniques to assimilate ocean data into a general circulation model for the purposes of observing system design, process understanding, and model improvement.

Eliana Vargas Huitzil is a graduate student at SIO and her research interests include marine electromagnetic methods and inverse theory. She is one of the inventors of RamBO.

Kyle Ivey is a graduate student at SIO and his research interests include marine electromagnetic methods and inverse theory. Amongst other things he is building an ES-MDA for GEOS.

Lorenzo Beronilla is an undergraduate student in Mathematics at UCSD. In his research, Lorenzo investigates the use of ensemble methods for shocked reacting flows. He targets his methods to be applicable to state estimation within a rotating detonation rocket engine.

David Culver is an undergraduate student studying Physics and Mathematics at UCSD. In his research, he uses Neural Networks to interpolate and extrapolate LiDAR wave-height data collected with a drone hovering over breaking waves off China Rock near Monterey, CA.

Jeremy Wing Ching Wong is a graduate student at SIO. His research focuses on seismology and geophysical inversion, using Bayesian estimation and numerical simulations to better constrain earthquake source processes and improve our understanding of how earthquakes rupture.

Luisa Watkins Luisa Watkins is a graduate student in both Electrical & Computer Engineering and SIO at UCSD. Her research interests include signal processing in underwater acoustics, specifically focusing on probabilistic graphical models and Bayesian estimation for underwater source localization and geoacoustic inversion.

Jaime Landeros is a graduate student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCSD and his research focuses on multifidelity methods for Bayesian parameter inference, as applied to space radiation transport codes.

Opal Issan is a graduate student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego, specializing in computational plasma physics. Her research focuses on understanding how whistler waves affect plasma turbulence in Earth's magnetosphere. She collaborates with Los Alamos National Laboratory and General Atomics, with a significant part of her work involving the development of efficient numerical techniques for solving high-dimensional kinetic plasma equations.

Billy Jenkins is a postdoc at SIO and interested in ocean acoustics.

Alumni

David Vishny was a graduate student at SIO and his research interests include climate science and data science. Amongst other things, he created a noise informed covariance estimation (NICE) method. After earning his Ph.D., he left SIO to become a postdoc at NYU.

Hunter Akins was a Ph.D. student, then postdoc and then research scientist at SIO. He works on ocean acoustics and in 2025 moved to the Centre for Maritime Resarch and Experimentation (La Spezia, Italy).

Nate Linden was a graduate student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego, specializing in using numerical tools for systems biology. After earning his Ph.D., he left UCSD to join the tech and startup world.

Ryan Saenger was a graduate student at SIO and interested in ocean acoustics. After earning his Ph.D., he left SIO to join MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Contact information

Email: matti [at] ucsd [dot] edu

Mail: Matthias Morzfeld, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics,Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego,9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0225, La Jolla, CA 92093-0225