Vibe coding for geoscientists ‘hackathon’

Thoroughly enjoyed the ‘vibe-coding for geoscientists’ event yesterday. We had six teams most of whom had never used large language models before to build an application. People joined from diverse backgrounds, including students and seasoned practitioners.

The task revolved around extracting geological outcrop polygons for a mica-rich metamorphic layer from a map image, so it could be integrated in another spatial application for decision making.

During the interactive 1hr 30min session it was fascinating to see the different approaches taken by each team. At the end of the event everyone enthusiastically presented their results including the many ways they learnt which ‘did not work’!

Surveys taken before and after the event supported improved learning outcomes. Increased awareness of using LLMs and the possibilities, and increased confidence levels. One of my favourite comments from a Geoscientist was “I’ve built my first application, I’m actually quite surprised, and excited!” The conversations continued in a local London pub after the event.

Big thanks to Joe Court and Nicholas Holgate . This was part of a larger AI in geosciences day event, which included presentations and a panel session all excellently led and organised by Marcella Cilia , Vitaly Ivanov and colleagues at AAPG ,Thanks to the sponsors including ThinkOnward and Eliis

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