Benchmark & Hackathon

Neural
Earth Fields

Learning continuous representations of our planet.

7–8 December 2026 · University of Bonn

24-hour overnight sprint · 5 teams · English

Mission

Rethinking how we represent the Earth

Most geospatial information is stored as rasters, grids, vector layers, or other discrete formats. These representations are powerful, but often resolution-dependent, storage-intensive, and difficult to combine across heterogeneous data sources.

Neural Earth Fields explores a different paradigm: encoding geospatial information in neural-network parameters and querying it continuously from geographic coordinates.

The idea

Earth data as a continuous, queryable function

Interdisciplinary teams will build compact neural models that take longitude and latitude as input and reconstruct multiple global geospatial layers. You bring the architecture; we provide the data, an evaluation harness, and a starter kit to get you running from day one. Benchmark results and reproducible submissions remain publicly available after the event, contributing to an open ecosystem for the community.

Represent

Store diverse geospatial fields implicitly in neural-network weights.

Query

Reconstruct information continuously at geographic coordinates.

Compare

Evaluate reconstruction quality together with parameter efficiency.

Benchmark

One model, diverse Earth data

Every team receives the same curated global dataset and a common evaluation framework. The initial benchmark brings together three complementary views of the planet.

Physical Earth

Water storage anomaly

A time series of total water storage anomaly maps derived from gravity observations.

Earth observation

ESA WorldCover

A high-resolution global land-cover map representing discrete surface classes.

Living Earth

iNaturalist

Biodiversity observations describing the spatial distribution of species.

Event

24 hours in Bonn

Date: 7–8 December 2026
Format: Noon-to-noon, overnight hackathon
Location: IMPULSE – House for Intellectual Innovation and Creativity
University of Bonn · Adenauerallee 131 · Bonn
Participants: A deliberately small cohort: 10 participants in 5 two-person teams, matched by the organizers across Geo and AI expertise
Language: English

Event location

A house built for exchanging ideas

IMPULSE is the University of Bonn’s House for Intellectual Innovation and Creativity—a place for inspiration, intellectual encounter, and creative collaboration.

Its mission is grounded in the idea that academic work thrives through receiving and sharing impulses. As a dedicated hub for inter- and transdisciplinary innovation, it is a natural home for teams bringing geospatial science and AI together.

Adenauerallee 131 · 53113 Bonn

Learn more about IMPULSE ↗

Program

Learn, build, present

Day 1 · 12:00–16:00

Kickoff

Introductory modules, benchmark briefing, team formation, and technical setup.

Overnight · 16:00–08:00

Hackathon sprint

Code through the night with mentors on hand and the leaderboard live. Basic sleeping arrangements provided — bring a sleeping bag.

Day 2 · 09:00–12:00

Finals

Consolidation, team presentations, jury review, awards, and closing.

Who should apply?

Build a Geo + AI team

We are looking for Master's students and PhD candidates with a background in either geospatial science or machine learning/AI — you don't need both. The organizers match participants into two-person teams across complementary expertise. Selection aims for disciplinary, international, and gender diversity.

See full criteria and timeline →

Applications

Interested in Neural Earth Fields?

We are looking for early-career researchers — Master's students and PhD candidates at any stage — with strong expertise in either geospatial science or machine learning/AI. Teams are intentionally matched across both domains, so you do not need to cover both.

Good candidates bring

Domain knowledge in geodesy, geography, Earth observation, geoinformatics, or a related field; or experience in ML, deep learning, computer vision, or applied mathematics
Genuine curiosity about neural representations of geospatial data
Readiness to work through an intensive overnight coding sprint with your team
Their own laptop — software tools and a starter kit will be provided

What we cover

Travel costs within Europe (train preferred)
All food and drinks throughout the event (day and night)
Very basic rest and sleeping arrangements at IMPULSE House — the sprint runs through the night; bring a sleeping bag and prepare for little sleep
Networking opportunities with fellow participants, mentors, and organizers

Top teams receive a certificate and a commemorative trophy. All reproducible submissions remain on the public benchmark leaderboard after the event.

Apply now →

16 October 2026 Application Deadline
30 October 2026 Acceptance Notification
Early November 2026 On-boarding Meeting Online
7–8 December 2026 Event — University of Bonn

Team

Organizers

Marc Rußwurm University of Bonn

Jürgen Gall University of Bonn

Jürgen Kusche University of Bonn

Konstantin Klemmer UCL

Alistair Francis Asterisk Labs

Isaac Corley Taylor Geospatial

Kyle Gao Aalto University

Supported by

Partners supporting Neural Earth Fields

The benchmark and hackathon are made possible by partners across the University of Bonn and the international geospatial research community.

Asterisk Labs