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.

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

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

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 →

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

3:30pm 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

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

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

3:30pm 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

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

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