November 27th to 29th 2024, at the Universitat Jaume I, Castellón de la Plana (Spain)
The AGILE PhD school is designed to connect PhD students from various countries. Its goal is to provide a forum for PhD students to showcase their research progress, exchange ideas, engage in discussions on geospatial methods, and enhance their geoinformatics-related skills.
Participation in the school will enable attendees to:
- Be exposed to the diversity of fields and common features of our domain
- Exchange ideas about the PhD process itself
- Develop their network
- Be exposed to the reproducibility practices in the GIScience field.
Why to participate?
Attending the AGILE PhD School offers a great opportunity for PhD students within the European GIScience community. Ideally for PhD students in their second year or nearing their dissertation. The school aims to foster strong community academic connections, where participants will benefit from valuable insights shared by former AGILE PhD School alumni.
We have prepared an agenda to not only enhance students’ scientific writing skills but also deepen their understanding of GeoAI research. The AGILE PhD school provides a platform for the students to amplify the impact of their ongoing research through direct engagement with the AGILE community, get new ideas, and seek feedback about current preliminary results and share experiences about the PhD journey.
Where will it take place?
The 7th edition of the AGILE PhD school will take place in Castellón de la Plana, Spain. Situated between the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and the stunning Sierra de Espadán mountains. The school will be hosted at the University Jaume I, with the support of the Geospatial Research Group - GeoTec. Submit your abstract and apply to be part of this AGILE PhD School edition.
Keynote Speakers
Anita Graser |
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Is a spatial data scientist, open source GIS advocate, and author with a background in geographic information science. She is currently Senior Scientist at AIT - The Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna. She serves on the QGIS project steering committee and has published several books about QGIS. Furthermore, she develops tools, such as the popular MovingPandas. Her contributions include developing QGIS plugins, writing user-friendly tutorials, and authoring books such as “Learning QGIS” and “QGIS Map Design.” Anita also runs a widely-followed blog, Free and Open Source GIS Rambl ings, where she shares insights and tutorials on open-source GIS solutions. |
Prof. João Porto de Albuquerque |
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Is Professor in Urban Analytics at Urban Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow and Deputy Director of the Urban Big Data Centre ( UBDC), where he leads the “Urban Sustainability and Partic ipation” theme. Professor Porto de Albuquerque is a geographer and computer scientist with an interdisciplinary background who conducts research on geographic information and urban sustainability, focusing on addressing inequalities in data and society. His work cuts across the borders between social and computing sciences, as well as between the global South and the global North. His pioneering and award-winning approach to participatory urban analytics combines participatory methods (e.g., citizen science, participatory GIS, action research, participatory software design) and geo-computational data science. |
Selected Candidates
Programme
Note: the timetable is indicative. Details in progress
Meeting room
The school will take place at the University Jaume I, in the Buildong called: “Investigació II” Level 0 - NB0003CC meeting room. Use the following map to locate where this room is located the hosted university.
Day 1: Arrival to the Venue
Tuesday, November 26th 2024
Arrival of participants. Accommodation: Doña Lola hotel
Day 2: Welcoming and Fundamental Academic Skills
Wednesday, November 27th 2024
Facilitators: Alina Ristea, Hoda Bakhshi, Diego Pajarito, Fernando Benitez-Paez
Meeting room: NB0003CC room, Edificio de Investigación II, NB, Universitat Jaume I
Morning session
- 09:00 - 10:00 - Intro and welcoming
- Coffee break
- 10:30 - 13:30 ECR Panel Discussion – What does that mean to be a PhD Student (The joy and the struggles)
- Lunch at Restaurante Agora in campus
Afternoon session
- 15:00 - 16:00 - Three-minute abstract presentations by participants
- 16:00 - 17:00 - Scientific paper - The basic structure
- 20:00 - Dinner
Day 3: GeoAI for the Social Good
Thursday, November 28th 2024
Facilitators: Alina Ristea, Hoda Bakhshi, Diego Pajarito, Fernando Benitez-Paez
Meeting room: NB0003CC room, Edificio de Investigación II, NB, Universitat Jaume I
Morning session
09:00 - 10:00 Anita Graser ( Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna):
Mobility Data Science in the Age of AI.
A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.” (IBM 1979)
The current AI hype, driven by generative AI and particularly large language models (LLMs), is creating excitement, fear, and inflated expectations. In this talk, I will argue that to transform this hype into sustainable and positive development, we need to find ways to empower people to take control of their own assistive AI technology. To achieve this, spatial data science in general, and mobility data science in particular, must up their game and embrace open-source development and collaboration.
10:00 - 11:00 - Post-Keynote Discussion and Brainstorming: Participants should form groups to brainstorm potential research questions or projects using Geo AI and open-source tools, guided by the insights from the keynote.
Each group selects one research proposal/idea and outlines how to enhance it using the tools and methods discussed. Outcome required: Develop a preliminary outline or draft of a potential journal paper, highlighting the problem, Research Question, methodology, and expected outcomes.
Coffee break
11:30 - 13:30 - Post-Keynote Discussion and Brainstorming,
Lunch at Restaurante Agora in campus
Afternoon session
15:00 - 16:00 - Prof. Joao Porto de Albuquerque - Professor in Urban Analytics (Urban Studies & Social Policy) University of Glasgow
Participatory Urban Analytics for Inclusive Data
Innovations and Artificial Intelligence: Enabling
Transformative Public Policy
Data innovations and Artificial Intelligence have the potential to support cities in addressing the most pressing challenges posed by the current triple planetary emergency and its climate, ecology and social inequality dimensions. However, solutions built upon biased or partial data will not address the required challenges, since they may systematically misrepresent the realities of the most vulnerable communities. To overcome this, the talk introduces an approach to participatory urban analytics which bridges citizen participation and data science to address inequalities in data and society. Results from this approach show significant social impacts in the context of resilience to flood and landslide disasters in Latin American disadvantaged communities (the Waterproofing Data and URBE Latam projects) and the improvement of access to urban infrastructure and services in informal settlements in Kenya and Nigeria (IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem project).
16:00 - 18:00 - Post-Keynote Discussion and Brainstorming: Continuation of the morning brainstorming and drafting the paper idea based on the keynote speakers tools, methods and suggestions.
20:00 - Dinner: TBD
Day 4: Final presentations and closing remarks
Friday, November 29th 2024
Facilitators: Alina Ristea, Hoda Bakhshi, Diego Pajarito, Fernando Benitez-Paez
Meeting room: NB0003CC room, Edificio de Investigación II, NB, Universitat Jaume I
Morning session
- 10:00 - 11:00 Open Science and Reproducibility – The Turing Way
- Coffee break
- 11:30 - 13:00: Final Presentation and Feedback Session:
Based on the previous brainstorming sessions, and the progress with the drafted ideas, groups should prepare a brief presentation (max 3 slide) of their enhanced research proposal or draft journal paper, emphasizing the use or integration of keynote speakers’ tools, methods or ideas.
13:00 - 13:30 - Closing remarks
Lunch at Restaurante Agora in campus
How to apply
The call to submit abstract has finished and the candidates were already selected, please keep an eye on the next AGILE PhD School.
To join the AGILE PhD School 2024, participants are required to submit a 300 to 500-word abstract summarising their ongoing research. The abstract may include preliminary results and highlight the relevance of your work to the main topic of the AGILE PhD School: GeoAI for the Social Good.
- Submit your abstract to: Fernando.Benitez@st-andrews.ac.uk.
- Submission Deadline:
August 27, 2024
Your submission will be evaluated based on the clarity of your research, the significance of your preliminary findings, and their potential impact on the field of GeoAI.
Formatting instructions
Abstracts must be prepared using either the Word Document template or the LaTeX Document template provided at https://www.agile-giscience-series.net/agile-giss-templates.html. Abstracts must be written in English according to the formatting guidelines. Note: Latex recommended editor: Overleaf.
Financial support
Financial assistance is available to the selected participants. While we wish we could cover all the related expenses, our budget is limited, and participants may be required to contribute. More details will be provided to the selected participants.
Organising Commitee
- Carlos Granell - University Jaime I, Spain
- Alina Ristea - UCL, The UK
- Hoda Bakhshi - University of Zurich, Switzerland
- Diego Pajarito - University of Glasgow, The UK
- Fernando Benitez-Paez - University of St Andrews, The UK
Sponsors
