{"id":1480,"date":"2026-03-25T14:09:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:09:46","slug":"ellis-winter-school-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/2026\/03\/25\/ellis-winter-school-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"DEPRIMAP Researcher at ELLIS Winter School 2026 Athens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sai Ganesh Veeravalli at the ELLIS Winter School 2026 in Athens, Greece<\/h3>\n\n\n

Last week, Sai Ganesh Veeravalli attended the ELLIS Winter School: AI for Earth System, Hazards & Climate Extremes<\/a> in Athens, Greece, an intensive and genuinely thought-provoking experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rather than just new tools, what stood out most were a few shifts in how I think about AI in geoscience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. Trustworthy AI is now central to the field<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several keynotes – from causal reasoning (Gustau Camps-Valls<\/a>) to responsible AI (Pedram Ghamisi<\/a>), uncertainty quantification (Alexander Brenning<\/a>), and ethics (Mrinalini Kochupillai<\/a>) – highlighted a clear direction: performance alone is no longer sufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In applications like urban development and vulnerability mapping, where outputs can influence planning and policy, explainability, robustness, and ethical considerations are critical. This strongly resonates with challenges I encounter in our work at DEPRIMAP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. Cloud-native EO workflows are becoming essential<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A hands-on session on STAC<\/a>, xarray<\/a>, and Dask<\/a> introduced scalable approaches to accessing and processing Earth Observation data directly in the cloud. Very well executed session by Mohanad Albughdabi<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For research operating at a global scale, this is a major shift. Moving away from local storage constraints towards cloud-native, analysis-ready pipelines could significantly improve efficiency and reproducibility in our workflows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Fundamentals still matter – even in the era of deep learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A well-structured Machine Learning (ML) crash course revisited core concepts such as overfitting\/underfitting, validation strategies, and model design. It was reassuring (and useful) to see common pitfalls – many of which we encountered in earlier work being systematically addressed. Excellent lecture material and practicals by Christain Reimers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reinforced that strong foundations remain essential, regardless of model complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. New data paradigms: cubes, embeddings, and multimodal integration<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Through the team challenge on multi-modal forecasting of forest dynamics, I was introduced to working with data cubes – integrating spatiotemporal EO, meteorological, and environmental data into a unified structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Discussions around embeddings and foundation models also opened up new perspectives on how we might represent and learn from complex Earth System data. Thanks to our challenge tutor, Vitus Benson<\/a>, and team members Ayush Prasad, Leticia Perez Sienes, Niki Anastopoulou, Paula Costa, and Niklas Beck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was also great to reconnect with old colleagues and meet new researchers working at the intersection of AI and climate science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall, the week reinforced an important shift:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge is no longer just building models – but building models that are scalable, interpretable, and actionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am looking forward to integrating these ideas, especially around cloud-native EO processing, uncertainty-aware modelling, and explainable AI into our ongoing work in DEPRIMAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big thanks to the organizers (especially Dr. Georgina Spyres<\/a> and her fantastic team), speakers, and participants for a well-curated and inspiring week in Athens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Acknowledgements<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sai Ganesh Veeravalli would like to thank the DynEO4SLUMS<\/a> project financed by BELSPO for funding and supporting the participation in this winter school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Sai Ganesh Veeravalli attended the ELLIS Winter School: AI for Earth System, Hazards & Climate Extremes in Athens, Greece, an intensive and genuinely thought-provoking experience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6018,"featured_media":1481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[46,7,45,11],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workshops","tag-ellis","tag-sai-ganesh-veeravalli","tag-winter-school","tag-workshop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1500,"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions\/1500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sola.kau.se\/deprimap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}