BiDS | BIG DATA FROM SPACE 2025
29 September - 3 October 2025 | Riga, Latvia
Submission of Satellite Events
BiDS’25 kicks off with two dedicated days of Satellite Events on Monday September 29th and on Tuesday September 30th, such as community contributed Tutorials, Hackathons and Challenges.
Additionally, formats such as Lightning Talks and Birds of a Feather sessions will run throughout the conference from October 1st to 3rd.
IMPORTANT DATES SATELLITE EVENTS
25 April 2025
Deadline for Tutorials, Hackathons and Challenges submissions
27 May 2025
Notification of acceptance for Tutorials, Hackathons and Challenges
22 September 2025
Final submission of materials and instructions for attendees
29-30 September
BiDS’25 Satellite Events days
What type of events can you submit under the Call for BiDS’25 Satellite events?
Tutorials: instructed hands-on tutorials, where users experiment and follow along using their own laptops;
Hackathons: in-depth coding events, can be initiated prior to BiDS’25, while the finalisation, such as the final coding round or final pitch can be done at BiDS’25; or to run entirely at BiDS’25 up to 2 days.
Challenges: competitions on thematic/methodological topics where participants develop solutions and compete for the best idea/development, awards ceremony can be done at BiDS’25;
Call For BiDS’25 Satellite events (Tutorials, Hackathons, Challenges)
Background
We are looking for hands-on on new or established services, techniques, or software packages, helping new or advanced Practitioners to work with Big Data from Space, to be held on Monday September 29th and on Tuesday 30th September.
Tutorials
Tutorials should be focused on covering a well-defined topic in a hands-on manner. We expect to see attendees experimenting with services and tools, coding or improving their skills in data management, open standards, data visualization, open-source tools and libraries, APIs and cloud computing. We encourage submissions of tutorials designed to allow at least 50% of the time for hands-on exercises.
Tutorials will be available as either half-day (3 hours) or full-day (3+3 hours) options. A dedicated room of 20-50 seats with classroom setup, including audio/video equipment, internet connection is foreseen. Participants are expected to bring their own laptop. Please note that all tutorials will be filmed and published online.
Hackathons
Hackathons should deal with big data issues and offer opportunities for in-depth coding to individuals or teams. Hackathons will take place on Monday September 29th and on Tuesday 30th September.
Various options are available to conduct a hackathon, it can be initiated prior to BiDS’25, while the finalisation, such as the final coding round or final pitch can be done at BiDS’25; or you can propose to run the entire hackathon at BiDS’25 up to 2 days.
In general Hackathons can be conducted in various formats, such as morning/afternoon sessions (3 hours), full-day event (3+3 hours), or spanning two days.
The awards ceremony can be organized during BiDS’25 in the following days. A dedicated room of 60-120 seats, including audio/video equipment and internet connection, is foreseen. In case a set of Hackathon rounds are planned to be conducted before BiDS’25, organisers are expected to set up their own registration interface to Hackathon activities. Participants are expected to bring their own laptop.
Challenges
Challenges on thematic or methodological topics, such as data fusion, cross-domain application, data security, cloud computing, app development/API, etc. will offer to the participants the opportunity to work on innovative solutions and compete for the best idea/prototype. Challenges can be organised on Monday September 29th and on Tuesday 30th September, they can be conducted in various formats, such as morning/afternoon sessions (3 hours), full-day event (3+3 hours), or spanning two days . Final pitch and awards ceremony can be organised during BiDS’25 in the following days. A dedicated room of 20-50 seats with classroom setup, including audio/video equipment, internet connection is foreseen. Participants are expected to bring their own laptop.
Information for BiDS’25 Satellite events organisers
Satellite events organisers shall submit proposals in response to this call providing a PDF with the information below using the provided template.
Template for submission:
MS Word template for submitting your Satellite event proposal (Tutorial, Hackathon or Challenge) to BiDS'25. The PDF export needs to be uploaded upon submission. To download please click HERE.
The deadline for submission is 25th April 2025.
Notification of acceptance will be provided to Satellite events organisers by 27th May.
In your application, you shall indicate the participants’ prerequisite skills and knowledge that will be needed to enroll in your event, as well as tools or data that you plan to make available for the event.
Proposal content
- Title: Short descriptive title for the event. This will be published, if accepted
- Contributors: Names, affiliation, contact information (email and mailing address) and a short bio of additional contributors to the event, indicating previous experience in the type of event (tutorial, hackathon, challenges) proposed.
- Abstract: Short description of the event to post on the website. This should provide potential participants key information about objectives and organisation of the event, along with a description of the target audience and required skills to participate. (max: 1500 characters)
- Expected audience: Target audience of the event, skills required and expected number of participants. In case of hackathons or challenges please explain if participation is individual or in groups.
- On site duration: Expected duration of the event
- Long Description: Outline of the event content, including the duration of each part and how the event will be conducted physically at BiDS’25. In the case of a hackathon, indicate also expected dates to start and run the event prior to BiDS’25, and eventual prizes offered by the Hackathon organisers.
- Preliminary Setup Instructions: Practical set-up requirements (sign-ups/ installations etc.) for participants before the start of the event to be ready to attend. We encourage use of technologies that do not require participants to install software prior to the event such as Jupyter notebooks in mybinder and the use of collaborative tools.
- Previous editions: If the event was given before, when and where it was given, and if/how it will be modified for BiDS’25.
- Materials and tools: Description of how you plan to make the materials and tools available to the participants; if available provide a link to materials and tools to be used (even if preliminary or used at a previous event).
- Additional information: Additional information you want to share with the Organising Committee.
Selection
Proposals will be evaluated by the BiDS'25 Satellite events committee based on their estimated benefit for the community and their fit within the BiDS’25 program. Factors to be considered include relevance, timeliness, importancehands-on participation, diversity, and audience appeal; feasibility within the proposed timeframe; experience and qualifications of the organisers.
Accepted events will be announced no later than May 27th. Final materials and instructions for attendees will be due on September 22nd, apart for Hackathons for which dates, materials and tools need to be made available to participants before. This will include final set-up instructions for attendees to ensure that they have sufficient time to prepare their laptops before the event.
BiDS’25 Organisation will provide rooms, general presentation equipment for the speakers, lunches and coffee breaks. All tutorials will be filmed and published after the event. Please ensure that the PDF proposal does not exceed 4 pages.