About

Kelly Brumbelow is an Associate Professor and Associate Department Head in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University. Her research interests focus on water resources planning and management, agricultural water resources systems, decision support systems, climate variability and climate change effects, and the assessment of water resources policy. She holds a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, obtained in 2001. Her work involves developing and applying systems to improve water resource management and policy decision-making, addressing challenges related to climate change and variability.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Data Mining
• Artificial Intelligence
• Geography
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Knowledge management
• Environmental science
• Virology
• Social psychology
• Medicine
• Applied psychology
• Pedagogy
• Cartography
• Meteorology
• Remote sensing

Selected publications

• Engineering the Unexpected: Faculty Strategies for Navigating Academic Disruptions

  2025-11-02

  articleSenior author

  This research full paper explores how engineering faculty navigate disruptions in academia, focusing on challenges posed by global events, technological shifts, and institutional changes. Using a qualitative design, focus groups were conducted with faculty at a southwestern U.S. R1 university, revealing key themes around resilience, adaptability, and communication. Faculty identified major disruptions such as the <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$9 / 11$</tex> terrorist attacks, COVID-19, and technological advances like ChatGPT as pivotal in reshaping student attitudes, instructional practices, and institutional structures. They also cited student-level challenges including mental health and visa issues, as direct reflections of broader societal upheavals. Strategies to address disruptions included fostering open communication, building trust, using technology responsibly, and incorporating leadership training. The study emphasizes embedding these practices into routine operations to create a more agile and future-proof academic environment. Findings offer insights for faculty development and institutional policy making, with future research aimed at broader disciplinary and institutional contexts.

  PublisherDOI

• Generative AI Perceptions: A Survey to Measure the Perceptions of Faculty, Staff, and Students on Generative AI Tools in Academia

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023 · 31 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Psychology

  ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool that can engage in human-like conversations and generate coherent and contextually relevant responses to various prompts. ChatGPT is capable of understanding natural text that is input by a user and generating appropriate responses in various forms. This tool represents a major step in how humans are interacting with technology. This paper specifically focuses on how ChatGPT is revolutionizing the realm of engineering education and the relationship between technology, students, and faculty and staff. Because this tool is quickly changing and improving with the potential for even greater future capability, it is a critical time to collect pertinent data. A survey was created to measure the effects of ChatGPT on students, faculty, and staff. This survey is shared as a Texas A&amp;M University technical report to allow other universities and entities to use this survey and measure the effects elsewhere.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Topographic and Landcover Influence on Lower Atmospheric Profiles Measured by Small Unoccupied Aerial Systems (sUAS)

  Drones · 2021 · 5 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Remote sensing
  • Meteorology

  Small unoccupied aerial systems (sUASs) are increasingly being used for field data collection and remote sensing purposes. Their ease of use, ability to carry sensors, low cost, and precise maneuverability and navigation make them a versatile tool for a field researcher. Procedures and instrumentation for sUASs are largely undefined, especially for atmospheric and hydrologic applications. The sUAS’s ability to collect atmospheric data for characterizing land–atmosphere interactions was examined at three distinct locations: Costa Rican rainforest, mountainous terrain in Georgia, USA, and land surfaces surrounding a lake in Florida, USA. This study aims to give further insight on rapid, sub-hourly changes in the planetary boundary layer and how land development alters land–atmosphere interactions. The methodology of using an sUAS for land–atmospheric remote sensing and data collection was developed and refined by considering sUAS wind downdraft influence and executing systematic flight patterns throughout the day. The sUAS was successful in gathering temperature and dew point data, including rapid variations due to changing weather conditions, at high spatial and temporal resolution over various land types, including water, forest, mountainous terrain, agriculture, and impermeable human-made surfaces. The procedure produced reliably consistent vertical profiles over small domains in space and time, validating the general approach. These findings suggest a healthy ability to diagnose land surface atmospheric interactions that influence the dynamic nature of the near-surface boundary layer.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 02 Micropolis

  UKnowledge (University of Kentucky) · 2021-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The Micropolis system is a synthetic system and was originally developed by Brumbelow et al. in 2007 as part of a virtual city for studies on infrastructure security. The system has a total demand of 1.6 MGD, two reservoirs, one tank, eight pumps, and 22.3 miles of pipe. It is classified as distribution branch by Hwang & Lansey (2017) and branched by Hoagland et al. (2015).

  Publisher

• A Rapid and Formative Response by the Engineering Education Faculty to Support the Engineering Faculty and Students Throughout the Extreme Classroom Changes Resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic

  2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings · 2021-08-20

  articleOpen access

  Her research focuses on creating intelligent systems for tasks that require human-like levels of understanding

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• MASS FLUXES OF NITROGEN AND CARBON FROM SOIL WATER TO A FIRST-ORDER MOUNTAIN STREAM IN A PRISTINE COSTA RICAN RAIN FOREST IN RESPONSE TO INDIVIDUAL RAIN EVENTS

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2020-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A Survey to Measure the Effects of Forced Transition to 100% Online Learning on Community Sharing, Feelings of Social Isolation, Equity, Resilience, and Learning Content During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  2020 · 24 citations

  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Psychology

  Survey of student perceptions and experiences with online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Publisher

• Lessons Learned from the First Round of Course Assessments After Curriculum Restructure Based on ASCE BOK2

  2020-09-10 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract A large civil engineering department undertook a curriculum project based on concerns of conceptual gaps and redundancies in the degree program and a desire to holistically incorporate the outcomes from the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century: Preparing the Civil Engineer for the Future, 2nd Edition (BOK2). The process resulted in a comprehensive curriculum map, where each program learning outcome is explicitly connected to courses in the curriculum at one of three levels: “I” for when outcome is first introduced, “R” when outcome is being reinforced, and “D” when outcome is demonstrated and subject to a summative assessment. This process, including notable curriculum changes and lessons learned, has been reported in prior publications. This paper presents the process for implementing the curriculum changes and continuous assessment process, including challenges and lessons learned. Based on the identified course program learning outcomes, individual course worksheets were developed to identify what student work-products, such as homework assignments or exams, would be collected to assess each outcome. The first assessment cycle includes 7 courses evaluated in Spring 2017 and 7 courses currently under evaluation during Fall 2017. The courses range from sophomore level through senior design courses, so assessment results include courses where program learning-outcomes are first introduced to courses where they are demonstrated. Instructors of courses being assessed collect student work-products from randomly selected students. As enrollment in courses vary greatly, the number of students whose work will be utilized must represent at least 10% of the total student enrollment, with a minimum of 5 students being utilized for smaller sections. An assessment team consisting of representatives from each specialty area as well as student representatives assess the work utilizing rubrics developed for each learning outcome. A mixed-methods approach is used to evaluate this first cycle of implementation and assessment. Qualitative results include an evaluation of faculty reception and engagement during the individual course assessment. Quantitative metrics of the process include comparing expected vs. actual/measured: (a) courses evaluated in a given semester; (b) student artifacts; and (c) program learning outcomes demonstrated mastery. Based on the results of this first implementation cycle, refinements for the second implementation cycle are developed and discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Implementation of a Civil Engineering High-impact Learning Practice (HILP) Requirement in Support of ASCE Body of Knowledge (BOK) Outcomes

  2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings · 2020-09-08

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A large civil engineering department has added a formal curriculum requirement for the BS degree that students participate in a high-impact learning practice (HILP) in support of ASCE Body of Knowledge (BOK) outcomes. This requirement evolved from a holistic curriculum transformation process structured around the ASCE BOK version 2; that process postulated that several BOK outcomes underrepresented in coursework (often labeled the "challenging outcomes") could be addressed through HILPs at the approximate midpoint of the BS curriculum. The curricular requirement was instituted in the 2016-2017 academic catalog as a "zero credit hour course" that could be satisfied through a number of civil-engineering focused activities meeting the high-impact learning requirements, such as internship, co-op work semester, study abroad, service learning, undergraduate research, directed studies, co-curricular leadership, and any other experience nominated by a student and approved by the department. The placement of the curricular requirement at the midpoint of the BS degree was purposely selected to ensure students had a solid technical foundation prior to the experience and would have the opportunity to apply some of the knowledge gained to their senior-level courses. The first full cohort of students has recently completed the HILP requirement, providing insight into what the students are gaining from this new requirement.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Measurement of above‐canopy meteorological profiles using unmanned aerial systems

  Hydrological Processes · 2019-11-18 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Amin Rasekh

  Texas A&M University

  13 shared

• Luciana R. Barroso

  Texas A&M University

  13 shared

• Emily M. Zechman

  North Carolina State University

  11 shared

• Aris P. Georgakakos

  10 shared

• Lufthansa Kanta

  University of Houston

  10 shared

• Debra Fowler

  Texas A&M University

  9 shared

• Elizabeth Bristow

  American Military Academy

  9 shared

• Amy Tidwell

  8 shared