First AgML Workshop

Wageningen January 22-24, 2024

AgML, the Machine Learning team of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) meets for the first time in Wageningen on January 22-24, 2024!

A small news article on the workshop appeared on Wageningen University and Research news

Why this workshop?

The workshop brings together researchers at the intersection of agricultural modelling and machine learning, to enhance collaboration and engagement among them, and conduct protocol-based studies towards the first set of AgML intercomparison studies and benchmarks.

The specific aims are to advance the first two protocol-based studies of AgML to:

1. evaluate the ability of machine learning models to emulate existing process-based crop models under climate change scenarios and extrapolate to future climate scenarios, and
2. intercompare machine learning methods for in-season crop yield forecasting at sub-national scales in different environments and for different crops.

By bringing together data, models and expertise across disciplines, workshop participants will design and develop benchmarks to assess the skill of machine learning models for reproducible, intercomparable, generalizable and interpretable modelling of agricultural and food systems.

What will we do?

The workshop will focus on the two protocol-based studies, and involve four main activities, related to:

• Datasets: onboard new datasets or harmonize existing ones.
• Experimental setup: define data splits and cross-validation strategies.
• Evaluation: define domain-specific metrics to evaluate and intercompare models.
• Open science: document the data benchmarks, make them public and prepare for a research publication.

During the workshop the AgML team will further develop our first two benchmarks with the aim of launching the first intercomparison studies. Depending on the progress made in preparation before the workshop, hands-on sessions will focus on data processing, model building or model intercomparison. In-depth discussions and lightning presentations will complement the programme.

Interested?

The workshop is open, but registration is mandatory. Registration is free of charge and closes on January 8. Workshop participants are expect to arrange their own transport and cover their accommodation costs. We will share travel instructions to registered participants.

A limited partially- and fully- funded places will also be available, which will be allocated according to need, giving preference to early career researchers, and non-Annex I parties.

If you are want to join register, and don’t forget to join the AgML mailing list