IGARSS 2026 Summer School

The summer school, which is held in conjunction with IGARSS 2026, is sponsored by NASA and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and hosted by College of Science, the George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.

Objectives and Goals of Summer School

The IGARSS 2026 Summer School offers an intensive, interdisciplinary training experience tailored for students, early-career researchers, and professionals. The program provides theoretical foundations, analytical methods, and practical skills essential for applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to satellite remote sensing and drone data. Focusing on the integration of physical Earth observation science with cutting-edge machine learning, the curriculum will empower participants to address urgent global challenges.

The main objective of the summer school is to guide young participants through the end-to-end satellite data analysis workflow. The course will cover sensor systems, calibration, and essential preprocessing; AI-driven analysis, multi-source data fusion, and complex pattern recognition; and predictive analytics applied to real-world Earth system challenges, including AI applications in weather forecasting, environment and agriculture monitoring and related areas.

Topic:

AI Applications for Satellite Data Analysis: Theory, Methods, and Applications

Date:

6 - 8 August 2026

Venue:

Fairfax Campus, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA (https://www.gmu.edu/campus-maps)

Co-Chairs:

Prof. John Qu (George Mason University),
Prof. Ramesh Singh (Chapman University)
Prof. Mitchell Goldberg (City College of New York)

Program Schedule

Day	Time	Program
Day 1 (Thursday, August 6, 2026) Chair: Prof. John J. Qu	8:30-9:00 AM	Registration
	9:00-9:30 AM	Opening Remarks: Prof. John J, Qu, Co-Chair, IGARSS 2026 Summer School Prof. Pat Gillevet, Associate Dean for Research, COS Prof. Liping Di, Co-Chair, IGARSS 2026 Conference
	9:30-9:45 AM	Coffee Break
	9:45-11:45 AM	Dr. Jack Kaye (George Mason University; Former Associate Director for Research, NASA SMD) Integrating Scientific and Societal Benefits Through Cross-Cutting Earth Science Perspectives

	11:45-1:00 PM	Lunch
	1:30-3:00 PM	Dr. Chen Zhang (George Mason University) Towards Intelligent Crop Monitoring: Data, Platforms, and Future Directions
	3:00-3:30 PM	Coffee Break
	3:30-5:30 PM	Dr. Vinay Viswambharan (Esri) Using Geospatial Al in ArcGIS for Feature Extraction
Day 2 (Friday, August 7, 2026) Chair: Prof. Ramesh Singh	8:30-10:30 AM	Dr. Prasanjit Dash (NOAA, Maryland) Al Applications on Modern Geovisualization: from static maps to interactive, data-driven exploration using satellite observations and modeled products across the hydrosphere, coasts, atmosphere, land, and cryosphere.
	10:30-10:45 AM	Coffee Break
	10:45 AM-2:00 PM	Dr. Ujjwal Narayan (Geospatial Data Engineer) Leveraging Al techniques and models for Agricultural Applications
	11:45 AM-1:00 PM	Lunch
	2:00-5:30 PM	Prof. Edward Oughton (George Mason University) Al refusenik to Al evangelist: Excelling at Al-assisted coding for satellite image analysis (with Al tool demo)
	3:00-3:15 PM	Coffee Break
Day 3 (Saturday, August 8, 2026) Chair: Prof. Mitchell Goldberg	9:00 AM-12:15 PM (9:00 AM-12:00 PM)	Prof. Sam Shen (San Diego State University), & Prof. Mitch Goldberg (City College of New York) Web-based data science and AI applications for visualization, delivery, analysis, and prediction of weather and climate conditions (Hands-on Tutorial) This tutorial introduces iCHARM for visualization and delivery of weather and climate datasets, and Al weather forecasting with NVIDIA FourCast Net, Google GraphCast, and NVIDIA CorrDiff.

	12:00-1:00 PM	Lunch
	1:00-3:00 PM	Ms. Zijing Wu (University of Hong Kong) AI-Based Census of Wildlife Migratory Populations in the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem
	3:00-3:15 PM	Coffee Break
	3:15-5:15 PM	Prof. Prasad Goginen (University of Alabama, IEEE Fellow) Development of Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Radars and AI Applications for Remote Sensing of Snow and Ice
	5:15-5:30 PM	Closing Remarks and Certificate Presentation

Registration and Accommodation

Registration period: 05/20/2026 - 06/30/2026

Registration fee: $100 ($150 after 06/30/2026)

Limited 35 students

Accommodation: Student Housing on the Fairfax Campus, Fairfax, VA 22030

Single Suite: $220 for three days
Double Suite: $180 for three days

(Not available after 30 June 2026)

NOTE: To register click the button above and please select the Summer School Only registration option.
Selection of accommodations is performed on the subsequent pages.