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.

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.

Monday June 23, 2025 6:30pm - 8:30pm MDT
Historic Laramie Railroad Depot 1st and Kearney, 600 South 1st Street, Laramie, Wyoming 82072

Social Event, Reception

7:30am MDT

Membership Committee Breakfast Meeting

Tuesday June 24, 2025 7:30am - 8:15am MDT

Salon FG (Conference Center)

Speakers

Jennifer Swift, PhD, GISP

Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, Spatial Sciences Institute

Jennifer Swift has developed and taught novel courses in the USC Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in GeoDesign and Geographic Information Science and Technology and teaches several programming-focused courses. She oversees Master’s theses and graduate research projects and was... Read More →

Tuesday June 24, 2025 7:30am - 8:15am MDT
Salon FG (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Meeting

7:30am MDT

Continental Breakfast

Tuesday June 24, 2025 7:30am - 8:30am MDT

UW Conference Center

Tuesday June 24, 2025 7:30am - 8:30am MDT
UW Conference Center

Social Event, Breakfast

7:30am MDT

On-site Registration

Tuesday June 24, 2025 7:30am - 5:00pm MDT

UW Conference Center

Tuesday June 24, 2025 7:30am - 5:00pm MDT
UW Conference Center

8:30am MDT

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Tuesday June 24, 2025 8:30am - 9:00am MDT

Salon CD (Conference Center)

President Jeff Hamerlinck welcomes you to Laramie and the Symposium, along with Gabrielle Allen, Director of the School of Computing.

Tuesday June 24, 2025 8:30am - 9:00am MDT
Salon CD (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Plenary

9:00am MDT

Mapping out a Future for Migratory Ungulates in the Changing American West

Tuesday June 24, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am MDT

Salon CD (Conference Center)

The American West is home to vast landscapes still capable of supporting long-distance ungulate migrations. In Wyoming, herds of big game traverse rugged topography, covering distances of up to 150 miles to reach vital seasonal habitats. These migrations pose significant conservation challenges, as they require animals to cross multiple-use lands, some of which are rapidly changing. Our ability to study ungulate migration has been greatly advanced by high-resolution tracking data, coupled with remote sensing of large landscapes. This presentation will explore how these new GIS tools have deepened our understanding of ungulate migration ecology and led to more effective conservation strategies. While it has long been recognized that ungulates migrate to optimize access to forage, recent tracking studies provide compelling evidence that ungulates “surf the green wave” of forage as it moves along elevational and latitudinal gradients. In fact, evidence suggests that the movements of ungulates are finely tuned to various aspects of the seasonally changing landscapes they inhabit. Amid this new understanding of migration ecology, researchers have identified numerous factors that threaten existing migrations. A pervasive threat is linear infrastructure and other forms of development that constrain the free movement of animals. Several studies demonstrate that development within migration corridors can reduce their functionality, impacting the ability of ungulates to surf the green wave, with likely demographic consequences. Fortunately, as new threats have been identified, innovative methods to map migrations based on empirical tracking data have been developed and widely implemented across the West and globally. New GIS tools, used in various digital atlases, have enabled the sharing of detailed migration maps for the first time and provided a proactive way to support effective conservation and sustain ungulate migrations.

Speakers

Matt Kauffman

Tuesday June 24, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am MDT
Salon CD (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Plenary

10:00am MDT

Break

Tuesday June 24, 2025 10:00am - 10:30am MDT

Social Event, Networking Break

10:30am MDT

Strategic Breakout: Fostering Spatial Literacy by Teaching Spatial Thinking in General Education Courses

Tuesday June 24, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

Presenters: UCSB Center for Spatial Studies, USC Spatial Sciences Institute, Esri

How would you teach spatial thinking in a general education course to post-secondary students with no formal training in geography? If geographers and GIScientists wish to foster spatial literacy in society this is a question that must be answered. We invite colleagues to contribute to an interactive discussion about how to teach novice learners the central elements of spatial thinking – concepts of space, tools of representation, and processes of reasoning.

An intermittently updated literature discussing concepts and questions related to spatial thinking already exists. Many of those concepts and questions remain the same. However, as new environmental and social challenges emerge and geospatial technologies change, which of those concepts and questions should be prioritized in post-secondary education merits revisiting. Moreover, the existing literature tends to offer abstract, academic treatments of these concepts that are removed from the experiences of non-specialists. This session will draw from and extend that literature by restarting a practical discussion about how to teach spatial thinking with the goal of fostering spatial literacy. Colleagues will be invited to share their own conceptions of spatial thinking, the geographic questions they use to teach key concepts, their pedagogical approaches, and their classroom successes.

Speakers

Peter Kedron

Associate Professor, UCSB

Tuesday June 24, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Roundtable

10:30am MDT

UCGIS Strategic Plan Revision

Tuesday June 24, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

In this interactive session we will introduce and discuss major topics that have emerged as central to UCGIS's strategic plan revision.

Speakers

Jeff Hamerlinck

Director, WyGISC, University of Wyoming

Tuesday June 24, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Roundtable

12:00pm MDT

Hosted Lunch

Tuesday June 24, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT

Salon CD (Conference Center)

Tuesday June 24, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT
Salon CD (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Social Event, Breakfast

1:30pm MDT

Student Paper Session

Tuesday June 24, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

Devon Borthwick: Identifying Post-Disaster Damages in Anna Maria Island, Florida, With Aerial Images and Volunteers
Zhijie Zhou: “How Much Can We Trust Your Habitat Maps?” – Uncertainties in Multi-scale Spatial-Explicit Conservation Planning from the Area-of-Habitat (AoH) Mapping Approach
Purna Saud: Time Series Analysis of Delay-Induced Stochastic Oscillations in COVID-19 Case Dynamics
Tianci Guo: PHYIELD: Phenology-integrated Yield Estimation Leveraging Physics Knowledge and Deep Learning

Moderator: Yongmei Lu, Texas State University

Speakers

ZJ Zhou

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

Devon Borthwick

Graduate Student, University of Wyoming School of Computing

Purna Saud

School of Computing, University of Wyoming

Tianci Guo

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Tuesday June 24, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Student papers

1:30pm MDT

Teaching Introduction to Geographic Information Science: Best Practices and Reflections

Tuesday June 24, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

This session will compare practices and discuss methods for teaching introduction to GIS and other geospatial courses, bringing together a diverse group of faculty. The participants will share their experience teaching the course, their format for the course, and what does and does not work in the classroom (projects vs. exams, teaching both lecture and lab vs. teaching lecture with TAs teaching labs, types of projects, working with/around AI, etc., ESRI software vs. others, hybrid vs. face-2-face vs. online, etc.).

This session will also focus on the future direction of GIS and teaching it, and how we are instructors of GIS courses prepare our students to work within today’s geospatial world while also discussing how our methods have changed over time. Anyone interested is invited to also share their experiences in teaching the course, along with ideas on how to give students the best experience concerning learning GIS.

Moderators

Caroline McClure

Lecturer, Georgia State University

Speakers

Forrest Bowlick

Senior Lecturer, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Jennifer Swift, PhD, GISP

Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, Spatial Sciences Institute

Devika Jain

GIS Data Science Project Manager, Harvard CGA

Tuesday June 24, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Panel discussion

3:00pm MDT

Break

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm MDT

Social Event, Networking Break

3:30pm MDT

Building Robust Infrastructures for Future GIS Applications: Insights and Innovations

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

As we focus on “Navigating the Geospatial Frontier: Future Directions for Academia and Its Partners” for UCGIS 2025, it is essential to discuss building robust infrastructures to support future GIS applications. The rapidly advancing fields of geospatial big data science and GeoAI require scalable, cost-efficient, and high-performance infrastructure.
This panel will explore the design and implementation of infrastructures that integrate critical components such as data acquisition, storage, processing, analysis, visualization, and security. Featuring use cases from academia and industry partners, the discussion aims to empower researchers to execute Geospatial AI and Data Science projects across diverse applications by strengthening Geographic Information Systems (GIS) infrastructure and services for next-generation GIS applications.
The panel will also address strategies for managing diverse datasets—including social media, climate data, and WebAI—while encouraging the use of open-source geospatial datasets for broader academic impact. Emphasis will be placed on high-performance infrastructures that support both vector and raster big data, leveraging scalable storage systems, distributed computing frameworks, and cloud-based solutions.
This session intends to highlight community initiatives, fostering a collaborative exchange of ideas and experiences. Through case studies and demos, we aim to provide actionable insights and strategies for designing, implementing, and managing cutting-edge infrastructures tailored to the evolving demands of future geospatial analytics.
Panelists:

Dr. John P. Wilson (USC)
Dr. Shaowen Wang (UIUC)
Geri Miller (ESRI)
Len Kne (UMN)

Moderator: Devika Jain, Harvard CGA

Moderators

Devika Jain

GIS Data Science Project Manager, Harvard CGA

Speakers

Len Kne

U-Spatial Director, University of Minnesota

Geri Miller

Sr. Manager, Esri

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Panel discussion

3:30pm MDT

Lightning Talks

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

William Jones Small-scale land change prediction with imbalanced training data - Impacts of sampling methods on model accuracy
Ramachandra Sivakumar Living campus plan – Custom GIS tools for stakeholders
Katie Slack Urban biodiversity geospatial patterns revealed through a strategic integration of citizen science and geovisualization: A case study of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Ivan J. Ramírez Mapping Multi-hazard Health Risks to Climate Disasters: An Ecosyndemic Approach

Regular paper:
Chen Xu Modeling Wyoming Population Mobility Dynamics with a Graph Neural Network

Speakers

Will Jones

Student, Virginia Tech

RAMACHANDRA SIVAKUMAR

Senior Research Engineer, Georgia Institute of Technology

Katie Slack

GeoAIR Lab, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico

Ivan J Ramirez

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver

Geographer focused on urban health, climate change, environmental justice, and community engagement.

Chen Xu

Associate Professor, University of Wyoming

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Lightning talks

6:00pm MDT

Reception and Poster Session

Tuesday June 24, 2025 6:00pm - 8:00pm MDT

Physical Sciences Building - Planetarium

Poster presentations will take place adjacent to the opening reception. Shuttle vans will run from the Conference Center from 5:15-8:30.

Presenters:
Erin D. Dascher "Where the Streams Should Be: Digitally Mapping the Spokane Watershed’s Urban Stream Deserts"
Oluwatosin Oluyemisi Ayo "The analysis of lava flow paths using GIScience and remote sensing techniques: the case of Fagradalsfjall volcano eruption in Iceland"
Jin Xu Time Series Analysis for OpenStreetMap Co-Editing Behavior
Carlie Niemitalo Reimagining the TNC IndiaSiteRight Tool: Accessing Cloud-Enabled Data-stores to Increase Usability
Sirwan Salimi Analyzing the Impact of Urban Block Typology on Noise Propagation Using Ray Tracing and Voxel-Based Simulation
Ellie Birge Visual Mapping of Human Trafficking Workshops
Manasa Kuchavaram GeoAI for Smarter Mobility Management: Enhancing Urban Transportation Systems
Taylor LaForce Analyzing the Tourism Impacts of the 2022 Yellowstone Floods
Keenon Lindsey A Digital Framework for Analyzing Gentrification from Cross-Domain Multimodal Data
Alisha Khan Characterizing anomalous human-mobility patterns during the 2021 Texas winter storm
Zhongying Wang High-Resolution Estimation of Daily Surface-Level Ozone Concentration in the Contiguous US Using CNN-LSTM
Ellie Birge Experiental Learning and Disaster Assessment Mapping
Imma Mwanja Lake County Covenants Map
Madhukar Kuchavaram Optimizing Urban Mosquito Trap Placement Using MGSurvE and Citizen Science Observations
Yen-Yi Wu Climate Change Impacts on Precipitation and Flood Events Across U.S. Inland Cities (1996-2023)
Sean Kraemer Reconstructing Glacial Lake Outburst Floods at Mammoth Glacier, Wyoming

Speakers

Erin D. Dascher

No, Eastern Washington University

Oluwatosin Ayo

Graduate Research Assistant, Michigan Technological University

Jin Xu

University of Denver

Carlie Niemitalo

School of Computing, University of Wyoming

sirwan salimi

Texas State University

Ellie Birge

University of Wyoming

Manasa Kuchavaram

Student Research Assistant, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi

Taylor LaForce

University of Wyoming

Keenon Lindsey

Graduate Student, Texas State University

Alisha Khan

University of Wyoming

Zhongying Wang

University of Colorado Boulder

Imma Mwanja

Geospatial Data Curator, Virginia Tech

Madhukar Kuchavaram

Research Assistant, Texas A & M University Corpus Christi

Yen-Yi Wu

PhD Student, University of Wyoming

Tuesday June 24, 2025 6:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Physical Sciences Building - Planetarium

Presentations, Poster session

8:00am MDT

Education Committee Breakfast Meeting

Wednesday June 25, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am MDT

Salon FG (Conference Center)

Wednesday June 25, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Salon FG (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Meeting

8:00am MDT

Continental Breakfast

Wednesday June 25, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am MDT

UW Conference Center

Wednesday June 25, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
UW Conference Center

Social Event, Breakfast

9:00am MDT

Where's our future Workforce?

Wednesday June 25, 2025 9:00am - 10:30am MDT

Salon CD (Conference Center)

Workforce development continues to be a priority topic in the geospatial industry. The challenges have been set out --but what are the pathways forward? The panel will discuss some of the opportunities working in the near term, as well as what the future make look like given the rapid pace of change in geospatial technology, as well as new dimensions such as AI.

Moderators

Aaron Addison

Executive Director, World Geospatial Industry Council

Speakers

Ben Oesterling

Logan Simpson

Eric Shook

Associate Professor, University of Minnesota

Angela Lee

Director, Education, Esri

Angela Lee is the Director of Education Solutions at Esri. She leads outreach to educators, students, and administrators, and promotes a geographic approach to learning and problem solving. She also manages Esri’s product offerings for educational institutions. As a liaison between... Read More →

Wednesday June 25, 2025 9:00am - 10:30am MDT
Salon CD (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Plenary

10:30am MDT

Break

Wednesday June 25, 2025 10:30am - 11:00am MDT

Social Event, Networking Break

11:00am MDT

GIS&T Body of Knowledge Steering Committee

Wednesday June 25, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

Wednesday June 25, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Meeting

11:00am MDT

Strategic Breakout: The Role of GIScience in Causal Inference

Wednesday June 25, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

Geographic information science (GIScience) has always centered on the dual objectives of developing the basic scientific foundations needed to understand the world through the collection, analysis, and representation of spatial data, and the creation of the technological tools needed for that task. In recent years, the discipline has experienced a period of rapid tool and technology development particularly around the emergence of GeoAI. Paralleling these developments in GIScience, there has been a period of conceptual development across the social and environmental sciences in causal inference. While the pattern-process approach to spatial analysis uses the tools and concepts of GIScience to describe spatial patterns of objects and events, it remains challenging to make inferences about the causal mechanisms generating those patterns.

Within the geographic and spatial statistical literature a series of recent papers have discussed causal paradigms, introduced new spatial statistical techniques, and generally deployed methods of quantitative causal analysis to answer geographic questions. However, a robust discussion of causal inference and its connection to core concepts and questions in GIScience has yet to appear in the literature. We invite colleagues to contribute to an interactive discussion session about the connections between GIScience and causal inference. Discussion topics will include whether GIScience has a unique contribution to make to the causal literature, if the current conceptual and technical foundations of GIScience are prepared to support causal analysis, and what a GIScience curriculum designed to prepare students to undertake causal analyses would look like.

Speakers

Lei Song

University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Kedron

Associate Professor, UCSB

Wednesday June 25, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Roundtable

12:00pm MDT

UCGIS Council Meeting and Lunch

Wednesday June 25, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT

TBA

Wednesday June 25, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT
TBA

Meeting

1:30pm MDT

From Student to GIS Pro: GIS Career Readiness Workshop

Wednesday June 25, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

Join us for a workshop for strategies on seeking mentorship, building your professional network, investing in your professional development and navigating the exciting world of GIS careers. You will hear from the Geospatial Professional Network (GPN) and how to access and leverage their Mentor Network. Esri Young Professionals Network (YPN) will cover the power of networking and strategies to establish a strong support system and grow your presence in the GIS community. GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) will discuss leveraging the PreGISP exam for your own professional development and to jumpstart your GIS career. GISphere will cover resources and opportunities for GIS scholars. To wrap up, you'll participate in an interactive networking activity, giving you the chance to refine your skills and forge meaningful connections.

Presenters:
Hannah Walters
GIS Analyst, Denver Water
Affiliation: Geospatial Professionals Network (GPN)

Austin Stone
Account Manager – Education, Esri
Affiliation: Esri Young Professionals Network (YPN)

Jochen Albrecht
Professor for Computational and Theoretical Geography and Graduate Adviser, Hunter College CUNY
Affiliation: GIS Certification Institute (GISCI)

Armita Kar
Assistant Professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University
Affiliation: GISphere

Speakers

Jochen Albrecht

Professor for Computational and Theoretical Geography and Graduate Adviser, Hunter College CUNY

Professor for Computational and Theoretical Geography at Hunter College, CUNY and research associate at the Mineta Transportation Center @ San Jose State University. President of the GISCI and Board member of CGIA and BayGeo. Interested in open source GIS (for emergency management... Read More →

Hannah Walters

GIS Analyst, Denver Water

Hannah Walters is a GIS Analyst for Denver Water in Colorado, where her focus is in GIS applications for watershed analysis. She is on the Vanguard Cabinet and serves as the Outreach Coordinator for the Rocky Mountain chapter of URISA. Hannah graduated from the University of Colorado... Read More →

Armita Kar

Assistant Professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University

Austin Stone

Account Manager, Esri Education

Wednesday June 25, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Panel discussion

1:30pm MDT

Professional Papers: Modeling and Analysis Applications

Wednesday June 25, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

Hasan Raja Naqvi: Longitudinal Assessment of NO 2 , SO 2 , CO, and Aerosol Air Pollutants with Special Reference to Stubble Burning in the Indo-Gangetic Plains Using Geospatial Data and HYSPLIT Modelling

Guiming Zhang: Geographic proximity and homophily effects drive social interactions within VGI communities: An example of iNaturalist

Masahiko Haraguchi: Guiding Directions for City-Scale Digital Twins: Enhancing Inclusive and Participatory Hazard Planning

Chen Xu: Modeling Wyoming Population Mobility Dynamics with a Graph Neural Network (moved to Tuesday Lightning Talk session due to a schedule conflict)

Moderator: Xiaobai Angela Yao, University of Georgia

Moderators

Xiaobai Angela Yao

Speakers

Guiming Zhang

Assistant Professor, University of Denver

HASAN RAJA NAQVI

Department of Geography, Faculty of Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

Masahiko Haraguchi

Columbia University/ Harvard University

Chen Xu

Associate Professor, University of Wyoming

Wednesday June 25, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Professional papers

3:00pm MDT

Break

Wednesday June 25, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm MDT

TBA

Wednesday June 25, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm MDT
TBA

Social Event, Networking Break

3:30pm MDT

Past Presidents' Panel

Wednesday June 25, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

Former UCGIS Presidents will discuss how lessons learned over the past 30 years of the organization can inform the UCGIS of the future.

Jeremy Mennis (moderator)
Jane Read
John Wilson
Nina Lam
Shaowen Wang
Sean Ahearn

Speakers

Nina Lam

Professor, Louisiana State University

Jeremy Mennis

Sean Ahearn

Professor, Hunter College

Jane Read

Wednesday June 25, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Panel discussion

3:30pm MDT

Professional Papers: Teaching and Learning

Wednesday June 25, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

Margo Berendsen: Incorporating spatial thinking into a GIST undergraduate course and measures of learners’
spatial abilities, spatial thinking, and GIS interaction.

Diana Sinton, Shaowen Wang, and Eric Shook: I-GUIDE’s Approaches to Supporting the Geospatial Data Science Community

Robert E. Roth: Making Mapping for a Sustainable World: An Open Source Textbook for Teaching Cartography
through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Speakers

Margo Berendsen

Geospatial Analyst, University of Wyoming

Margo Berendsen is a GIS analyst, educator, and research scientist at the University of Wyoming. She teaches courses on Geospatial Foundations, Spatial Data Visualization and Cartography, and works on various research projects and GIS analysis projects. She co-authored the Wyoming... Read More →

Diana Sinton

Adjunct Associate Professor, Cornell University

Robert Roth

Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Robert is a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Geography and Director of the University of Wisconsin Cartography Lab.

Wednesday June 25, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Professional papers

6:00pm MDT

30th Anniversary Dinner & Awards Presentations

Wednesday June 25, 2025 6:00pm - 8:30pm MDT

Alice Hardie Stevens Center (at the Laramie Plains Museum)

Wednesday June 25, 2025 6:00pm - 8:30pm MDT
Alice Hardie Stevens Center (at the Laramie Plains Museum)

Social Event

8:00am MDT

Continental Breakfast

Thursday June 26, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am MDT

UW Conference Center

Thursday June 26, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
UW Conference Center

Social Event, Breakfast

9:00am MDT

Using the Sage Grande Artificial Intelligence Testbed to Explore the Future of Distributed Sensing

Thursday June 26, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am MDT

Salon CD (Conference Center)

The Sage Grande Testbed (SGT) is NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure for exploring new AI techniques, edge computing, advanced sensing, robotic actuation, and generative AI. The testbed will deploy 300 nodes across the nation exploring AI for wildfire detection, drought monitoring for agriculture, and new AI algorithms. SGT is an open testbed and a NAIRR demonstration project, open to users.

Presenters: Pete Beckman, Northwestern University and Neal Conrad, Argonne National Lab

Speakers

Pete Beckman

Argonne National Lab

Thursday June 26, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am MDT
Salon CD (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Plenary

10:00am MDT

Break

Thursday June 26, 2025 10:00am - 10:30am MDT

Social Event, Networking Break

10:30am MDT

Campus Geospatial Community Session

Thursday June 26, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

A conversation about how geospatial programs can build support within and between campuses.

Len Kne
Harvey Miller

Speakers

Len Kne

U-Spatial Director, University of Minnesota

Harvey Miller

Professor, The Ohio State University

Thursday June 26, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Panel discussion

10:30am MDT

Professional Papers: AI/ML and Geoprocessing

Thursday June 26, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

Tao Hu: FAIR Principles in Workflows: An AI-Enhanced GIScience Workflow Management System (WfMS) for Reusable, Reproducible and Replicable Studies

Sean Ahearn: Multi-scale Generative Movement using a Language Model

Speakers

Tao Hu

Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University

Sean Ahearn

Professor, Hunter College

Thursday June 26, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Professional papers

12:00pm MDT

Lunch

Thursday June 26, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT

TBA

Thursday June 26, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm MDT
TBA

Social Event, Breakfast

1:30pm MDT

GAIA Session

Thursday June 26, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

Salon AB (Conference Center)

Updates on the Geospatial sciences Alliance for International women faculty Advancement (GAIA) project.

Thursday June 26, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
Salon AB (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Meeting

1:30pm MDT

Spatial science and data sharing across disciplines: Insights from the Wyoming Adapting to Climate-Water Transitions project

Thursday June 26, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT

Salon E (Conference Center)

Many scholars have pointed to spatial data as an important boundary object in inter- and trans- disciplinary environmental work. And these sorts of complex, integrated projects are becoming more common in the face of funder pressure, shifting scholarly norms, and the deep complexity of modern socio-ecological crises. Therefore, it has never been more important to understand the potential translational role of spatial data in joining together large teams of environmental scientists, engineers, and social scientists. The current Wyoming Track 1 EPSCoR program, called Wyoming Adapting to Climate-Water Transitions (WyACT), puts this to the test. Environmental data are inherently spatial, and the project has been designed to promote interdisciplinary synergies via overlapping study locations and data that can crosswalk via spatial thinking. Even beyond the work already done, several of the sustainable deliverables of the program revolve around this concept of spatial science as boundary object, including: 1. An intersectoral modeling laboratory which centers spatial data (called CLIMES); 2. A long-term sensor network focused on collecting climate-water data throughout the state (WySEASON); and 3. A spatial data communication platform, which has become the host for most data collected through the project (WyADAPT). In this session, members of the WyACT team will discuss the ways that spatial data and spatial thinking have shaped their experience of WyACT, and how GIScience has influenced the outcomes of the project. We will use these presentations to catalyze discussion of the future of spatial science as a cornerstone of a more integrated academy in the 21st century.

Speakers

Jason Hawes

Assistant Professor, University of Wyoming

Shannon Albeke

School of Computing, University of Wyoming

Thursday June 26, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm MDT
Salon E (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

Presentations, Panel discussion

3:00pm MDT

Break

Thursday June 26, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm MDT

TBA

Thursday June 26, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm MDT
TBA

Social Event, Networking Break

3:15pm MDT

Historical Map Collection Tour

Thursday June 26, 2025 3:15pm - 4:30pm MDT

UW Conference Center

Calling all map geeks! Immediately following close of Symposium, we'll make a 10-minute walk across campus to Coe Library for a tour of the Special Collections unit's map collection including eaxmples of early maps of North America by Collet and Burr, 1870s map of Yellowstone National Park, and an 1890 map of the Oregon Trail.

Hosted by Margo Berendsen, Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center and Andrea Hastings, UW Libraries

Meet by the Registration table at 3:00

Thursday June 26, 2025 3:15pm - 4:30pm MDT
UW Conference Center

Social Event, Field trip

3:30pm MDT

EDGE computing conversation

Thursday June 26, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm MDT

Salon FG (Conference Center)

Meet at the Birds of a Feather space to continue a conversation around EDGE computing

Thursday June 26, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm MDT
Salon FG (Conference Center) 2221 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070, USA

5:30pm MDT

Laramie Dine Around

Thursday June 26, 2025 5:30pm - 6:30pm MDT

TBA

As an alternative to the hike and cookout, chill out in town joining your colleagues for a casual no-host meal at a local restaurant. You sign up and we'll make the reservation!

Thursday June 26, 2025 5:30pm - 6:30pm MDT
TBA

Social Event

5:30pm MDT

Vedauwoo Hike and Cookout

Thursday June 26, 2025 5:30pm - 8:30pm MDT

TBA

Travel 25 minutes by van to take in some fresh mountain air at the Vedauwoo Recreation Area in the Laramie Range Mountains east of the city. Enjoy a laid-back hike on the Box Canyon or Turtle Rock trails, followed by a cookout around the campfire at the picnic area gazebo.

Vans leave from Hilton Garden Inn at 5pm, with an estimated 9pm return. Pre-registration (ticket) required.

Thursday June 26, 2025 5:30pm - 8:30pm MDT
TBA

Social Event, Field trip

7:30am MDT

Workshop/Field trip: Collaborative Science on the Medicine Bow National Forest (Mobile Workshop - In the field).

Friday June 27, 2025 7:30am - 3:30pm MDT

Medicine Bow National Forest

Join us for an immersive mobile workshop in the Medicine Bow Mountains of southeastern Wyoming. We will visit the site of the 2020 Mullen Fire, which burned over 175,000 acres, where researchers from the University of Wyoming and the USDA Forest Service are monitoring the recovery of plant and soil microbial communities. Nearby, in the Snowy Range, the Wyoming State Geological Survey and U.S. Geological Survey are conducting high-resolution airborne geophysical surveys as part of the Earth Mapping Resource Initiative (Earth MRI). We'll explore scenic rock exposures that host minerals essential to modern technologies, including energy production, electronics, and transportation. Both research efforts highlight how geospatial methods are advancing our understanding of Wyoming’s geological and ecological systems.

Includes visits to the site of the 2020 Mullen Wildfire, Critical Minerals study area, and scenic vistas of the Snowy Range

Registration ticket required - limited to 18 participants. Please bring a water bottle, jacket and sturdy shoes (some walking on uneven terrain and on gravel paths).

Friday June 27, 2025 7:30am - 3:30pm MDT
Medicine Bow National Forest

Workshop, Field trip

8:00am MDT

Workshop: Advancing Social Media Analytics with AI

Friday June 27, 2025 8:00am - 3:00pm MDT

BU 127 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

This hands-on workshop explores AI-powered social media analytics, focusing on Twitter (X) data collection, analysis, and visualization. Participants will learn to use MongoDB for scalable storage, generative AI for text and image processing, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for enhanced data insights. These techniques are critical for researchers and professionals working in fields such as public sentiment analysis, misinformation detection, disaster response, and urban studies.

By integrating AI and social media analytics, participants will gain practical knowledge in:

MongoDB for real-time, scalable data storage
Generative AI for automated text and image analysis
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for enhancing search and information retrieval
Natural Language Queries and Charting in MongoDB for intuitive data exploration
Creating Interactive Dashboards to visualize and communicate findings effectively

Workshop Objectives
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

Set up and manage a MongoDB database for social media data
Collect, store, and query Twitter (X) data efficiently
Apply AI-powered tools for text and image analysis
Develop vector databases and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems
Build interactive dashboards for effective data visualization and interpretation

Workshop Timeline

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Twitter API data collection, MongoDB setup, and querying
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM: AI-driven text and image analysis using generative AI models
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM: Lunch break
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM: RAG system development, dashboard creation, and visualization
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM: Discussion, Q&A, and wrap-up

Participation Requirements
Participants should bring a laptop with internet access. Pre-registration for Twitter API access is recommended; demo datasets will be provided for those

Speakers

Xuebin Wei

Associate Professor, James Madison University

Learning data science in the cloud with AI

Friday June 27, 2025 8:00am - 3:00pm MDT
BU 127 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Workshop

8:00am MDT

Workshop: CyberTraining: Broadening Adoption of Cyberinfrastructure and Geospatial Science Research and Workforce for Disaster Management

Friday June 27, 2025 8:00am - 3:00pm MDT

BU 121 (University of Wyoming College of Business)

Disasters become prominent global issues that simultaneously pose a threat to multiple countries or regions around the globe. The dynamics of a multi-scale networked society are inextricably entangled with geographical and built environments, where human-environmental interactions shape community resilience under different disaster events. Disaster management is gradually empowered by increasing geospatial big data awareness and growing computing capabilities to produce spatial vulnerability and situational understanding for supporting timely decisions. This CyberTraining workshop shed light on high-performance geocomputational educational concepts important in understanding human-environment interactions in disaster management. The workshop features training modules, ranging from fundamental to advanced levels, covering key concepts in Cyberinfrastructure (CI) and high-performance computing (HPC) to lower barriers to CI adoption in disaster management research. Participants will gain hands-on experience in advanced geospatial data analysis and visualization techniques, enabling them to better understand disaster patterns across diverse spatiotemporal scales.

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CyberTraining program (Award #2321069). Through this project, we established the International CyberTraining for Disaster Management (CTDM) network, bringing together academic institutions, governmental agencies, hazard research centers, industry, and educational organizations to leverage interdisciplinary expertise in developing training materials for the next-generation workforce in geospatial and disaster science. This CyberTraining project will broaden access to CI for disaster research communities and help enhance workforce development among diverse disciplines such as disaster science, GIScience, engineering, and social science. The project will help disaster research communities strengthen their CI-enabled disaster management and geospatial computing skills, thus improving decision- making capabilities for enhancing community resilience. For more details about this project, please visit our project website: https://dev.ctdm.org/

Speakers

Workshop

UCGIS Symposium 2025

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