GEOG Seminar 11/20: Song Gao, "GeoAI for Human-Mobility Modeling ..."

Join us at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20 for this seminar titled "GeoAI for Human-Mobility Modeling: A Deep Learning Approach Using Satellite Imagery" with Song Gao, associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Abstract 

Understanding dynamically changing urban built environments and their associated human mobility flow patterns is crucial for intelligent transportation management, public health, and sustainable city development. However, the origin-destination (OD) mobility flow information between different sub-regions of cities that relies on traditional surveys is costly and time-consuming to get updated. The use of mobile phone location tracking data for OD estimation has increasing privacy concerns. On the other hand, the high-resolution satellite imagery provides great opportunities for up-to-date earth observation and urban sensing. While the satellite imagery has been widely used for monitoring land cover and land use, and mapping population across the globe, its value in estimating human mobility flows and modeling spatial interactions is not yet fully explored. In this talk, I will introduce a novel GeoAI framework for predicting fine-grained human mobility flows in urban areas using medium-resolution (10 to 30 meter) satellite imagery. In addition, the latest works from the UW-Madison GeoDS Lab on GeoAI with LLMs will be briefly discussed to foster collaborations.

Short Bio

 Dr. Song Gao is an Associate Professor with tenure in Geographic Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he leads the Geospatial Data Science Lab. He is also an affiliated faculty member of the Data Science Institute and the Department of Computer Sciences. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) in 2024. His main research interests include Geospatial Data Science, GeoAI and Human Mobility. He is the lead editor of the GeoAI Handbook and the author of over 100 peer-reviewed research articles, published in prominent journals such as PNAS, Nature Communications, and Science Bulletin. He is the PI of multiple research grants from the National Science Foundation, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Microsoft AI for Earth, and industry partners. He currently serves as the Associate Editor of International Journal of Geographical Information Science (IJGIS).  Dr. Gao was the recipient of the UCGIS Early/Mid-Career Research Award,  AAG Spatial Analysis & Modeling Emerging Scholar Award, and among the Web of Science Top 1% global highly cited researchers list.

For the Zoom link, please visit the GEOG Department Calendar.