Professor Tao Cheng (University College London)

'Prof. Baarda-lezing' tijdens het NCG Symposium 2022 op dinsdag 26 april 2022 in WICC te Wageningen

The topic of GeoAI has risen to prominence in recent years as a field of study that applies the latest methods from computer science, such as deep learning, to geospatial problems. While GeoAI methods have had great success in image processing tasks due to their natural applicability to raster data, their application to other spatial and spatiotemporal data types remains underexplored. This talk makes proposition of using networks (graphs) as the analytical framework to advance GIScience in AI Era. It describes how networks (graphs) can be used as the spatial structure to present space-time processes happening at places that are conventionally represented as spatial units: points, lines/networks, or polygon/areas/grids. These processes could be dense (everywhere) or sparse (only somewhere), such as flows on all roads or crimes at irregular locations. It will showcase applications in transport, crime and public health to demonstrate the strength of using networks and graph-based deep learning for space-time prediction and analysis.

Biography

Tao Cheng (PhD, FICE, CEng) is a Professor in GeoInformatics, Fellow of Turing Institute, the Founder and Director of SpaceTimeLab for Big Data Analytics at University College London, a multi-disciplinary research centre that aims to gain actionable insights and foresights from geo-located and time-stamped data for government, business and society. Her research interests span AI and Big Data, network complexity, urban analytics (modelling, prediction, clustering, visualisation and simulation) with applications in transport and mobility, safety and security, business intelligence, and natural hazards prevention.

Tao Cheng has secured more than £20M research grants in the UK and EU, working with government and industrial partners in the UK including Transport for London, the London Metropolitan Police Service, Public Health England and Arup. She has published over 250 research articles and received numerous international best paper awards.

Find more about Tao Cheng here.

More about the SpaceTimeLab for Big Data Analytics you find here.