Abstract: As we head toward the fusion of the physical and digital worlds, remote sensing data plays a very important and globally-encompassing role, enabling merging of geospatial perception with reality. Geospatial analytics, fueled by ever-evolving areas of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing and sensing, pave the way for more advanced and innovative applications with global impact. This also involves overcoming new challenges arising as a result of this convergence.

In my talk, I will discuss the development of smarter geospatial analytics that address various data-driven, reality-driven challenges in terms of building AI-based ​“global” models that are robust, efficient, and scalable. Within the precision agriculture space, the focus is on identifying all major crops by using limited optical and radar data. In the context of water pollution monitoring, I will discuss the ​“Bluewater Eye” analytics project for deriving long-term pollution insights based on optical imagery.

Bio: Sukanya Randhawa is an AI researcher at IBM and creator of “ ​‘Bluewater Eye.”