VI industry partner Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) received an Industrial PhD grant from the Research Council of Norway. The project will be closely connected to Visual Intelligence's "Earth observation" innovation area.
VI industry partner Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) received an Industrial PhD grant from the Research Council of Norway. The project will be closely connected to Visual Intelligence's "Earth observation" innovation area.
By Petter Bjørklund, Communications Advisor at SFI Visual Intelligence
"Receiving this grant is a great recognition of the high-quality ongoing collaboration between KSAT and Visual Intelligence (VI). It gives us opportunities to further strengthen our already high competence and impact in earth observation and solve new and interesting challenges."
This is what Kristoffer Wickstrøm says about the Industrial PhD grant, which VI partner KSAT received on June 3rd. The Industrial PhD scheme—established by the Research Council of Norway—aims to boost research efforts and long-term competence-building for Norwegian trade and industry through the recruitment of doctoral candidates.
The scheme also seeks to promote closer cooperation between industry and research organizations as a step in promoting knowledge transfer from researchers to society at large.
The Industrial PhD project will focus on using satellite imagery and machine learning for sustainable oil spill monitoring. Early detection of spillage is important for minimizing its negative environmental impact on the marine ecosystem—both at sea and the shores, Wickstrøm says.
"However, the vastness of the ocean makes monitoring difficult. Satellite imagery is key to monitor large areas effectively but requires labor-intensive analyses. Automated solutions based on machine learning can help alleviate the need for manual labor—thus improving the monitoring procedure as a whole," he explains.
While formally a KSAT project, the PhD project will be conducted in close collaboration between the industry partner and the UiT Machine Learning Group. It is also closely tied to VI's "Earth observation" innovation area.
"KSAT and Visual Intelligence has a longstanding and tight collaboration that has led to cutting-edge fundamental and applied research that tackles real-world problems —with direct links to improved products. Working with KSAT—an internationally leading company—is highly beneficial due to the diverse and interesting problem settings that often require completely new technology to tackle efficiently. This leads to interesting research questions and new fundamental research, which in turn leads to improved products and applications," says Wickstrøm.
"This tight collaboration is a win-win situation—both for KSAT and Visual Intelligence as a whole", he adds.
The project is estimated to begin in September/October 2025.
Visual Intelligence hosted over 45 international AI researchers for the DL2026 workshop at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Visual Intelligence will be well represented at MICCAI 2026, one of the leading AI conferences on medical imaging and computer assisted intervention, with two accepted research papers.
Visual Intelligence co-organized and attended the "Foundations of Arctic AI and Generative Forecasting": an inaugural workshop in the P1 Arctic AI program.
PhD Candidates Solveig Thrun and Christian Salomonsen attended the Datacloud Global Congress' Talent in Tech programme, which invited emerging talent to a unique programme designed to inspire, educate, and connect young professionals with senior leaders from global tech giants.
We warmly welcome Georgios Leontidis as a new Professor at SFI Visual Intelligence's hub at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Centre Director Robert Jenssen was interviewed by Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) about the Japan-Norway AI Innovation Forum in Tokyo, Japan.
En ny AI-løsning utviklet ved UiT kan gjøre det enklere å avdekke feilrapportering og ulovlig fiske. Nå skal Norges Råfisklag teste teknologien i praktisk bruk (News article on kystogfjord.no)
Principal Investigator Kristoffer Wickstrøm was interviewed by Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) about the Artificial Intelligence Day at UiT- The Arctic University of Norway.
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En ny, åpent tilgjengelig KI-modell kan endre hvordan geologer tolker seismikk. Den norske grunnmodellen lover raskere analyser, lavere terskel for innovasjon og nye måter å forstå undergrunnen på.
Centre Director Robert Jenssen was interviewed by Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) about AI in fisheries and this year's UArctic (University of the Arctic) Congress on the Faroe Islands.
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Professor and AI expert Robert Jenssen is attending the Japan-Norway AI Innovation Forum and Japan-Norway Research Symposium, two high-level meetings with Norwegian and Japanese government leaders, business actors and researchers.
Visual Intelligence researchers Solveig Thrun and Kristoffer Wickstrøm took their research out of the lab and to Tromsø city centre as part of Pint of Science 2026.
Subsurface Digital Manager and former Visual Intelligence board member Cathrine Tegnander will serve as the elected leader of Visual Intelligence's board.
The Call for Papers and Abstracts for the Northern Lights Deep Learning (NLDL) Conference 2027 is officially announced – with submission deadlines on August 7th and Mid-September 2026 respectively.
The field of Visual Intelligence is continuously transforming. Chief Research Scientist Arnt-Børre Salberg dives deeper into the current trends in the field of visual intelligence as of early 2026.
Generativ kunstig intelligens er imponerende, men ikke alltid så nyttig til å løse industrielle problemer (Norwegian op-ed in digi.no).
Congratulations to Marit Dagny Kristine Jenssen, who successfully defended her PhD thesis at UiT The Arctic University of Norway on April 10th
The NCS model, a seismic foundation model trained on data from the Norwegian data repository for subsurface data, is now available as an open-source model, allowing anyone to download, utilize, and further develop the model.
The Visual Intelligence Annual Report 2025, highlighting the centre's progress, activities, achieved innovations, staff, funding, and publications for 2025, is now available to read on our websites.
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Congratulations to Centre Director Robert Jenssen, who received UiT's Research and Development Award at the university's annual celebration.