On June 12th, Caterina Barrasso participated in the DeepSDM Day 2026 at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, organized by the research group of Devis Tuia in Sion, Switzerland. The event brought together researchers from Switzerland, France, the United States, and Canada for a full day of presentations and discussions on how deep learning can advance the next generation of species distribution modelling. Having fostered stimulating discussions and new perspectives on the future of biodiversity mapping and ecological modeling, the event has undoubtedly served its participants well.
During the meeting, Caterina presented her PhD research and a local case study from a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Saxony. Her work focuses on producing high-resolution maps of segetal flora species using UAV imagery and deep learning. The resulting wall-to-wall species maps have the potential to provide valuable training and validation data for high-resolution species distribution models operating across larger spatial scales.
Further information about the workshop is available at DeepSDM Day 2026.