Marispace-X Collaborates With NVIDIA to Transform Ocean Data With AI in European Dataspace Project

The aim of the collaboration is to analyse the huge amounts of data that will be generated in Marispace-X’s maritime data space with the help of the latest hardware and AI processes. “The collaboration with NVIDIA will bring high-performance machine learning and artificial intelligence to our vast amounts of data from the oceans — enabling new insights about the environment,” says Jann Wendt about the new cooperation.

Wendt laid the foundation for this cooperation with a representative of GEOMAR from Kiel during Schleswig-Holstein Minister-President Daniel Günther’s business trip to Silicon Valley last June. “Cutting-edge AI innovations are enabling new ways of protecting Earth’s oceans,” said Shilpa Kolhatkar, global head of AI nations at NVIDIA. “Integrating NVIDIA technologies and north.io’s geodata expertise, the Marispace-X project is poised to drive breakthroughs in oceanic sustainability.”

Specialists from the various members of the Marispace-X consortium are already testing NVIDIA technologies, including NVIDIA RAPIDS for data science and NVIDIA Modulus for developing AI models to accelerate physics simulations, as well as the NVIDIA DGX AI super computing platform, for use cases such as generating novel and highly accurate acoustic models and enabling accelerated computation of underwater data.

This is also confirmed by consortium member IONOS: “IONOS has a history of close collaboration with NVIDIA, which now extends to the Marispace-X project. With the latest hardware from NVIDIA to power Marispace-X research, we can rapidly map scalable analytical workloads and significantly accelerate the development of AI algorithms,” explains Straeter, SVP Technology Office at IONOS.

In the future, the technologies could also be used to detect objects using AI and sensor fusion, to generate predictions with the help of physics AI, or to better protect critical maritime infrastructure by detecting the smallest changes. For example, it could help find the optimal locations in the Baltic Sea for seagrass meadows, which can be a very important CO2 reservoir for achieving climate neutrality in the future. The comprehensive analyses could reveal the specific soil properties or microcurrents that the meadows need. “The goal is to cultivate seagrass in a targeted manner to offset the effects of the climate,” says Wendt.

In addition, Marispace-X’s collaboration with NVIDIA extends to the financial services and insurance sectors, including sustainable finance, ESG and natural disaster assessment modeling. Digital platforms and intelligent services based on ocean data, AI and digital twins will emerge and help better manage risks such as those presented by offshore renewable energy infrastructure.

According to Wendt, the new technical potential that comes from the collaboration with NVIDIA is also of great relevance for the establishment of the Blue Data Economy in Europe. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be presented with concrete applications of the project at the upcoming Digital Summit of the Federal Government in Jena from the 20th to 21st of November. He will visit the Marispace-X booth to find out more about the project.

‍

Marispace-X is a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in the context of Gaia-X. The aim is to build a maritime data ecosystem that allows stakeholders from businesses, science, authorities and NGOs to securely manage, distribute and analyse the data obtained via and from the sea on the basis of European standards and values and to gain new insights and develop new innovative solutions and services in the future.

With the development of this digital ecosystem of the oceans, the project consortium addresses several important challenges of this decade, such as climate change, marine conservation and digital transformation through numerous practical use cases, including offshore wind, biological climate protection, ammunition in the sea, the Internet of Underwater Things and the protection of critical infrastructure.

The project consortium is led by cloud geodata specialist north.io GmbH and cloud provider IONOS. In addition, it comprises consortium partners the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD), the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Stackable GmbH, Kiel University and Rostock University. The involvement of numerous other international associated partners and maritime stakeholders ensures application-oriented development in all areas.