Internship: Cocoa Farm Mapping in Côte d'Ivoire (Remote Sensing, ML, RAG)

TL;DR

Internship Cocoa Farm Mapping (Remote Sensing, ML, RAG): Develop and evaluate RAG-enhanced machine learning models for accurate cocoa farm mapping using satellite imagery with an accent on handling heterogeneous agroforestry landscapes in Côte d'Ivoire. Focus on preprocessing geospatial data, benchmarking against traditional ML baselines, integrating contextual retrieval, and producing high-resolution distribution maps for sustainability monitoring.

Location: Amsterdam EU Head-office or Koog aan de Zaan factory, Netherlands

Company

World-leading cocoa processor with operations in ~50 countries, focusing on sustainable, traceable supply chains for cocoa and other ingredients.

What you will do

• Preprocess and harmonize Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and ancillary geospatial data for model training
• Explore and implement RAG architectures for geospatial classification and context augmentation
• Train, evaluate, and benchmark ML models using proprietary cocoa farm polygon database
• Produce spatially explicit cocoa distribution maps for Côte d'Ivoire
• Document model performance, uncertainty, and generalization across ecological zones
• Present results to forecast and sustainability teams

Requirements

• MSc student in final phase (Remote Sensing, Geomatics, Data Science, AI, Environmental Sciences or similar)
• Experience with Python and geospatial workflows (Google Earth Engine, QGIS, GDAL, Rasterio)
• Familiarity with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch or TensorFlow)
• Interest in advanced ML concepts (representation learning, transformers, RAG)
• Ability to work independently with complex datasets
• Willingness to sign NDA and handle confidential information

Nice to have

• Strong interest in geospatial data, machine learning, and sustainability

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive internship fee
• Minimum 4 months duration, extendable by 2 months
• Hands-on experience with cutting-edge ML/RAG and large-scale cocoa datasets
• Contribution to real-world cocoa supply chain sustainability
• Opportunity to co-author internal reports
• Open collaboration, curiosity-driven innovation, and commitment to positive impact