UCGIS Symposium 2025

Main conference registration is available on the UCGIS website. Use this website to sign-up for workshops using the "Reserve Tickets" button after logging in below.

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7:30am MDT

On-site Registration (Wyoming Union)

Monday June 23, 2025 7:30am - 4:00pm MDT

Wyoming Union Family Room

Monday June 23, 2025 7:30am - 4:00pm MDT
Wyoming Union Family Room

7:45am MDT

UCGIS Board & Chairs Retreat

Monday June 23, 2025 7:45am - 12:00pm MDT

Wyoming Union Family Room

Monday June 23, 2025 7:45am - 12:00pm MDT
Wyoming Union Family Room

Meeting

8:00am MDT

Workshop: Harnessing Future Climate Data: Creating Automated Pipelines with R/Python Using University of Wyoming Open Data APIs

Monday June 23, 2025 8:00am - 9:30am MDT

SIB 4030 (Science Initiative Building)

The University of Wyoming (UWyo), in collaboration with UCLA, has developed a comprehensive suite of downscaled Global Circulation Models (GCMs) at a 9km resolution for the western United States. This dataset spans the years 1980-2100 and is available at daily, monthly, and annual (water year) temporal resolutions. Given the significant computational resources and carbon footprint associated with producing these datasets, as well as their substantial storage requirements, it is essential to make this valuable information more accessible to researchers and analysts. To promote reuse and reproducibility, UWyo now offers cloud-based access to these datasets. Utilizing Cloud Optimized GeoTiff (COG) file formats in conjunction with Open API endpoints, users can retrieve data on-demand, bypassing the need to download entire datasets. This workshop will provide hands-on examples using R, Python, and/or JavaScript to access and process these datasets in real-time. Participants will learn how to read geometry layers from web services, extract tabular data from APIs (e.g. converting JSON to data frames), and process cloud-optimized raster datasets. All necessary software and data will be provided, and participants are expected to have the required software installed prior to the course.

Speakers

Shannon Albeke

School of Computing, University of Wyoming

Monday June 23, 2025 8:00am - 9:30am MDT
SIB 4030 (Science Initiative Building)

Workshop

10:00am MDT

Workshop: From Field(view) to Your Table: Retrieving Object-based Crop Type Ground Truth from Street View and Satellite Imagery with an Operational GeoAI Workflow

Monday June 23, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm MDT

BU 129 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Crop type maps are essential for informing, assessing, and managing agricultural practices and food security. Traditionally, ground truth data for these maps is collected through field surveys, which are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and difficult to scale. As a result, large-scale crop type mapping faces challenges in obtaining comprehensive and high-quality reference data. Street view imagery and vehicle-based surveys offer alternative solutions for field inspections, providing scalable and cost-effective ways to collect crop type information.

This 2-hour workshop will enable participants to:
1. Explore the potential of street view imagery as a novel and emerging source for large-scale crop type ground truth data collection.
2. Understand CropSight, the GeoAI-driven workflow for retrieving object-based crop type ground truth information, including collecting geotagged street view images, extracting crop type labels from street view images, and delineating crop field boundaries corresponding to each retrieved label using satellite imagery.

3. Discuss key challenges, best practices, and opportunities for integrating street view imagery into remote sensing workflows.

Participants of all skill levels in Python are welcome, and we will use Google Colab to ensure accessibility and ease of use. To support hands-on learning, we will provide example datasets and Jupyter notebooks for the workshop.

Authors
Zhijie Zhou (zhijiez2@illinois.edu), Tianci Guo (tiancig2@illinois.edu), Yin Liu (yinl3@illinois.edu), Chunyuan Diao (chunyuan@illinois.edu)
Department of Geography and GIScience, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Speakers

ZJ Zhou

Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Monday June 23, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm MDT
BU 129 (University of Wyoming College of Business) 1499-1401 E Ivinson Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Workshop

10:00am MDT

Workshop: Getting Started with SAGE3: A Collaborative Research and Visualization Platform

Monday June 23, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm MDT

SIB 4030 (Science Initiative Building)

SAGE3 (Smart Amplified Group Environment) is an open-source, NSF-funded platform designed to support collaborative research, data visualization, and remote team engagement. Built on decades of research in scalable display environments, SAGE3 enables users to share, analyze, and present complex data in real time across multiple devices, from high-resolution display walls to personal laptops. Its capabilities make it particularly useful for GIS teams working on disaster response, land use planning, environmental monitoring, and other geospatial projects where collaboration and large-scale visualization are essential.

This workshop will introduce participants to SAGE3 and demonstrate how it enhances research collaboration, facilitates interactive meetings, and organizes complex data. Attendees will learn how to set up and navigate the platform, integrate data sources, and utilize its tools to streamline group discussions and decision-making.

Whether new to SAGE3 or looking to incorporate it into your workflow, this hands-on session will provide the foundational knowledge needed to use the platform effectively. For more information, visit https://sage3.sagecommons.org/.

Authors
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Jason Leigh, PhD; Mahdi Belcaid, PhD; Ryan Theriot; Nurit Kirshenbaum, PhD; Roderick Tabalba, PhD;
Dylan Kobayashi, PhD; Giorgio Tran; Michael Rogers; Christopher J. Lee; Loelle Lam

University of Illinois Chicago
Andrew Johnson, PhD; Luc Renambot, PhD; Lance Long; Maxine Brown

Virginia Tech
Chris North, PhD; Jesse Harden; Elizabeth Christman

Speakers

Ryan Theriot

Software Engineer, Laboratory for Advanced Visualization & Applications

Monday June 23, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm MDT
SIB 4030 (Science Initiative Building)

Workshop

10:00am MDT

Workshop: 3D Printing from Photogrammetry – A Hands-On Workshop

Monday June 23, 2025 10:00am - 12:30pm MDT

Physical Sciences Building - Planetarium

This workshop will introduce participants to the process of transforming photogrammetric models into 3D-printed objects. Using newly captured digital models from the Neltje Center, attendees will learn how to prepare, slice, and print 3D models using FDM and resin printers. The session will cover essential steps, including file optimization, scaling, and support generation, ensuring participants gain practical experience in digital-to-physical workflows.

Participants will have the opportunity to download a pre-processed photogrammetric model, import it into slicing software, and print their object on our 3D printers. This hands-on approach will highlight best practices for preserving detail, optimizing prints for various materials, and troubleshooting common issues.

This workshop is designed for GIS professionals, educators, and researchers interested in integrating 3D printing into their workflows for visualization, preservation, or educational applications. No prior experience with 3D printing is required.

Workshop Length: 2.5 hours. Participants picking up prints the following day.

Makerspace is in BS37 - enter from the Planetarium and look for signs

Speakers

Jane Crayton

Makerspace Coordinator / College of Education Instructor, University of Wyoming - Information Technology/Innovation Network & SoC

Jane holds an M.A. in Art Education from the University of New Mexico and a BA from CU Boulder. She currently works for the University of Wyoming as the Coe Student Innovation Center Makerspace Coordinator, and teaches for the College of Education. Previously she worked for Colorado... Read More →

Monday June 23, 2025 10:00am - 12:30pm MDT
Physical Sciences Building - Planetarium

Workshop

12:00pm MDT

Board/Chairs/Fellows Lunch

Monday June 23, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT

Wyoming Union Family Room

Lunch meeting for Board members, committee chairs, and UCGIS Fellows. RSVP requested.

Monday June 23, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT
Wyoming Union Family Room

Social Event, Lunch

12:00pm MDT

Lunch on your own

Monday June 23, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT

Social Event, Lunch

1:30pm MDT

Fellows Meeting

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

Wyoming Union Family Room

Open to current UCGIS Fellows

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
Wyoming Union Family Room

Meeting

1:30pm MDT

Workshop: AI in ArcGIS: Possibilities and Practicalities

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

BU 127 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

AI enhances productivity—it helps us achieve faster results and gain deeper insights into the problems at hand. In this workshop, you will learn about AI capabilities in ArcGIS that empower educators to integrate AI seamlessly and responsibly into their work. Participants will explore practical applications of GeoAI, such as land use classification, object detection, and predictive modeling, using ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro. Participants also will learn about AI Assistants in ArcGIS and how these assistants can increase productivity and improve workflows. Throughout the workshop, we’ll discuss how GeoAI and AI assistants might change GIScience education and how we can develop policies and practices to align AI use with our educational goals.

Learning goals:

Get familiar with what is possible with GeoAI and AI assistants
Get excited–AI in GIS is not just for advanced workflows
Explore teaching and research uses
Learn about AI resources for the classroom

Speakers

Geri Miller

Sr. Manager, Esri

Austin Stone

Account Manager, Esri Education

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
BU 127 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Workshop

1:30pm MDT

Workshop: Capturing Human Perception of Neighborhoods using Online Data with Language and Vision Models

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 5:30pm MDT

BU 129 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Understanding how people see, feel, and think about their surroundings (i.e., locality characteristics) is important, as this directly affects well-being, an essential component of sustainable development, and impacts levels of physical activity, which is crucial for public health. Efficient ways for identifying locality characteristics (e.g., disorder, safety) allow stakeholders, including policymakers and urban planners, to improve quality of life.

This 4-hour workshop offers a hands-on opportunity for participants to explore methods using language models, including BERT and our previous work SpaBERT and GeoLM, to capture shared locality characteristics through online text descriptions of places. Additionally, we will introduce in-context learning methods with vision large language models to understand locality characteristics using street view images.

Participants will learn to 1) process text descriptions with locations or street view images and then train tools to learn locality characteristics, 2) visualize localities using the learned characteristics, enabling comparative analysis between results from text and images, and 3) fine-tune tools to predict locality indices such as greenness or other human perception indexes.

This workshop is designed for researchers, practitioners, and anyone interested in learning how to capture locality characteristics from text and images.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own location-based text datasets they would like to test. Basic Python knowledge is required to complete the experiments.

Authors
Jina Kim, Guanyu Wang, Michelle Pasco, Yao-Yi Chiang1
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Speakers

Leeje Jang

Yao-Yi Chiang

Associate Professor, University of Minnesota

Jina Kim

PhD Student, University of Minnesota

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 5:30pm MDT
BU 129 (University of Wyoming College of Business) 1499-1401 E Ivinson Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Workshop

1:30pm MDT

Workshop: Creating the A Guide to the Geographic Approach: Building Lessons for a Changing GIScience Curriculum

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 5:30pm MDT

BU 121 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Over the last three decades the environment, society, and GIScience have all changed dramatically. GIScience education has likewise evolved, but the race to keep up never ends. We invite participants to join an expanding community effort to build open GIScience learning materials that can be adapted to meet different educational needs and evolve with the constantly changing world.

In this workshop, we will work with participants to create GIScience teaching materials to solve applied problems of their choosing. We will briefly present milestones from an ongoing collaborative project between the UCSB Center for Spatial Studies and Esri and introduce participants to our approach to developing content for the GIS classroom. We will then invite participants to work with our team to develop teaching materials using our framework and resources. Working in small groups with our team members, participants will workshop their applied GIS problem, link that problem to GIScience concepts and pedagogical objectives, and begin to storyboard their lessons.

Participants will also engage in collective discussion of the ethical lessons that could be drawn from their problem and highlighted for students. Beyond this workshop, we invite participants to continue to collaborate with us, complete the
development of their lessons, and share their lessons through an online community platform. Participants that chose to share their materials will receive full acknowledgement for their work and be highlighted as project contributors.

Before arriving for the workshop, we ask participants to dedicate about 2 hours reviewing shared materials and preparing their applied GIS problem.

Presenters: UCSB Center for Spatial Studies, Esri

Speakers

Peter Kedron

Associate Professor, UCSB

Monday June 23, 2025 1:30pm - 5:30pm MDT
BU 121 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Workshop

3:30pm MDT

Workshop: A Hands-On Workshop on Mapping and Measuring Structural Racism and Discrimination in the U.S.

Monday June 23, 2025 3:30pm - 5:30pm MDT

BU 127 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Purpose
Disparities between Black and White communities in the U.S. stem from a deep-rooted history of racist and discriminatory policies that have perpetuated inequities across multiple social dimensions. This form of racism, i.e., structural racism, has disproportionately impacted Black communities by limiting their access to housing, income and wealth through employment opportunities, education, voting, and healthcare. Despite widespread recognition of the impact of structural racism, a standardized methodology for quantifying its manifestation at the population/neighborhood level remains a challenge. To address this critical need, we developed an index of structural racism and discrimination (SRD), the first national, place-based, and community-informed measure.

Objectives and Activities
This interactive workshop will introduce participants to the SRD Index, designed to evaluate the impact of structural racism across key social dimensions in states and counties over 40 years. Participants will gain insights into the index’s data sources, methodology, and applications. A live demonstration will highlight its interactive data visualization tool, illustrating how to interpret SRD impact scores across dimensions such as residential segregation, housing, income, healthcare, and incarceration. Hands-on activities will enable participants to explore geographical patterns and practical applications in research, policy development, and advocacy.

Expected Outcomes
By the end of this workshop, participants will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to navigate and utilize the SRD Index tool, interpret its scores, download data, and apply related data in academic research, policy analysis, and advocacy efforts.

Workshop Materials
Participants will need a laptop or a tablet to access the SRD Index tool (link will be provided). Printed or digital handouts summarizing key concepts will be available to support learning.

Authors
Debs (Debarchana) Ghosh, Sabina Bhandari
University of Connecticut, Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies

Devlon Nicole Jackson, Cheryl L. Knott
University of Maryland School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral and Community Health

Speakers

Debs (Debarchana) Ghosh

University of Connecticut

Monday June 23, 2025 3:30pm - 5:30pm MDT
BU 127 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Workshop

6:30pm MDT

Welcome Reception hosted by Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center

Monday June 23, 2025 6:30pm - 8:30pm MDT

Historic Laramie Railroad Depot

Travel downtown to Laramie’s historic Railroad Depot to catch up with friends old and new while sipping a UCGIS 30th Anniversary microbrew courtesy of WyGISC’s own master homebrewer Shannon Albeke (wine and soft drinks also available) and sampling a generous charcuterie table from local caterer Chalk N Cheese.

Transportation: Van service provided from 6:15pm, leaving and returning from Hilton Garden Inn lobby every 15 minutes. Last return trip from Depot at 9:00pm.