UCGIS Symposium 2025

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

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

University of California Santa Barbara

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

Presentations, Roundtable

10:30am MDT

Strategic Planning Session

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

TBA

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

Presentations, Roundtable

1:30pm MDT

Student Paper Session

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

TBA

Devon Borthwick: Identifying Post-Disaster Damages in Anna Maria Island, Florida, With Aerial Images and Volunteers
Hailey Nicole Richardson: Modeling Illicit Drug Flow on Interstates using Spatial Interaction Models
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

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

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

TBA

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

Georgia State University

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

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

TBA

As we focus on “Navigating the Geospatial Frontier: Future Directions for Academia and Its Partners” for UCGIS 2025, the need for discussion on building robust infrastructures to support future GIS applications is important. The rapidly advancing fields of geospatial big data science and GeoAI demand scalable, cost-efficient, and high-performance infrastructure. This panel will explore the design and implementation of infrastructures that integrate key components such as data acquisition, storage, processing, analysis, visualization, and security. The discussion will feature as a use-case Harvard CGA’s project on “Building a Robust Infrastructure for Geospatial Big Data/Data Science”. Funded by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, this project aims to empower Harvard researchers to execute Geospatial AI Data Science projects across diverse research use cases by strengthening the university’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) infrastructure and services for future GIS application. Utilizing the computing resources of the New England Research Cloud (NERC) and Harvard High-Performance Compute Cluster FASRC, we have developed a suite of products and solutions designed to make geospatial analytics more accessible, faster, cost-effective, and impactful for Harvard researchers. This suite of products include geospatial datasets, GIS big data solutions, GIS big data systems deployed on cloud, software and data licenses, user learning resources, open-source Github repositories, publications and more. The panel will also address strategies for managing diverse datasets—including social media, climate data, and WebAI—while promoting the use of open-source geospatial datasets for broader academic applications. Emphasis will be placed on high-performance infrastructures that support both vector and raster big data using scalable storage systems, distributed computing frameworks, and cloud-based solutions. This session aims to present Harvard’s initiatives in this area while fostering a collaborative exchange of ideas and experiences on other initiatives. By sharing case studies and demos, we seek to provide actionable insights and strategies for designing, implementing, and managing cutting-edge infrastructures tailored to the evolving demands of future geospatial analytics.

Moderators

Devika Jain

Harvard CGA

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

Presentations, Panel discussion

3:30pm MDT

Lightning Talks

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

TBA

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

Presentations, Lightning talks

6:00pm MDT

Reception and Poster Session

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

TBA

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

Presentations, Poster session

11:00am MDT

Strategic Breakout: The Role of GIScience in Causal Inference

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

TBA

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

University of California Santa Barbara

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

Presentations, Roundtable

1:30pm MDT

From Student to GIS Pro: GIS Career Readiness Workshop

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

TBA

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
hannahw5280@gmail.com
GIS Analyst, Denver Water
Affiliation: Geospatial Professionals Network (GPN)

Austin Stone
Astone@esri.com
Account Manager – Education, Esri
Affiliation: Esri Young Professionals Network (YPN)

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

Armita Kar
akar3@gmu.edu
Assistant Professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University
Affiliation: GISphere

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

Presentations, Panel discussion

1:30pm MDT

Professional Papers: Modeling and Analysis Applications

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

TBA

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

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

University of Wyoming

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

Presentations, Professional papers

3:30pm MDT

Past Presidents' Panel

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

TBA

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

Presentations, Panel discussion

3:30pm MDT

Professional Papers: Teaching and Learning

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

TBA

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

Diana Sinton: 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

Research Scientist, Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center

Diana Sinton

UCGIS

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
TBA

Presentations, Professional papers

10:30am MDT

Professional Papers: AI/ML and Geoprocessing

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

TBA

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

Hunter College - CUNY

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

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

TBA

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

University of Wyoming

Shannon Albeke

School of Computing, University of Wyoming

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

Presentations, Panel discussion

UCGIS Symposium 2025

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