Geospatial AI for beluga whale detection
Supported deep learning work with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to detect beluga whales in Arctic imagery from aerial surveys, drones, and satellites, helping distinguish whales from sea ice and whitecaps.
Location: 51.050° N - 114.085° W
Mohamed Ahmed, PhD
I'm My professional roles include Lead Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, Research & Geospatial AI Lead, Adjunct Professor, Oceanographer.
I build Geospatial AI models and tools for research, government, and industry, with a focus on turning complex geospatial data into scalable solutions and decision-support systems. My background in Arctic Oceanography and Geomatics taught me that the hardest part of AI is rarely the model itself: it is the data, context, and infrastructure beneath it. At heart, I love working with spatial data and just about anything involving maps!
Current role Lead Data Scientist - Esri Canada, Education and Research Dept. Calgary Place, Tower 1330 5th Avenue SW, Suite 910Calgary, AB T2P 0L4 mahmed@esri.ca
Academic role Adjunct Professor - University of Calgary, Geography Dept. Department of Geography2500 University Drive N.W.Calgary, AB T2N 1N4 mohamed.ahmed3@ucalgary.ca
Research interests
Featured Work
State of the Arctic Ocean: CO2 and acidification
Contributed as a co-author to Canada's Oceans Now: Arctic Ecosystems 2023, with focus on CO2 cycling, ocean acidification, and how Arctic waters can act as seasonal sources or sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
AI exposure across Canadian occupations
Built an interactive treemap visualizer mapping AI exposure, job outlook, and education requirements across 516 Canadian occupations from ESDC Job Bank NOC data, covering roughly 20 million jobs.
Geospatial foundation models for ArcGIS
Packaged Canadian geospatial foundation models for ArcGIS Pro change detection workflows, enabling before-and-after satellite imagery analysis with HLS and Sentinel-2 variants.
Agentic AI for geospatial workflows
Designing agentic workflows that help teams discover, run, explain, and scale geospatial analysis.
Research translation and technical leadership
Connecting academic, government, and industry partners through workshops, applied research, technical writing, and production-ready machine learning pipelines.
Where I Help Most
GeoAI & Earth Observation
Turning satellite, aerial, drone, and environmental data into applied AI systems for detection, segmentation, classification, change analysis, and environmental monitoring.
Production AI for GIS
Taking AI beyond the prototype by integrating models and intelligent workflows into GIS systems that are reproducible, explainable, scalable, and ready for operational use.
Agentic AI & Spatial Decision Support
Designing AI assistants and agentic workflows that can discover information, reason over spatial context, use geospatial tools, automate analysis, and support better decisions.
Applied AI Research & Technical Leadership
Leading applied research and translating emerging AI methods into practical technology, strategy, guidance, and learning across industry, government, and academia.
Technical Toolkit
Technologies I use to move from geospatial data and AI research to deployable applications and operational workflows.
Geospatial & Earth Observation
AI, ML & Generative AI
Scientific & Data Computing
Cloud, Engineering & MLOps
Recent Writing
2026-08-10 · Change Detection with Planaura in ArcGIS
2026-07-08 · Teaching and Learning GIS in the Age of AI (Part 2 of 3)
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Interested in GeoAI, applied research, teaching, or spatial AI workflows? Please reach out to discuss potential collaborations, research, or consulting opportunities.
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