Earth Observation: Provider Innovations and Customer Benefits

After leading software research and development for over two decades, Jimi is the founder & CTO of Orbital Insight. Orbital Insight helps business and policy decision-makers understand economic and societal trends through geospatial analytics. His corporate focus is to develop artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision, creating a new source of market data for diverse industries.

Before a successful $1B Monsanto acquisition, Jimi was the SVP of Science and Engineering at the Climate Corporation. Prior to that, he was CTO and Software Architect at Moon Express whose goal was putting the first commercial robot on the moon. As the Engineering Director for Google Book Search, he was in charge of Google’s project to scan, index, and make searchable all the world’s books. As EVP of Engineering at Composite Software, he led product development around data visualization.

At Nasa Ames Research Center, Jimi led Autonomy and Robotics projects and authored over 15 peer-reviewed publications, resulting in five patents. Jimi earned his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, and BA in Math and Computer Science from Rice University.

He has a long-term interest in photography which led him, most recently, to eastern Idaho to photograph the August total eclipse.

Viktor has been working on satellite systems engineering through various positions at EnduroSat for the past 6 years. He took the role of CTO in early 2021 and has been responsible for the company’s satellite-as-a-service and satellite hardware products portfolio since. His background in theoretical physics and numerical programming drives him towards formal descriptions and modelling of all technological aspects from the early mission phase to in-orbit operations. His previous role as a Mission Manager at the company has placed him in direct communication with many of EnduroSat’s customers, helping him to bridge the gap between technical and business needs.

Viktor holds a MSc in Theoretical Astrophysics from Sofia University of Bulgaria and is expected to acquire his PhD from the same university in early 2023. He is also a graduate of the Innovation & Growth program of Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr Marco Esposito is Managing Director at cosine Remote Sensing.

Marco completed his PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Naples, specializing in airborne remote sensing for air quality and land management. Having worked on various aerospace projects in Italy, most recently as coordinator of the Environmental Research Aircraft Lab of the Italian National Research Council, Marco moved to the Netherlands.

Marco spent almost 4 years at ESA ESTEC as calibration engineer first, in the science department working on EUV to IR sensors calibration for future planetary missions, and then as performance engineer in the Earth Observation department working on Sentinel 5 Precursor spectrometer TROPOMI.

Marco has been involved in a variety of research and development activities at cosine, all focusing on the miniaturization of optical instruments for Earth Observation and miniaturized suites of instruments for planetary exploration. Marco has been leading the development of space products including space Lidars for vegetation and bathymetry, as well as intelligent spectral imagers for EO from small satellites. He has produced more than 40 scientific publications, either as first author or as a co-author.

Having gained experience as system and performance engineer, project manager, program manager and team leader at cosine, Marco became managing director of cosine Remote Sensing as well as of the Italian branch of cosine.

Marco led the commercialization of the hyperspectral product line at cosine, the first ever miniaturized class of imagers able to connect hyperspectral, thermal imaging and artificial intelligence techniques in one compact solution for the Earth observation market.

Marco is currently leading the scale-up of the remote sensing business at cosine as well as the setup of the space factory for the series production of smart remote sensing instruments for Earth Observation.

Dr. Burke Greer is Director of Product at Edgybees, a cutting-edge company making aerial video and satellite imagery data more accurate and harmonized through ML/AI. 

 Burke has been working within the geospatial industry for almost 20 years. Previously he was Chief Science Officer at Geosite, a YC-backed startup in Palo Alto, California. Here Burke was responsible for using data science to help insurance companies navigate a changing world under climate change and increasing natural catastrophes, among other R&D initiatives. His past work in plant science in Agriculture and Forestry, and his years of everyday geospatial science work taught him how harmonized data is key to success in mapping and ML-based projects.  

 Dr. Greer graduated from the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan, received a Master’s in Geography from UC Santa Barbara, and achieved his PhD at the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. 

Nina has more than 10 years of experience in the satellite industry, having held various positions while at KSAT. With a background from publishing and content marketing, she is currently responsible for the company´s communication across the business units.
Representing KSAT, Nina travels to countries around the world speaking on panels and seminars, engaging government and commercial stakeholders.

In her previous role as International Sales Manager, Nina’s main focus was Maritime Monitoring services based on SAR data (Synthetic Aperture Radar). KSAT provides oil spill monitoring and vessel detection services globally and has pioneered the industry with pushing the timelines for Near-Real-Time (NRT) delivery of actionable information- leveraging the global ground network, especially the unique Svalbard station.

Nina has had the opportunity to work with several of the most significant international oil companies (IOC´s), government authorities, coastguards and other stakeholders with key focus areas in Latin America, South America, and the Middle East.

Her portfolio also included the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), an Agency providing technical assistance and support to the European Commission and Member States on maritime safety, pollution by ships, and maritime security.

Nina is former Chairman of the Norwegian Oil Spill Control Association, (NOSCA), a non- profit association dedicated to promoting products and services within global oil spill preparedness and response, representing more than 30 Norwegian companies.

She lives in the Arctic Capital of Tromsø in Norway- an ideal place for Polar Ground Stations and cross-country skiing.

Ignacio is a leader who works with technologists and scientists to help them productize and operationalize Earth Observation Missions. Mr. Zuleta believes that the most successful products are realized when design and operations are tackled simultaneously using a user-centered agile approach. He has supported Remote Sensing development groups as well as Payload Systems Engineering teams where they were able to operationalize novel data products at scale using a combination of hardware and software for the first time in their industries. Ignacio has extensive experience in instrument design, physical sciences, systems biology, earth observation and systems engineering in addition to innovation management.

Ignacio has previously served as Head of Remote Sensing at Indigo Agriculture, Inc. and Senior Director of Payloads at Planet Labs, PBC. He holds a doctorate in Physical chemistry from Stanford University and has served as a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, San Francisco.