RECENT DISCOVERIES OF POTENTIALLY HABITABLE PLANETS ORBITING NEARBY STARS AFFORD AN UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY TO PROBE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS. FUTURE MISSIONS SUCH AS THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH IN LATE 2018 WILL ATTEMPT TO OBSERVE THESE PLANETS LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF LIFE. THESE OBSERVATIONS HOWEVER ARE LIKELY TO TAKE MANY DAYS RESTRICTING FOCUS TO ONE OR TWO TERRESTRIAL TARGETS. WITH MANY POSSIBLE TARGETS AND SCARCE OBSERVATION TIME IT IS CRITICAL TO ASSESS WHICH EXOPLANET IS THE OPTIMAL TARGET FOR FUTURE OBSERVATIONS I.E. WHICH EXOPLANET IS MOST LIKELY TO BE HABITABLE ABLE TO SUSTAIN LIFE. TO ADDRESS THIS PRESSING ISSUE I WILL PERFORM AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF HABITABILITY AND LEVERAGE THE TECHNIQUES OF MACHINE LEARNING TO CREATE A METRIC THE EXOPLANET HABITABILITY INDEX (EHI) TO PRIORITIZE WHICH TARGET AMONG THE POPULATION OF POTENTIALLY HABITABLE EXOPLANETS IS THE MOST LIKELY TO BE HABITABLE IN ORDER TO HELP ACHIEVE NASA'S STRATEGIC GOAL OF FINDING EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE AND IS PART OF PSD'S FOCUS ON "[I]NVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING THE CHEMISTRY ASTROBIOLOGY DYNAMICS AND ENERGETICS OF EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS." I WILL USE THE CODE VPLANET DEVELOPED BY BARNES UNDER THE NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE'S VIRTUAL PLANETARY LABORATORY TO RUN SIMULATIONS INCLUDING PHYSICS RANGING FROM ORBITAL DYNAMICS TO ATMOSPHERIC ESCAPE TO PERFORM A COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF AN EXOPLANET'S POTENTIAL HABITABILITY A TASK NO STUDY HAS ATTEMPTED TO DATE. I WILL LEVERAGE THE METHODS OF THE BURGEONING FIELD OF DATA SCIENCE IN PARTICULAR MACHINE LEARNING TO PREDICT THE RESULTS OF VPLANET SIMULATIONS AND DEVELOP A ROBUST ALGORITHM TO INTELLIGENTLY TRAVERSE HIGH-DIMENSIONAL PARAMETER SPACE IN ORDER TO MAKE COMPUTING THE EHI COMPUTATIONALLY POSSIBLE. I WILL THEN TEST OPTIMIZE AND VALIDATE THIS METHOD ON A LOWER-DIMENSIONAL SIMULATION SET ADDRESSING A SCIENCE QUESTION RELATED TO HABITABILITY SUCH AS WATER LOSS AROUND LATE-TYPE STARS. USING THESE RESULTS I WILL THEN CREATE A FRAMEWORK TO ESTIMATE THE PROBABILITY THAT A EXOPLANET IS HABITABLE THE EHI AND APPLY THE EHI ON KNOWN POTENTIALLY HABITABLE EXOPLANETS. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EHI WILL BE AN INTERDISCIPLINARY EFFORT FOR A PHD STUDENT BY COMBINING THE THEORY AND METHODS OF THE FIELDS OF ASTRONOMY ASTROBIOLOGY AND DATA SCIENCE. SUCH A UNION IS REQUIRED IF WE ARE TO DEVELOP A ROBUST FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING THE COMPLEX INTERDISCIPLINARY PROBLEM OF PLANETARY HABITABILITY. THE EHI WILL BE A CRUCIAL METRIC FOR PRIORITIZING EXOPLANET TARGETS FOR FUTURE NASA EXOPLANET CHARACTERIZATION MISSIONS SUCH AS THE UPCOMING JWST BY PREDICTING WHICH TARGET IS MOST LIKELY TO SUSTAIN LIFE. TO THIS END THE EHI WILL PROVE TO BE AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT REQUIRED FOR NASA'S GOALS OF ASCERTAINING THE POTENTIAL FOR AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE AND DETERMINING WHERE IT COULD EXIST TODAY.