Geosciences & Remote Sensing
Spatial analysis of terrain, mineral outcrops, and infrastructure footprints. Working with raster and vector data, satellite imagery, and field-derived geology.
⌖ 37.2°N · 80.4°W — Field Site 01
Shaurya Prakash.
Geosciences × Economics × Critical Minerals
Undergraduate Researcher · Virginia Tech
I build research at the boundary of earth systems, energy infrastructure, mineral supply chains, and public policy.
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Elev · 612mBearing · N 24° EDawn light · 06:14● recording
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About
My work asks a practical question: how do the materials, landscapes, markets, and communities behind the energy transition actually fit together? I combine geoscience, economic reasoning, spatial analysis, and data systems to study critical minerals, hydrogen, mining, water, and infrastructure constraints.
Critical Minerals & Mining Systems
Supply-chain resilience for platinum-group metals, cobalt, and aggregate operations. Material flow analysis from extraction through recovery.
Energy Economics & Hydrogen
Wind-to-hydrogen siting, LCOH modeling, and the data-center water footprint. Economic constraints on infrastructure that has to actually be built.
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Research Areas
Five connected paths through the same landscape — each is its own research arc, but they share data, methods, and a stubborn focus on what is actually buildable.
Critical Minerals Framing Experiment
- Public perception of domestic mining under four message frames.
- Survey experiment design — environmental cost, ethical sourcing, national security, economic opportunity.
Virginia Wind-to-Hydrogen Modeling
- Spatial wind siting screened by transmission proximity and protected lands.
- Hydrogen production economics under PJM nodal price coupling and stochastic demand.
Mining & Quarry Operations Technology
- Digital logging, inventory, and schematics deployed at a working aggregates plant.
- Atomic stock deductions, click-to-log schematic viewer, plant-LAN dashboards.
Data Centers, Water & Energy Infrastructure
- Virginia data-center growth modeled against water demand and aquifer stress.
- Energy-water coupling, reclaimed water and aquifer-recharge feasibility.
PGM / Critical Mineral Supply Chains
- Platinum-group metal flows from mine through autocatalyst recovery.
- Electrolyzer demand, recycling rates, and technology-transition scenarios.
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Project Case Studies
Four research portals embedded in the landscape. Open one to read the full architecture, methods, and findings.
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Methods & Toolbox
The research operating system. Tools grouped by domain, connected by the data they share — geospatial layers feeding economic models, statistical estimates feeding visual stories.
Geospatial
- QGIS
- GDAL
- Rasterio
- GeoPandas
- Remote sensing
Statistics
- Python
- pandas
- statsmodels
- scipy
- Experimental design
Energy modeling
- LCOH
- Monte Carlo
- PJM nodal pricing
- NREL-style dispatch
Web & data systems
- Streamlit
- MySQL
- SQLite
- Power BI
- Dashboard design
Visualization
- matplotlib
- R
- Power BI
- GIS maps
- three.js
System status · operational
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Writing & Papers
The archive — working papers, posters, proposals, and technical reports. Drafts available on request.
- Status
Working paper
Nudging Perceptions of Critical Minerals: Framing, Supply Chains, and Willingness to Pay
Experimental evidence on how four message frames shape U.S. public support for domestic critical-mineral mining and willingness to pay a domestic-sourcing price premium.
- Status
Proposal
Modeling Water Demand from Virginia’s Data Center Boom
A research design coupling cooling-water demand under several growth scenarios with reclaimed-water and aquifer-recharge supply pathways across Northern Virginia watersheds.
- Status
Poster
Wind-to-Hydrogen Potential in Virginia
Spatial screening + techno-economic framework that combines wind capacity factors, transmission proximity, and PJM price coupling to identify hydrogen-ready sites.
- Status
Technical report
Quarry Inventory Logging System: Technical Architecture
Architecture of a Streamlit + SQLite operations platform deployed at an aggregates plant, including the WAL + BEGIN IMMEDIATE pattern for atomic stock deductions.
- Status
Working paper
PGM Catalyst Recovery: Bottlenecks Across Mine, Refine, and Reuse
Material flow analysis of platinum-group metals through extraction, autocatalyst service life, and end-of-life recovery, with policy levers for supply resilience.
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Contact
Let’s talk about
minerals, models,
and infrastructure.
Critical minerals, mining systems, energy economics, geoscience data, or research collaboration — happy to hear about any of it.