IN FOCUS: Snapshot of GRSS Middle East/North Africa Activities
By Joanne Van Voorhis
GRSS supports a global network of remote sensing communities through programs, events, and outreach efforts. Regional GRSS Global Activities Liaisons are active in Africa, Asia Pacific, China, Europe, India, Latin America, Middle East/North Africa, and North America. Continuing our news series featuring each region, in this article we explore GRSS activities in the Middle East and North Africa.
Making an Impact in the Middle East and North Africa
Leading the effort to support GRSS in the Middle East and North Africa (ME/NA) is IEEE Senior Member Prof. Riadh Abdelfattah. In addition to serving as GRSS ME/NA Liaison, Prof. Abdelfattah is also the Past Chair and the Founder of the IEEE GRSS Tunisia Chapter, Professor at SUP’COM at the University of Carthage, Tunisia. “Every day, I am driven by a deep motivation to help advance the mission of GRSS across the Middle East and North Africa. GRSS’s dedication to building a vibrant and collaborative community, offering world-class educational resources, and empowering its members through continuous professional development resonates profoundly with my own values of lifelong learning and intellectual growth,” explains Abdelfattah. “This region is particularly important as it is home to a large number of STEM graduates who represent a tremendous potential for achieving GRSS’s objectives together. It is also a region undergoing rapid technological and environmental transformation, where Earth observation and geospatial innovation can play a decisive role in addressing development challenges and unlocking new opportunities,” he adds.
GRSS Commitment to Regional Growth
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has become an increasingly active hub for research and innovation in geoscience and remote sensing. With the help of many dedicated volunteers, GRSS has significantly expanded its presence and engagement in the region, supporting scientific collaboration, local chapter development, hands-on training, and opportunities for students and early-career professionals. “We are working hard to help cultivate a strong, interconnected community of researchers and practitioners in the ME/NA region,” explains Prof. Abdelfattah. “We know that our active members can advance remote-sensing in ways that directly support the region’s environmental, technological, and societal needs,” he adds. This momentum was initially sparked by a pioneering GRSS pilot initiative, jointly led by the Chapters in Tunisia, Algeria, and Oman under the Global Activities Directorate. Focused on acquiring educational nanosatellite kits, the project created a dynamic platform for hands-on training and impactful capacity building across the region. Building on this success, the effort is now being strengthened through a second regional program, the IEEE-GRSS Open PocketQube Kit Initiative for the MENA region, developed with the support of UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya). Together, these initiatives illustrate GRSS’s commitment to empowering the next generation of space and remote sensing innovators across the Middle East and North Africa.
Encouraging Collaboration through Regional Events
Events have served as a central pillar of GRSS’s engagement in the region. The Mediterranean and Middle-East Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (M2GARSS) was established in 2020 to provide a dedicated regional forum for professionals in geoscience and remote sensing to exchange ideas, share the latest research, and foster collaboration. Subsequent and expanded symposiums in 2022 and 2024 served as a key gathering point (online and in person) for researchers across the region and beyond, enabling scientific exchange, strengthening institutional cooperation, and elevating the visibility of emerging research groups. M2GARSS 2026, now in its 4th edition, is scheduled to take place from 22–24 April 2026 in the vibrant city of Marrakech, Morocco. The event will feature advanced technical tutorials, keynote presentations on cutting-edge GeoAI, a strong focus on sustainable development, active student participation, and hybrid accessibility to engage both regional and global audiences,” says Prof. Abdelfattah. “It takes a great deal of dedicated volunteers to organize M2GARSS, and their effort is a strong example of how GRSS supports our ME/NA members by providing a forum that draws together top researchers and experts to encourage collaboration and networking,” he adds. We warmly encourage the remote sensing and GeoAI community to join us in Marrakech for M2GARSS 2026, to share and discuss the latest developments in GeoAI and remote sensing, as well as the major environmental challenges facing our world today. You still have until mid- December to submit your papers.
Beyond M2GARSS, the GRSS Middle East/North Africa Region is represented at dozens of conferences annually, providing platforms to share the ME/NA perspective through presentations and networking events. “As examples, in 2025 we participated in our flagship conference, IGARSS in Australia, with a strong delegation from the MENA region,” explains Prof. Abdelfattah. “We also took part in the Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event (JURSE 2025), held for the first time on the African continent, in Tunisia; as well as in the 33rd IEEE Conference on Signal Processing and Communications Applications in Turkey.” he adds.
Another recent example of GRSS encouraging collaboration through events was the IEEE GRSS Summer School on GeoAI for Urban Sensing which took place in Tunisia, ahead of JURSE2025. The program featured a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary curriculum aligned with the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, delivered by experts from leading global institutions – it was considered a milestone in capacity-building for urban remote sensing in Africa and beyond. “The connections made at these and other events help foster collaboration in the emerging field of GeoAI,” says Prof. Abdelfattah.
Chapter Support and Growth
GRSS’s most influential work in the region occurs throughout the year within our national and local chapters. It’s on the local level that major impacts are made. “Chapters form the backbone of member support,” explains Prof. Abdelfattah. “Volunteers organize technical lectures, host workshops, develop training sessions in specialized remote-sensing techniques, and create networking opportunities that help early-career researchers establish professional ties both locally and internationally,” he says.
“With a commitment to inclusivity and multidisciplinary development, GRSS also collaborates with its sister societies to support our chapters,” says Abdelfattah. GRSS partnered with the IEEE Microwave Theory & Technology Society, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society for the IEEE 2024 Africa Initiative. As part of this initiative, GRSS joined the AI Africa Caravan, which involved visiting local IEEE sections and chapters, as well as professionals and industry leaders in Tunisia, Kenya, and South Africa. The initiative aimed to promote technology and foster collaboration within the African region.
As part of the IEEE-GRSS Open PocketQube Kit Initiative for the MENA region, the Tunisia, Algeria, and Oman chapters are jointly developing a PocketQube payload dedicated to wildfire detection.
“This shared effort has created a strong dynamic within the global GRSS community, bringing chapters and their local ecosystems closer together around a common technical challenge,” says Prof. Abdelfattah. “By uniting expertise, resources, and perspectives across multiple countries, the resulting solution is expected to be significantly more robust, scalable, and impactful,” he adds.
Supporting Students and Education
Students and young professionals have been a consistent priority for GRSS in the region. Their involvement is reflected not only in strong student participation numbers within local chapters, but also in the successful inclusion of student-focused programming across symposia, workshops, and competitions. “Activities such as three-minute thesis (3MT) events, student poster sessions, and mentorship discussions at mixers and networking forums have provided students and emerging researchers with platforms to present their work, refine their communication skills, and receive feedback from senior experts,” says Prof. Abdelfattah. “These opportunities are especially important in regions where students may have fewer chances to attend global conferences or engage in international collaboration without organizational support,” he adds. The 3MT is an academic competition for master’s and doctoral students to present their research in a concise, three-minute oral presentation with a single, static slide to a non-specialist audience. (Watch the M2GARSS 2024 competition on YouTube).
In addition to university-level initiatives, GRSS has broadened its outreach to younger learners. As part of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society High School and Undergraduate Student Outreach program, an interactive session was conducted with highly motivated middle-school students in Tunisia. The event aimed to spark early interest in geoscience and remote sensing by introducing students to satellite data and real-world applications. Building on this success, the activity will be extended to all GRSS chapters across the region.
A particularly significant area of GRSS engagement has been hands-on capacity building, especially in the domain of satellite technology education. Pilot initiatives within the region have introduced practical training in CubeSat and nanosatellite systems – an area of rapidly growing interest among MENA universities and national research organizations. With GRSS support, educational institutions have been able to acquire instructional satellite kits, develop CubeSat-focused curricula, and bring students into direct contact with the practical aspects of spacecraft design and mission operations. This training not only broadens student skill sets but also aligns with regional aspirations to strengthen indigenous space technology capabilities.
Recognition and Leadership
Recognition of active members and former regional leaders is another essential dimension of GRSS’s work in the ME/NA region. Several local chapters have received distinctions from GRSS for excellence in programming, leadership, and member engagement. These awards encourage chapter development, motivate volunteers, and demonstrate the Society’s appreciation for the hard work carried out by local organizers. Celebrating success at the regional level also reinforces a sense of belonging within the global GRSS community and highlights the contributions that MENA researchers make to the advancement of geoscience and remote sensing worldwide. In this spirit, the Best MENA Research Award (2015–2019) was launched, and is held every three years, alongside the Best MENA Master 3MT Award and the Best MENA PhD 3MT Award. This distinction is now organized in parallel with M2GARSS, giving it greater regional visibility and reinforcing its role in promoting research excellence.
“In our events, we also place great importance on honoring the legacy of former leaders in remote sensing who have significantly served the community,” explains Prof. Abdelfattah. “To this end, we have established a tradition of naming certain awards in tribute to these distinguished figures, as we recently did at JURSE, where the Methodological and Applied Student Contests were dedicated to the memory of Prof. Rached Boussema, the founder of the remote sensing community in Tunisia. This approach helps preserve the community’s heritage while inspiring future generations of researchers and practitioners”, he adds.
How to Participate in GRSS ME/NA Efforts
GRSS’s work in the Middle East and North Africa reflects the Society’s broader mission: to advance remote-sensing science while empowering communities around the world to apply these technologies for societal benefit. In the ME/NA region, this mission is being realized through a combination of sustained chapter support, hands-on training, student engagement, mentorship, and inclusive scientific exchange.
If you are in the ME/NA region we encourage your participation and also hope you will join us at M2GARSS 2026. You have until December 15 to submit your abstracts, suggest a workshop idea, consider starting a new chapter, or let us know your ideas for initiatives that will support your local community. For more information, visit the GRSS Global Activities website and reach out to Prof. Riadh Abdelfattah via email or LinkedIn.
