Data Science Contestants Awarded 6th Place in MIT ARCLab Prize for AI Innovation in Space 2024

15 OCT 2024

Congratulations to Mr. Yongchao YE (PhD Student) and Dr. Xinting ZHU (Postdoctoral Fellow) from the Department of Data Science at CityUHK! Their team “Go4Aero” ranked 6th (out of 126 teams globally) in the MIT ARCLab Prize for AI Innovation in Space 2024, and is awarded with a cash prize of 1,000 USD and certificates of excellence.

The award-bearing project, supervised by Professor Lishuai LI, Associate Head of Department of Data Science, and Director of Flagship Programme of the College of Computing, tackles the urgent need for more efficient and accurate tracking and orbit prediction capabilities for active satellites in the increasingly crowded near-Earth space environment. As space activities expand, the demand for advanced technologies to monitor and manage satellite behavior becomes paramount. The challenge aims to provide a solution by developing cutting-edge AI algorithms for automated satellite pattern-of-life characterization using astrometric time-series data.

The MIT Astrodynamics, Space Robotic, and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab) launched the MIT ARCLab Prize for AI Innovation in Space: a first-of-its-kind competition asking contestants to harness AI to characterize satellites’ patterns of life (PoLs) — the long-term behavioral narrative of a satellite in orbit — using purely passively collected information. 126 teams used machine learning to create algorithms to label and time-stamp the behavioral modes of GEO satellites over a six-month period, competing for accuracy and efficiency.

The competition aims to encourage technologists and enthusiasts to bring innovation and new skills sets to well-established challenges in aerospace.