FCT, PT Space, ESA, and Unbabel launch global competition for AI and Space Technologies

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the Portuguese Space Agency (PT Space), the European Space Agency (ESA), and Unbabel Labs are launching the AI Moonshot Challenge, a global competition offering €500,000 to those who develop solutions to environmental problems using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and new emerging space technologies.

It is the first global competition that combines AI and emerging space technologies to find solutions to complex problems in the field of climate change in terms of detecting, locating, and monitoring waste in the oceans.

Teams will have access to AI resources, Earth observation data from satellite constellations, and supercomputing capabilities.

After the Minister of State, Economy, and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, announced the AI Moonshot Challenge at the opening ceremony of Web Summit 2019, the Government and partners involved in the project presented the details of the project at a press conference today.

Designed to create large-scale positive social change, the AI Moonshot Challenge challenges teams from around the world to solve complex environmental problems using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging space technologies.

Fifty years after humanity took its giant leap into space, the AI Moonshot Challenge opens up the opportunity for talent from around the world to use technology and data to find solutions to the most pressing problems here on Earth. In this sense, by attracting and supporting the challenge of finding ambitious solutions for large-scale change, this competition will position Portugal and Europe at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence and emerging space technologies.

The inaugural edition will focus on Waste Management and Sustainability, specifically the detection, location, and monitoring of marine debris on a global scale. The challenge will be to combine massive data sources from a variety of different types of sensors, including Earth observation data, to identify marine debris throughout the water column (floating and non-floating). Teams from around the world will compete to find the best solution to this challenging and complex environmental problem by applying advanced Artificial Intelligence techniques to analyze large amounts of data.

By providing access to AI tools and supercomputing resources, the competition will attract a wide range of participants, including students, startups, research centers, and universities.

Pre-registration officially opens today at moonshotchallenge.ai, where participants can also find a detailed calendar. Starting in January 2020, participants will have nine months to develop, test, and validate their AI solutions using large amounts of Earth data.

The winners will be announced in November next year at Web Summit 2020 and will receive a prize of €500,000 to form a team of experts and conduct additional research in Portugal for a period of up to two years.

The AI Moonshot Challenge is the result of a unique partnership between FCT, the Portuguese Space Agency (Portugal Space), the European Space Agency (ESA), and Unbabel Labs, Unbabel's disruptive projects team. This partnership will be developed in close collaboration with the Minho Advanced Computing Center (MACC) and is promoted through the National Innovation Agency (ANI).

For more information, visit moonshotchallenge.ai or contact us at info@moonshotchallenge.ai.