UP42 announces Copernicus Masters Challenge

UP42 has announced the UP42 Airbus Challenge in the 2021 Copernicus Masters Competition. With EUR 100,000 in awards at stake, including commercial satellite data from the Airbus OneAtlas Living Library, UP42 seeks researchers, companies, and students to submit algorithm development ideas to provide new ways of performing EO analytics.

Copernicus Masters is an international competition held annually to foster innovative applications of EO data that address the world’s most compelling environmental, social, and business problems. In 2021, UP42 joins other leading geospatial organizations such as the European Space Agency (ESA), European Commission, and German Aerospace Center (DLR) in devising 10 Challenges spanning the full spectrum of EO applications.

The UP42 Challenge calls on participants to propose algorithms that advance EO analytics by using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to augment satellite imagery. GANs are an advancement in deep learning technology to generate realistic synthetic data to supplement existing data sets.

The Challenge seeks GAN solutions addressing common EO problems, including:

Unregistered objects in unsupervised change detection – Use GANs to generate better co-registered images that enable better change detection between images.

Cloud cover and shadow filling – Leverage GANs to create new pixels that fill in areas of images hidden by clouds or shadows.

Improved super-resolution – Apply GANs to increase the resolution of Sentinel-2 optical images for enhanced object detection.

The deadline for idea submissions is July 19, 2021. UP42 and Airbus experts will select five finalists to move on to the evaluation and live pitch phase based on scientific merit, business value, quality of implementation, and ecological impact. One Challenge winner will be chosen from the five finalists.

UP42 will announce the winner in October 2021. The winner will receive the following prizes:

• EUR 20,000 voucher to access all geospatial data and algorithms on the UP42 developer platform and marketplace,
• EUR 80,000 voucher for commercial satellite data from the Airbus OneAtlas Living Library,
• Eligibility to win the EUR 10,000 Copernicus Masters Grand Prize.

https://copernicus-masters.com/challenges/up42-challenge/