Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Aug 29

Congratulations to the amazing Priya Donti for this very well-deserved honor!

Priya L. Donti @priyald17.bsky.social · Aug 28

Beyond humbled to be on this year's #TIME100AI.

AI can be an asset for climate & energy -- but only if its development is guided by actual climate needs & planetary limits. Shoutout to those in the community working to shape a responsible, equitable, climate-aligned AI future 🌍💪

Priya Donti's picture in the TIME100 AI frame

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Environmental Data Science @envdatascience.bsky.social · Aug 21

Recent article! 🌳🌍

Tree semantic segmentation from aerial image time series

👉 doi.org/10.1017/eds....
✍️ Venkatesh Ramesh @arthurouaknine.bsky.social & @drolnick.bsky.social

Research that advances #forest monitoring using #deeplearning on aerial imagery time series.

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Jul 28

Postdoc opportunity in collaboration with our lab on downscaling/superresolution for biodiversity, details here:
community.climatechange.ai/c/postdoc/po...

Postdoctoral Position — Machine Learning and Downscaling to Advance Ecological Applications | Climate Change AI

As part of an IVADO initiative on AI and environment, a coalition of Montreal labs is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher for an interdisciplinary project applying state-of-the-art machine learning a...

community.climatechange.ai

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Jun 9

We have a new postdoc opening at Mila in machine learning for materials discovery!

Details at: community.climatechange.ai/c/postdoc/po...

@mila-quebec.bsky.social ‬ @alexhergar.bsky.social

Postdoc position in machine learning & materials discovery | Climate Change AI

We have a new postdoc opening at Mila in materials discovery. Details attached!

community.climatechange.ai

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Jun 8

With Gabriel Tseng, @anthonyfuller.bsky.social, Marlena Reil, Henry Herzog, Patrick Beukema, Favyen Bastani, James R. Green, Evan Shelhamer, Hannah Kerner

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Jun 8

Our remote sensing foundation model Galileo has been accepted to ICML 2025!

Galileo outperforms state-of-the-art across different input data modalities and shapes, and using it requires only minimal data and compute.

More at:
arxiv.org/abs/2502.09356

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · May 28

Our paper on detecting abandoned oil wells with machine learning, led by @pratinavseth.bsky.social, is accepted at ICML 2025! These wells are a major source of emissions (and groundwater pollution).

More details in the thread, and preprint here: arxiv.org/abs/2410.09032

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Mila - Institut québécois d'IA @mila-quebec.bsky.social · May 23

Mila members David Rolnick, Yuyan Chen and Mélisande Teng have arrived in Panama to test an algorithm to discover new species. Among a team of entomologists and computer scientists, they have installed camera traps to automatically monitor biodiversity. Stay tuned to learn more about their journey!

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Sara Beery @sarameghanbeery.bsky.social · May 12

The call for applications has just been released for #CV4Ecology2026!! This three-week intensive program trains ecologists and conservation practitioners to develop their own AI tools for their own data.

When: Jan 12-30, 2026
Where: SCBI @smconservation.bsky.social

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · May 10

We have a new internship opportunity in multimodal machine learning for forest monitoring using 3D point clouds. More details here: community.climatechange.ai/c/internship...

Internship at Mila in machine learning on 3D point clouds for forest monitoring | Climate Change AI

See attachment for details!

community.climatechange.ai

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Sara Beery @sarameghanbeery.bsky.social · Mar 25

To assist in that upskilling, and to foster a community in which those impacted can help each other build AI skills, the CV4Ecology program is organizing a two-week remote workshop in May of 2025 that will teach AI methods to former US public sector conservation scientists.

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · Mar 23

I'm organizing a "Data for Good Rapid Response Team", i.e. a set of people who can be mobilized to work on short data science projects to help various groups and organizations. Sign up here if this is of interest to you, and please share with others with data science skills.

Data-for-good rapid response team

I'm collecting people with data science skills who may want to hear about sporadic opportunities to use their skills for good on short projects. Project themes will center on topics I am connected wit...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by David Rolnick

McGill University @mcgill.ca · Mar 12

AI could revolutionize biodiversity conservation 🌱 A team of McGill researchers found untapped potential to accelerate species discovery, track ecosystems & help meet global conservation targets.

Read more: mcgill.ca/x/iwo

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Mila - Institut québécois d'IA @mila-quebec.bsky.social · Mar 14

A new study from McGill University researchers, including Mila members Laura J. Pollock and @drolnick.bsky.social, shows that AI can accelerate species discovery, improve ecosystem tracking and help meet global conservation targets.

McGill University @mcgill.ca · Mar 12

AI could revolutionize biodiversity conservation 🌱 A team of McGill researchers found untapped potential to accelerate species discovery, track ecosystems & help meet global conservation targets.

Read more: mcgill.ca/x/iwo

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Adriana Guatame-García @adrianaguatame.bsky.social · Mar 6

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.”
Absurd we still need to go through this
🧪👩‍🔬

There have been people less than helpful in my journey here. I wanted to acknowledge those too, bc I know I am not unique in this experience.
No thank you to the physics study assoc that made me sing songs about how women couldn't study physics without sleeping with the professor, the day I stepped into university life. No thank you to the 5th year physics student that decided to assign me a stripper name within the first minute of meeting me in the physics coffee corner in my first year. No thank you to the technician that was responsible for onboarding me on the use of the cluster in my third year who raised his eyebrows and asked me if that meant I was some sort of computer girl. No thank you to the senior researcher that sent me utterly inappropriate texts after a conference, then proceeded to apologise months later by telling me they had not been meant for me anyway so no hard feelings remain hopefully And no thank you to him for attending every conference I've been to since. No thank you to the people who told me that it was surprising that I was doing a PhD since I was a girl. No thank you to the man who mistook me for a coffee lady at a conference, and after having to correct him two times that I did not work there, responded with you should consider it. No thank you to the researcher that asked me what I was wearing underneath my outfit during a conference. No thank you to the physicist who declared to a room full of other physicists that biologists don't know how to design an experiment. No thank you to the people who have called me scary instead of strong and intimidating instead of intelligent.
And finally, no thank you to the exec board of the TU Delft, whose knee-jerk reaction to being held up a mirror about the social safety at the university, was to sue the party holding up the mirror instead of looking at the problems they highlighted.
... You have made me feel like I do not belong in science & I cannot forgive you for that.

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Mar 8

Announcing our new paper (led by @ArthurOuaknine) compiling data on AI for forests, a fast-growing area important for land management, biodiversity preservation, and nature-based climate solutions.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Feb 20

I'm honored to have been selected as one of this year's Sloan Research Fellows. Thank you to the @sloanfoundation.bsky.social and to all the incredible students, engineers, citizen scientists, and other collaborators that make our research possible!

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Feb 10

Curious about what this picture has to do with current AI trends? Check out my talk at AI, Science, and Society (Paris AI Action Summit).
www.youtube.com/live/6HDjVnc...

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Feb 9

Looking forward to speaking this Tuesday at the Sustainable AI Forum as part of the Paris AI Action Summit. Livestream available here (in English):
www.youtube.com/live/1e3hojU...

Forum dédié à l’IA durable, à l’Hôtel de Roquelaure

YouTube video by Ministères Écologie Territoires

www.youtube.com

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Jan 10

Internship in our group at Mila in reinforcement learning + graphs for reducing energy use in buildings.

More info and submit an application by Jan 13 here:
forms.gle/TCChXnvSAHqz...

Questions? Email [email protected] with [intern!] in the subject line.

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Climate Change AI @climatechangeai.bsky.social · Dec 17

We're excited to announce the next edition of our workshop "Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning" at #ICLR2025 in Singapore!

▶️ Mentorship program deadline: Dec 27, 2024
▶️ Paper submission deadline: Jan 31, 2025

Learn more & submit: climatechange.ai/events/iclr2...

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Dec 14

The Climate Change AI workshop at NeurIPS tomorrow will be livestreamed for free, even if you weren't able to register for NeurIPS (which was oversubscribed this year)!

Climate Change AI @climatechangeai.bsky.social · Dec 13

Another highlight of our #NeurIPS2024 workshop on Sunday will be a panel discussion on small vs big models in ML for climate impact, featuring Chris Bretherton, Anamika Dubey & Bistra Dilkina.

Stream the whole workshop live & for free via our website: www.climatechange.ai/events/neuri...

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Dec 12

I'm honored to be included in this year's list of AI2050 Fellows! Looking forward to engaging with this great cohort of researchers on AI for the benefit of humanity.

www.schmidtsciences.org/schmidt-scie...

Schmidt Sciences to Award $12 Million to Advance Research on Beneficial AI

AI2050 fellowships recognize scholars working to create AI for a better world

www.schmidtsciences.org

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Reposted by David Rolnick

Sara Beery @sarameghanbeery.bsky.social · Nov 26

New paper! We've just published a manuscript covering technical details of the AI models behind Wildlife Insights, with systematic analysis at scale of cropping vs not cropping in #CameraTrap image classifiers 🫎🦌🦒🦘🪿🫏🐘🐫🦬🦛🐿️

ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/...

To crop or not to crop: Comparing whole‐image and cropped classification on a large dataset of camera trap images

In this work, the authors assess the hypothesis that classifying animals cropped from camera trap images using a species-agnostic detector yields better accuracy than classifying whole images. We fin....

ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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David Rolnick @drolnick.bsky.social · Nov 25

Congrats to @aduvalinho.bsky.social, @vict0rsch.bsky.social and the Entalpic team!

Alexandre Duval @NeurIPS @aduvalinho.bsky.social · Nov 25

📢 Entalpic is a @mila-quebec.bsky.social startup !
After spending some fantastic research years in the lab of @drolnick.bsky.social and @yoshuabengio.bsky.social -- with my cofounder @vict0rsch.bsky.social -- we are happy to preserve that link ! 🤩

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