Human-centred Geoinformatics - Sensing and Analysing Urban Geographies

Date: 

Thursday, August 23, 2018, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Location: 

CGIS South (1730 Cambridge St.), Room S030

Speaker:

Dr. Bernd Resch will present Human-centred Geoinformatics - Sensing and Analysing Urban Geographies 

Abstract: The scientific discipline of geoinformatics is currently going through a substantial transformation. Previously under-researched aspects in the area of human-centred design, together with the rapidly increasing availability of human-generated data from human sensors, wearables or social media have been quickly gaining importance. This talk explores approaches towards a human-centred understanding of geoinformatics, advancing the areas of human-centred sensing and analysis, 4D geovisualisation and usability, and shaping urban geographies. The talk argues that machine learning algorithms combined with geospatial analysis methods have the capability to deal with the high degree of uncertainty of human-generated data and can help us to gain new insights into urban processes through uncovering latent patterns. The talk revolves around the central claim that geoinformatics has the potential to take a pioneering role as an integrative discipline in an increasingly networked scientific world through the cooperation with and the integration of methods from other scientific disciplines like computer science, computational linguistics, sociology, psychology, statistics, medical science, or the environmental sciences.

Speaker Bio:

Bernd Resch is an Assistant Professor at University of Salzburg's Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, Center for Geographic Analysis. Bernd Resch did his PhD in the area of “Live Geography” (real-time monitoring of environmental geo-processes) together with University of Salzburg and MIT.

Lunch will be served.