2025 Annual GeoChallenge on GeoAI: Presented by ASPRS and Esri
It’s time to showcase your GeoAI skills by entering the 2025 Annual GeoChallenge co-hosted by The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and Esri.
This year’s theme is GeoAI (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence) inviting you to showcase your skills and innovation by developing an application or use case using Esri GeoAI tools.
Participants will use pre-trained models and analysis workflows to turn raw data into actionable insights like pulling out features for infrastructure planning, tracking land-use changes, classifying buildings for policy decisions, or mapping environmental trends.
Are you up for the challenge? Keep reading to learn more about the challenge, key dates, prizes, resources to set you up for success, and getting started.
The Challenge
The 2025 GeoChallenge is all about putting your skills and creativity to the test by building innovative applications with remotely sensed data and Esri’s GeoAI tools.
Participants will apply pre-trained models and analysis workflows to create decision-ready spatial content—whether it’s extracting features for infrastructure planning, detecting changes in land use, classifying structures for policy or permitting, or mapping environmental trends.
Some notable applications include:
- Urban Planning and Public Safety: Governments use GeoAI to model urban development impacts, predict traffic accidents, and optimize emergency response times
- Precision Agriculture: Automates the field delineation and detection of invasive species and optimizes crop yields.
- Infrastructure Management: Helps monitor road deterioration and identify land-use changes
- Insurance and Disaster Management: Speeds up damage assessment and claim processing using imagery and AI
- Business Intelligence: Enhances market planning, site selection, and customer behavior analysis
Final projects must be shareable through a public facing story map using ArcGIS StoryMaps.
Judges will be looking for:
- Creative solutions to real-world problems
- Innovative uses of ArcGIS spatial analysis tools
- Leverage various data types that draw from the rich data sources in Esri’s Living Atlas of the World and open data catalogs.
Who Can Participate
The competition is open to ASPRS Student Members and Early Career Professional Members with two years or less of full-time employment in the geospatial profession.
Participants can enter solo or form a team for one submission, with prize money split among team members if applicable.
IMPORTANT: Esri employees and their immediate family members are not eligible to compete.
How to Enter & Key Dates
Getting started with your enter by visiting the ASPRS competition page for registration details.
Create your solution using remotely sensed data and Esri GeoAI tools. Submissions must include a publicly shared Esri StoryMap that demonstrates your workflow, results, and decision-ready spatial content.
Deadlines to consider:
- Submission Deadline: January 5, 2026
- Judging Results Announced: February 2, 2026
- Winners Showcased: Geo Week, February 16–18, 2026
What You Can Win
The 2025 GeoChallenge offers both recognition and rewards:
- 1st Place: $1,000
- 2nd Place: $500
- 3rd Place: $250
But the benefits don’t stop there. Winning entries will:
- Be featured at Geo Week 2026 in Denver, CO
- Receive recognition in a highlight article in PE&RS (Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing)
- Gain exposure to professionals and organizations shaping the future of geospatial science
What’s in it for you?
Beyond the chance to win cash and recognition, the GeoChallenge provides a unique professional development opportunity:
- Expand Your Skills: Work hands-on with advanced GeoAI workflows in ArcGIS.
- Boost Your Resume: Gain recognition for your creativity and problem-solving ability.
- Contribute to the Community: Your work helps build practical, real-world use cases that advance the field of remote sensing.
- Learn from Experts: Collaborate with Esri professionals to refine your project and apply best practices.
Resources to Get Started
Esri and ASPRS are committed to supporting your journey. Participants can access:
- Deep Learning Pretrained Models in ArcGIS Living Atlas: Explore models ready to use for feature extraction, object detection, and more.
- Tutorial Series: Try Deep Learning in ArcGIS: Step-by-step learning path to practice workflows and sharpen your skills.
- Deep Learning Tutorials offered by ArcGIS Tutorials
- Blog post on Resources for Unlocking the Power of Geospatial AI Using ArcGIS
Don’t miss your chance to innovate, gain recognition, and showcase your talent on a global stage. Start your project today—and get ready to present your groundbreaking work at Geo Week 2026.
