CW3E Welcomes Dr. Anass Houdou

January 15, 2026

Anass joined CW3E in November 2025 as a Postdoctoral Scholar jointly appointed between CW3E and the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health (HWSPH), following the completion of his PhD in Epidemiology and Artificial Intelligence at Mohammed VI University of Sciences and Health in Morocco. His expertise includes data science, data mining, and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on machine learning and deep learning. His PhD research centered on air quality prediction using machine learning, including the development of an air-health warning system to forecast air pollution and its health impacts in Morocco up to five days in advance.

Prior to his PhD, Anass earned a Master’s degree in Big Data Analytics and Smart Systems from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Mohammed I University, and a Baccalaureate in Mathematics from Abdelkarim Al Khattabi High School in Morocco.

At CW3E, Anass’s postdoctoral research focuses on improving AI-based, data-driven models for precipitation and atmospheric river forecasting along the western coast of the United States. This includes exploring and enhancing graph neural network (GNN) and graph transformer architectures that form the core of CW3E’s machine-learning forecasting systems. In addition, Anass aims to better understand how environmental, infrastructural, and local factors influence community-level vulnerability in San Diego, and to develop a flood-consequence warning system for the region. At HWSPH, his work focuses on predicting the health impacts of climate change in MENA.