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The ESA Φ-lab Newsletter #10 | September 2023

FOCUS ON THE EO COMMERCIALISATION FORUM

Dear Φ-lab community,

We’re just weeks away now from ESA’s first-ever Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum, to be held at ESA HQ in Paris on 30 and 31 October. It’s not too late to register, and all stakeholders in commercial Earth observation (EO) are encouraged to attend what is certain to be a wide-ranging and inspiring platform for exploring the latest trends and strategies in the sector.

The forum will bring together institutions, investors and businesses from across the European EO industry, giving a unique environment for networking and collaboration discussions. Investors and companies can sign up for a dedicated matchmaking session that will facilitate a discourse on potential partnerships and routes to funding.

A major crowd puller at the event will be the finals of the CommEO Award, a competition aimed at providing visibility and networking opportunities to European EO start-ups. Space entrepreneurs can still submit their proposals at ideas.esa.int, and the top three applicants will have the chance to pitch to a panel of investors, ESA experts and industry representatives on Day 2 of the forum. The top prize will be an exclusive C-level mentorship with ESA Director of Earth Observation Simonetta Cheli.

You can find out more about the Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum on the event website, and you can register here. We hope to see you there, but for those who are unable to attend, the event will be broadcast live on ESA Web TV 2.

In other news, Φ-lab will soon issue an Invitation to Tender for companies in some InCubed Participating States. As part of the new InCubed Invest Actions, the EO Makerspace open competition concerns the setting up of an agile framework for rapid and responsive prototyping of core elements of smart satellite payloads. More details can be found on esa-star Publication.

The Φ-lab team

LATEST FROM THE LAB

AI FOR GOOD GLOBAL SUMMIT 2023

6-7 July - The AI for Good Global Summit is a UN platform promoting AI to advance health, climate, inclusive prosperity and other global development priorities. Φ-lab was represented by Head of the Explore Office Pierre Philippe Mathieu, who spoke at a session on tackling climate change, along with AI Ecosystem Manager Sabrina Ricci. Sabrina took part in a workshop on geospatial AI and also presented an ESA challenge on soil parameter retrieval from hyperspectral data.

EUROPEAN SUMMER SCHOOL ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

24-28 July - Organised by EurAI and TAILOR, this event at the University of Ljubljana comprised over 30 courses and tutorials presented on seven parallel tracks. Φ‑lab's Casper Fibaek presented two sessions, including one on AI4EO and another on flood mapping and impact assessments using Copernicus data sets.

COMMERCIAL SPACE DAYS

11-12 September - Organised by the Swiss Aerospace Cluster together with ESA and Space eXchange Switzerland, Commercial Space Days took place in Lucerne in Switzerland. The objective of the congress was to allow leading space companies to meet with key experts in economics, innovation management and business to discuss entrepreneurship, the space revolution and inputs for the next era of space commercialisation. Head of Φ-lab Giuseppe Borghi attended the event and presented the mission and activities of the ESA InCubed programme.

6th QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE

19-21 September - The Quantum Technology Conference is organised by ESA’s Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality. This year’s edition took place in Matera in Italy and focused on new initiatives and collaborations in quantum technology, strategic challenges, technical developments and emerging opportunities. Φ-lab’s Bertrand Le Saux was on the organising committee and chaired a session on quantum computing, with a keynote speech by Alberto Di Meglio, the Head of CERN openlab.

AI STAR

27-28 September - The Artificial Intelligence Symposium on Theory, Application and Research is an event featuring technical talks, networking and project poster spaces in the fields of research, methods, algorithms and AI applications. Organised by ESA in partnership with Darmstadt Technical University and GSI, the symposium took place both on site at ESA ESOC and online. Pierre Philippe Mathieu gave a talk on the Rise of Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation (AI4EO).

World breakthrough in onboard AI model training presented by Φ-lab at IGARSS

At the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) on 21 July, ESA Φ-lab presented the results of groundbreaking research in artificial intelligence (AI) aboard Earth observation satellites. Carried out by Oxford University and Trillium Technologies in collaboration with Φ-lab, the research successfully trained a cloud-detection Machine Learning model while in flight on a D-Orbit ION mission.

Φ-lab and UNICEF enhance their collaboration with new resources for global child connectivity project

Continuing its joint initiatives with ESA Φ-lab, UNICEF is appointing two researchers to work on a project that forms part of the UN Secretary-General’s Digital Cooperation Roadmap. The project maps current access to electricity and the Internet for schools around the world in support of an ambitious UNICEF target to provide connectivity for every child by 2030.

New opportunities for industrial PhDs in partnership with ESA to work on game-changing Earth Observation topics

As part of the Italian National PhD in Earth Observation scheme, ESA is supporting 10 industrial research fellowships in trailblazing areas such as data fusion, edge computing and artificial intelligence. Driven by the need to nurture new talent in Italy to create the Earth observation experts of tomorrow, the PhDs will involve the analysis and use of Earth observation data across a variety of applications. Each fellowship will include a six-month placement within Φ-lab.

WORKSHOP ON HPC AND INNOVATIVE COMPUTING FOR EO (HPIC4EO)

12 October - Φ-lab is organising a workshop that marks the culmination of a Quantum Computing for EO study run with Forschungszentrum Julich, Thales Alenia Space, INFN and IQM. The event will be held at ESA’s ESRIN establishment and will conclude with a wider discussion on High-Performance and Innovative Computing with a number of specialists in the field. Further details will be published on the Φ-lab LinkedIn group page in due course.

AI + HADR 2023

15 December - The AI + HADR workshop was set up to establish meaningful dialogue between the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) communities. The second day of this two-part workshop will be in New Orleans, and Bertrand Le Saux in his role as one of the organisers will be drawing on Φ-lab’s extensive experience in Machine Learning for EO.