The Center is excited to welcome our new Assistant Professor, Dr. Yiqun Xie, this semester. Dr. Xie received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  His broad research area is on spatial data science and artificial intelligence (a.k.a. GeoAI). His work investigates novel techniques and theoretical insights to bridge gaps posed by spatial data applications that limit the use of traditional AI Techniques. These have been applied to topics such as smart cities, transportation, agriculture, Earth observation, etc. While you can't swing by his office to introduce yourself this semester, please reach out to him via email to learn more about his research.

Dr. Xie will be teaching a course next semester (Spring 2021) titled "Topical Investigations; Introduction to Spatial Artificial Intelligence" that will be co-listed as GEOG 498E and GEOG 788E. An introductory course to spatial artificial intelligence (AI), providing a big picture of spatial AI applications (e.g., Google Maps, Uber/Lyft, Earth observation, smart cities, autonomous vehicles), techniques, platforms, trends, debates, etc. The course will cover basics of AI, identify challenges faced by AI techniques in the context of spatial data and applications, and introduce spatial-aware AI methods to address them. AI topics include but are not limited to: spatial data models and knowledge representation, pattern mining, machine learning, perception, planning, etc. Students are expected to have a broad understanding of spatial AI concepts, develop intuitions and insights to AI techniques, and have some hands-on experience (Python) at the end of the course.