Frank Avila
Director, Commercial GEOINT Discovery & Assessments Office
Source/Commercial & Business Operations Group

Mr. Avila is currently the Director of the Discovery & Assessments Office, leading the coordination and managing the discovery and assessment of commercial GEOINT solutions for the NSG. He previously served as the Senior Scientist for the Office of Sciences and Methodologies, Directorate of Analysis. He was promoted to the Senior Intelligence Service (SIS) on April 2010.  He is the NGA representative to the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) and the U.S. Group on Earth Observations (USGEO).

Randy Bass
Federal Aviation Administration

Randy Bass manages the Weather Research Branch in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Weather Division. He leads the Aviation Weather Research Program and the Weather Technology in the Cockpit program, overseeing budget, determining programs of record, and executing transition of successful ventures from research to operations. Before becoming manager, he led the Convective Weather Research Program, directing research and development projects to mitigate effects of convective weather on aviation and the National Airspace System. Mr. Bass earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Meteorology from North Carolina State University (1987) and a Master’s Degree in Meteorology from Texas A&M University (1996).

Abstract

Deriving Weather Information From Terrestrial Cameras
The Weather Research Branch of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is leading research to derive real-time weather information from terrestrial weather cameras using crowdsourcing and automated analytics. Visibility, cloud bases, and wind speed and direction are some of the weather parameters being investigated. This presentation will review FAA weather camera research projects, analytics that are being used, and the potential applications of the information for aviation and meteorology.

Drew Baustian
Sales Engineer, MicaSense

Drew Baustian has been in sales with MicaSense since 2016. His past experience includes sales at The Climate Corporation, installation and support for an Ag Leader dealer, field scouting for Pioneer Hi Bred International, and growing up on a corn, soybean and hog farm in Iowa. Drew received his bachelor's degree in agriculture from Cornell University.

Sarah Becker
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Dr. Sarah Becker is a physical scientist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Her work focuses on land cover mapping and statistical modeling to support the Army on a tactical level. She received her PhD in Environmental Health, Science, and Policy from the University of California, Irvine and her bachelor’s degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the Johns Hopkins University.

Stuart Blundell
Presagis

Stuart Blundell is an expert in Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) methods and commercial best-practices in integrated software, data and engineering services to solve national security challenges. Mr. Blundell’s current focus at Presagis is enabling technology solutions for customers at the convergence of GEOINT and 3D modeling and simulation tradecraft.

Phil Dennison
University of Utah

Dr. Philip Dennison is Director of the Utah Remote Sensing Applications Lab and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Utah. In over 20 years as a remote sensing scientist, he has used hyperspectral, multispectral, and lidar remote sensing to research a wide variety of applications, including vegetation biophysical properties and disturbance, invasive vegetation species, wildfire and fire hazard, firefighter safety, and greenhouse gas emissions. He led the first successful effort to image carbon dioxide plumes from power plants using imaging spectrometer data, and is now contributing to the development of new methods for retrieving point source methane and carbon dioxide emissions.

Abstract

Airborne Remote Sensing of Point Source Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Methane and carbon dioxide are powerful greenhouse gases. Fossil fuel power plants are the primary point sources of human carbon dioxide emissions, while methane has diverse anthropogenic point sources, including oil and natural gas infrastructure, landfills, wastewater treatment, and feedlots. For both methane and carbon dioxide, a small number of sources constitute a large percentage of emissions, providing opportunities for monitoring and in some cases, mitigation.

This presentation will describe how absorption by methane and carbon dioxide captured in airborne imaging spectrometer (i.e. hyperspectral) data can be used to retrieve greenhouse gas enhancements and estimate flux. Plume retrievals from a variety of point sources in both the US and India will be demonstrated at spatial resolutions ranging from one to eight meters. Continuing research will provide a pathway to future satellite monitoring of point source greenhouse gas emissions.

Pete Doucette
Lead, Integrated Science and Applications,
Earth Resources and Observation Science Center (EROS), U.S. Geological Survey

Pete is the lead of the Integrated Science and Applications Branch at the USGS Earth Resources and Observation Science Center (EROS) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Pete started a career path in geoinformatics in 1990, which has included positions with the federal government, a national lab, and the private sector. His past projects include R&D spanning remote sensing, machine learning/pattern recognition, photogrammetry, and GIScience applications, and across topographic and hydrographic domains. As past adjunct faculty in academia, he taught coursework in remote sensing, image processing, photogrammetry, and GIS. He's chaired conference committees sponsored by IEEE, SPIE, and ASPRS, and is a co-lead of the AI/ML collaboration area for the USGS Community for Data Integration (CDI).

Abstract

Frontiers of Land Change Science
Growing demands for understanding changes on the Earth’s land surface are fueling a new generation of products and services that can contribute significantly to recognizing patterns of land change over time. To meet these needs, the U.S. Geological Survey is developing the Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) capability. A fundamental philosophy of LCMAP is that in addition to detecting and monitoring land change over time, the drivers of change also need to be interpreted and understood in order to develop robust models that can provide timely projections of land change for decision makers. This talk will discuss key Science and Technology considerations needed to fully realize this vision.

Dr. Jonathan Fentzke
Managing Director, Techstars Allied Space Accelerator

Dr. Fentzke is the Managing Director for the Techstars Allied Space Accelerator. He is a scientist by training with a PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences and an experienced entrepreneur and investor. Previously, Jonathan was a co-founder, executive and Board Director at OmniEarth – a geospatial analytics business exited in 2017 by Vista Private Equity. He also worked with Shell TechVentures building TechWorks in Boston and founded InSpace in Washington, DC - after a career as a space scientist working on space missions and funded research programs around the world. His last 15 years focus on remote sensing and geospatial analytics.

Abstract

The Rise of GeoOps for Modern Decision Making
Current geospatial technologies and remote sensing assets are fast becoming the infrastructure for a modern economy and defense architecture. Developing a utility model for geospatial will empower operators and decision-makers to be more efficient and resilient to threats now and in the future. This new paradigm gives rise to the nascent discipline of GeoOps - the convergence and synergy of geospatial and IT Operations. This GeoOps discipline is a cross-discipline platform for integrating and delivering insights from traditional silos of subject matter expertise in remote sensing, GIS, software development, and IT. The result is an efficient and impactful set of outcomes fueled by geodata and modern software tools.

Tom George
SaraniaSat

Dr. Thomas (Tom) George, CEO SaraniaSat, spent the bulk of his career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). At JPL, Tom managed the MEMS Technology Group developing a broad range of Micro- and Nano-devices for NASA and DoD applications. After leaving JPL, Tom held senior executive positions at several small companies prior to founding SaraniaSat in 2016. SaraniaSat led a multi-institutional team and won a NASA project (2018) for demonstrating a novel 6U LEO satellite for acquiring Hyperspectral Thermal Infrared imagery. SaraniaSat is currently leading a multi-institution team proposing the Landcon concept to NASA’s Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) program.

Abstract

EDGE ENVI
Despite major technological advancements, satellite remote sensing has not become as ubiquitous and impactful in our daily lives as the internet or the cell phone. We believe that this is because current earth exploration techniques do not provide data that is actionable on a daily basis. One sector that would benefit from significantly lower latency is agricultural crop monitoring and management.

Two main causes can be identified for the lack of daily impact of satellite remote sensing on agriculture. One, the inadequate resolution (e.g. spatial, spectral, and temporal) in the satellite-acquired data needed to match the complexity of daily farm management decisions, and two, the high latency from the time of acquisition of the raw imagery to the delivery of actionable information. The resolution issue is addressed by leveraging a constellation of hyperspectral, remote-sensing satellites. The EDGE ENVI solution developed by SaraniaSat and L3Harris Geospatial addresses the latency issue by promising to deliver actionable information to end customers within 24 hours of acquisition.

Using high-performance Edge Computing capabilities onboard the satellite, raw hyperspectral imagery is processed from Level Zero to Level Four. The processing chain includes radiometric corrections, atmospheric transmission and reflectance corrections, orthorectification and georeferencing, and ultimately image classification and segmentation to generate actionable prescriptions.

Shay Har-Noy
 

Dr. Shay Har-Noy (Shy) is currently a mentor with Boulder Techstars, Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator, and the Techstars Allied Space Accelerator. Shay most recently worked on the Uber Maps product team and as Uber Boulder site lead. Previously, he was VP and GM of DigitalGlobe's Platform business. Prior to joining DigitalGlobe, Shay was founder and CEO of Tomnod combining crowdsourcing and machine learning on satellite imagery. Tomnod was acquired by DigitalGlobe in early 2013. Dr. Har-Noy graduated summa cum laude from Rice University and received a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering with research in image processing from UC-San Diego.

Abstract

Take a Break This Summer to Focus on Your Customers' Problems
Projections, AI, spectral bands, bit depth, resolution – our industry has been debating and leveraging these features for years. We have an opportunity to shift the focus away from Geo topics and toward the actual problems our customers are trying to solve. Maybe it will use imagery, maybe it will use other geo data, or just maybe the key unlock for them will be in a CSV file. This talk will explore some of the advances we have made as an industry and double click on the opportunity that is ahead of us to show outsized value by leveraging our geo toolkit.

Whether you are at a startup, at an established information company, at a consumer tech company, or at a company making geo tools, take some time this summer away from your desk and your Zoom to focus on your health, your family, and spend some time empathizing with your customer. Disclaimer: This talk may include inspiring images and videos of the outdoors and will hopefully inspire a healthy debate.

Colonel Robert I. Kinney
Missions Directorat
Joint Artificial Intelligence Center

Col. Robert Kinney serves as the Missions Director at the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. In his role as the Missions Director, Col. Kinney leads a joint, inter-disciplinary, cross-functional team that is responsible for DoD-wide acceleration, scaling, and synchronization of high-impact artificial intelligence applications as they pertain to the joint force, domestic operations, and our international alliances.

Col. Kinney is a career intelligence officer having held a number of leadership roles at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels.He has served at the major command, numbered air force, and wing levels and was instrumental in the stand-up of more than 20 Air National Guard intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) units. Col. Kinney has deployed around the world in support of contingency operations in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the homeland having served extensively in the Air Force ISR enterprise, tactical and mobility flying operations, and law enforcement. Col.Kinney is published and prior to his current assignment was the 188th Wing Commander at FortSmith, Arkansas.

Abstract

The Challenges and Opportunities of Scaling AI for Geospatial Applications in the Department of Defense
his presentation will discuss the Challenges and Opportunities of Scaling Artificial Intelligence for Geospatial Applications in the Department of Defense.

Dr. Caitlin Kontgis
Director of Scientific Programs
Descartes Labs

Dr. Caitlin Kontgis is the Director of Scientific Programs at Descartes Labs, where she coordinates relationships with academic and non-profit organizations. Prior to taking on this role, she was a member of the Applied Science team for four years, joining Descartes Labs after completing her PhD in Geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Josh Magarick
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Josh Magarick graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BA in Geography (focus on GIS & Remote Sensing), and later from George Mason University with an MS in Geoinformatics & Geospatial Intelligence. For his master's thesis, he completed work related to hyperspectral imagery and LiDAR data fusion. He has served NGA for more than 15 years and focuses primarily on multispectral and hyperspectral processing, exploitation, and automation. His roles at NGA have included analyst, scientist, project lead, program management, and supervisory. Throughout his tenure at NGA, he has received a variety of awards to include several Meritorious Unit Citations, two awards from the Imagery and Geospatial Sciences Professional Advisory Board, and two Joint Civilian Service Commendation medals.

Abstract

Impacts of COVID-19 Around the World Using VIIRS
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is an instrument owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Although VIIRS has 22 different spectral bands, we have been focusing on the day-night-band or "DNB," which produces nighttime imagery at a 750 meter resolution. By downloading radiometrically calibrated VIIRS DNB data and layer stacking it over a single location (creating multi-temporal rasters), NGA has been able to identify trends related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dale Manry
Director, Office of Sciences and Methodologies
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Dale Manry is the Director of the Office of Sciences and Methodologies at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. His team of applied imagery scientists, data scientists, and analytic methodologists delivers innovative applied imagery and geospatial science tradecraft, techniques and capabilities to support U.S. national security needs.

Jennifer Marcus
Vice President, U.S. Government Strategic Engagements
Planet Federal

Jennifer Marcus serves as the Vice President, U.S. Government Strategic Engagements for Planet Federal, a wholly owned subsidiary of Planet Labs Inc. Marcus has twenty years of experience leading strategic technology programs with a focus on the development and execution of strategy aligned with organizational growth goals. She has spent the last ten years contributing to growth of the Defense and Intelligence Community (DoD/IC), specifically working with startup phase geospatial technology and commercial imagery organizations. Her successful career has shaped her as a leader, mentoring cross-functional teams in multi-facility environments.

Dr. Daniela Moody
Chief Technology Officer, Ursa Space Systems (Ursa)

Daniela serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Ursa Space Systems (Ursa). Her focus at Ursa is growing a strong engineering team and a software infrastructure for advanced machine learning and computer vision algorithms that provide business intelligence and solutions from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data. Previously, Daniela worked at Descartes Labs and at Los Alamos National Laboratory, working on remote sensing and machine learning applications in various research areas, including space systems, astronomy, on-orbit RF and radar systems, and nuclear non-proliferation. She received her M.S and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2012 with a focus in signal processing, computer vision, and machine learning.

Abstract

Commercial Satellite Radar for Situational Awareness
While the adoption of SAR data within the geospatial intelligence community has been slow, the potential of SAR as a remote sensing capability has yet to be fully explored. This talk will focus on the interoperability and usage of the various SAR providers and provide an overview of the existing global satellite SAR observation network. We will also introduce some of the challenges in developing automated and machine-augmented SAR analytics for decision advantage and highlight a few example outcomes. Additionally, we will discuss opportunities and challenges for fusing SAR data with other data sets, in particular different modality / different dimensionality data sets.

VADM Robert B. Murrett Ret.
Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Syracuse University

Robert B. Murrett is a professor on the faculty of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and serves as the Deputy Director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) at the University. He is also a member of the Board for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, and is responsible for a series of ongoing research projects between the University and the Syracuse Veterans Administration Medical Center. He is on the adjunct staff of the RAND Corporation, the Institute for Defense Analyses, and chairs the MITRE Intelligence Advisory Board.

Previously, Murrett was a career intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, serving in assignments throughout the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East through his thirty-four years of duty, retiring in the grade of Vice Admiral. His duty stations included service as Operational Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Assistant Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and Director for Intelligence, U.S. Joint Forces Command. For the last ten years, he served as Vice Director for Intelligence, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of Naval Intelligence, and Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Buffalo, and a masters degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Ellen Ramirez
Supervisory Scientist
NOAA Satellite Analysis Branch

Ellen Ramirez is a supervisory physical scientist in the NOAA Satellite Analysis Branch, based in College Park, MD. She serves as the Program Lead of Marine Pollution operations, which uses satellite data for the detection and characterization of both marine oil spills and marine debris. Ellen holds a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology (2008) from the Florida Institute of Technology and a Masters of Atmospheric Science (2011) from the University of Utah.

Abstract

Advancing Satellite Based Detection of Marine Debris
The NOAA Satellite Analysis Branch is an operational unit that generates value added products needed to support warning coordination services and hazards response. With satellite sensor resolutions (e.g. spatial, temporal, spectral) continually improving, and satellite data policies trending towards open source availability, we at NOAA are in the emergence phase of being able to map and monitor environmental disasters and threats with a level of detail that wasn’t possible ten years ago.

Currently, there is an emphasis on one of the more consequential threats- marine debris. Marine debris impacts everything from oceanic health, and in turn the climate, as well as the economy in the form of tourism and navigable waterways. This presentation will discuss NOAA’s remote-sensing based efforts to detect open ocean marine debris, leading to the eventual realization of the scale of the problem, and a means to support mitigation efforts such as debris removal missions. Towards accomplishing this, we leverage a variety of ENVI analysis techniques and algorithms to progress the complex task of isolating a marine debris signature. The results presented will include studies with and without ground verification, and a preliminary assessment of utilizing target detection for rapid analysis of marine debris.

Dr. Vasit Sagan
Associate Professor of Geospatial Science, Faculty Director
Geospatial Institute at Saint Louis University

Dr. Vasit Sagan is an Associate Professor of Geospatial Science, Faculty Director of the Geospatial Institute at Saint Louis University (SLU). He has an M.S. in Geographic Information Science (GIScience), Ph.D. in Integrated Applied Sciences degrees and graduate and undergraduate Certificate programs in GIScience. He leads Geospatial Research, Training and Innovation (GeoSLU) at Saint Louis University. He teaches an array of courses in GIS, remote sensing, geospatial methods, and GIS programming. His research focuses on developing state-of-the-art remote sensing and GIS tools, machine learning algorithms, sensor/information fusion, and geospatial methods to study food and water security, bioenergy, and power grid sustainability from regional to global scales.

Chris Shroyer
Co-founder,
EdgeData

Chris Shroyer began daily operations at EdgeData as a co-founder in 2015 and now spearheads operations, client relations and new-market development as President. Prior to EdgeData, Chris was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Involta, an award-winning data center and managed services company that spent multiple years on the Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies. His background spans more than 20 years of experience in technology sales and service, including work with Hewlett-Packard and Fortune 100 organizations.

Scott Soenen
Vice President of Product Engineering
Capella Space

Scott Soenen is the VP of Product Engineering at Capella Space. Scott steers the company’s development of data products and services leveraging the Capella small sat constellation. Prior to Capella, Scott spent 15 years turning geospatial data into useful tools for Earth observation, analysis, and insight. He was a Senior Vice President of Product Engineering at Planet Labs, where he led a global software engineering team, and he served as the Chief Technology Officer at RapidEye.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Worldwide Public Sector helps government, education, and nonprofit customers deploy cloud services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies, and increase innovation across the globe. AWS provides a complete tool kit for processing planetary-scale data. Access and process data faster and innovate at scale, in the AWS Cloud. Learn more at:

aws.amazon.com/earth

esri

Esri, the leader in geospatial and remotely sensed information, offers advance capabilities and content to see what others can't see. Esri’s ArcGIS platform includes the ability to integrate with advanced ENVI imagery analytics to manage, analyze, and serve large collections of radar, imagery, sonar, and lidar. Your enterprise is enabled both in the cloud or on premise with ArcGIS Online to share Imagery and Imagery derived products across the enterprise via web services. Learn more at:

Learn more at esri.com/imagery

Planet

Planet is the leading provider of global, near-daily satellite imagery data and insights. Planet is driven by a mission to image all of Earth’s landmass every day, and make global change visible, accessible and actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest earth observation fleet of satellites, and provides the online software, tools and analytics needed to deliver data to users.

Learn more at www.planet.com, or follow us on Twitter (@planetlabs).

sarmap

sarmap's mission is to build and provide SARscape, an innovative, sophisticated yet simple remote sensing software product, dedicated to the generation of digital information for a better management and risk assessment of Earth's natural/environmental resources.

www.sarmap.ch

MicaSense

MicaSense is at the forefront of drone sensor development for precision agriculture. Passionate about producing quality tools for their customers, MicaSense enables growers and researchers to make the right call at the right time.

www.micasense.com

HySpeed Computing

HySpeed Computing delivers innovations in remote sensing. We develop applications, optimize data processing pipelines, perform scientific research, analyze imagery, and much more. Our team is dedicated to evolving the science, business and technology of applied remote sensing. See how we can put imagery to work for you.

www.hyspeedcomputing.com

Pix4D

Pix4D is a developer of cutting-edge software that converts images taken by hand, by drone, or by plane into survey-grade accurate and georeferenced 2D mosaics, 3D models and point clouds. Founded in 2011, Pix4D is rapidly expanding from its headquarters in Switzerland, to offices in Denver, Shanghai, Berlin, Madrid and Tokyo.

University of Colorado

The University of Colorado is one of the nation’s leading research universities, with world-class facilities, personnel and capabilities. CU Boulder’s Industry & Foundation Relations team was formed to streamline the university’s effort to deliver a partner-centric strategy that aligns the research, discovery and creativity of CU Boulder with external partners.