Internship : Multi-scales

RNCan – Canada Center for Mapping and Earth Observation

Number of internship offered : 1

Internship duration : mai à septembre 2023 (à déterminer)

Business description :

The Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) is the Government of Canada’s centre of excellence for geomatics, mapping and earth observations. CCMEO is part of the Strategic Policy and Innovation (SPI) within the Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). From satellite to desktop, Natural Resources Canada provides leadership in the field of geomatics and open-source information via organizations such as the CCMEO. The CCMEO is responsible of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering spatially referenced or location information concerning the Canadian territory.  

The amount of geospatial data managed by the CCMEO, such as satellite imagery, aerial photography, vector data, and most recently point clouds from LiDAR, keeps increasing. The processing and analysis of such a large amount of data requires new approaches and techniques. To fulfill its mandate, the CCMEO uses the latest innovations in remote sensing and geospatial data processing, such as artificial intelligence, multidimensional data cubes and Big Data management systems. CCMEO has access to a federal high-performance computing (HPC) centre and a private cloud environment to process large volumes of data. 

The CCMEO is also involved in several national projects that aim to address various climate change issues, such as floods, forest fires and energy efficiency. Internationally, it regularly represents Canada in major geomatics organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and its American counterpart the United States Geological Survey (USGS). 

Responsabilities and duties :

The GeoBase Division of the CCOT has established a research and development team to take advantage of research and technological advances in the field of AI to reduce processing time and improve the quality and quantity of fundamental geospatial data. Specifically, the team is developing different processes, based on DL, to extract map features from various sources of Earth Observation (EO) data such as satellite and aerial imagery, radar and LiDAR data. The data extracted by these processes are up-to-date and accurate. However, these new data lack the attribute richness (e.g., place name and type) of lower resolution historical data. The objective of this project is to enable the transfer of historical features attributes to high-resolution features in an automatic and reusable manner.

Environnement de travail :

The intern will work in a multidisciplinary team and will have to collaborate with other teams of CCMEO. 

He/she will be entrusted with important tasks and responsibilities and will participate in related activities like project and coordination meetings, presentation of results, technical and follow-up discussions, etc. 

In addition to receiving continuous technical supervision, he/she will have a substantial latitude in the choice of means to meet objectives, in order to maximize learning opportunities. 

The internship will be done in hybrid mode both working remotely and on site (Ottawa or Shebrooke). The intern is, during his / her internship, a full-time employee of the CCMEO. He / she therefore participates in various activities of the Center and can avail of a work schedule called « flexible » or « compressed ». The work week is comprised of 37.5 hours and the salary is competitive. 

Rates of pay: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/pay/rates-pay/student-rates-pay.html

Qualifications and skills :

Technical requirements 

Required: 

  • Canadian citizenship or permanent residency 

Preferable: 

  • Experience and interest in computer programming, particularly in Python 
  • Knowledge of spatial data management (raster, vector, point cloud) 
  • Experience with GIS Software (QGIS, FME Safe Software and/or ESRI ArcGIS) 

Personal requirements: 

  • Autonomy and reliability 
  • Good interpersonal relationships 
  • Ability to work in teams 
  • Ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing 
  • Bilingual (French, English) preferred but not required 

Operational requirements: 

  • Ability to telework or to work in the CCMEO offices in Sherbrooke or Ottawa 

Contact :

If you are interested in this course, please contact by email coordonnateur du programme DOTS