Geospatial Forum
The Geospatial Forum brings together researchers, educators, practitioners and students in the geospatial data sciences for a series of lectures, studios and panels focused on important topics and cutting-edge techniques in geospatial analytics.
Ways to join the Forum:
Join us in person in 1216 Jordan Hall Addition (JHA) on select Fridays from 3-4pm ET. Refreshments will be served in 1214 JHA at 2:30pm. NOTE dates marked with an asterisk (*) below indicate a change in regular day, time or venue (expand events for details).
Watch live online by visiting go.ncsu.edu/geospatial-forum-live.
Based on current NC State community standards as well as forum guest arrangements, we expect the Spring 2023 Geospatial Forum to be hybrid delivery with in-person guest speakers and the option to participate in person or virtually. We continue to monitor the situation with Covid-19 and will move to fully virtual if needed. All forum events will be livestreamed during the semester.
Spring 2023 Events
Expand each event for more details.
JAN 27 – Including Family-Owned Forests in the Fight Against Climate Change
Lecture
Speaker: Dr. Donal O’Leary (Finite Carbon)
Summary: While the economic forecast for 2023 might be gloomy, the demand for carbon offsets continues to grow. As North America’s leading developer of forest carbon offsets, Finite Carbon is pioneering technological advancements that leverage geospatial information to automate the carbon project development process. These innovations reduce transaction costs, creating new opportunities for family-owned forests to join the carbon marketplace, increasing substantially the total forest area eligible for high-quality carbon offset projects, particularly in the Southeastern United States. Please join Donal as he shares examples of how Finite Carbon applies geographical sciences to preserve forests for generations to come.
About the speaker: Donal O’Leary is an Applied Remote Sensing Scientist, building solutions for Finite Carbon’s remote sensing, GIS, and cloud-native compute pipelines. Combining his years of on-the-ground conservation experience with his technical training, Donal uses Earth observation data to create robust, precise, and meaningful data products. Donal’s first act was as a trail crew leader for the National Park Service and a wilderness guide across the western USA. Seeking a greater impact, Donal earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland where he studied and published alongside NASA scientists as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Outside of work hours, Donal is probably eating well, collecting memories and experiences with his partner, or exploring the mountains near his home in Estes Park, Colorado.
FEB 10 – Applying Geospatial Analysis to Studies of Communicable Diseases
Lecture
Speaker: Dr. Xun Shi (Dartmouth College)
Summary: Infectious/communicable diseases have (re)emerged at local, regional, and global scales within the context of contemporary global environmental change, globalization, urbanization, and environmental problems. Geospatial analysis can play a major role in analyzing, modeling, and predicting epidemics and pandemics. In this forum presentation, Dr. Shi will use examples from his own research, ranging from modeling dengue fever and COVID-19 to detecting environmental risks of Lyme disease, to demonstrate some important trends in this area, including the integration of spatialization and individualization, the bottom-up approach, the integration of small, medium, and big data, and the computational methodology.
About the speaker: Xun Shi, Ph.D., is a Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. His main research interest is in developing and applying quantitative geospatial methodologies to health issues. Dr. Shi has published over 90 journal articles, covering spatiotemporal epidemic modeling of infectious/communicable diseases, spatial environmental health, assessment and optimization of access to healthcare services, and geospatial data infrastructure issues in epidemiology and public health. He earned a B.S. in geography from Beijing University, a M.S. in geography from the Chinese Academy of Science, a M.Phil. from the University of Hong Kong, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
FEB 24 – 3rd Doctoral Student Forum
Lecture
Speakers: Martine Mathieu (advised by Jennifer Richmond-Bryant), Ian McGregor (advised by Josh Gray), Annie Paulukonis (advised by Tom Purucker (US EPA) and Helena Mitasova) and Felipe Sanchez (advised by Gustavo Machado)
Summaries: Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. students will share current research in a series of lightning talks. More details to come.
About the speakers: Forthcoming.
MAR 31 – (Spatial) Scales of Justice: Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Participatory Sciences
Lecture
Speakers: Dr. Caren Cooper (NC State)
Summary: Forthcoming.
About the speakers: Forthcoming.
*APR 13 – Environmental Drivers of Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases: Leveraging Remote Sensing in Public Health
Lecture: NOTE this event is on a Thursday at 3:30pm in 5103 Jordan Hall.
Speaker: Dr. Veronica Andreo (CONICET and the Gulich Institute, Argentina)
Summary: Forthcoming.
About the speaker: Forthcoming.
*APR 14 – Using Satellite Data for Species Distribution Modeling with GRASS GIS and R
Studio: NOTE this event is from 9am – noon.
Speaker: Dr. Veronica Andreo (CONICET and the Gulich Institute, Argentina)
Summary: Forthcoming.
About the speaker: Forthcoming.
*MAY 4 – Special Forum Event: MGIST Digital Symposium
Symposium: NOTE this event is on a Thursday at 3pm in Hunt Library’s Teaching and Visualization Lab, Room 4505.
Summary: Graduating online MGIST students will present digital posters of their capstone projects.
Watch Recordings on YouTube
Geospatial Forums are recorded and posted with closed captioning on the Center’s YouTube channel.
Join the Geospatial Forum listserv
Subscribe to receive email announcements about upcoming events; simply send an email to John Vogler (jbvogler@ncsu.edu) with the subject line “Add to Geospatial Forum listserv.” You can also add the Geospatial Forum calendar to your Google Calendar.