AI4EO Accelerator

The AI4EO Accelerator bridges the gap between Artificial Intelligence and Earth Observation by connecting partners in industry, national and international organisations and the third sector with students on short innovative projects. Project themes are selected for their value, impact, feasibility, and relevance to earth observation research. The AI4EO Accelerator is a collaboration between ESA Φ-Lab and the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in the Application of Artificial Intelligence to the study of Environmental Risks, hosted jointly by University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey. Over the last decade, rapid developments in digital technologies and in our capability to monitor our home planet from space with Earth Observation (EO) satellites resulted in large amounts of data. The rate at which data is generated is ever increasing for example by the new generation of satellites coming online, including the Copernicus system and New Space. The AI4EO Accelerator facilitates high impact innovative research sprints. To select end-user relevant topics, AI4ER partners who come from industry, the third sector as well as national and international institutions, help setting several environmental themes. Themes are focused into specific challenge questions which are tackled by the teams of AI4ER master students from December to March. The AI4EO Accelerator project aims to address questions raised by the current partners of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in the Application of Artificial Intelligence to the study of Environmental Risks. In addition to benefiting from the direct involvement of the partners in CDT activities, the students also benefit from exposure to a broad range of future career options nationally and internationally, within and beyond academia.