• Date: 6-10 January 2025
• Location: Terceira Mar Hotel, Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Azores , Portugal
  
• Timezone: UTC -1; GMT-1
• Event Type: Hybrid, full-week, technical and networking. Remote is watch-only; active participation is limited.
• Registration for attendance in person is by invitation only.

• Online attendance: Register here
• Email: juliaeo@aircentre.org
• GitHub: JuliaEO25 repository (notebooks)
• JuliaEO 2024:
• Website
• GitHub: JuliaEO repository (notebooks)
• JuliaEO 2023:
• Website
• GitHub: JuliaEO repository (notebooks)

The training workshop jointly organized by the Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre) and the United Nations Conference on Trade (UNCTAD) and Development aims at developing the computer programming skills of those working on Earth Observation, including the members of the and other laboratories.

To stimulate collaboration beyond the training, the workshop is in person (full week). However, due to the high level of interest, remote participation is also possible. Remote participants will be able to watch the sessions live. Remote active participation is possible but limited to text chat.

The topics covered include acquisition, processing, visualisation, and classification of Earth Observation data, using the Julia programming language.

The training workshop will emphasize practical activities including the use of datasets, libraries/packages, automated workflows, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and classification algorithms. Theory-oriented sessions will introduce the concepts and hands-on activities.

The open-source Julia language is relatively recent. It was created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), first released in 2012, and reached the v1.0 milestone in 2018. Julia has a vocation for high-performance scientific computing, making it today’s ideal choice to work on resource-intensive datasets such as the Earth Observation ones.

Mutual benefits expected to arise from the collaboration of the AIR Centre and the Julia community include:

• Capacity building for invited institutions.
• Create collaboration opportunities between the participants and speakers.
• Create the potential to extend the Portuguese contribution to the scientific community.
• Bringing together the two communities around Julia: developers and end-users.
• Opening new avenues for collaboration on both software and science.
• Contributing to strengthening the open source / science community.
• Creating an axis of collaboration to study the Azores region using Earth Observation, numerical models, and data products.
• Finding new prospective contributors to Julia packages; helping developers build up their user community; identifying needs and desired new features.
• Providing additional exposure for the products and activity of the AIR Centre; via US and EU growing Julia communities.

The workshop will encompass different levels of expertise, from beginner to advanced, with a focus on Earth Observation concepts and programming skills.

• Plenary sessions - Cross-disciplinary training focused on theory and high-level concepts. These include the presentation of novel EO datasets i.e. satellite data, ocean models, and model products; processing & visualization techniques as well as available tools and packages. The first goal is to learn about new datasets and sources, libraries, packages, techniques, and implementation details. A secondary aim of this module is to identify gaps in the EO domain and opportunities to close those gaps using the Julia programming language.

• Hands-on sessions - The modules will focus on concrete goals in data acquisition, processing & visualization techniques for example. They are designed to bridge between concepts and real-life applications through extended tutorials. Participants will get an introduction, through these tutorials, to performing common geospatial tasks using Julia geospatial tools and common geospatial libraries and packages.

• Hackathons - Session that brings together Julia developers to enhance collaboration on EO applications and software development. The goal is to organize the last module of the day in the common room and enable everyone to work on intermediate & advanced level aspects according to their specific interests.

• Expert hour - Experts remain in the room for informal conversations and discussions with the presencial participants.

Please be aware that online sessions will not be available on Friday, as this day is specifically designed for in-person participation.

The following speakers have been selected from the Julia community to participate in this training event. The speakers involve a mix of seasoned and young/aspiring scientists. The selection was based on the level of skill and commitment demonstrated, with contributions to the EO software packages which are most needed for AIR Centre’s current work and future development.

Additionally, there are a small group of scientists from the AIR Centre or related to its activities.

Confirmed Speakers (alphabetically)

Adriana Ferreira

Adriana Ferreira recently joined the AIR Centre as a Project Developer, following the completion of her PhD in Surveying Engineering at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto. Her work has primarily focused on ocean applications, with particular expertise in submesoscale processes, such as short-period internal waves. Adriana’s research combines satellite observations, in situ data, oceanographic models, and, more recently, machine learning techniques to advance understanding in this field.

• LinkedIn
• ORCID

Alexander Barth

Alexander Barth is an associate professor at the GeoHydrodynamics and Environment Research (GHER) group, of the University of Liège (Belgium). He obtained his PhD in 2004 at the University of Liège on data assimilation in nested ocean models. After his post-doc at the College of Marine Science of the University of South Florida, he worked on variational interpolation with DIVA and DIVAnd and he is principal investigator of several European projects aiming to apply and improve these tools for generating climatologies based on in situ observations. Recently he also investigated the use of machine learning techniques with ocean remote sensing data.

• GitHub
• ORCID

Alex Gardner

Alex is a Research Scientist in JPL’s Sea Level And Ice Group. He studies the Earth's cryosphere (frozen Earth) with a particular focus on glaciers and ice sheets and their impacts on sea level rise and water resources. He is most interested in how glaciers respond to natural and human induced forcing and the implications for our future. Alex is a member of NASA's ICESat-2, NISAR, GRACE, Surface Topography and Vegetation, Surface Deformation and Change, and Sea Level Change Science Teams. He is also involved with many novel initiatives to measure ice on Earth, and elsewhere, including the use of snake-like robots (EELS) to look for life under Enceladus’ icy shell. Alex is also PI of the ITS_LIVE NASA MEaSUREs initiative.

• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• ORCID

Anas Abdelrehim

Anas Abdelrehim is a machine learning engineer specializing in applying AI to engineering systems. As the technical lead for JuliaSim AI, he focuses on developing and productionizing algorithm. for surrogate generation, digital twins, and model discovery, with a priority on safety and reliability in real-world and critical systems. Anas has developed scalable pipelines that enable engineers to build digital twins for complex systems, which are then used in global optimization and calibration routines, and automated model discovery tools for identifying missing dynamics in physical models.

He recently presented at JuliaCon 2024 on applying CI/CD workflows to machine learning model development within the Julia ecosystem, introducing techniques to streamline experimentation and enhance model tracking. Anas is also an author of Scientific Machine Learning (SciML) Surrogates for Industry, Part 1: The Guiding Questions, a publication that sets the groundwork for understanding surrogates—their usefulness, utility, and why they represent next-generation technology for engineers and scientists alike.

• GitHub

Anshul Singhvi

Contributor to the Makie.jl data visualization library and the author of its geospatial extension GeoMakie,jl. Also an author of the GeometryOps.jl package for 2D geographic geometry processing, and contributor to many other packages in the JuliaGeo ecosystem. Interested in geospatial problems and how principles from other fields can be applied to solve them!

• LinkedIn
• ORCID
• GitHub

Chris Rackauckas

Research Affiliate and Co-PI of the Julia Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Director of Modeling and Simulation at Julia Computing and Creator / Lead Developer of JuliaSim Director of Scientific Research at Pumas-AI and Creator / Lead Developer of Pumas Lead Developer of the SciML Open Source Software Organization.

• GitHub
• Website
• X Twitter

Eigil Yuichi Hyldgaard Lippert

Eigil Lippert is currently pursuing a Ph.d. in Numerical Glaciology in which he is working with a reconstruction of the Greenland ice sheet and its glaciers, going back to the last little ice age. This work is mostly centred around finite element modelling of glaciers and trying to understand their main drivers and dynamics.

Before this, he did a master’s degree in engineering, focused on earth observation data, large-scale physics, and machine learning. He was involved in satellite observation and analysis and developed a method for synthesizing landslides in the InSAR coherence domain and building an algorithm that could detect these signatures in real-world SAR Coherence data. He also developed an InSAR coherence processor in Julia which could process SLC data and create interferograms and coherence estimates. He is currently in the process of porting this work into an open-source library, together with 3 other people.

• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• ORCID

Felix Cremer

Felix Cremer received his diploma in mathematics from the University of Leipzig in 2014. In 2016 he started his PhD study on time series analysis of hypertemporal Sentinel-1 radar data.
He is interested in the use of irregular time series tools on Synthetic Aperture Radar data to derive more robust information from these data sets.
He worked on the development of deforestation mapping algorithms and on flood mapping in the amazon using Sentinel-1 data.
He currently works at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry on the development of the JuliaDataCubes ecosystem in the scope of the NFDI4Earth project. The JuliaDataCubes organisation provides easy to use interfaces for the use of multi dimensional raster data.

• GitHub
• ORCID

Gaël Forget

Currently works as a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. Research interests and expertise include ocean modeling, insitu and satellite observations, ocean physics and marine ecosystems, climate change, climatology, and inverse estimation in general (incl. data assimilation, AI/ML, differentiable programming). Creator and leader of the JuliaOcean and JuliaClimate organizations. Lead developer of a series of Julia packages focused on ocean and climate science. These include MeshArrays.jl (JuliaCon18), ClimateModels.jl and MITgcm.jl (JuliaCon21, JuliaCon23), Drifters.jl and OceanRobots.jl (JuliaCon21, JuliaCon23).

• GitHub
• Twitter
• ORCID

Iga Szczesniak

Iga recently joined the European Space Agency (ESA) as a Space Innovation Engineer. She holds a master’s degree in Geoinformatics, Photogrammetry, and Remote Sensing obtained from the University of Science and Technology in Cracow. Before joining ESA, Iga worked as a Project Developer at the Earth Observation Laboratory of the AIR Centre. Iga is involved in the implementation of projects using Earth Observation data and the Internet of Things, as well as the Julia programming language. Furthermore, she is interested in the commercialization of technology and sustainable development. Currently, she is pursuing a master's program in space entrepreneurship at the European Institute for Innovation and Sustainability.

• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• X Twitter

Iúri Diogo

Iúri holds a MSc in Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Modeling from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning (IGOT-UL). He is currently an intern at the AIR Centre, where he focuses on the use of deep learning and the Julia programming language to develop artificial intelligence algorithms.

• LinkedIn

Jingyi "Ann" Chen

Ann Chen has more than 15 years of experience in SAR/InSAR algorithm design for earth system science applications. In 2017, she joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 2018, she has also served as a faculty member (by courtesy) in the Department of Geological Sciences at UT Austin. She currently leads the Radar Interferometry Group housed in the Center for Space Research. Her group focuses on the development of new satellites, and especially interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques, for studying natural and induced seismicity, groundwater resources, natural disasters, and permafrost hydrology and carbon storage. She is a senior member of IEEE.

• Website

João Gonçalves

João Gonçalves is a tech enthusiast with over a decade of hands-on experience in software engineering and IT ops. A Linux power user, network tinkerer, and software craftsman, he loves nothing more than diving into complex systems and making them run smoother, faster, and smarter. Currently at AIR Centre, João is immersed in the exciting world of high-performance computing (HPC), where he maintains a cutting-edge HPC datacenter, develops innovative software solutions and contributes to impactful projects.

• LinkedIn
• GitHub

Joao Pinelo

I am the Head of Data Science, Cloud Infrastructure and Development at the Atlantic International Research Centre. He has been at the Earth Observation Lab (AIR Centre) - a laboratory of the European Space Agency (ESA) - since 2020, where he is responsible for founding and organising JuliaEO (Global Workshop on Earth Observation with Julia) - editions: 2023, 24, 25; Senior project manager for building and setting up a data centre; Define and manage systems’ architectures for networking, storage and computation of the datacentre, which he set up as a hybrid cloud. He has been responsible for many other projects and developed several real-time web applications for EO data and alert systems. He is the architectiof the IoT network of the Azores, the Atlantic Cloud and the Internal Waves Service, among other.

• GitHub
• ORCID
• LinkedIn

Maarten Pronk

Maarten Pronk is a researcher at Deltares and an external PhD candidate at the Delft University of Technology. He holds a MSc in Geomatics and a BSc in Architecture, both from the Delft University of Technology (NL). His research concerns elevation modelling, especially in lowlands prone to coastal flooding. He aims to combine his interests in remote sensing and software engineering for societal impact. He promotes open and reproducible research and is the author of several open-source software packages for handling geospatial data, written in the Julia programming language. His work often involves handling trillions of elevation measurements, requiring a careful selection and design of both spatial storage formats and processing algorithms. Currently he works on applying data from ICESat-2, a LiDAR satellite, on global elevation models.

• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• Twitter
• ORCID

Milan Klöwer

Milan Klöwer is a Schmidt AI in Science Fellow at the University of Oxford. He did his postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) working on climate model development. He has research interests in combining physics and machine learning for climate modelling, but also work on low precision computing, data compression and information theory, predictability of weather and climate, and software engineering. In addition, he occasionally works on climate impacts of aviation, and the impact of global warming on heat illnesses since his PhD from Oxfordl. He currently develops SpeedyWeather.jl, a global atmospheric model designed as a research playground to develop prototype ideas on machine-learned representations of climate processes and computationally efficient climate models.

• GitHub
• X Twitter
• ORCID

Nathanael Wong

Nathanael is a 5th-year PhD Candidate at Harvard University studying Tropical climate using a range of observations, reanalysis and modelling tools. He has developed a few Julia packages, such as GeoRegions.jl and NASAPrecipitation.jl, to help with his work that requires retrieval and use of Earth Observational datasets. He also uses Julia to analyze model output from WRF and SAM.

• GitHub
• X Twitter

Rafael Schouten

Rafael Schouten is an Australian macroecologist with a background in niche and dispersal modelling of terrestrial plant and animal distributions in the context of climate, invasive species and deforestation. Currently he is doing a PhD in drivers of island extinctions at the Center for Macroecology, Evoloution and Climate in Copenhagen.

Rafael authors Rasters.jl and packages on spatial process modelling such as DynamicGrids.jl along with a number of supporting tools like DimensionalData.jl and ModelParameters.jl. He also works on or co-maintains a number of the JuliaGeo packages and related tools.

• GitHub
• ORCID

Simone Silvestri

Simone did his PhD at TU Delft in the Netherlands where he developed GPU based tools for direct numerical simulation of high temperature turbulent flows and studied the influence of different heat transfer mechanisms on turbulence modulation. He is now a postdoc at MIT where he is developing a new generation ocean model within the climate modeling alliance project.

• GitHub

1. Is there a fee to attend the workshop? No.
2. Do I need to register to attend the workshop?
   Yes. If you (your institution) received an invitation, please write to juliaeo@aircentre.org and request access to the form to register.
   
3. Does the AIR Centre provide transfers between the airport and the hotel? Yes, but only for the speakers on Terceira Island.

The workshop will take place at Terceira Mar Hotel, in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island. The hotel is located close to the Historic Centre of the Town of Angra do Heroísmo ​​inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Invited speakers will also be hosted at the hotel.

In-person participants who wish to stay at the hotel shall mention the event to get special pricing.

• Joao Pinelo, Adriana Ferreira, Chris Rackauckas, Gael Forget.