Archives: Team

I am a passionate about using technology to improve human life quality and believe that Remote Sensing with its capacity for global monitoring, provides an effective and unique tool. As a researcher, I focused my work in monitoring natural disasters, such as landslides and
volcanic eruptions, because today’s technologies provide new possibilities to reduce risks for human lives.
During my experience as a visiting researcher in the Φ-lab, I found a way to use the latest methods of AI to mine information in satellite data for natural hazards assessment and, consequently, risk reduction. 

My background is in Remote Sensing. I have a Master Degree in Electronic Engineering for Automation and Telecommunications from University of Sannio and I am candidate for a PhD in Information Technologies for Engineering.

I am a computer scientist with a passion for using computational methods in addressing urban and environmental problems. My research focus is on the design of algorithms for extracting patterns from spatio-temporal data. The knowledge acquired from such data can be used to create a data-driven and system-level view of an urban/environmental phenomenon. This knowledge can lead to better decisions for addressing these problems. One of my goals is to make these algorithms more accessible to domain users by automating low-level tasks in the machine learning pipeline that are often time-consuming and tedious. 

I am currently working as assistant professor at Leiden University. I had an amazing time as a Φ-lab visiting scholar for a month in October 2019, focusing on the design of new algorithms for enhancing physical spatio-temporal models using AI and machine learning. I received my PhD degree in computer science from the University of Twente in 2015, followed by a post-doc research period on spatio-temporal data analysis from 2015–2017. I joined Leiden University, respectively, in 2017. Currently, I am also affiliated with the Leiden Centre of Data Science (LCDS), where I collaborate with researchers in other disciplines (e.g., environmental scientist) with interest in spatio-temporal data modelling.

My passion is to use mathematics and computer science to solve relevant problems. As an Industry Fellow from Airbus Defence and Space in the Φ-lab, I can do just that. My mission is to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to Earth Observation (EO) data, in particular to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. With Deep Learning (DL), I can use the full spatiotemporal potential of time series of observations. My research activities include land cover segmentation and crop classification. As an industry visiting researcher, I also try to use datasets, tools both from ESA and Airbus: Copernicus Sentinel-1 and TerraSAR-X for example. I have a MSc in Computational Science and Engineering from ETH of Zürich, where I learned the theoretical basis of Machine Learning (ML) and Computer Vision (CV). I also carried concrete projects in DL, for example with a Berlin-based Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) start-up. I am interested in other aspects of ML as well, such as Natural Processing (NLP), and I wrote my MSc Thesis about word representation and text classification for chatbots at SAP Conversational AI in Paris. I am fascinated that similar models, or also medical ones, can be applied to monitoring agricultural topics from space.

With my work I am trying to connect advanced technologies with real-world challenges. Agricultural insurance provides many opportunities to do so. There is a need for detailed field assessments on large geographical scales. This corresponds well with the capabilities of current remote sensing data. I use data processing, data analysis and Machine Learning to solve challenges such as the assessment of large scale drought events on crops like winter wheat. During my stay at the Φ-lab, I evaluated capabilities of different Sensors (Copernicus Sentinel-1 and 2) for detecting damage in Maize fields. The aim is to make these technologies and solutions available for the processes within the insurance sector as well as to the people actually working on the fields. 

I studied Land and Infrastructure Management with a focus on geographic information systems at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, where I also worked after my graduation in the field of Remote Sensing. Since 2016, I work for the Austrian Hail Insurance where I am responsible for all Remote Sensing related activities.