Sam Berndt is a Software Systems Engineer and Data Scientist in the Machine Learning and Instrument Autonomy group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His work focuses on developing analysis-ready remote sensing data products and applying machine learning to advance Earth science understanding of biodiversity change, ecosystem structure, and environmental dynamics. He specializes in radar and multisensor fusion, working extensively with SAR, optical, GNSS-R, and LiDAR data, including Sentinel-1, PALSAR-2, Landsat, Sentinel-2, GEDI, CYGNSS, and airborne LiDAR.

Sam further contributes to developing product generation executables for mission data systems, developing interactive platforms to help researchers evaluate machine-learning approaches for onboard autonomy, and supports emerging AI and AR/VR capabilities at JPL.

Sam holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Michigan State University and maintains an active role in climate and energy policy through elected and volunteer environmental leadership positions.

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Education

• Computer Science (BS, MS) - Michigan State University

Research Interests

• Climate & Earth Science
• Machine Learning & Data Science
• Remote Sensing