This is a living page of project ideas I am developing, each with a running log of relevant literature and my notes on it. If you are a student looking for a project, or a researcher interested in collaborating on any of these directions, please write to me — the notes below should give you a sense of where each idea stands.
Uncertainty quantification for neural data assimilation
Open Looking for students
End-to-end learned data assimilation frameworks such as 4DVarNet produce state reconstructions, but attaching trustworthy uncertainties to those reconstructions is an open problem. This project explores ensemble-based approaches — in particular spatiotemporally coherent perturbations — to turn a deterministic neural assimilation system into one that produces calibrated ensembles.
Literature & running notes
Spatiotemporal Coherent Displacements for Ensemble-Based Neural Data Assimilation
Our accepted EDS paper — the starting point for this project. The displacement-based perturbations give coherent ensembles; the open question is calibration: how do we verify and improve the spread–skill relationship in the learned setting?
Learning Variational Data Assimilation Models and Solvers (Fablet et al.)
The 4DVarNet reference. Read this first to understand the bi-level structure (inner assimilation solver, outer learned components) that any UQ scheme must respect.
Flow matching for posterior sampling in variational data assimilation
OpenVariational data assimilation gives a mode of the posterior; generative models can give samples. This project investigates bridging variational assimilation with flow matching so that the assimilation system produces genuine posterior samples — the direction I presented at the EnKF Workshop 2026.
Literature & running notes
EnKF Workshop 2026 talk — Bridging Variational DA and Flow Matching for Posterior Sampling
My talk sketching the connection; the project is to develop this into a working method on a quasi-geostrophic testbed and compare against ensemble Kalman baselines.
More project ideas will appear here as the notes mature. If one of these resonates with you — or you see a connection I have missed — reach out.