I am an early-career researcher working with sea ice, remote sensing, and biodiversity informatics. A particular interest of mine is the geophysical, climatic and ecological applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence in the Arctic. Artificial intelligence has been playing an increasingly influential and useful part in Arctic research in recent years, both in the natural and social sciences aspects, especially with the rapid advances in deep learning and computer vision. Currently, to my knowledge, there does not exist a large-scale organized scientific group centered around AI in the Arctic open to all interested parties. After chatting with a few other researchers with similar interests, I realized that it is crucial to coordinate a community / working group focused on the AI-Arctic intersection so that research efforts are streamlined to some extent and there can be many more opportunities for involvement.
If your Arctic/polar research involves AI or you are simply interested in the subject, feel free to fill out this Google form as an Expression of Interest in our "AI in the Arctic Working Group".
***Update: Based on some responses I've received on the Google form, I've come to the conclusion that it would be best to be more inclusive and expand the organization to "Polar AI," encompassing the Antarctic as well. Within this group, there will be topic-specific (e.g. AI for sea ice) and geographically-specific (e.g. AI in the Arctic) working groups formed.***
After receiving the EOIs, I will be setting up a slack channel where we can coordinate the community and set up events and other collaboration opportunities. The community won't be overly formal, and we emphasize that ALL are welcome.
Additionally, feel free to forward this email to colleagues or others that might be interested. We want to create as diverse a group as possible: folks from academia, industry, and government; those interested in the Arctic natural sciences and the social sciences; newcomers to AI and experts; researchers focused on sea ice, glaciers, marine ecology, remote sensing, climate variability, biogeochemical processes, etc.
Best regards,
Thomas Y. Chen