PhD AI-vergreens Artificial Intelligence

The Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is a member of the Helmholtz Association (HGF) and funded by federal and state government. AWI focuses on polar and marine research in a variety of disciplines such as biology, oceanography, geology, geochemistry and geophysics thus allowing multidisciplinary approaches to scientific goals.

PhD position "AI-vergreens – Artificial Intelligence (AI) supported remote sensing of summergreen and evergreen needle leaf forest types in cold forest biomes" (m/f/d)

Background

We are soliciting a new attractive position for a PhD project in Artificial Intelligence (AI) supported forest remote sensing at the
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Research Unit Potsdam
(close to Berlin), in Germany. The
studies high-latitude vegetation dynamics in space and time in a variety of disciplines allowing multidisciplinary approaches to scientific goals. In this project you will work in close cooperation with the

Remote Sensing Image Analysis Group of the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) Prof Begüm Demir
and the
Microwaves and Radar Institute of the German Aerospace Center, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Weßling (close to Munich).

Project Goal and tasks

Landscape-scale large area assessments in remote cold biomes are potentially possible with the advanced suite of ESA and NASA operational Sentinel and Landsat satellite missions. High latitude applications based on optical satellite sensors are, however, considerably limited due to frequent cloud coverage, and extensive and long-enduring smoke and fog from forest fires. One of your tasks will be deep-learning enabled enhancement of optical ESA Sentinel-2 satellite images for the provision of inter- and intra-annual time series covering cold forest biomes for enabling ecological applications. A central part in your project will be also the development of active learning tools for the classification of forest types in cold biomes.

A further aim is the transfer of the trained classification models to geographically different cold biome forest types and regions. Substantial datasets are already available on high-latitude summergreen and evergreen forest plots. There will be opportunities to collect additional data for this project during field-based expeditions. Within this project, on one hand, you will dive deep into the fascinating high-latitude plant ecology interacting with the highly interdisciplinary team in the Polar Terrestrial Environments Section, on the other hand you will dive into the work of Fully-Convolutional Networks (FCNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) in close cooperation with our remote sensing partners.

Requirements

• Master’s or equivalent degree in Environmental Sciences, Biosciences, Geosciences, Physics, Data science (or related disciplines)
• expert knowledge in remote sensing data analyses and good programming skills
• knowledge in Fully-Convolutional Networks (FCNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN)
• background in plant ecology or forestry is considered as of advantage
• very good English language skills (written and spoken)
• ability to work in an interdisciplinary environment
• willingness to participate in field expeditions
• willingness to present and publish on international conferences and in international scientific journals.

Further Information

Please contact
Dr. Birgit Heim
(Birgit.Heim@awi.de +49(331)288-01622386955) for further information.
This position is limited to 3 years. It is also suitable for part-time employment. The salary will be paid in accordance with the Collective Agreement for the Public Service of the Federation (Tarifvertrag des öffentlichen Dienstes, TVöD Bund), up to salary level

13 (66%)
.
The place of employment will be
Potsdam.
All doctoral candidates will be members of AWI's postgraduate program
or another graduate school and thus benefit from a comprehensive training program and extensive support measures.

The AWI is characterised by

• our scientific success - excellent research
• collaboration and cooperation - intra-institute, national and international, interdisciplinary
• opportunities to develop – on the job, aiming at other positions and beyond AWI
• a culture of reconciling work and family – an audited and well-supported aspect of our operation
• our outstanding research infrastructure – ships, stations, aircraft, laboratories and more
• an international environment – everyday contacts with people from all over the world
• having an influence – fundamental research with social and political relevance
• flat hierarchies – facilitating freedom and responsibility
• exciting science topics, with opportunities also in technology, administration and infrastructure

Equal opportunities are an integral part of our personnel policy. The AWI aims to increase the number of female employees and therefore strongly encourages qualified women to apply.

Disabled applicants will be given preference when equal qualifications are present.
The AWI fosters the compatibility of work and family in various ways and has received a number of awards as a result of this engagement.
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