Title: Geospatial Computing: Lowering Barriers and Advancing Science
Abstract: Geospatial computing -- situated at the intersection of geographic information science and computational science -- combines geographic and computational perspectives to tackle complex geographic problems. Eric Shook will highlight how geospatial computing can be used to tap into new sources of data collected by satellites and sensors and to lower barriers to entry to analyze, model, and simulate spatiotemporal phenomena. This talk will highlight several projects to illustrate how geospatial computing can be used to lower barriers and advance knowledge in multiple scientific disciplines. 1) The Socio-Environmental Data Explorer allows scientists to easily examine and categorize billions of social media posts and is being used to advance both theory and practical applications. 2) A new programming language FOR Expressing Spatio-Temporal computing called FOREST is designed to make spatiotemporal analytics and modeling on a supercomputer easy to do. Drawing on these and other examples, I will discuss the challenges and opportunities of improving accessibility by lowering barriers and expanding intellectual frontiers by advancing interdisciplinary science.