Postdoc Qi Zhang Awarded Microsoft ‘AI for Earth’ Grant

Qi Zhang, a post-doctoral associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, has been awarded a Microsoft AI for Earth grant as principal investigator to support his research on monitoring the dynamics of cropping cycles using long-term satellite imagery.

Increasing the frequency of crop harvests can be a climate-friendly means of boosting food production, but requires better monitoring of long-term cropping cycles to understand land-use dynamics and associated environmental changes. This grant provides Zhang with access to the Azure cloud computing platform to process massive amounts of satellite data with advanced machine learning models. Zhang has proposed integrating AI models with remote sensing techniques to monitor crops’ phenological cycles and map long-term harvesting activity over a large area (i.e. the contiguous United States from 2013-2020).

Read more about Zhang’s Pardee Center research on human-environment interactions and land-use dynamics here.

The Microsoft AI for Earth program supports research projects that change the way people monitor, model, and manage Earth’s natural systems. The program provides Microsoft resources to those working to solve global environmental challenges in the key focus areas of agriculture, biodiversity, climate, and water. Through grants that provide access to cloud and AI tools, opportunities for education and training on AI, and investments in innovative, scalable solutions, AI for Earth works to advance sustainability across the globe.