Blog Posts

My grandma told me that we always come back to the same hobbies. Stubborn teen that I was, I didn't believe her, but I do now.

I used to dream about storage space, even before I had to worry about it. Those dreams were magical and fun, so I want to revisit them. Take a stroll down memory lane with me!

I’m a second-year PhD student as of this month. I can’t help but feel immensely grateful for this opportunity I’ve been given, and for the lessons I’ve learned from my supervisors, advisors and colleagues. I’ve learned a great deal from them, both in science and personal growth.

I am always intrigued and slightly jealous of beautiful data visualisations in magazines or newspapers like the Scientific American or the New York Times. I love art and coding, but I was missing a dataset or idea to visualise.This summer I got the perfect opportunity.

I spoke to Solomiia Kurchaba, a PhD student at the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), Leiden University. We met when I was still a master’s student. I’m grateful to have Solomiia as a colleague. Especially when I had just started, it was very helpful to learn a bit about the experiences of someone who already works multiple years on ML solutions for EO.

Younger people are more tech-savvy in general. Soon, I will have to relinquish my computer nerd status to my younger siblings with a superior understanding of modern-day technology. But helping my brother set up his custom pc made me realise this thought might be wrong. Are we the tech support generation – for the generations before and after?

Last weekend I used ChatGPT & DALL-E for the first time. I'm not sure whether I'll use them again. Here’s why.

Berend Schuit is my colleague and a PhD candidate at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, and studies methane as a part of [SRON’s Earth programme](https://earth.sron.nl/thema/methane/). My own research is directly based on the work he has done for methane plume detection. He helped me get up to speed on the challenges associated with detecting methane emissions using machine learning. This means he has loads of experience answering my questions, so I was excited to talk to him!

Introducing a new series of conversations with people in the intersection of AI and EO

After years of studying, I have started feeling pretty confident in my machine learning abilities. But my collaboration with SRON brings me face to face with my lack of experience with satellite imagery. Let’s wind back to your student days with me, and dive into the world of the pure joy of learning new things!

I’m intrigued by the borderland between Earth Observation and AI, and how non-AI people use machine learning. I wonder why it can be so hard to find information and best practices from outside of the field of AI. Really, my own experiences aren’t that different. Originally, I was also an outsider, peering down the AI rabbit hole.

First of all: I’m a gym addict. The type of gym that looks like a big garage, has a lot of free weights and free live entertainment in the form of elite athletes (Sportja Leiden, if you’re interested ;) ). When we have to run during a class, that usually raises collective moans.