Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
CUIDS Distinguished Speaker Series – From Mayflower to Machine Learning: Advancing Ocean Research with AI
December 8, 2025 at 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
| Location: | 5345 Herzberg Laboratories |
| Cost: | Free |
| Audience: | Carleton Community, Current Students, Staff and Faculty |
| Key Contact: | Carleton University Institute for Data Science |
| Contact Email: | CUIDS@carleton.ca |
Speaker: Rosie Lickorish, Research Software Engineer at IBM
From Mayflower to Machine Learning: Advancing Ocean Research with AI
In this talk, Rosie will explore the art of the possible for AI at sea, starting with the story of the Mayflower Autonomus Ship’s successful crossing of the Atlantic ocean, followed by an overview from IBM Research on the latest innovations into geospatial foundation models at sea, on land and in space.
Rosie is a Research Software Engineer at IBM, specializing in the development of next-generation tools and technologies designed to drastically accelerate solutions for today’s most urgent global challenges. Her technical focus involves leveraging geospatial data, AI models, and scalable cloud architectures, with a critical emphasis on applications for climate change mitigation and adaptation. A recognized innovator within the organization, Rosie is designated as a Senior Inventor at IBM and holds two high-value patents.
Her extensive project portfolio demonstrates a blend of scientific ownership and deep engineering execution. Rosie served as the Principal Investigator for the IBM-led science experiments onboard the groundbreaking Mayflower Autonomous Ship, where she drove the project from initial concept through technical development and final deployment. Her ongoing technical leadership includes developing a scalable platform for geospatial AI model inference and fine-tuning, alongside providing core contributions to the IBM granite geospatial ocean foundation model. Rosie is also the lead software engineer for TerraKit, an open-source library for curating AI-ready geospatial datasets.
After completing her BSc in Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh and MSc in Oceanography from the University of Southampton (awarded distinction), Rosie joined IBM’s graduate program as a software engineer. Recognizing the value of using technology to tackle real world problems, like those covered in her MSc, Rosie became an Emerging Technology Specialist, progressing on to be a Research Software Engineer within IBM Research where she works today.
Moderator: Prof. Alan Tsang, School of Computer Science
This is an in-person event and will not be recorded.