<div dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-253b9b35-7fff-5c84-9394-58426a5b4621"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Dear all,</span></span><div><span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Radiant Earth Foundation is excited to announce the Radiant Earth #SpotTheCrop Data Challenge to predict crop types in Western Cape South Africa using satellite image time-series from July 5 - September 5. The competition is organized in two tracks: In track 1, participants will use </span><a href="https://bit.ly/SpotTheCrop1" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">time-series of Sentinel-2 multi-spectral data</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> as input to their model. In track 2, both </span><a href="https://bit.ly/SpotTheCrop2" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 (radar)  data</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> are required as input. See more information about this data challenge below. </span></span><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-eaa65e17-7fff-ff2d-7c10-98eb6ef9f972"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Please join this open competition or support it by sharing this data challenge with your network, via <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Join%20%40OurRadiantEarth%E2%80%99s%20%23SpotTheCrop%20%23DataChallenge%20hosted%20on%20%40ZindiAfrica%20together%20w%2F%20%40WCGovAgri%20%40fair_forward%20%40DescartesLabs%20%26%20%40cv4_gc%20to%20predict%20crop%20types%20for%20a%20chance%20to%20win%20up%20to%20%244%2C000%20across%202%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3%20parallel%20tracks%0A%F0%9F%94%97bit.ly%2FSpotTheCrop1%0A%F0%9F%94%97bit.ly%2FSpotTheCrop2%20">social media</a>, email, and other modes of communication.</span></span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">ABOUT THE DATA CHALLENGE</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Radiant Earth Foundation</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> organized the Radiant Earth #SpotTheCrop Challenge in collaboration with the Western Cape Department of Agriculture in South Africa and with support from the convening sponsor GIZ FAIR Forward program</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">, </span><a href="https://www.giz.de/expertise/html/61982.html" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">which is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(29,28,29);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b style="font-weight:normal" id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-6bbbb5ba-7fff-9723-269f-02c98b03610e"><br></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Participants will build machine learning models to identify crop type classes using training data generated by Radiant Earth, based on ground reference data collected and provided by the Western Cape Department of Agriculture. The goal of this challenge is to showcase the potential of Earth observation data and machine learning applications to develop an operational agricultural monitoring system, particularly for regions without dependable monitoring systems in place. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b style="font-weight:normal"><br></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The competition will run from </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">July 5</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> to September 5 and will consist of two parallel tracks. </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">In track 1, participants will use </span><a href="https://bit.ly/SpotTheCrop1" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(17,85,204);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">time-series of Sentinel-2 multi-spectral data</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> as input to their model. In track 2, both </span><a href="https://bit.ly/SpotTheCrop2" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(17,85,204);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 data</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> are required as input. </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">For each track, the awards are $4,000, $2,800, and $2,000 for the first, second, and third prizes, respectively, thanks to additional support from platinum sponsor Computer Vision for Global Challenges and gold sponsor, Descartes Labs.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b style="font-weight:normal"><br></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Thank you for helping to spread the word about this challenge! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b style="font-weight:normal"><br></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Best wishes, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Louisa</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black">Louisa Nakanuku-Diggs</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Marketing and Communications Manager<u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Radiant Earth Foundation<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(121,121,121)">p: (202) 596-3603<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(121,121,121)">m: (202) 706-4783<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(121,121,121)">w: </span><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.radiant.earth/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">www.radiant.earth</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><img border="0" width="118" height="30" src="cid:image001.png@01D644D2.CC28DFA0" alt="signature_920353020" style="width:1.2291in;height:0.3125in"></span></p></div></div></div></div></div>