The Knowledge Computing Lab is hosting Dalton Lunga and Jacob Arndt from the GeoAI group from Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a special seminar titled, "Advancing Geospatial AI: From Research to Mission Impacts." Their work spans geospatial AI, foundation models, computer vision, and remote sensing.
Abstract
The Geospatial Science and Engineering Division at ORNL advances GeoAI by combining large-scale remote sensing data, high-performance computing, and fundamental AI research to address complex scientific and national security mission challenges. This talk will highlight our capabilities in developing large-scale mission datasets, multimodal geospatial foundation models, efficient learning methods, and benchmarks that advance AI research and enable mission-aligned evaluations. Through applications in man-made and natural hazards, satellite image authenticity, vision-language reasoning, and geospatial decision support, we will demonstrate how mission-driven challenges are inspiring AI innovation and transforming ORNL’s national security science programs.
Biographies
Dalton Lunga, Ph.D., is a Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he leads the Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) Group in the Geospatial Science and Engineering Division. His research focuses on computer vision, machine learning, high-performance computing, and remote sensing, with emphasis on imagery analysis. He chaired the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Machine Learning and Imagery Analysis Working Group from 2021 to 2024 and currently serves as Chair-Elect of the GRSS Technical Committee on Image Analysis and Data Fusion. He has been an Associate Editor of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters since 2020 and has guest-edited several GRSS special issues. He is also guest editor to the special issue of ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems on GeoAI Foundation Models and Their Applications. He is lead editor of the Elsevier 2026 book on GeoAI for Earth Observation Imagery: Fundamentals and Practical Applications.
Jacob Arndt is a Research Scientist in the Geospatial Science and Engineering Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Prior to joining ORNL, he earned both his bachelor of science in geography (2016) and master's in geographic information science (2018) from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. His research lies at the intersection of computer vision, geographic information science, and machine learning. Most recently, his work focuses on deepfake detection and remote sensing image authenticity, the development of datasets and benchmarks for geospatial applications, and machine learning-assisted analysis and QA/QC for maritime navigation charts.
