Internship Opportunity in the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes.
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics. Applications from women are encouraged.
Location Frascati
Our team and mission
This position is based at the ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) - Frascati, Italy
The ฮฆ-lab in ESRIN aims to accelerate the future of Earth Observation (EO) by helping the European industry and research communities to rapidly adopt disruptive technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), distributed systems etc. The lab is split into two offices ฮฆ-Explore (Research focus) and ฮฆ-Invest (Commercial focus).
The ฮฆ-Explore Office aims to support the impact of new technologies such as AI.
For further information visit our web site: http://www.esa.int
Field(s) of activity for the internship
Topic: Earth Observation (EO) Data Analytics with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The emergence of big data creates new opportunities but also new challenges for scientists, business, data and software providers to make sense of the vast and diverse amount of data by capitalizing on powerful techniques such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Until recently AI was mainly a restricted field occupied by experts and scientists, but today it is routinely used in everyday life without us even noticing it, in applications ranging from recommendation engines, language services, face recognition and autonomous vehicles. Over the last decade, Machine Learning has gone through a major revolution, through the unique convergence of powerful computing capability, easy access to large volumes of data, and the availability of new algorithms enabling robust training of large-scale deep neural networks.
The application of AI to EO data is just at its infancy and today focusses mainly on computer vision techniques applied to Very High-Resolution satellite imagery, while there are certainly many areas of Earth Science and big data analytics, which could increasingly benefit from AI, leading to entire new types of value chain, scientific knowledge and innovative EO services.
In this context, this traineeship opportunity aims to further explore the wider potential AI4EO applications, in particular through a development of new AI methods and tools across applications, ranging from multi-sensor data fusion, edge computing, automatic change detection, transfer learning, up to mining of hyperspectral data. This includes adapting existing AI algorithms and tools to take account of the specific characteristics of EO data sets, physical measurement principles, and apply them to EO data applications (e.g. Sentinel).
You will be part of a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and data scientists passionate about innovation, and work within an inspiring and collaborative open-space environment. You will help the team rapidly prototype and evaluate AI solutions for application to EO data sets and challenges, and also prepare training data sets to be used for development and evaluation of AI algorithms.
Behavioural competencies
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking
Education
You must have student status and be enrolled at university for the entire duration of the internship. You should preferably be in your final or second to last year of a university course at masterโs level in a technical or scientific discipline.
Additional requirements
The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.
Additional Requirements:
- Applicants should have recently completed, or be in their final year of a University course at Masters Level (or equivalent) in a technical or scientific discipline. e.g. computer science, mathematics, data analytics, or relevant engineering discipline
- Experience with general purpose programming languages (e.g. Python) and deep learning frameworks (e.g. Tensorflow, PyTorch)
- Natural curiosity and a passion for new subjects and research areas, including AI, EO, and New Space
- Good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multi- cultural environment as part of a team
Other information
For behavioural competencies expected from ESA staff in general, please refer to the ESA Competency Framework.
If you require support with your application due to a disability, please email contact.human.resources@esa.int.
Internships can take place remotely, on-site or partially on-site depending on the pandemic situation, and in line with the relevant Establishmentโs policy (e.g. possible Green Pass requirement) applicable at the time of starting the internship.
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Nationals from Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, as Associate Member States, or Canada as a Cooperating State, can apply as well as those from Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus as European Cooperating States (ECS).