ROCX 2027 Call for Proposals Now Open

RIT is excited to announce that, through funding from NASA's CSDA Program, the remote sensing community is invited to help shape and participate in the next RIT Open Community eXperiment (ROCX), to be held in the Rochester, New York area in September 2027.

ROCX 2027 will bring together researchers, government agencies, industry partners, and data providers to advance the use of airborne, satellite, uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), and ground-based remote sensing observations through coordinated community experiments and data collection activities

The Call for Proposals is now open and will remain available through January 31, 2027. Community members are invited to submit proposals in one of two categories:

Data Collection Proposals

Organizations interested in contributing airborne, satellite, UAS, or ground-based remote sensing data are encouraged to participate. Proposed data collections may support calibration and validation activities, algorithm development, sensor evaluation, and other clearly defined research objectives. Submit a Data Collection Proposal.

Ground Experiment Proposals

Researchers and organizations may propose field experiments, calibration and validation (Cal/Val) activities, target deployments, measurement campaigns, or other ground-based efforts that would benefit from coordinated remote sensing observations during ROCX 2027. Submit a Ground Experiment Proposal.

To assist in your proposal preparation, please refer to the example survey questions (DC  and GE).

Open Data Requirement

To maximize scientific impact and community benefit, all data collected as part of ROCX 2027 must be shared openly with the community. Openly available datasets will support research, algorithm development, sensor evaluation, and calibration/validation activities across the broader Earth observation community.

Following proposal acceptance, participating organizations will be asked to complete a Participation Agreement that formalizes both their participation and open-data commitments.

Proposal Deadline: January 31, 2027
Experiment Dates: September 2027
Location: Rochester, New York, USA