MagIC congratulates PhD student Diogo Costa on being selected for the 2026/2027 UT Austin Portugal In-Residency Ph.D. Research Internship, a highly competitive international mobility program that supports doctoral students from Portuguese higher education institutions in undertaking research at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). The program provides selected PhD students with the opportunity to spend between six and twelve months at UT Austin, working under the supervision of leading researchers while advancing their doctoral research in one of the program's strategic scientific areas.

Diogo's doctoral research focuses on the development of artificial intelligence methods for Earth Observation to support precision viticulture, with particular emphasis on two key challenges: the automatic mapping of vineyard areas and the early estimation of grape yield. Reliable early-season yield estimation is essential for harvest planning, supply chain logistics and regulatory decision-making in wine-producing regions, while accurate vineyard mapping provides a foundation for monitoring agricultural systems and supporting sustainable land management. His current work combines satellite imagery, climate information and machine learning techniques to develop robust and operational tools for the Douro Demarcated Region.

Between December 2026 and 2027, Diogo Costa will join the Spatially Explicit Artificial Intelligence Lab, within the Department of Geography and the Environment at The University of Texas at Austin, where he will be hosted by Professor Gengchen Mai, an internationally recognized researcher in GeoAI and Geo-Foundation Models.

During the research stay, he will develop reproducible methodologies for the acquisition, preparation, harmonization and integration of Earth Observation, climate and environmental datasets for viticulture applications. These methodological developments will provide a robust and transferable foundation for the next stages of his PhD research, enabling more consistent datasets for evaluating and comparing different AI models for vineyard mapping and yield prediction across diverse viticultural regions.

The collaboration will also provide an opportunity to explore the application of Geo-Foundation Models to precision agriculture, assessing how these emerging AI models can improve the performance, robustness and transferability of geospatial analyses.

– Diogo Costa

The UT Austin Portugal Program, a strategic partnership between the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and The University of Texas at Austin, supports translational research through international collaboration in four priority scientific areas: Advanced Computing, Clean Energy, Nanotechnologies and Space-Earth Technologies. The programme aims to strengthen scientific excellence, promote knowledge transfer and foster long-term research collaborations between Portuguese institutions and UT Austin.

Diogo Costa's selection reinforces MagIC's commitment to internationally competitive doctoral research and highlights the growing recognition of the centre's expertise in geospatial artificial intelligence, Earth Observation and data-driven solutions for sustainable agriculture.