Earth Observation Applications (UYGU) Summer School 2021

Berrin Yanikoglu received a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics from Bogazici University in 1988 and her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Dartmouth College, USA in 1993. After a year as a post-doctoral associate at Rockefeller University, she worked at Xerox Imaging Systems and IBM Almaden Research Center on document image understanding problems and has received an IBM Research Award in 1998. Prof. Yanikoglu joined Sabanci University in 2000 as a faculty member, where she has been teaching since, and is serving as the Director of the Sabanci University Center of Excellence in Data Analytics (VERIM) since its foundation in 2016. Prof. Yanikoglu`s research interests lie in machine learning with applications to image/video understanding; and biometric verification and biometric privacy. She and her students have received first-place positions in multiple image understanding and biometric verification competitions worldwide.

Behnood Rasti (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees both in electronics-electrical engineering from the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran, in 2006 and 2009, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher and a Seasonal Lecturer with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Iceland. From 2016 to 2019, he has been a Lecturer with the Center of Engineering Technology and Applied Sciences, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Iceland. His research interests include signal and image processing, machine/deep learning, remote sensing image fusion, hyperspectral feature extraction and classification, spectral unmixing, remote sensing image denoising, and restoration.

Dr. Rasti won the prestigious “Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship Grant” in 2019 and started his work in 2020 as a Humboldt Research Fellow with Machine Learning Group, Helmholtz-Zentrum DresdenRossendorf (HZDR), Freiberg, Germany. He was the Valedictorian as an M.Sc. Student in 2009 and he won the Doctoral Grant of The University of Iceland Research Fund and was awarded “The Eimskip University fund,” in 2013. He serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS (GRSL) and Remote Sensing (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute).

Wenzhi Liao (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree in mathematics from Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China, in 2006, the Ph.D. degree in Engineering from the South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 2012, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science Engineering from Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, in 2012.

From 2012 to 2019, he worked as a Post- Doctoral Research Fellow first with Ghent University and then with the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Vlaanderen, Belgium. From August 2019 to January 2020, he worked as a Lecturer in Strathclyde University (UK). Since 2020, he has been with the Sustainable Materials Management, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium. Wenzhi also works as the Guest Professor of Ghent University. His research interests include image processing, pattern recognition, remote sensing, and material recycling. In particular, his interests include mathematical morphology, multisensor data fusion, hyperspectral image (HSI) restoration, and AI for recycling.

Dr. Liao was a recipient of the Best Paper Challenge Awards in both the 2013 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest and the 2014 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest. He serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING (JSTARS).

Claudio Persello received the Laurea (BSc) and Laurea Specialistica (MSc) degrees in telecommunications engineering and the PhD degree in communication and information technologies from the University of Trento, Trento, Italy, in 2003, 2005, and 2010, respectively.

He is currently an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, The Netherlands. Before joining ITC in 2014, he was a Marie Curie research fellow, conducting research activity at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Remote Sensing Laboratory of the University of Trento. His main research interests are in the context of machine learning and deep learning for information extraction from remotely sensed images and geospatial data. The activity includes the investigation and development of dedicated deep learning techniques for various remote sensing sensor data and multiple applications, focusing on societal challenges in the Global South. He is particularly interested in combining deep learning and Earth observation to address and monitor the progress towards the sustainable development goals.

Dr Persello is a referee for multiple journals in the field of remote sensing and image analysis, including IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE Transactions Image Processing, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing and Pattern Recognition Letters. He is a member of the Remote Sensing editorial board and Associate Editor of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. He served/s on the Scientific Committee of MultiTemp 2011, 3D GeoInfo (since 2018), UAV-g 2019. He is a publication co-chair for IGARSS 2021. He leads a working group on Machine/Deep Learning for Image Analysis (WG-MIA) within the scope of the Image Analysis and Data Fusion (IADF) GRSS technical committee. His PhD thesis was awarded the prize for the best PhD thesis on Pattern Recognition published between 2010 and 2012 by the GIRPR, i.e., the Italian branch of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE

Sébastien Lefèvre graduated from University of Technology of Compiègne (M.Sc. and Eng. degrees, 1999), University of Tours (PhD, 2002) and University of Strasbourg (HDR, 2009). From 2003 to 2010, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences and the Image Sciences, Computer Sciences and Remote Sensing Laboratory (LSIIT), University of Strasbourg-CNRS. In 2009-2010, he was an INRIA invited scientist within the TEXMEX team of IRISA/INRIA Rennes. In 2010, he joined the University Bretagne Sud as a Full Professor in Computer Science (promoted 1st class at the national level in 2017), in the Institute of Technology of Vannes and the Institute for Research in Computer Science and Random Systems (IRISA). He was Deputy Head of the Doctoral School SICMA (2012-2016), and he is currently head of the GeoData Science track of the EMJMD Copernicus Master in Digital Earth. Within IRISA, he has founded and led (2013-2021) the OBELIX team dedicated to Artificial Intelligence for Earth and Environment Observation (www.irisa.fr/obelix). He has supervised 20 PhD/Postdocs and has coauthored more than 150 papers in computer vision, image analysis, pattern recognition, machine learning, and remote sensing. His current research interests are mainly related to hierarchical image analysis and deep learning applied to remote sensing of environment. He was co-chair of GEOBIA 2016, JURSE 2019, and the MACLEAN (Machine Learning for Earth Observation) workshop series of ECML-PKDD. He is Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, and Editorial Board Member of Remote Sensing and ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. He serves as Guest Editor for Special Issues in Remote Sensing, IEEE JSTARS, and Machine Learning.

Ronny Hänsch received his graduate degree in computer science and his Ph.D. degree in engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, in 2007 and 2014, respectively. He is currently with the SAR Technology department of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, and continues to lecture at the Technical University of Berlin. From 2016-17, he was part of the Flying Faculty program at Turkish-German University, Istanbul, Turkey, where he worked as a lecturer in Computer Science. In 2017, he was the recipient of a JSPS PostDoc fellowship and a guest researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. His current research interests focus on ensemble methods and deep learning for analysis of remote sensing images with a focus on synthetic aperture radar. He is co-chair (2017-2021) of the IEEE GRSS Image Analysis and Data Fusion (IADF) Technical Committee and co-chair of the ISPRS Working Group II/1 (Image Orientation). He serves as reviewer for major international conferences (e.g. CVPR, ICCV), as Guest Editor for IEEE JSTARS, as Associate Editor for IEEE GRSL, and as Editor in Chief for the GRSS e-Newsletter.

Devis completed his PhD at University of Lausanne, where he studied kernel methods for hyperspectral satellite data. He then traveled the world as a postdoc, first at University of València, then at CU Boulder and finally back to EPFL, at ENAC. In 2014, he became SNF professor at University of Zurich, and in 2017 he moved to Wageningen University, where he was chair of the Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing Laboratory. Since September, he is back to EPFL, where he leads the Environmental Computational Science and Earth Observation laboratory (ECEO) in Sion. There, he studies the Earth from above.

Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Application and Research Center (ITUAI) was founded in December 2nd, 2018. The center has started working actively after the kick-off meeting in April 24, 2019 with the participation of executive board and all members from various faculties of ITU. At ITUAI, the main mission is to build and improve the capacity of knowledge and human resources in artificial intelligence and data sciences relying on envisioned advances along three venues: (1) Research and Development in AI; (2) Product Development Know-How in AI; (3) AI Education. The center view those three as the legs of an AI tripod because all three aspects need to be considered to establish a strong base and advance in AI. ITUAI Center’s main mission objectives are built around those three legs. The center continues to work actively with many collabrators from national and international institutions, organizations and, industry.